Claude_Verret

Casual fans might have held onto the strawman that getting that elite guy means just simply waiting 3 years and then sitting back to enjoy a decade of deep playoff runs, but I dont recall any serious posters on here putting that case forward. So yes, getting the 7th pick or the first pick this year foretells exactly zilch in terms of future success. Getting the highest pick only promises one thing... getting the guy we want.

Not unless we get a McDavid in the interim he wont be. Instead of focusing on what Eichel isn't (McDavid), we need to focus on what he actually is (a legit NHL elite, not generational, #1 center). Therefore he isnt a problem to be fixed going forward. Focus on what actually needs to be fixed ...which is almost everything else..goalie, most of the defense and most of the bottom 9 forwards.

You can support whatever team you want, whenever you choose, but based on these statements I'd call you a fair weather fan rather than die hard.

Had a long discussion with some canes fans on this very topic on Saturday. The canes do get a lot of infiltration from several other teams, but the consensus was that buffalo fans show up in the greatest numbers and are the most vocal and boisterous in support of their team. The events of 2005 was way down the list, at least for the fans I was talking to. We joke about baby eating etc on here, but it really is ancient history at this point. We just dont go away and we dont shut up, even when we suck. Not unlike leaves fans in Buffalo at all.

I still have my big green egg as I will cook the s$!t that was slowly killing me for others ....if they ask nicely. Plus, there are some good plant based options for grilling. No Chautauqua this year for me. My parents 50th wedding anniversary celebration and associated activities is taking up my summer vacation.

Ha...unfortunately I am semi retired from my bbq hey day. Got read the riot act by my doc about 18 months ago and went 90% plant based diet. I only bbq once in a blue moon these days. On the upside I'm down almost 50 lbs and feel like I'm 25 again!

I will likely never again advocate for the Sabres to engage in tanking, which to me is defined as having as your publicly unstated goal at the beginning of the season to finish DFL. Then have your GM, from day one, intentionally manipulate the roster to make the team worse in order to achieve that goal. With the current way the lottery works, it doesnt really make sense to do this going forward. I dont really believe there is much that can be done to do a "mini-tank" either, Botterills hands are pretty much tied at this point to purposely make the team worse in any impactful way. They just suck all on their own. My fandom is binary at this point. Stanley Cup or bust. Sneaking into the playoffs ala the Bills two years ago with a team that has little shot at making much noise, let alone actually winning the hardest trophy in sports will do nothing for me. Therefore with that mindset, once it's clear the playoffs are out in any season I'm looking long game, and that involves getting the best talent for this team going forward. Which means wanting the best possible draft position, which in turn means being ok with losing a lot for the remainder of the season. If that makes me a bad fan, then I guess that's what I am.

I would pass if I had a choice at this point, but I have friends coming to town from Buffalo for the game so we will make the most of it. We host a St Patty's party at our house every year too, but we had to have it last weekend because we hire a band and they aren't available for a house party on actual St. Patrick's day weekend. Check them out if you're out and about this weekend, they are playing at multiple venues in Apex, Cary and Raleigh, they're called Nine Times Around. I told my wife that we need to scale back in the future though, we had 150 people at my house and I cooked 20 corned beef briskets and brewed 15 gallons of stout. Out of control.

I'll be there. Section 112.

I understand the apathy towards the team at this point and how tiresome this discussion has become for many fans. To me the pointlessness of the discussion mainly stems from one issue, which is that many fans aren't even talking about the same thing when discussing tanking. For example, if you think that the Sabres tanked for Dahlin last year then you and I cant even begin to have an honest discussion around the pros and cons of the strategy since we cant even agree on what defines tanking in the first place. Having said that I'm yes to all three, except for I will root for them to beat Carolina on Saturday since hurting the canes playoff chances registers higher on my fan satisfaction index than a potential miniscule increase in lottery odds.

Puck luck tonight is understatement of the year.

It says: An NHL Team Actually Traded Jeff Skinner I asked him if he plans on getting into the game with it and he said...well I plan on taking it off the stick. My prediction is the canes staff Gestapo will not allow it in.

Stoking the fire for tasty babyque and a passerby with a provocative sign.

