TheAud

Or drink more. We win either way.

Since there is no TV coverage, we're relying on you Derrico to give us the scoop. No pressure but good luck, we're all counting on you. Awesome! Looks like we get to dress an extra defenseman tonight. Really, Sabres should get that in regular season games every time Bogo is in the line-up.

The finest feature of BlueCross Arena right there. I like looking at the river between periods.

In other words, the James Harrison School of Career Planning approach.

The article is very well written and had me riveted to each word. Kudo's to Tim Graham. The entire experience was harrowing of course, and the whole hospitalization part of it is key, but another thing that caught my attention was the neck injury aspect of it, and the story about the un-named Dr. doing adjustments on his neck that seemed to impact his entire body (and mind) in a significant way. That's wild stuff. The body is an amazingly complex thing.

I just don’t want to eat at a place called The Healthy Scratch no matter how pithy the play on words.

I have to say whenever I hear the name Rosen, Ie the goal scorer, I think of this:

He better be better than the Good Ennis. The uniform number and skating style is just causing me flashbacks to Ennis.

Yes

Dahlin at the point instead of Risto and that pass to Okposo is a goal

Hey, I worked hard this off-season. Focused on grammar and composition, read old copies of The Hockey News, and hung out with a bunch of folks from Canada. I'm ready.

It's pre-season...can't expect everyone to be in mid-season posting form yet.

At the time of the Lehner trade, he was about 24 years old and had an established NHL save % track record of about 91.5% over parts of three seasons. His Calder Cup winning 93.8% save % season in the AHL was already two years in the past. Right now, Sparks is about 25 years old, has just come off a Calder Cup winning 93.6% save % season in the AHL, and has only shown am 89.3% NHL save percentage when given 17 games in the '15-'16 season. So, assuming it's a late 1st round pick (like it was for Lehner) and most people hated the Lehner trade at the time and since, it seems like this would be a bad idea since Sparks resume is slightly weaker than Lehner's was at the time.

Seeing Larsson in the 3rd line center spot, even though I know it's just a pre-season split squad roster, still makes me somewhat dismayed. Looking forward to him being an ex-Sabre.

Back the OP...I can't believe no one has mentioned the NCAA in this discussion. I don't know about "caring about" or not, but if the topic is inequity between the institutions, coaches, and players of high level basketball and football programs then there is more meat on that bone than in talking about professionals.

I'm not making that argument at all. I don't think NHL players are being exploited. No coercion, no exploitation. My point was that even if you think they are being exploited for whatever reason, the level of angst should be just about nil. And we are agreeing on the silliness of calling it slavery or some similar term. I was imagining a level of angst similar to that of the baggage retrieval system at Heathrow. (A brilliant ironic statement by Monty Python that apparently only I find amusing based on my post earlier in this thread).

If Hank is extreme here, it's because he's extremely correct. Here's another group of people (like, maybe a million people) who actually deserve our concern, as opposed to well paid Western athletes voluntarily participating in their chosen profession: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xinjiang_reeducation_camp The key here is coercion. No one is coercing players to sign contracts with NHL teams or come from Russia and Europe to play in North America. Whereas the Filipino women in Hank's example and the Uyghur's in mine are in fact slaves or prisoners. To refer to an NHL player's circumstances with the same language is offensive.

Proper spelling from Ringo:

Trade his ass now

I 100% felt this way when I got divorced. Maybe Jack and Sam were secretly married? If so, at least there are no kids in the picture to complicate things, not counting Dahlin.

This past weekend in Corning saw David Grisman Dawg Trio at the Museum Auditorium. Danny Barnes on guitar and banjo and Sam Grisman on bass. If Bluegrass with some folk and a little jazz thrown in is your thing, they’re a great act to catch. Grisman remains stellar on the mandolin of course. i shook his hand after the show and his hands are tiny! Makes sense the way he plays that instrument.

I think that's somewhat reflective of the era...in 2005-2006 teams were not as focused on skill and speed - there was a lot more interest in a heavy line up. A guy like Thorburn (who in looking back looks a lot like Bailey if you threw in about 100 penalty minutes or so, and he scored a bit more at the AHL level than Bailey) attracted people whereas I seem to recall Pominville was waived and sent down prior to the lock-out season when the speed aspect of team building was at a low and I think he was viewed as sort of a softie. Nonetheless, the point is well taken.

I just spent a lot of time looking over prospects across the NHL...my takeaway is that every other team is in the same position the Sabres are in relative to vets and prospects of all ages. And people tend to be enamored with "their guys" as it justifies past decisions to draft, sign, and retain them. Hence the bar for claiming someone from waivers is not to be just a little better than the guy they will demote/release, they have to be viewed as noticeably better. I don't think Bailey has shown he's noticeably better or imbued with more potential than the marginal forwards on other team's rosters. So while Bailey certainly could get claimed on waivers, I would be a little surprised. I think he's a career AHL / occasional injury call-up sort of guy.

Ullmark is #11 goalie as well