Samson's Flow

Don't get me wrong the current construction is super annoying and is probably killing whatever local business has survived the Main St. wasteland, but the completed section in the theater district has really great walkability and greenspace planters to give it a nice look. It's still only a one lane road with side parking and a bike lane, but it looks great visually

Absolutely agree. Yesterday I took a walk around the downtown area on my lunch break and from the Main St. revitalization/drivability renovation down by the theater district (which looks awesome now btw) and the canalside area including the new Marriott and water feature and obviously the Harbor Center, it actually looks like a place I will be proud to call my hometown. The next step is 'linking' the nice area by canalside to the business district by M&T Plaza/Lafayette Square area. Currently there is a huge hole of nothingness between Division streets and canalside (namely the empty HSBC building)

I went to the scrimmage last night (and took about 30mins to find a damn parking spot). Keep in mind this is one scrimmage in July against AHL, college and juniors players so 'looked good' is a relative term. Blanket statement is holy crap do these guys look huge compared to the 2012 and 2013 development camp. Risto, Zadorov, Samuels-Thomas, Girgs, Grigo, Fasching etc. all looked like grown men. Reinhart. Not a very flashy player and is definitely at this point a pass first player. Was targeted all night by Girgensons/Risto et al but avoided most big hits. He looked like he was skating at half speed sometimes. It was easy not to notice him if you weren't watching for him. You could see the smarts when he was in the d zone he was almost always in the right spot and in the o zone he made some nice anticipation passes, but you could tell he would want to pass sometimes to where his linemates should be. He will be way better once he generates chemistry with consistent linemates. Looked like a teen amoungst men. Girgensons Controlled the game tempo and physicality for Blue when he was out there. Clearly an NHL player playing against prospects. Risto Dominant player at both ends of the ice. Made a huge hit on Reinhart in the first. He looked huge, smart, with a great shot. Most impressed with his offensive zone play. Basically what we all want Myers to be. Zadorov So big and strong and has the flashy hits that it is easy to notice him. Not as dominant as I expected in the d zone as it looked like he was used to just muscling everyone off the puck in London, didn't work as well with bigger players. Carrier. Great NHL ready all around game. Nice shot with a quick powerful release and while not as bulky as some of the other prospects listed above, still has size and uses it well to shield along the boards. Probably the best forward on the ice consistently. Fasching Bigger verson of Carrier and very effective along the boards, but still needs some polish in college. Played well though. Samuels-Thomas He was the largest forward out there and played a very physical game. Doesn't have the high end offensive skill that some of the other top prospects displayed. Grigorenko He looked massive compared to last year. Now has an NHL body. Was fantastic on faceoffs and won some key draws after icings. Still a floater in the offensive zone and was not noticed by me until the 2nd/3rd period. His line as a whole (with Catenacci) was very efective, just not sure if that was because of him. Lemieux. Type of player opponents hate and fans love and Buffalo has needed for a long time. He was chirping after every whistle and went after Risto with some legal hits and not legal after whistle cross checks. Ullmark By far the best goalie out there in terms of rebound control and positioning. Made an amazing cross ice save early in the first. he should build off his season with MODO and is IMO our top goalie prospect. Johansson Huge stature in net but still very raw. Just wanted to mention that he looked like a giant in net.

Bolo ties. It's the only way...

Actual on ice hockey news! :cry:

Statistic Description: Hits/Hits Allowed Rank Player (yrs, age) Hits Bats 1. Pete Rose (24) 4256 B 2. Ty Cobb+ (24) 4189 L 3. Hank Aaron+ (23) 3771 R 4. Stan Musial+ (22) 3630 L 5. Tris Speaker+ (22) 3514 L 6. Cap Anson+ (27) 3435 R 7. Honus Wagner+ (21) 3420 R 8. Carl Yastrzemski+ (23) 3419 L 9. Derek Jeter (20, 40) 3408 R 10. Paul Molitor+ (21) 3319 R 11. Eddie Collins+ (25) 3315 L 12. Willie Mays+ (22) 3283 R 13. Eddie Murray+ (21) 3255 B 14. Nap Lajoie+ (21) 3243 R 15. Cal Ripken+ (21) 3184 R 16. George Brett+ (21) 3154 L 17. Paul Waner+ (20) 3152 L 18. Robin Yount+ (20) 3142 R 19. Tony Gwynn+ (20) 3141 L 20. Dave Winfield+ (22) 3110 R here's the list of the top 20 hits leaders courtesy of baseballreference.com I'm not arguing that he isn't a hall of famer, as only Pete Rose isn't in the hall of fame on that list, but the farewell tour and mentions of best shortstop ever are entirely uneccesary. Every player on that list had longevity in thier favor as each player played for 20+ seasons. That's how you make it on the top of the all time hits list. Some guys (like Cap Anson) are primarily up there because he played 27 seasons. 7 more seasons than the rest at 160-200 hits per season gets you up there.

