Eleven

I like a lot of this thinking. I'd rather keep Girgensons and Larsson together though. I don't know what Simmonds will cost, but if it's anything near $5M, I don't want to pay that to replace Okposo on the checking line.

The treatment was touted in "the media" piece that nfreeman posted--the one that started this very discussion! I've read hopeful articles about what the French are doing on numerous different sites for a week now. That is "the media." The fact is, you can't point to any "active campaign" by "the media" (whatever you mean by that) to prevent the treatment from being widespread, and you can't point to any data that "the media" (again) receives 1/2 of its revenue from pharmaceutical sales, either. You're inventing a conspiracy theory where there is no support for that theory. Do you not see that this is dangerous disinformation?

In The Athletic today, Joe Yerdon sets forth his case for the Sabres to do the following: 1. Keep Larsson and Vesey. 2. Let go Girgensons, Frolik, Simmonds, Wilson, and Sobotka. 3. Pursue FAs Craig Smith, Maroon, and Toffoli. What do we think?

I did read the article, and it does not factually support any assertion that "the media is in an active campaign to prevent this $20/person treatment from being widespread." Do you have data showing that "half the ads shown are pharma?" Or even 40%? I don't think you can factually support any of those three statements that you presented as fact.

"They" removed a post and suspended him; that is correct. So he has not been banned from twitter, which is what you wrote. Now, onto the other two, do you have factual support for either of these? 1. But the media is in an active campaign to prevent this $20/person treatment from being widespread. 2. The media who makes 1/2 of their revenue from pharmaceutical ads.

Can you back up any of these three statements? Giuliani remains active on twitter, so I know that one is wrong. How about the other two?

Just realized it was in the Southern District and not here; I'm not going to know the person anyway.

Who was the trustee?

I don't know about the television rights situation (and I am eager to find out what's going on with that), but Golisano purchased the team in 2003, before the lockout.

A friend's SIL now has it and is at Buffalo General. Strict no visitor policy, not even her husband (my friend's brother). That would make me crazy if I were her spouse.

Good point. So am I.

Ovechkin looks like a young woman in that photo.

I got it from a tractor.

Usually the hand sanitizer in the environments I mentioned are in hands-free dispensers. The small bottle that I keep in a backpack or briefcase or whatever is for emergencies and/or any time spent in NYC.

Yeah, hand sanitizer is for when you can't easily get to soap and water, or for "quick hits" at a mall, courthouse, airport, etc., even in normal times. I can't think of a situation where I'd have ready access to Listerine (which I do not think is high enough in alcohol content anyway) or high-proof spirits but not soap and water.

I guess so? I care more whether she gives me the right prescription. I don't tend to flirt with my pharmacist. I mean, if she's attractive to me and I run into her somewhere else, maybe? But not while she is doing her job.

Why? Not even close to the point.

I booked a haircut as soon as the NYS ban was announced. I'm happy that I did, even though I have no one to look good for. Still, I FELT better. I worry that these shutdowns don't consider our psychological needs. And I don't meant haircuts. I mean, talking with people. Seeing people. When my most important social contact is the woman at the prescription counter at Rite-Aid, that's not good for anyone. It's the same as seeing the haircut person.

I'm not trying to start an argument, but I don't think you understand the anxiety/depression thing from the patient's angle. To many of these people, being dead is preferable. It's a problem. I think that's a fair interpretation of what he said, but I can't be certain--there are translations, and he's an athlete and not a mental health professional. But I think he's saying that if we would spend 5% of the attention and resources, that we have spent on COVID, on depression instead, that depression would be eliminated. And if I understand you correctly, I agree with you: he's wrong.

