Marvin

Deserved.

That's where I went last night. Only fails, obviously, when the Amerks are on.

I hate it when goalies do this. Among other reasons, they are not fair game outside the crease like they used to be. He should get a few games. Is the hearing on the phone (about 4 games max) or in-person (more severe)?

Pick a teams whose fans you like, because you can be genuinely happy for their success. I also root for cities which I felt were "wronged" somehow by the league such as the victims of tilted officiating or the league driving stars from it to bigger markets.

Current radio over the web: WCMF Rochester.

What I do is wait for the game to start, go to the game page on nhl.com, click on the "listen" button, and then pick WGR. You might do better getting the Rochester feed most times.

It's how I deal -- how do we get better? It keeps me from getting depressed and channels my irritation at parts of the game into something constructive.

What do we need to do to improve next year? I want to be more physical in the trenches so that we don't lose clearly winnable games next year, whence this game is at home next year.

Give us some time. We can get there. Just wait until we're healthy. Don't give up hope! (Add your cliche here.)

Someday, I am going to compute the p value for various things like how well man games due to injury correlate to points percentage just to end arguments like these.

I met him at a concert at Maple West after he signed in Buffalo. Nice guy.

At least they shoot like they took lessons from Alexei Zhitnik.

One without injuries. After that, I won't be all that particular.

So what we're saying is that GM's never learn.

I don't recall who mooted the idea here, but I agreed that, on the whole, lesser average talent means more overall injuries. IMHO, moreover, the more a players is playing a style he finds unnatural, artificial, or otherwise has a negative opinion of, the more likely he is to be hurt too. I think the former is correct, albeit anecdotally. (Overcompensating physically for inferior talent.) The latter is just my own idea. (Overly complicated mental processes resulting in physical mistakes.) Both create psychological negativity which results in players reacting sub-optimally to any given situation, which in turn makes them more likely to be injured. The Sabres have lacked overall talent for a decade. Some players really hated some of the coaches. IMHO, that confluence compounds and reinforces each problem.

Oh, bloody hell. Addendum: I believe that is 12 players, or 25% of the total allocated contracts, on the injured list. That is nuts.

This is probably the healthiest attitude.

Anyone else liking Tuch as much as I do?

Ennis and Moulson were signed by XGMTM the two previous off-seasons. He was not trading them. Girgensons was young enough to be considered part of the solution. It is worth taking a look at this team compared to the 2013-5 teams. Also, look at the transactions made during the seasons. This team is not designed to win first, but it is not designed to get carpet bombed game-in and game-out either like The Tank teams were.

This is flat out insulting. I have an answer, but you clearly don't deserve one. Duly noted.

Toronto had stunk for the better part of a decade accumulating talent. The Maple Leafs were not an overnight miracle. As for tanking, the Sabres are not selling off players who are playing well for scraps and crap like XGMTM did. Nor did they sign a bunch of washed-up players at inflated prices. If the Sabres were tanking, they would have career minor leaguers getting 2nd line ice time while solid, reliable performers like Okposo, Girgensons, etc. would have been moved for picks, cap dumps, and roster flotsam. Instead, as currently made, a healthy line-up has 20 actual NHL players on it -- albeit all about 1 line/pair too high overall. This is a standard rebuild. They are not so much trying to lose as prioritising player development and clearing the air of The Failure (The Tank). The one clear thing GMKA bollixed was goaltending. Now, we should not expect to go 6 deep in goal, but, as I said elsewhere, Anderson breaking down was eminently predictable. Honestly, Mike Bales deserves a bonus for getting all 6 guys eventually to play like they almost belong in the NHL. 6 in Buffalo means at least 1 other team has played at least 4 goalies by the pigeonhole principle. This is nuts.

I am with you on the need for better ensemble defence. But I think you are missing how much easier it is to do that with the right personnel and with improved personnel. Sometimes, they do play solid team defence. Sometimes, they look overmatched. And, more often than I would like, they break down in their own zone. Sometimes, I have a hard time telling which problem has what cause because it looks like a blend of issues.

It's not a strength. We need at least 1 player above Jokiharu on the right. We need a better blend of types of defencemen -- both more physical and more defencively aware. IMHO, we will need to move at least one of our young LHD for a similar, but more boring RHD.

I had no problem with being in the lower end of the playoffs each year. Teams are winning Cups from the 5-8 seeds when they have goaltending -- and with Miller, the Sabres had that. The team needed to be remade somewhat, so a partial teardown was warranted. What was not warranted was trading any goaltender who had the gall to play well. What was not called for was icing a team where half the players were career minor-leaguers. It was asinine not to build up organisational depth during those years. I still don't know why they overpaid some of those terrible defencemen. No rebuilding team before ever went two seasons gleefully establishing a losing culture before the Sabres and the fans decided being losers was good for the franchise. IMHO, no team is required 2nd overall picks to draft passably. If you need them that badly, then you really had better not tank because you never stop being a bottom-feeder. With multiple picks in the 1st and 2nd rounds in multiple years, even mediocre drafting can bring in decent players.

True. But XGMJB could always have chosen not to trade O'Reilly. The original sin of the O'Reilly trade is the idea of moving him in the first place.