May Day 10

There was also an article not too long ago that there were talks to bring in Doug McLean, but it was snuffed out. IMO it is much easier to build a good NFL team. You need a good CEO/coach, a savvy GM in synergy with the coach, and need to hit at a good QB. You can turn over a roster and cap situation in 2 years time. The NHL has extensive scouting, drafting, and development that requires several aspects of the organization being run well. Building an NHL team is also a lot more involved and intricate than an NFL team. Bad decisions with the cap can doom the NHL squad for many years. The President/GM is the CEO of the team in the NHL, while the head coach typically is in the NFL. The Sabres have had a general power vacuum dating back to John Muckler. They have not had a strong GM/president since then. They hit on McDermott. He is a good and thorough manager. I think he has a strong enough personality to hear what Pegula has to say, but do what he things is right anyways. Beane is cut from the same cloth. They have earned plenty of trust with Pegula.

Off topic, but Sahlen Field/Pilot Field is vastly overrated at this point. It was ground-breaking in 1988. However, it is not a good design with today's standards. It needs to be about 5-6K seats smaller, needs to have open concourses and a better standing/socialization scene. It also has a terrible backdrop. The concourses are like a concrete tomb. If you are there with a large crowd on a hot day, the concession lines clog up the concourse every 40 feet or so, and it is about 25 degrees hotter in there than anywhere else. The sitelines are also gunked up there as you go down foul territory. The seats face the outfield much more than current designs and in the case of a full/large crowd, you need to look across a lot of people sideways to see the infield. All the newer AAA and AA ballparks have passed it by. The Jays' renovations during covid put a decent coat of paint on the insides, and improved the lighting, but without that, the ballpark would be in much worse decay. People locally still talk about it like it is the Minor League's crown jewel. It is now the 2nd oldest park in AAA, oldest in the International league, and it is dusted by places like Columbus, Indianapolis, Nashville, Charlotte, etc.

Tee Higgins next March

Things could click for sure and they could contend, which would be terrific. I do believe though that behind closed doors, they are prepared for a lean(er) season. It could be difficult to make the playoffs with a pretty loaded AFC: Chiefs, Texans, Baltimore, Cincy, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Jets, Dolphins, Jags... along with whoever else may join the party. IMO it is possible for them to miss and I suspect that management/ownership realizes that they are more vulnerable in 2024 than the past 4 seasons or so. Even with that said, Vegas odds still have them at #4-#7 to win the super bowl. No playoffs will not result in a house cleaning. The only way would be if the bottom fell out and some pretty embarrassing lockerroom/off field issues came to light. 2025 is the make-or-break year to get back to a top-4 NFL contender again. If the Bills stumble 2025 I could see pegula consider major changes to complement the back half of Allen's career. IMO management has done a terrific job of this 1-year rebuild. Made a lot of difficult cold-hearted decisions. Showed a lot of discipline. They are going to reap the rewards next offseason, flush with cap space (and even more flexibility) along with some good draft assets. This draft gave the football team a lot of depth, and we will see who emerges as contributors. Hopefully they enjoy a decent hit-rate.

It is not. The expectation is to take a step back. Hopefully contend for the division or the wild card. Everything is setting up for another 4-5 year window starting in 2025. They needed to purge salary and age a bit. This past build failed to get a superbowl. I blame a few bad contracts, mainly Von Miller, as well as the inability to get a WR 1B or WR 2 for the past 2 seasons. Diggs' act also hurt.

My guess is the next 3 picks are a C/interior, another WR, and either another DB or linebacker

I like it. This is a mini-1-year-rebuild for all intents and purposes, and it was 100% necessary. They held onto the quantity of picks, improved the position of some picks, and we can only assume they did not lose out on anything they wanted moving from 28-33 (so far). They need to replace Diggs and Davis... but also they needed more on top of that. Some 6th or 7th WR in the draft isn't going to make that up. They are in a bind, have other holes, and all these picks and a glut of cap money should get this team ready to gun for the Super Bowl again starting in 2025. For now, they are going to try to duct tape the offense together and hope Allen and the McDermott defense can snake a wild card spot

I was really happy worthy made it to the bills' pick. To see them trade it, to kc nonetheless, then them take worthy was bitter to swallow. With that said. Top end speed does not = tyreek hill. The raiders have notoriously taken the fastest wr for decades and it hasn't worked out. Mahomes did not make hill either. He established himself under Alex Smith, and look what he is doing with Tua. The Bills clearly had no interest in worthy, moving down. They were confident enough to give the pick to kc. It appears worthy would have fallen to the chiefs anyway if the Bills picked whoever they are targeting. Lastly, Andy Reid is a fatso

The game presentation/sound sucks the life out of the place as well. Music is turned up way too loud and pushes me into my seat. Players' individual goal songs are also very lame and suck the energy out of a crowd after a goal and pushes everyone back into their seats.

yeah, very 2002. That late 90s, early 00s was dismal. Broncos, Patriots, Bills, Titans, and a few others put out some horrible stuff. They win with this.

My first choice is Quenneville. Then Berube. They check all the boxes, especially Quenneville. The Sabres have done a lot of good faith things for the NHL over the years. Time to cash that in and ask for Coach Q to be reinstated. My guess is it will be Seth Appert, who will be Granato 2.0.

Didn't marrone want whaley and Brandon out? Tried to leverage a decent Bills season and his contract clause... and lost.

I never liked eichel either It's undeniable that the nhlpa took note of the way the sabres wouldn't allow him to get the procedure he wanted, and also how they handled the situation publicly Also looks worse when eichel (like oreilly) gets set free and wins a cup. NHLPA members will always see things from the players' perspective.

