Taylor Hall signing: 8 million one yr with Sabres

[Cascade Youth]

6 minutes ago, dudacek said:

Damn, after that speech from Ralph how could he say no?

 

Damn.  This team is going places.

[ExWNYer]

21 minutes ago, Cascade Youth said:

Damn.  This team is going places.

Hopefully, that place is closer to Heaven than Hell. We've suffered long enough in NHL Purgatory.

[miles]

to be honest, and all joking aside, the cody eakin signing is over shadowed by the hall signing, and almost nobody is talking about it. 

you will not find a stronger mullet than cody eakin. I mean its definitely a #1 line mullet. On top of that, his mustache could compete with any team's best mustache in the entire league. 

you will be hard pressed to find someone with a combination as good as that on any team

Edited October 13, 2020 by miles

[LGR4GM]

34 minutes ago, dudacek said:

Damn, after that speech from Ralph how could he say no?

 

😝

 

[LGR4GM]

53 minutes ago, miles said:

today i started listening to the NHL channel on sirius xm streaming.

they talked about the hall signing for a minute. they said flat out, the sabres have no chance of re-signing hall next year and the sabres still have no chance of making the playoffs. 

i dont want to try to say i am an expert because i am far from it. however, i dont see how they could say such a thing on either case. 

first, hall came here because the money was good and because of kruegar. i believe i read that colorado offered similar money and 2 years.

second, i dont see how you cant say the sabres arent a playoff team at this point. they have 2 elite lines, they have very good 3rd line, and their 4th line could match up nicely with anyone. they have OK defense, sure it could be better. 

the only thing that truly concerns me is they dont have great goalies. hutton was great and then he was horrible. if we believe his eye was really the problem, i dont see him being a big issue. if we dont believe it, then we probably do have an issue there. ullmark is a #2, really. i hate to say it. however, i think with the sabres offense, they can put up big numbers. 

i honestly dont see the sabres not making the playoffs this year. 

i guess signing up for the streaming when i did was maybe not the best timing. it was 30 minutes into streaming when they started talking bad about the sabres. i only signed up because marty biron said he was on at 5pm for a show. i wanted to hear it...and i got a free echo dot. 

The Sabres had 3 problems last season. 1st they were something like 21st in generating in scoring chances, simply put they didn't generate enough opportunities. They sought to fix that by bringing in mainly 3 players so far, Hall, Staal, and Eakin to provide more scoring in the lineup. 2nd was they had no #2 center which has been fixed with Staal. This now makes Skinner more valuable because he isn't suffering on a line by himself and some tumbleweeds. 3rd was goaltending, when Ullmark was not playing Hutton was terrible. No team can sustain winning with a goalie having a sub .900 sv%. Out of those 3 things, 2 of them have been addressed in some way. The only lingering question is can Hutton either rebound or will he be upgraded. Are they a playoff team? Idk but I certainly would not count them out considering Rasmus Dahlin hasn't been factored in to what is coming next.  

[Don Dokken]

Re: goaltending, this quote from Ralph was news to me. “At the moment” doing some heavy lifting, a little like saying “I’d like to introduce you to my current wife”

 

[Zamboni]

No sheet John Vogl. The fact that anyone wasted a nanosecond to consider Miller’s interest in coming back to Buffalo is funny.

[LTS]

39 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

The Sabres had 3 problems last season. 1st they were something like 21st in generating in scoring chances, simply put they didn't generate enough opportunities. They sought to fix that by bringing in mainly 3 players so far, Hall, Staal, and Eakin to provide more scoring in the lineup. 2nd was they had no #2 center which has been fixed with Staal. This now makes Skinner more valuable because he isn't suffering on a line by himself and some tumbleweeds. 3rd was goaltending, when Ullmark was not playing Hutton was terrible. No team can sustain winning with a goalie having a sub .900 sv%. Out of those 3 things, 2 of them have been addressed in some way. The only lingering question is can Hutton either rebound or will he be upgraded. Are they a playoff team? Idk but I certainly would not count them out considering Rasmus Dahlin hasn't been factored in to what is coming next.  

People seem to forget the division they play in...  it's not easy, even with these upgrades.  They have a chance now, that's how I see it.

[PromoTheRobot]

4 hours ago, SDS said:

Tunein radio was flawless and then came this ***** show which hasn’t been corrected in years.

