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But Cozens did. It’s just a cleaner comparison to look at the production differential between Cozens and Norris. I still think we benefit more because Norris’s baseline is probably better peak Cozens, with the huge caveat of health.

Yes you can. Norris didn't play last year. That's precisely what we can do.

I don't know on what lines Quinn, Kulich and Benson will end up playing on. Even if one, two or three of these players end up on the top two lines, or not, I expect all three of them to have more goals than they had last year. Will these players make any headway? (Your question.) Of course they will. The issue then becomes how much so? I'm counting on Quinn to make the biggest scoring leap. (Recognize many others don't believe so.) The issue to focus on is not the goal scoring. The more substantive issue relates to the goaltending and blue line unit. I'm more comfortable with our blue line than with our goaltending. That will be the determining issue for success or not.

I enjoy Twitter and can’t quit it. But it will occasionally cause a burp like this.

The cap increase was larger than the past few years while the crop of UFAs was weaker. I think cap space will be plentiful for a few teams until the deadline when they can take on salary for the teams that join the playoff arms race. Agents are salivating for the next few years as there will be a bidding war if McJesus hits the market and crazy money will be thrown at others. Not many owners will have an internal cap. Gone are the days when KA had the advantage of cap space to weaponize.

Show me someone who hasn’t messed up hard a couple times in their life and I’ll show you a liar who just wasn’t caught. RIP Hulkster. Loved wrestling until they got to the PG era. As imperfect as he was, Hogan is a childhood hero to a lot people around the world.

Long live Iron Sheik!

No but you can't look at the roster and say Norris gives us goals to make up for Peterka. That still leaves you filling a forward spot and either Kulich or Benson has to step up and emerge big time. I just think there are too many too young players in our top 6 to make any kind of headway.

Who are you talking to?

So much you don’t understand great performance. Person? Nope

No you don't. We absolutely got a large sample size of being without him where data is clear.

I think a lot of it comes down to strategy rather than execution. Has Adams done a BAD job implementing a build through the draft, acquire nearly exclusively young talent, low cost, long form rebuild? The problem is apparent nearly just from reading the sentence: I mean sure he hasn’t been GREAT at the execution but when you are asking him, or sorry, he’s choosing to implement a plan that has the focus (clearly) of being young, and cheap, how can you possibly begin to separate poor execution from poor strategy? if more of the players we drafted were taking bigger strides right now, Quinn, Cozens et al, wouldn’t the results be better and the strategy justified? That may sound dim and obvious but think about it: did we dislike the picks Adams has made, at the time? Not really. They seemed fine Now you may say wow Thorny you hypocrite you always say hindsight doesn’t matter it’s the results, you dope. And to that I say: well, yes, that’s true. Adams is still responsible though as we all know, because as people say: it’s more about what he doesn’t do. The McLeod move sure looked good. But that’s important in a macro sense: it’s not that he made really bad picks or really bad trades, he just *implemented a type of strategy* that puts things behind the 8 ball from day one. It never had a high likelihood of success. At least in terms of how we as FANS might define success. Example being - If you have to be a consistently *great* drafter to make up any ground at all, due to lack of other notable action, you are choosing a dive with one too many twists and turns: drafting is largely a crapshoot. Draft nuts don’t jump on that, I’m not saying there’s no skill. But when luck is undeniably a SIZEABLE variable and factor in the result it’s exceptionally difficult to make up ground vs other teams when so much necessarily must be left to chance by nature. And, again, you are already choosing to largely not use other aspects of team building to your favour. It’s like trying to build your strategy around one building point Superstar. If you aren’t Drafter McJesus, you need depth. And it’s NOT a strategy we have to implement because “no one will come here.” Demonstrably wrong. McLeod and Zucker are here and they are better than most of the guys we drafted That sort of “behind the 8 ball from the get go” thinking is the same with the tank, the nonsense of “well it succeeded”. Right, and if you rob a bank at gun point you may successfully get away with the money. Are you going to get to spend it? The circumstances by which you seized the cash matter. If you have to create a situation with the parameters of a Kobayashi Maru to “achieve your goal” your are likely going to lose the war. That’s what the tank was. - - - And in my opinion, every day we continue to operate without winning being the priority, even if it’s not to the extent of the tank, is more egregiously offensive as a fan than the last because there’s only more mounting evidence to suggest it doesn’t work

We were talking a while back about how several teams this year were leaving cap space and we speculated it was for next year's big list of FAs but now I'm wondering if one or more team was anticipating this result.

