Iron Crotch

Costa Rica! Huge win over Italy puts them through to the next round and knocks out England. Great tournament so far for CONCACAF teams (except for Honduras, but they're terrible).

Americans are masters at being offended on behalf of others. It's something of a national pastime. ;) http://opinionator.b...type=blogs&_r=0

Your measure of success is goals and assists. I would suggest a better measure (which is probably unmeasurable) is contribution to team wins. Yakupov will score thirty, but he doesn't play a lick of defense. Does that make Yakupov "successful"?

You can't just look at the points column (at the NHL or junior level) and say "this player is better than that one." Which player can help this team win? That's the only question that Murray needs to answer. His quote on Sabres.com: "“It’s a copycat league, so LA wins the Cup again and the terminology is ‘They’re heavy.’ So you’ve got guys like [Nick] Ritchie and [Jake] Virtanen that are good players that are heavy. Teams are looking for heavy.”

Been my thought all along. He has to put the best possible team together, not just select the best purely offensive player (see Oilers, Edmonton).

http://youtu.be/HU8gvF6WCIk

See it on twitter, post it on here. See it on twitter, post it on here. Rinse and repeat.

I want Matty Moulson back. He seemed to fit in well as a Sabre.

We can become the NHL's version of Menudo.

Maybe we can form a substance abuser line of Tootoo, Konopka, and Ryan Malone? :P

Mathematically, there is no combination of our current roster (UFAs, RFAs, Rochester call-ups) that gets us to the cap floor short of handing out ludicrous raises all over the place, which won't happen. After resigning Foligno, Ennis, and a few others, we're still roughly $5-$6 million below the cap. We need at least two relatively expensive new players (i.e. guys brought in from another organization) to hit the floor.

I predict Derek Roy ends up in Nashville. ;)

This is basically my line of thinking except that I want the veteran d-man to replace McBain who is pretty useless in his own end. Hank can stay around as the veteran 7th d-man. Playing out different scenarios on CapGeek we pretty much have to add a d-man and two (or more) forwards to hit the cap floor. And, for Christ's sake, can we just get rid of Conacher. I'm tired of smurfs who don't score and get tossed around the ice like rag dolls!

We need to add about $18 million in salary just to hit the cap floor. I've always thought picking up a high priced d-man (hopefully to take the place of RFA McBain) is a good way to help add salary. With all the youngsters on defense, we could use another veteran d-man. Volchenkov brings just about nothing on the offensive end, but he goes about 225 and is tough as nails. He hits to hurt people. We probably need to pick up two high salary forwards as well, either by trade or free agency - hopefully a center and a left wing. Murray wants a bigger, tougher team, that much seems clear... McBain is our smallest d-man (180 lbs.) so he may be someone Murray wants to replace.

Looking at the list of available free agents, one thing is clear... Paul Statsny is about to become a very, very rich man.

I third that.

For sure. Another option we have is to trade for an expensive player that another team needs to get rid of to cut payroll. The problem is everyone now has no trade or no movement clauses built into their contracts.

Exactly. When you run the numbers on CapGeek (they have a "virtual GM" page that is fun to play around with), we absolutely have to sign one, preferably two or three, high priced free agents just to make it to the cap floor. Tossing big offers at Callahan, Moulson, Stempniak, and/or others is necessary just to hit the floor.

That sounds good too! I'm not a huge Myers fan and we have so many good defensive prospects that he is (arguably) a moveable asset. Devine is on record saying he drafted Risto and Zadorov to be a future top pairing (one plays the left side and one plays the right side).

I've been championing Leon "The Deutschland Dangler" Draisaitl for quite a while. Kid knows how to score goals and has NHL size already. If Murray is truly trying to pattern the Sabres after the Kings then Leon fits that mold well due to his size and puck possession skills.

I'd take him. We have a ton of money to spend and he is better than most of our current forwards. At worst he can be a good teacher for the young kids since he is a "never takes a shift off" type of player. Another 3rd liner I'd be interested in is Lee Stempniak. That said, I don't see any UFAs coming to Buffalo unless we show them some serious $$$.

I'd like to see Justin Williams win it. One of the most "clutch" players in the history of hockey. That said, they love to give it to a big star on the winning team. Quick and Doughty are probably in the running.

Unfortunately, the only thing that gets you through the phobia is doing a lot of public speaking. You have to approach that which you are afraid of. I was petrified of public speaking for years, so much so that I even avoided courses where I had to give a presentation as an undergrad. Years later I somehow ended up in a profession where I public speak all the time. Like anything, the more you do it, the better you get and the more comfortable you feel. Re: the sweat issue, wear a suit coat. You can always chalk it up to wanting to look professional when you speak. And, a dark suit coat will hide the pits well. Also, if you get nervous, I recommend you don't try to stay stationary. Move around. It'll allow you to release some of the nervous energy. As well, I always try to know beforehand what I am going to say on the first few slides. If you get off to a good start, you'll relax and will do great the rest of the way!

Marty St. Louis has been a difference maker for the Rangers during the playoffs. But, he is 38 and they gave up an awful lot to get him (Tampa got their 1st round pick this year as part of that trade). Richards and Nash should certainly be contributing more than they are. I personally think Nash is a far bigger disappointment than Richards. Nash is 9th on his team in playoff scoring and only has 3 goals in 23 games. He is clearly being outperformed by "lesser" guys like Zuccarello, Hagelin, Stepan and Brassard. Right or wrong, if you're going to sign the big money contract you're going to be heavily scrutinized when you don't perform in key moments. I really think the Rangers need to try to move Nash in the off-season.

I picked the Kings in 5 before the series started and I'm sticking with that. If the Rangers have any pride at all, they'll win one at home before the Kings clinch back in L.A. I always like it when a team wins the Cup at home instead of on the road.