dudacek

Well, the unsaid point was obviously “of suitable value.” I thought you were commenting on the spirit of the Tweet, not his poor choice of words. Of course they have assets. He’s Sam Bennett.

(Example only) The asking price includes a left-handed defenceman with NHL experience. The Canucks aren't offering Hughes or Edler. The Flames don't want Juolevi or Benn. Moving on.

I believe they are supposed to start this weekend. 32-game season against only Syracuse, Utica and Cleveland.

Who would you rather have? Jeff Skinner at $9 million a season for eight years, or Thompson, Miller and Ryan Johnson? Not even close, IMO.

I think I'm becoming exhausted by the "regulation wins" and the "Deluca .500" and the "underlying stats" discussions. I'm not dismissing their worth and I am certainly guilty of indulging in them myself. But all I really want to care about is goals for, goals against, exciting plays, and where we stand in the playoff race. That's actually what matters. I want to be happy when we pull out a 4-3 win or that Victor Olofsson is putting up a point-a-game, or that Risto destroyed some guy who ran at him in the corner, or that we moved ahead of the Devils in the playoff race. I don't know if these things make this place happy. It feels like they don't.

This.

I've always wanted to be a fly on the wall for these kind of conversations and wonder about the accountability. Was there a scout advocating for Point? Was there another cutting him down? Where are those scouts now?

I think people are so mad at Kruger they ignore how poor Skinner has been: a one-way goal scorer who can't score and is apparently useless without one of the best players in the world propping him up. And we've given that guy 11 per cent of our cap. A $9 million hockey player should be able to score 30 goals no matter who he's with. A $6 million player should be able to score 20.

Are you sure? This thread hurts more.

Couldn't disagree more. Jeff Skinner scored 36 goals in his first 57 games as a Sabre. That's not who he is, no matter who he plays with, yet people believe it's coming back as soon as he plays with Jack. He scored 17 in the 72 games before that and 18 in the 94 games since. Skinner was a one-dimensional 30-goal scorer who got paid like an elite winger. We gave Alex Mogilny money to Donald Audette and we will be wearing that for 6 more years.

Serious questions need to be asked about why the weekend games were allowed to happen.

Deals like that don't happen anywhere without the owner's stamp of approval. It was reported Botterill had a distaste for long-term deals and was against the Eichel deal, but I've never seen anything specific about his feelings on the Skinner deal.

I expected it to be bad but decided to give it a shot and was pleasantly surprised.

18 goals in his past 94 games. Anyone thinking this is part of the down cycle of a streaky scorer needs to reassess what that means.

I highly doubt that any other team was prepared to offer $9 million for Jeff Skinner. If that was the choice, the correct response was nothing. Botterill and Pegula got bent over and pandered their way into perhaps the worst decision this franchise has made in years. Yes, worse than Nylander, or Leino, or even trading Ryan O'Reilly. 18 goals in his last 94 games. seven more years at $9 million. My god.

Panic? I did not expect the Sabres to end up in the playoffs. I did expect them to be in the race. So far, they are pretty much exactly that. I also expected this to be the best Sabre team in a long time. They might be that too, and that is the double-edged sword that has made this place so raw. I don't think this particular group of players, coaches and managers is broken — hell, after 10 games they look decidedly average. But what is broken is the franchise's relationship with its fanbase. Expecting .500 hockey to heal that is like expecting to repair 10 years of cheating, lying and verbal abuse with a bouquet of flowers and two weeks of taking out the garbage and driving little Billy to soccer practice.

Jeff Skinner scored 36 goals in his first 57 games as a Sabre. He scored 17 in the 72 games before that and 18 in the 94 games since.

He's tried that without scoring multiple times in the current homestand.

I remember the Ryan Miller decent/elite arguments from 10 years ago. When he was traded some of us said Sabre fans have been spoiled for nearly 20 years and we are about to find out how much. Those words have certainly stood the test of time.

My impression is Bennett is a slightly more talented, slightly more edgy version of Zemgus

Irwin’s debut surprised the heck out of me. His past two games have not. I hope a lesson was learned by the coaching staff that our starting six is far better than Irwin, and the next time someone falters, it would be a good idea to give someone else (Borgen) a chance.

I think the past two games showed how much we need Sam.

Well-deserved loss. Special teams were good, but 5-on-5 was terrible.

He is not a good human being.

He and Lazar been among the few bright spots IMO The goal is to win hockey games. Eichel and Dahlin were never generational in the real sense of the term. It means clearly the best in the world over an extended period, doing things others don’t do. There’s been maybe 10 of them ever.