 

4 hours ago, Radar said:

Listening to Instigators. That gang is okay but their wacky interviewing. Who cares about shows, music ECT. Side note radio.com sucks. Spends more time buffering than is bearable. Unless you live next to the radio station reception is terrible. Radio.com was bad choice by Entercom.

 

Radio.com app is a total crash-fest. A complete joke of an app.

[Thorner]

16 hours ago, Thorny said:

I haven't developed a firm stance on Botterill, just yet. 

This was a joke @Cascade Youth and I am sorry I left you confused 😆

[Taro T]

18 minutes ago, LTS said:

People seem to forget the division they play in...  it's not easy, even with these upgrades.  They have a chance now, that's how I see it.

 But, if they miss with 98 points, it is what it is and the Hall magic bringing in the #1 overall pick combined with development of the other kids should have the Sabres firmly in the playoffs the next year. 😉

That sort of trajectory will have people chomping at the bit for '21-'22.

[Thorner]

3 hours ago, dudacek said:

I'd say the tipping point won't be Hall walking, it will be the season the Sabres have on the ice.

There's a lot of passion for this franchise that can be rekindled in the community and in the dressing room with a playoff appearance. More than Hall leaving can quench.

But Hall leading to another season like the past two, then leaving, would be crushing.

Yup, I agree. Hall leaving could absolutely be a symptom of what PA is referring to, coming to pass - but I see it as probably more that, a resulting factor, more so than a driving force. Hall could actually conceivably think the Sabres are on the right track, yet bolt for the highest bidder (not saying this will be the case). 

I think this IS it - but it's all about the 8th seed. 

We've come to it at last, the great battle of our time - the heroic march for 8th. Unironically. 

[Thorner]

2 hours ago, Derrico said:

It’s an enormous year.  This team absolutely has to take that next step.  Playoffs are required.  

Alot of pressure considering it will be a short season and we don’t know when it begins.

We can’t ride into this year with such unknown in goal.  Move has to be made there.  I hope they’re still looking at ways to shake up other spots as well.  Make or break year really.  Management has to act like it and Hall signing gives me some hope.

 

Maybe we get lucky and actually benefit from a short year. It probably means nothing in this regard, but recently the Sabres as we all know how started stronger than they've finished. If we ARE relying on Jack a ton, perhaps there isn't enough runway for his tank to run out of gas. 

Edited October 13, 2020 by Thorny

[Thorner]

2 hours ago, miles said:

today i started listening to the NHL channel on sirius xm streaming.

they talked about the hall signing for a minute. they said flat out, the sabres have no chance of re-signing hall next year and the sabres still have no chance of making the playoffs. 

 

^It's my tweet, but I didn't want to retype it all. 

To your point, I found it pretty hilarious how they announced the deal on That's Hockey. This isn't our Sabres bias going to work - some of these outlets are inherently working editorial bias into the simple announcement where it does not exist with other teams' announcements.

It's rather embarrassing journalistically. 

 

[Thorner]

To say a team with a top 6 of Eichel, Hall, Reinhart, Skinner, Olofsson and Staal has "no chance" at the playoffs is, frankly, ridiculous. Maybe they don't make it, but the playoffs are objectively in the conversation when you have a top 6 with that objective level of talent. 

[dudacek]

15 minutes ago, Thorny said:

 

^It's my tweet, but I didn't want to retype it all. 

To your point, I found it pretty hilarious how they announced the deal on That's Hockey. This isn't our Sabres bias going to work - some of these outlets are inherently working editorial bias into the simple announcement where it does not exist with other teams' announcements.

It's rather embarrassing journalistically. 

 

Montreal dumps its leading scorer from two years ago for a pair of 2nd line wingers and adds backup goalie and a 3rd pairing defenceman and is winning the offseason. The Sabres add a legitimate 2C and one of the best wingers in the game for Marcus ***** Johansson but are still irrelevant. 

It’s a narrative and a lazy one at that, but we’ve earned it.

Edited October 13, 2020 by dudacek

[thewookie1]

If we miss the playoffs by 1 pt or something I doubt Eichel will throw up his arms in defeat and demand out. So I’d like to think we have, at least, a good chance of being good enough for Eichel to be happy.

[miles]

17 minutes ago, Thorny said:

 

^It's my tweet, but I didn't want to retype it all. 

