Robviously

My guess is the Sabres let his contract run out. My preference would be for them to trade him for a draft pick.

At some point, yes, Pegula WILL miss the money though. I think everyone is overestimating Pegula's ability to lose money forever. More contracts like Leino's or (worst case scenario) Myers' will hurt this franchise. Even if we can buy guys out to manage the salary cap, Pegula can't hemorrhage money forever. Nor do I want him to. If both he and the franchise are in good shape financially, they won't have to worry when the opportunity arrives to overspend for a guy who could put us over the top.

Unfortunately, the bold part sounds about right. The games are more interesting to watch with him in there, but that's about it. He hasn't looked out of place (which is a huge accomplishment for an 18 year old) but he hasn't looked special either (which is probably only because he's an 18 year old). I hope the Sabres make this decision based on what's best for his development and not because they think they need a center this year. If our team is so poorly constructed that they need to rush an 18 year old into the NHL, that's on Regier.

Forget about sending a message and forget about wins and losses, Ruff needs to get Myers turned around. How the hell does a player win the Calder Trophy and then get worse every single year since? Fix Myers. Do whatever it takes, but get it done. This is ridiculous. Do we know how to develop players or not?

This is definitely an option.

Where does the rush to give Myers a crazy contract fit into this? That's looking like a horrible move at this point.

They don't have a choice. And it's way past time the Sabres got some contributions from their back-up goalie. How many years in a row has this been a bad situation? Another reason to question the Regier/Ruff braintrust.

Ruff's main priority this season should be getting Myers turned around. We basically bet the entire franchise on him with that contract. Yeah, time to investigate. He's still young but I'm wondering if he needs a change of scenery.

His GAA the last two years was 2.73 and 2.70. That's not horrible for a back-up on a team that sucks at defense. Yes, we need to do better. Unfortunately, the cupboard is empty. The Sabres don't have any help on the way from Rochester and it's slim pickings in the rest of the system (unless they strike gold with Makarov or Ullmark).

I'm not ready to give up on Enroth after one awful game.

Playing some pretty horrible hockey right now.

:doh:

Which would be dumb, but I guess it's possible given our depth chart. Roy needed to go one way or another though and Ott is exactly the type of guy we needed after last year. Trading Roy for Ott and then making a separate move to get a center would have been just fine.

If Kassian turns out to be significantly better than Hodgson, I'm worried that Regier will never make a gutsy trade again. Trading our top prospect for their top prospect is arguably the riskiest move he's ever made. I want more moves like that in the future. It's also tough not to wonder what Kassian might be like for us this year with Ott here to lead the way and Foligno around to compete with.

And play his whole career in Buffalo and score 600 goals and help put some banners in the rafters (one type in particular that we're missing). Yeah, I'd sign up for that.

I don't think that's a factor in the FNC atmosphere, and I'm not even sure it's true. Our star three years ago (and probably the most popular athlete in Buffalo) was Tyler Myers. His rookie season where he led us to a division championship was pretty special, and it was still a listless crowd at home. Two years ago, Gerbe and Ennis led that mad rush to the playoffs. This year we have Foligno and Grigorenko as new "stars" that fans should be pretty excited about. I understand being less enthusiastic at the games when the team is completely dysfunctional. But that was pretty much just last year when the team was painful to watch. Our arena has been quiet for a while now. (And even last year should have started with a lot of enthusiasm and interest given the summer moves.)

I've been hearing something similar to the bold part for my whole life and I really don't get it. Buffalo isn't special as a "hard working" city and it's really not much of a blue collar city either (we're not exactly the manufacturing hub that we used to be). In terms of hard work, the people in the "rich" cities probably work more hours. Seattle is a rich, cosmopolitan city but the people working the white collar jobs at Amazon and Microsoft are putting in crazy hours. To that point, a lot of the people who work for the major corporations in America's biggest cities are working long hours. So my guess is that if you're at a game in a big market, you're more likely to go nuts because either (1) you can only afford to go to a game or two every year, or (2) you bust your ass at work all day and you're ready to cut loose at the game. Seattle, Chicago, Boston, and New York seem to fit that theory. I don't know what the problem is. Sometimes I think the atmosphere sucks because the FNC is pretty much the place to be seen around Buffalo. What else is there to do in town? We're not a cosmopolitan city and we definitely don't have a bustling downtown. If you want to go somewhere exciting in Buffalo, that's pretty much your only bet. Maybe in a bigger market with more going on, the people at the game are the ones who really want to see hockey, and not just be out on a Saturday night. Again, just another theory.

The fact that Grigorenko already seems committed to defense in his own zone as an 18 year old (both in his first two games here and for Russia in the World Juniors where one of his highlights was him preventing a goal) bodes well for his future beyond what Lindy Ruff will think of it. To me, it suggests a mental maturity. Most teenagers would be completely dedicated to the glory that comes with scoring goals, especially a teenager with Grigorenko's talent. Grigorenko putting the work in to play well in his own end makes me think he wants to be good at everything; that is, he doesn't have a mentality where he's here to score goals and someone else should be worrying about defense. Totally a first impression though.

Sadly, it actually is. The Blackhawks game last April was literally their first game after clinching a playoff spot and they had absolutely nothing on the line, but the crowd was still insanely loud and active the whole game. It was a much better atmosphere than anything I've experienced in Buffalo since 2006-2007. I guess you could chalk some of that up to how good the Blackhawks are, but it's not like the Sabres haven't been good at times in the last few years and, like I said, this was a meaningless game.

I don't think he needs to touch the in-game ad revenue to significantly improve the experience at the FNC. Just cut out the super loud music that they immediately start playing every time a whistle blows. It was so loud in there a couple years ago that I couldn't even talk to the person next to me during stoppages in play. (Imagine how hard it would be to start a chant.) And, BTW, can we just let the game speak for itself? We're watching the best hockey players in the world. That's the entertainment. I don't need dance music from 20 years ago blasted at me every single time the game stops. The morons who work at the arena seem to think that we're all stupid children who need non-stop LOUD NOISES to keep us engaged. Just cut it the ###### out already.

Anyone else starting to get worried? If we clear Gerbe or McCormick to play, that means we need to make a roster move right? Time for Regier to earn his money and clear up the logjam at the blueline.

I wish we could expect Darcy to do things early in the year. :(

You already have a projected outcome for the last 12 games of the season? The Sabres' record last year when both Myers and Ehrhoff were healthy was pretty impressive. (Of course I can't find it right now.) Let's see if that continues if they stay healthy this year. Maybe they are supposed to be good and the Injuries! excuse was actually relevant last season (for once).

I've never stayed there, but the Hampton Inn on Chippewa is a good location if you want some places to eat nearby. http://hamptoninn3.hilton.com/en/hotels/new-york/hampton-inn-and-suites-buffalo-downtown-BUFDTHX/index.html Also, if you want to change things up, you could think about staying in Niagara Falls (especially if your family has never been up there).

Vanek and Pominville have had a nice chemistry together for a while, but we haven't had the right center to put between the two of them. Maybe Hodgson is it. OTOH, they looked awesome starting last season with Luke Adam between them. Still too early to tell, but Hodgson's potential has always been pretty high. He should be really good. The main thing I'm getting out of watching Vanek and Pominville start the year so strong is how gratifying it would be to see the two of them finally be part of a Stanley Cup winning team. Imagine how great it would be if those two got a Cup together after being Sabres for north of 10 years. Hopefully the contract extensions get done because I definitely get some value out of having them on the team beyond just their production.