Taro T

How ####ing short is she? (Get camera angles & all but she looks like she's a good foot shorter than him.) And congrats to them both. He seems like a good kid. Hope she's a keeper.

So, the NHL chose 1/2 the AS team BEFORE seeing who the fans want in the game? That is Soooooooo NHL-y. People - vote for Dahlin, Cozens, & Tuch. Let's see if we can get at least 3 Sabres in this foolishness.

A few of us are going to get together for dinner at Union Pub before the game. They have fairly limited seating, but we can see if we could get a larger table or maybe a 2nd one if anybody would like to join us. Send me or @tom webster a PM & we'll see if we can increase the reservation.

Good point, and to further it. Granato seems to be the line whisperer. Even moves that seemed reasonably obvious given the alternatives (like putting Skinner back on the 1st line) have worked out better than anybody expected. Sure, everybody thought Skinner would score goals there, but also expected him to cause some pretty egregious goals against (which actually happened twice early in the season last year ) and didn't expect him to be much, if any sort, of a playmaker. But Skinner has become way more of a complete player under Granato than he ever was. He makes really nice passes to the twin towers on his line & while he'll never be confused w/ Mike Peca his play in his own zone is better & doesn't cost them games. Obviously, he believed in Thompson & was literally the only person that thought moving him to C was a good idea. It wasn't just good, it was inspired. He had Cozens go up against McDavid shift after shift when he was barely more than a rookie. Quinn was playing reasonably well, but Granato set him down 2 games. He then moved him to Cozens & Peterka's like & they played very well even catching fire for about 10 games. The line has cooled down, but Quinn & to a lesser extent Peterka are getting PK duty & they're really doing well there. People wanted Krebs sent to the AHL rather than sit in the pressbox for seemingly a month after watching him get muscled around and make really poor passing decisions. Granato didn't do that. Now he looks like he really belongs here. Granted, it was out of necessity, but he started playing UPL against tough competition even though he looked really overmatched his 1st couple of games. He's now giving the Sabres a chance to win every night. None of these were the obvious homeruns they seem to be at the time the decision was made. And some took time to really cook (Skinner, UPL, Krebs). If Granato believes Mittelstadt has more to show & expects he can bring it out of him, will not expect he'll be wrong. (And even though Power Jokiharju isn't this kid's favorite pairing, expect it'll work out too.)

Nah, there's plenty of other games for teams in the mix to lose. 16 points won't mean anything in the grand scheme.

It is amazing how lucky we got when the Pegulas lucked into McDermott and Beane. They are true leaders. So great that these guys treat everyone involved as if they were family. Hamlin is lucky too to have these guys on his side. (Adams & Granato are like that too.)

And though those that look at numbers without any context might expect Comrie to be an afterthought at this point, the Sabres don't see him that way. The day Comrie was doing the butterfly in his limited practice, he was one of 2 Sabres (the other being Powrr) taking Q's at a STH Q&A. That was only ~3 weeks ago. You don't put somebody you're pushing to the side into that role.

Why? What he said.

It seems the charity, while primarily set up for toy drives in his hometown, also supports education & summer camps & the like. There's a lot of good things that can be done under those categories. Expecting the league & the Bills will help him find someone reputable to run the charity. Run it well & this nearly horrifically tragic event could become a Godsend. Run it poorly & it will truly become a disaster. Expecting it'll be the Godsend. And am so happy he's doing well. The next milestone would seem to be taking him off the critical list. For those that pray, keep him in your prayers still.

Yeah, it's gimmicky, but by virtue of playing in a division where the other teams are roughly as good as the AFC South, even though KC lost to both Buffalo and Cincy they'll end up w/ the bye week and also hosting the AFC Championship game for something like the 5th time in a row simply because the Bills & Bengals weren't given the opportunity to earn 1 more win. Slightly surprised they aren't talking about allowing an 8th team into the playoffs on both sides (to keep from giving the Eagles or 9ers the only bye) to keep from having the 1 seed in the AFC providing such an advantage to the team that gets it. Realize it would cause scheduling issues for the network(s) picking up the extra 2 games, but considering the ratings that playoff games get, they'd deal with it. Or, the games could go to Prime Video. Either way, the NFL makes even more money. But expect the league is hoping for only one of Buffalo or KC to win w/ the Bengals losing as that leaves the 1 seed set regardless of what would've happened on Monday night. (Yeah, that nonplayed game would've still affected seeding for the other slots, but the bye week is the big carrot & no road games only a 2ndary one; who you play over 3 weeks to get to the SB & where isn't as important as only having to play 2 games to get there.)

