mjd1001

Offseason but quickly approaching training camp. NOTHING going on. A wide ranging, vague topic which invites people to voice any kind of opinion on the team we want. We need some on-ice action really soon.

Cycling rules are something I will never understand. I ride a lot, but I'm a casual cycler. I have my 'comfort bike', ride on the side of the road or bike trail if available, I cruise along comfortably, 12-15mph at most. I do see alot of the people, often in groups, the cycle wearing the tight spandex, the bikes that cost a few thousand dollars, tires that are about 3/4 inch ride, and they like to go along at 20-25mph. That is fine. However... If I'm on the side of the road and you are passing me, how about passing me like a car does, give me a bit of room. They go by me so fast that if I made even the slightest move to the left we would collide. Also, they give no indication they are going by. Kinda rude/unsafe if you ask me. I did live on Cape Cod outside of Boston and it was totally different there. The post signs on the rail trails there asking people to say 'on your left' when you approach someone going slower, and almost all the time people do. They gave plenty of room when they pass. Even when not on the trail and you have those 'semi-pro' cyclers, I always found them much safer and much more courteous when I lived on the Cape. Here in WNY, and when I lived in Florida...totally different. very rude, very unsafe.

I don't really want Zegras unless you are just sending 'slightly better than garbage' back, which I don't think they will do. (Krebs, 2nd round pick, mid level prospect). To me there is no guarantee that Zegras will be that much better than Quinn, or Peterka, or even Benson. Maybe, maybe not. But if I don't know for sure (The Sabres DO know alot about them, not so much about Zegras), then I'm not moving one of them (or 2 of them, or a package including them) for Zegras. I mean he LOOKS talented and he may have as much or more raw talent as any of the Sabres youngsters....He has scored 21-22 goals per 82 games (pretty good for only going into his 5th year, but not great). But on the other hand, there are some people who say he skates hard all the time, yet I have seen clips where he just floats around, seemingly randomly, in is own end waiting near the blue-line for a breakout pass. I'm thinking again about it as I type this and am going back and forth. If the Sabres traded for him would I be excited? Sure. But if they gave up Quinn or Peterka, much less so.

Maybe he has taken a step back, but even if that is true, there still might be the reputation that is lingering that he hasn't...and of course once someone has the history of doing it at all, I would assume an potential candidates to come here might wonder if he will start again. So, maybe he has gotten better, but it might always be a lingering issue for some. I do almost totally agree with Terry hiring Kevin because he would be a 'yes man' of sort. He would not offend Terry, He would make him feel involved. I really believe that part to be true. Now that doesn't make me feel hopeless about the upcoming season. Other than the first 2 games against New Jersey in Europe, I'm looking forward to it. Even if Adams is a 'yes man', he still is more involved in the day-to-day than Terry so EVENTUALLY some good decisions will be made. Its just after all these years, I still Think Pegula is a bad owner, he is bad for the success of the teams he owns...his saving grace in football is when you buy enough lottery tickets, EVENTUALLY even a bad owner will win with a good QB.

I agree in principle, but I think Terry thinks he knows too much about hockey and wants too much input. There have been stories, even interviews how as Bills owner he will sit in on the meetings, interrupt coaches to ask questions, but I have never heard anything about him being involved in day to day decisions regarding roster construction or strategy. However, on the hockey side of things he has been involved in decisions (didn't he openly say he was behind the Leino and Erhoff signings? Much of what we hears from various sources is that Murray and Botts didn't like his direct involvement in hockey operations, or at least Terry's business people being involved in it? I think he has been a bit more 'hands off' with the Bills than the Sabres. That may in part be part of the reason for the Sabres bad decision making, and it also might impact who you are going to attract to come here and work under him on the Hockey side.

