nfreeman

The Sabres will probably come out much better than they did vs Ottawa, but Hutton could pull the rug out at any moment. Exciting!

If the question is whether I'd rather have Pommer on the team or a lovely frolic in the snow with my kids and the dog (or, if you prefer, in the mud pit with Scarlett Johanssen), I'll take the latter.

I agree that things aren't as bad as they feel (understandably) following that debacle last night. They need a good goalie, a good #2 C and 2 good bottom-6 forwards with upside (and it's not impossible that one or both of those 2 slots could be filled by Mitts and/or TT next year). That's not a quick trip to the convenience store, but it's not an insurmountable obstacle either.

I don't have a good one either, but I will note that both of the nicknames put forth by Dunleavy ("Captain Jack" and "Eichel Tower") both stink.

I think both of the examples you listed support the position that your offer for Henrique is too low. Both guys' production are roughly equivalent to Henriques', and both garnered higher returns than your proposal for Henrique. Winnipeg gave up a higher price for Hayes, who was a 30-game rental and is less than 2 years younger than Henrique. Carolina gave up a better prospect in Duclair than Asplund is, plus 2 2nds. And you're asking Anaheim to take Bogo. I like the Henrique idea, and I don't think the Sabres would need to give up a #1, but it would need to be a better prospect than Asplund, we couldn't make them wait a year for the #2 and I don't think they would accept a cap dump, especially since Anaheim is a cash-budget team.

Anaheim says no -- they will get better offers than this for Henrique. JB (and me) says no -- Risto and a likely lottery pick is too much for a 34-year-old center (who will turn 35 this season) in decline. And I don't think Anaheim would get nearly this much for Getzlaf. I'd give them Borgen, Pilut or Colin Miller plus a #2 plus Asplund for Getzlaf. Now this is interesting, but I can't see JB giving up 2 first-rounders when the Sabres are still (probably) a lottery team.

Well, how can they be certain what they really want?

From the Athletic's piece on the Sabres' prospects (which, btw, was written by a different guy than the guy who loved Mittlestadt):

From the Athletic — NHL front office people respond anonymously to fans’ proposed trades: Buffalo trades Casey Mittelstadt to San Jose for Tomas Hertl – @Vitali17 No from San Jose. Doug Wilson is ready to deal but I don’t think he’s looking to trade young players who are going to be a big part of the next phase of success for San Jose. Exec: “San Jose would say no to that. I don’t think our guys love Mittelstadt. Not quite sure what he’s going to become. That’s an easy one.”

Right on, @Taro T. They are 5 under DeLuca .500 with 33 games left. If they go 6-4 in the three 10-game segments, and then 2-1 in their last 3 games, they will finish the season 2 games over DeLuca .500. That would most likely get them in, and it would absolutely make for an exciting 2nd half. They (and we) don't need to worry about points, or standings, or who's ahead of them, or anything other than getting Ws. The rest will take care of itself. It's doable. Ugh. True. But hopefully this time it's different. They have better coaching and goaltending than they've had in a while, and they have Eichel starting to reach his potential.

And Colin Farrell.

My wife and I saw “The Gentlemen” last night. Pretty entertaining. If you liked Guy Ritchie’s previous crime thrillers (“*****” and “Lock, Stock and 2 Smoking Barrels”), you’ll like this one. EDIT: his first one got blocked by the filter! It rhymes with “hatch.”

FWIW: NetsDaily Retweeted Alexis Wainwright @AWainwrightTV Sources have confirmed that neither #Bryant’s wife or children were on board of the helicopter that crashed. 3:14 PM · Jan 26, 2020 from Little Rock, AR·Twitter for iPhone

Awful. God bless that family.

I am deeply disappointed that I have to say this, but please do not post, in threads commemorating the departed, criticisms of the departed.

I heard it took the cook with a butcher knife, the manager and 3 cops to remove Konecny from the Denny's. But Reino left after the waitress wouldn't let him order from the kids' menu.

Awful. God bless him.

Love the optimism but I can't agree. I agree that the top 4 forwards are good players and will all be locked up. But that top-4 group is good, not great, and is nowhere near good enough to carry the team. It's at least 50/50 that both Mitts and TT wash out. I'd say it's less than 33% likely that either of them becomes a good 2nd-liner and less than 20% likely that both of them become 40-point guys. For that matter, it's at least 60% likely that both Pilut and Ruotsy wash out. Lazar is a fine 4th-liner but that's it. KO is an albatross -- so while you're right that he accounts for a slot, that is a bad thing, not a good thing. As for the rest, you're right that there are plenty of bodies, but "plenty of bodies" does not equal "strong likelihood of a good enough forward group to produce a top-25% NHL offense."

That’s twice you’ve asked the same question that could’ve been answered with 60 seconds of google.

They need to pay state taxes to the states in which the games (including road games) are located. So they pay much less in state taxes than players on NYS or CA teams, but it’s quite a bit more than zero.

CC -- I appreciate the kind words. In your absence, after a fair amount of board psychodrama, we settled on a compromise for political talk. The arrangement is that all political talk goes in the "Oval Office" club. Your post above is not a big deal, especially since the new arrangement came into existence while you were gone. Going forward, on the main board here, it would probably be better to describe a situation like the one above with something like "I was removed from a group on FB for disagreeing with someone on a political point, and the admin refused to answer me." You should certainly feel free to engage in political talk in the Oval Office club. Now back to regularly scheduled programming.

Just to be clear: if it takes, say, $7.5MM x 8 years to keep Reino, are you saying that you'd rather trade him for, say, the 19th pick in the draft, the 19th pick in the 2nd round and a Tage Thompson-level prospect? And then sign a couple of Froliks? Because you're not getting a top-5 draft pick or an elite prospect for him, and you're not getting a Skinner or Panarin at that price point. OTOH, I agree that there are plenty of higher-end NHL teams on which Reino wouldn't play on the top line. As I've said previously, if he's your 4th- or 5th-best forward, you've probably got a really good offense, but if he's your 2nd- or 3rd-best forward, you've probably got a lousy offense.

I, too, would like to see more fire in the belly from Reino. In terms of intangibles, I will say that he consistently sticks up for his teammates in scrums -- not with fists but with an acceptable amount of shoving and smack-talking, especially for a skill guy. The bolded is simply incorrect as a factual matter. Here is the quote from the Athletic: I agree that he puts the puck where his teammates need it very well, but not with the bolded.

Good list, and I largely agree, but I will point out that stars pop loose every year for various reasons. For example, Stone was traded last season, and there was quite a bit of talk last summer about Laine being traded. It is that type of situation (and IMHO only that type of situation) that would enable an upgrade from Reino. But I agree that deciding not to pay the $7.5MM or so per year to keep him and putting him on the trade market would almost certainly result in a net talent downgrade and would be a dumb move. I do not expect JB to make that mistake.

Full disclosure: my wife and I liked Season 1 of Dark but we bailed about 1/3 of the way through Season 2. We did both like Schitt's Creek. We also both liked episode 1 of "The Outsider" on HBO, but not episodes 2 or 3 as much. Episode 4 might be a make-or-break one for us.