Die By The Blade: FanPosts

MORE OFFENSE ADDED:RYDER

BostonNation — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 03:19:51 -0000

Bruins definetly needed some offense last year especially against the Canadiens during the season and postseason which they fell short on. Adding Michael Ryder from the Canadiens definetly will boost that. Few years ago Ryder was a 30+ goal scorer, tooooo much pressure in Montreal, last 2 years he's only averaged 15 goals a season. This could be a turn around year for Ryder especially playing on a line with Marc Savard could easily turn him to a top scorer on the bruins squad. With Patrice Bergeron and Manny Fernandez coming from season ending injuries, adding Ryder to the mix and a healthy Bruins blueline, could be a great year and playoffs for the Bruins.

via sharkspage.com

Will the front office Lay another EGG?

YOMAN — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 12:09:58 -0000

Sitting here at work…..I have TSN loaded…..the refresh button is going to be worn out today, not going to get much done this afternoon..And I do not think the Sabres are going to make headlines… I would like for them to. I am sure everyone whould. But I was and still am hoping there is a glimmer of hope we can land a vetern leader. Rolston…Orpik…man I would love these guys on my team…Please Darcy/Quinn/TG…..spend some money on some LEADERS….
D.O I know you will be upset with me when I tell you I am still a sucker for Juicy RUMORS. I know….99% never come true but I cannot help my self…..
Showdown @ Noon Darcy….....Don’t be yellow and hide behind the “Market Value”, & “Youth in Organization” Bull S&!*..... Make A Splash…..

Welcome to the new Die By The Blade and SB Nation

clockwerks — Tue, 20 May 2008 05:32:08 -0000

Editors Note: I would like to introduce everyone to the brains behind this amazing operation called SB Nation 2.0. His name is Trei , also known as clockwerks, and him and his team have made this transition a simple one. If you have any questions throughout the day make sure to leave a comment and someone will try to help you out. As I mentioned yesterday, I hope everyone is as excited as I am about everything that we can do with this new more powerful tool. I won't be around till a little bit later on but please enjoy and ask any questions you may have in the comments.

Hey Die By The Blade,

Today is the big day. We've switched your community over to the new SB Nation sports blog platform. My name is Trei, and I'm here to help you get adjusted to the new home we've built for you. If you have questions or trouble with the new system, post a comment in this thread and myself or one of the team (lovitt, sixfoot6 or odacrem) will try to point you in the right direction.

Before we begin, I want to let you know we still consider this a beta platform, so don't be surprised if you find a few bugs or if everything isn't exactly right yet. We hope you'll take the time to report any problems you encounter at bugreport@sbnation.com. We'll be continuing to make changes and improving things.

Please take a few minutes to read about what's new below. But if you just can't wait to jump in, here are some quick things to check out:

Sign up for your SB Nation network account and claim your old blog accounts
Once you're logged in, press your Z key in any thread with new comments
Explore your dashboard and setup your profile
Read the guide to the new FanPost editor
Install the FanShot bookmarklet and post videos to Die By The Blade from YouTube or images from Flickr
Click the "Rec" button on posts and comments to help other people find the good stuff.
Customize display options on your Edit Settings page

What Has Changed

SB Nation Network Accounts - the Big Change

Readers across all of our blogs told us they wanted one account to use on every SB Nation blog. To make this work, we're requiring that everyone create a new SB Nation network account. In most cases you should be able to keep your old username, but a few of you may have to choose something new, since every other community in SB Nation will be going through this same transition. We tried to be as fair as possible in deciding who gets to keep which name, using a formula that takes into account length of membership and frequency of activity.

We want to make it as easy as possible for you to participate on all of our blogs, but we don't want to encourage everyone to start visiting rival team blogs and initiating flame wars. To maintain friendly communities we ask that you explicitly join each blog in order to participate. It's a two-click process, but it does means accepting each blog's community guidelines. Just as you join each blog individually, you can be banned on each blog individually.

