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Mcdonald's. Other than last year stopping to get one of their ice cream sundaes, I hadn't been in a McDonald's for years until a few days ago. I was driving back from work and stopped at the McDonald's in Medina, New York. First of all, the bathroom was bordering on disgusting. Next, I don't know what kind of tile floors they have, but the floor had just been mopped and it was like walking on ice. Even when I got to a dry part of the floor, Even the tiniest residual moisture on the bottom of my shoes made it where I was about ready to fall and slide again. I looked at the breakfast menu, they have combo meals that cost almost $10. Really? Finally, I'm not a big coffee drinker but the graphic they have showing their coffees looked interesting so I tried one. Some sort of iced coffee...but it was very bitter, and they put caramel syrup in it where the syrup was dripping down the inside of the cup and the outside of the cup where it was sticky when I grabbed it. Then it said at the bottom of the cup and when I had some through the straw I was getting weird chunks of caramel.. it never fully mixed with the coffee. If this is representative of what McDonald's are like these days, I can't see why they are remotely doing as well as a company as they actually are.

Usually, when a new HC takes over there is a major cleaning house of coaches from the previous regime. The new coach usually brings in mostly a new staff. I'm just curious as to whether the coaches who worked under Granato were forced on him or whether he wanted to keep the staff in place. Just curious. Now that Ruff has one year under his belt, he should have a better grasp of the different personalities and have a better feel for what each player's strength and weaknesses are. I just didn't get the sense that this was a well coached team because the players seem to make the same mistakes. (That's my opinion based on watching the games without resorting to analytics.)

Because players don’t play together nearly as much as depth charts indicate. Malenstyn played away from Lafferty nearly as much as he did with him

idk where he ends up ranking or how good he will be but Belchetz is a potential beast.

Probably by Malenstyn playing most games and Lafferty being healthy scratched usually.

There was far too much continuity when Ruff was hired. The entire staff should have been booted. I don't know how they run their practices or who does what exactly but you kind of get the impression that Ruff was hired to oversee things, give inspirational talks and manage the bench but everything else basically stayed the same. Sort of like an appeasement to the fanbase and the impression of real change but not real change. Lines were the same at the beginning of the year, spots were held for players, everything was pretty much set as is. I am hoping this year Ruff takes charge and makes changes. I also hope it's a competitive camp, but it doesn't look like it will be.

So how does Malentstyn end up being one of the best defenders and Lafferty one of the worst, if it's a 5 member stat and they play on the same line?

You can’t put the ointment back in either… but you can add something to the toothpaste or ointment.

Trump tells the Dept of Commerce to redo the Census and remove illegal aliens from it

Jobst won’t be back, confirmed https://www.buffalohockeybeat.com/sabres-wont-re-sign-mason-jobst-for-rochester-amerks/

Haven’t you heard, once the toothpaste is out you can’t put it back in. So no worry about contamination.

Started new diet & fitness programme. One of the big changes is removing refined sugar. Now have headaches due to sugar withdrawal 😳

Having the opportunity to golf 5 days in a row but having a budget for 3 days total. Only 1 of my usual partners, a doctor, is doing all 5. If I had a membership I could golf nearly every day but I like playing different courses and I will be away for 2 months of this golf season.

Last night it was the Robert Cray Band. Incredibly tight band and Bob is still a master at age 72. His playing and singing is superb. If you have a chance to see them on tour I highly recommend.

Absolutely. I also don’t think UPL’s bad year was solely related to what happened in front of him. He did not respond well to the combination of being the undisputed #1 goalie on a very bad defensive hockey team. I would not be opposed to acquiring an upgrade. On balance though, I still think there is more to like than dislike in his background, skill-set, and potential. Of the current in house options, I think he remains by far the most likely solution to the goaltending issue, in both the short and long term

Wish their was a penalty for Doctors offices that overbook appt's with long waits. Refunds come to mind.

Your conservative friend is a moron.

Ottinger, Wolf, Gustavsson, Woll, Dostal, were all 26 or younger this past year and were better than UPL. Hell, Soderblom in Chicago has a better sv% than UPL and that team is bad. He's 52 in sv% while being 16th in TOI, every single goalie with higher TOI has better numbers and only 1 has a sub .900 sv%. You gotta get to the 25th goalie in TOI to find someone with a worst sv%. UPL has a lot to prove this year and I do not believe that his awful 2024 season was solely a result of the defensive effort his team gave. Dude was a sieve for large stretches.

Trump being involved or not, you don't pardon a monster like Ghislaine Maxwell. You also don't quietly remove her to a minimum security white collar prison. She's an evil person, truly heinous in what she has done. Special treatment reeks of one thing only, cover up. Conservative friend tried the stunt I expect here, "What if Bill Clinton or Biden were involved in the Epstein files! What then!" Well, you put them in prison and let them rot for the rest of their natural lives because the crime is so disgusting there is no redemption. This isn't a Republican v Democrat issue. It is a common decency and morality issue and sadly it won't play out that way. There's plenty of evidence that the political elite in the US are not beholden to the rule of law.

Wasn’t last season the only season where UPL wasn’t trying to win a job or playing for a contract? It seems the sample size you are relying on for this conclusion that UPL got lazy and unfocused, is pretty small. I would argue that, as goalies go, UPL was/is, still pretty young. He had a lot of pressure on him last year to be the undisputed starter on a team with a playoff drought longer than a decade. The year prior, when he played really well, there wasn’t the same level of pressure. Levi had been anointed the 1 goalie and was given the label of “Special” by the GM. It was only when Levi, AND Comrie, faltered in 2023-24, that they fully turned to UPL. By then, he had become a bit of an afterthought. For a young player, I suspect that expectations are a big factor in the pressure you feel to perform well. UPL’s setback last year is, contextually, perhaps not much different than what we saw from Cozens, Quinn, Samuelsson, or Power. None were ready for what was being asked of them. When Ryan Miller was UPL’s age and going into his age 26 season, he had started 66 NHL games. The year prior he became a full time NHL player and started 48 games, on one of the league’s best teams. UPL is going into his age 26 year and has already started 155 games, all on a well below average NHL team by any defensive metric. I’m going to be a little more patient with UPL.

I tend to agree. By my eye test last year: Good defensively: Greenway, McLeod Tuch, Benson, Dahlin Bad: Cozens, Quinn, Peterka, Lafferty, Power, Clifton, Samuelsson, Bryson Fine: Krebs and Zucker Adequate: Thompson, Kulich, Jokiharju, Malenstyn and Byram By reputation Doan is good, Timmins Kesselring, Norris and Danforth are fine. We shall see if that survives the Sabres, and if Power, Quinn and Samuelsson- who were all better under Granato - can bounce back.

LCD Soundsystem tonight. Always liked their first iteration as an updated version of a Talking Heads-type group.

When you buy a new tube of ointment, why is the little pull tab on the foil seal so damn small? I just had to stab the foil on my new thing of neosporin because the tab ripped off. And toothpaste uses the same exact tube technology. Why don't they have the little foil seal? Thank you toothpaste industry for not using that.