Robviously

He hasn't been out of place at all, but I'm more worried about what would be best for his development. A 48 game mini-season is probably a good intro to the NHL, but what does struggling as a teenager do to him mentally? Most guys don't show up in the NHL until they're 20, and that 2 year difference could mean a lot physically and mentally. Hopefully we get a better idea of what he can do in these next three games. I don't want to rush him to the NHL just because we need a guy for our third line.

Maybe if it's a draw and both players are acting like they just pulverized the other guy, but not this time. Orr looks pumped up and energized, and Scott looks like he's not sure what just happened. If the fight ends, and one guy looks really happy and the other guy looks really miserable, I'd say 99.9% of the time that means the happy guy won the fight and both players know it.

The Ryan O'Reilly situation should be a gift for an owner like Pegula who seems to want to take advantage of opportunities like this. Plus, he's another grit/intensity upgrade which, yes, the Sabres could still use. Assuming Regier is awake, this should come down to who the Avs want in return. Also, how long are we planning on carrying 8 defensemen? I'd like to hope we're working the phones every day to get something done with this. What's the consensus through two games? I didn't get to watch a ton of tonight's game, but if I had to decide right now I'd probably send him back to the Q.

Wow, really unimpressive first fight for Scott. Orr looked like he was trying to murder someone and Scott looked lackadaisical. Watch how both players react on their way to the box and it's pretty clearly a win for Orr.

I basically agree with this, but I'm taking the Stafford quote seriously because this isn't the first time he's said something like this and because the last time he said something like this, he took it down a few notches physically. I hope he proves me wrong. He certainly can and it's not like I'm never wrong about this stuff.

I ruined your birthday. :(

Not to me. I'd take my chances with a 22-year old Ennis over a 27 year old Stafford moving forward, especially if it means adding an O'Reilly.

Then all he had to do was say nothing. Like I said, I don't need trash talk and I do care more about what he actually does. His weird need to downplay his ability to fight bugs me because he's done that before -- and pretty much DID stop being the guy who stands up for his teammates. Despite the fact that we know he's capable of doing that when necessary. I'm openly not a Drew Stafford fan, and I base that on his entire career.

1. Yes he is a player who should be out there fighting. He's not a heavyweight but he can handle himself fine. He's not nearly good enough to get by as a pure skill player. 2. The last time he got in a fight, he also said it's not his thing and "we have other guys for that." The "we have other guys for that" thing encapsulates everything wrong with our franchise the past few years. Nobody wants to step up and take responsibility, or do more than they think they should have to. And he was open about it. 3. Again, what do we gain from him saying he really, really doesn't like fighting every time he gets in a (rare) fight? The whole point of fighting is to deter opposing players from taking liberties with your teammates in the future. Yesterday was his best moment in years, but he still wanted to make sure people knew he didn't want to do it "too often." Must sound terrifying to teams around the league.

1. The last time he said something like that after a fight, he took a three year break from fighting. 2. Why say that at all? What is the value in saying you're not going to do that "too often"? So if the same thing happens tonight, is it not his responsibility anymore? Based on everything we know about Drew Stafford, what he said after the game was pretty alarming. The whole reason everyone freaked out yesterday about that fight was that it was Drew Stafford standing up for his teammates. He normally seems barely interested in anything like that. And after the game, he rushed to remind us that he really, really doesn't want to do it all that much. Yes, I would totally jump on him for saying nothing. :rolleyes: That's exactly what I was doing by praising him effusively for the fight since it happened, and only stopped when he decided to tell everyone that he really isn't into doing what he did. Maybe he'll prove me wrong and make yesterday a regular thing. I can't change everything I know about the guy based on one game -- especially when he's telling me not to.

I don't see any benefit in trash talking and, you're right, it's all about walking the walk anyway. But that just makes Stafford's comments even more maddening. All he has to say is NOTHING. Or a bunch of words that essentially mean nothing (athlete-speak). What is the point of him right after the game making sure people know he's not planning on doing that "too often"? Does every fight traumatize him so much that he immediately needs to tell some reporters that it's really not his thing? Because this is exactly what he did three years ago after his last fight. Given his track record, I wouldn't be shocked if yesterday was Stafford's last fight of the year.

Why?

I would do this in a heartbeat. I wonder if they'd take Stafford and Sekera for O'Reilly and a pick. They were *almost* a playoff team last year and this could be enough to put them over the top this season.