You can claim old accounts from multiple SB Nation blogs, and your new username will be retroactively attached to all your old comments and diaries. So now you'll be able to access all your writings from your single profile page... like magic.

To get started, click here to claim your old blog accounts and create a new SB Nation network account.

FanPosts (the Section Formerly Known as Diaries)

We changed their name. Why? Because we took this major upgrade as an opportunity to leave behind some vocabulary that never made much sense for a sports blog. SB Nation is the network of, by and for fans, and these are the blog posts we make. So we call them FanPosts. When you're at a bar telling someone to check out your online sports opinions, you don't have to suggest they read your diary.

FanPosts are displayed differently on the homepage - we include your avatar to give more credit for the time you spend writing great posts. The new post editor has a WYSIWYG view that provides easy formatting. It also auto-saves drafts so you don't have to worry about losing your work when you compose a post within the web browser. And you can now associate teams, players and games with your posts: these tools promote your FanPosts on our new team, player and game pages - across the entire network.

The new system does not work like the old diary editor. For example, in HTML mode the new editor doesn't auto-create a new paragraph from two line breaks. But it does offer a whole array of new features. Look for the blinking help button on the right side of the FanPost editor for quick tips, and take a look at our full guide to writing FanPosts on the new platform.

IMPORTANT - if you write your posts in Microsoft Word or some other off-line editor, you will get the most reliable behavior if you cut & paste your post into the HTML view of the FanPost editor. And if you do that, remember to wrap <p></p> tags around each paragraph so your text doesn't run together.

Visual Redesign

This one is probably the most obvious change of all. Like other major websites working to improve readability for their audience, we've adopted a fixed-width layout optimized for the 1024 x 768 resolution used by the majority of Die By The Blade and SB Nation network users. Use the switcher below the user menu if you prefer the wider layout designed for 1280 monitors. We've introduced a top navigation bar with quick links into old and new sections of the site. We also polished a few edges, made some things larger, others smaller and moved a few boxes here and there. More changes and adjustments to come.

Search

We've completely replaced the old search engine with a new one. We're excited to make it easier to find old posts and comments, but we've only taken our first pass on the tools we're offering. We're focused on making search even better than what you had before, so please know that we're aware search is missing key features and we're working on it.

What's New

Schedule, Scores, Stats and Roster

Die By The Blade now has all the basic information about the Buffalo Sabres and hundreds of other teams. During games you'll see a regularly updated line score, and as the season progresses we'll track team stat totals and leaders. This is just our first step, so look for us to publish more detailed and archival stats in the future. The best part about all this sports data is that we've integrated it directly into the blog so. We now have special pages that aggregate all blog posts written about games, players and teams.

Recommending FanPosts

Some writing deserves more attention and more conversation. If you want to bump a FanPost up to the top and keep it there for awhile, just click the 'Rec' link under the body of the post. When a FanPost receives enough recommendations it will make the recommended list.

Auto-refreshing Comments

You no longer need to refresh the page to see new comments. If you're logged in, new comments will automatically appear on the page every few seconds. When you post a comment, the page will not refresh either. If you want to quickly cycle through all the new comments, you can press the C key on your keyboard. Unmark a new comment after you've read it with the X key. And use the Z key if you want to umark comments as you're cycling through them.

As you use these shortcuts to cycle through comments, press the R key to reply to the current comment. All these helpful keyboard shortcuts are listed at the top of each comments section for reference.

Recommending Comments

Now you can reward those folks who take the time to look up stats and make smart arguments in the comments. Next to each comment there is an 'actions' link that you can click to find the recommend and flag options.

Flagging Comments

To help the moderators on a site, we've built-in tools that let you flag comments that are spam, trolling or just plain inappropriate. Only moderators can see those flags.