I mean how much blowback has Anaheim gotten about hiring Quenville?

Fantastic post. (Doesnt apply to JJ Peterka in the slightest, but I digress 😘) You’ve taken my post in a very different but thoughtful direction. I was musing at the executive level: I think Bylsma won a cup mostly because he’s lucky and Zito mostly because he’s good. I think most GMs and coaches are smart; they have to be to reach the apex of a highly competitive profession. I think the smartest coaches and executives are in the NHL but the 64 in the NHL aren’t the 64 smartest. How good do they have to be to win? How bad do they have to be not to have a chance? Because at some point they’ll be facing the very best. What is the Jay Feaster line and where are Kevyn Adams and Lindy Ruff in relation to it?

Well then you have to factor Cozens back in too.

Right along those lines, what gets underplayed often is for how many of these players it’s a CAREER, a job, a way to make money: they have a life to live, after. They have a life to live, now. They are rounded human beings like Kyrie Irving said: “do you think I walk around with a basketball?” far, far more players than people would care to admit pursue their career and work so hard and diligently and to your point smartly at it because they are GOOD at it, rather than because it’s their undying passion. They are far more similar to other career folk than some think that’s of course not everyone. And lots of actors love acting. And lots of pilots love being a pilot and lots of retail sales associates love being retail sales associates: but, you don’t have to take my word for it, countless numbers of players have spoken to the nature of this. Players aren’t routinely candid about this stuff in front of the media; they’ll get torched like Scottie scheffler a lot of fans can’t reckon with this, many people even around these parts: they aren’t amendable to the loyalty we show, as fans, they aren’t fans. They are professionals. Their primary concern is a career sometimes they just ask out because they think they have a good chance of a better career elsewhere. If you turn against them knowing what we know, and knowing they know more, and knowing that our prime interests aren’t the same…I mean there’s probably nothing I could say if it’s still being ignored

This is why I always say: the players aren’t stupid. They understand as well as we do the overall situation - they aren’t blind to Pegula. We don’t draft a bunch of quitters - we bring them up in an environment where they are fully aware of the owner’s lack of commitment to winning. The players understand and are aware and can keenly perceive the lack of expectation, far more potently than we can. It’s why I always scoff at the reaction to those asking out. they know

RIP Hulkster. I stopped watching after 13 years old...but prior to that...he was a hero to me. "I am a real American"

Cops get free coffee and Tim Hortons get added security. Punks and thieves are inclined to avoid the establishment because men in uniforms who drive cars with lights on the roof frequent the place.

I just listened to a podcast of Rick Tocchet talking hockey, not in front of post-game media crowd, or on a intermission panel, but honestly breaking down the game nerd-fashion with a couple other hockey nerds. I’ve listened to Donnie Granato and other pros in similar settings and it gave me the same vibe. My takeaway in general is that the pros are by and large not the idiots fans make them out to be. They get where they are because they’re smart and they’re passionate. My Habs fan buddy always talks about pissed off he’d get with Marc Bergevin. And then he’d listen to him explain himself and 10 minutes later he’d be “wow, that totally makes sense! We’re gonna be fine!” it really makes me curious as to how overmatched our brain trust really is.

Maybe. Personally, believe their drafting has been bad because until the last year or 2 they've ALWAYS tried to find that true diamond in the rough with their late round picks and even some of their bonus early picks (Rosen, the goalie @LGR4GM and @Brawndo despise, etc.). It's cool that they reach for those sort of players some of the time; but not EVERY time. (And again, they seem to have gotten out of that habit a bit in the last couple of years.) Yes, occassionally, you will find the Datsyuk or even the less impressive Olofsson swinging for the fences in the late rounds. But the team could use grinders too, and taking some (not entirely, but some) guys that look like they'll grade out to bottom 6 if all goes well but have the temprament and build for that game might result in them having more home grown fill out the roster guys than potentially just Kozak. Because sometimes those guys that look like bottom 6 end up middle 6. And the Sabres could use a lot more of them with mean.

Putting aside how morally bankrupt it would be to sign any of these douchebags, Bettman said they're not eligible to play in the NHL. Whether that's just this year or longer wasn't said.

I sort of understand that, Tim Hortons always gives cops free coffee, I typically don't get tickets as I work in the local hospital and the cops have come to me and received care. It's sucks, and it's BS, but tis the way the world unfortunately works