MattPie

I feel like this could go either way but feels more like a new iron curtain than anything in my experience to date. Maybe Kevyn Adams needs to book some tickets to Sweden.

What a crappy take. Brady has one more chance at a season, I don't blame the guy if he wants one more go. Bringing his wife into it is garbage.

So is this only on TNT? I think I currently have ESPN+ via Verizon, but otherwise no cable or streaming.

John didn't overlap with Jack, did he? I'm not sure how much he's going to add, other than maybe second-hand stuff from players he was/is tight with in Buffalo. Sounds like opportunism.

There are like 9 in 2014. Does a backup that never actually plays count, like Vinz or maybe Halak (forget if he ever dressed or just a practice)?

I meant the other one, Brendan Lemooo

Who was the kid with a famous name that was too good for the Sabres? He was an early second, IIRC.

Interesting question. I think any retirement before 37-38 years old and/or long LITR periods, the Sabres may have been right (for neck-related injuries). If Jack never hits 20 goals / 60 points again maybe. Otherwise, the risk was still too great and it's nice that Jack found someone that would gamble on it. I don't really blame the Sabres for their position, nor do a really blame Jack since it's his body and career. Just a crap situation all around.

I'm not sure Biron gets on there with a straight face. I love the guy, but he never made it past being a backup (and marginal starter in Philly). I'm not sure who does belong though since the post-Miller era is a lot of mediocre. Maybe Holtby Neuvirth (he played here, right?), Ullmark, or Enroth.

Gorges may have been here long enough. How about Tyler Myers too.

Not a split loyalty you see very often (taken yesterday at Taughannock Falls SP).

Good point, I'm off in the weeds.

A thought (that won't happen): if the Bills built their new stadium in Ft Erie or NF, would you cross the border to go to the game? The Bills aren't having an attendance probably, but putting the team on the side of the border with 8M+ people probably makes more sense than the 1-2M people in WNY. Actually, that might be a better question for the Sabres given the hassle of seeing a game on a weeknight.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_television_markets Looks like Buffalo is 53, although Rochester is a separate market. The two of them combined is +-31. So not as bad as you'd think. That being said, cities like Salt Lake City (who was it that was talking up SLC during the Vegas/Seatlle Expansion?), San Antonio, Portland OR, and a few that are in NC and California are larger without an NFL team, but not sure the NFL would put a second or third team in those states. Portland or SLC seem like the biggest targets, but even those aren't that much bigger; I don't know if there are similar Buffalo/Rochester neighbor markets though should be counted with Portland or SLC though. For the NFL, Buffalo is probably sitting fairly well. The market is small but not Green Bay (roughly the same size as Rochester), and that doesn't count the Toronto market. I couldn't find a list of North American markets all in one place (so I don't know if things are counted the same), but Toronto-Hamilton appears to be as large as the biggest US markets (some say 8M, which is what NYC counts in the above link). I think Toronto is probably the only serious risk for Buffalo moving, the NFL (I'd think) wants a "local" team for the sixth-largest city in North America (plus Hamilton/NF). To jump to the NHL, the Sabres' position is less solid since there are nearby hockey teams and big markets that don't have a team already.

Sometimes, sure. Building a new stadium in the parking lot of the old one isn't going to change much in OP, I fear, unless they're planning on turning those corners into some copy of HarborCenter and hope people will drive out to OP for a meal and drinks. If they had put the stadium downtown I *might* believe it, but even then a gigadollar+ is a lot of service jobs to employ to break even. Just looking at payroll taxes, you'd have to create 250M$; given 40K$/yr jobs average paying 8K$ taxes, no way this is going to create 30,000 jobs. There's a lot of estimating in there (and I think I aimed high), but it never seems to work in our favor. Still all of us paying out for a rich person's toy.

FTFY. Same skim, different optics when it's a stadium.

For that money, I'd let the team move and pocket the $500 per-person in NYS (1G$ / 20Mpeople), or if I'm feeling it, put 500M$ into infra and education and pocket $250 for everyone in the state. What BS.

Fan Council seems like a low-cost, good optics thing to me. And unless you're 100% sure the team will be sold, you keep working like it's not going to be so you're not caught flat-footed if it falls through. The only people that praise a developer this much have a lot to directly gain from that developer winning contracts.

I get what you're saying, but I see images of people protesting in Moscow and people making public statements. It's not like the iron fist of the old days where no one would even dare say anything.

Hasek is wrong on this one. Sure, it feels good to try to hit back at Russia any way possible but as others have pointed out the players are stuck in a hard place. They can't denounce Putin without likely consequences. I guess they're lucky that it's not at the point where they're forced to praise Putin or be deemed not sufficiently Patriotic. As it stands, if a player, let's call him Alex O, were to start making statements in support of Russia and Putin in the war, the club may be able to suspend them due to the bad publicity, just like (I'd hope) the Habs would suspend someone if they said poutine was terrible, or the Sabres would if a player liked ranch on wings. Your employer doesn't have to employ you if you make a negative spectacle of yourself. (The CBA in the NHL might get into this, don't know) As for boycotts, I'm all for it. Money talks and I don't get the impression that Putin has the iron fist dictator thing going in Russia. The oligarchs and powerful people over there will start to put pressure on if this starts hitting the bottom line (at this point I can't imagine it not).

I agree here, while the crosscheck was cowardly I don't think it was truly an intent to seriously injure the guy. It could have gone wrong and Cozens would have been looking down some career altering "prior offender" status. (see: Kaleta) I still say confront Nelson to his face next time they're out, or even try to hook Granato into putting him out opposite Nelson on the next face-off. I also think half that league are scumbags, with the league's tacit encouragement. It's all part of the complex calculus of the NHL that leads me to not watch many games.

I mean he did skate behind him through the entire neural zone, past his own bench, to hit the guy, and then peel off into the opposing zone nowhere near the play. But I can understand the opposing view here, I just think it's a dumb risk to take. If Nelson gets injured here Cozens is suspended (in-person hearing, I'm guessing) and is now a repeat offender.

I don't think I do. You take the guys number and take care of it next time you're on the ice together. Hitting someone unawares isn't OK.

I like Cozens and all, but that was some cheap-#$%% stuff right there. People here'd be calling for someones head if I Sabre was coasting to bench and got crosschecked from behind into the boards.

It's been awhile, but I've seen the Sabres play in Philly a few times when I lived there, DC a couple times, MSG, and 2006 Game 1 in Carolina. I think that's all of them, and those are all more recent than the last time I saw them in Buffalo, which would have been 98 or 99 when I still lived there.