FanShots

Many members of the community just want to post that one link, video, photo or quote, but don't need a full FanPost. We've got you covered: FanShots let you share YouTube videos, Flickr or PhotoBucket photos, quotes from articles, portions of chat transcripts, top 5 lists and simple links. If it's a video or image we'll put a thumbnail on the homepage when you post it.

For those of you who are experienced internet hunter-gatherers of Buffalo Sabres material, install the bookmarklet onto the links bar of your browser and share FanShots with the community from wherever on the web you find that killer quote or photo.

Avatars

Upload an image so folks can see your custom avatar on your profile, your FanPosts, and all your comments.

Network Profiles

Now that we have unified SB Nation network accounts, your profile will be your central hub for all of your activity on any blogs where you are a member.

Network bar

The top bar stays with you on all SB Nation blogs. It's a quick way to login and logout. When you're logged in, you'll see your avatar and screen name which links to your profile. The icon to the right leads to your Dashboard area where you can edit your settings, profile, account details and any FanPosts or FanShots you've published. As we add more blogs to the new SB Nation network, the My Blogs menu will be a handy way to navigate between the blogs you've joined.

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There are plenty more small changes and additions we've made, so please take a careful look around and explore this new system. We appreciate your patience and hope you'll help us improve the new platform for this and all the other SB Nation blogs.

And in case you missed it, you'll want to start by claiming your old blog accounts and creating a new SB Nation network account.

Playoffs

Lion Alum — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 12:57:54 -0000

Now is a mornful time to be a Sabres fan. While a handful of eastern team still remain in the on going quest we sit at home and wonder what could have been. As our team has been "temporarily" disassembled to play for thier respective countries, lesser NHL teams seem to be playing for a chance at Lord Stanley's ultimate prize. Though it hurts me that we are only one year removed from watching our team dominate, to some extent, there is still hope out there and there is still great hockey being played. I for one am not ashamed to admit I have been watching and cheering for a young and energetic Pittsburgh team that has been nothing less than dominate this post season. I have no qualms cheering for the Pens as we (the Sabres) usually have pretty good games against them, and they are not in our division. At first I was happy to see them demoralize Ottawa in a four game sweep, mainly to prove just how special this Sabres team was 1 year ago. Now they are about to take out the increasingly desparate NY Rangers, another possible sweep situation, and I could not be happier. I have to say I am not a fan of teams that try to "buy" a cup or any sports trophy for that matter, and with the way the Pens are playing I think they will prevent that this season.

I am also not ashamed to root for the Flyers this year or as I like to call them "the Philadelphia Sabres" b/c like most Buffalo fans I was a huge support of Biron and I am very happy that he is doing well in this post season. Biron was a hard worker in Buffalo and no matter the circumstance he never complained he never faultered, he just worked hard and did his job. It was always a pleasure when they interviewed him during intermission and when they had him miked during the games. Biron was a true team player and always helped in what ever way he could. I always knew he deserved to start in the NHL for a quality team and I am happy that he has the chance to prove what a fantastic goalie he has always been. I am also happy for Briere. Danny was another hard worker here in Buffalo and the circumstances were unfortunate for his departure. I wish Danny could have stayed a Sabre, seeing what he is capable of only reminds me of his time spent in Buffalo. As Sabres fans we were spoiled with two terrific seasons of hockey, and now in the turmoil of our offseason we realize what we had taken for granted. The future of the Sabres looks promising and we must acknowlege the great hockey that is being played in this offseason, even with our teams absence.

The cup is half full

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 20:07:10 -0000

{Editors Note} First of all I would like to tank Bob Sheppard for writing this diary and sharing his thoughts on the Sabres. I would like to encourage everyone to write more diaries and help this site be what it is supposed to be, a community of Buffalo Sabres fans. As we make the transition to SB Nation 2.0 this will become even easier and more fun.

I felt this was important enough to get on the front page because it is the perfect example of what this team is about and what this site is about. I think everyone should have this attitude towards the team but I know everyone doesn't. Feel free to comment away on the subject matter.