He absolutely has, and the big question becomes are they going to go to a 50/50 platoon between UPL & Comrie or will UPL still get the lion's share while he has the hot hand w/ Comrie getting the games Anderson has been getting? Expecting it'll be 50/50 until the AS break & then they'll go to riding the hot hand. Not expecting to see much of Anderson after Comrie is back.

There's 2 other options. One that's kind of appealing is don't play the game & for playoff seeding also discount the Ravens & Chiefs week 17 results. (Or a randomly selected game not including either the Bills nor Bengals.) Or, just skip the game, don't include it in the standings & go off winning %age as the 1st tiebreaker. (Realizing that barring a Raiders miracle Saturday that gives the Chiefs the 1 seed even though they lost to both Buffalo & Cincy.)

True. But teams have had tickets bought by their STHers on a conditional basis already & TV networks have programming blocks already laid out. (Doesn't matter to them WHERE the game is played, just WHEN it is played.) They are the ones that will scream the most as they scramble to find some alternative programming for next weekend & then have to bump advertisers of the dog show or some random college hoops game or maybe even the NHL AS festivities & game that would've been shown in that weekend before the Superbowl. (Not sure if ESPN/ABC has the ASG this year or TNT nor whether ESPN/ABC has a Conference Championship game. Expect those ate Fox & CBS' properties but not positive of that.)

If they bump the Flag Football Extravaganza back 2 weeks, the Superbowl isn't affected. It just ends up 1 week after the Conference Championships rather than 2. That said, would be surprised if this game gets completed.

Granato absolutely is. 100%. Even Thompson himself didn't see him as a C at this level. And Thompson would NOT be as good at W as he loses 40% of his range at the boards rather than what he has in open ice and he would be more defendable there. But really believe the key to his breaking out is FINALLY growing into that massive frame. In his very 1st traing camp practice as a Sabres he had that toe drag, reach, and most of the shot. He was a world beater, just like in games today, in practice but was extremely ineffective in games. He was too easily taken off the puck & needed too much time to set for a shot. Neither of which any longer are an issue for him. He still would've broken out but as a 60-70 point player; not the 80-100 pt player he appears to be. Getting Eichel off the left dot on the PP also helps. Being able to set up for an even more deadly 1 timer than Jack has helps pad the stats & would've been there regardless of whether he were playing W or C at ES. He just needed to mature & be given the opportunity for that part of it. Back to the Q of the OP: #### yeah, it'll continue.

Agree. Believe they use it to acknowledge that, especially w/ the 200 level seats, a lot of them are either split between more than 1 person or are corporate held. But, it sounds strange & sets up jokes for Inky far too easily. STHer it is. 😉

But the 1st Q is one GM's would actually ask about any of these players. Who do you want on your team moving forward? Would your GM say no or would the other? The 2nd Q only gets asked about the guys that are long in the tooth because they'd gut too much of the team to obtain one to be put into that position of being a difference maker in that single playoff series. (Guess am taking that hypothetical too realistically or missing a component of it.)

By angles are you referring to the line he is on or his being square to the shooter (and also not allowing himself to become too compact leaving gaps at the pipe & above his shoulders) or more accurately not being square? If it is the former, would likely disagree although there were a couple of occasions that he was either slow moving across the crease or overshot his line when reacting to a pass across the crease which could look like a poor angle when in fact they were poor crease control/awareness. If it is the latter, yes, he had severe problems squaring up & staying large. Those have definitely been cleaned up. The crease movement issue is still there to a degree, but his teammates are getting better at not allowing that pass across so it isn't nearly the issue it was. And his teammates trust in his ability to make the 1st save on a straight on shot is part of why they're better at taking away that pass & also clearing rebounds.

To the bolded, it was but in a few ways. Positives about Mittelstadt: it said Granato thought he could play well w/ Tuch & Thompson w/out significantly negatively affecting their play & also that he wanted Casey's faceoff prowess (not incredible, but probably best on the team) should Thompson get tossed or they need a lefty for a draw. It also said that keeping Cozens between the kids was more important than completely stacking that top line as Cozens is the 4th F on the PP & the 1st choice as an extra man. It also probably says that keeping Okposo with his line rather than swapping him out for Asplund or Hinostroza is less disruptive to the overall effectiveness of the respective lines that swapping out 1 of them for Mitts.

He HAS to be in the top 10. He isn't #1. Would take McDavid or Dahlin ahead of him. Probably would take MacKinnon ahead of him too. The flip question, which of the players on that list would be not be expendable for him, would only have 6 or so more than above: Draisatl, Robertson, Matthews, Kucherov, & Makar. (Would have a hard time parting w/ Tkachuk, Morrissey, or Fox; but probably would.) Didn't include contract considerations there. If that is included, only Makar definitely gets added to that short list above. Not sure how much familiarity is biasing those choices. So, guess that'd put him between 4 & 10 inclusive.