I kinda agree. Overall we can complain about the taxes and other costs in the area, but WNY has stabilized the population drop, some years and in some areas it actually grows. I looks like Syracuse is getting a TON of high tech money (Micron) and some of that may spill over a bit to the west with smaller related businesses (not a lot, but some I hope). Western NY/Buffalo has become, and is continuing to become a nice place to live for a lot of us. HOWEVER, Billionaire sports team owners (and aspiring owners) don't care at all about it being a 'nice place to live', or about how much us members of a message board love the team. Other areas are growing fast, MUCH faster (probably too fast in terms of them being a nice place to live), but with that really fast growth comes a lot of money to be made from owners of franchises. We can only hope any future owners of the team are involved in buying it because they were a fan of the actual team, because other than that, almost ANYONE who buys a team is going to buy it to simply be a pro team owner, or to 'join that exclusive club', and there really would be no reason for them to keep the team here compared to moving it to a market where they could print (even) more money and have the local government build them a brand new palace just to show up with the team. As far as the Bills go, they really should have done a much better job of reaching out to the GTA to try to get even 1-2% more of that are to be hard core bills fans, get even a few companies/corporations feel welcome in the stadium. It wasn't a mistake to TRY to reach out to Toronto a Decade or so ago, that is what they should have done, they just did a really REALLY bad job of doing it. The Sabres could and should be doing the same. Not with Toronto directly (the Leafs won't like that, there may be rules against it, AND you aren't going to change any Leafs fans to Sabres fans), but they can be doing a LOT more with Niagara Falls, St. Catherines, Welland, maybe even this side of Hamilton: Play a preseason game in Hamilton EVERY year and not against the Leafs (market it as an affordable way to see NHL players). Get Marty and Duff to do a remote or two across the border (they are both Canadiens, aren't they?) Make sure every Sabres game is available on TV to everyone across the border (maybe hard to do, but find a way to make it work). Have a 'Canada' night at the arena (free poutine sampls and nothing on the scoreboard but clips from Strange Brew and Kims Convenience). Stuff like that. I don't know how much can be done, but I don't really see them trying at all.

Krebs: 4 goals in 80 games last year Robertson: 14 goals in 56 games last year (20.5 goal pace) And its not like Krebs brings a TON of other stuff. Hes an average skater, not a big guy, for sure not a shut down center (he makes his share of mistakes in his own end). With everyone the Sabres signed, he is not NEEDED here for anything more than a 1 or 2 year deal to TRY to make the team. If he ends up getting paid more than the Robertson deal, that is a bad move by Adams (especially if it is more than a 1 year deal)

You are right about him pulling out the phone. That is exactly what the officer don't want, to have someone 'out of sight' behind tinted windows...or for them to be hidden enough behind tinted windows where all they can see is movement of the person being pulled over reaching for something..or pulling out something. The tinted windows make it worse because they have no idea if its a phone, a gun, a knife..etc. I do not blame the police at all for immediately demanding he roll down the window and being a bit upset when he doesn't do it. I'm guessing so many showed up because there are so many around the stadium, probably that many even on that street. If a stop occurs, these days a lot show up. I was in Lewiston for the Peach festival last weekend and a bunch of kids/guys were on motorcycles riding through town. A police suv decided to pull them over for a bunch of them running a stop sign. He pulled in front of them, and I swear within 30 seconds 4 others showed up and boxed the entire group in to make sure no one drove away. Especially when there is an event going on, there are usually a lot more officers in the area and they are very quick to respond.

I can honestly see both sides. They were very rough with him, it appears needlessly rough. Yet, I have always though that when a Police officer tells me something you do it right away. They want me to roll down the winder, I roll it down. From the Cops point of view..I don't care the color of your skin, I do not pull someone over and let them roll up windows tinted that dark where I can't see inside. The second they roll up tinted windows and I don't know what they are doing, I'm getting nervous. It only takes a second or two for someone to pull out a weapon, it happens.

