BuffOrange

I can't imagine anyone being worried about replacing Milloy after he missed 12,975 tackles last year (broken wrist or not). I agree on the rest. Throughout Moulds' entire tenure here the offense was dreadful with him out of the lineup - including 2003 when he was injured from October on and our offense failed to score a TD in 7 out of 16 games. Both sides of the trenches are still clearly bad, which is all that really matters.

I bet he was saying this same stuff in 1997.

I don't disagree. I'm just saying by the same token, you can't say Carolina clearly "won" period 3 of the last game when it was pretty even up until a late 6-on-4 scrum. The Sabres also controlled the 1st half of the opening period in tonights game.

Much like the Ottawa series I don't think there was anything blatantly terrible, but it is a little frustrating to see the "chippier" team not have to deal with the consequences of more penalty minutes. I mean, when Miller freezes the puck they take whacks at him after the whistle, we give them a little nudge, and there's offsetting penalties. OK not the end of the world, whatever. When Ward freezes it, Briere just stands there without touching the goalie and gets mugged, no penalty. I dunno - it's hard to complain about this type of thing too much because the "after the whistle" stuff doesn't decide the outcome of games but it just doesn't add up. I guess I just kinda wish the Sabres would get a little "dirtier" if the team with more discipline isn't going to reap the benefits anyway.

Not that it matters, but if you're going to call the 3rd period of this game a wash, I don't see how the 1st period of tonight or the 3rd period of Game 1 was much different.

I haven't noticed a terrible problem getting out of their own zone as much as the inability to set up in the opposing zone once they get it out.

The camera work on the first goal was pretty bad. I don't get why everyone hates JD & Emrick though.

To be fair, it did look like Briere's helmet took a dive after the head that was attached to it got mugged...right after he refrained from touching the goalie in front of the net.

Not a terrible defensive game IMO considering they're being held together by duct tape and Miller is having one of his worst games of the playoffs. The guy I want to see get well is Connolly - the offense and particularly the power play is a joke without him.

I agree. Carolina controlled the play in the 1st period, Buffalo in the 2nd. The 3rd was pretty even until the last couple of minutes, which is to be expected in a one goal game. Canes had 4 more shots, Sabres goalie was better. Seemed like a fairly standard hockey win to me.

I have always maintained that those last 2 minutes of the first half was the biggest joke of an officiating job I have ever seen in any sport. It's unfortuante that all anybody remembers about the game is "Flutie benched" and "kickoff return"; but I was pleasantly surprised that the politically correct NFL network showed in no uncertain terms that the Bills were jobbed. Should've been 9-3 at halftime instead of 12-0. I remember watching Primetime that night and they skipped over all of this, and even had the nerve to show a questionable roughing the passer penalty on Kearse and say "Wow Buffalo got a break there" (of course they didn't bother to show a similar penalty vs. Bruce). I couldn't help but shake my head when Salisbury & everyone on ESPN were blasting the officials after the Pittsburgh-Indy game saying "this year is the worst it's EVER been!". Umm no - your network just didn't have the balls to to criticize anything about the league until recently; doesn't mean this past year was any worse than it was 7 years ago.

Seriously? I feel like this is such a predictable/canned/chalk/brown-nosing answer. You actually eat that up as an interviewer?

Yeah I get pretty pissed when my co-workers mention them in the same breath as the Bills seeing as how we didn't choke at home every year or any year for that matter. Beating Elway, Marino, and Montana in championship games is a little different than losing to Brad Johnson and Jake Dellhomme, but I guess those AFC playoff games just never happened. Anyway, I still think there's something to be said for winning as many games as they did over the years when everyone in the NFC was gunning for them. I expect the defense to be better and that along with a solid QB/Coach combo ought to be enough to at least compete in their division.

OK I hate Kobe like the next guy but this is going too far. Lamar Odom? The Lakers would be a lottery team without Kobe.

Wow - I haven't been more surprised about the result of an NBA game in a very long time. Game 6 might actually be worth watching.

I always thought of Peca as a good 2way player but the OLN guys said he's a defensive specialist? Everyone in my Philly based office is whining about the small markets that are left, but whatever - it's good hockey. How about a #6 seed getting home ice for the 2nd straight series - pretty cool for them.

Hey I live here too and I hate the fans too but it just sounds like you're a little blinded. Trotter overrated? Maybe by Eagle fans but I don't think a lot of people outside Philly even know who he is. They did well for 3 straight years without TO or a great running game. Their core defensive group has proven they can play whether you think they're heartless or not (it wasn't like their defense was in the bottom third of the league last year). I don't think they're anywhere near as good as the top teams in the AFC, but it's not much of a stretch to think they have as good a chance as anyone to win the division - which is deep and competetive, but not necessarily top heavy either. Maybe I just don't like the Giants as much as most people seem to.

Whatever, the Ravens were the biggest freak of nature champion ever. Good luck following that blueprint.

They've done a pretty god job vs. the run ever since midseason 2004 when Jeremiah Trotter started playing MLB. Of course the defense wasn't great last year, but it's hard to say how much of that was due to the painfully obvious fact that the team wasn't going anywhere. As for McNabb, he has his weaknesses but other than Brady & Manning what QB in the league would you rather have? Other than maybe a healthy Palmer I can't think of anyone.

Yeah I dunno if McNabb is the best player but when healthy he is certainly the best QB in the division by far. I think it'll be between them and Dallas, who probably has the best balance. The Giants are never good two years in a row.

Yeah I think that's more like it. Lack of ratings has zero to do with time between series'. Who cares if they want the conference finals to run in conjunction with one another. The NBA regularly takes 4 days off in between games of a series when they're not even traveling and their games are on at 11:00 at night. Not to mention the NHL is on OL freaking N, which I didn't even know existed a month ago.

Amen, the guy's a Mullet flug fraud.

The 2 steps + jump stop does look a little silly but it's something every NBA player gets away with. I thought Lebron did a little more than that but I could be wrong. Helluva player though, can't believe this series is tied.

Yeah I remember that game well. Also cool to see Rod Woodson lose his jock. Didn't know he wore #46.

ajzepp, I'm sending you a PM next time I get an interview because I suck at them. I've always done the thank you letter but rarely follow up after that - I always figured a letter was more than what most people do and anything beyond that would be too pushy. crackur, I've actually never been asked "why should we hire you" but just about every question is asking that in an indirect sort of way. I think if you prepare 4 or 5 examples of behavorial type questions which I hate (give me an example of when a customer was upset, etc.) the other types of questions are easy in comparison.