Doohickie

The Troll is strong with this one.

Eh. Karmanos gets an offer, Sabres exceed it a bit and make him GM, with Kevyn as President of Hockey Ops. That's basically how I got my last promotion: interviewed outside of the organization and shortly after I got promoted in place.

I think Kevyn was ready to move on from Eichel immediately, but humored Pegula and Krueger and made an honest effort to bring in pieces that would quickly make the team successful. Like you said, on paper it looked good and I remember the optimism on this forum when the acquisitions were made. The chemistry in the room even before Hall and Staal and the others got here was already toxic at that point I suspect, and when Eichel's injuries took him out of the lineup and hampered him when he was there doomed the short term retooling. Kevyn's failure to give Reino a long term deal was the first sign that he wanted a full-blown rebuild. It was delayed by a year while they tried a quick turn but then I think TPegs gave Kevyn his blessing to go forward with his original plan. It delayed things by not only the first year he was here, but also into the second year because the Eichel trade took so long to play out, and even after that, it was months until Tuch could play. He was acquiring pieces but couldn't really put them together on the ice right away.

I'm aware of that. I think there's the public persona and the personal view. In general he has a bigger-than life personality and I think his "fun" is little more than that in his mind, while in Buffalo most people still view him as the villain. When I first asked him about the The Goal he kind of winced and said, "You know, I still catch ***** for that. I'll be lining up for a faceoff and the other player will say, 'That wasn't a goal, Hull.' But what am I supposed to do? I can't take it back." I met him deplaning at DFW Airport and talked to him at baggage claim. I asked if he would sign his boarding card for my nephew who played youth hockey at the time. So he signed it: "To Matthew, Good luck in hockey! -Brett Hull" The look on his face when I told him it give it to my nephew when I went to visit family up in Buffalo that summer was priceless. 😛

I share a lot of your thoughts about the forwards, both possible exits and their eventual replacements. I am confident, though, that Tuch, Cozens, Tage, Dahlin and Power will provide a strong leadership base, and that Skinner and Greenway will further bolster the culture being built. Krebs, Quinn and JJ will hit their stride, and I think they will all play an increased role, giving rookies a little bit of room with protected minutes. I know Levi will have his struggles but I expect he will be an upgrade over Anderson, both in terms of performance and number games he can play. A veteran goalie to pair him with would be nice but I could see... optimistically... where sticking with either UPL or Comrie could work. I have higher hopes for UPL than Comrie. But either way, I think the team will be improved on goalie, I think they will acquire another second pair D man, and the forwards will be more talented, albeit greener. I think the will be next year's Devils, with a strong season but not a deep playoff run. I think if they can get their with more rookies and fewer Girgs/Okposos, they will be much, much better off in subsequent playoff runs. I really think the rookies that make the team in the fall will be studs for this team.

I personally feel that whether or not Reino would remain with the Sabres had no bearing on Eichel's departure. Possible, but my point was that perhaps his "bad attitude" including his looking to the rafters all the time could have been influenced by his injury.

I actually met and talked to Brett Hull about a year after that. He was kind of sheepish describing the goal, says he wished it was a highlight worthy goal. But the officials called it good and he couldn't take it back.

As a long time expat, I find the opposite to also be true: Things I don't like about other cities are frequently not the cities themselves, but just changes over time and when I get back to Buffalo I find Buffalo has moved on as well. Nothing stays the same forever.

Olofsson (move by trade to improve defense) Okposo (retirement after achieving 1000 games played and 600 points) Injury.... someone will get hurt during the season requiring a call up, perhaps multiple players I expect that the opening night roster will have at most one rookie, with several in Rochester ready to make the jump. If they're not pulling their weight, players like Jost, Olofsson, Girgs and Okie will find themselves pushed out by younger competition. This is what we've been waiting a long time for.

My feeling is the Sabres, Kevyn specifically, leveraged the neck injury to move Eichel out. Even if Eichel was "right" (whatever that means in what might have been a very complex situation) I can still see why Adams wanted to move on from a core that to date had not brought any success. He felt more comfortable leveraging key pieces of that core in their prime to bring in the kinds of players he wanted. He attempted to flip the frustrated Tankfruit for good vibes, and spread the talent more deeply through the lineup. I'd say he was successful. What was?

At this point I've got nothing against the Stars. I have a problem with the league and its officiating, but the Stars were trying to win a Cup, same as the Sabres. The bad taste has more to do with officiating that with the other team. That said, of the teams remaining I think my preference would be Panthers, Stars/Hurricanes, Seattle, VGK.

I wouldn't be surprised to find out Eichel's neck injury was hampering his play for quite a while before he was traded. Looking at his injury history the first two I see that were Upper Body were in January, then again December, 2019. He just missed a few days with each. I wonder if it was bothering him prior to that but he tried to work through it. I'm no Eichel fan but if he's been dealing with neck pain back that far (or even further back) I could see where the constant pain would lead to him taking shortcuts or not putting full effort, trying to save himself for big impact plays. If he was playing injured before he missed time and felt that he wasn't getting good care from the medical staff (whether or not he was, if he was in pain it would color his judgment), he might have been feuding with the team's management for some time. I could see a situation where "there ain't no good guys, there ain't no bad guys" but if Kevyn was aware of what was going on I could see where he wanted to move that problem out of the room. It could also explain why he was always looking up to the rafters at the end of a play.... if it relieved the neck pain....

I saw the complaints about the late start but that doesn't even begin to describe the bitch slap the NHL got from ESPN on this one... as they were telling viewers the game could be seen fullscreen on ESPN2, the first goal was scored. Brutal. And... pretzels???

