a short and incomplete list

of things less predictable than BG slagging Darcy on deadline day:

1.  The Bills will not win the Super Bowl
2.  A wistful reference to 7/1/07 in a TBN sports column this month* 
3. Jack Edwards not being objective while calling a Bruins game.  
4. The sun rising.

Oh, Bucky Bucky Bucky...you just couldn't sit by while Angry Mike Harrington has been stealing your bitter thunder this winter. Beginning with the idiocy of practically demanding the owner "make a statement" - what, so you can put as much stock in what would surely be just as vacuous and crowd-pleasing a statement as you did with his "winning the cup in 3 years" speech?  Which you hilariously take as gospel rather than the rallying cry that anyone with semi-intelligence would take it to mean, and nothing more.  "his bold speech...is an embarrassment" WE MUST HOLD HIM TO THIS THREE YEARS!!!  jeez.

one paragraph in particular is "interesting" mostly because Bucky finally surrenders his grip on the Strawman and actually talks details, even if it is out of his....

"His first, for Brad Boyes, was a disaster. He was conned into taking Ales Kotalik, and his $3 million salary, in the deal that landed Regehr. Getting a first-round pick for Paul Gaustad and a fourth-rounder was good. Cody Hodgson for Zack Kassian looks fine now, but the swap can’t be properly assessed until both have matured. Steve Ott for Derek Roy helped chemistry but didn’t make a difference overall."

Boyes?  Yes - he was a "bust" in Buffalo.  I do recall a lot of time on the 4th line here.  This is a chicken/egg situation perhaps but not-so-distant-past history suggests coaching decisions at least being part of the answer.  The Boyes' acquisition was hardly widely-criticized at the time, and if you want to take a simplistic look at it, examine Boyes' #s before buffalo and more importantly this year in freaking long island.  Already he has 6 more points in like 30 fewer games.  But that's Darcy's fault somehow.   I wonder if his name was something like Rocco Regier or probably just Gord Regier if Bucky would accept him more.

"Conned?"  Sounds like "some people" (Bucky phrase) really loved that deal when it happened... "Darcy apologists" no doubt, like this one:

"For now, it all sounds like music. The Sabres are getting the proper pieces in place for what many believe will become a contending team" -B.Gleason, Sept 21, 2011

Hodgson for Kassian "looks fine now" - it looks even more like a heist now as it did last year when Canucks fans and opposing GMs were incredulous that the Canucks would give up their potential future #1 center for a decent-handed winger with dim-bulb on-ice instincts and a history of, frankly, being a douche.   Love the "looks fine now" throwaway because he obviously couldn't shoehorn this successful deal into his preconceived notion.   Can we assess the fact that Kassian is now back in the AHL?  Why do I think that if Kassian had 20 goals by now we'd be hearing how we gave up too early on a "great bruising young winger..."

Ott for Roy was another trade everyone liked.   How do you know it didn't make a difference overall?  What does that even mean?

If anything, he has missed out on trades because he fears making mistakes.

Would love even one shred of evidence for this statement.  Give me just one trade he "missed out" on.

This isn't meant as a wholehearted defence of Regier.  He's had some issues with free agent signings or non-signings.  But any criticisms or track records must be compared with other GMs and teams.  Bucky loves to make everything cut and dried, a binary George Bush "if you're not with us you're against us" answer, and nothing on earth is that simple (except Fuck the Bruins to hell).

Now i'm rambling and reading that Pominville is gone and like everyone else he'll be shat on on his way out of town despite being the best 2-way forward we've had on this team in the past decade.  F me.

*(because the "loss" of Drury and Briere apparently remains a source of great psychic trauma at One News Plaza despite 20/20 hindsight that the former was on the steep downside of his career and the latter was overvalued given his subsequent production- we think it's safe to say he's not going to have another 95 pt. season. BB.).