nfreeman

Yesterday Reino delivered his finest hour as a Sabre. The war wound, the nifty setup of Skinner (which came after Howie moved Reino to the top line in search of a spark — nice move by Howie) and then the GTG (which, it must be admitted, was primarily due to poor goaltending — a Lehner-esque unnecessary depositing of a fat rebound onto the doorstep) to break his goalscoring drought — great stuff. It will probably help his confidence and we’ll get more from him going forward.

I think almost by definition there is a material possibility that Skinner leaves in free agency. I also think JBott will make him a very strong offer. But there are way too many variables.

Exactly as fast as is called for by the situation.

Well, the checking line did give up a couple of goals last night, and overall team D was pretty spotty. I can't get too worked up about Zemgus getting benched, especially if the coaches think TT has been looking good in practice.

Well, I think this depends on what you mean by "market value." If you mean "the contract that 8 other teams would give him" -- ie something like E. Kane's contract -- then I think it would be nuts to offer him less than that based on a belief that playing on Eichel's line and being close to Toronto are so valuable as to make up for the lower dollars. If you mean "the contract that only one other team would give him" -- I am closer to agreeing with you, because I think there is a limit to how much of your cap you can give a scoring winger. I will also point out that Skinner is almost certainly looking for "market rate" in the sense of the first proposed definition, and that this does not mean he's only about the Benjamins. All players want that level of market rate.

He’s not going to take a 6-year deal. 7 is the minimum.

Mine randomly disconnected me right before the 3rd period and I missed about half of the period! Well, I think you need to get used to it. They need to keep him. Dude. He was in on like 5 significant scoring chances and that line was great tonight. I think this is the first demand for a pronoun antecedent in SabreSpace history. Separately, Ullmark really fell apart in that game. So much for my prediction of a goalie controversy. Hutton is still very much the man. Pommer did have the game on his stick right in front at the end of regulation after a nifty backhand feed from Eichel and whiffed on it. I think we'll see Nelson back on on Saturday for Beaulieu. Skinner looks like he unabashedly loves playing with Eichel. If the Sabres look like a playoff team and they make him a market-level offer -- which will be freaking expensive -- I think he'll sign an extension. Back to DeLuca .500 with a winnable game (and perhaps another track meet) coming up.

ubkev -- that was a great Rico/Sabres/Gerbe karma reminiscence that you reminded me that quickly turned into a Coen brothers movie.

I have no relevant professional experience, but I am firmly into middle age and have never owned a new car either. I've had sub-optimal results twice -- both times when buying high-mileage cars from family members -- but excellent results when buying low-mileage cars from third parties (twice from dealers, once from a friend and once from a private seller via a used car publication). I am curious: what is your general approach when buying a used car? Dealer or private seller? Mileage limit? Flexibility as to make/model? Other criteria?

Alright, mister. I'll be back to you on these after the game. (Unless you are right.)

Predictions: - Both Reino and Sobotka respond well to being reunited and that line is effective - the Sheary-Mitts-KO line also plays well and gets a bit more ice time than ERod-Sobotka-Reino - Linus shines and the goalie controversy is on

Hang in there friend.

I like Wes Anderson movies. Royal Tanenbaums was one of his first and is really good, for those who may be interested.

Thank you dudacek. Rico was my favorite Sabre, and athlete in any sport, when I was a kid. My beloved family dog is now named after him. My heart broke when Mike Palmateer undercut his knee, and broke again when Scotty traded him. And I felt a real loss as an adult when he passed away (which happened right after TP bought the team and reunited the incomparable French Connection, making the reunion kinda bittersweet). I knew he was great, and entertaining, and a very dangerous and well-respected player around the league for a long time. But I did not know how compelling his numbers were, especially relative to his era and to the peers you named (each of whom was a great player who was also, and fairly enough, helped into the HOF by the multiple Cups he won). It's good to know I wasn't just star-struck. Gil and Dom were better, but Rico has a strong claim for #3 all-time.

