JJFIVEOH

Bryzgalov said he wanted to come back.

Sure, but 68 of those games were with goaltenders with significant (150+ games played) experience. The team won 2 of the 14 games with the other goaltenders that had little to no experience.

That's pretty much it!

Keeping my Enroth bias out of this, unless Jhonas doesn't want to come back I can't see any possible reason why he wouldn't be serious consideration for Murray. It's not like it would be a long term commitment, it's not like it would cost over $2mil/yr. He's definitely more qualified than Zatkoff is, certainly more than Montoya. With all the injuries the Sabres have had over the last couple of years with goaltenders, and having to move way down the depth charts to find somebody to play, this has the potential to have serious consequences on the upcoming season.

The Sabres were on a 94 point 82 game pace, the last 41 games last season. Theoretically, last year's team was a bubble team. The first half of the year, everybody was too busy introducing themselves to each other.

Never dawned on me, one of those two won't be protected in the expansion draft. Luongo only has a NTC clause.

They got good, didn't they? :D

I heard White(?) say that on WGR a couple hours ago, verbatim, without citing his source.

I'm gonna leave that one alone.

Understandable.

I love having Lehner. I like his attitude and I like his style. But not addressing the backup situation with somebody that can start if needed could turn out to be a serious situation. If he gets hurt again, of management finds they don't like his temperament, this team is in for trouble no matter what they've done to improve the rest of the roster.

My god, bring in Schopp and Bulldog, anything is better than this!! Did I really say that?

Good question. All I can think of is he probably didn't find that spot anywhere and he probably wanted some stability. He figures he can probably get 35 games a year if Lou stays healthy. Might also be insurance if FL ever finds a way to deal him in the future with his long contract. They're pretty weak right now for goaltending prospects. Plus, there's very little media scrutiny down here, something he might welcome after being in Toronto. Don't quote me on this, but he might also live here in the offseason.

Good move for FL taking Reimer. Lou is still playing top notch hockey, but I don't think they want him playing as much if they want to make a run in the playoffs. Reimer can fill that role and be a starter if Lou gets hurt. I think Reimer is highly underrated.

Any other streaming audio/video worth listening to? I'm becoming nauseated listening to WGR.

He's too small to play in the NHL.

Ekblad is a better defenseman than Myers ever was, or ever will be. Smart deal.

Goaltender

At the time of their signings/acquisitions, most of those D-men were NHL caliber D-men. If they weren't playing for the Sabres, they would have been playing for somebody else. You can't criticize Bogosian because he came back from an extended injury, then jumped into a lineup with a new coach and linemates he'd never spent much time with. Once those became irrelevant factors, Bogo arguably had a great final 20-30 games. In this day and age with highly paid top line forwards and top pairing D-men, no team can afford your ideal D-men all the way down to the bottom pairing. Nobody. There isn't a single team in the league that has an ideal 3/4 D pairing much less ad 5/6 pairing. Fans today have an overinflated expectancy of what should be a quality NHL defenseman. I can't disagree with your advanced stats, simply because you haven't posted any (either that or I missed them) so I'll just have to take your word for it because I'm not going to search for them. ;)

Goligoski is also 31 years old.

That feeling you get after you just finished episode 6 of the killer new series 'Vinyl' only to find out 10 minutes ago that it was canceled after one season.

I know he hasn't. But he has expressed his desire to acquire a #1 QB type D-man. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I didn't even bother with WGR after the trade. In one hour they must have had 50 minutes worth of commercials. Between the ads and PHam calling fans who prefer physical defensemen "knuckledraggers", I shut it off and called it a day.

Thanks. Not sure if he can be that #1 QB type that Murray has been talking about, but he can certainly be a well rounded top 4 for a bunch of years.