Watching pucks dry.

[captainsblog]

The NHL trade deadline came and went at 3:00 this afternoon.  Unlike the NFL, where trades rarely happen at all, and MLB, where the Yankees just buy who they want long before the deadline, the hockey one is a major big deal. Weeks ahead, teams position themselves as "buyers" or "sellers" and usually wait until close to that sacred clock tick to pull their respective triggers.

I got to spend a good portion of this day in my car, in between Rochester appointments that began at 9:30 and ended well past 5, and thus had me on the road for close to 12 hours counting the travel.  All day, the local sports honks devoted show after show to the impending deadline- "Who's buying? Who's selling? Who stays and who goes?" I heard THAT tagline at least three times an hour while driving from hither to yon and back again.

For the entire time up to the 3 p.m. "deadline," nothing happened involving the Sabres.  Rotating gangs of hosts were relegated to repeating multiple hearsay reports about @KidInMomsBasement retweeting an alleged "confirmation" from somebody in Medicine Hat, Canada about Edmonton being interested in this or that available Sabre.  Players themselves were falling over themselves to plausibly deny everything.  Finally, around 3:30, came a "confirmation" from the Sabre flagship's Facebook page, just as I was availing myself of a dead hour between appointments to do my daily cardio on the road:

WGR Sports Radio 550

6 hours ago

Numerous reports confirming Jason Pominville traded to Minnesota Wild. More to come

A 3:30 press conference was allegedly scheduled. It didn't happen until well past 4 (with me, cardio'd and back in the suit for the final hour) that the Sabres' lame-duck GM confirmed officially that he'd traded the team captain to Minnesota for two prospects and two draft picks- and had done nothing else for the day. Other rumored last-minute moves proved to be false rumors, so the goalie, the leading scorer, and the rest of this season's motley crew are still in blue and gold for the final eleven games....

in which, get this, they could still mathematically pass five teams and finish eighth, or even seventh and sneak into the playoffs.  And a disproportionate number of those games are at home. Fortunately, the fans hate them so much right now that "home ice advantage" is an oxymoron, and we instead will more likely have a shot at the lottery (entered by all non-playoff teams) to get the #1 overall pick for the first time since the year we got married. 

Under the current regime, though, that #1 overall would likely be wasted on someone named