Taro T

Normally don't care much, but considering ended w/ tix for this year's festivities fulfilling a bucket list item dating back to '78, am REALLY ticked that Dahlin isn't there. Will be fun watching Thompson & the rest, but really fail to see how Dahlin didn't also earn a trip. Had they used last season's selection format pretty sure they both were near locks.

When they've run out of trade options, seems they'll ask him do that. Then it'll be up to Vinny to decide to report & continue to receive the rest of his $1.7MM or to not report, have his contract voided, & try to sign a deal elsewhere. The reports make it seem that he hasn't been asked to report there yet.

They could quite possibly have 8 or even 9 in the top 100. Somebody else has 10 points in the last 12 games along w/ at least 2 posts in the last 3 games too.

Well, no worries about you not buying into the theories as the guy that proposed them isn't fully bought in either. 😀 But the crease clearing was truly an on/off switch flipping. They flat out weren't even looking over their shoulders at the guy standing on UPL's doorstep in the 2nd much less thinking about even getting w/in a sticks length of distance from him. In the 3rd, they weren't even letting guys getting the crease then clearing them; they were engaging as soon as an Aisle got towards the low crease. A couple of times the Aisle trying to go to the crease found himself in the far side faceoff circle by the time the Sabre D-man broke off contact. It was awesome to see. Really looking forward to tomorrow's game as the expectation is they'll be doing it all game. (Now really wish the tix to that game get bought. Thought there was a high enough price that there'd be no takers. Guess again bright eyes.) Will be trying to watch for it.

ZERO Atlantic division D-men in this thing. This stinks. Dahlin should be there.

Just got home, expect a lot of this was covered earlier but ... The Sabres are getting better at these ceremonies. This one was well done. But, the concourses were CRAZY crowded after the ceremony prior to the teams finally starting warm-ups. Liked RJ getting the only chair w/ arms. The speeches were good. But, not sure if it was shown on TV, it was on the jumbotron, there was a bittersweet moment when Miller mentioned the Pegulas including Kim & the kids and the camera switched to Terry's face. You could see how much it pained him that she couldn't be there. It was only on screen for a moment, but it there. To the game. What a crazy 1st period. The Sabres outshot them 19-5, Mittelstadt hit the post on his 1st or 2nd shift and the goal judge turned the light on about 5 seconds after the shot, so it was close w/ the bouncing & all; but after all they they ended up down 1-0, should've been down 2-0 but for an incredible toe save, & could've been down 3-0 on an Aisles bouncer. 5 shots on goal against & 3 were true grade A bona-fide scoring chances. After tying it in the 2nd the Sabres let another uncovered player bury a puck into an open net. But then in the 3rd period, a thing of beauty occurred. No, not the Olofsson goal, though the feed & snipe were sweet. (Not even talking the prettier pass by Dahlin & great finish by Cozens.) Talking about the defensemen clearing the crease ALL the 3rd period long. They couldn't have cared less that Aisles were setting up on the edge of UPL's crease on the 1st 2 periods, but in the 3rd there were exactly 2 times (not counting rushes off turnovers) where an Aisle got to the front of the net w/out a Sabre draped on him & both of those were due to a failed breakout where Dahlin started to step up to join the non-existant rush. They were pushing Aisles out of the lanes & UPL could see everything & there was nobody to get a rebound shot on him. For those saying the Sabres can't play D, they're wrong. They CAN (who knew?), it's just for some reason they usually don't. And interesting IMHO that the Sabres decided to do so against one of the very few teams the 80's Eulers actually played defense against. Most everybody tried to outscore them & it couldn't really be done effectively, they were too fast, deep, & skilled. But the Aisles were one of the few that could skate w/ them and win battles. The Eulers lost badly to them in '83. After that, they bore down against them or whatever Eastern opponent they met in the Finals. Because they weren't beat up like the team surviving the east was, it worked all 5 times they reached the finals over 7 years. Been wondering for a while if that was part of Granato's & Adams' plan. Beat most everybody by outscoring them. But against the teams that can take it away from Buffalo, play that same hard nosed game and beat then at their own game. Keep yourselves healthy by playing loose goosey against the teams you can beat that way & bear down against the ones you must. (I.e., don't beat yourselves up any more than you have to. And also don't block every shot possible - don't break your foot, ankle, or hand if you don't need to do so. The Eulers stayed healthy that way. The '06 Canes didn't play that way but won a Stanley Cup by staying healthy when none of their opponents could. (Except maybe Joisey, can't recall if they had major injuries or not,)