Oh :blush: It's only been 14 days... I was wondering what all the fuss was about a few Fridays back

To preface my response let me say that I agree with mostly everything GCoE is arguing. I am a huge baseball follower and readily admit to being in the new statistics/sabermetrics crowd in terms of player evaluation metrics. Jeter is only having this 'farewell tour' because Mariano (rightly so) had his last year. The Yankees did not want to insult the face of their franchise for the last 20 or so years, so Jeter gets his own. As GCoE notes in the quote below, a large population ofthe baseball community is de-emphasizing wins for pitcher evaluation because it depends so much on run support and randomness. Yes, the low ERA and WHIP pitchers will generally have more wins because of better pitching performance. Advanced stats like xFIP are a much better indicator of pitching performance. Just like King Felix had a lot of Cy Young support after going something like 10-11 a few years back with Seattle. Jeter spent the majority of his career with the Yankees offense that was annually in the top 10 in run scoring in baseball. Being a high average hitter in that offensive environment will generate more runs than if he played his career elsewhere. He should certainly be lauded for his longevity of playing at a relatively high level, but he was rarely (if ever) one of the truly elite offensive players. Totally disagree. He has become a horrible fielder at the end of his career. He does not have eye popping error totals because his range is so poor that he can't even get to grounders that average and elite defensive shortstops reach. His Defensive Zone Rating is abysmal. Andrelton Simmons and Jeter probably had similar error totals last year, but nobody in thier right mind would argue Jeter is anywhere near that class in terms of fielding.

Agreed, I think TM recognizes that average NHL size gives a player a lot more of a chance to showcase their talent than having to overcome being undersized. All of these ~6' 200lbs players seem to me to be lottery tickets on the kid's talent coming together. In other words, it takes a significant elite level talent to overcome being smaller than everyone else around you. I can think of a handful of small players that had good NHL careers and mostly all of them had elite talent. Having the prototypical NHL body type at least gives a chance to be able to use your talents.

Glad I could plant the idea and make it a whole evening of fun. Imagine that, things to do in Buffalo on a Tuesday in June - what is the world coming to? :nana:

This is the case with regards to open seating. Last year the central 4-5 sections in the 100's were mostly full with more space in the sides and corners. There's really no need to get there excessively early as the 'bad' seats at that point are at the offensive zone faceoff circles. I would guess doors open an hour or so ahead of scheduled start time.

I am planning on making it an evening with the Mrs. Food truck tuesday at Larkin then shoot over to the FNC. I really enjoyed the development camp scrimmage last year and that was before all of GMTM's prospect hoarding. Plus - Samson Reinhart's first session on ice as a Sabre. :thumbsup:

You are correct, I was more thinking along the lines of if you trade him to a contender team, he would be more willing/likely to play longer and not retire early. We are still on the hook for cap recapture but IIRC it is lessened if we trade him because some of the cap benefit is taken by his new team. Plus his value would be theoretically bumped up because his low cap hit is supported by an ever lower actual salary due to the front loaded contract. That could entice some owners looking for an actual cash bargain.

I think the worry on the Ehrhoff cap recapture coupled with the lack of high end defensive draft prospects (outside Ekblad) leads GMTM to offer Ehrhoff as the trading chip to get us back into the top half of the first round this year. Hence my vote for the Ehrhoff + mid 2nd for #11 this year. The target IMO is Virtanen or Barbashev.

Sounds dangerously close to WAR metrics in baseball. Unfortunately, the NHL is about 10 years behind MLB in terms of statistical measures to quantify player contribution. I would agree that despite Yakupov's goal and point production, his defensive deficiencies would put him at a nearly 0.0 "WAR".

