Taro T

The REAL news from that article buried about 2/3's of the way down: "and Luukkonnen is expected to be ready to be the team's top goalie come the fall." HELLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Bedard sweepstakes.

Absolutely agree that it is bad that the team publicly states development is the focus this year which implicitly puts winning in a lesser role as a goal. But, considering it is as obvious as the sun rising in the east that this team wanted to be in on Wright & other top end guys this year, they can't really say otherwise or else they have to can the coach at the end of the year. If winning is a priority NOW, then Granato has failed. And Adams isn't going there. Sounding like a broken record, but the fear is the team wants to be in the Bedard sweepstakes next year as well. Hoping that's just the realist getting overridden by the pessimist, but until they show by actions (improved goaltending, 2 vet RHD that are actually good at hockey, another vet F also good at hockey being brought in) that winning is now the goal and bottom 6 finishes are no longer acceptable, they are.

Absolutely.

They really, really do. The cap space they have this season is worth absolutely nothing come May 1st. Converting some of that into assets that will have value moving into next season would be huge. There's almost no way this team will use all its cap next year on rostered players either. So there's opportunity to use that as well. Use this year's cap space for picks/ prospects. Use next year's to bring in a vet or 3 that can contribute but other teams don't have the room for.

Yes, it is. It's small but IMHO significant.

Back when the Sabres were relevant but not yet with a ST waiting list they'd have noticeably fewer people in the building in the 1st 1/2 of the season when teams like Hartford, Atlanta, Phoenix, Columbus, the Aisles, & the like were in town. That effect was magnified when the game was a weeknight game. And the Sabres knew they'd have poor turnout as there would be noticeably fewer of the "kiosk" style vendors set up in the 300's. Could just about guarantee that there'd be under 14k in the building if the beer vendor next to our aisleway wasn't set up. (Really stunk those handful of times the Sabres/ Delaware North miscalculated, as the beer lines were intolerable those nights. 😉 ) Can't see why the Sabres aren't now becoming team non grata unless Sabres fans are traveling significantly better than they are showing up at home. As to WHY people don't show up to (hopefully, expectedly, other) watch their team kill a bad team, not a psychologist, but would guess it's some combination of they know they'll get their own backup goalie, they know their team might take the bad team likely which is a serious bummer, and, though they want to see their team win a hockey game they still want to see an actual hockey game if they're going to drop a couple hundred bucks plus on that evening out. When the Sabres happened to destroy the Phlyers or Bruins, it was a lot of fun from start to finish, but should they be destroying say Atlanta by the time the 2nd was nearly done there was a serious decrease in the energy level in the building and the players on both teams seemed to sag from that lack of energy. My 2 cents. YMMV.

Nah, they exist. It's just impossible at this point to differentiate them from the realists. 😉

He's absolutely trying to neuter NATO. And he definitely wants at minimum the former Soviet Union back under Russia's influence if not actually returning as their territory if not sway over the entire former Eastern Bloc. Not sure though how him saying his nukes are on alert works towards that. And this will be my last post on this subject here as I fear this subject will get moved elsewhere and it really wasn't my goal to cause that. Apologies.

But is still brings about the question of WHY would he say that? What is the benefit to HIM?

SoaB. They really DO look like firemen.

TIL.

Ha! Lent starts in less than a week. 😉

Do we actually know that? What is the source of that info? Was it told to us by Putin? If so, why? Did we learn that from spies w/in the Kremlin or FSB? If so, why would our military/ government make that info publicly known? Couldn't that get our spies discovered? Did we learn that from satellite or drone surveillance? If so, why would our military / government make that info publicly known? Couldn't that get our methods discovered? Was it some other means by which we learned this? Not saying it isn't true. Nor that it wouldn't be normal operating procedure for ANY nuclear armed country- hey, there's a war going on, better have our guys on alert just in case seems like a common sense way of approaching things. Goes for combatants & non-combatants. But personally, don't trust anything we hear about how a war is going until at least 48 hours after the events & really at least 96 hours. Remember the 13 dead sailors? Both sides are saying they did surrender & are in Russian custody. And please realize, this isn't directed at you specifically, PA. It just happened to be your post that stated that info.

Mittelstadt is rusty & he also doesn't seem fully confident that he has that next gear that's served him well to this season. That turnover on the winner wasn't the only time he's made that blind backhand rather than try to attack. His play like that on the PP eventually led to a St. Louis goal & he had 2 blind backhands in his own end against Moe-ray-all in the 1st period before Eakin's version ended up in the Sabres net. Think he just has to battle through this but likely it's going to be painful to watch until he gets to the point he's comfortable out there making moves through pressure. He came into the league thinking he could take the puck into a phone booth and come away with it because he had at lower levels. Right now he doesn't seem to believe he can deke to the outside around guys he IS quicker than, so he looks for that drop pass to a teammate to allow him to get to space where he is still comfortable. And opponents are expecting that & ready for it. He has to press the play but until he's done so doesn't seem to believe he can so he doesn't. Chicken & egg. And this'll be a good test of how good Granato is at developing guys. Can he get Mittelstadt to believe he can make the play everybody has seen him do several times before at the end of last season & in the preseason prior to the injury? If he can, maybe he really is as good as we hope. If he can't, well, maybe he's not as good as hyped. Am nearly positive Mittelstadt will be back to his old self w/ the off-season to rest & rehab. But he should be nearly back today. C'mon Donny, bring it out of him.