A little more info (or at least another side of) the Tyreek Hill saga from yesterday... On Monday, the South Florida Police Benevolent Association defended the actions of the officers involved, highlighting that Hill was never placed under arrest. “Upon being stopped, Mr. Hill was not immediately cooperative with the officers on scene who, pursuant to policy and for their immediate safety, placed Mr. Hill in handcuffs,” Steadman Stahl, the organization’s president, said in a statement to CNN. “Mr. Hill, still uncooperative, refused to sit on the ground and was therefore redirected to the ground. Once the situation was sorted out within a few minutes, Mr. Hill was issued two traffic citations and was free to leave. “In this case, while we will wait for the investigation to run its course, based on what we know, we stand with the actions of our officers but look forward to further open communication moving forward,” Stahl added. Article here: https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/09/sport/tyreek-hill-detaining-drew-rosenhaus-dolphins-spt-intl/index.html Apparently, he was stopped for reckless driving and not wearing a seatbelt.

I'd pass, unless here is here as an insurance policy or a #7/8 guy. I didn't exactly analyze his play last year, but watching a lot of Leaf games when he was out there, he seemed like he was shot. Like, slow to move, slow to react, shouldn't be in the NHL level. Earlier in the year and in very small sample sizes, with low ice time and against 'lesser' lines on the other teams he played decent, but put him out there in any other circumstance and he looked like he was in slow motion.

We just saw the new Beetlejuice movie. I loved the original (probably have seen it 15-20 times over the years), love the characters, and after seeing some 'pretty good' reviews overall, couldn't wait to see it. I won't spoil anything or bring up anything specific, but I was really, really disappointed with it. Like it was a lot worse than I thought it could have been. Not even close to the charm of the first, and the characters? In the first I thought every character had a role in the movie, every character you loved or hated. In this one, 2/3s of everyone in the movie I could care less about. Not to make a cheesy macabre joke, but the 'bare bones' were here for a decent story, but it was no where close to being 'fleshed out', not even close. If anyone else saw It I'd like to hear opinions.

I don't see him having much more value now than taking the minimum deal and play "prove it" year to year in order to keep his spot in the NHL. Look at middle first round draft picks. SOME can still turn into good players, but when their production is as low as Krebs, by this point they get to the point of taking what they can get and proving it (Tyson Jost is a good example). At this point I'd like to see him sign a 1 year, MAYBE 2 year deal at the minimum. If he doesn't want that, then flip him for a 6th or 7th rounder.

The more I think about it, and the more I read some posts above, the more I think this team isn't going to have a dedicated 3rd or 4th line. I think Lindy is going to change up those guys so much that every week any of the bottom 6 can be playing with anyone else on the bottom six, getting 3rd line minutes one week and 4th line minutes the next. I even expect some of those guys to be playing Center one game, then on the wing the next. I really think its going to be a case of mix and match on a night to night basis. If a line works, you keep them together, once they have one or two bad games, Lindy will shake them up and move everyone in the bottom 6 around.

I don't know if it will work, but I 100% agree with what you are saying as their goal and it MIGHT work. Control the game from the D-zone out. I brought up in another post a few months ago, go back to the Canadian Olympic team 2 sets of games ago, with all their talent they didn't win by scoring, they won by smothering the opposition. The puck went into their zone and their D-men got to it first. Once they got to the puck they were talented enough to skate it out OR talented enough to make good first passes out. They didn't turn the puck over when pressured. They had enough skill that the other teams forecheck was basically useless, they would pass the puck back and forth until the entry pass out opened up. Every team would LIKE to be able to do that, but you need guys back there who are very good skaters, and are very precise with their passing, AND are good puck handlers. The Sabres have the POTENTIAL to have a top 4 that is the best in the league at that. They aren't there yet, their decision making can be brutal at times, but that should get better as they get older and more experienced. There certainly is a case for this NOT working, and I can both see it working well, and I can also see it failing miserably. That is why we play the games?

As many others are, I think people are getting all tied up about Worthy in week one and its not really justified. The TD run looked nice, but he had a lot of room and a wall of blockers in front of him. I'd bet the top 50% of the fastest receivers in the league would have scored on that play. As a receiver, he was targeted 3 times for 2 catches and 47 yards. He wasn't some unstoppable force out that the defense had no answer for. Lets give it a few weeks, if he starts to put up 100 yard receiving game after 100 yard receiving game, then I'll take notice.

