Ghost of Dwight Drane

Sure....just ask Knight Capital No....analytics have been here....and what happens is people are more worried about the manipulation of technology and spreadsheets than they are at understanding what really goes into making ANYTHING successful. Like a Dr looking at blood labwork.....the numbers can tell you one thing, but when your eyes see the patient.......you see something else. A good doctor will use analytics as an aid to their skill......a mediocre one will treat off of them and their textbook.

It was more a comment on the immediate failure of the group on the ice when it happened. How you don't just make a B-line and jump on the guy is amazing. I remember when Nichol coldcocked Spacek, and Marty Biron was the first guy there and went ape on him. I also remember Hechct being there with his hands in his pockets and Biron and Briere are trying to kill Nichol. When you see just not a bad hockey move......but a generally dangerous health move where a guy could get killed.......you jump in. The cluster-f and fallout from that is still being felt. 5 guys, including 3 of your captains do nothing about your goalie getting run from 200 feet away. The team was so stunned by their own pansiness, they froze in fear the rest of the game as they were ridiculed openly by the Bruins. The Sabres inept management calls for a full day of group and individual meetings the next day to discuss what happened. Your "elite" and mental case goalie is hurt and he never really gets his head on straight the rest of the year. Sabres lose Ehrhoff and Gaustad to injury in scrums that happened because of overcompensating for their previous failure. The GM starts to sign a bunch of AHL goons in the offseasn and drafts a bunch of big boys to help down the road.....but no real help in the immediate term. 3 seconds of play exposed this franchise for what it is, and forced them to react to it in one way or another ever since.

I'm afraid of just the opposite. The tough guys they signed are pretty much AHL quality. Ott is the only guy brought in......and much like last year where Darcy made one move in Regehr along those lines.....1 month into the season his effect was dampned. If Ott is the only addition in the quality grit department, I'm afraid both of our worries will come true and they will be a rudderless group of pansies who can't score. They still have a logjam at D. Myers/Ehrhoff/Regehr.....that is who I expect to see. Everyone else is a crapshoot. You need to move 2 guys out of Sekera/Leopold/Weber/McNabb/Sulzer/Brennan. If they can get Doan and move 2 of those guys for a legit #2 center.....then there may be room for optimism.

Hurry up and start a thread that quotes Jessica Alba's website.

No. My concerns are that Darcy Regier can't put together a team capable of a championship. When I see Sabres at the top of some secondary statistical analysis, my fear heightens that he selects his players like a poor version of Moneyball instead of sound, visual analysis of the skills and attributes a player brings to the game. This little ditty supporting the Sabres 2 draft picks doesn't get me excited. It makes me think they were chosen because they were at the top of some spreadsheet that was spitout.....and not because they posses the assets needed to build a winner. From what I have seen of Girgensons, and Devine's quotes.....I am much less in fear of him.....but the point stands. You can go home with a hot girl at the bar who is trustworthy and has an awesome personality......but if you chose her because she drives a Buick LaCrosse......and you have a spreadsheet that somehow states the best spousal material come from a higher proportion of those who drive a Buick LaCrosse......well, then you just lucked out.

Congratulations. We should make Wedding Advent Calendars. Each day you open a new door. It starts out all sweet with pictures of flowers, and candy, and sunsets.......and by a few weeks before.....you get pictures of shackles, the basement couch, and Satan eating a puppy.

I'm going to start handing these out on occasion for the best ones.

Actually, ask anyone that has time in an ER. When drunk driving accidents happen, the drunk usually escapes with much less harm done than the other people do or what would be expected if alone. It is the fact that when you are relaxed, you don't tense up and create resistance, which makes you more vulnerable to injury when you do tense up. When initiating contact in any sport......do you tense up, or do you want to stay relaxed and flow and follow through? Look at boxing and the term "pulling punches". When you tense up in order to pull back for another blow, you lose power. You want to follow through and stay relaxed. Any golfers here? What gives you the best and most controlled golf swing? Trying to crush a ball by tensing up and overswinging or by staying relaxed and fluid in your swing? I deal with horses.....horses that don't relax waste energy and make themselves prone to injury more. When you tense up, you are creating so many potential inflection points with joints and muscles and tendons. When you are relaxed with little resistance, those don't form. So in the case of hockey.....the hitter has the advantage over the hitee, even if the energy of the collision may seem equal on both sides. The hitter knows where he wishes to deliver the blow and relaxes to follow through. The hitee tenses up for the collision. Why do you see guys getting penalties or suspended for leaving their skates on hits? By giving up the ice they are losing a potential power source to deliver a blow, but in flying through the air, they are a relaxed projectile. Sure even the hitters will tense up to a degree, and you invite the possibility of more injuries by playing a physical game.....but you should come out net-ahead in the injury department from actual physical confrontations. There's a balance to be had for sure since you only win the game by putting pucks in nets, but I think along with hitting, you also seem to see other personality trends that emerge. Given the personality the Sabres have shown the past 5 years.....I can see why people will value and corrolate hitting and physical play with potential success.

