BillsFan4

5-2 Buffalo! Man, that was such a fun game to watch. It honestly reminded me of when the Sabres used to be a good/fun team to watch! They were constantly crashing the net and creating traffic + legitimate scoring chances. Attacking the Caps all night. Actually winning puck/board battles. Back checking hard. Super active sticks. Just an overall good, exciting brand of hockey. Im starting to like Donny Granato more by the day. I’m still not ready to say he should get the full time gig. But he (and Ellis + Girardi) are doing great things. Literally every young player is playing night&day better. Mittelstadt looks like he’s really coming into his own. Dahlin looks like Dahlin again. Joker looks great. Asplund. Bryson. They just need to bench Irwin and call up Samuelsson or another young guy. Also, I was way too quick to complain about that Bjork trade. He’s really impressed me. I’ll gladly eat crow if he keeps playing like this!

Sabres are playing some damn good hockey tonight against Washington. Bjork impressing me so far, too.

https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/houston/2021/04/14/395798/20-deshaun-watson-accusers-named-one-woman-drops-lawsuit/

When I first read quotes like this, it raised some doubts for sure: But reading the entire article, it sounds like he is still very passionate about playing football. Sounds like it’s his 1st love. combine that love for the game with his insane talents and I think he’ll be fine. I personally love for my QB to have a “HATE to lose” competitive drive to be the best, like Allen. But that can also be a detriment at times (like we’ve seen when Allen gets too flustered), and it’s caused plenty of QBs to get eaten up by the NFL, constantly being under the microscope. So who knows, maybe it will serve Lawrence well. Or he could end up walking away one day like Luck did. Time will tell.

Great interview! Yep. It would be a bummer to lose him but I also trust Beane to replace him. I feel so damn lucky Brandon Beane is our GM.

I am one of the weird ones who actually wanted to have some side effects and was happy when I did 🤣 honestly. It put my mind at ease. I knew that the vaccine triggered an immune response in my body and I felt like “ok, now I know it worked and I’ll be protected”.

He had Dan Morgan on. Good listen!

This whole situation with the Canucks is crazy.

don’t mind the necro bump... This was a good read. Didn’t want to start a new thread for it, so I figured I’d post it here.

There are rumors going around that apparently Hall blocked a trade to a couple teams. Isles are one of the rumored teams (apparently they were ready to offer a similar package to the 1 they sent to NJ) and another unnamed wild card team (some saying it might’ve been the Blues).

Many people get a stronger reaction to the 2nd dose because your immune system recognizes the virus spike protein from the first dose of the vaccine and mounts a stronger response. yeah, you’re all good regardless of vaccine reaction. Everyone’s body/immune system is different. When you look at the trial data for the Pfizer & Moderna vaccines, just over 1/2 the people had no reactions but were still 90+% protected. I’ve read the younger you are, the More likely you are to have a reaction (more robust immune system) but I don’t know that’s actually true.

https://theathletic.com/2513045/2021/04/12/nhl-trade-grades-bruins-win-taylor-hall-sweepstakes-and-give-up-alarmingly-little/ ‘NHL trade grades: Bruins win Taylor Hall sweepstakes and give up alarmingly little‘

I don’t really care that they traded Lazar either. My only issue is that this Bjork better be the better player, otherwise what was the point in swapping Lazar, who makes 1/2 as much as Bjork does next season? ($800K for Lazar. $1.6M for Bjork). Why double the salary if he’s not the better player? Seems like poor cap management. Looking at both of their stats, they look very comparable. and Bjork’s been in the NHL 4yrs now so I’m not sure how much room for development is left (not that the Sabres can develop players anyway...). Might as well keep trying to sign him I guess. Hopefully that rumor about him testing free agency was false, or just a leverage move by his agent. Seeing what Hall and Montour got moved for, I wouldn’t be at all confident that the Sabres would get more than a mid round pick back for Ullmark anyway, and who cares about an extra mid round pick in this (weak) draft, and especially since the Sabres don’t really even have a ******* scouting staff! 🤦‍♂️

no clue who Bjork is but Boston fans are thrilled with the deal and don’t seem to care about Bjork at all. was hoping for a decent prospect at least. This return seems light. edit - 5 points total this season. His best ever season was 19pts. https://www.nhl.com/player/anders-bjork-8478075 and he has 2 years left on his contract at a $1.6M per year cap hit. Guess it’s not fair to get aggravated before seeing Bjork play, but is he better than Lazar? Or worse? If it’s a wash, then I’d just have rather kept Lazar. Especially since Lazar costs 1/2 as much for next season ($800k vs $1.6M for Bjork) Im wondering if the Sabres took a lesser return in Hall to avoid retaining salary? It’ll be interesting to see if they did. edit 2 - yep, they retained 50% of Hall’s salary (not sure on Lazar). Yikes. Hard not to feel like Adams got taken advantage of by an experienced GM. So, Granato’s connections have brought us Drake Caggiula and Anders Bjork so far.

can confirm: Hall will likely be traded to an NHL team sometime before the deadline tomorrow. I want credit for my sources if it happens... 😂

if this is true it completely changes my feelings on trading him.

good!

Now here’s a waiver claim I’d like to see the Sabres make! I knew someone good would go on waivers right after they claimed caggiula. Wonder if the Montour trade makes a Riikola waiver claim more likely? I hope so! Yep. Terrible asset management. Terrible drafting, and even worse development. If you have an athletic subscription, this is a really good deep dive into just how horrible our drafting has been during the rebuild. https://theathletic.com/2499017/2021/04/06/how-buffalos-poor-drafting-decisions-destroyed-the-franchise-and-who-they-couldve-picked-to-save-it

If you think the reactions to the vaccine are bad, imagine what a severe case of covid would be like...

Yikes. Yep. I figured he had sex with a bunch of massage therapists when his lawyer said the above.

of all the players waived this season.... 🤷‍♂️ I will say He is a high effort/energy guy and the Sabres could use more of that.

Supposedly everything was put on hold until after the trade deadline. I still think that Jason Karmanos joins the front office. Pretty much every hockey analyst has said it’s going to happen. I do feel like the Rutherford thing is less likely though. I really hope they still add some type of team president or senior advisor. It’s not that I really wanted Rutherford specifically. Just someone experienced who has connections around the NHL and can help Adams rebuild the organization (front office, scouting, coaching, etc). edit - also forgot to say, I think the thing I liked most about the rumored deal with Rutherford: that he required a written agreement with the Pegulas that they wouldn’t interfere in hockey operations.

😢