LTS

still chuckling a few responses later... book me a seat on the charter.

Despite being called the armpit of America and all the other crap. There will still be Sabres season ticket holders who sell their tickets to Leafs fan. And that, my forum compatriots, is a real travesty. Imagine the joy of having the Leafs fans booing your player in his home rink loud enough to make a difference. Sigh.

It should be Arizona. Regier is there. You know he wants Roy back!

I feel like I had gone through this thread... but I can't recall us having a discussion on this. If the Sabres end up with 2 of the top 4 picks in the draft next year. Do they only use the highest of those picks and perhaps trade the other and get some immediate talent? I'm thinking that if I had 1/2 I would pick McDavid and then the sweepstakes for 2 would have to be awesome. There's little doubt the Sabres could get another team's first rounder as well as a couple of established roster players that would boost them up quickly. I know it's easy to say they could have McDavid and Eichel.. but do they need both?

Yea.. I was backing out of my driveway when I heard it on the radio. I shut the radio off. He objects to being called the voice of the Sabres as he believes that is reserved for Ted Darling. But ######.. he's voice 1a then. Get well RJ.. having you around to call even 1 game will make the season that much better.

Or is it they want to keep Hodgson and talk up Ennis hoping to deal him? Ennis needs a contract. Are they trying to move Hodgson to save money on signing Ennis (no, they don't NEED to do it, but are they trying to keep a low payroll this year) Would they move Hodgson because he's on a contract that they don't like and wasn't signed by Murray. All real possibilities.

After the insanity today it's amazing to think that the Islanders big moves amounted to the signing of TJ Brennan, Cory Conacher, and Chad Johnson. I'm beginning to wonder if there is a chemical leak on Long Island. They might be in a better position to hit rock bottom than the Sabres. One could only imagine the Sabres and Islanders finishing 29 and 30. That would be beyond ridiculous even if the Sabres DIDN'T win the lottery. Oi.

Yea. Although people will point to him being from here so that adds to it. They'll point to Gorges being linked to Gionta and discount his signing as well. I realize Moulson has family from the "area" but he wanted to come back here. So, I think between ALL of those we should be able to put it to bed.

Yup! Very nice.

Clearly every FA hates coming to Buffalo! He makes a huge statement. He's here for part of the year. Gets traded away and CHOOSES to come back to a team in the position of Buffalo. Huge... huge signing. Loving it!

Agreed. However 3 bodies are still 3 bodies and that isn't always easy to replace. So, seeing the rest of the signings for Dallas at this point you think that Spezza will be enticed to sign. However, if they are in the playoff hunt or at/near the top he's going to ride his contract to UFA status.

The Sabres can aim for the playoffs. they are going to fall short, have a shot a the top pick and still get the second pick overall from the Islanders (if they don't win it). So.. it's good! They replaced most of Ehrhoff's salary with this signing as well. Love the trade. a 2nd in 2016 for him? Awesome!

So far Dallas has really upped their team for this coming season. The Blues/Stars battle is going to be nice. Lots of entertaining signings. SportsNet tried really hard to get jgorges to slam Buffalo. So much so that they slammed Buffalo. It was pathetic.. And LeBrun just announced Gionta to BUFFALO!

The biggest problem I see with the Spezza trade is that he's a UFA next season. It's not much for him to accept the trade and hit play in that lineup and then hit the market next year. So, the Stars might only have him for 1 season. If they can lock him up then I think they'll be okay.

The KHL has some impressive training room space judging by those pictures. In all seriousness.. he's working hard. It can't be a bad thing. In even more seriousness I wish I could spend my days doing that.

Not many people can fit in his locker.

Dang.. not being much of a football fan I never really heard him give an interview. However, I do picture it being like Brett Favre smacking the ass of the defensive player who just crushed him into the turf. I always like that about Favre. Kind of an on the field, in the moment, display of appreciation on how the game should be played.

Meh. Just passing through... :) Enjoy!

Just make it a Sabres sweater with a "C" on it. Those are changed constantly.

The Stars know that it's not the right Karlsson right? I wouldn't give up that much for Spezza. Of course what do I know.

This is like my comment in the FA Frenzy thread. Most of the time you can't play into what any of them say. It's all hedged comments that can be spun any way they would like depending on what happens. What I would like to see is someone who isn't polished and just appreciates the game like a fan would. I'd love to see an athlete show real enthusiasm. I know it's bred out of them, but just once wouldn't it be cool to see someone say. "Man, this game was intense tonight. We had people slamming each other all over the place. Did you see the hit that Johnny X (opponent) laid on our guy? That is what the game is all about. Of course Joey Y (teammate) was all over the place tonight as well. That shot, in the third, was insane!" I mean.. it would be cool, right?