Scary stuff. So glad your post implies that you came through that well. Hope that's true. Will say a prayer for you.

Bandits continuing their dominance of the Kin-ig-hit Hawks tonight. 14-8 including the penalty shot w/ ~9 seconds left in the game. Decent crowd. At least 3x what was there the 1st time these 2 played in the formerly Flour City (now Flower City). Probably close to 70% of the lower bowl full and ~ 1/2 full near midfield in the 200's. At least 50% of that was Bandit fans. What can you say, we travel well. Both goalies were ridiculously sharp in the 1st half. Vinc gave up 4 goals in a just over 4 minute span in the 4th to let Ra-cha-cha back into it, helped in large part by Hogarth cross checking Robinson in the back to get open for a pass & goal which drew a PP as well when Robinson apparently mentioned something to the ref about his mother having canine roots & at any rate, whether that was legit or not, something about his parents not being wedded at the time of his birth might also have been mentioned. Hartley let up a bit in the 2nd half, but it ain't easy to shutdown a team w/ as much firepower as the Bandits have for a full 60 minutes. Several great saves at both ends & Nanticoke had one of the sweetest goals you'll ever see. Priolo did not make he trip but the D was still solid as ever holding the Hawks to only 8 for the 3rd time this year. If you look closely, you might even see ol' Taro in the crowd.

There'd better be a pretty high bar set to cross on that count or we are ALL diminished. MHO. YMMV.

Agree that a lot of adjectives w/ negative connotations describe the guy running the country that's currently invading its neighbor in Europe. Really don't believe unhinged is one of those though. (Thankfully. Things get even scarier if the guy w/ the 2nd largest nuclear stockpile IS unhinged.)

Yeah, we're on the same page there. Pretty sure his views are colored from experiences of the Canes, just not sure which is the one he drew lessons from; maybe both. 1. A team can win a SC with mediocre goalies if thy can be hot often enough over up to 28 games. Both Gerber and Ward got pulled on multiple occasions over that run, but they were good enough to beat the depleted opponents they faced. 2. A team w/ good systems & young players won't necessarily become habitual losers just because their goaltending is subpar for multiple seasons & that if the team does truly have good character & good systems & players that fixing the goaltending once the other pieces are there can make them contenders. And once you're a legit contender anything is possible. He himself lived the 1st example. And his goalie coach lived the 2nd one. Were this all occurring in a vacuum, expect we'd be in for 1 more year of "development" and no established NHL goaltending. Attendance and a need to address it might be our saving grace. Hoping that's the case at least.

The Russians also still hold Georgian territory as well. The bar IMHO for whether an individual player (or any particular non-citizen for that matter) should be allowed to remain in country or not is whether that player is in the country legally & whether the player is acting as an undeclared agent for a foreign government. If the answers to those 2 questions are 'yes' and 'no' in that order, then don't see a reason to prevent that player from earning a living in this country. Hasek is allowed his opinion, those they disagree w/ his are also entitled to theirs.

Really don't believe that Adams doesn't realize that. Rather, am pretty sure that he didn't particularly want quality goaltending this year. The fear is that he might not want quality goaltending once again next year. Hoping that the horrendous attendance & the prospect of still having very bad attendance next year forces his hand away from being a fringe Bedard sweepstakes player. (By fringe meaning bottom 6, not bottom 16.) We should know the answer to whether he wants good goaltending next season or is willing to wait yet 1 more year by mid-July. Really don't have a good feel towards whether he will or won't, but either way we'll know long before October.

Agree that it was the actual 3rd line, but there's some sort of panache that comes from calling it the 4th line. Kind of like that "identity" like on the Aisles. They're called their 4th line but really aren't.

Expect all of this is reasonable. But, don't share your optimism that UPL will be ready to be a #1 though do expect you are right that he'll be projected there. Do expect he'll be a legit NHLer but as a Biron - a very good backup but a poor man's starter. Who that other G is will go a long way towards coloring what expectations should be next year. If we're wrong & Adams does bring in a real goalie, it won't take much luck to get close to an NHL 0.600. But if UPL & Levi are the platoon (or Portillo if he beats Levi out in camp) really expect more of the same results though the games will be more entertaining as we'll be watching those Carolina teams @Randall Flagg did all those deep dives on a few years back. This kid keeps hoping that Adams will bring I a real goalie next year & give the players & us hope, but after 2 years of him not addressing it in any substantial manner won't expect it until he's done so.

Yep. He might become useful, but t's not likely by even next season.

Yeah, Mittelstadt had 2 tough games in a row there. Definitely not playing w/ confidence now. But, unsurprisingly, with Okposo back in the lineup the team overall played with a poise lacking on Wednesday. They've gotta win again eventually. Why not Sunday afternoon?