Drunkard

It's not gutting the team. It's selling off expiring contracts that are only guaranteed to be on the team for another 2-3 weeks anyway. How is keeping those guys (who obviously aren't that good anyway or perhaps we wouldn't be in the position to be deadline sellers to begin with) to run out the clock on the season going to instill some expectation of winning? It's not.

There's a big difference between mini tanking and being a seller at the deadline. Thanks to league parity almost nobody is mathematically eliminated before the deadline but we should know in the weeks leading up to it if we've got a legitimate chance to make the playoffs or not. If we look to be on the outside looking in the smart move if to sell off expiring contracts like Kulikov, Franson, and Gionta. As Murray proved with Moulson and McMormick shipping them off doesn't mean we can't bring them back next season when the games matter once again. In the grand scheme of things having Kulikov for an extra 2-3 weeks at the tail end of another lost season does nothing to affect the expectation of winning for the young players. If it does we have bigger problems.

I saw enough heroic races to 9th under Darcy to know this a mismanagement of assets. How many times were we encouraged by a strong finish to end the season only to see the team start the next season rudderless and struggling. Meaningless wins at the end of the season after we've been eliminated do nothing but give false hope to fans and a crappier draft pick. Sometimes you have to listen to Kenny Rogers and know when to fold 'em.

Not sure what you mean. Sammy Watkins, Robert Woods, and Marquise Goodwin have been the pillar of health in their careers so far. I know I confuse them with Brett Favre, Lou Gehrig, and Cal Ripken Jr all the time. Then we had the ace in the hole that is Iron Man Percy Harvin waiting in the wings as well. What more could you ask for?

I see the gray pit stains continue to grow like a malignant tumor. Maybe we should just admit defeat and change our primary color to gray so they can stop with that nonsense. Or would that make them change the pit stains to yellow just to ensure it looks stupid?

It is. I've watch about half of season 1 so far and really enjoy it. Goliath is another good one on Amazon. Billy Bob Thornton as kind of a less drunken bad santa who practices law instead of cracking safes and dealing with kids.

It completely depends on the number of words he uses to select our next top 10 pick in the draft. 3 words or less and he can continue to feed us dog for another half decade. ZFG

It doesn't seem like we have stopped tanking yet.

I was waiting for Lehner to give DB the throat cutting sign although I would have preferred him to just headbutt the guy and break his f'n nose. I can't stand DB and the sooner he is shown the door the better off the team will be.

Can we just let Lehner chew him up and spit him out?

Is Russ Brandon in net or is he over charging for nachos, beer, and hot dogs at one of the snack bars? Gouging drivers for parking? No, I bet he's one of the ushers that busts people for moving up a few rows even though the section is mostly vacant. He's definitely THAT guy.

https://youtu.be/S5_WCvJ_xoA

I do care about the team, just not nearly as much as I used to. Either way I'm glad I didn't waste my time tuning into this show. DB sucks and I'm sick of Murray at this point too. Unfortunately showing them both the door would lead to the brain trust of both Pegulas and Russ Brandon with all of their infinite hockey knowledge picking the next coach and GM.

Look like Mr. Zero Given is living up to his moniker. He seems to give zero about putting a winning product on the ice. I'd be in favor of Pegula showing them both the door but that would probably just lead to Russ Brandon picking the next coach and GM (likely in that order too rather than letting the new GM pick the coach the way most well run organizations do it).

Just speculation I imagine. After Russ stuck his nose in last time by telling Rex about how much Pegula likes red wine, it was just a jab about Russ possibly meddling again into football matters.

Sign me up for that. I'd rather have Teds Nolans back with his non-system of hard work and compete over the dump/chip and chase trap nonsense with minimal forechecking that seems to be his MO.

So who died and made you grand poobah of who can post in what threads? I think I missed the vote that put you in charge.

So hate is ok but apathy isn't? Good to know. You should really send a memo out that outlines what feelings are ok to have for this team and which ones aren't allowed.

Same here. In years past I'd be going to this game and chugging beers and pissing off the people of Raleigh. I haven't had Center Ice for a few years now and even though this game will be on tv, I still may not even watch it. I used to feel anger and frustration with all the losses, but that's been replaced by apathy.

I'm starting the hit my breaking point with Buffalo sports and the Pegulas in general. It might be time to step away for a bit, although most of my posting is done here at work and I already find myself paying less and less attention while I'm at home. I skipped the last 2 Bills games for the first time in like 10 years or more and I've watched fewer Sabres games this season than I did during the tank years. Something has gotta give.

Of course. That means improvement and it's a feather in the coaches cap, especially due to injuries and stuff. It means grinding these down actually works and there's no need to employ a more aggressive system. It also means we can expect to improve by 1 point in the standings each season and the team will be ready for playoff hockey when Eichel is 33, Reinhart is 34, O'Reilly is 38, Rick Jeanneret has been retired for 6 or 7 year and Gionta is collecting social security. #blueprint

Well, my faith in this franchise is now restored. One hapless Buffalo with idiots running the show. We should hire Arnold Schwarzenegger next. The hard work he put into moving to a new country, learning a foreign language, becoming a world renowned body builder and action movie star, before becoming the Governor of a state he can't even pronounce means he has the hardworking focus and character to master this whole football thing in no time, right? Plus, he used to be in charge of the entire universe so running a football team would have to be a complete cakewalk.

This exactly.

http://thehockeywriters.com/nhl-retained-salary-trades/ The 3rd bullet point in this article states that the retention can not be altered from year to year. I'm pretty sure that means if you retain 50% one season you have to retain 50% for all years remaining on the contract.

You can't just retain half of Kane's salary for this season. It you eat half of his remaining salary for this season, you have to eat the same amount for all of next season as well.