Doohicksie

Oh, so you mean Rasmus Ristolainen. We had one, decided he sucked and got some ol' Hagg for him.

I have a new way to break a sweat. My primary road bike has been a 1983 Raleigh Super Course. Today I picked up a brand new Trek Checkpoint SL 5. It's a gravel bike. I was looking at a Trek Domane, which is basically a road bike with slightly wider tires. The Checkpoint is more of a pure gravel bike. I think really what I need is a road bike, but I took the Domane out and I though it felt good, then I took the Checkpoint and it felt right. Like it was built for me. This bike is my first carbon fiber bike bike with brifters bike with disc brakes bike with tubeless tires bike with clipless pedals I will have to do a few short checkout rides to get used to the clipless pedals.

The Hockey Guy: "We've been waiting for Buffalo to get better since this channel started. Maybe it's my fault."

You can call me Al.

I think expecting growth from Benson isn't unreasonable either.

Eichel didn't look great immediately after the surgery either. Perhaps a player takes time before they can play at full level afterward, like maybe the player doesn't fully trust the repair, or the surgery impairs neck movement/mobility until the scar tissue works out.

When you do, let me know. I'll subscribe.

I think he tied his own hands by proposing the rebuild when he was first hired, and when Eichel got wind of it he said he wanted out.

I think Kevyn floated the rebuild plan when he was first hired, but then Krueger (and Pegula) prevailed on him to "load up" and make a run. But sure, there's lots of speculation and reports from people who don't really know, so here on Sabrespace posters have various versions of what went down.

No, it coincides with Kevyn's arrival and talk of yet another rebuild. That's when Eichel wanted out.

If Kevyn knows what he's doing (yeah, I know...) McCleod could be a key piece of that turnaround.

He sounds a little stunned by the trade but trying to make the best of it.

Going back to my original "Kevyn tied his own hands" what I mean is that before the neck injury, Kevyn had already resolved to move on from Eichel. Once he did that, the onus was on him. The injury complicated things, but I see the Sabres' position: The surgery carried risk and he didn't want the Sabres to bear the risk within their organization; the wanted to trade the risk with the player. Also, maybe if they did the surgery immediately, it could have resolved the issue, but I don't think the issue was that black and white in the beginning, and once it became clear that it was a sticking point, allowing Jack to have the surgery and recover would have further delayed the trade. Was that all on Kevyn? It was on the Sabres collectively and I'm sure some of the decisions came with a consensus from ownership, but I don't think that takes away Kevyn's responsibility for the situation as the GM.

I can vaguely remember when we had newborns in the house (they're in their 30s now) and remember how every workday, I felt like zombie.

Had to get up at 4 am to take my son to the airport. Tried to go back to sleep for an hour or so when I got back. Didn't really fall asleep. I'm going to be a zombie today. If I wasn't just back from vacation, I'd take a vacation day.

Perhaps. It's also a reasonable read of the tea leaves.

No, I don't think so. That first year he brought in Hall and Staal and company in an effort to win now with Eichel; I think *that* was at Pegula's urging, but that same summer (2020) he signed Reinhart to only a one year bridge, which to me was the first concrete sign that Kevyn was thinking rebuild. I think he was already planning to trade Eichel before he was incapacitated with his neck injury. In 2020 Kevyn brought in Hall, Staal, Eakin and Sheahan to try to give Eichel some veteran help, I believe at the urging of Krueger and TPegs. It was only after that failed spectacularly that Kevyn was able to get buy-in from TPegs to move some of the rotten tankfruit out do the larger rebuild.

Kevyn tied his own hands though.

I don't think I would have even noticed CapFriendly was gone except for this thread.

It's actually spotrac (only one "r"): https://www.spotrac.com/ Instead of going to a particular site, I typically just google the player's name and "salary" or "contract" and pick one of the sites that pop up.

Honestly, I think Granato was coaching as if he were still a Development Program coach, keeping a simple, static scheme so that each player would know where to expect teammates to be. Unfortunately the opposition knew too.

Never seen it in our Costco but I will look closer just for fun. Walmart I avoid. I've seen it at Costco.

Actually, it's not very full.