I'm going to agree with a lot of the comments above...just what are the consequences? Adams getting fired seems like the obvious one, but what then? Do you bring in a New GM, possibly entire new front office and then Pegula tells them "Lindy is here for another year, I'm not firing ANOTHER coach and paying him, and by the way I still really like Lindy so you have to keep him?" You are back to limiting your GM choices slightly by doing that. AND, if you bring in a new GM (again, are you going to get the best of the best ones to choose from, probably not) then what do they do? Strip the team down, rebuild and start over with doing things in their own vision? To me the only consequence that would matter if Pegula were no longer involved, and that isn't likely. Here is an opinion, I don't have any direct facts to back it up, but it is what I think: With Botts and Murray, they wanted to do things their own way, but "Terry" thinks he knows hockey and wanted to be involved in the decision making...those guys didn't like that and that is, in part, why there are gone. So why did he hire Adams? Adams was going to keep Terry informed, keep him involved (he has no choice really). Hes basically Pegula's "yes man" running the team, nothing gets done without Pegula knowing about it, and even worse, without Terry's direct input (more than a typical owner, basically Terry wants to play fantasy GM and have Adams just do the grunt work). I don't see Pegula firing Adams and hiring someone else that isn't the same way. If Adams gets fired, its a PR move by Pegula to keep the fans with pitchforks and torches away from the Arena, NOT because he would actually want to make a change. Adams lets Terry have his input, he treats him with soft gloves, why would Pegula want anything other than that? If the season is a disaster, like a 75 point or less disaster (with less than 8,000 at the games by the end of the year), Maybe Pegula makes a move. But other than that, even if they miss the playoffs, the excuse will be "Lindy needs another year" and I don't see any moves.

I think the issue with answering this now is, I'm not sure this will be the 3rd line. I personally think its 50-50 whether Greenway is even starting in the opening day roster, let alone the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th line. I think everyone has Malenstyn penciled in on the 4th line...that is LIKELY but I see a slight chance he could be on the 3rd line. Finally, what is the 3rd or 4th line? Will Lindy even use a dedicated 4th line for checking? Or with the makeup of the bottom 6, will he just mix and match both those lines with players swapping night to night and have them both play as 'energy' lines rather than outright 'checking/shutdown' typical 4th lines. I think you can take Krebs, Malenstyn, Kubel, Greenway, Lafferty, Mcleod, Greenway, Zucker, and even Rosen....throw all of those guys together, and each night any 3 of the 9 will be on line line, 3 on the other line, and the role both of those lines have won't be all that different.

I love the horror stories about dealership. Related to tires, I bought a brand new Mitsubishi Eclipse about 15-20 years ago from a new car dealership. Drove it home and at about 50-60 mph noticed a strange 'humming'. Couldn't figure out why. Kept on doing it. Found out that 3 of the 4 tires were the same, and one tire was brand new just like the others..but had a different tread pattern. It was the same 'brand' of tire but a different tire. Dealership didn't want to replace the tire, said the car came in that way. I called Mitsubishi directly, a few days later the dealership told me to come in and they replaced the tire. Not sure if the dealer had Mitsubishi read the riot act to them...OR...Mitsubishi agreed to pay the dealership to 'keep the customer happy'. But the dealership sold a brand new car with a mis-matched tire and didn't want to fix it.

Great, I really need to be getting some more stories about guys getting ready, some action on the ice. The Bills season opening is great and all, but over the past decade my love has shifted to hockey. I find it so much more fun to talk about and analyze the team building aspect of it, rather than 'non-stop' Bills coverage.

Article as of today: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/09/05/official-nfl-team-valuations-2024.html 30.Buffalo Bills $5.35B 31.Arizona Cardinals 32.Cincinnati Bengals EBIDTA is interesting (Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) Dallas at $550 million New England at $250 million Rams at $243 million Majority of other teams (20 of them) at least $100 million Buffalo? Dead last at just $29 million Cincy is 2nd last next to Buffalo, but still almost 45% higher. The new Stadium is great and all, but give it 10 or so years, and once Pegula is gone (maybe before), I find it hard to see how the team will stay in Buffalo long term when there are so many other cities that can generate 4x, 5 times, or more revenue than here. Unless the Bills find a way to tap into that Toronto/southern Ontario market/money a lot better than they did last time...

