nfreeman

So I like my brother-in-law, but he can’t make roast beef to save his life. He and his wife (my wife’s sister) have been hosting Xmas for the past few years, and he’s been buying the wrong cut of beef AND overcooking it. This year, my mother-in-law has moved into a nicer, bigger apartment and is hosting — and my wife and I have seized back the beef acquisition and roasting responsibilities. We’ve acquired a huge honking bone-in rib roast and it is going to be outstanding. I keep it simple — trim the fat, a lot of salt, a bit of pepper, coat in olive oil, cook in a roaster with a rack at 450 for 30 min or so to sear the outer layer, then the rest of the way at 350. Carrots, onions and beef broth in the pan, then make gravy at the end with that mixture and the drippings. It is fantastic when executed correctly.

Washington line combos: LW C RW Forwards Alex Ovechkin Rating: 89.1#1 LW Nicklas Backstrom Rating: 80.4#20 C T.J. Oshie Rating: 77.8#19 RW FL1 Rating Rating: 82.42#2 FL1 Jakub Vrana Rating: 73.0#77 LW Evgeny Kuznetsov Rating: 80.6#17 C Tom Wilson Rating: 75.8#32 RW FL2 Rating Rating: 76.46#8 FL2 Andre Burakovsky Rating: 72.1#74 LW Lars Eller Rating: 73.0#74 C Brett Connolly Rating: 73.4#51 RW FL3 Rating Rating: 72.82#11 FL3 Chandler Stephenson Rating: 69.7#170 LW Nic Dowd Rating: 72.0#103 C Devante Smith-Pelly Rating: 69.1#116 RW FL4 Rating Rating: 70.29#17 FL4 Defensive Pairings Defense Michal Kempny Rating: 74.6#30 LD John Carlson Rating: 82.7#3 RD DL1 Rating Rating: 78.62#3 DL1 Dmitri Orlov Rating: 74.7#28 LD Matt Niskanen Rating: 74.7#30 RD DL2 Rating Rating: 74.68#9 DL2 Jonas Siegenthaler

I don't really disagree with any of this, but I also think no one is going to give the Sabres a real #2 center for Guhle and a low 2020 first-rounder. I am generally just looking at the concept of trading for an older guy like Carter (or Patrick Kane for that matter) as an opportunity to dump KO, whom I increasingly think is done like dinner, and then the question is how much would I pay to upgrade from KO to Carter/Kane/other old expensive guy. And while I agree that it's unlikely that anyone will take him, I think it might be feasible as part of a package with sweeteners -- one of which is the opportunity for the other team to dump its older expensive guy. I agree that it's pretty unlikely in any case.

...unless of course the guy you get at #22 overall in 2020, once he finally makes it to the NHL in 2023, doesn’t give you any more than Zemgus or Grigorenko or a million other low-1st-rounders who never did anything significant in the NHL — while you could’ve had, for 2019-2021, the skilled, experienced #2 center (who happens to have 2 rings) that the team is dying for right now.

@LGR4GM -- while LA of course wouldn't take KO for Carter straight up, I would seriously consider giving them KO, Guhle and one of the lower #1s for Carter.

Pretty different scenarios IMHO. There is zero possibility that Skinner would take that contract. There is a real possibility that LA would take KO as part of a package deal for Carter that included other sweeteners. Now, I don’t think it will happen, because I think Carter will make it clear that he doesn’t want to be traded here, and because JB won’t want someone who doesn’t want to be here, and JB also won’t want to part with the amount of sweeteners it would take to get LA to agree. But the concept is not as far-fetched as Skinner taking a 60% discount.

I kinda think it will end up being pretty close to 8x8.

Well, this is still based on low information, but Guhle reminds me more of Soupy. I’d say Borgen is more of a McCabe comparable.

Pilut has to be the top D prospect. I have yet to come away from a Guhle viewing and feel confident that he'll become a good NHL defenseman. With almost no information, I'd guess the D prospects with the best long-term chances are Borgen, Laaksonen, Samuelsson and Fitzgerald.

Really?

I've raised the prospect of Carter previously. I would do it in a heartbeat, but only if they take KO, which I don't think they would agree to.

Nice to see McCabe and Pilut back. Interesting that Zemgus has gotten promoted to a scoring line. FTR, that was an opportunity available to Bergy if he earned it, but nooooooooooo.

