Brawndo

The Thompson Line maintained puck possession against the Barkov Line that whole shift, that’s a good effort *****

Nice d by Power

A few things. Tom Golisano has repeatedly said the Sabres were not for sale when Pegula approached him about purchasing them. It is also well documented that there is a non relocation clause contained in the sale contract. Tim Graham was the reporter who had the best sources during the Bills Sale Process, reported that any potential buyer who was interested in moving the franchise out of WNY was politely told that was not going to happen. Tom Golisano was asked about his interest purchasing the Bills and his response was I will step in if was no other option to keep the team in Buffalo, the very reason he purchased the Sabres in the first place. There have been multiple articles on how there is little to no benefit to public funding of sports stadiums to taxpayers. This is a necessary evil for small markets if they want pro sports franchises. That being said let’s not micturate on taxpayers leg and tell them it’s raining. Although I do fully expect the building of a smaller version of Patriots Place on the site of the current ECC South Campus, let’s be real. The current stadium opened 50 years ago and there has been almost zero development in the surrounding area. In terms of the team being young as a reason for not spending more towards the cap, they were even younger after the 2022-23 season when the missed the playoffs by one point. Since then there two full off-seasons when they have not spend anywhere near the cap. Expected Buffalo, Matthew Fairburn from the Athletic and Joe Marino have all put together realistic contracts for the Sabres pending RFAs this summer, which would leave them ample cap space moving forward. This doesn’t even include the possibility of the cap rising even more than 4 million next season. Besides the most competitive teams in the league are very creative and have little trouble managing the salary cap.

It wouldn’t surprise me if the NHL announces expansion to Atlanta and Houston/Phoenix by June.

That’s three

Quinn eng

That works

No for all the boneheaded plays he has made.

Staple Quinn to the bench for the rest of the game

*****

Dammit

TAGE X 2

Sigh

TAGE

Siri play Song 2 by Blur

They are actually updated

At His Preseason Press Conference Gary Bettman said he would like to be able to announce a new CBA at the Stanley Cup Final in June which would be 15 months before the current agreement expires. The final year season of the agreement calls for the salary cap to rise to approximately 92 million, Elliotte Friedman mentioned one of the sweeteners that might get the deal done faster with the NHLPA is cancelling the final year of the year of the current CBA and allowing the cap to increase more than the current projection of 92 million. Ryan Kennedy mentioned a suggestion that has been floated is allowing players drafted from the CHL to be eligible for the AHL at age 19. The NHL and CHL extended their agreement during Covid, but there will be pressure on the CHL to allow the change given the pending NCAA-CHL Player Agreement. Finally Pierre LeBrun mentioned there a push to allow NHL Teams to have a third goalie who would be able to be assigned to the AHL without clearing waivers. I doubt a guaranteed playoff berth at least once every 6 years for a certain team located in WNY would be on the table but we can dream. What other changes would you like to see made to the next CBA?

How much cap space in Buffalo?

Others have mentioned this, McLeod moving to the 2C and Cozens moving to wing for a couple games might be worth a try. I would go with Peterka-Tage-Tuch Benson/Kulich-McLeod-Cozens Zucker-Krebs-Greenway NAK-Lafferty-Malenstyn Sit Quinn for awhile, if Cozens doesn’t improve he sits

After the Columbus Game, this is nice to read

Closer than it should have been, but still a great win