Iron Crotch

I posted that somewhere-er-other when I was griping about Myers' lack of offensive production. I do like Myers' defensive game this season. And, I think he is a heck of a penalty killer due to his reach. But, for a guy to be on the ice 25-30 minutes a game, play on the first power play unit, and have almost no points is... not good.

Yessir. People perceive the world in a manner consistent with their political views. Once we have an opinion about an issue (e.g. immigration) or candidate or politician or party, we don't process new information objectively. Instead, we denigrate and counterargue claims that challenge the entrenched existing opinions. And, we seek information to support our world view. So, for example, righties flock to Fox News and lefties flocks to MSNBC. And, every new piece of information presented by our source is evidence of how terrible the other side is and how "correct" our side is. Personally, I don't see the political discourse changing unless people are capable of recognizing and correcting for their own biased information processing. But, that's a difficult thing to do...

Right now the Stars are the 2nd worst defensive team in the league, but they score like crazy with forwards like Seguin, Spezza, and Jamie Benn who Myers played with in Juniors. They need a penalty killing (right-handed) defenseman, which Myers does very well. The question is what would the part with to get a guy like Myers? We have Pysyk waiting around in Rochester and a glaring hole at center. The speculation seems reasonable IMHO.

Same speculation that's been out there for a while... Valeri Nichushki, but he is on IR right now I think. BTW - the Stars are also in the market for a backup goaltender FWIW.

I'm hopeful that GMTM is working his magic and a center will be joining the team soon.

As expected given Dallas' cap clearing move, the Tyler Myers speculation is all over the twittershpere. I've always been in the "trade Myers" camp, so we shall see...

Gonchar is 53 years old, I think. They dumped a $5 million salary in Gonchar, which is interesting... very interesting...

I've never been a fan of Mitchell going back to his pre-Sabres days. He can skate for sure... but he is just another smallish non-physical 3rd/4th line guy who can't score. Flynn is basically the same as Mitchell. And, obviously Gionta's best days are behind him. Given our offensive ineptitude, putting out an entire line of smallish veteran forwards who can't score leaves me less than excited. My general school of thought is if we're going to play forwards who can't put the puck in the net, I at least want them to be physical players (e.g., Deslauriers, Kaleta, Stewart, Foligno when he is motivated, etc.) or kids who are learning the NHL game. ...watch Mitchell - Flynn - Gionta light it up tonight now!

He is fully cleared to play. My guess is he is in at 4th line RW and Hodgson goes to the press box. Oh, and Mitchell - Flynn - Gionta is a terrible line. Just terrible.

Apparently Ennis is now at RW. Nolan is putting together a line of Moulson - Girgs - Ennis. He wants to find one good line, I guess. http://www.wgr550.com/Sabres-Nolan-has-a-new-top-line/20293764?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed

http://youtu.be/p2YnBp6bsFQ

These are basically my thoughts as well. There are some exceptions, but by-and-large the best teams have two or three centers with size who can score (and are not a liability on the defensive end). Both Eichel and McDavid are 6'1 190ish with room to grow. That'll work. And, of course, Grigo and Girgs both have good size. Eichel/McDavid, Grigroenko, Girgensons as a top-3 starts moving this team in the right direction.

This was Darcy's grand ###### up. The single biggest reason why this team got terrible was he systematically rid it of centers over a 6 or 7 year span. Right now, we have only Girgs and McCormick who belong in the middle. And, those two might best be thought of as 3rd and 4th line centers. Ennis and CoHo are non-physical and lousy defensively - both would be better off on the wing. IMHO, a big center (over 200 lbs.) who can score is probably the single biggest piece missing from this team. Girgs can get there, but we need another. Stafford has the size and some offensive ability, so I guess he is next up. BTW - if Grigorenko shows well in Rochester, there is a spot in Buffalo just screaming his name (big center who can win faceoffs and score)

This is what I think too. Small sample size, but they move the puck better than any of our other d-men.

Not a pro-tanker, but I watch an equal number of Preds games as Sabres games (have 1/2 season tickets for the Preds). It's like watching teams in two different leagues. The biggest difference as I see it is passing. The Sabres don't seem to have any idea where their teammates are supposed to be on the ice and just dump the puck rather than try to make a play. The Preds tape-to-tape passing is impressive. And, the offensive ability of the Preds defensemen is night-and-day better than the Sabres goal-less backenders. Not even close. The Preds had a two-on-one yesterday against St. Louis... and it was two defensemen (Weber and Josi). Unheard of in Buffalo.

Whqt do u meen? I thawt it wuz fyne.

Pretty good blog by Garth: http://www.hockeybuz...rtunity/6/63816

This game was frustrating because it was clearly winable and the Bills were (probably) the better team. The two fumbles (Brown & McKelvin) were pretty much the difference.

...we're Cleveland's Islanders.

Fair enough. It may not be the majority, but certainly many of those who post most often have devoted considerable time and effort to proposing and defending the "have to be really bad before getting really good" argument using Chicago and Pittsburgh as "credible" evidence that it is the proper course of action. People have been promoting tanking for years on this forum - it certainly isn't a recent phenomenon. As I recall, it started a couple of years ago (the MacKinnon draft) and has now amplified into an absolute obsession around here. Half the avatars are of tanks and people seem to have convinced themselves that fielding an utterly unwatchable team now is "necessary" for the greater good of the future. Fine, I get that we're here so there isn't a choice at this point. And, I'm not saying folks shouldn't focus on and/or be excited for the future. But, personally I can't celebrate the fielding of historically bad teams. For every Chicago and Pittsburgh there is a Columbus, Florida, Isles, and Oilers. The only certainty, as I see it, is a ton of lost revenue for the foreseeable future.

This will be 8 straight seasons without winning a playoff series. I don't think fans (and especially STH) are the least bit unjustified in being frustrated, despite all the post-hoc rationalization that goes on here. There are many ways to build a successful team, yet everyone here seems to have convinced themselves there is only one way to do so. We shall see...

"This is not going to be a five-year rebuild. ... When you tear it down, it doesn't happen overnight, but I don't buy into five-year rebuilds." "We want to be competitive. If anybody thinks that there's a message of tanking being sent from upstairs, I would suggest they put a camera on me for 60 minutes of the game when we're losing and you'll know that tanking is not what I want," Murray said. "I want to play properly. I want to be competitive." "The coaches on the bench don't want to lose," Murray said. "I can't imagine there's one player in there that wants to finish last so we can get Connor McDavid so he can lose his job to him. Where in our organization would the tanking come from if the GM doesn't want to lose and the coaches don't want to lose and the players don't want to lose?" (Buffalo News on 4/16)

I definitely think this (losing on purpose) is a plan engineered by Terry Pegula. It'd certainly explain LaFontaine's leaving. It'd explain the weird "McDavid in Buffalo" game earlier this year.

When you're regularly getting out-shot by a 4-to-1 margin, I'm not sure it is entirely a lack of talent that is at fault. This team is so bad that I tend to think it is the perfect storm of a lack of talent, lack of an effective system (coaching), and a lack of effort by some (e.g. Hodgson). But, I agree that the latter two variables don't matter much without more talent on the roster.

Zero goals in 16 games played. As far as I'm concerned he is just taking a spot from a more deserving young player.