Skibum

Never.

Mair-Grier-Gaustad? With a sprinkling of Pyatt, Peters, and... the legendary Jiri Novotny?

The only Bruin I really like. A fantastic player, a true gamer, and a classy guy, night in and night out, for a long, long time. Happy retirement, Patrice.

This one was not really important in the long run, but I thought it was significant at the time, so I'll mention it since nobody else likely will. When they traded Andrej Sekera, in my mind they officially kicked off the tank era. He was a Sabres 3rd round pick who they had developed for several years into a rising star on D, and he had just signed a team-friendly deal. Then they just up and unloaded him for a pick and Jamie McBain. That was when I knew they were no longer trying to ice a decent team in the near term. I also thought he was a consistently really good player, and I was sad to see him dumped. That trade kinda made me sick.

Mogilny was arguably the best player out of him, Turgeon, Barasso, and especially Vernon. Vernon was never, at any point in his career, one of the best at his position. From his era, I would put Hasek, Roy, Brodeur, CuJo, Barasso, Belfour, Fuhr, and Richter ahead of Vernon. Maybe even Vanbiesbrouck. And a few others you could throw in who had shorter peaks - Khabibulin, etc. He was a little above average for a really long time. I don't get it.

I haven't seen someone so young look so good in a long time, including Dahlin. Smart and steady like a vet, size, athleticism, and skill out the wazoo that will only get more refined with time. I hope they sign him to a very long contract, and I don't care what it costs.

If Alex Ovechkin goes on the record criticizing Putin and the war, he's potentially signing a death warrant for his entire family in Russia, and he may never be able to return to his home country again. Same thing if Putin invites him to a rally and he declines. What is he supposed to do? I don't envy him at all, and I don't blame him for having shown support for Putin in the past. He pretty much has a gun to his head.

I think it's a legitimate option. Bottom line is this is a team that has showed it can win, with high scoring potential. Two weeks ago, they were in a very strong position to earn a playoff spot, with plenty of time to pull further ahead, and instead they have turned in one of the most embarrassing runs in team history, on par with anything from the tank era. It's possible Granato has taken them as far as he is able, and it's not far enough.

Caps had to play the Rangers in DC last night, then hop on a plane, do the hotel thing, etc. They could be pretty gassed with a 1PM faceoff on the road the next day. Oh dang, I just saw Dahlin is also out! OK, going to be a tough one even if the Caps are tired.

At least there was a proper make-up call (or non-call, rather) on the OT game-winner. I guess that also could have been called as holding the stick on TBL, but it sure looked like a big fat hook by Boosh!

It would be interesting to see what % of ST seats are actually filled by STH each game, for all the teams. It's probably proportional to the size of the local market. You also have to figure that even if all the STH don't sell their tickets, a big percentage of them can't go to a game on any given Tuesday night anyway. They have a school board meeting or dinner with the in-laws or what-not. Buffalo is just very, very unlucky to have a rival market that is significantly larger than them, so close by.

The Sabres still look like little kids when up against cagey veterans on winning teams. I suppose they can yet earn a playoff spot, but they are going to get annihilated in round 1.

This is the first chance I've had to watch a game in a few weeks. I was really looking forward to it; cleared my schedule, bought some nice beer and cooked up a pork shoulder. And here I sit, after half a period, and I just can't watch one more minute of it.

As inconsistent as the Sabres have been, their main competitors for the Wild Card have been even worse. With almost 30 games left, a high scoring team with multiple games in hand and a better win % than the 8-10 place teams, the odds of making the playoffs are actually in their favor right now.

It's not a good contract at all. It's already a bad deal by virtue of his performance through most of the first three years of it. I think it's still bad now that he's scoring, because (a) his lack of reach and physical presence limit him, and (b) it seems that he is only as good as the players he's playing with, to a higher degree than most guys making $9M. I think his contribution falls off a lot if when he's not on a really hot line. That's a liability if his linemates miss any time.

43 pts/49 games = .8775 * 82 = a 72 point pace now, and he's getting better every day.

Ha ha, WE.

Of course I'd love to see Meier on the team, but his asking price would go a lot farther toward veteran blue-line depth and goaltending, which it seems to me are bigger issues with the Sabres right now, no?

Allen to Diggs for the win.

Well, that wasn't much fun. 💩

Looking back, it's crazy and especially awesome that he's ahead of Seguin and Hall - I vividly remember the hype those guys got leading up to that draft. They were branded as guaranteed superstars. Not that their careers have been bad by any means, but I love that a guy like Skinner has quietly outscored them both to become head of the class. I'm also impressed that he's so far ahead of Tarasenko. I don't follow hockey stats these days, but it seems like every time I watch a Blues game, that guy scores six goals.

They can still make it, but the odds are not favorable and it will be very, very close. It will also be very exciting, because 'making it' means that from now on, they will have to win a lot more than they lose - and they are, at long last, a likable team. A playoff push this year could/would be the spark that finally brings the fanbase back to life and makes hockey fun again in WNY.

Leschyshyn - Great hockey name. 10 letters, one vowel.

Yeah.

It's still OCTOBER.