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- They're going to have an entire season under stable coaching staff and a stable front office. - They're going to go into opening night with a pretty good idea of what the roster will look like all year. - While they did have Miller, they also finished the season with their 6th and 7th string goaltenders. - They'll have at least a couple of at least bigger name UFA's on board. Maybe a big name or two via trades. - The Rangers, Flyers and Penguins won't be the same teams next year. The conference is weak. - Some of the Sabres recent top picks are bound to be in the lineup to compliment The UFA signings. It's not entirely impossible to think this team might have some moderate success next year.

Get back to me in 9 months when the Sabres don't finish in last.

2nd pick getting $4 mil? :huh: McBain here for another year? :huh: I've grown accustomed to your obsession with disagreeing with me. As much as this place has talked about spending to get to the cap floor, I can't help but think you're purposely going out of your way to discredit my point. I hope I'm wrong.

Because they are comparable. I have given you about as much information as you need to prove so. How do you figure the Sabres aren't in the same situation? This forum has been talking about spending money to get to the cap floor for months now. They have to come up with $18 mil in salaries with only one significant contract to sign in the offseason (Ennis). I'm sorry you can't see the similarities.

The cap floor in 2011-12 was $48 million. The Panthers' payroll was $52 million. They were over by $4mil partially because they took on Campbell's salary as a favor to the Hawks. (Tallon has done significant business with Chicago since his departure). Am I missing something?

Of course not, that couldn't try to be bad. During that offseason the roster was cut big time. The turnaround from 2010-11 to 2011-12 was insane. During the offseason Tallon was in almost the exact same situation as the Sabres are now, a payroll well below the cap floor which meant he had to spend money. You can't try to be bad when you're forced to spend money which puts you in the position to not be the worst team in the league, just because you had to spend money. Which circles back around to my point, it's easier to tank the year you tear your team apart. It's not so easy the following year when you have to spend money. This year for the Sabres will be the Panthers division winning year. They wanted to do bad, but they had to spend money.

Tallon picked up Campbell to help the Hawks with cap trouble, Campbell was in decline the Hawks were playing him less and less. Bergenheim up to that point was a mediocre 3rd liner. Theodore was an aging one-hit wonder. You can look withi hindsight all you want, at the time that is the way it was viewed. Jovanovski, I shouldn't need to explain that one.

Actually, they were. They had just drafted Bjugstad, Huberdeau, Trochek, Gudbranson, Howden and Petrovic over two drafts. They weren't ready and Tallon wasn't going to bring them up too early. Why do you think they overpaid for mediocre players? As much as they overpaid they were still in the bottom half of the league in payroll. The Sabres' future and the Panthers' present are irrelevant to my point.

2011-12 the Panthers were supposed to tank as well. It's a lot easier to tank the year you trade away the entire team. It's not so easy to tank the year you have to sign UFA's and/or trade for players to get to the cap floor. The Panthers won the division that year (albeit a weak division) and came within an overtime of moving on to the 2nd round. Even management said they were surprised. There's going to be a handful of players on this roster this year that have some kind of talent, more than the Sabres had last year. Don't be surprised if they don't finish dead last like you're all hoping.

Interesting, thanks.

Ott still managed to be 5th in goals on the team even though he was traded. He was only 14 hits out of the team lead. 2nd best in faceoffs. Not to mention all I hear on here is 'grit this, grit that, grit, grit, grit, grit grit...........'. Ott has more of it than anybody on the team. Most importantly, he has work ethic. THAT is tougher to come by in this league than talent. If anything, that is the most important thing to teach young players. When this team gets to the point of having 3 lines of talent exceeding Ott's, then this becomes an issue. Trust me, that won't happen for a while.

Thank you, that makes sense now. All the Canadia stuff doesn't do anything for me down here. But I was thinking the SN stood for NBC(SN) so SN1 didn't make much sense. Basically the Sabres have zero nationally (US) televised games this year.

19 pairs of back-to-backs. Isn't that on par with the two season the Sabres lead the league in that department?

As far as networks go, what is SN1 and City TV?

George Richards ‏@GeorgeRichards 4m Gerard Gallant is the 13th coach in #FlaPanthers history. Official announcement coming soon...

Came down to two coaches. I wonder if this is because Crawford just announced he will not coach in the NHL this year, or if it's just coincidence. George Richards ‏@GeorgeRichards 5m #FlaPanthers to name their head coach sometime today.

Yes he did. Jacob Markstrom was his backup. http://www.examiner.com/article/jhonas-enroth-leads-team-sweden-to-gold-iihf-world-championship

Very interesting, thanks. Seems to be quite an influx of Swedish goaltenders over the last several years.

I've heard Murray mention big goalies once in my life. He also said yesterday that he likes athletic goalies. That could also be twisted into implying that he likes goaltenders just like Enroth. I think people over-analyze what is said.

It's more than marriage will get ya.

LMAO!!! Nobody wants to coach Cindy.

Should be an interesting couple of weeks.

Yes I would. Not everybody on the team needs to be 6'4" 240#. I thought Murray spoke pretty highly of Ennis today. I'm just saying you can only tear apart a team so much. I can't hold this past season against Hodgson, or any other Sabre for that matter. What he brings to the team couldn't have been brought with what surrounded him. Nine 1st rounders in four years. That's enough, let's get to the draft and get this show on the road!

Good point. I wouldn't trade any of those for a 1st rounder. Especially in this draft. You can only decimate a team so much. At some point you just gotta say enough is enough. TWENTY top two round picks in FOUR years as of right now. Really.............. enough is enough.