You can get $5 tickets pretty much any night through promotions. That was the old song they used to play after HR's back in the day they were supposedly in the hunt for a major league team which I quoted. They'd sell out almost every game.....until it was obvious Buffalo would never get a team, and it has been a downward slope since. Most games now you can sit wherever you want. With the Sabres waiting list issue......it's the same idea. There is a perception now, especially after the 2006-07 run, that people don't want to miss out on something happening in the future. Much like people bought Bisons seasons tickets because they didn't want to miss out on MLB. Larry Quinn is brilliant because he knows the psychology of this city. The variable pricing gimmick is great, because it is like an infomercial. "Get this set of steaknives...the cleaver....and the shish-ka-bob set.....all with a retail value of $159....for only $29.99" As long as they renew, the Sabres can keep gapping away the window prices to make it look like you are getting a great deal and would hate to give up your seats. In reality, if there wasn't that "artificial demand" and fans went back to the traditional rate of season tickets based on team performance, I strongly feel that the current season ticket prices would be the window prices for every game, and although the Sabres would probably still see very strong renewals in the $20-$45 seats......the Club seats and high end seats would probably come down to a lower pricing point closer to $70 or so, and you would go to a traditional base of 13-14K or so with 5,000 seats available at the window for current season rates. The Sabres would still have good attendance, but it would be a more traditional pattern of the weekend and good teams selling out fast, and maybe 10-15 games not selling out. My estimate is that they would probably average off of a year like any of the past 5.....500-1,000 empty seats per game @ $60 average loss......and take a $20 haircut on 3500 seats or so. With their current structure.....in my opinion they are making an extra $4 to $5 million from where actual equilibrium is. I give them lots of credit on the marketing front. They know their market and have devised a scheme to max it out. That being said.....you can't project current rates of season ticket holders and waiting lists onto a new OHL team. It isn't demand to pay up for hockey.....it is demand to pay for the right to "not miss something great happening". I don't think a junior team in the area would get juices flowing...even though the area in general does love hockey.

Hear that Bison Thunder..... Feel that Bison beat........ Buffalo Baseball Bisons...... Stampede.....Stampede......Stampede.......... No

jewelry.....not jewlery

I can honestly say I would rather see Ink's pair in person than Chz's. There isn't a Sundowner of Calves as far as I know.

And love handles

There was quite the big girl in water polo yesterday.....and her cheeks just GOBBLED that suit right up. NBC decided to go with the behind shot of the team walking instead of frontal view.

I really like the Sabres idea.....and if everything is equal, would prefer both their plan, and Pegula operating over Paladino.......however all I really want to know are the numbers involved for the taxpayers. What they have done is pretty much use the Capitals practice facility as the plan. There was already a parking garage and mall there, and the county had to help finance the $43 million facility by issuing bonds. So far so good.....but it looks like the county owns it and the Capitals lease it, using their payments to pay down the debt. I have no beef if the Sabres bite most of the bullet. I'd like nothing better than to go down and try and scalp tickets....and if I can't get cheapies, go sit at the giant sports bar across the street. Here's one thing that I have no idea how Washington got away with.....and am very concerned about in the Sabres proposal. In this post 9/11, post OKC/WTC world we live in.........how safe is it to put a public stadium that seats 2,000+ and has multiple facilities geared towards both children and the international commmunity.....directly over 5 stories of parking? You are 5 minutes away from a major border crossing with a country that has a liberal acceptance policy. You are gearing this towards children and hockey. How rare is it to see a van coming in with a dozen giant hockey bags in the back? Or even a few? How secure will this be? Talk about a high value, soft target. Can anyone think of any stadiums that are built directly on an above ground parking facility? I guess Washington is, which really makes me scratch my head. Again....all things equal, Sabres plan is cool and I would be in favor. Anything I have read though has nothing specific in $$ on the public front.

Sometimes a Camary is just a Camary

144 viewers.....everywhere else says something else. Question.....will opposing teams use this as a practice facility? How hard would it have been to point it out? How did you and Physics know where the presentation was by the way......144 viewers?????

Buffalo News and Business First are incorrect. If you'd like people to be informed......spread the information. Considering the video has been viewed 144 times....and I am 2 of them...... PS....if you won't hold my hand, you can hold something else.

12:50...Benson says not a practice facility

10 minutes in, ironically my computer went bad when Benson was speaking and all my cookies got fried. You lil' devil.....almost lost me! Benson is a very smart man with attention to detail. So far my favorite quotes are: Benson: after being in the city and looking at it as they were talking to buy the Sabres...."What the hell are we doing here?" Ted Black: "Because there's no place that NEEDS a Stanley Cup more than Buffalo, NY." and Benson on Pegula: "If you know Terry like I do, when he's told you something once, you better do something about it." No details yet....back to attempt video.

Watching 60 minutes of Sabres hockey is painful enough.....please point me to any report or the section of the video where this is discussed. I pointed to the major Business publication in the city which says otherwise. Thank you.

Can you please point me to this information? Business First and others have it as a Sabres Practice Facility http://www.bizjournals.com/buffalo/news/2012/06/19/paladino-sabres-make-bid-for-webster.html

Yeah....he did mention him by name which is exciting. My point to TrueBlue was that putting him on a line with ok NHL'rs getting a regular shift is not going to hinder his development much as it was his ability to compete, agitate, and play a physical game that got him drafted that high much more than someone envisioning him a 40 goal scorer. I would not put Grigorenko on an NHL line playing 10-12 minutes because if he scores 2 goals his first 15 games.....that's the type of player that could go in the tank a lot faster if he were to get sent down after an experiment. I think Girgensons could contribute strongly in the role and grow while staying in the NHL...and if it makes more sense to send him down to season his skills, he could handle it and come back strong.

He's footing the bill for all of it? That is not what the Buffalo News and every other report I have seen has said. And you know full well I said Pegula increased his donation from $88 million to $102 million after he knew about the pedophilia and coverup in the Penn St athletics department. Big Difference.