Today is one of the NHL season’s most pivotal days: the trade deadline. Before 3 p.m., every team can improve in some fashion; the good teams will add a proven veteran that fans and media will claim to be the final piece to the Stanley Cup puzzle, while struggling teams will mortgage stars for top prospects, draft picks and salary cap space for the future.

For the Buffalo Sabres, there’s no real clear indication that they’ll be buyers or sellers—or even that they’ll be active at all. General Manager Darcy Regier, notorious for his caution and rather inflated asking prices, has the unenviable decision of choosing a path for the good of the team—and standing by it. The Sabres stand six points back of eighth place Winnipeg with an even 20 games to go, but only 10 points separate the bottom eight teams in the conference. There’s quite the pack in the East, and deadline moves will clarify which teams consider themselves contenders.

Here are seven suggestions for deadline day (all can be done at work except the last one, in most cases):

1) Read John Vogl’s history of the trade deadline in Buffalo during the Darcy Regier era. Rental players have been the story of the past three years.

2) Follow NHL.com’s Trade Tracker and live-blog, which currently (and rightfully) taunts the Sabres for demanding a first round pick in exchange for center Paul Gaustad. (Edit: What a weird trade market this is—reports say that Gaustad has been shipped to Nashville for a first round pick).

3) If you’re the sensationalist type, listen to rumor-monger Eklund’s podcast (begins at 11 a.m.) and inhale a few shots of espresso. You’ll nervously twitch at every mention of Derek Roy—and there will be several—and your emotions are sure to roller-coaster. You mean Dustin Brown is headed to Buffalo for Jordan Leopold and future considerations?!

4) Keep Twitter open, and follow local Sabres blogs—they know the experts to re-tweet and will post information in a timely fashion, probably long before NHL.com is updated and before the Sabres confirm any acquisition. If you want to know the news first, Twitter is the unquestioned #1 destination.

5) Listen to Brad! AudioBuffalo’s own Brad Riter will be on WGR 550 AM today from noon to 3 p.m. to discuss trade deadline activity. If you want to hear Riter’s soothing voice right now, you can check out his recent podcasts. 

6) It’s a big day for @FakeDarcy on Twitter. Any time your reputation is on the line, things can get a little hairy. How will @FakeDarcy and @LindyRuffsTie interact? This is daytime drama, folks.

7) Sean Leahy of Yahoo! Sports Puck Daddy blog has formulated a drinking game for trade deadline day. Given the conditions, you’ll be drunk long before 3 p.m., so you may want to choose a beverage under 4% alcohol content, or perhaps mix root beer and regular beer as they do in Cincinnati. Just make sure you’re using a lager and not a pale ale when mixing.

BONUS: Local comedian Josh Potter (@J_Potter) is tweeting the possible effects of Derek Roy leaving Buffalo. (Warning: his tweets may be a little crude, but still quite funny.)