Kind of like New Orleans, Louisiana is commonly referred to as NOLA.

Sounds like late-90s Red Wings system. They had a bunch of young prospects ready to make their mark on the NHL when they got the chance.

This is what my plan is for the new cabinets

Got most of Phase I of the kitchen done except for the backsplash tile. I decided to switch over to the other end of the room and start Phase II. As I mentioned upthread, We're replacing the clunky corner cabinet. I started on that yesterday: I started peeling the wallpaper on the area that will be exposed (they painted over the wallpaper but you can still see seams up close). Then I will piece in the plank flooring where it's missing, cut some of the drywall away to make it easier to move the light switch closer to the room entry and move the plug up on the wall; also it will make it easier to locate the studs because there actually used to be a doorway behind that cabinet; who knows how they framed it in. Then close up the wall, prime/paint it, and hang the cabinets. Although this is far less involved than the other end of the room, there's still a lot of demolition/reconstruction to be done before I actually hang the cabinets. Replacing the old cabinet with the new ones which will run along the short wall will give us another foot and a half of space for the kitchen table, which has always been cramped.

That's the informal nickname, yeah. The city, I think, prefers City of Fountains.

Has anyone mentioned Kansas City- the City of Fountains?

Oddly, there's actually a Frisco, Texas, just north of Dallas. Actually I think pretty much any city in OK is Cowtown in practice 😛

Panther City comes from a dig from a 19th century Dallas lawyer who came to Fort Worth and claimed it was such a lazy little town that a panther was sleeping in the middle of a downtown street. Fort Worth and Dallas hate each other so it was only natural that Fort Worth adopt the intended insult as a badge of honor. How much does Fort Worth hate Dallas? The original Fort Worth mogul, Amon Carter, who started the newspaper that is now the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, would sometimes have business meetings in Dallas. He would pack a sack lunch so that he wouldn't have to spend a dime in Dallas. Panther City is becoming a common name for businesses around here. There is a Panther Island brewery for instance; the ironic thing is that it's not on an island.... yet. At some point it will be because Fort Worth is going to dig a diversion channel for the Trinity River that will cut off a loop in the river's course that will allow Fort Worth to develop the resulting island into something like San Antonio's Riverwalk (the new channel will provide flood control, isolating the loop and preventing flooding to allow development right up to the river as was done in San Antonio almost a hundred years ago). Fort Worth also has the nickname of Funky Town; in some ways it has that Austin vibe embodied in the "Keep Austin Weird" motto. Austin is moving on and becoming a big city so some of the "weird" people are making Fort Worth funky instead. We went to J&J's Oyster Bar for dinner yesterday. Being a seafood place, there's a bit of a Louisiana vibe. The Professional Bull Riding championships started yesterday at Dickies Arena, so there were some (real) cowboys there in boots, spurs, jeans and cowboy hats. There was a preppie couple from TCU there on a date, and a couple of hispanic families where there too. That diversity, I think, is what Make Fort Worth Funky (and the associated "Funky Town" moniker) means. Besides Panther City and Funky Town, Fort Worth nicknames include Cowtown (because of its history as a trail head for cattle drives) and Queen City of the Prairie. Speaking of Queen City, I found this list of Queen Cities in the US: Gadsden, Alabama Selma, Alabama or Queen City of the Blackbelt Tuscaloosa, Alabama Anchorage, Alaska Camden, Arkansas or Queen City of the Ouachita River Eureka, California or Queen City of the Ultimate West Denver, Colorado or Queen City of the Plains Gainesville, Georgia Hazard, Kentucky or Queen City of the Mountains Bangor, Maine or Queen City of the East Cumberland, Maryland or Queen City of the Alleghenies Marquette, Michigan or Queen City of the North Traverse City, Michigan or Queen City of the North Virginia, Minnesota Greenville, Mississippi or Queen City of the Delta Meridian, Mississippi Sedalia, Missouri or Queen City of the Prairies Springfield, Missouri or Queen City of the Ozarks Helena, Montana or Queen City of the Rockies Manchester, New Hampshire Beach Haven, New Jersey Plainfield, New Jersey Buffalo, New York or Queen City of the Great Lakes Elmira, New York New Rochelle, New York or Queen City of the Sound Poughkeepsie, New York or Queen City of the Hudson Charlotte, North Carolina or Queen City of the South Fargo, North Dakota Cincinnati, Ohio or the Queen City of the West Ada, Oklahoma or Queen City of the Chickasaw Nation Allentown, Pennsylvania Olyphant, Pennsylvania Titusville, Pennsylvania Sioux Falls, South Dakota Clarksville, Tennessee Del Rio, Texas or Queen City of the Rio Grande Fort Worth, Texas or Queen City of the Prairie Burlington, Vermont Staunton, Virginia or Queen City of the Shenandoah Valley Virginia Beach, Virginia Seattle, Washington I've heard Fort Worth and Oklahoma City called Cowtown, but Columbus is a new one to me.

I heard that about you.

If I was hanging out I would want to know.

I don't think it's that strange. The league is a relatively small enterprise. If you go back 15-20 years, the amount of time you might expect a player just passing his prime (i.e., seasoned vet) to progress through the ranks, you could probably draw a similar relationship between most groups of 4 former players/current GMs, especially considering that most players play for multiple teams. It's also tilted in favor of the players who played on the better teams I think. So you take about 1/2 to 1/4 of the teams, look at the players that became GMs, and it's probably pretty easy to find these kinds of relationships. It's probably similar (in a statistical sense) to the Birthday Paradox: Wherever you are, if there are 23 people in the room with you, there is a 50/50 chance that two people have the same birthday.

I guess so, yes.