As to each of the bolded items: we have no idea what the facts are. While I understand your disgust with Bergy's behavior IF your assumptions about his motivations are true (and they very well could be), and I too am happy at the prospect of being rid of his contract, I think you are being much too quick to dismiss alternative scenarios/outcomes. Me too. And I aspire to be as nice a guy as you are, notwithstanding certain questionable opinions on certain matters.

He's not gone if he files a grievance and he wins.

Unbelievable. Anything is possible, but it seems highly unlikely to me that this is just a temper tantrum by Bergy about being traded to one of the teams he would've put on his list of 10 no-go destinations. Who in the world throws a $12.5MM temper tantrum? If there are in fact personal/family issues, I hope everything works out OK for him. Either way, this is better than pretty much any other reasonably possible outcome other than him turning into a good top-6 forward.

Well, his desired outcome almost certainly is a trade to a team in a city he likes that would play him higher up in the lineup. That way he keeps his contract and gets a preferable city and playing time situation.

I would guess that JB has been in touch with the NHL on this as to how long he has to wait before he can terminate the contract. The NHL doesn't get to decide unilaterally, but they can probably tell JB that they will back him if he waits, e.g., 2 more weeks. As a related point, I wonder whether there was any discussion between JB and the Blues at the time of the trade about Bergy's no-move arrangements. In particular, I wonder whether the Blues hid the ball at all -- i.e. did they say something technically accurate but still misleading like "Bergy hasn't put the Sabres on his no-go list" as opposed to being fully honest and telling JB that Bergy's agent screwed this up so STL didn't have to comply with a no-go list if they made the trade that day.

So McCabe is skating with the team? That's good.

While I too had hopes for him, it's hard for me to believe that the opportunity wasn't there for him to carve out more of a scoring role. The team is dying for secondary scoring. The lines have been shuffled multiple times. All he had to do was keep working hard and deliver when they called his number, and he would've gotten plenty of looks in scoring situations. For that matter, a week or 2 before he went AWOL, he suddenly appeared on the top PP for a few games (and didn't do much as I recall). Maybe they were trying to appease him after a tantrum?

The Sabres had a very tough time with Florida's top line last game, and Barkov -- who is an elite player -- outplayed Eichel. Like the AZ game last week, this is a game the Sabres need to win if they are going to be a playoff team, and one that isn't just happy to be there. Line combos: LW C RW Forwards Jonathan Huberdeau Rating: 78.7#15 LW Aleksander Barkov Rating: 81.1#13 C Mike Hoffman Rating: 76.1#24 RW FL1 Rating Rating: 78.65#11 FL1 Frank Vatrano Rating: 72.5#94 LW Henrik Borgstrom Rating: 73.1#77 C Evgenii Dadonov Rating: 79.3#11 RW FL2 Rating Rating: 74.97#15 FL2 Troy Brouwer Rating: 68.6#135 LW Jared McCann Rating: 71.4#131 C Denis Malgin Rating: 72.4#72 RW FL3 Rating Rating: 70.76#25 FL3 Micheal Haley Rating: 67.0#142 LW Juho Lammikko Rating: 71.5#128 C Jayce Hawryluk Rating: 73.4#52 RW FL4 Rating Rating: 70.63#11 FL4 Defensive Pairings Defense Keith Yandle Rating: 78.1#7 LD Aaron Ekblad Rating: 74.6#31 RD DL1 Rating Rating: 76.34#10 DL1 Michael Matheson Rating: 72.6#61 LD Mark Pysyk Rating: 70.8#79 RD DL2 Rating Rating: 71.71#22 DL2 Alex Petrovic Rating: 69.4#126 LD MacKenzie Weegar Rating: 71.6#66 RD DL3 Rating Rating: 70.46

For the record. Salming was a very good player for a long time, but not nearly in the same class as Potvin or Lidstrom.

Well, I'm assuming that at some point in the next week or so, he will report rather than walk away from 90% of his expected remaining lifetime earnings. If he does so, and there are no further incidents, I don't see the Sabres being able to terminate. If he stays away for an extended period, then I agree that it's likely that the Sabres will be able to terminate.

Does anyone have a link to a video of the play on which Beaulieu was injured? I don't think I've seen a replay.

Allen looked quite promising again yesterday IMHO.

I will be very surprised if the Sabres end up being able to terminate his contract.