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So far, Adams has implemented some form of “don’t block the kids” for 3 straight years. You just said that yourself. So it is a very real thing and of course it’s lessening with each year as more of his kids get inserted. My biggerst issue with “no blocking” is the handing of goaltending were he purposely left a huge door open for Levi But it was there last year and our goaltending was sub standard until UPL emerged. The “not blocking” is a real reason why this team missed the playoff in each of the last two season. History has been recordered, annd Adam’s gets no quarter until it’s earned.

Tee time

Can we hope for a swarm of locusts to invade the building and leave nothing but a pile of skates, helmets and pads??

Please let the leafs lose

We were in Toronto last weekend for the first time in years. I was surprised how much things have changed. We live in northern Niagara county, so every time you drive down 'the hill' on 18f toward Lewiston, you can see Downtown Toronto across the lake on any clear day, and we used to go almost ever year. But its' been 5 years....until last weekend. Not sure if we are going to go back anytime soon. As far as Toronto being the 'attention center' of Canada....I mean I get that, it is the largest city and the largest metro area by far. I just don't get it as the 'center of the hockey universe' as they like to say. I get much of the NHL media is there and the HOF and headquarters.....but as far as a 'team' and a 'rabid fanbase' and 'heritage and history', all my life growing up I put Montreal way ahead of Toronto.

Seventh heaven! I guess I want Bruins to lose. That Leafs have to win for that to happen is an acceptable negative

Amerks outshot the crunch and had some good chances. They were goalie’d in period one.

And how do you build that when you have no proven veterans in your organization and very few outside the organization want to play for you? 3 years ago, when this started, our "veterans" were Skinner, Okposo, Girgenson, Eakin, Coilin Miller, Pysyk, Hagg and Anderson. And there was nobody for Mitts and Thompson and the rest of compete with for prime ice. Now they are Skinner, Thompson, Tuch, Cozens, Greenway, Dahlin, Jokiharju, Clifton And there is plenty of bodies for Benson and Kulich and the rest to compete with. I mean, you're not wrong with bold, but you also act like they haven't been trying to move toward that, and that it doesn't take time for the talent to be developed and acquired. I mean the year we just finished was probably the first time we could have reasonably expected to be close to that under this rebuild. You can't snap your fingers and voila.

Looks like Laura won the favorite kid contest. More details on The View Monday.

big no goal keeping the Syracuse lead at 1-0. Going down 2 in the 1st would've been bad.

Stick a fork in em. They have no answers.

I guess they die... lol they are too much like the Sabres

Is it asking too much for the Amerks to get some semblance of a clue in their own end?

"don't block the kids" is just a stupid concept plain and simple. You need a competitive environment where position has to be earned rather than being one of privilege. Sometimes coaches can be guilty of favouring veterans over young players because they trust them more and they are more predictable and reliable but that's a thing you go through on most teams as part of the process. Eventually you EARN the coach's trust and you take the job and if you aren't good enough to take it, you dont' deserve it. "not blocking": is just dumb.

I'm not doing anything like that at all. When I see development I am more than happy to praise it. I want to see it for real though. Not in terms of future hypotheticals. I was skeptical about keeping Benson on the roster but if you have read my posts in the latter half of the season you'll have seen that I gave him much praise. I did not see good things from the Rochester call ups (the few that there were) unless you count Bryson, who was better than expected but I don't think of him like that since he was a roster player the year before. I'm talking here about the prospects.

I think it’s weird how some things fix themselves in people’s minds. In it’s genesis, “don’t block the kids” was about force-feeding the Botterill leftovers Thompson, Cozens, Mittelstadt, Dahlin and Jokiharju key ice time to accelerate their development, build their confidence and see what the team had. By and large, it did what it was supposed to do. The team improved notably and those players pretty significantly. Year 2, it was about giving the 2nd wave - Power, Quinn, Samuelsson, Krebs and Peterka - a similar opportunity, but in mid-roster roles.Those players were younger and predictably didn’t have the same impact. But they did show they belong, and the guys in front of them took big jumps. By and large people were happy with the improvement and were predicting good things ahead. Year 3, “don’t block the kids” wasn’t really a thing. I mean, I guess it was in goal, but it also kinda worked in goal. Elsewhere, they didn’t hand jobs to Rousek and Rosen and Kulich and Ryan Johnson. Instead, they blocked the kids, re-signing Girgensons, and Okposo and Jost, and adding Robinson and Clifton and Greenway and Erik Johnson. It wasn’t not blocking the kids that killed last year’s team, it was the fact that most of the above veterans sucked. And they sucked while Thompson, Tuch, Skinner and Cozens - all of whom all now count as vets - also sucked. The players who stepped up - UPL and Peterka - happened to be the kids who weren’t blocked. This “not blocking” hasn’t been the problem for Adams some of you make it out to be. Rather, it’s been putting together a consistent, focused and complete team.