Being so far removed from a hockey town, there is a lack of coverage for the NHL yet alone the Buffalo Sabres in general. With that said I was unable to follow closely how the season progressed this year. I'm sure there is much agitation in the local Buffalo media and from the fans perspective as well, for this being a disappointing season...especially since the city was spoiled with two consecutive conference finals appearances. I can confidently say its quite refreshing to see such a avid fan cover the Buffalo Sabres with such passion and still hint towards a neutral position on the organization. I commend D.O. for keeping up with the highs and lows of the season with such constant professionalism...it allows those who have relocated from the heart of the team to still keep up with the ongoings of the team we have rooted for, and still satisfy those who are privileged enough to watch the games on a daily basis.

As for the 2007-2008 season, of course there is a level of disappointment for the next month we will be watching playoff hockey without having a home town team to root for, but all in all this was a successful season. We as a club ranked 4th in scoring for the entire league (even higher than the Penguins whom everyone seems to hail as the second coming of the 80's Oilers)...not bad for a team that lost two top scorers and an offensive defensmen late in the year. You can point fingers to goaltending, to injuries, and to the lost of their captains, but the truth is this team is in the process of re-establishing their identity. 39 wins for a club that had little leadership in the locker room at the start of the season, and 4 points shy of dancing in April is a solid start to a new generation of Sabres. I guess you could say I'm looking for the silver lining, but the fact of the matter is there is obvious talent on this roster. Now every club has talent...we are talking about the NHL here, but this team has superstars in the making...Vanek seems far more comfortable with the weight on his shoulders. Miller's season may have been a bit uncharacteristic, but he has now seen the downside of an NHL season, with a stronger stay at home defenseman in front of him, I believe in his ability to be the franchise goaltender we all want him to be. Roy and Stafford are special talents that will continue to lead the team next year.

If you look at the season in terms of playoffs it was a losing season, but add Drury and Briere back to this roster the Sabres would have been the top team in the east again hands down. Yes we need to find more role players to step up in the critical moments of games, and yes we need Miller to perform better in shootouts and late in games, but the foundation is there...they are starting to believe in life after the captains. So I say cheers to a successful start and a promising future...and if all that sounds like a half full attitude think about this, the Leafs still suck for like the ninth straight season.

Not looking good

D.O. — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 00:35:36 -0000

It's 8:32 pm on Wednesday night and the Sabres playoff hopes are not looking good right now. The Bruins are leading 2-1, the Flyers leading 2-1 and the Canes are ahead 4-1. We need some teams to come back over the next hour to hour and a half if we want the Habs game to mean something.

Being a Buffalo Sabres Fan

Sabres Center Ice — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 21:33:09 -0000

My introduction to the world of hockey did not begin until the late 1990s. After watching a few NHL games on TV, I found that I was finally impressed with a sport! I spent a few months following various teams, and eventually settled on the Buffalo Sabres as "my team." The televised games and relatively close proximity played important roles, but it was the actual players who drew me in. Besides, what other professional sports team has a better named head coach than Lindy Ruff?!

As any Sabres fan knows, the seasons between 2000 and 2004 were pretty rough. I was never happy to see the team lose, yet I genuinely enjoyed watching and learning about the game. There are many subtle parts of hockey that make it such an interesting sport to watch, even when your team is losing. I think that my choice to become a Sabres fan when the team was struggling made me an even more dedicated fan. Wins were incredibly meaningful when they came around once in a while, yet I still found ways to look on the bright side.