FYI, MSG is starting the pregame show at 6, so you should be able to watch the whole thing if you get MSG.

Because having the ceremony at 6:45 doesn't sell enough concessions before the game. Having people in the building for a full extra hour could. Actually, while that's part of it, expect that by having the ceremony that early that both teams can have their normal warm-ups before the game w/out then having to sit an extra 15 minutes on the bench or the dressing room waiting for the ceremony to finally finish. It'll also let the ice get Zambonied after having the black mats & red carpets rolled out for 20-30 minutes. Makes sense on several levels, but it does force those wanting to go to the game & ceremony to leave work early. Not everybody will be able to do so.

Would love to see him use that cap space to add more prospects & picks. In mid-April that cap space is gone & never to be seen again. Get some value that lasts beyond April for it. Take on $15MM worth of cap hits & waive it all to Ra-cha-cha. Either other teams take the defective assets off Adams hands & he gets futures for nothing more than a single day's salary or the Amerks are stocked w/ NHLers and the question becomes which 6 to dress on any given night.

Yeah. The Bills are fun & very good. The Sabres are fun & at least relevant if not good often enough. The Bandits are fun & good. (Though not as good as last year - losing Fields & Frazier hurt; what a special team last year's was, darn shame Vinc ran out of gas at the end.) After many years in the desert, it's a good time to be a Buffalo sports fan.

Full house tonight. Sabres generally play well in our barn when there is a full house.

Under the CBA, waivers were filed by 12 noon & teams had 24 hours to make a claim. Pretty sure that got bumped back to 2PM (the west coast GMs didn't like having to be to work by 9AM 😉) under the MOU but didn't see it under a quick perusal.

Have resigned myself to that as well. Truly don't expect any big move and could easily see them not make a small one either though a move for a 5/6 to bump Bryson out of the lineup on a nightly basis could be in the cards.

No doubt having a Kucherov would make the team better, he's a great player. But really expect this management team expects that with what they have in house they already have for next season a true 1st line, a true 2nd line, and the top 1/2 of a 6 man D corp. Expect they believe they have 1/2 of the bottom 6 F's in place & 1-2 of the bottom 3 D they need as well. And because of the improvement they'll see from the kids being 8 months older when the next season starts, they're probably right. Expect that they'll make moves this offseason, but they aren't going to be to fill the top 1/2 of the lineup. (But if they can supplant somebody, it'll just make the team that much better.) And, yeah, would like to see upgrades now. But with everything that's been said and done since Adams switched the team's direction am not expecting any unless they make a TON of sense in the LT. And just don't see those sort of moves being available at a price that makes sense to management right now. And if they aren't going to happen will not follow in the GA self-torture mode of shouting that something must be done now because Adams isn't changing his plan just because we want it to move quicker. (Maybe it's cathartic for him, would just be frustrating IMHO for this kid. So, try to see what pieces are here LT and what might get upgraded soon without expecting a blockbuster move YET.) And honestly believe the goal next year is to compete for the Stanley Cup.

