IKnowPhysics

Even years later!

Cursory question: did we sign him because among the best undrafted defensemen and a good prospect for Rochester/longer term development or because we're out of call-ups?

Not around the NHL...yet: Undrafted St Cloud senior Drew LeBlanc wins the Hobey Baker, is expected to be a sought-after free agent center. HF: http://www.hockeysfuture.com/prospects/drew_leblanc/

Gracias. Ha! If you guessed Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift with switched faces, you're a winner!

Yeah, I'm cool with that. I think playing on the world stage is a great unique opportunity that can help a player mature.

I'm happy this thread went in the direction I was hoping it would. I'm straight and I played in and helped manage a large non-profit LGBTQA hockey league in the midwest. Before I had joined, my initial thought was "what the hell does it matter what sexual orientation or gender identity you take when you're on the ice?" I played, coached, and volunteered in that league for years, and I continue to play on LGBTQA teams and in LGBTQA-friendly tournaments today. My rational open-mindedness and willingness to embrace cultures different than my own helped develop me into the accepting person I am today. And that's all a bonus on top of making many, many friends and playing lots and lots of fun hockey. With respect to hockey, bigotry shouldn't be part of the game, before, during, or after the whistles. But not everyone is like me and I can't expect them to be, which is why I think it's important to have places that are safe for everyone to play in addition to participating in advocacy projects like You Can Play, at least for the next few years. (I'm in a You Can Play video on their site somewhere, btw) You can question the NHL's timing if you like, but You Can Play is a relatively new organization that carries an important message, and I'm glad the NHL has partnered with them.

OOPS I believe that some number players may be without motivation, and if that number gets to be too many, and it has, it doesn't matter how many other players are still in the game, losses will come.

With the exception of these last two games, Myers had turned his season around pretty well. Injuries are no bueno.

I see it.

http://www.comedycentral.com/video-clips/b0k5ni/stand-up-hannibal-buress--jaywalking-ticket

I blame a combination of bad draft classes, reduced scouting budget, and the loss of Jim Benning. We haven't had a thread on potential GM candidates yet, but I would strongly suggest Jim Benning as a candidate. He was with the Sabres from 1994 to 2004 and did a lot of good work. It's not clear to me how much contribution he's had with the Bruins, but he's served as AGM for 6 years now, including their Cup. Also not sure of his interest level- it's likely he's been interviewd by other teams for the GM role.

1) It's peer reviewed, so it should be ok. Nice find. 2) From the abstract: "Audiences or fans can impact performance, but impact may depend on sport, the specific sport skill, and specific audience behavior." Hockey wasn't covered by the article, but cites an article that did examine hockey.

Well, there's an entire thread hashed out on that topic over here, but nothing was really determined besides the team isn't good. Nah, if you trade up, your 14 mid-round picks become closer to 6 or 7 better picks. And if you check out the drafts since 2008, it really doesn't look like there's many busts in the top 5. It's been said before; the top 1st rounders have been a lot less dicey lately than the middle ten. Call it two busts, two workable guys, two legitimately very good guys, and maybe an all star. Add those guys to the good prospects already in place that develop properly, and that's about half your team. Add the current veterans you wanted to keep, and that's most of your team. Then tack on a couple of free agent veterans to fill needs. I think that if we're willfully going into full rebuild mode, I trust Darcy to use his rapier-like (rapiest?) trading prowess to move out the ###### pieces in good trades for lots of draft pick bounty or quality prospects. And then I mostly trust him to draft well. Ehrhoff excluded, his free agent signings need work, though- he has the ability to land the ones he wants, but the once they've landed, they seem like they don't fit. Maybe that improves. Maybe it doesn't. Maybe it's the players. Maybe it's him.

For better or worse, this argument has always been invalid with this ownership group.

I like Ted too, but Ted's not a hockey guy. Ted's a fan-friendly PR guy trying to explain what the hockey guys are up to and what the ownership thinks. I don't know why he's defending the attendance thing or the booing thing, he could just say the team needs to be better and they're trying to be better, which is something we all know to be true. I do admire that he confessed that they thought they had the quick free agent fix for the roster that then backfired. A truly snidely PR guy could try to spin that all sorts of weird ways. I believe what he says about the next steps- they're going to try to assemble a few stellar draft classes in an attempt to build a longer-standing and more robust position of competitiveness. But it's because of this that I think (and some will hate this) that Darcy's in for the long haul because they think during this ownership's tenure, he's been mostly successful with drafting and trades.

Stafford's "winning," big time. Myers was -9 on Feb 7th, but then went +8 from then until this last game, when he went -3. He's now at -4 on the season.

And of course the stock photo they use is a scoring celebration against Buffalo.

Rebuilding edition. 1) I love that guy! Players: Tyler Ennis, Ryan Miller, Christian Ehrhoff, Tyler Myers Others: Rick Jeanneret, Ted Black, Terry Pegula, Brian Duff 2) He can play on my team. Players: Cody Hodgson, Thomas Vanek, Steve Ott, Mark Pysyk, Pommenstein Others: Darcy Regier, Rob Ray, Harry Neale, Mike Robitaille 3) I wouldn't cry if he went elsewhere Players: Nathan Gerbe, Pat Kaleta, Marcus Foligno, Grigorenko, John Scott, Mike Weber, Andrej Sekera, Jhonas Enroth, Ville Leino, Jochen Hecht, Andrew Sulzer, and the career AHL'ers (Adam Pardy, Kevin Porter, Brian Flynn, Cody McCormick, Luke Adam, Matt Ellis, Corey Tropp) Others: Ron Rolston, Paul Hamilton, Kevin Sylvester 4) Get him out of here now! Players: Drew Stafford; Members of the old guard can be placed here for the right price (Vanek, Hecht, possibly Miller) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAGoqMZRLB4

Lollerskates.

So if Miller plays well, he costs us a high draft pick, but if he plays poorly, he's overrated and overpaid. Sucks to be him.

Interesting point. We'll have all summer to piss and moan.

Ha, that's chirp ammo for opponents if I've ever seen it.

We need to indoctrinate the youngins so that they grow up right, as fearless, die hard, and occaisionally self-loathing Sabres fans. Booing doesn't help that; it confuses the situation: they want to be happy and watch their heroes, and coudn't give two five year old shits about why Mom and Dad hate some guy named Darcy.