Bmwolf21

Man, that's a shame...the first one was great, the second one was passable, the third one was brutal. Can't wait for the fourth...

Same here - mine was about 6-7 days because they were running a "free next day shipping" special. When I placed the order they gave me an estimated ship date of three weeks - it was ordered right before Christmas, so I think they were being overly cautious for the holidays - but I got an email about 4-5 days later saying it was complete and shipping the next day.

Wrong. Max has 28 points in 55 games, for .51 points per game. Hecht has 48 points in 74 games, or .65 points per game. That's pretty funny, because Max is paid for offense. And he has 12 fewer goals than Hecht (who is "mediocre") and fewer goals that our resident "snipers" in Paille (19 goals in 76 games) and Stafford (who has played nine more games but has 6 more goals.) So to recap - defensive liability, horrible turnovers, a team-worst -16, and not scoring. Why is he still here? Well we've already shown that Hecht is outscoring Max in almost every cateogry - more G's, more A's, more PPG, a +/- that is light-years ahead of Max's, so I'll just close with the fact that being in the league a long time does not make one a veteran leader. Lindy's got a system of rotating captains - when did Max get the "C?" Heck, when did he get an "A?" He's as much a leader as the beer vendor.

No idea if this fits her, but his attorney is his daughter.

Max needs to move on. Period. He is as inconsistent as anyone in a Sabres' uniform, turns over the puck like it's his job, his linemates never seem to know where the heck he is going or what he doing with the puck, is a defensive liability, and has all of 10 - 10! - goals this year. I've watched every Sabres' game and a couple dozen other NHL games and couldn't disagree more with most of your analysis.

This link says he was born in Buffalo but raised near Chicago and then in Loganville, Georgia.

They are far from controlling their own destiny - they still need a lot of help... From one of the threads over on Sabre Space (I am not verifying the exact accuracy of this post, but looking at it quickly it looks to be about right, so take it FWIW):

Here's the shocking part of the story: The player's agent, Marvin Frazier, said Henry gave him a different version of events but declined to elaborate. "I was told it didn't happen that way," Frazier said. Really? Henry said he didn't do it? I'm shocked, I tell ya - SHOCKED!

I don't think most people are saying we should have kept Briere and Drury and say "screw the future" - i.e., Pominville, Roy and Vanek. I think a lot of people are ticked that they probably could have kept one of the captains and still fit Roy, Pommer and Vanek if they had been more aggressive in trying to get them re-signed. It's just tough to look at the players that are still here - like Kotalik, Max, Connolly - and realize that they could have had Drury or Briere for the cost of two of those guys. The other thing that ticks people off is the front office watched 69 goals and 164 pts leave over the summer and did nothing to offset that loss. They didn't upgrade the D that has been exposed as soft and too "finesse," and up front they relied on "the system" and a bunch of young, generally unproven guys to step up their games in a big way, and it didn't work out. I'm thrilled that Roy is locked up long-term and is developing into a star. I think Pominville is on his way to being a star and hopefully the FO gets him locked up this summer. I love Miller but with his inconsistency this year, I'd rather see Buffalo give him a 3-4 year deal, not 5-6. But it will probably take 5-6 to get him signed, and they have no other options right now. I would too. But PTR - since he left, all I've heard is that Drury is overrated, he only scored one or two big goals in his time in Buffalo, and he's s traitor turncoat bastage who flipped off the fans on the way out of town. Why would we want to keep such an overrated player? (Especially when we've already got Max and Connolly...)

I was just thinking you already had the shovel - easier to bury the body...

I was thinking the same thing...I mean he already had the shovel with him, so...

Has any defensive pairing gone from "team's top defenders" to "can't trust them" faster than Tallinder/Lydman?

Great idea. I'll email the site to some of my friends/family members who still live in/around the city. I see a couple names that look familiar in the subgroups, so maybe my friends/family might be interested in helping out...

I just don't get his point. The NHL draft is much more of a crapshoot than the NFL, but let's throw out critical analysis of individual team's draft strategies and selections in favor of a weighted scale that supports what appears to be a flawed theory? Because Columbus and Florida have sucked at the draft and Detroit has done a better job with lower picks, that means using the draft to build a contender is the absolute wrong way to go? Did he look at teams 3-6 on his list and see the top two teams in the EC (Montreal and Pittsburgh) and two other teams within two-three points of making the playoffs for the first time in years (Wash. and Chicago?) A lot of Detroit's success has been in finding great players through the draft. Datsyuk - 6th round pick, Zetterberg - 7th round pick, Holmstrom 10th round pick, etc. The foundation for a great team is built through good draft picks and development, then you use trades and FA to complete the puzzle.

Same here. Misread the last pair. Duh, just multiply your score by 3.5 and you've got your probable Wonderlic score.

Good points, especially the bolded parts.

The thing that really surprised me was that we met a lot of good Canes fans around Sabres Alley, but after the game there were a lot douchebags (that's my word today) who wanted to cause problems.

I was there for Game 5 and I thought a lot of their fans were equal to the task of being pricks, IMO. After we lost in OT people were throwing stuff at my wife and my sister-in-law and trying to pick fights with us, and just acting like general douchebags. Left a very bad taste in my mouth.