I see zero benefit in underselling it. Let people think you ARE willing to drop the gloves every night, or multiple times per night. It doesn't mean you have to; the threat of doing it is enough. Opposing players will think twice about cheap shots if they know there is no shortage of Sabres players ready to punch them in the head afterwards. The other problem with underselling it is that he undersold it the last time he dropped the gloves as a Sabre and then took a three year break from fighting.

I was about to post something about how it'd be awesome if Drew Stafford decided to go bananas and drop the gloves again tonight but then I saw this in the News: http://buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130121/SPORTS/130129875/1004 Really, Drew? You have your best moment as a Sabre in years and you immediately want to remind everyone that you're not willing to do it "too often"? WTF? Good Lord. All he has to say is "I'm not the best fighter in the league, but I'll always be ready to defend my teammates." Instead, he's trying to make it sound like he's got his 1 fight per year out of the way or something. I'm never going to be able to like this guy, am I? He's definitely aware of what a really awesome player should do (and literally says so), but really likes to hedge his bets about how often he's going to do it. This is way too close to what he said after his last fight (three years ago against RJ Umberger). Ugh.

I agree Ennis should be in the mix (he's not good/established enough to be off limits). I just can't imagine the Sabres moving him this season. I think we'll have more clarity after five games when we know if Grigorenko is on the team this year or not. If he is, O'Reilly is probably more valuable than having three completely offense-oriented centers on our top three lines.

Me too, but I live in Chicago.....

I could definitely live with Armia or Pysyk as a centerpiece to this deal. I don't have a problem trading Kea, Catenacci, Sekera, Gauthier-Leduc, or Brennan as part of this (assuming the Avs are only interested in younger players). Would they be interested in Stafford? We aren't trading Ennis, and I'd *hate* to trade Girgensons since I think we need more players like that (so why trade one to get another one?).

I love that 5XL is an option. We got a box of free corporate t-shirts at my old job a few years back and (just to be safe) they threw in one 4XL and one 5XL. The 5XL was the size of a tablecloth; I made the smallest girl in our office try it on and it was pretty much a robe on her. Fun times.

I thought it was interesting but not really worth starting a new thread about, so I put it here. Really amazing to look back on those drafts ~10 years later and how they shaped the league. The 2003 draft is ridiculous.

Fun Facts Of the 289 players selected in the 2001 NHL Entry Draft, Jason Pominville (drafted 55th overall) is 3rd in points with 434 in 532 games. Only Ilya Kovalchuk (1st overall, 786 points) and Jason Spezza (2nd overall, 616 points) have more. Before Pominville, the Sabres also picked Derek Roy 32nd overall and Chris Thorburn 50th overall in this draft. Jiri Novotny was their 1st round pick. Of the 292 players selected in the 2003 NHL Entry Draft, Thomas Vanek (drafted 5th overall) is also 3rd in points with 452 in 548 games. Only Eric Staal (2nd overall, 574 points) and Ryan Getzlaf (19th overall, 474 points) have more.

This was the case when I had Center Ice with TWC in Seattle a couple years back. They had 1 or 2 dedicated channels for HD and sometimes you'd get lucky and have your game be on one of them. Pretty stupid if this is still the case in 2013. I bought NHL Gamecenter for the first time this year and can watch on my TV with a Roku box. It's an HD picture but I think the refresh rate is low. If you're used to watching a plasma with a 600Hz refresh rate, you'll notice a lower one (especially watching the puck on a cross-ice pass). Still, it looked pretty decent overall on my TV and great on my computer last night, so not a bad way to spend $50.

We have more offensive defensemen than even that. Brennan can bring offense, and the Amerks have two rookies with that upside as well: Mark Pysyk and Jerome Gautier-Leduc. (It's pretty much JGL's whole game and Pysyk is a well-rounded guy with more offensive potential than big hit potential.) Actually, what we still don't have is a monster physical presence on the blue line. Myers isn't the bruising terror we were all hoping he'd develop into (we can still hope) and Regehr hasn't really provided that (he's solid but I don't think opposing players are getting heartburn at the thought of going into a corner with him). Maybe Brayden McNabb can be that guy.

Sulzer and Ehrhoff were our best pair out there today. As for Kassian being addition by subtraction, if he were as good as Foligno, I'd have been happy to keep them both. Hopefully Girgensons develops quickly into another power forward for us. Actually, seeing what Ott and Foligno do for our skill players, the Sabres should be targeting another young power forward when they think about trades.

I fully admit to being happy he was back when we had a 3-2 lead with just a few minutes left. And he did look pretty good today.