Taro T

Would've preferred Jiricek hadn't been ready to play already. He's going to play his way to getting picked before Buffalo is on the clock. (Unless they win 1 of the lotteries.)

That, plus, it's taken 4 years FOUR YEARS for ANY of the pieces that came back for O'Reilly to show any signs of being remotely worth what ROR has been/is. How many Sabres fans were lost due to not having O'Reilly level of value in the organization the past 3 years? How many kids now have the Sabres being a joke of a franchise indelibly etched on their psyches? How much money did the Pegulas lose by saving that $7.5MM? Even if Thompson improves from where he's at today & Johnson signs & becomes Power's ideal partner, 3 (and now 4) truly lost years can never be gotten back.

True. But he was picking out several aspects of his game that seemed to be more than just his normal we're even going to pick out something good about Miller's game level of praise. Initially, it sounded like he was talking about the other Rasmus until some specifics were mentioned.

Great listen. Thank you very much for posting this. The other thing that was interesting was when he was asked about the discussions or attachments when trading away draft picks and how he talked about (without mentioning it directly) how painful it was trading away the picks for Lehner & O'Reilly. When that's combined w/ his lamenting not taking MacAvoy, really starting to expect he wouldn't give high marks to Murray's ability to run a hockey department / evaluate players. 😄

Don't know that Asplund is getting pushed out. On the radio pregame before the game in Filly Granato was speaking pretty highly of Asplund's game. Not seeing it to that same level personally, but pretty sure Granato's opinion carries a smidgen more weight. 😉

And, expecting that you knew it was NHL 0.600 as the cutoff rather than NHL 0.58537 because it was easier as well and actually significantly easier than even your NHL 0.590. Since the introduction of the 3 point game and NHL 0.500 no longer being a useful proxy for a good team, NHL 0.600 has always told us if a team was IN the playoffs and a good target goal for whether your team was playoff bound. Get 6 points every 5 games (or 12 every 10) and you'll make the playoffs. Miss that threshold & you might still make it, but you need help from others. Reach the DeLuca 0.500 & you could very well still need help to make the playoffs. Happens pretty much every year. And again, thank you for pointing out the '70 Habs ending what at the time was the longest playoff qualification streak running by still getting to a record that SHOULD have gotten them in the dance. (Knew they were way ahead of the threshold to get in were they in the West, heck, they'd've won the West; didn't realize they'd cleared 0.600) Will be more careful w/ that 0.600 claim in the future.

How is 0.590 a rounder # than 0.600? Going w/ 0.600 hasn't failed in the 3 point game era and, as you mention, is a nice round # which is fairly easy to look at throughout the season. Played 5 games? Yep. Got 6 points? Yep. You're on pace. Nope. Better pick it up. Easy peazy. 😉

Had also heard that he & some of his classmates are working on a startup. Presuming that is correct, probably easier to help w/ that while actually living in Ann Arbor. Lots of reasons to stay besides simply wanting to shaft Buffalo.

Thanks. Will stand corrected. 0.600 has worked every single time except 1 in the entire history of the league. And that 1 time it didn't work came in the last year that every single established team was in the same conference, the sacrificial lamb in the SCFs from the other conference was on its way to bowing out of the Finals w/out a single game won in that round for the 4th time out of 4, & the league decided to put expansion Vancouver in the East with established Chicago swapping conferences to more or less ensure that fluke outcome never happened again. And, the NHL 0.600's predictive power would've held had either the Habs or Rags picked up 1 less point over the 76 game schedule even with all that working against it. 🍺

@PromoTheRobot, thanks for the heads up. Signed up for the purchase window.

Fully expect a slow start, but if Tokarski (presuming Anderson gets the Saturday matinee start) and keep them in it until they get their legs back, they should be OK. A win won't seal the Sabres finishing ahead of them (tiebreakers might say otherwise, haven't checked them) but Joisey would have to win out & the Sabres lose out for Joisey to catch them if Buffalo wins tonight. (They likely wouldn't catch 'em anyway, but this W would essentially seal that.)

FTFY. Like Adams says: the kid is hockey strong but nowhere close to man strong yet. He'll never be a beast, but an off-season or 2 in the weight room will do a world of good for him.

Jokiharju, IMHO, is a very good 3rd pairing guy but really doesn't belong in the top 4. He still tends to get drawn out of position in his own end too often & loses more battles than a top 4 guy should. Bringing in someone a bit strong in his own end & ideally more experienced to partner w/ Power could really let this group reach another level. Again, IMHO. Let Jokiharju play w/ Bryson & ideally Johnson in 2 years and let the others take the tougher minutes. They'll excel.