I have accepted the way things are with car dealers/dealerships, but it is still hard to think they operate they way they do. I usually start with an email and then follow up with a visit, I make things clear: This is the car I want. What are the current incentives, and if I pay cash for it, what is the price/best price. It is RARE I get a direct answer. Still it is better here in WNY than other places. We have relatives in Florida. My father-in-law (he's well over 70) often wants us to help him when he buys a new car. -Just about all of the dealerships in the area he lives put an extra "Southeast regional adjustment" onto the sticker. (usually $1000-$1500 over MSRP). I don't even know if it is legit regional fee, but the same person/group owns several different brands of dealerships in the area and the practice is across several brands down there. -You go in and talk to them, ask them directly about it, and they say there is nothing they can do, its a mandatory charge. We Walk out of the dealership. -They call back usually the same day saying to 'come back in' that they will work with us on it. We tell them we aren't paying it. -So we go back in, they take the charge off, but then they offer $1000 or more LESS for the trade than what they told us earlier in the day. We left. -They call back and say, we'll 'look at your trade again' and re-assess it. We went back in. -They gave us the original number for his trade, but then when we asked for the entire price IN WRITING for the whole deal to take home and think about, they said they won't do it until we give them a 'good faith' deposit BEFORE they would give us a final figure in writing. -We give them a 'refundable' deposit and then when we get the numbers back, it has the $1000 southeast regional adjustment fee BACK on the invoice. I would not have given that dealership a single penny, but my father in law didn't want to go out of town, he didn't want to shop around...he just wanted us to help him get the 'best deal' and get it done. Oh, and the same dealership...we had a GM car and I could get an oil change/tire rotation at the dealership here (up until 2 years ago) pretty much all the time for $70 with the 'coupon' they have on the website. We drove to Florida, went to the local dealership down there, $115 dollars for the same tire rotation and oil change. Yes, we went through this a couple years ago at a NEW car dealership. Funny thing is, go to the google reviews of the dealership (and others in the area) and they have over a 4.5 star rating, with review after review giving them glowing reviews for service, price, and how they treat customers. I don't get it.

Maybe, I don't know how the lines will play out yet. But if you are trading for Kadri with expectations of him being your #2 center (and at his cap hit, probably for a long time), then I like it even less. As a #2 center, can I rely on a 34+ year old to give me 18 minutes of ice time per game going forward though the rest of his contract? I just don't want to be in that position. I understand that, and I wish it WOULD be someone. I just wouldn't make what I think is a bad move (long term) in place of more of the same (no move).

I think a lot of the players have changed, enough to make somewhat of a difference. I'd like them to spend more to bring in other players, sure. But bringing in Kadri...with the negatives discussed in previous posts, I do not think moves the needle enough compared to the risk. If you want to trade Krebs, Rosen, and next years first, then fine...just an aging Kadri I don't think is the best return. If there is no other choice, then I'd wait, because again, a 34 year old Kadri I don't think moves the needle enough.

I'm not sure how to debate 'not doing so', as that simply is the status quo. And status quo this year is a lot different than most other recent years around here. A considerably different bottom 6. A new head coach. A defense unit and goaltender that are young but one year older and played considerably better the last 50 games of last season than they did before that. For some of us, the 'risk' of adding a 34 year old this year, who will be on the books until he is almost 39 just isn't worth it until we 'see' just how much progress the status quo has made. But to answer your post more directly....I guess the debate is getting a legit #3 center (not Krebs or whatever else comes out of camp), having that guy be a #3 center for a year (some people's opinion) to a few years (others opinions)....VS the long term cap cost and what that may allow you to do/not due with your young guys up for contract in the next year or two. I know some want the very good/great #3 center now. I'd personally take the latter and pass on him. I think Krebs at #3 Center and Cozens at #2 center, if that is what we have, is the weakness of this team. I'm just not sold on Kadri being anything more than a temporary, and costly, bandaid for that.