We all know about Drury and Briere and I'm not going to revisit those. Those decisions were bad, we all know it, nothing to talk about here. But I'm still bored out of my mind, so I'm going to take a crack at some of the others: 1. Trade, 2007 deadline, Martin Biron to Philadelphia for a Second Round (31st Overall) Pick. Watching the replay of the end-of-streak game against the Islanders made me rethink a bit about the 2006-07 season. Obviously, the Sabres knew that Biron was gone at the end of the year. And they took what they could for him, which is as close to a first-round pick as one gets. (This is the reason I'm still not mad about what the Sabres paid for Lehner; that's an ok price--just ten picks higher than what they got for Biron--for a goalie whom you presume will be your next starter.) But did they need to make that trade right then? No. Philadelphia was not looking to get over the bubble at the trade deadline; they were either in dead last or very close to it. It was obvious that this move, from Philly's perspective, was all about 2007-08 and beyond. The Sabres, meanwhile, were cruising towards a Presidents' Trophy and were presumptive Cup favorites in most hockey writers' minds. So why make that move in February 2007? That move could have been made near draft day. Philly still would have needed a goalie, and if it didn't, some other team would. And that move might, just might. have cost the Sabres dearly. Biron proved his value and proved that he could handle the workload during an extended Miller injury in November of that season. Might one of the reasons for the 4-1 series loss against Ottawa have been that Miller was exhausted? He had played two overtime games (one double) in the previous series, and he played two overtime games (one double) in the Ottawa series, during which he also let in uncharacteristic numbers of goals in the first two games. If he was out of gas (and we truly don't know), Ruff might have turned to Biron. He certainly wasn't going to turn to Ty Conklin, who came in to take Biron's roster spot, though. Plus, the Sabres in February could anticipate that they'd be playing well into May, but couldn't possibly have anticipated whether Miller would have suffered injury by then (thankfully no, just maybe exhaustion). This trade might have cost the Sabres more than we thought, and the timing didn't have to be what it was. Grade: D. 2. Not trading or Re-signing Jay McKee. Ol' Dirty Shinpad is one of my all-time favorite Sabres, and his quiet toughness was one of the reasons the Sabres got to a Game 7 against Carolina. The man could settle anything down. At the end of 2006, he became an unrestricted free agent. The Sabres let him walk, and he signed a 4x$4M deal with Saint Louis. I know we like to point to 2006 for the proposition that a team can never have too many defensemen, but in the reality of a cap-controlled world, of course it can. That's why this decision is a no-brainer. The Sabs' blueline the following year would be well-stocked, with Campbell, Numinen, Kalinin, Lydman, Tallinder, Sekera, and Spacek. That is a Cup-winning blueline right there. Think of if we saw that group in Blue & Gold today! Given cap strictures and only cap strictures, i.e., no Quinn/Golisano budgeting, it still was a good move, because (looking prospectively from the time the move was made) the Sabres had to consider contracts for Drury, Briere, and others, in a cap-controlled environment. Grade: A. 3. Not Re-signing J.P. Dumont. A fair argument could be made that Dumont was a considerable part of the "soul" of the 2005-06 team. His was a strong checking game, but he wasn't shy around the net, either, going 20-20=40 in his last Sabres season. A salary arbitrator evaluated him at $2.9M in the summer of 2006, and the Sabres declined to accept. The market proved the Sabres right--just slightly--as he received a two year, $4.5M contract from Nashville shortly thereafter. (I discount the arbitration slightly because it was for one year rather than two, so I would compare the arbitration to a two year, $5M contract.) Dumont's role with the Sabres was replaced by Dainus Zubrus at the 2007 trade deadline, and Zubrus's numbers with the Sabs were just slightly below Dumont's pace; he would have been on track for about 38 points across a season (he was 4-4=8 in just 19 games with Buffalo). Still, I have this nagging feeling that Dumont was a "dressing-room guy," and that spending a few extra hundred thousand to keep him on the Buffalo bench would have been a good move. Grade: C+. 4. Matching the Thomas Vanek Offer Sheet. Ok. We all know that they "had to" from a PR standpoint. A team can't just let Drury and Briere walk and then also let walk the young kid who potted 43 goals, right? Wrong. We have spent way too long on this board defending the match because we don't know where Edmonton would have finished if they had Vanek and maybe it would have been 4 picks at the end of the first round rather than good picks, and all that, whatever. I certainly was one of the proponents of this theory. Now, I'm going to debunk it. First, in the light of hindsight, we know that Edmonton couldn't draft well enough to stock a team during the years in question. This alone should disabuse all of us of the notion that Edmonton's picks would somehow have been in the 20s rather than in the top ten. Second, this would have accelerated the inevitable: the rebuild that we all know and hate. Only, possibly, the rebuild would have happened under the supervision of competent professionals rather than Murray, Botterill, and the parade of coaches that we have seen since 2012. I liked Vanek as a player. I think he received unfair criticism for not being "tough" when it was his lower back receiving cross-checks from opponents on every power play. But, ultimately, I think Regier could have done a lot with that draft capital. (As much as we like to pick on him--even this post picks on him--that 2006-07 team was largely homegrown.) Grade: C, and only because of the public pressure. Otherwise a D or an F. 5. Not Re-signing Mike Grier. As is the case with Dumont, I think of Grier as a "soul of the team" guy when I think of 2005-06. He was an excellent penalty killer, but not so great around the net. I do think that he would have been part of what I'll call a "success cabal" involving Drury, Briere, Dumont, McKee, and a couple of other forwards,. So his spirit was missed. But was his presence? Not so much. Grier broke 15 goals once, and he didn't do it here. On the other hand, he never was expensive; while data before 2010 is out of my reach, it appears that he never crossed the $2M/yr threshold. I think he had more value in the dressing room than on the ice--unless killing a penalty, and so...Grade: B. 6. Letting Don Luce Walk. Not the player, but the scout. Notice something about Regier's drafts while Luce was around, which almost led to two home-grown teams win Cups, and the drafts after. Oh, and Philadelphia seems to have improved in the meantime. I think this was, in the words of Gob from Arrested Development, "a huge mistake." Grade: F. 7. Keeping Jochen Hecht and Paying Him What He Was Paid. This is a short two-for. Hecht was reviled here and elsewhere for not being a great player, but the reality is that he was a good player who simply was overpaid. Hecht could--and often did--settle a game down the way McKee could. On the other hand, his salary, compared to cap, was out of his category. Grade: C. 8. Not Hiring Jim Lahey as Head of Security. The current head of security is a good friend of mine. He's conscientious and does his job. Jim Lahey, on the other hand, would be driving around drunk with a man with no shirt on. The Sabres did the right thing by not hiring Lahey. Grade: A. The Sabres' GPA, not including the last one, which was just for fun: 2.04. Not enough to get them kicked out of Faber College, even. It would be fun to debate these and other mid-2000s moves.

It's reported here on SabreSpace.

Possibly the most adorable 911 call ever:

Here's the box score (see right column for penalties): https://www.nhl.com/gamecenter/bos-vs-buf/1988/04/09/1987030123#game=1987030123,game_state=final

H1N1 is differentiable, though. In 1918, we didn't exactly know what we know now, and there also was this small matter of a world war going on. In 2009, it didn't kill 40M.

Can't put 20A on an NHL sweater.