Reposting (with a couple of typos corrected) the (too) long post from the GDT per @dudacek's suggestion. Until this season Mittelstadt has been handled roughly as well as Thompson was prior to Granato moving him to C, from the poor usage right up to the accompanying injury bad luck. He also started this year as the 2C, almost always w/ Olofsson, and quite often Asplund; so this 2C/3C tweener was getting hard usage w/ other linemates also being asked to punch above their weight class. He watched Granato's system implemented last year but didn't get to actually participate for long stretches & then when he could his skating was affected by his injury. This season he pretty much avoided moving the puck to the middle of the ice (likely from years of Taylor & Krueger hammering into his head that moving the puck into a phonebooth in the center of the ice was a very poor decision) unless he was almost at the opponent's goal line and other teams saw that & took an easy path up the boards away from him resulting in a frustratingly large # of turnovers. But he was typically positionally sound in his own end, tended to stay high in the opponent's zone avoiding odd man rushes not the direct result of him getting forced into a turnover & he was pretty good at getting the puck from an opponent in a 1 on 1 battle but then typically would lose the puck back before he could move it to a teammate. He was clearly thinking rather than doing. It wasn't until the Joisey game that he was bumped down to 3rd line usage. He was still mainly playing C then until Jost was finally added to his line. He was still keeping the puck to the boards & seemed to be playing slower than he is. But, that's been changing since that 3 point game he had. He has started actually moving the puck towards the middle of the ice and his passing has improved. He also is playing quicker. Last night, except for the play that turned into the 1st Caps goal where he & Samuelsson were not on the same page & he then got interfered w/ trying to back check & the 1st 6 or so minutes of the 3rd where he was playing slower again (IMHO he wasn't dogging it, he was trying to figure out how yo adjust to the Caps surge; YMMV & likely will 😉) he was having a very solid game & arguably his best. He even set Olofsson up for a couple of nice opportunities - that hadn't been happening in ages. Getting to play W along w/ the easier usage that comes w/ playing on the 3rd line rather than the 2nd or checking line has IMHO helped him simplify and get what Granato wants him & the rest doing. He has been better in the last 6 or so games, finally; and though his line only finally scored again last night they've actually been generating chances. Something else that wasn't happening in ages. Personally don't believe Granato is giving him opportunities to boost his trade value, though that might be the LT result. Believe Granato's rationale is twofold. 1. He continually talks about Mitts skill level & believes he can once again be the underperforming player whisperer & get him to bring it in games which would significantly help the team if that line could start scoring even every other game at ES. He's been a pretty good judge of talent so far & personally will give Don the benefit of the doubt as he's brought more out of several players than it seemed they had. And 2. Granato WANTS to be able to use the Cozens line as the 3rd line. Not to shelter Cozens, he clearly doesn't need to be sheltered, but to get the other 2 kids back to favorable matchups. Which would get them thriving again. They were going great w/ 3rd line usage & even bumped up a little when 1st getting 2nd line usage. But that line, while still generating chances, isn't generating nearly as many (some of the advanced stats people could say just how much their chances & more critically their high danger chances are down, but would eyeball them at about 60% of what they'd been getting) and they aren't scoring at ES as a line. Getting them back to 3rd line usage will get them back to looking like the 2nd coming of the RAV line. And, while they will get back to finishing playing through the 2nd line usage, it'll be more dramatic an increase getting back to the easier usage. And to get the Kid Line back to 3rd line matchups means either the Jost line or Krebs line needs to take that 2nd line usage. And the Jost line can't do that w/out Mitts playing better than he did at ES throughout the 1st 2+ months. Personally, expect Mitts to continue to gel w/ Jost and continue to look more like a driver than a passenger throughout this month. And hopefully well enough that the Kid Line can go back to getting really favorable matchups. Wouldn't put money on it, but do believe (hope?) it is likely. Expect that Mitts improvement will help Olofsson too. But VO's issue is he isn't a play driver & never will be. But if Jost & Mitts can make stuff happen, maybe he can get some confidence as well.

Kind of agree. His draft pedigree is frustrating people that expect more than a 3W out of a top 10 pick. But, as long as Granato believes he can be more than that, will expect Don is correct. Can't think of a single player Granato expressed a sincere belief in that has busted. (Small sample size, but still, he believed in Thompson, Skinner, & Krebs. He put Cozens up against McDavid. He has an effective line w/ Cozens the elder statesman. He knows what these guys can be. If he says Mitts can be really good. Not going to argue.) And, if Granato is wrong and all he is, is a good 3W, he'll still help this team this year & next and then will get pushed out by a kid at some point.

