JJFIVEOH

There's a big difference between trolling and sarcasm. Not necessarily true. Eichel's birthday is in October. http://www.draftsite.com/nhl/rules/ Eligibility: Any North American player who turns 18 by September 15 and does not turn 20 by Decemeber 31 is eligible for the draft. Any non-North American player can be drafted at any age if they are at least 18 by September 15. If a player is 18, they must declare themselves eligible, but if a player turns 19 by September 15th, they are automatically eligible for selection in the draft.

Could this have anything to do with Murray giving Nolan a 3 year extension if he really had no intentions of keeping him around? http://espn.go.com/blog/nhl/post/_/id/35839/teams-can-seek-draft-pick-compensation-for-fired-coaches-gms-executives

Nah, never was a big fan of him. I really enjoyed Ferguson and Colbert. Letterman is going through the motions, Ferguson's replacement is just terrible and Fallon has yet to grow on me. Pretty much down to watching a few Netflix series. Curious to see how Colbert pans out on prime time.

You're bloody well right.

http://video.nhl.com/videocenter/console?id=810726

I was.................... until you made me watch Conan. :wallbash:

In a couple of years Murray should offer McDavid an insane amount of money as an RFA forcing the Oilers to match the offer and then have to trade half their team because they won't be able to afford everybody else.

So does this mean the Oilers just got their $4.7 million back from the Otters since they can't pay their loans back because they filed bankruptcy last week?

No doubt about that.

Well, at least now we know the lottery isn't fixed.

Sorry, I hate it as much as you do.

I don't think he had a chance to get used to the Stars' defense. :angel: Seriously though, he did manage to finish off nicely. 5GA in the last 4 games and ended with a higher save percentage than Lehtonen. Although that's not saying much and it was only 13 games (9 starts). Doesn't say much for your starting goaltender when your backup has 4 relief efforts after the trade deadline. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I read somewhere (may have been a Vancouver paper) that they're going to have a serious look at Markstrom next year. Not sure how that plays out for Miller. But he finished off the AHL season with a .933 save percentage in 31 games. (Can we please PLEASE get rid of the automatic merging of posts?!?!?! It serves absolutely no purpose on a forum like this.)

5, 7, 8, 14

Touché

.....................or maybe Lack's just the better goaltender.

Weave, how did a rooster manage to get on top of your cupboard?

You can stream it on NBC. http://stream.nbcsports.com/nhl/playoffs/?pid=17344&referrer=http://stream.nbcsports.com/liveextra/

Thanks, I hadn't checked that out yet.

Let's change the title to 'Unicorns and rainbows' and we can all sing 'Kumbaya'. :angel:

Is this thread not 'calm' and I missed it?

Not sure where to put this, so I'll put it here. I saved this Tweet to read later. https://twitter.com/wyshynski/status/588717041533620225?s=03 Only to find the link to this http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-puck-daddy/how-buffalo-s-connor-mcdavid-tank-killed-my-passion-for-sabres-hockey-145050744.html?soc_src=mediacontentstory&soc_trk=twnow reads: "Editor's note: A fan's guest column posted earlier Thursday has been removed from the Puck Daddy blog and Yahoo Sports. The column was a fan's view of the Buffalo Sabres' 2014-15 season. The author of the column engaged with other fans on social media upon publication. The author's social media activity is unacceptable and does not represent the views of Puck Daddy or Yahoo Sports." Anybody get a chance to read it before it was taken down?

I told you I agree that those who do not wish to be motivated, can't. This is professional hockey, if these guys can't be motivated, they wouldn't be in the locker room of a professional sports team. They would have failed years earlier. But your post contradicts itself, a coach can't be a motivator but he can be blamed for taking the motivation away by stifling them? I've got news for you, every single team in professional sports puts rookies and underperforming players in non-critical situations in games unless they deserve to be put in a more important role. This isn't just Nolan. Every single player on that team had an opportunity to be successful at one point or another this year. I'm not down on young people, please don't twist my words. But it's no big secret that they are treated differently than past generations as has been the case with almost every new generation. On the other hand, some people in the media have behind-the-scenes access that we don't. Many know players and coaches personally and have a better understanding of situations while we as Sabres fans only know what we watch on TV and have to take the word of biased BFLO media. I agree that there are also many in the national media whose idea of research is reading the roster the afternoon before a game and browsing the internet searching for buzz words and forum fodder.

No, I don't think it's a cop-out. It's an observation, I wouldn't post that if I didn't mean it.......... and I wouldn't post it as a means to avoid the discussion. Why would I spend all this time on these posts only to make stuff up? Nobody can force somebody else to care about something, but coaches, parents, mentors, counselors........... they all play a part in pushing them towards doing better. Some are better at it than others. If helping to motivate wasn't a factor in a head coach's responsibilities, nobody would ever talk about it. Attempting to motivate a player is a key factor in the success of a head coach. How is that an insult to younger people? Our youth, more than ever, has gotten to the point of needing positive reinforcement at all times in order to make themselves feel good. I'm not making this up, this is how society is today. "Good job Johnny, here's a trophy for tying your shoes. Good job, you're a superstar". I think now more than ever coaches need to be more motivational than situational. Nolan has been involved in youth hockey for many years. This wasn't by accident or coincidence. There are many young players on the Sabres, just because he didn't reach every single one of them doesn't mean he didn't have an impact on any of those guys. Girgensons, Ennis, Foligno, Ristolainen, Larsson and even Stewart to an extent all benefited this year. Just because Hodgson didn't pan out and Zadorov struggled late doesn't mean Nolan is to blame. Like you yourself said, these traits sometimes come out later than others. I have a hard time figuring out how people think Nolan wasn't beneficial to the young Sabres.

I think they're more common than we think. At least they exist on different scales. I don't know every single head coach's coaching style well enough to compare them all. I just think that Nolan receives undeserved criticism because he's not more of an X's and O's type coach. You may be right, but I know not all coaches are buying into this new-style of coaching. It's trending, that doesn't necessarily mean it works. Fair enough on your second paragraph, it would explain why views changed on Nolan and Stewart. I'd like to point out that using that logic leads to biased opinions since the support gets thrown in the direction of the currently employed Sabres. Not picking sides between informed Sabres fans vs. national media, but outside of this forum and BFLO in general there has been much more support for Nolan than not. That's my general observation listening to talk shows, reading articles and speaking with hockey friends I have in other cities. Some on here might call my observation biased because I'm a Nolan fan, so be it. ;)