I am not so sure the Sabres lose money. The NHL is setting revenue records, and Pegula just raked in 2 shares of the expansion fee. They also have a small front office and one of the lowest payrolls in the league. Also factor in that he bought the franchise for $189 Million and it is now worth about $1 Billion.

I could probably write 100 pages on this topic. Quick summary. The NFL and NHL are very different. NFL is very coach-centric, and the program kind of falls in line with the coach and they get a few years. If they hit on the QB, and the coach has a decent head on his shoulders, you get what the Bills have. I think McDermott and Beane are strong enough personalities where they do what they think is right, listen to Terry, and easily convince him that their path is correct. The NHL is much more nuanced. You cannot clear the cap and rebuild in 2 years like the NFL. There are extensive international scouting and development requirements and seeds need to be planted years in advance. Coaches are the lowest man on the totem pole, and are thrown away with the trash for a kick in the butt the minute things aren't going right. There is an intricate balance and chemistry with an NHL team that cannot be achieved by looking at statistics. The rot from the Sabres actually comes from the ownership groups that came before Pegula. Rigas (the NHL), and Golisano eroded the franchise and its reputation in the hockey/NHL community. Things got very stale and incestuous under Regier and Ruff. Pegula came on and enabled that to continue. He thought just adding monitary resources would propel the Sabres to the top. All it did was magnify and compound the problems. Since then, Pegula has groped around, thinking he (and Kim when she was president) are the smartest people in the building. They have failed to bring in anyone with any kind of credibility and experience from the outside. The entire league has passed the Sabres by and lapped them 3x. Their image in the hockey world has gotten worse through players' inability to succeed here, and things like the treatment of Eichel. Firing a GM and hiring a nobody with the purpose of firing all the scouts and hockey personnel is also a terrible look. For 20 years, this team has needed someone with credibility to restore the image of this once great NHL franchise. The thing needs to be completely re-built from the top down with the guidance of someone with extensive experience and rolodex.

I very rarely watch the NCAA Championship game. Never if I do not have a bracket-money-winning situation on the line. IMO conference tournaments and the first few rounds are awesome. Action going on everywhere. By the time the get to about 8 teams, I lose steam. Super Bowl is tough to beat. First day of the NCAA tournament is good. MLB opening day always is nice.

Usually I hate predictable. Wrestlemania was always really a predictable event, and it wasn't often my favorite PPV when I was a regular watcher. I will say though, even though all the predictable results came in, it was fun. It was a great crowd, and as I mentioned earlier, everyone involved seemed to be having the time of their lives. The challenge for the WWE now is how to make it unpredictable and captivating, and getting their stars to stand on their own... and without an off the hook Philly crowd eating everything up. It does seem like there is more of a willingness to push the line a bit, as I see a lot of swearing and kind of edgier content which will help. Not expecting Attitude Era or anything, but the audience needs to get that "anything can happen" feeling again.

It was terrific. I too was expecting stone cold, but I gotta say, for some reason, the undertaker wasn't even on my radar. I too like how the legends were a part of the plot instead of fight in some sort of degrading battle Royale. You could tell it was different. It seemed edgier, and It seems everyone involved was having a blast. *I'm usually a modern wwe pessimist

I had enough breaks in the clouds, including for the entirety of the corona/full eclipse, where it was super awesome. Watching the faded sub through the clouds was awesome. Just enough poked through the haze at times. I hope I didn't do any damage viewing it obscured by a bunch of clouds. After the total eclipse, it semi- was clear for about 5 minutes and we used the glasses as we could finally see it through those.

I'm not bitter. He is who he is. I think we knew coming in that there was a shelf life until he burned the bridge here. Had some great times. I believe he has some juice left

I have often questioned local Yankees fans on that. You couldn't pick a more different philosophy and experience as the Yankees vs the local Buffalo teams (I was more on this before there were several other big spenders who emerged in MLB). Red Sox and Boston in general were kind of endearing losers for what seemed to be destined for all eternity. I have always been a Cleveland fan. I admit though, since the Guardians name change, it doesn't feel the same. The Cleveland experience fits in well with Buffalo though.

I hate the Yankees, but there are more Yankees fans in WNY than any other team. Next I would say probably the Mets and Red Sox would be close to one-another. Then comes the Blue Jays (surge lately with the affiliation and the home games in Buffalo maybe propel them into the above group with the Mets and Sox). Then comes the Indians Then Pirates I have only known 1 Reds fan in all my years living here. I know several (long time) Orioles fans. I would say they are after the Pirates.

It is tough/impossible to call the Bills the 'winner' here. It seems like Diggs might have had them backed into a corner though, and they had little choice. It seems he started pouting somewhere towards the end of the 2022 season. The Bills figured they could make everything better through the offseason, and last season, but it seems to have never worked out. This year, he would have probably been a distraction and/or not given full effort, and probably let the Bills know that. Its a net-negative for the Bills though. It is a drought-era WR room right now. They had to eat feces on a $31 cap hit. Along with all the other departures of team captains and pro-bowlers, this is really going to test the sustainability of the "process" here as well as Josh Allen's ability, commitment, and leadership. It kind of sails outside of the Bills being a powerhouse, and more into the seas of the unknown (and there is a hurricane Terry looming somewhere out there) I think Beane has done a lot of great things here. However, the combination of the Diggs extension, Von Miller signing, and Knox extension have really hurt. The good news is, 2025 looks to promise a ton of cap space. If they can land 3-4 decent regular contributors in this draft class out of 10 picks (and UDFA), and hit on 2-3 more next year, and make some good signings, they could be right back as a Superbowl front-runner with Allen and the younger pieces. That would indicate they are more of the ilk of Baltimore, Phily, SF, LA Rams, as opposed to another flash in the moment-in-the-sun recent franchise successes like Carolina, Atlanta, or

Which means he may be even more desperate for targets and flip out when the other guys get them

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