Danke. 🍻 Well, considering 2 of those 4 will be All Stars (& quite possibly season ending, not just early February), 1 is a 1st liner, & the other is just 21 (22?) and already a solid 2nd liner w/1st line potential; no he likely isn't as good as any other them. But he is a legit 3rd liner who could very well be a 2nd liner. And, if he is a 2nd liner, this team really is set a F moving forward and they have legit assets that can be used to fill gaps at D or G OR to extend the window that is clearly opening.

Really believe finally getting a chance to play W on the 3rd line will allow us to see what Mittelstadt can be. Essentially missing all of last year (between outright being out & not being able to skate when he was in) & then being forced into 2C usage when he wasn't ready for it, especially w/ Olofsson & Asplund as his primary linnemates, kept him in that small set of players that haven't noticeably improved under Granato.

Until this season Mittelstadt has been handled roughly as well as Thompson was prior to Granato moving him to C from the poor usage right up to the accompanying the accompanying injury bad luck until this year. He also started this year as the 2C, almost always w/ Olofsson, and quite often Asplund; so this 2C/3C tweener was getting hard usage w/ other linemates also being asked to punch above their weight class. He watched Granato's system implemented last year but didn't get to actually participate for long stretches & then when he could his skating was affected by his injury. This season he pretty much avoided moving the puck to the middle of the ice (likely from years of Taylor & Krueger hammering into his head that moving the puck into a phonebpoth in the center of the ice was a very poor decision) unless he was almost at the opponent's goal line and other teams saw that & took an easy path up the boards away from him resulting in a frustratingly large # of turnovers. But he was typically positionally sound in his own end, tended to stay high in the opponent's zone avoiding odd man rushes not the direct result of him getting forced into a turnover & he was pretty good at getting the puck from an opponent in a 1 on 1 battle but then typically would lose the puck back before he could move it to a teammate. He was clearly thinking rather than doing. It wasn't until the Joisey game that he was bumped down to 3rd line usage. He was still mainly playing C then until Jost was finally added to his line. He was still keeping the puck to the boards & seemed to be playing slower than he is. But, that's been changing since that 3 ppint game he had. He has started actually moving the puck towards the middle of the ice and his passing has improved. He also is playing quicker. Last night, except for the play that turned into the 1st Caps goal where he & Samuelsson were not on the same page & he then got interfered w/ trying to back check & the 1st 6 or so minutes of the 3rd where he was playing slower again (IMHO he wasn't dogging it, he was trying to figure out how yo adjust to the Caps surge; YMMV & likely will 😉) he was having a very solid game & arguably his best. He even set Olofsson up for a couple of nice opportunities - that hadn't been happening in ages. Getting to play W along w/ the easier usage that comes w/ playing on the 3rd line rather than the 2nd or checking line has IMHO helped him simplify and get what Granato wants him & the rest doing. He has been better in the last 6 or so games, finally; and though his line only finally scored again last night they've actually been generating chances. Something else that wasn't happening in ages. Personally don't believe Granato is giving him opportunities to boost his trade value, though that might be the LT result. Believe Granato's rationale is twofold. 1. He continually talks about Mitts skill level & believes he can once again be the underperformed player whisperer & get him to bring it in games which would significantly help the team if that line could start scoring even every other game at ES. He's been a pretty good judge of talent so far & will personally give Don the benefit of the doubt as he's brought more out of several players than it seemed they had. And 2. Granato WANTS to be able to use the Cozens line as the 3rd line. Not to shelter Cozens, he clearly doesn't need to be sheltered, but to get the other 2 kids back to favorable matchups. Which would get them thriving again. They were going great w/ 3rd line usage & even bumped up a little when 1st getting 2nd line usage. But that line, while still generating chances, isn't generating nearly as many (some of the advanced stats people could say just how much their chances & more critically their high danger chances are down, but would eyeball them at about 60% of what they'd been getting) and they aren't scoring at ES as a line. Getting them back to 3rd line usage will get them back to looking like the 2nd coming of the RAV line. And, while they will get back to finishing playing through the 2nd line usage, it'll be more dramatic an increase getting back to the easier usage. And to get the Kid Line back to 3rd line matchups means either the Jost or Krebs line needs to take that 2nd line usage. And the Jost line can't do that w/out Mitts playing better than he did at ES throughout the 1st 2+ months. Personally, expect Mitts to continue to gel w/ Jost and continue to look more like a driver than a passenger throughout this month. And hopefully well enough that the Kid Line can go back to getting really favorable matchups. Wouldn't put money on it, but do believe (hope?) it is likely. Expect that Mitts improvement will help Olofsson too. But VO's issue is he isn't a play driver & never will be. But if Jost & Mitts can make stuff happen, maybe he can get some confidence as well.