I've been getting into Devin Townsend over the past few years, he can probably be safely be tabbed as progressive metal for the most part. Recently I stumbled into this side project that he did a few years back called Casualties of Cool. It's most definitely not progressive metal. Devin himself described it as haunted Johnny Cash songs. Great stuff.

I saw Steven Wilson in Chapel Hill last month. That show and the one time I saw Porcupine Tree are without question in my top 5 concerts of all time. His 5.1 mixes are indeed without peer. He mixed the 5.1 surround for Rush's Hemispheres 40th anniversary. Unfortunately I haven't heard it yet since you can only get it as part of the super deluxe package with the vinyl and a bunch of other stuff I'm not interested in, especially at $130.

I'll be there and tailgating early. Tonight will be a right of passage for my son. He was only a baby himself during the great horde invasion of 2006. Today will be his right of passage. At 14 years of age I feel that he is now fully ready and prepared to learn about the intricacies of neonatal BBQ. I'm in section 112.

I dont have tickets for the March game yet, but I'll be there. I do have tickets for the game in a few weeks and will most likely be tailgating under the row of trees near Carter Finley stadium.

I think he believed that I was desperate for the position. I haven't worked in the field for about a year, but as i explained to him and others that i interviewed with, I have a few alternate income streams that take at most 5 hours of my time per week. Time that I can put in on evenings and weekends. Maybe he didn't believe me and thought he could low ball me. Either way, a 30% lowball offer is a total non starter in pretty much any negotiation process. The salary I asked for was probably right at the mean for someone at my level. At my old company, that I left voluntarily, we had a saying for our HR department who coined the phrase "selecting the best" for the candidate interview and hiring process. We added on. "Select the best. Pay the average." I'm not a boomer, but I dont blame millennials really, I mostly blame their parents.

I recently interviewed for a position. The first interview was for half a day spending time with various senior people and giving a presentation that represented my work over the years in a niche technology that they were trying to develop. Everything went great and I had a really good vibe. About a week later they brought me back to meet with the CEO. The conversation there moved towards the salary and benefits that I was looking for. When I told him my salary requirements he asked if it was negotiable and I responded that of course it is and that I'd be looking at the entire package if they decided to offer me the position. A few days later I received an offer letter: 30% less salary than I told him in the interview. 2 weeks vacation. lol 401k and other benefits. meh. To say that I was insulted would be an understatement. So I ghosted them. It wasn't worth my time to draft a letter in response to it. After about a week I hear back from the CEO wanting to know if I had a counter offer. This time I did respond with an offer to come on board as a consultant at my highly inflated hourly rate....negotiable of course. I haven't heard back. lol Beyond all of that, something really turned me off during my interview with the CEO. As we sat down in his office he asked me to tell him about myself. As I began speaking his phone beeps. Not only does he pick it up, but he begins reading an email for a good minute as I'm talking. I've repeatedly had to remind my reports over the years about not having their phones out in meetings and at the lab bench, and here is a CEO who presumably is interested in hiring me, on his phone reading an email right off the bat in the interview. Bush league.

How do you get such players, specifically Jack and Sam?

Maybe the Sabres organization should start handing out fan behavior expectation cards to all Leaves fans as they enter the arena. Then proceed to antagonize those very same fans that they expect to be on their best behavior with pot shots directed at their team and city on the scoreboard throughout the game. That should turn out well.

This is a perfect example of how the discussion around this topic will forever be a clusterfukc. The Sabres tanked for two back to back seasons only, with the prizes being Reinhart and Eichel. They purposely attempted to ice an awful team both those years, finished last, "lost" the lottery and drafted 2nd overall to draft the aforementioned players. In no way, shape or form did the Sabres go out of their way to finish DFL last season, yet they did anyway and ended up being rewarded with Dahlin. If people can't even agree and understand what tanking even is, then of course there never can be an honest discussion as to whether the strategy was successful or not. Bottom line is the Sabres employed a PART of a team building strategy that other franchises have also tried and been rewarded for. It was a strategy that the Buffalo Sabres franchise hadn't ever tried in their history. It remains a work in progress.

Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit. Cary. NC. Now.

Dahlin! The lottery win that I hope will heal the tank war rift among the fan base. Appropriate I guess that they finally won the damn thing by finishing dead last without tanking.

Or do like JJ and follow the advice of Bill Polian...."If you don't like it, get out of town!"