Agreed in general. The 2 things the Sabres absolutely need are a 4D & a true starting G. They don't have the 4D. They probably don't have the G, but they might. One additional D beyond that would be good to have, but is more a luxury than a necessity. Up front, yeah, there are items that might be good to add, like another power F, or a PK specialist (would be sweet if those could be the same body), a C that could actually win a FO; but none of those are desperately needed. They have a good top line. They have 2 3rd lines, 1 of which should be a good to excellent 2nd line 1-2 years from now. They have a 4th line that can generate chances, and probably finishes them at a better rate than most 4th lines. It would be good to close out games w/ leads better, but expect running Cozens, Jost, & Tuch and then the 4th line W's w/either their C or Thompson (or even Mittelstadt (ducks from the debris thrown at that suggestion) along w/ Dahlin & Samuelsson (w/ Power & either Jokiharju or Lyubushkin briefly) would get that done. Respectfully believe the PK is actually playing pretty well lately. Yeah, the overall #'s are still bad, but the PK was beyond awful and it takes a lot of 3 of 3 kill games to work that back to respectable. And would be surprised if that 4D &/or 1G ate traded for in season. See the D coming this offseason. No data on if they sit on what they have in net. They have to start giving Comrie some action & keeping UPL busy to figure out what they actually have. Don't want this season wasted as "developmental" but believe Granato can (& should) start tweaking his deployments to keep this team in the mix. And both Adams & Granato are on record that they aren't going to spend assets to win today at the expense of tomorrow, so really believe what they have is what they have this year. And it MIGHT be good enough.

Have predicted low 90's since the offseason as an expectation w/ an outside chance at the playoffs; kept the expectation there during the 0-8 stretch and during the hot streak; & have seen nothing to say low 90's isn't where they'll end up. (Last night's stinker not withstanding.) Could be off (it'll make PA's year, especially if they're worse) but not expecting it. (Hoping it's about 8 points too low of an expectation, but doubt it.)

So he's cut his teeth identifying the Buffalo Sabres of the corporate world? Seems a match made in heaven. 😉

And very likely next season as well. After that, hoping some of the prospects start forcing their way onto the roster and some of the current younger guys can pick up a bit of that physical role too.

And mine was towards how w/ the players receiving a set percentage of the total HRR, the bigger (or smaller) the entire cumulative leaguewide salary is, the bigger (or smaller) the denominator being used with an individual player's salary is the smaller (or bigger) each players' actual take home pay is. With the players & contracts involved, it will have almost no effect on any player not actively involved in these gymnastics. But, yes, for the 4 guys in the yo yo derby, it has a big effect on take home pay.

It's OK, they'll trade for Bishop and magically gain enough cap space. 🤔 😉

Which is fine. But it doesn't make your earlier statements about the Sabres throughout their history being one of the worst franchises nor their having the fewest playoff appearances accurate.

In the modern NHL, now that only 50% of teams make the playoffs rather than the historical 66.7% or the 80's 76%+ making the playoffs, the Sabres historical run of ineptitude will be broken. Quite likely in less than a dozen years - looking at you Arizona. And, actually, because the Sabres were a model of regular season success for ~40 years they don't have one of the worst records w/ the least playoff appearances. They're middle of the **** pack now, which should never have happened.

Actually, it wouldn't add cap space for another team, it might even in actuality reduce their capspace. He currently doesn't count against any other team's cap. Adding his salary & then having it immediately go onto BF-LTIR (and going over the cap were he not on BF-LTIR, would set a new effective cap the team couldn't exceed which could very likely be lower than the actual cap. It is very unlikely a team like AZ will make a move requiring them bump up the overall salary, but it is possible. A team on the same boat the Sabres feared being in is the only potential buyer for Bishop's contract/cap hit.

Rayzor, Dan, and that night's anthem singer.

NHLPA isn't going to say boo because this really won't effect the total salary in the NHL. He makes $1.7MM. Roughly $1MM would still count against the cap if he clears & UPL only makes ~$750k. Besides the PA seems to care more about the handful of stars rather than the hundreds of journeymen. Good for Adams finally biting this bullet. Hope he clears, but doubt he does.