Taro T

He did. But not for Buffalo.

Wasn't sure if it would be you or Inky hitting that meatball out of the park. 😉

STOP BRINGING UP SMEHLIK! 😉

And, in that world, you can have the true analog of the Roy-Afinogenov-Vanek line in the form of the Cozterkinn line. Eichel probably gets Skinner & Okposo for now and That 70's Line gets reprised. Mittelstadt, Girgensons, & Hinostroza make up the misfits 4th line. That would be a fun team. (Assumes the Reinhart trade still happens too.)

Shh, not so loud. Maybe the Yotes haven't noticed. (That fan certainly hasn't.) 😉 Well this deal would bring them back the 31st pick. That's 1st round, right? 😉

They are. They definitely are. But thinking about it, maybe the plan is to essentially be an updated 80's Eulers. And maybe they are instilling the D into the practices but aren't planning on using it in games unless they actually need it. I.e., if they know they can outscore the opponent, why kill themselves playing D? Those Euler teams freewheeling though the entire '82-'83 season & got crushed by the Aisles. That next year, they still freewheeled but bore down against the Aisles who had just been through 3 much harder series getting there than Edmonton had faced. Calgary was tougher because of the rivalry but it was still fairly wide open hockey. And that attitude - freewheel when you can, play responsible when you must won them 5 in 7 years. And also drew fans everywhere. No, don't really expect that'd the true plan, but wouldn't be surprised if there's a hint of truth to it. Meaning, they'll always go on the attack when it looks "right" & they'll always look for it, but they might be a bit more cautious and not "go for it" at absolutely every opportunity. They're going to view giving up scoring chances as the price for generating a #### ton of scoring chances of their own. Which would put them in the position of treating goalies like RBs in the NFL. Get a young one that is good enough, beat the snot out of him for 3 or so years then after the flesh is picked off his carcass go back & find another one. In which case they probably will follow that Cane model of goalie by committee. (Sorry, just random associating at this point. It's Friday & was a long week.)

Was going to say until they start focusing on playing less of an all out attacking style they'll continue to give up high danger chances. A good goalie will cover more ills than a better D-man, but then thought about where the 5v5 goals are coming from. Still will say a goalie would do more. But upgrading w/ a 4 knocking at least the 7 out of the lineup & hopefully soon the 6 as Lyubushkin recovers, would reduce the goals given up off of breakouts. It wouldn't help THAT much w/ transition goals & they already don't seem to give up THAT many cycle goals, so it wouldn't really help all that much there either. But, yeah, the D upgrade would help some, & w/ this offense maybe that's enough?

Then Anderson assumes his current role until the injured guy is healthy & then he mysteriously retweaks that injury originally sustained in practice & goes back on IR. Lather - Rinse - Repeat as necessary.

Probably a BJ fan that lost a bet. 😉 PS - yes, realize you aren't in OH.

Anderson suffers a mysterious tweak in practice & goes on IR. If Comrie or other goalie get hurt in 1st week of Andy's IR stint then UPL gets one more crack at backup until the 7th day has passed when Anderson miraculously recovers. He wouldn't be on LTIR, so nobody would be all that upset at the "blatant circumvision" of the 23 player limit.

Expect the fan that proposed the deal figures AZ also wants of bit of tank protection which is why Vejmelka was included.

There's 5 guys on that list they should be able to land for the right deal. What you offering? 😉

Don't know enough about Vejmelka, other than he's played well in Buffalo, to say. Don't like trading an unprotected 1st. Trade is essentially 2 players the fanbase hates & a 1st & 2nd a year out for D help & G help on reasonable deals which are the Sabres 2 biggest needs. Creates a ST hole at C should there be injuries but it strengthens the D & sends UPL back where he seems to be destined.

Personally, want to see a goalie taken every year. If you end up w/ too many of them do what the Snarks used to do; trade one for something else you need. There's ALWAYS somebody looking for a goalie. (Too often since trading away Miller it's been the Sabres.) Maybe that number retiring ceremony will finally snap the curse. And it's even in their designated valiant run to the finals but falling just short season. 😉

Versa vica. Anderson gets the front end of btb's & the other goalie gets the other game. Andy & the coaches agreed that's how they'd handle btb's because that way he doesn't have to deal w/ the short night of sleep before the game.

