nfreeman

Screw you and your fake clock play, Belichick!

What a great start. The club seats have space heaters — that’s the red glow under the overhang. @PASabreFan reports that TP diverted power from local hospitals and orphanages. JA looks like a force of nature.

If a private equity firm buys into a sports franchise -- or anything else, for that matter -- as a 20% to 30% owner, it doesn't just sit quietly in the corner. It has rights and plenty of input into operations. This would absolutely be a major change to the organization. In many, if not most, cases the deal for the minority stake will include terms for a potential purchase of the whole thing. It's at least 50/50 that the buyer would end up being the new owner of the team within a few years. And they will have zero interest in funding $10MM per year in operating losses. Don't kid yourself.

Well, the Bills were up by 5 in the 4th quarter had the ball at about their own 25 and JA threw a bad pass that easily could've been a pick-6, and we got very lucky that the Pats' DB dropped it. JA then put together 2 great scoring drives that included 2 4th-down conversions to put the game away. But the game could've gone either way if those plays hadn't gone the Bills' way. YMMV, of course.

I am deeply worried about this game. The Bills lost one to the Pats — in bad weather, which hurts the bills — and needed a superhuman 4th quarter from JA to win the 2nd game. If the Bills squander their first-half possessions and don’t open up a lead, it’s anyone’s game.

These seem like the 2 most likely possibilities. I really hope it’s the latter, as there is a very high risk that the former will illuminate for many here the old saying about being careful what you wish for. I think/am hoping that the Sabres’ value is sufficiently depressed right so as to make TP decide not to sell. As a related point, if Petey is right about this, he clearly becomes (if he’s not already) the Sabres media guy with the best sources, innit?

Well, the checks were sent out automatically, and there is zero info in that article as to whether TP or any of the other evil, horrible rich guys mentioned in t actually cashed their checks, donated them to charity, etc. So I don't think it makes sense to get the torches and pitchforks out just yet.

No -- he's also guilty of stiffing a bunch of creditors and alienating his teammates. There have been enough incidents such that the problem is almost certainly him, not the people he hangs out with. For that matter, I'm not aware of any reports of bad behavior by his friends that has dragged him down. I don't dispute that he's a talented hockey player.

Asplund’s position is far from secure IMHO. He’s been pretty stinky lately.

Both of these are obnoxious.

I only watched a few of Quinn's shifts before bailing on that debacle of a game vs Tampa, but he looked pretty fast to me.

Maybe he won't be the starter on day 1, but we all know what's going to happen.

No one who disagrees with you about a sports opinion needs to shut up about it.

Kane also stiffed a bunch of creditors and alienated his teammates on at least 2 teams. In SJ the team leaders went to the GM and pushed hard for Kane to be traded.

To those brave optimists/defenders of the franchise here: I appreciate the optimism and the esprit de corps. And I agree that this team can't hang with a TB team that brings its A game (and started Vasilefsky, btw). But I go back to what I said yesterday in another thread: the Sabres seem to come out every game now and get utterly dominated from the opening puck drop, find themselves down 2-0 or worse early on, and then maybe kinda climb back into it, or not. Something is wrong, and it's not just talent or covid/injury absences (which every team is dealing with, btw). There are at least 20 teams in the NHL that the Sabres should be able to mount a competitive effort against -- but here we are, having lost 10 out of 11 at home and 23 out of 28 overall. I like DG, but I gotta ask: does anyone think their record wouldn't be substantially better with Bruce Boudreau behind the bench?

You are ignoring his injury to the point that this post is effectively #hammymath. He has ZERO goals and 11 assists in 18 games since returning from injury. If he can't shoot his shot, he's not a goal-scorer, and he's not going to get paid like one. This is fair, but again, it depends on his injury. If it doesn't improve this season, and the medical diagnosis indicates that surgery is needed -- there's a huge risk that he never gets it back. In that situation he might decide that guaranteeing himself $11MM is prudent. OTOH, if he starts to feel like his old self in the last month of the season, and the docs say he doesn't need surgery, then I agree he wouldn't accept that deal.

I get both the skepticism and the positivity. I like a lot of what I see from a bunch of the kids, not to mention major improvements from guys like Skinner and KO. OTOH, it seems like for the last 2 months, every time I've gotten psyched to watch a Sabres game, they come out flat and are down 2-0 or worse in the 1st period. Just gimme a stretch of 7 games or so where they come out flying (like at the start of the season) from the start of the game, aren't besieged in their defensive zone and win a few, and I'll be fully back on team sunshine and kittens.

I agree with this generally but, as to the bolded -- KA isn't going to overpay VO in order to get to the cap floor. I would guess that unless KO's shoulder improves this season and he starts firing his primary weapon at his pre-injury level, he'll end up at around $3.75MM x 3 years.

Yeah baby! Yeah!

McKenzie only had 1 catch -- it was a critical 3rd down late in the game when the Bills were clinging to a 13-10 lead. JA scrambled and then got it to McKenzie for the first down in the red zone. The replay sure made it look like he stepped out of bounds.

Well, I haven’t said any of that. What I do think is that JA hasn’t had nearly as good a season as he had last year (despite numerous thrilling moments, especially in the 4th quarter vs NE a couple of weeks ago, and him being a good guy generally and easy to root for) that the team is built around him, and, most importantly, that they cannot beat a good team in the playoffs unless he has a very good to great game. If he plays a playoff game like he played today, or against Jacksonville, or Indy, or almost any of their losses this year — they’re done.

I generally agree, but I wouldn’t call Vegas a small market.

I think I'd rather play the Chargers than the Patriots, but it sure would be nice to knock the Patriots out of the playoffs.

Holy mackerel that was a great pass to Davis though.

I wonder how the refs-conspiracy believers feel about McKenzie stepping out of bounds on that critical 3rd down completion? @SwampD