Taro T

I think he has more of a backup problem than a back problem. And that being that the backup is mobile and Drew was memorialized on the Bills throwback helmets.

The pants not matching the rest of the throwback was a known problem as soon as they decided to run with it for damage control. When teams change unis they aren't allowed a 3rd sweater for 2 or 3 seasons. They are allowed "vintage" unis and that is what the Sabres are running with. If the colors of the sweaters were navy they wouldn't be "vintage", they'd be "3rds". I'm not sure why they aren't using vintage pants (royal blue with the white and yellow stripes up the middle of the side) instead of the new ones. As for the confusion with taking a quick look and passing to the wrong team because of the blue arms, I don't think that will be a huge issue because the other team will be dealing with the same (but reverse) problem. A Loaf might see the arm of Drury in the ACC and send the puck to him because it looks in that split second like Drury's a loaf. Actually, if anything, the Sabres would be dumping the puck out of the zone more than passing it up as it appears there are no open Sabres, and the home team would be expected to put bad passes on the tape of a Sabre as it appears there are no Sabres.

Except the Slabyk proposals were all take offs on the original logo that the Sabres do own the copyright for. If they chose a design that was "similar" to the Celsius designs, it wouldn't be like the Ravens getting dinged for stealing a totally new design. I can think of a lot of ways the Sabres could have updated the original while still making it difficult, if not impossible, for Slabyk to successfully sue the Sabres. From the little bit that I've seen where Slabyk has posted, he doesn't come across as a jerk. He'd have to be a world class jerk to sue the Sabres for using "his" design of their logo unless the thing were pretty much identical to one of his designs. While I admit that a fear of lawsuit MAY have contributed to the Sabres chosing the direction they went, I don't see it as being the primary or even A primary driving force. I see this as being more of a case of some idiot at Reebok coming up with a hare brained idea and some combination of backroom politicing / lobbying eventually convinced Tom and Larry that this was a good thing. Quinn has been favoring radical ideas (blue ice, rounded goals, game by game pricing structure, etc.) since he retook the reins, so it probably wasn't too hard of a sell to get him to agree to (or even suggest) the Sabres logo go in a radical new direction. Which is really a shame because the successful relaunch of the b&g was pretty much a slam dunk, open net, no brainer and the Sabres and Reebok managed to screw it up.

Going kind of off topic. I went to that game and sat in the tunnel side end zone. The performance RJ put on ended up having me believe, until it was too late, that he was the correct choice in the DF/RJ debates. It was like watching Kelly shred them back in '91 or '92. Since the game was blacked out, most people didn't know just how good he did look that day. Yeah, it came against a team that had clinched everything and had nothing to play for, but I remember a team 2 years ago that was in the same situation and didn't accomplish anything. But like you and Corp say, he had all of 2 other games in a Bills uni (maybe there was a 3rd, but I can't think of what it would have been) that he looked anywhere close to that good.

You might want to suggest to your relatives that they invest in a wonderous new technology device called a water softener. They are truly miraculous devices.

Uh, is your question serious? Because yes, when someone violates the terms of a "ceasefire", it does open up the option for the other side to resume firing.

It doesn't but it does include some "special" events like the AHL all star game and other stuff like that. If you have DirecTV and the Sports Package, you will get preseason games that are shown on the regional sports networks. They don't black preseason games out.

That is good news. Hopefully this will just be a short lived excursion like the Gorton's fisherman was.

Were people buying the new junk? When Channel 2 panned the crowd I only saw 1 lady wearing a tee shirt that may have been new. (1 out of 2,000 isn't bad in my book.) My fear is that people will say "I want to support the team and buy this stuff even though it has a horrible snot smear across it". If the cash registers in the store were mobbed, we'll be stuck with this abomination for a long time.

wgrz.com is streaming live. Right now the only people on the ice are 2 refs and 2 linesmen.

Unlike the rest of us.

It didn't mention it in the article, but I'm assuming the microwave exploded, and that's how the designer of the Sabres' new logo got his "brilliant" idea? Brilliant!

You say that, yet you post here. Something doesn't add up.

Heck, I drive more than 5 miles just to get lunch. Don't you ever go on vacation or bar hopping?

If an 11 year old car only has 100k on it, you aren't exaggerating when you say it has ALWAYS been parked in a garage.

Very well stated SnR. One thing that I would like to add that I posted over at TSR is - for those of you going to the practice tomorrow. PLEASE do not boo the unis. But start a chant - "dump the slug", "the unis are ugly", or whatever. Let management know you hate the friggin' logo. You can love the team but hate what they are wearing. Even if the new blues look good minus the snot smear, they have a friggin' 20" wide snot smear across the center of them.

What's especially good is when the kids are getting me beers while I'm watching hockey.

Wife / kids. Hockey. Beer. - Not necessarily in that order.

As I posted on TSR, I'm even more disgusted with the slug now because it looks like they could have designed really sharp looking unis. No matter how good the rest of the package looks, there's still a giant snot smear going across the front of it.

Regardless of how nice the sweater is (and from the 1 photo that I've seen that doesn't give any indication of piping at the bottom of the sweater or lettering / numbering on the back, it does look pretty good), it still has a giant yellow snot smear on the middle of the chest. That same snot smear is what is going to be shown on every single highlight show giving game scores and "breaking" NHL news. It will also have to stand alone on stat / fantasy league websites and in newspaper articles, etc., etc.. The snot smear will still look pathetic, even more so, when it isn't associated with the rest of the sweater. If the sweater had ANYTHING decent on it, it has potential to not suck. Unfortunately, it has a giant yellow snot smear on it. I notice that they didn't leak the white version of the sweater. Something tells me that you probably cannot make a white sweater look good (or even reasonable) with a giant snot smear across the front of it.

What, no personally autographed picture of Randy Mantooth nor Bob Dylan's new unlisted phone number?

Assuming the rules stay the same in the next CBA, let's say he plays 7 more years (he'll turn 32 before the following season) and then the Isles pull the plug. He'll have made $31.5MM those 7 years and the Isles will be on the hook for an additional $24MM. Gives him an average salary just under $8MM for those 7 years. That's not too shabby. Plus, there is nothing preventing him from playing for another team after they decide that contract is too rich for his production at the time. This kid has just guaranteed himself $45MM. He might have guaranteed himself $67.5MM. He will be just shy of his 40th birthday when this contract runs out. Considering there are elite players that won't ever come close to that kind of scratch due to injuries or what have you, I don't see how he couldn't jump at that.

Not according to the TSN article.

They're guaranteed, but only in the case of a playing related injury or old veterans are they guaranteed at 100%. For most players in the league, the team is on the hook for 2/3 of the remaining salary. The team has to pay that out over twice the remaining years on the contract. The salary cap hit is essentially the same as the payment schedule. According to TSN, the deal is for $4.5MM/year for each of the 15 years. Also, the current CBA is supposed to expire by 2012, so how the contract gets handled after that remains to be seen.

Happy B-day.