To your point, I found it pretty hilarious how they announced the deal on That's Hockey. This isn't our Sabres bias going to work - some of these outlets are inherently working editorial bias into the simple announcement where it does not exist with other teams' announcements.

It's rather embarrassing journalistically. 

 

I dont understand journalist inserting their thoughts and opinions on stuff. 

I miss the days of just reporting the news and letting people have their opinions based on facts. 

Even those facts are not accurate when you have reports like we had in nj saying our cases are as high as they were in may

We had basically the same amount since may to now, around 500. 1 minute of research showed that it was click bait fear mongering.  We are not any worse off than we have been for the last 4 months.

 

Its exhausting and in my opinion the media has lost integrity and should be taken as " reality TV "

Edited October 13, 2020 by miles

[Taro T]

11 minutes ago, Thorny said:

To say a team with a top 6 of Eichel, Hall, Reinhart, Skinner, Olofsson and Staal has "no chance" at the playoffs is, frankly, ridiculous. Maybe they don't make it, but the playoffs are objectively in the conversation when you have a top 6 with that objective level of talent. 

Plus, they have what appears to be a 220-230# Dahlin on the blue line.

Even with the current goaltending tandem they are in the mix.  Improve that &, while not a given they'll get in, they might even be a favorite for 1 of the 2 WC's.

[Thorner]

Just now, dudacek said:

Montreal dumps its leading scorer from two years ago for a pair of 2nd line wingers and adds backup goalie and a 2nd pairing defenceman and is winning the offseason. The Sabres add a legitimate 2C and one of the best wingers in the game for Marcus ***** Johansson but are still irrelevant. 

It’s a narrative and a lazy one at that, but we’ve earned it.

We've earned it. But it's a greater issue than that in question here - it still needs to be framed within the context of opinion.

You don't frame editorializing as news - no other player had the commentary worked into that teleprompter in that segment. That's bullsh*t. 

[thewookie1]

2 minutes ago, dudacek said:

Montreal dumps its leading scorer from two years ago for a pair of 2nd line wingers and adds backup goalie and a 3rd pairing defenceman and is winning the offseason. The Sabres add a legitimate 2C and one of the best wingers in the game for Marcus ***** Johansson but are still irrelevant. 

It’s a narrative and a lazy one at that, but we’ve earned it.

 

Being seen as bad or underachieving is certainly fair but the bias against the Sabres is rather absurd. Toronto at this time are the media darlings regardless of their signings and Montreal could trade Suzuki for Colin Miller and they would make it sound like it was a one sided trade in favor of Montreal 

[Taro T]

7 minutes ago, miles said:

I dont understand journalist inserting their thoughts and opinions on stuff. 

I miss the days of just reporting the news and letting people have their opinions based on facts. 

Even those facts are not accurate when you have reports like we had in nj saying our cases are as high as they were in may

We had basically the same amount since may to now, around 500. 1 minute of research showed that it was click bait fear mongering.  We are not any worse off than we have been for the last 4 months.

Its exhausting and in my opinion the media has lost integrity and should be taken as " reality TV "

At least when they do it in something like sports, it's easy to see the bias.  Subjects that are harder to understand or where the backrooms are well set off & it is difficult to actually see the sausage being made are much tougher to be able to discern the wheat from the chaff.  

[Thorner]

13 minutes ago, Taro T said:

Plus, they have what appears to be a 220-230# Dahlin on the blue line.

Even with the current goaltending tandem they are in the mix.  Improve that &, while not a given they'll get in, they might even be a favorite for 1 of the 2 WC's.

You really think he could be above 220? haha

[Taro T]

7 minutes ago, thewookie1 said:

 

Being seen as bad or underachieving is certainly fair but the bias against the Sabres is rather absurd. Toronto at this time are the media darlings regardless of their signings and Montreal could trade Suzuki for Colin Miller and they would make it sound like it was a one sided trade in favor of Montreal 

No point complaining about it as it will do no good.  (Though venting can be good for the soul as we saw on day 1 of FA. 😉 )

The Yanks & Cheatriots will always be assumed to be wonderful as well until daggers are stabbed through their formerly beating hearts.  (That's metaphorical obviously.  We know soulless beasts like the Cheatriots have no functioning hearts.  😉 )

[Taro T]

1 minute ago, Thorny said:

You really think he could be above 220? haha

So, trim it back to 210-230.  Point still stands. 😉