Taro T

Umm, you do realize today is a workday, right? Sure, move the game to 5PM and cut the # of fans attending from 8,000 to 3,000. 😒

Guess so. Hope wifey likes clocks & chocolates. 😉

Acceptable or tolerated really seems to be getting deep into nuance IMHO. The timing of the Comrie injury really stinks because he broke right before the D (temporarily) got healthy. He looked OK before the D went MASH unit. He wasn't good enough in front of a bad team. But right now the team in front of him is playing better than what he backstopped. 3 lines are giving what we expected/hoped & the top pairing is playing well too generally though they're taking too many penalties. Would really like to see what he can do when most of the guys in front of him are on their game before writing him off. But he's listed as "week to week." And knowing what we have in Comrie might go a ways towards parsing which side of the nuance Adams is on.

It definitely seems to be an evaluation year. And a development year. Which builds the frustration. They should be evaluating at all times and trying to win. But they seem petty set on their top 2 lines & top 2 pairings. The evaluations there seem complete. Expect they know what they expect from the older guys in the bottom 6 & bottom pairing & where they see them fitting in (or not) for the future. They're still writing their book on the others.

There are 2 options. Drop them to the 4th line, which happened realistically 3 games ago, & let them get their confidence at 5v5 back with sheltered usage or bench 1 or both of them. Right now, it is obvious that the chosen option is the 1st. Personally, expect that's the right choice, but we'll see. Realize that isn't a popular choice around here.

Results-wise they likely won't turn a corner until Comrie is back, and even then it might not happen. But there has been a bit of a shift in the coaching which indicates winning is taking a higher priority. These past 3 games the Cozens line has been used as the 2nd line & the line that hasn't been performing as well as the other 3 was dropped to 4th line deployment & TOI. Additionally, at minimum for the 3rd period last night, possibly the 2nd as well, Pilut & Fitzgerald weren't deployed together. Fitz was out w/ Dahlin the few times he took a shift. & Pilut was out w/ Power. Which would seem to indicate that strict development isn't the overriding factor.

People said Ted Darling was drunk on the air; he swore he wasn't. Turns out he had Pick's disease.

Doesn't work. Sabres are certainly on the M-NTC. They can sign him off waivers but almost definitely can't trade for him. Theoretically, they could claim him and make a side trade to try to effectively cut his salary in half. (An Okposo for a good kid trade, as an example.) But there wouldn't be an incentive for the Kings to do that, presumably. Though they are REAL tight to the cap, so even if they wanted to do something like that, that wouldn't be an option. Heck, w/ the cap space it would free up for them, if the Sabres did claim him the Kings should have a gentleman's agreement in place to give the Sabres a 2nd for Bishop's contract.

Doesn't work. Sabres are certainly on the M-NTC. They can sign him off waivers but almost definitely can't trade for him. Theoretically, they could claim him and make a side trade to try to effectively cut his salary in half. (An Okposo for a good kid trade, as an example.) But there wouldn't be an incentive for the Kings to do that, presumably. Though they are REAL tight to the cap, so even if they wanted to do something like that, that wouldn't be an option. Heck, w/ the cap space it would free up for them, if the Sabres did claim him the Kings should have a gentleman's agreement in place to give the Sabres a 2nd for Bishop's contract.

Hmm, spurned Sabres in the past & has 2 more years after this one at $5MM/yr. Magic 8 Ball, will Kevyn Adams make a claim? Sources say 'no.'

Sabres should win it. Interested to see how much ice time Fitzgerald & Pilut get. Expecting 10-12 each. Has Clague been called up or is Lyubushkin's injury not expected to be more than a game or 2?

The other "sucky" player stays where he is or joins the Hinostroza - Krebs rotation. And no, don't agree that splitting them up ensures that 2 lines are "1/3 suck." But totally get Granato's reluctance to break up the Jost line right now. And absolutely agree that the top 2 lines shouldn't be broken up. IMHO the biggest issue that line has is that Mittelstadt isn't driving play (for whatever reason (yeah, yeah, we know, it's because he sucks), once he gets the puck, if he can't pass it, he gets it along the boards and keeps it there; he doesn't try to get it to the center of the ice which pretty much ensures he'll eventually lose it; and driving to the center of the ice was his trademark whether he kept the puck or not) and neither VO nor Asplund/Hinostroza is going to drive play. Maybe Jost or Krebs could drive play with VO & Asplund/Hinostroza but have doubts on that. One thing lost in the improvement of the Cozens line is that they were getting deployed as the 3rd line most of this season. They got to gel while not getting a steady diet of the other team's top 2 lines & top D pairing. Granato bumped them up against Joisey and played them a lot against the Hischier line and they weren't quite ready for it but as Granato would say they seem to have learned from it as they were matched up against a very good 3nd TB line & dominated. Getting the easier matchups should help that Mitts line get some confidence. They played really well against the Bergeron line, not quite as well against the Krejci line but still were solid except when Dahlin took the puck off his foot, but haven't looked as good since. They can play good hockey, just need to believe it themselves.

Faceoffs "don't matter" for 2 reasons. 1 - a lot of faceoffs are in the neutral zone which rarely get won cleanly enough to have a team on its heels and 2 - they are rarely won cleanly. But make no mistake, cleanly won faceoffs in the zone can & do change the outcome of games.

Yup. And they were needs in the offseason. But, unless this Chychrun rumor has legs, expect what we see is what we get until the offseason.