Well, KO and Sheary have the same # of pts as Reino, and each has more goals than Reino's single goal, so Reino hasn't outscored them. Mitts also has more goals than Reino, FWIW. And Reino is scoreless in 4 of his last 5 games. In any case my comment was motivated at least as much by an unexpected feeling of confidence that KO's play is really coming on -- I'd go so far as to say that I think in the last couple of games he's looked as good or better as he has at any time since joining the Sabres.

Awesome.

How do you know whether it's revisionist? Do you think JBott just rolled out of bed one day, read the newspaper and interpreted his horoscope as a mandate to trade ROR? Do you think there were other offers available for ROR that were superior to the one JBott accepted? Please be specific. I agree that Eichel to date hasn't been worth nearly what the Sabres gave up for him, but that is an entirely different question from the ROR questions.

While I agree that ice time is the correct barometer of where a player is, and that ice time among the forwards other than those on Eichel’s line is a fluid situation, I also think that next game we’ll see Sheary-Mitts-KO get more ice time than ERod-Vlad-Reino. Further, I think that the coaches and players all recognize that this is happening and that it’s based on what the players have earned. In particular, I think KO has been playing better than Reino. In a sense, this is a good sign, as the Sabres are pretty much married to KO for the next 5 years, and I and many others have been concerned that we were looking at another Moulson situation. His legs look quite lively and his hands and reflexes are catching up. I also think that Reino will come along and be a contributor. But I am quite glad they didn’t give him a huge contract.

Sobotka is a pretty decent player and only has 1 more year on his deal after this season, and it's for $3.5MM. That is far from being a cap anchor. Berglund, OTOH, has 3 more years on his deal after this one, at $3.85MM per year. While I think he's looked pretty solid on the checking line with Larsson and Zemgus, and while his contract isn't nearly in Bogo or KO territory, it's still much too expensive for what he provides IMHO.

IMHO, KO has earned the promotion and Reino has earned both demotions (the 2nd one is getting dumped from Eichel's 3-on-3 group). Frankly, it's crazy to me that the top 3-on-3 group wasn't always Eichel-Skinner-Dahlin. I think though that Reino will do well with Sobotka and ERod.

The Deadwood movie has officially started filming. If you haven't watched the show, I highly recommend doing so. IMHO, it is right there with the Sopranos and the Wire (and ahead of Breaking Bad) in the GOAT list.

I thought he looked pretty good and aggressive in the 1st period last night vs the Rangers but kinda disappeared in the 2nd and 3rd. We're now 15 games in and holding at one goal.

Yes, but he's 21!

In this scenario, JBott and Howie would be disagreeing over TT, innit? So JBott wants to keep him up and presumably wants him to play, but Howie doesn’t want to play him? Possible but seems unlikely.

OK, so TT is at this point a regular healthy scratch. Pretty much everyone here, plus conventional wisdom, favors sending him down to Rochester, since he wouldn't need to clear waivers and it seems like it would be better for his development to play a lot of minutes in the AHL as opposed to zero minutes in the NHL. And yet here he remains, with no real explanation from the organ-eye-zation. When asked about it recently, Howie gave some kind of vague non-answer. So what is going here? Possible explanations that occur to me: - The Sabres really do think that staying with the team, practicing with them, attending the meetings, etc. is better for TT's development than going to Rochester, notwithstanding the healthy scratches. - The Sabres think having a good young forward staying up with the team and getting healthy-scratched is a good motivator for the other forwards, on the thinking that each of them realizes that if he doesn't play well, someone is right there to take his spot. - The Sabres think that TT will have an emotional meltdown if he's sent to the AHL and quit the team or some other similar extreme reaction. - There is some weird CBA nuance that none of us knows about that would expose TT to waivers, or have a strange salary cap consequence, or some other significant negative outcome that the Sabres want to avoid. - One of the forwards has an injury that the Sabres think is likely to cause him to miss games, although that forward has been able to gut it out and play so far. I don't find any of the above particularly compelling, but I suppose it could also be a combination of some of the above and/or something else. If I had to guess, I would say it's a combination of the first 2 factors. Discuss.