Marvin

https://thedispatch.com/p/what-my-family-saw-at-the-nashville https://frenchpress.thedispatch.com/p/the-center-is-not-holding https://thebulwark.com/its-a-set-up/ https://thebulwark.com/newsletter-issue/this-is-how-kent-state-happened/ Be careful of "spontaneous" protests which are not organised with help of local community leaders. Odds are, the best ones are organising with Law Enforcement to arrange peaceful demonstrations if the police are trustworthy. Aside from those articles, I have from several sources that: Organised crime is trying to whip up protests with the intent of instigating violence. In this case, the protesters are not just the pretext, but also human shields against cross-fire. Hostile governments are randomly dumping bricks, rocks, guns, etc. for people to "find" and then, once enough people are in the are, they instigated violence. They will shoot at both sides to make each think the other started it. Smaller groups (III-%ers, antifa-sympathisers, etc.) have been sending groups to different cities to shoot protesters or police, depending on their bent. Note that antifa-types are more organised in Europe; here they just import the talent to organise; they are looser but the ones from Europe spoil to instigate fights with police. White Supremacists are more organised but unlikely to fire on police. The incident 2 nights ago on Bailey was instigated by three people allegedly here from Minneapolis to "sell cigarettes." How do I know? When their pictures were on the news, a friend of mine went bananas because he saw them at Lafayette Square station in the early afternoon. I have similar contact from friends and family around the country.

Many coaches had interesting philosophies on handedness. Fred Shero believed defencemen and checking lines wingers had to play on the same side as their shot to dig pucks off the boards to clear the zone quickly. ("When in doubt, bank it out.") Al Arbour played forwards on their off-wing in the offencive zone but on their normal wing in the defencive zone. Lindy Ruff used to mess with goalies' heads by having an all LH PP and an all RH PP. Centres moved to wing depending on their shot and usage. In 1972-3, the Sabres had only 2 RH shot wingers for part of the year. So the French Connection and the Luce line got them since they got the most ice time.

I agree. I think the pluggers have to reflect more on the game, how they succeed, etc. than the super-talented. I have seen this with professors in college, coaches in sports, musicians conducting orchestras, etc.

Tops as both players and coaches are few. You can add Jacques Lemaire, Jack Adams, Hap Day, "Gentleman" Joe Primeau, Cooney Weiland, and a few others. Most good coaches were at best above-average players. Guys like Lindy Ruff, Al Arbour, Carl Voss, Al Arbour, Joel Quenville, Pat Quinn, etc. are far more common.

If the guys in the arena I know can be believed (variously, fans, Sabres employees, visiting hockey people), it was rumored all 2017-8. Rumours were particularly strong at the last home game before the TDL, there were at least 4 separate discussions in different sections about the rumored return for ROR. FWIW, one guy in a marketing booth (Sabres employee) held court about one rumour (Carolina?) and said that JNot initiated the idea and that Pegula was OK with his judgement. At the Dahlin draft party, at least 3 different rumours on trades were discussed by the ushers and guards. One person was on the phone with one of the draft guys at Rogers said the trade was 3OA for him if Montreal accepted. He yelled it and for the next several seconds, people came stumbling helter-skelter out of the port-a-potties asking for confirmation. (I was in line.) Based on this and other information, my theory that fits the facts and hints as I know them is that JBottom felt he needed to trade ROR (3 different reasons cited, NONE of which were that Eichel and ROR did not get along -- according to my sources). When it was coming to the bonus, Pegula said, "trade him before the bonus or keep him all of next season." And here we are.

After listening to his press conference, I think he's counting on the line-up above with Tage instead of a Vesey-type addition. ⛳

If he offers Reinhart a Skinner contract, I think Reinhart stays. Less than that? Decreases to 0% at $1.5M less than Skinner.

In my case, SPF: Stupid, Prideful Flippancy.

The Master: As my will, so mote it be. Coven: Io evohe. (Repeat 12 more times while The Master summons the Daemon with the incantation below.) The Master: Ogo terus sawb, maleht t'new yram; tah tereh werev ewons saeti h'w'sawec eelfs tib -- malelt tiladah yram! (Coven chanting stops) The Master: Eko, Eko, Azal! Coven: Eko, Eko, Azal!

I feel guilty for wanting to fire Darcy. I can't believe it has got this bad.

Thank you to all those who gave me a preview. He should run for political office because he spun failures like they were successes. Both @PASabreFan and @LGR4GM really cut through the malarkey I heard. He kept mentioning the same young forwards for next year. He chose to ignore the assertions that the team has not been a real NHL team for his tenure. If this keeps up, I will need to change my uname to "Marvin" and have Stephen Moore's voice as my avatar saying, "I think you ought to know that I am feeling very depressed." ⛳

Nope. Before The Great Lockout, regular season hockey was buried in hook-and-hold. It was just that much worse in the playoffs. For years, one of the selling points on semi-skilled palookas over smaller skilled players was that he was a "big, physical kid." It had been so bad for so long that long-time people on places like hfboards think that big, immobile players have the "right" to just grab players who are faster than they are. Posters on Spector's Hockey called the 2005-6 Sabres "pond-hockey pansies" and couldn't believe Lindy Ruff could coach such a team.

I guess someone twisted his arm to bring in Josefson, Griffith, Sobotka, Frolik, Simmonds, etc. and to keep Mittlestadt and Thompson in the NHL. ⛳

Thank you. The obsession with size is a leftover from the hook-and-hold era.

Correct. Correct.

Whisky tango foxtrot? "JBottom of the barrel" is NOT, repeat, NOT an excuse for incompetence. The Pegula's management has been so bad that no one wants to take over what should be an appealing team with some fabulous young players. They were the yahoos who allowed Murray to go all-in on the tank. Why a billionaire can be so stupid to think that multiple seasons deliberate failure and undermining the mindset of the youth would be the prelude to success is beyond my ken. They were so clueless that they were OK with JNot not trading either extra 1st last season for at least one 2-3C, then throwing one away for grins in the Montour trade, and then were fine with JBotch undermining the team after the TDL. 1-16-2 from that news conference to the last 2 games of the season is inexcusable. I am still waiting for the first line-up since Lindy Ruff was coach which has 4 clear-cut, NHL-quality centres playing on 4 competent NHL lines. IMHO, if the 12 forwards behind Skinner-Eichel-Reinhart were on the level of Ray-Kruse-Barnaby, Ward-Primeau-Dawe, Varada-Nichol-Tsyplakov, and Rasmussen-Holzinger-Cunneyworth, the Sabres would have made the playoffs the last 2 seasons because at least these guys would all belong in the NHL, albeit barely in some cases. It is not asking a lot of a GM to get guys of this quality in FA. Put another way, "in any business, bad management is its own punishment." The only time I felt worse about this team was during the bankruptcy.

"No one with any credibility." I assume they can get many people.

You made me think of an even worse reason than everyone things why JNot is being kept: they asked around and found out that basically no one with any credibility would come here after COVID-19 along with the organisational dysfunction. We are the JBottom of the barrel.

Maybe, but all of NYS essentially was written off at the start. I don't understand the inclusion of LA: Governor Newsom said no large gatherings until 2021.

I just can't.

Time for that deathless chant: Ooh! Ahh! Sabres on the golf course!

In theory, finding a decent back-up to Ullmark before UPL hits the NHL should be as easy as filling in the bottom 6 with competent NHLers, so...um, er, uh, ick.

Not what I'm hearing. As I heard it, once the extra round is done, then all the teams not in the round of 16 are in the lottery with the normal odds. So Pittsburgh or Toronto could wind up with 1-2.