DarthEbriate

It doesn't make any sense. Even if you waive him on 10/1 and he gets his higher salary while playing in Rochester, fine. But then you offer him $850k on July 1st as a quick win and everyone nods "yup, tweener, pencil him in for Rochester unless another team has a whole bunch of injuries in camp and claims him". Now, watch Adams bring back Dennis Gilbert to be the muscle on the blue line again at... 2x$1.5M or something.

On the other hand... they'll all be a year older? Pretty soon they won't be the youngest roster in the league. They'll be the third youngest.

Fun fact: Eichel and Reinhart are both essentially halfway through their playing careers.

Leenders was injured in game 1 of the semifinal series with Oshawa, and exited with the Bulldogs trailing 2-0. The Bulldogs rallied around their backup for the win and now lead the series 2 to 1. Per the Brantford Expositor https://www.brantfordexpositor.ca/sports/brantford-bulldogs-take-game-1-against-oshawa-generals "Brantford coach Jay McKee was coy on the injury. “He’s day to day,” McKee answered when asked about Leenders."

In 2011... There were only 6 Star Wars films, one Holiday Special, two Ewoks films (one with Wilford Brimley), thirteen episodes of Droids and 26 episodes of Ewoks cartoon series, one animated The Clone Wars film with three seasons of the series, and one Cartoon Network Genndy Tartakovksy Clone Wars vehicle.

We can play Imagination Questions. ++ I asked GMKA why he doesn't spend to the cap or allow his mentor (Ruff) to select his own staff. ++ I got a pogo stick!

Sheevy... you've lost another submarine tank season?

Honestly, I'm guessing it wouldn't compare to the $58M he's saved in spending under the cap since Adams took over. Always two there are: a master and an apprentice.

True. But I think even Kucherov at least goes and grabs someone to prevent them from doubling up on a teammate.

The real issue wasn't that Girgs ended up in a long-delayed "do you wanna go?" fight. It's that when Chafee was hit all 4 Lightning skaters were immediately going after Panthers, whomever they could find. It wasn't just Tuch or Krebs skating to the offender, it was everyone and it was instantaneous.

But was Pegula there to give them a rousing speech? Yup. That's already scheduled for April 2026. We did a thorough interviewing process, but we really like Appert and he provides consistency for our young players. I hope he explains how his previous statements that he is the one determining how much money is spent each season, and that if this was a "playoffs or bust" year, why he didn't take on any salary throughout the season in the short term, either to end the losing streak, or to you know... save his own job seeing as how it was playoffs or bust. Orrr --- how at the deadline he could've been the accomplice to take on cap hits to acquire additional draft collateral to package and help move up into the top 4, or whatever. With all these resources available and you in full control and playoffs or bust -- why do you take no action? Why was Reimer waived? Why does Power still not have a veteran partner? The softball questions.

With thunderous applause?

With Norris, you play him until he breaks and you hope to get at to 25-25-50 before he's lost to season-ending IR. In 2025-26, you call up Östlund. Rinse and repeat, but in 2026-27 you call up Helenius. And you hope that whoever fills in as his top-6C replacement is as good or better. You also hope he breaks before the trade deadline so that you can put him on LTIR, acquire someone with salary, and then maybe Norris is healthy and re-added for the playoffs. Note that this last item requires an owner willing to take on salary and is serious about winning, which... nevermind.

I believe there's a thread for that...

All the coaches are under contract for next season already, so probably the only way to retool the roster at this point is for the best players to start revolting. Tuch refuses to sign an extension; all the RFAs announce they don't want to be here, hunt for 1-year offer sheets and let it be known that if they're retained, they'll do the same thing again in 2026 until they reach UFA; and Dahlin requests a trade -- as a Sabres captain it's only right that he be moved to a contender. Then, sit out the season until he's moved, Peca-style.

And Adams and Appert in 2026-27.

He's not just a good goalie this year, he's one of the best goalies in the league the last two years. Minding the crease behind the Leafs and Panthers will do that to you, but make no mistake, Stolarz is good. Last year: 24-16-7-2 .925 sv% 2 SO This year: 32-20-8-3 .923 sv% 3 SO, make that 4 SO He's also riding a now 8-game winning streak.

Lose to Philly, then fire him sitting on 899.

The AHL line gets a couple good scoring chances. Östlund and Rosén both strong on the puck at times to maintain possession and make solid cross-ice passes that lead to shot attempts.

UPL's save on the replay -- the puck was going wide. It was all Luukkonen's plan. He slid past the side of the net, thereby freaking out Domi's vision -- Domi tried to go shortside, but because UPL was outside the net, the shortside was wide. Brilliant!

And it stinks he's been through so many surgeries; the league is better with him in it. But he's been practicing and traveling with the team for 4 weeks, which means he's been capable of hockey-related activities for months. It's just such transparent circumventing of the cap. And the fix is so easy: either a) once designated LTIR, they cannot play until July 1st/start of next season or b) you cannot ice a playoff lineup that is not cap-compliant. If the Sabres were good, they could sit Power to bulk up all next regular season, and Norris too. Then just unleash them and their $16M in salary at playoff time (after a conditioning stint, naturally).

Top 6 RW for every team currently with 94+ points (to include MIN & OTT) TOR: Marner, Nylander TBL: Kucherov, Bjorkstrand (technically, Guentzel is playing RW for them on the Hagel-Cirelli line lately) FLA: Reinhart, Tkachuk OTT: Giroux, Batherson, Grieg WSH: Wilson, (Protas technically listed as LW), Beauvillier CAR: Svechnikov, Blake (Fast on IR for season) WPG: Perfetti, Vilardi, Iafallo (basically their only player listed as RW is Niederreiter) DAL: Rantanen, Dadonov COL: Necas, O'Connor MIN: Boldy, Zuccarello VGK: Stone, Smith LAK: Kempe, Laferriere EDM: Nugent-Hopkins, Arvidsson, Brown My thoughts on Tuch: RW3 on TOR, FLA RW2 on TBL, CAR, DAL, COL, LAK RW1 pick 'em depending on the line makeup: VGK (Stone old), MIN (Boldy still inconsistent) RW1 on EDM, WPG, OTT, WSH

Well, look at that! Colorado completes game #82 and Landeskog is good to go after multiple years on LTIR, just in time for game 1 of round 1. Funny how that timing magically works out.

I think they're probably happy with him. He's starting 65% d-zone faceoffs and has managed to be a +7 +/- for them and isn't much of a point producer. He's doing his job. But yeah, Zibanejad is a mess this year, and Fox has gone from consistent top-10 Norris votes to... not this year.

Even with a bad power play, the glaring number for NYR this season is the defense 2021-22 | 110 pts | GF 16th GA 2nd 2022-23| 107 pts| GF 12th GA 4th 2023-24| 114 pts | GF 7th GA 7th 2024-25| 83 pts | GF 12th GA 21st