Being a fan of the Buffalo Sabres is not just a half-hearted attempt to join the bandwagon. From the few games I have been able to attend, it has been obvious how dedicated each and every fan is to the team. I have not only been impressed with the way the team has transformed over the years, but I also admire how one hockey team can bring so many people together. I have watched the Sabres suffer through painful and hopeless seasons, all the while knowing that they are THE team. Perhaps the Stanley Cup has not found its way to the city of Buffalo, yet the greatest prize is to stand behind a team filled with determination, strength, and passion.

a true sabre's fan

Joan O. — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 23:36:41 -0000

i've been a sabre's fan since the easrly 70's. back when in my opinion the game was played differently. maybe not in everyone's opinion better but in mine it was. players has skill and finesse, it was more of an end to end game and exciting to watch. it maybe faster today, but when you had a player with a great slapshot you were always on the end of your seat when he got the puck. i feel the injection of the goon squad has taken away from the game. It made it more of who has the biggest guy to hurt the skilled player rather then who played the game better. I personally feel it has taken away not added to the way hockey should be played. i realize the sabre's have done this also, but I prfer to remember better player's like the French Connection. Don't get me wrong I'll always watch hockey and alway's back the sabres even though we still use that method of play. I live for the day we win the cup. I love the feeling we all get when we feel like ther's really a chance. Any year it could happen if we're lucky this is it

new hockey blog

Mon, 08 Oct 2007 02:14:08 -0000

hey everyone,

i've just stopped by to give everyone a peak at a new hockey blog i'm a part of over at www.hockeynerds.com.

hockeynerds aims to just give an outlook on all the teams in the national hockey league from a bunch of average joes who don't have a whole lot better to do than talk hockey.

the site is still void of a buffalo sabres blogger so if that's something you'd be interested in, why not apply to become a nerd with the link at the top of the page.

if blogging isn't your thing, at least join the forums and support your sabres, because so far they're pretty alone on that board.

if you check it out, thanks a lot for the support. and if not... well then, have a good day :P

http://www.hockeynerds.com

Jim Lorentz is

HO — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 00:23:01 -0000

going to retire! What the heck is that all about. In the e-mail I got it said that he was unwilling to "another long season and grueling travel schedule". We will be said to see him retire!

Even bigger then that Matthew Barnaby is going to be the "color guy" for the Toronto game on Wednesday. That could be interesting!

Roy Signs

HO — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 15:25:45 -0000

Derek Roy signed for six years 24 Mil. Not too shabby. Good to see that they signed him for long term. I think based on the money he'll be the first line center. It will be great to see him and Vanek continue to play together. Glad to see the Sabres stepped up to the plate and signed him before arbitration.

Link

I'll go first

D.O. — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 19:13:22 -0000

Hi everybody! My name is David Oleksy but my friends call me D.O. I am the editor of Die by the Blade and love the Sabres and sports in general. My favorite teams are the Buffalo Sabres, Buffalo Bills, New York Yankees, and Michigan Wolverines football and hockey (hell we might as well through Wolverines baseball in there as well). I have liked these teams for as long as I can remember. My parents are Bills and Sabres fans which is probably why I am a fan as well. My dad is a Yankees fan and I'm not sure how I started liking Michigan.

That is all you have to do just write a little bit about yourself and we're good to go. Don't be shy just try to be a part of the community.

T-Boe, the big name free agent signing

Sat, 07 Jul 2007 05:33:18 -0000

First off, T-Boe is a waste of money. I
would've rather stuck in a rookie in there and made him suck it up for a few games. Millers the number 1 goalie, he should be able to play 70+ games next season, and the games he doesn't the team will be fine no matter who is in net. Look the Sabres are not, and I repeat are not gonna win the president's trophy or maybe even the division for that matter, but they will make the playoffs. T-Boe is wasted money, although it's not millions of dollars, but he's not what he used to be and hes not worth the money. Iknow, my friend was a die-hard Pens fan, as I am a die-hard Sabres fan, since both of us are in the south while we are school, we'd go to a bar
to watch the Sabres-Pens game and when T-boe played and he was furious, cuz he knew the Pens had mailed it in. T-bow is washed up, he can't steal a
game like used to be able to. If he plays, everyone in front of him will have to step it up, especially the defense.