Tap. Tap. This thing off? 😉

Yep. _______ may be an arsehole, but darn it, he's OUR arsehole. Or. They can't do that to our pledges, only WE can do that to our pledges.

Pilut might've played himself out of a job on Wednesday.

(And this preface to this comment isn't directed at your coment but merely the board's general feel post-BJs game. And the rest is kind of tongue in cheek. But ...) Given the irrational exuberance around here, Levi could very well end this year platooning w/Comrie & then leading them into the playoffs. He could become the Sabres miniature version of a Ken Dryden leading them into a surprise playoff run. Heck, would even settle for Steve Penney this year. 😉

He is. But it seems he's one of the players that the league sees as a potential "face of the franchise." (Just a hunch, can't point to anything definitive, maybe because of his play at the WJC it seems like he gets brought up very favorably on their national broadcasts.) If that's not just a misread, if he & his linemates can keep this hot stretch running through Christmas maybe he's got a shot as the +1 guy or whatever they call that last player making each roster.

Am really hoping he sneaks onto that roster. Would really like to get an AS sweater for the Workhorse from WhitehorseTM.

The reason you missed the premise is the final paragraph was only partially complete. The post wasn't supposed to only be a compare & contrast of the development of the 2 players. It was supposed to end w/ a question. Ooops. Like mentioned in the 1st paragraph, was interested in both why Mitts seemingly has stagnated but also what might be done to get him back on track and further if it's worth the effort to get him on track. And before answering those last 2 Q's, they need to ask themselves whether he's showing enough signs of taking a next step to make it worth asking those Q's. Mittelstadt is under contract for another year after this, so if they still believe there's something there it is in their best interest to bring it out of him. (Suppose that's also true of Olofsson but with the extra years under his belt (even though he doesn't have all that much more NHL experience) don't see it as interesting an exercise to look at.) Also, am curious if the thoughts on Thompson's path seem reasonable. Haven't fully fleshed out he thoughts on either player but have been reassessing the thoughts on both. Seperately, something happened between the Bruins game & the Devils game. Mitts got his most usage by TOI & shifts (maybe not absolute most, but definitely top 3 in both) against the B's and looked really good going against the top line (yes, his line was out for the brutal shift when Dahlin was hurt but that was what it was) but then in the game after the Cozterkinn line got elevated to 2nd line, Mitts line was effectively made the 4th line. He had been on a 50 point pace before the demotion, now he's on a 41 point pace. Would really like to have been the proverbial fly on the wall in the coaches room when they were making the adjustment.

The Minny game. (January 7?)

It's possible that he doesn't process hockey well enough, but don't expect it is. Expect it's more of a case of those who said he should've gone to junior rather than stay loyal to his HS were right that staying in HS would hurt his development. It did, he did not learn a lot of the things you only find out when you're being challenged by tougher competition. When he 1st came here, he was flat out horrible in his own end. Would joke to wifey that he looked like a golden Labrador puppy trying to figure out where ball was when the puck was in his own end and that was from never really having faced opponents regularly that he had to understand where to be to make the defensive system work. But he got much better at that. He gets where he needs to be & pretty much stays in that area. Your buddy Risto never could figure that out. A cycle was his kryptonite. Get him & Eichel together against a good cycle & they were toast. And he also was taught to avoid going into the phone booth. He doesn't do that anymore - ever. Thing is, he's ready to get taught how to find & utilize open space. Maybe he can't learn that. Expect he can, but believe there's a real possibility that w/ limited time the coaching staff see spending time w/ the other young guys as better utilization of their time as the Cozterkinn line all has 1st line upside (not saying they necessarily will be that, but it is still each one's ceiling) & Mitts doesn't. And, no, you missed the premise. Will try to expound on it more later, but have already wasted way too much time today on the subject. (Not trying to be dismissive; have a day job and really have been here way too long today.)

Other than his line getting demoted to the 4th line, not sure. Great question though.