Interesting. Didn't realize there was a cult here. TIL. Any other imaginary things you believe in besides the usefulness of the DeLuca 0.500? 😉

1. Dahlin. A case could be made for Tuch or Thompson, but in the end it has to be 26. (And if P were for "person" rather than "player" might go w/ Granato.) 2. Samuelsson. No other rookie is close. Power & Quinn will have an interesting race next season. 3. Skinner. Believe a strong case could be made for Okposo or a case could be made for Girgensons, but this kid would've had Skinner there at 20 goals. He's at 30 and counting, has learned how to pass, and most shockingly of all isn't a tire fire in his own end. 4. Okposo. So many to choose from: Hinostroza, Pysyk, Cozens, Girgensons, Krebs, Mittelstadt, Anderson, & Tokarski; but believe his leadership was a huge piece of getting this team buying in to what Adams & Granato were selling that he gets the edge. 5. Thompson. But either of his normal linemates or the former Aisle that wears an A deserve consideration as well. 6. Dahlin. No contest. 7. Anderson. Sadly, no contest. There has to be a different winner next year for this team to continue substantially improving next year & not just because he's gone & the next guy is at the same level/quality. Should also have 2 additional awards: Team Selke (best defensive forward) and the Michael Peca Leadership Award. If people want a 3rd - the Mike Ramsey Award - best defensive D-man, why not. 8. Okposo. Edges out Girgensons due to sample size. 9. Tuch. Edged him out over Okposo, Girgensons, Anderson, Pysyk, Dahlin, Skinner, Cozens, Mittelstadt, & a couple of others. 10. Samuelsson. Guy's a beast already. Hoping Power &/or Dahlin give him a run for his money in a couple of years, but doubt they will. He's an enormous Mike Ramsey.

Round 1 or round 2. Either ends up at the same spot draftwise.

Reinhart's the better player, but this one does have a hint of the Eichel Thompson Q to it. Victor has the better shot & a deadly 1 timer. Reinhart has a knack for getting to the net & both deflecting the puck & picking up garbage before the D can clear it away. (Both of which very likely positively affect his shooting percentage - well more than 10% of deflections from right in front of the goalie go in, you aren't credited w/ a missed shot when you miss making a deflection, & a loose rebound w/ an out of position goalie is a higher %age scoring play than a clean, unscreened shot.) Both are very good PP contributors in their own way. Sam is a master at the pass. Victor's ability here is SORELY underrated (who do you think was feeding Sam in his stint as the #1C after Jack was shelved). Victor is the better skater, hands down. In the past 2 seasons Olofsson has gone from a bad defensive player to someone that isn't a liability back there and actually good; not great, but good. (Eye test. Doubt analytics see the same improvement, but it is there.) Reinhart has been meh in his own zone and seems to still be that way. Lundell is very good in his own zone, so hard to fully evaluate that. Sam has very good hockey sense. Vic's is above average, but not at the same level. So, yes, Sam is better. But is he $3.5MM better? Probably not.

Sorry. NHL 0.600 is the only one that ACTUALLY matters. No team that has reached it has EVER missed the playoffs. Pretty much every year somebody (and usually somebodies) that reaches 41 W's or more misses.

Yep, if Bellville would be nice enough to sweep the Marlies in regulation both games, then the Amerks can get by taking 6 of their last 8 points. Plus, there would be the added bonus of not being able to get bounced by the Marlies in whatever they're calling the opening 4v5 round of playoffs.

Have no faith in UPL as an NHL starter. Hoping that's selling him short and he can do it, but won't be convinced until he actually demonstrates it. Those preseason & early season over the glove goals are too etched to forget even though to a large degree (though not completely) he's fixed that part of his game. Right now, he's nearly Lehner-level bad against breakaways, which with a dose of success could be cleared up quite rapidly. He looks like he expects to lose that 1v1, getting some confidence could totally fix that. Not sure how he fixes the long range/ bad angle goal just going through him. Were Dwight still here, expect we'd get all kinds of cool theories about his vision, but really don't know what that issue is. Expect that'll be a tougher one to clean up.

Agree wrt Holtby. Actually am sort of hoping for the "3 headed goalie monster" though not sold on DeSmith as the guy penciled in at #1. Guess really am hoping for a "2 headed backup monster" w/ UPL starting the year in Ra-cha-cha and then him forcing his way into the backup role at which point Anderson takes a backseat. In that scenario, Kuemper is the 1 but no idea how Adams convinces him to come to Buffalo.

As others have said, not so much a fluke as might it be a career year. Would try to get him in on a 6 or 7 year deal based on an expectation of 25-30 goals & 60-65 points. No idea as to whether Thompson would go for it, probably not. In which case you roll the die and negotiate the LT deal next year once both sides have a 2 year sample of what Tage Thompson the C really is.

IMHO, his ceiling is Biron (good backup, poor man's starter). Hasn't been the same since the elective hip surgeries, again IMHO. Adams hasn't given up on him and seems to think that the better structure he'd have in front of him will allow him to be one of those handful of guys that are better in the NHL than in the AHL. Unless they bring in 2 veterans (which is possible, Adams has talked of bringing back Anderson and also of getting a bridge upgrade, not positive whether they are mutually exclusive or not) expect UPL as the backup. No idea as to whether Tokarski is in the mix next year as well. Sort of expect him to move somewhere where there's a more open opportunity to be the backup, but who knows what his plans are either. W/ no Levi nor Portillo until April at the earliest, there's a need for 3 bodies besides UPL. So, there's room for him, but hard to see him in the picture as he did (thankfully) block UPL this season.

Reminds one of the old Guinness commercials.

By "professional" do you mean w/ somebody other than Marv singing it? Don't recall hearing a version other than the one he sung on his TV show. Wouldn't be surprised if that version was played once or twice at Rich but don't recall it being played there. (Only went to 4 games that season he wrote the song, so maybe it was played some.) Interesting question.