That is a term I've heard out here now and again. Mostly if you mention Toronto or Ontario you get eye rolls or some sort of sarcasm like "oh, it's Ontario, well then it must be good" with full on sarcastic tone and disdain. One thing I've heard multiple times from people who were born out here is they go visit Ontario in the summer and they are just not ready for the humidity. They come back hating the place for the experience they have with that weather. Just not ready for it. After 25 plus years out here I have issues with humidity now too. It's rare here. This is my favourite Toronto video

I was at a food truck festival in Chilliwack today. It was pretty good. Toronto can go f itself.

We need more of that hate to lose energy for sure. But its a fine line. Not to the point of wanting out but to the point of wanting to be a part of the solution. Accountability , yada yada yada.

Yeah, I get that. I too shook my head at the "blockers" concept. ROR never really said he wanted out did he? Even though he probably did want out. The Sabres did stupid, and got rid of a guy that hates losing. He was just sick of losing.

I'm rooting for the Bruins for 2 reasons...first...I truly believe Leaf fans are overall more intolerable than Bruins fans. The leafs fans are sure they 1.) Live in the best city ever! 2.) Everyone wants to play for the Leafs simply because, well, its the Leafs. 3.) The refs are against us, everyone hates us and they are just jealous because we are from Toronto but every game we need to play the other team AND the refs (yes, I know there are people in every fanbase that think this, but I clearly see/her it more from the leaf fans. 4.) When the Sabres 'tanked' for Eichel/McDavid...they said Buffalo deserves to be cursed, it was just wrong, that is not how hockey is meant to be played...but when the Leafs did basically the same thing the following year...it was a 'genius move' and the Leafs were 'playing chess when the rest of the league was playing checkers." The other reason I want the Bruins to live is just to witness the meltdown in Toronto tomorrow if they lose. Not that I WANT people to feel bad, but the discussion, the arguments...its going to be some of the best theater to witness. If Boston loses, there will be a bit there, but it will be a fraction of what you get in Toronto.

I would bet my life savings on him having less than 20 goals before Christmas , especially playing (at best) a 3rd line role.

@LTS Here is the early trend after the first 3 cuts, 2 a week, so this is 1 1/2 weeks. Bare in mind the 9 day condensed usage due the grass growth given the rain. 1st cut, grass 6" average, 1st cut of season, heavy rain prior, grass still moist in low spots. Low speed, low blade speed, 1 cut down to 3". 84% battery start, 21% at complete thick tall grass cut. 2nd cut 3 days later, grass 5" average, low speed, low blade speed, 1 cut down to 2.5". 100% battery start, 39% completion. 3rd cut 3 days later, today, grass 5" average again (Stop Raining!!!!), 1 cut down to 2.5", 100% battery start, 45% completion. A couple of trends of note. 1.) 2 x 40v batteries drain, the 2 x 80v carry the day. Picture below will show you post cut battery situation. The purchase comes with 2 x 40v and 2 x 80v with room for 2 more 40v and 1 more 80v. Personally, I'm going to take the grand or so hit and purchase them, given what I'm running in to with the plush lawn due to rain situation. Just an insurance purchase type thing for me. Glad I found out early on. 2.) Charging time, expect a good 2 to 4 hrs from 39%-45% range with the 2/2 as purchased battery configuration. The charger doesn't have a selector for fast charge, so best to stay on top of it. So far LTS, she's performed as advertised, but I'll let ya know how the batteries handle a full summer. As stated, below are pics of yard done and machine battery data.

I sort of get this, while I also don't. I haven't seen any evidence that giving Skinny 9 million pegula bucks prevented the Sabres from doing anything. This season would probably be the first where if he is not "earning" his $9M that we could say "coulda spent that money elsewhere." ahem ... casey. (the absurd concept of someone doing almost anything that is actually *worth* $9M is probably a very lonely thread all on its own).

Fair enough. Parisians are insufferable, but it's hard to avoid them. There are just so many sights to see. Whenever we went to France we would have 1 day in Paris at either end and spend most of our time around the other regions. Southern France (not as far as the Riviera and Nice and all that snooty jazz) is quite delightful. Provence in our favourite.