Ralph, I honestly believe he can be that elite-level guy. I really do. And I've been begging for the Sabres to tone down the attacking style for a while now, because a) you don't win a lot of 6-5 games in the playoffs and b) the offensive numbers that have left them cocky and overconfident have been skewed by a handful of blowouts. They've been very inconsistent on offense this year, Goals-For stat notwithstanding. I'd be ecstatic with a bunch of 2-1, 3-1, 3-2 wins. That being said, he has struggled at times this year, and certain areas of his game have either stagnated or regressed, so he's got some stuff to work on. But I think he'd really have had a much better season he'd be if he had gotten a couple more nights off here and there. The Sabres have to improve the defense and the backup goalie situation, and find a no.2 center this offseason.

1a. Flyers 1b. Sens 2. Canes (more toward their "fans" after the 05-06 ECF) and then the Leafs.

Actually I called someone on a similar Connolly stat a couple weeks ago, but nice try. And Montreal's rookie goalie (20-12-3, 2.71, .915) has similar numbers to Miller (33-26-9, 2.64, .908.) He's CLEARLY better than Miller. What's your point? Could it be that the team in front of him has played better and more consistent than Buffalo? And while Montreal plays a more wide-open system than say NJ or Minnesota, they don't play as attacking a style as Buffalo does. No, you're right, these guys are interchangeable robots and should be treated as such. Goalie A can do it, why can't Miller? Some guys aren't built to handle a 70+ game season. Some of us have been saying for weeks that he was going to wilt down the stretch and he is doing just that. Miller's never played more than 63 games in the NHL. He hasn't had a game off since Feb.1 He has to learn how to handle that kind of workload. He may also be a guy who is best playing ~60-65 games. It's something that Lindy, DR and Ryan will have to sit down and discuss after the season - did Lindy overwork him, does the backup need to play more than five games, etc.? Because the first 28 goalies on that list have played 9 games or fewer. Miller has also faced the third-most SOG and made the third-most saves. Oh, and those elite guys that Miller should be as good as? Their ranks in goals allowed: 77. Luongo 78. Lundqvist 79. Brodeur 81. Nabokov 85. DiPietro 87. Kirpusoff That's a well-thought-out, rational response. Yes, we're blaming the ice, the lighting, the weather, Sabretooth and the weather, but you forgot the tides, astrological signs, the Loch Ness Monster, BigFoot and UFO's. Can you honestly say that the system and the defense does not impact the quality of scoring opportunities the opposition gets? I agree that Miller took a step back on his breakaways this year, but putting shootouts aside for a moment - how many breakaways and 2-on-1's should a normal goalie see? Because for the last month or two the Sabres have been giving away odd-man rushes and breakaways like door prizes. I've watched guys like Max, Kalinin and Lydman turn the puck over with stunning regularity. I've also seen a ton of plays where Lydman, Tallinder and Campbell (before he was traded) standing right next to guys in the defensive zone without covering them. It has driven Lindy bonkers - listen to his presser from last night. How does Alfredsson manage to stand uncovered in the slot for so long? Do I think Miller had a good year? No - it was an average year marked with a lot of inconsistency, like much of the entire roster. Did he forget how to play goalie or are his skills falling? Not likely. But I'm not going to toss aside a goalie who has won 100+ games in the last 2 1/2 seasons - 3 straight 30+ win years, plus a franchise record 40 wins last year - because he struggled down the stretch.

You said it yourself in the first parapragh - he plays behind one of the most prolific offenses in the league, but that's not a result of the Sabres hoarding offensive talent. That's the wide-open, attacking system that they play - they don't ask Miller to win games on his own, they ask him to keep the team in the game until the offense can get going. I think Ryan has also wilted under the extra work down the stretch (thanks for nothing, T-bo ) as you can see his numbers climbing in Feb and March. He could really use a night or two off. Lindy gambled that playing T-Bo was a risk they couldn't take, but now you have a clearly tired goalie trying to keep his team in games. I think most realize that Miller is not elite - not yet. I really feel he can be the shutdown-type goalie that others are if the Sabres committed to a more defensive-minded system and had defensemen who ACTUALLY PLAYED DEFENSE. Sorry, had to get that out of my system. By the way, I've only seen one other stat as misrepresented as the "86th in goals allowed" stat you just quoted - nicely done.

Come on E. Most of us realize that the contracts Dru and DB got in NY and Philly would not have worked in our salary structure. But the FO did nothing to replace what those guys brought to the team - an ability to score in clutch situations, veteran leadership, the ability to make guys around them better - and this team was clearly worse for it. Considering how much you are trying to convince everyone of Danny's bad +/- (a completely overrated and misused stat) and how he wouldn't have helped it's really you who sounds like the jilted lover.

The shootout struggles are a two-way street. We have exactly one - ONE - guy who has scored more than one goal in the shootout, and the team collectively is an impressive 8-34 on SO attempts this year - an amazing 24% success rate. Miller's SO struggles are well-documented, but the shooters have also painted him into a "gotta be perfect" corner on more than one occasion. Guess who would help with the SO? Nah, too easy.

Amazing how these concepts get lost around here, isn't it?