nfreeman

I beg to differ.

As far as that goes -- it looks like Harrington is retiring, and he spent about 75% of his farewell column complaining about Housley not admitting that Eichel had been demoted to the 3rd line. He never figured out that his beefs with Sabres management about their media communications decisions weren't remotely interesting and only served to make him look whiny, and he never figured out how to contribute some value-added hockey analysis or at least inside info about the team. I hope the next guy is better.

The Drury stuff is right on -- sweating the little details creates focus and a determined mindset, IMHO. I remember one story about someone not using proper form in the workout room and Drury very directly asking the guy why bother doing it if he wasn't going to do it right. There's a reason guys like Drury are always on winning teams.

Serious questions: - do you think Eichel is a top-3 NHL player? Top 10? Top 20? - do you think the "culture of losing" comments that Foligno and Ennis made in TBN yesterday are valid? Not really. They made the playoffs in 2010 and 2011, missed them in 2012 and commenced the tank the following season instead of trying to rebuild conventionally.

Does anyone still think it was the right move?

Yes indeed. Correct.

Here's something that may or may not be fixable, and that may or may not be due to my own ineptitude, and that no one else may care about: on the new TSW, when I try to pull up all posts by a certain member, I get a list of "post previews" -- so I have to click on each one to read the post. It's much clunkier and less user-friendly than the old TSW, which gave me the output I wanted -- i.e. the full posts by that poster, which I could just scroll/page through.

I don't see how you could possibly be sure of this. I would guess in fact that they have not made an offer.

Lehner had one guy screening him on the point shot that went in. I saw no ankle chops or shoves or anything from Lehner to move that guy out. If that guy's presence excuses Lehner from fault on that goal, then NHL goalies aren’t at fault on 90% of NHL goals scored. And I didn’t see an athletic or determined play by Lehner on the 2nd one either. I saw a fairly innocuous shot from a side angle that is almost impossible to score from being converted by Lehner into a great scoring chance by Lehner poorly misplaying it and depositing a fat rebound into the doorstep. I don’t dispute that Lehner fought like crazy for his team and didn’t get nearly enough support, either is his own end or on offense. But he freezes up in crunch time. He does not close out games. He gives up soft goals in third periods and is helpless in OT and the SO. And his teammates know it, which is why they play like they expect to lose close games. So they do.

I’m with We’ve on this. Trading Kane because they are committed to KO and might have to pay Reino would be insane. Overall their contract situation isn’t that bad and certainly not bad enough so that they can’t pay Kane. Moulson, Bogo and Gorges will be gone in the next couple of years and Reino may not even be a keeper, let alone an expensive piece. They are certainly stuck with KO, but they can probably find takers for ROR and Risto if they decide to move on from either of them. The real questions remain whether Kane wants to stay and whether he’ll get into more trouble once he gets a long-term contract. As dudacek says — this is a tricky one for JBott.

I thought both of the goals Lehner gave up in the third were terrible. Was there any doubt that he was going to choke in the third period of a tied game? The Sabres have a ton of issues, but it starts with goaltending IMHO. If Ullmark has a good first half, they should see if he can carry the mail after New Year’s. Lehner is not the guy.

I'm in the "McD must think Peterman gives them a better shot for the rest of this season than TT" camp. He has to know that there is no such thing as long-term job security in the NFL or in a Pegula sports franchise. It's a highly questionable decision, to be sure, but I do respect the fact that he's determined to take a shot at it his way. As for TT: I wouldn't agree that he's gotten a really fair shot mostly because he's had a terrible group of receivers for most of his time here, under both McD and Rex. They lost Harvin early on, Sammy was injured a lot (even in games he dressed for), Clay has also been injured a lot, they traded Sammy this year, Matthews has been hurt as well, etc.

That is a 9500 sf house! OSP's was 2900 sf.

Not sure which one you're looking at -- the first one on my list is a 2642 sf house for $1.325MM but I don't see the prop taxes listed. And I have the same opinion about $70K in taxes on a $1.3MM house!

Well, I looked at some semi-comparable house listings on that lake, and I still think $132K per year in property taxes is insane. These are lakefront homes of comparable size, albeit with less frontage. None of the homes lists for more than $1.3MM -- so even if OSP's house is worth $2MM, that is still a huge prop tax bill relative to prop value. https://www.fingerlakespremierproperties.com/real-estate/canandaigua-lake

Sure feels like the wheels are coming off.

$132K per year in property taxes for a 2900 sf house?

I tell ya, if you're the type to believe in sports franchise curses, our teams are really living through them right now. OSP's cheapness plus the tank and Ralph's cheapness and mercurial temper have gotten the hockey and football goods well and truly PO'd. There might be a bit of light at the end of the tunnel, but there might not.

Who was it that predicted the Buffalo trifecta? Yeeeeeeeesssshhh. This defense is terrible.

I’m going to say there is NFW that Reino is traded before next summer and even next summer is only about 10% likely. And I’m not much of a Reino fan.

I’m officially done with Lehner. I know he made some nice saves, but the GWG, like many others he’s given up this year, was simply unacceptable. A legit NHL starter cannot give that goal up in the 3rd period of a tie game. The team must have zero confidence in him, and rightly so. I’m pretty much certain that he’s gone after this year, and that this will be another lost year. I also think that if the Sabres had too-10 goaltending they’d be in the playoff hunt.

I was making fun of myself you hoser.

Dude.

Dwelltankitis: an inability to GTFO the tank and what a stupid freaking plan it was and stop already bringing it up every time the Sabres lose because it's gonna make Liger go off the rails again.

The delusion is strong in this one.