Marvin

Retirement day is very sad for we two-legged people. I always try to remember all the other days with them. When I get depressed about them, I always remember this translation from morning prayers: "Kings and emperors who own properties, wealth, oeceans, and mountains are less than even an ant, who in its mind never forgets God." --- JapJi Sahib, verse 23, lines 3 and 4. It makes me remember that I have been blessed with their presence and that I need to take the lessons my four legged child taught me to become a better person.

I have 3 D I would need to protect: Borgen, Dahlin, and Jokiharu; I expect that Bryson is ready. Yes, that means Ristolainen is exposed. If you were Seattle's GM, would you take him with 1 year left? There are better values out there with infinitely more hockey sense. Honestly, I would go shopping for a boring low-end to mediocre middle pairings like people across the hockey world thought Tallinder-Lydman, McKee-Kalinin, and Numminen-Campbell before 2005-6. For that matter if the next 3 guys have the reputations and play of Darryl Shannon, Richard Smehlik, and James Patrick, I would be very happy to unload Ristolainen for one of them. Up front, I would ask Skinner to trust he won't be picked at his salary so I could protect Eichel, Reinhart, Oloffson, and Mittlestadt. At this point, I would seriously consider getting a 4th defenceman to protect like the rumour surrounding Matt Ryan Ellis

K

My sarcasm detector is out.

I think both points have validity. 1. There are players he can get through to. The ones whom we shouldn't have long term plans for (Staal, Hall, etc.), we should be happy about because we can get more in a trade. The rest should be kept for positive continuity and an example for those who are left. 2. There are players whom he can't get through to. We should move as many of them as possible as soon as possible to teams which can deal with them while we get back more self-motivated players, even if they are not as talented. As a point of reading the plots, we are on the bottom left of the two graphs. We are the worst in our division by a wide margin.

You are talking about the greatest goaltender of all time. (And I can get stats going back to post WWI to prove it!) Much as I wish we could do that, it's a bit like expecting your top line to be Perreault-Gretzky-LaFleur from the 1981 Canada Cup with your top defence pairing being Orr-Park from the training camp of the 1972 Summit Series. I am more than fine with merely very good goaltending with broad, effective players throughout the line-up. No one has to be an all-star, a Selke candidate, or whatever.

As a defenceman, any one skating towards my goaltender was either directed far wide or into the ice. Anyone trying to get to my goaltender ended up on his back with my knee in his crotch. I wasn't the skill guy; part of my job involved defending my goaltender at all costs. D-men pushing players into their goaltenders drive me nuts.

You missed a significant figure before the decimal point.

Wait. Rochester can pass. Their defencemen aren't clueless. Are we sure this is Buffalo's farm club?

You need a street ball / tennis ball, a soccer net, and the guy still misses.

I hope you are right. Mussed Whim.

Can we connect on multiple consecutive passes tonight? Will the defence be aware of their positioning? Do the skaters make line changes diligently? Are their beach balls which our goalies can stop? For the answers to these and other imponderable questions, tune in tonight. Same Bad Time! Same Bad Channel! But word of warning: the answers depend on the character of the players!

Just wondering -- are any other games postponed?

You need to play the games for a real evaluation. Something about this team is fundamentally rotten. Unfortunately, we need to play the games to find out.

I thought they had warm bottles of milk handy. If they coach insists, even an interim one, it matters. The coach was appointed by the GM with a sign-off from ownership at the very least, so he has that imprimatur. How much it matters is for the future to tell.

CBA experts: Is it possible for the Sabres to trade KO with retention and then buy-out the retention?

That's why the speculation about COVID results holding up the deal make sense.

People think that adding Compher to one of their defencive prospects will nab them Eichel and Johansson plus some.

I wonder if one of the players involved in the JJ trade is someone with a positive test...

I never want to be considered this unprofessional at my job. I thought he was just kidding around because the kid is just breaking into the NHL.

GMTM's drafting is an exceedingly low bar. I am also quite harsh about him too -- especially spending his draft capital like he had infinite resources. I was measuring against a "normal" GM. And we have been sub-par since the early 2000's.

So like the way Sabres fans feel now?

For the most part, you can't change much midway through the season. The best we can hope for is that they team plays more precisely and with more awareness soon. If there is genuine attention to detail, then we should at least see less embarrassing performances. A very low bar, to be sure.

I am a harsh GMJB critic, but it is early to be too churlish for most of his later drafts. Having said that, @LGR4GM is correct about his bias. I wonder what we may have missed out on in the long run. Maybe this is the problem we have had in acquiring depth.

I read it. I know several Bruce Waynes and Paul Daggets from friends of mine. I can't think of why Pegula's behaviour was significantly different from them. If I could find a pattern of behaviours outside of norm, let alone wildly outside of the norm, I would give this article more weight. This does not condone what he has done; it is more a reflection of the practicalities of how most of the extremely wealthy self-made do things. And until this country changes what it values, I want NYS to cater to people like them.