Eleven

I am the most casual Bandits fan you can imagine, but I do like Buffalo teams and I am glad when they succeed, whether it be St Bonaventure making the NCAA basketball tournament, or Niagara hockey doing well, or whatever. For those of you who are Bandits diehards, I am so happy. You supported this team, went to games, some of you subscribed to streaming packages, all that. And I am very, very happy for you! Congrats!!!!!

Of course we do! The threads about "wrong brother" on this site have been legendary (and fun, and maybe it's time for another). Once in a while (e.g., Reinhart) the Sabres get it right.

This conference keeps getting easier...and just at the right time.

Just google NASCAR and hit the news tab. Bonus points if you go back to the tweet that started it all.

JPEG was upset in the third round in the French Open. That is way early for her.

The discussions? They won't end ever.

As it should be. That's good soccer. Yeah, you've gotta show your work on that one, matter. It's not 2001 anymore and there was a major rebellion this morning, apparently, because of cultural (not political) stuff.

So no gender reveal party?

I'm not saying I'm on board with the idea--I'll flatly say that I am not (and they can take him at 13 if he's that good)--but thank you for at least providing some concreteness to the discussion. Great albums. It also took 1980s me WAY too long to distinguish Mark Knopfler from Bob Geldof. I think it was the fs.

Your first paragraph continues to argue irrelevant and tangential incorrect info (he was NOT a regular that year), and your second paragraph supports what I'm saying. You know I love you, but are you arguing just to argue right now? There's bouncey-ball on! Or even the last episode of Ted Lasso, which is much more excellent than the 20th pick in 2023 is likely to be.

Who cares? Fact is, he was a part timer. Not a regular. You're the one introducing extraneous factors, not me. And as your sidebar is distracting from the main point, as well, how many levels of irrelevance do we have to explore? Point is and was: Trading Joker for a 20th overall pick is stupid.

And if Q wasn't the coach, he may never have seen the NHL. Did he spend the whole season in the NHL? No. So no, it doesn't count. Come on, man.

No, it took him three--and that's because he was traded here, where we had no defensemen. Look at the numbers again. His season split between Rockford and Chicago does not count as a "regular NHL player." That's the point. I'm not trading my telescope for Professor Copperfield's Miracle Legumes, thank you.

I named two upthread. Back to the point--wasn't NASCAR more popular than NHL at one point about 20 years ago? Did it matter? (And I wonder how those people feel about their "Rainbow Warrior" now...)

Yep. He made a bad choice for winning but probably a good choice for the Dumbass family bank. Either way, welcome to the conference, Dubas.

Hey, for those with only broadcast options, WNLO, which I *think* is channel 23 UHF in the area, will have Game 3 (the final).

He's a 2/3 C on a good team. He currently is a 1/2 on a 6th place team in the Central. Do you think he'd he a 1/2 C on the current Sabres? (The correct answer begins with the letter 'n'.) And no, he is NOT more valuable than Jokiharju on this team as currently constructed. The team needs NHL defensemen NOW, not centers three years from now. Even if Adams were to trade Joker for Thomas straight up, right now, he'd be castigated, and rightly so, unless he immediately flipped another C for a D. Geez. Shortstops don't pitch. Running backs don't catch. Goalkeepers don't dribble the ball upfield. And 20th overall picks, whatever position, typically don't play. The team needs defensemen NOW, it has one, and people want to trade him for a freaking chance at catching lightning in a bottle. And all of this assumes Seattle wants Joker, which is a heck of a premise to begin with.

So let's be more concrete about it. Considering that the Sabres have no depth at D, who is the "franchise-altering star," worth trading a defenseman for, who will be available around pick 20? You know who you get in the 20s in the NHL draft? JOKIHARJU HIMSELF. Pick 29, 2017. And then he took three-four years to make the NHL as a regular player. NEW MATERIAL ON EDIT Let's say that I'm pushing too hard by turning a completely hypothetical and fantasy-minded trade of Joker for 20 into 29 instead. Let's just say that. I'll indulge. Here are the last 5 20th overalls. 2022: Ivan Miroshnichenko, RW. I'm almost mad that I had to type that. Not yet in the NHL. 2021: Jesper Wallstedt, G. Not yet in the NHL. 2020: Shakir Mukhamadullin, D. Not yet in the NHL. 2019: Ville Heinola, D. In the AHL, but has played a grand total of 27 NHL games over THREE YEARS. 2018: Rasmus Kupari, C. Bounces between the NHL and AHL STILL, FIVE YEARS LATER. Just for fun, let's go back one more year--Joker's year. 2017: Robert Thomas, C. He is finally regularly in the NHL, but I don't think you could even name his team without looking it up. Not a "franchise-altering player." In other words, Joker IS THE DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH at the end of the first round. He's as good as it gets there. It is incredibly unlikely that the Sabres will find a "franchise-altering player" at pick 13 (which they already have), much less at pick 20 or below. It is completely over-valuing a lottery ticket, as @Weave aptly puts it, to think so. Would you bet your $800K house on a 1/1000 chance of winning only $1M? No. But that's the equivalent of this proposal. High risk and low reward. OLD MATERIAL RESUMES If this type of thinking were to prevail, I'd be dead before the Sabres were in the playoffs again.

You think there's a potential franchise-altering star at around pick 20 in the draft? How confident are you? And why couldn't the Sabres take that guy at 13?

One of the coolest things about the movie *The Princess Bride* is that Andre the Giant drank two entire cases of beer on the way to the set once. And, of course, he wasn't able to perform very well. So they had to delay the scenes he was supposed to be in. The most popular condiment in the US is salsa, apparently. I would have thought it a children's condiment like ketchup. But it's salsa? Wow.

As I said, I don't vouch for the accuracy of the blog. I also don't put a lot into "metro area," because I live in a city where that is artificially limited. The "metro area" of Buffalo, if you were to measure it by the same standards as Miami (look on the map on Wikipedia, it seems to be everything within a 90 minute drive), is almost as populous. There just happens to be a notable river in the way. My impression is considerably different than yours--Miami seems more "homegrown," and much, MUCH less into pro sports; Tampa Bay seems more transplanted and more into pro sports. I see Lightning signs on lawns and bumpers from Tampa down to Ft. Myers; I don't see any Panthers stuff...anywhere except on TV during a Panthers game.

That is new if trew.

So the pizza at their arena just got worse?

Leaves named Treliving as new GM.

Treliving is the new Leaves GM, which is good for the rest of the division.