It's fairly safe to say that a solid portion of "news" that is "reported" is all hedged language. Our society has become so addicted to "breaking" news that people who run news operations feel like they have to put out anything just to seem relevant. This is why I don't get caught up in any of it. it's either some guy throwing stuff at the wall to see if he can salvage his career or it's another guy reporting the obvious. Throw in the guy who is the tool of an organization's brass (as in, hey, float unnamed sources saying this so we can see who responds) and you have it covered. There are only a few guys worth following at this point. Even they join the mass speculation ranks and play the games but at least they also get some real material once in awhile.

White's article is pretty poorly done in my opinion. It seems like he just wants to whine (which he does well) about Murray not wanting to be handcuffed by the specter of the recapture penalty. He then cites no credible evidence. He points to the likelihood the cap will be higher (duh) in the future. He neglects to think about the Sabres needing every last dollar to hang onto their budding young talent. So, the $10M hit will be huge at that point. A one year $10M hit is a Jonathan Toews salary you can't offer. He also uses Luongo as supporting evidence of a team willing to accept the recapture hit. Of course there are a few problems there. First, Vancouver is on the decline. The Sabres are not. Second, Luongo was traded by the FORMER GM. He might want to ask Benning how he feels having that potential $8.5M cap hit hanging over his head right now. White also mentions that Murray might not be GM in 7 years. That's true.. but he just made a decision with the presumption that he's planning on being here to deal with that scenario. This is far better than having your GM believe he needs to make wholesale changes to his team now to save his job. Short term decisions that lack long-term vision almost always are the path to failure. Bottom line, a trade would have helped Buffalo but the risk of not signing a top star player later would be huge. Sure he didn't want to be here. Murray let him go. It's not full of malice like people want. Murray is to the point. I doubt he cares that Ehrhoff didn't want to be here other than the fact that it was a skilled player that he now doesn't have going forward.

JJFIVEOH - I am quoting you here because it underscores my biggest problem with this forum. You are not the only guilty person of course. That said, it's the escalating snark of this board that really starts to turn me off. The same people seem to pop up in thread after thread battling each other over petty crap. It gets tiring. The name calling, the lame responses, THOSE add no value to the conversation. In fact, when a response is directed at only one person and doesn't really deal with anything I think it's safe to say you probably should either PM it or just let it go. The self-acclaimed thread police are a bit over the top (as are the grammar police). A thread like this goes a long way to promoting healthy discussion (mostly) about how people feel about the topic. Posting in each thread that it's duplicitous and unnecessary is ridiculous. Same with the grammar. People generally type fast on here (or on a mobile device) and while you may not like it, mistakes will happen. Let it go. I'd love to see people try to take an approach to further conversation rather than shut it down. If a group is engaging a conversation on a topic or a variation of the topic and you've clearly stated elsewhere your opinions on that topic there is very little need to jump in and attempt to stifle the conversation. Let the people who disagree with you continue to discuss. If you are interested in what they have to say you might learn something new. If you completely disagree with them and you couldn't change their mind before why bother doing it again? Overall this is a great forum but far too often I feel as though people think there are some kind of faux achievements to be had by taking certain actions. The "Fixed that for you" achievement does not exist. I assume the purpose of everyone here is to discuss hockey and specifically the Sabres. I assume that everyone here wants to have their opinions considered. I would think that everyone would realize that taking approaches that work against those goals would be counterproductive. We are all guilty of going over the top at times. Some of the people on this board get there faster than others. Finally, be aware of how you are perceived. If you are perceived as commonly being a snark-fu master then you should realize that your actual harmless joke might not be taken the way it was intended.

A few thoughts on this.. 1. It's totally accurate that having him is not going to improve the team. They are going to be brutal and everyone knows it. The hope is that the youth plays better than expected. 2. Ehrhoff had a bad contract. It's a factor, no matter what. 3. He didn't want to be here. He's a veteran. The Sabres win points by releasing a player to pursue his dream. Everyone knows Ehrhoff was brought in to be one of the pieces to put the old core (remember them?) over the top. It didn't happen. Let him go. 4. He's one less contract on the books. 5. The Sabres could be looking to help out a few teams near the cap limit who need space to sign two superstar players to $11MM contracts. What's the play here? Think about Stafford and a couple of second round picks for Sharp, Oduya, and Chicago's 1st in 2015? Perhaps we toss in another defense to make it work? The Hawks remove $3.3MM next year and go from $5.8MM to $4MM on Stafford who is then off the books the following year freeing up space for the Hawks to sign their top players? I love speculating of course.