Update on the job front - Just accepted the new position (Company B for those keeping track of my rants - yeah didn't think so... :bag:) which will provide me with a major lifestyle change. Home every night, consistent hours, steady long term career path, all good things. The pay is lateral at best, but I am so looking forward to being able to have hobbies and dinner with the lady every night. Summer sports leagues here I come! :thumbsup:

I am in a very similar situation right now. I currently work for A which has me traveling every week (out of town not local travel). This is incredibly sub-optimal for me and my family - being a fiance and a new puppy - and I am ready to have a more stable work schedule, something that gets me home everyday at 5pm or so. I currently have a job offer at company B, which is a slightly lower salary but will get me home every night with no travel. It is by no means my dream job but a much better family life situation. I am still interviewing with a few other positions due to the timing of the initial interview processes, and if company C offers me the position (better company, significantly better pay) I would prefer to take that. I don't expect an answer from company C for at least another month, but I am not waiting another month dealing with the travel schedule of my current job. So I may end up screwing company B in a month or so. I feel bad but I am not being miserable for another month out of professional courtesy. Same thing happened to me, I turned down interviews a year ago when B originally offered me the position. Weeks later it fell through with B on a technicality and I have been stuck at A for a whole year since. Who knows if those other interviews could have translated into something better. I turned them down out of professional courtesy for not wasting their time. Not making that mistake again.

Understood. The dragons complaint is a minor one since they are going to spend a bajillion dollars to show full dragons locked in the fighting pits doing nothing. But the other stuff, unrest in the city, all the master's politics, Dany leading the city's people - isn't that way better television than a made up love story between a supposed 10 year old girl servant and a warrior eunuch? Sidenote - The traditional garb that Daenerys wears 90% of the time in Mereen has one breast exposed in the books. I'd watch that during the conversations of holding court. Yep. Missandei is 10 yrs old in the book. All the male characters worth caring about in the East have been written out or transformed into random non-descript brown haired man. Where's the Second Sons and Daario Naharis FFS?

Given the teams that each finals team went through, I think it is no contest who the better team is. LA Kings: beat Sharks in 7, Ducks in 7, Blackhawks in 7 NY Rangers: beat Flyers in 7, Penguins in 7, Habs in 6 Can anyone with a straight face tell me that the East coast teams can hold a candle to the West teams? It's LA Kings in this series. Easy. 5 or 6 games.

Something has been bugging me about this most recent season of GoT. I don't think I need to include a spoilers tag but I guess I will in case some people have not gotten to this part in the book yet. tl/dr The series cut a ton of Daenerys' character development to the detriment of the show /rant

Well there's this pterodactyl awesomeness... Insert video that chz will mod out

I would venture to say that Watkins is the #1 coming in. Then it is Mike Williams as the other outside WR (more due to the perception that he is in no way able to play the slot. He's a veteran used to playing on the outside). This leaves Woods and Stevie as the slot WR. I think Stevie will play much better in the slot and we should not trade him away for a 4th/5th rounder. With that talent 4-wide, we will know in a hurry if EJ has talent or not. At least makes our decision going forward easier (unfortunately we would have to wait until 2016 to draft a 1st round QB).

Nailed it! /self promotion. Also looks like I was close on the worry of losing the 2015 #1. However I thought it was a given that we include this years 2nd. they are going for a playoff berth this year.

Well, here's where i'm at. Love the player we got. Sammy Watkins is a #1 WR on any team and the Bills last year had a bunch of #2s out there. The offense died when we lost Stevie and every team could focus on Woods. I would compare Watkins to Julio Jones, which if that turns out to be true, instantly gives us a matchup problem with opposing defenses. That's the whole point. In terms of the trade up cost, this is a gamble on making the playoffs this year. If the Bills make the playoffs, then the 1st rounder next year is in the 20+ range. Well worth it. If you fail this year and miss the playoffs, you could end up like the Redskins and losing the #2 overall (to the Rams) this year. That's a tough pill to swallow. Whaley is gambling on this year being the year to take a major step forward out of the mediocrity carousel. If it fails, then its because EJ isn't the answer at QB and we start the cycle all over again with a new QB in 3 years.

If the Bills land Clowney, then Mario and Clowney can alternate taking plays off and we will have a dominant (?) pass rusher on every play. And the offense won't know which one is trying and which one is resting. Genius! /sarcasm