Speaking of defense, if the Sabres want to advance farther in the playoffs, Kalinin maybe even Spacek, because we would be better off playing
a rookie, like Paetsch all season for him to be ready for when it
counts then paying Kalinin all year, just to play him 5 minutes in the
conference finals after he cost us game 1, which he did with not 1,
but 2 bad, bad plays, one a turn over, and another he just shot the
puck up the boards which any good player learns in Bantams, you can
not get away with that, and if anyone watch the Ducks D-Men on the points, they kept everything in that was shot up the boards. Cut Kalinin and Kotalik, Kotalik has his moments, but at 2.5 million a year, I'd rather see MacArthur skating, or Andrew Orpik in there since we need some size.
And in hind-sight, it's a good thing they didn't get Briere and Drury, and just one of them, other wise we would waving good-bye to Vanek, who I would rather have.
But in the end, I see the Sabres a 6th seed at this point, maybe a
5th or 4th, they need a little more grind, and a defenseman who can be counted on.

Vanek gets 7 yrs, $50 mil

JasonB — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 21:17:57 -0000

Edmonton made the offer, Buffalo matched it. I'm guessing this is where the money saved so far was meant to go. He's a young guy and apparently the Sabres weren't going to let him go for any price.

Had the Sabres not matched, Edmonton would have owed them 4 first round picks. It's a massive contract for sure, but that's free agency for you... The Oilers had Nylander stolen out from under them and it seems they've missed on Vanek as well.

Sabres retain Vanek by matching Oilers' $50 million offer

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) -- The Buffalo Sabres, still stunned at the loss of co-captains Chris Drury and Daniel Briere to free agency, made sure Friday that high-scoring youngster Thomas Vanek would not also be getting away.

The Sabres matched the Edmonton Oilers' seven-year, $50 million offer to the second-year player Friday, announcing their move at a news conference shortly after Vanek's agent went public with news of the Oilers' offer sheet.

Buffalo general manager Darcy Regier said the Sabres were unhappy with the Oilers' approach, especially since the Sabres had warned Edmonton officials not to make the offer.

"It was always going to be a match situation, and they were well aware of it last night that we were going to match," Regier said. "I suppose you have to assume they thought we were bluffing. ... What this amounted to was an exercise in futility."

And an expensive one at that, with Vanek scheduled to make $10 million next season, including a $5 million signing bonus. He'll make $8 million in 2008-09, including a $3 million bonus, and then $6.4 million in each of the final five years of the deal.

Vanek was paid $942,000 last season

Time to Extend the Young Guns

Brian Galliford — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 19:31:01 -0000

We can talk about the departures of Drury and Briere for months (and we probably will), but I know that if I'm to preserve my sanity as a Sabres fan, I'm going to have to move on. So there - at this precise moment, I've moved on. Time for the Sabres to take some action - not only to preserve the core of their still-talented team, but to prove to the fans that they're serious long-term contenders as well.

It's time to hand out some contracts to our young guns. We all know that Thomas Vanek is going to get a new deal; Larry Quinn all but confirmed this in yesterday's press conference. Ryan Miller is another obvious guy to extend. These are the two biggest names, and should be cornerstones of this franchise for years to come.

What other names would you include on this list? I personally wouldn't mind seeing a deal given to Derek Roy. Brian Campbell is another obvious possibility. Sound off, Sabres fans - add some names to that list, or scratch players off my list. :)

What is a diary?

D.O. — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 00:25:05 -0000

This is the diaries section of SB Nation and Die by the Blade. As you will see this is a completely unique opportunity for subscribers. A diary is an area where you can post your own story and the other members can read it.

Creating a diary is easy and fun. All you need to do is create an account and click on the "Post Diary" link in the top right corner. The best part of the diaries is that if it's really good it will be posted to the front page. If we get enough diaries we can have a contest and post one a week on the front page.