nfreeman

I agree that the piece is excellent and a must-read. LeBrun is a very good national NHL writer IMHO. I found his strong endorsement of JB and RK pretty interesting.

I suppose enough winning could, but they are so far away from that stage that, like most teams, they can’t ignore the “great people right” factor. Fair enough, but we are talking about starting the season with #12 - #13 forward X instead of #12 - #13 forward Y. There are about a million mistakes teams can make, and that this team has made, that are bigger contributors to the bad outcome.

Just a guess, but I think he'd rather give it another shot this year under RK than go LTIR. But I think the most likely outcome is that he doesn't produce much this year, gets healthy-scratched regularly by the 2nd half of the season and then they take the course you suggest next season.

I'm with @pi2000 on this -- sending KO down with 4 years left on his deal would look like they are treating him shabbily and would hurt their ability to sign FAs in the future.

This is fair. After he got knocked out, though, I think the Bills had 3 or 4 offensive possessions that Barkley wasn't able to do anything with -- and I sure would've liked to have seen whether Allen could've rallied the way he did vs the Jets and Bengals.

I agree with most of this, but I think before the Pats game he had shown substantial improvement in the key qualities you mention in the bolded. The Pats game was certainly a step back, but their D makes pretty much every opposing QB look bad.

Who are the 4 centers better than Mitts?

Allen would do well to heed Brady's advice, and the Bills would do well to make GD sure that Allen understands that he needs to do so. Scrambling is fine, but when he gets into traffic he needs to slide, not put his head down and try to bull in for the first down. For that matter, I didn't like the coaches exposing him to a big shot on the QB sneak for the TD -- he caught a big shot on that one too.

My 2 cents: - Nelson is JAG who is an acceptable depth player in case of injury but not good enough to dress every night. His failure to jump in when Eichel got cheap-shotted last year continues to be completely unacceptable. I wouldn't mind keeping him in Rochester in case of emergency, but I won't care if someone claims him. - Gilmour and Joker both have much higher upside than Nelson (and are also both really fast -- maybe the 2 fastest defensemen they have). It will be good for Joker to have to compete with Gilmour for PT, and for not being the one to get sent down when Montour, Bogo or Pilut returns. - TT did look better in preseason, but I am fine with making him prove it in Rochester for the first month or so of the season and not bringing him up until he's ready to explode. - I didn't really expect them to send Mitts down, but was kinda hoping they would. I think he needs it. - I do not expect them to waive KO this year. - I think there is a good chance that @dudacek is right about them keeping a spot open in order to claim someone from waivers.

So it's: VO-Eichel-Reino Skinner-MoJo-Sobotka Vesey-Mitts-Sheary Zemgus-Larsson-KO Extra: ERod Dahlin-Miller Risto-McCabe Scandy-Joker Extra: Gilmour IR: Bogo, Montour Right?

So is that it, or are more moves needed to get to 23?

My guess on KO is that he gets marginalized and healthy-scratched a number of times this year and then gets Moulsoned to the AHL next year, allowing him to stay on and collect his cash so long as he can tolerate the AHL lifestyle. I hope you're right about Ullmark. I think it will be Hutton.

How so?

Maybe before you assert that someone else's post is false, you could do 30 seconds of google: https://www.nydailynews.com/sports/football/robert-kraft-opens-goodell-deflategate-donald-trump-article-1.2958959 https://ftw.usatoday.com/2015/07/robert-kraft-deflategate-nfl-roger-goodell-tom-brady-statement-war Of course, it's much easier to just blast away with whatever half-baked notion happens to be residing between brain and fingers. It was indeed great, but probably not the best -- the Pats were shorthanded and the Bills have had some very good defenses in the past 7-8 years.

"Truther" refers to believers in whacked-out conspiracy theories. The shoe fits. Wrong. Any data on this? For the record, I agree that the same hit on Brady would've gotten the defender ejected. But that's not the same as what you are saying here.

There is no "seeming ref assistance." There is just sour grapes from the fans of teams that lose to the Pats. (The Bills are now 3-31 vs Brady, and McD is 0-5 vs BB.) And if there is any team that the league would be biased against, it's the Pats, since Goodell has a longstanding beef with both Brady and the owner. But we lost! It must be someone else's fault! It's ridiculous on its face.

No one is disputing the bolded, but I don't think the bolded is your "theory." I believe you typically argue (and have done so in this very thread several times) that "the refs" are biased against the Bills and thus "intentionally" give the other team critical calls because they want the other team to win and the Bills to lose. Those dastardly refs are thus "not fair." No?

It's his first full year as a starter. He got beaten by the top D in the league -- the same D that didn't give up a TD in the Super Bowl. He may or may not turn the corner and become elite, but to think the story is written at this point is nuts. Separately: for the referee truthers: did you have the same opinions when the refs gave the Bills the benefit of multiple questionable calls on scoring plays vs the Jets and the Giants (2 teams from a not-so-small market that ref truthers often think are favored by the refs)? Or is this just a loser's lament?

For all the times that @PASabreFan makes me want to whip a dodge ball at him, there are just as many when he writes something amazing that, among other qualities, makes me realize that he loves some of the things that I love. Thank you good sir. This year will be better, I'm pretty sure.

I saw "Ad Astra" today and really enjoyed it. Some of the scenes were incredible. Solid A-minus and maybe an A.

I'm going to nominate "take asvantage of" (or maybe "take assvantage of") as a new Sabrespace expression.

Sitting by the fire in the backyard on a cool night is one of my great pleasures in life. Add a friend and some cigars and whisky? That’s gold, Jerry, gold.

I think there's a more-than-negligible chance that he stays on the top line for the bulk of the season and scores over 25 goals. For a 2014 7th-round pick in his 1st NHL season, that would be freaking fantastic.

Well, I'm not feeling quite as generous as 11 is on this, but I did read the article based on you gents' recommendations, and it was pretty good. So give MH credit for that.

So do they need to trade someone to fit Connor?