Which was the point of "(b)ut until we see the Jost line falter am not expecting it as that's the only line left w/ mix & match pieces." 😉

That there's a 7 page thread on this same subject about 5 posts downpage. 😉

But, with the glaring exception of the 4th goal against, he & his line were strictly used as the 4th line. Asplund got a little PK duty, but none of the 3 were getting "all situation" ice time. They were matched against TB's lesser heavy line and didn't do particularly well there. (If TB didn't ave Colton & Maroon on the 3rd line might've seen them going against that line, but they did & they weren't.) 2 games ago they were still being deployed as the 2nd line. Mittelstadt did not see the ice in the OT. Don't believe Olofsson did either. Should they gain their confidence back getting sheltered minutes, expect they'll then be treated as the 3rd line, which they only had against Joisey recently and they scored the 1 goal in that game. Personally, as @Brawndo has been advocating, would like to see Mitts & VO broken up. But until we see the Jost line falter am not expecting it as that's the only line left w/ mix & match pieces. (Really doubt they experiment more w/ moving Tuch around and the Cozterkinn line isn't going anywhere.) My guess is that they see sheltered minutes for a couple of games (easy against Detroit, tougher to pull off against the Avs, good thing that game is at home). And then based on the outcome of those games we see Krebs &/or Honostroza roll into the line up.

Minor point on 'putting them out against Stamkos' on the 1st goal that line was out against. Tampa only dressed 11 F's. Stamkos was out with the "4th line" with Perry & Namestikov. The Mitts line was getting matched up w/ the 4th line. They got the puck out of the zone but the Tampa D recovered the clear & turned the puck back up ice. What else, after the 12 F's were chosen, did you want Granato to do on that one? The 4th goal against was a coaching mistake. And Granato had a chance to rectify it as he got a TV timeout right off the initial faceoff. He could easily have flipped to the Thompson or Jost lines. Also, the FO for that 4th goal was at the Sabres BL, not defensive zone.

You'll have to ask Granato your question because it was a bad decision. Understand that he wanted to get the Mittelstadt line ice time as they hadn't had a shift in a long time, but the shift right after getting the 2 goal lead was not the one to give them. Should have waited 1 or 2 more shifts to give them a matchup they could handle & after TB had made their charge for getting that goal back.

Fully expect to see a steady diet of Levi the last couple of weeks. Hoping that he's alternating w/ Portillo but not expecting it.

The good: 3 of the 4 lines were working tonight. And Granato realized the other line wasn't working & limited their ice time. (Apparently 1 shift not enough.) For the 2nd game in a row the Cozens line was deployed as a true 2 and this time they flat out dominated. They gave up almost no scoring chances typically going against Stamkos & could've had 4 goals easily rather than just 2. They looked like a true #2 tonight. Cozens burying a rocket. He gets chances, and it isn't all that important that he become a finisher as both his linemates are finishers, but IF he can start converting even 1/3 of the chances he gets, the Sabres are about to have 2 #1 lines after a decade + that never had one unless Eichel was on the lineup. Dahlin & Samuelsson just keep getting better & better together. Whatever analytics guru saw something in Jost deserves a bonus. He's got that "4th line" humming & they were deployed as the clear 3rd line because of it. Granato seemed to be (except for the late Stamkos goal) matching lines. Are we FINALLY out of "development" & into "let's act like other NHL teams" by matching lines & unbalancing the forwards ice time when they don't deserve to get balanced ice time. The bad: The Mitts line was not good. Believe their 1st goal against was on Power taking the wrong man, but he' a rookie & it seemed Olofsson had time to recognize it but did so too late. Granato has the other 3 lines rolling. Will be interesting seeing how he gets this one there too as Mitts & Olofsson seem to have absolutely no chemistry though they have in the past. Power, even w/ the assist, did not bring his A game. Fully expect he'll bounce back in Detroit. And still nearly won it had the puck settled down for him. UPL. He needs to get his movement under control better & take away the bottom of the net. The ugly: The shot Lyubushkin took off his ankle/foot. Fear that's broken. The PK. They'd been pressuring the past couple of games and looking good. This one they gave way too much space. Don't envy Detroit. They're in for a ticked off team.

A 10. 2 picks after Nylander.

That said, the deal that makes sense to move, say, Dahlin won't happen because nobody would offer what it would take to legitimately pry him away.

We have one side of the story. There is at least 1 more side to the whole thing. Will reserve judgment until having more info. 2 items that will come out in the action (don't know whether they'll become public but the board reviewing this will get the info) that would greatly affect which side is "right" (IMHO, YMMV) are why her boss told her she was 'mentally weak' (or whatever the phrase was, not re-reading the complaint, that phrase gets the jist of what she os alleged to have said). That seems a very odd thing to state without there being more that came earlier in the exchange. (And realize she is diagnosed w/ PTSD, but that in itself would not seem to warrant that put down. (Maybe it did, but would like to know more context there.)) The other item which would be material to her claims is was Yeo approved to speak to journalists for whatever reason? He very well might've been approved to speak w/ them having had speaking to journalists a big part of at least 2 of his prior jobs (HC of the Wild & then the Blues; he would've had a lot of experience in that area and MIGHT have been approved to do so because of that experience). And, while it may have been "colleagues" only 1 example was cited. And again, due to his background, he may very well have been permitted ahead of time to speak on behalf of the 'Nucks.

Know you were making a funny, but UPL gets this one because Anderson got the last one & will get the Avs game.