Zack Kassian and Other Thoughts

A few quick thoughts before I start preparing for vacation with my mom and two of my three brothers, on their way to Buffalo from Birmingham even as I write this:

-- Zack Kassian seems like a good pick. There appeared to be a lot of talent on both sides of him but there's no doubt that size and grit are desperately missing in the Sabres system. I would've preferred "This kids works amazingly hard!" to "He's inconsistent" but he is young yet. Too bad he can't play like, yesterday.

-- Pierre McGuire was driving me CRAZY. He kept taking a stance on a player or a team's direction and then when Bob McKenzie would disagree he said, "I'm not arguing that!" You're arguing that, Pierre. YOU ARE!

-- Is there a reason Pierre has taken it so personally that the Islanders failed to draft Zach Parise? Because he seemed a tad fixated. One of the funniest moments of the night was Pierre pumping up the Islanders and how they were turning things around and how they had the gumption to trade for a second first round pick because there was another game-changing player they just had to have and then Garth Snow went and picked a player rated so much lower than their spot that not even Pierre could pretend to be excited. Awesome.

-- Every once in a while Mark and I make the same joke at the same time and for some reason, I always find that completely hilarious. Before the Islanders made their first pick, another guy stood up and spoke a lot of French and then introduced Snow. So it sounded like this: French French French French French French French Garth Snow! We both shouted, "They just drafted Garth Snow!" It was doubly funny because it was the Islanders and well, you just never know with them. All right, maybe you had to be there.

-- Wow, those Penguins, they're really good drafters, aren't they? It's amazing how they completely re-built the team with all those top three picks!

-- I think the Flyers gave up an awful lot for one year of Chris Pronger, more than a team that isn't close (like us) should give. And before anyone gets any ideas, no we do not want to help the Flyers unload Danny Briere. That highly over-priced ship has sailed. I don't think you can bring back leadership that's already flown the coop and he's as small and non-gritty as the rest of the players we already have. And hey, did I mention that he makes a whole lot of money? For a really long time yet?

-- I'll give it up to the Buffalo News on this one. They had video and stories up on Kassian just about as fast as any other blogs and Twitters did. Stellar job by Mike Harrington on all the web stuff.

-- As Pookie said to me in celebration (I think), Henrik Tallinder lives to be traded another day! Yes! I really thought the Sabres would try to move into the second round so I'm not feeling out of the woods yet. And won't really until the season starts. But for now, my blog banner and Twitter background can remain as is.