Stoner

Jack not doing the Sabres (and us) any favors re: pending trade. And because now KA's hands are tied.

WOW! "Wherever that might be." Bye.

Yes.

Jake starts with an update on his rehab without being asked about it. Talking to the rest of the league?

Losers sick of losing. Be the change you want to see in the world.

If true, then that's Eichel assessed value. It seems obvious that how a fan base assesses their best player and how the league's GMs assess that same asset are not going be the same.

You're kidding.

So it's always going to be the chef looking into the fridge and making the best meal he can from the random ingredients someone else bought? I understand the desire to run the Sabres that way in the short term. We need to make the playoffs. Now. But there has to be a more coherent way of doing things, which gets to the discussion above about how winning organizations operate. We want to make delicious, low-fat, vegan meals (I mean, no one does, but play along). So the shopper gets those ingredients and the chef goes to work.

No. It's a reasonable assumption though. Maybe.

Officially, the final cut is LGR4GM, Brawndo, TaroT, Thorny, MODO, inkman, dudacek and Doohickie. Eleven got two nominations, but it was unclear if other mentions were nominations per se. It is in my purview to grant a third nomination under special circumstances. So add Eleven to the list. Pimlach has two votes. Here's someone's chance to put him over the top. Now, I also have special powers to nominate and to correct any egregious omissions. Thus, I will add rakish, DarthEbriate and Marvin, Sabres Fan, who all have made impressive contributions in their unique ways. As a wild card (but not WildCard), in the tradition of Time magazine not actually naming a specific person for man/person of the year, I nominate The Game Thread Poster as poster of the year. There were some folks who heroically posted during every game from the sweet beginning to the bitter end. Too many to single out. I'll wait a bit longer to see if any other bodies float to the surface. Apologies to anyone who feels slighted. You know who you are. I think everyone recognizes there could be many winners of this award.

He Tweeted something similar last year.

They listed 41. Dom was 42. But I stand corrected.

Rather than style, personality or intangibles, I was thinking more along the lines of how you want your team to play the game. Think Lou. There's Lou's way, which I'm sure can be tweaked from year to year. But Lou hires a coach who's going to coach Lou hockey, and the players follow. To start, what are the principles that are applied to build a team? From the goalie out? Center spine? Mobile defense? Adams looks at where the league has been, where it is and where it's going. Who are the Buffalo Sabres?

The problem is that the Hall of Fame is itself bloated. Jim Kelley, Rudy Migay, Jerry Korab. Maybe to the Pegulas' credit, no one's been inducted since 2012 when Rick and Dale went in. Hindsight is 20/20 (or 1980). If you could start from scratch you'd have a ring (or rink) of honor for most of the people in the current Hall of Fame, your HOF would be the cream of the crop and of the COTC you'd have 11 and 39 in the rafters, although it's hard to argue with retiring a number of a player who died while still a Sabre.

I've had many over the years. This might be my forever pic.

It's not my main criticism, but it's so poorly worded. How does one "improve on" challenges, for example?

It's not possible, but I'd really like to see 20 games next fall before deciding on the guy.

I guess I'd be more overt and honest about it. Just lay it out.

Gold Ring Sponsors.

Although Jame was joking, maybe you could take all the stuff that's hanging up there and make them smaller and put them in less prominent locations and just have a huge Cup banner in their place.

I'd like to see that ceremony.

To both of you: does winning just happen accidentally then? Then you're golden, for awhile anyway? More specifically to the topic at hand, do you want to hire a coach who fits the current players' styles and personalities? Mittelstadt might have openly lobbied for Granato after the game yesterday. Great, but then what happens when Mitts and others like the coach until they don't (again)? The tail can't wag the dog.

That's getting closer. What Kevyn needs to figure out is how to get the right guys for the situation the franchise is in. Do they give any thought to pyschologically profiling prospective players? Who wants to be part of rebuilding a historically bad hockey team in a small Rust Belt city, with bad weather etc.? It's a rare breed of cat. Cozens sure seems to fit the bill.

What are the principles though? That was Kevyn's chance to elucidate them.