Taro T

To reach 99 points (0.603 winning percentage) Team Pts Needed W% Needed Broons - 56 - 52.8 Loafs - 61 - 56.5 Panthers - 61 - 58.7 Wings - 65 - 62.5 Bolts - 66 = 66.0 Habs - 69 - 66.3 Sabres - 70 - 70.0 Otters - 77 - 68.8 Didn't bother with the Metro. Extremely difficult task ahead of them and they MAY be able to get in with less than 99 points. Pretty much they need to start alternating 5 game segments of winning 4 of 5 and winning 3 of 5. They ARE 5-1-2 in Levi's last 8 starts which is an 0.750 pace. So, its POSSIBLE. It just isn't likely at this point.

You expect Miami to finally win a game against an opponent that's above 0.500 for the 1st time since the heat stroke/Tua "ankle" injury game? Why?

That game was very satisfying. Need to keep it up against an LA team that will be feeling its oats having finally been unshackled from the worst late game coach this kid has ever seen. The timing of when the Bills have been playing teams for the most part has been far from ideal this year. But, if they continue to play the way they have since punting Dorsey they should get the W even though the Bolts could be really fired up.

It was when they punted Leopold at the end of the minilockout year. They'd announced "suffering" in the summer of '13 on their way to trying to land Reinhart and Eichel. Sorry, always forget they missed the playoffs twice before the 1st full tank year. Because the season before the minilockout they just barely missed. All these friggin' losing years eventually blend together. But, yes, this is only the NINTH year of rebuilding. It ISN'T the 10th.

Everybody KNOWS it's spelled WholeZinger. Because when he was ON, he was a whole zinger, he wasn't a partial zinger, he went there completely. (Your way (which is the Sabres way, btw) is just NASTY.) 😉

In fairness, this is only the 10th year of the rebuild. The 1st missed playoff year was the one where they decided late in the year to pivot from bringing in FAs to get them over the top to run a scorched earth tank. There were then 2 tank years where nothing was being built except the stash of draft picks. 2 failed rebuilds and a painfully slow 3rd rebuild is where we're at now.

Fack. Unless the flu is ripping through the roster, can we PLEASE never run 11-7 again. Don't understand why they don't drive to the net more. UPL played VERY well tonight except for about 15 seconds but with them giving him no goal support at all, those 15 seconds were enough for the Yotes to build a 2 goal lead. At least the Bandits won tonight. Was watching that and the 1st period at the same time; that was more entertaining. And, the BJ's game should be a pretty good one. But might have to bite the bullet and lower the price on the Loafs game tix. Was planning on going to that one as well unless someone paid a stupid amount for those tix; but that might turn into a REALLY ugly night. Too long a drive to be that frustrated right before Christmas.

It was a joke. That's what the little 'winky thing' at the end was there for, to make sure it wasn't interpreted otherwise. 😉

Hasn't he ALWAYS had half of it? 😉

Pronman's the one who has the size fetish, right?

If he had those measureables, would've been surprised to see him get past 4. We're in agreement.

Expected it was clear that by "being healthy" was meaning "fully healthy." Something they literally have not been 1 single day this season. Even getting "healthier" knocks the 3 headed monster out of commission. 1st player back sends Murray back down. 2nd player back probably finally sends Bryson down. 3rd player back could result in the 3 headed monster going away but they could also go off the board and send down or trade a bottom 6er. All 4 back and the 3 headed monster is dead. Unless they decide to skip light speed altogether and go directly to ludicrous speed and send Benson back to the W. (Shouldn't happen, pretty sure it won't happen, but sometimes this team does strange things.) But, to your point, considering the youth of this team, expect they are hampered by injuries a bit more than they should be at F. Would be really interesting to see what a prorated expected injury rate adjusting for age would be. And, yes, they've been healthier than expected on the back line. (Making up for last year's crazy amount of injuries there.)

Quick! Claim him. We can have the FIRST FOUR HEADED MONSTER!!!!!!!! (Please, dear God, no.)

He is. But, do you not believe that if he were actual fast that he would've gone higher? Personally believe, as stated in the post you quoted, that the lack of size had teams wary but the lack of top end speed in combination with the lack of size is how the Sabres lucked into him. Give him 1 more inch or make him faster and he doesn't come close to Buffalo's pick. And it also would've had people not insisting that he NEEDS to go back to the W. Sometimes 18 yos are ready to play against the best adults in the world. We seem to have lucked into one of those 18 yos. And again, he IS a good skater. But he's not the prototypical lightning quick race past everyone small player that teams look for when they are drafting at the very top of the draft.

Before this season started, expected they'd see ~3 - 3 game losing streaks and 3 or 4 - 4 game+ winning streaks. IF they can make that reality, they really can get back into this. Like they said back in '80 - the best is yet to come. (Hopefully.)

Disagree with the bolded.

Is it because at present with all the F injuries and with 8 D already up on the roster there is no compelling reason to have 1 less goalie on the team (practice time not being compelling IMHO, YMMV) and the last time they solved the 3 headed monster issue the team went 0-4-0? Should the team get healthy, the 3 headed monster goes away. But right now there is nobody on the farm that would get into the lineup over the 12 F's that are healthy (maybe somebody would play instead of Murray, but it's easy enough to send him down if they want to not play him here, they don't need to heathy scratch him) and nobody is going to carry 9 healthy D.

100% it was size. (Particularly when combined with the attitude that small guys have to be lightning quick waterbugs to keep from getting killed. So maybe 85% size, 15% skating if one looks at those as separate issues, but personally see them as sides of the same coin. His skating is fine, it just isn't as good as what we expect to see in a smaller player that makes it to this level.)

MAYBE on a certain level. Right now they still have the new system down and they probably do have to give more of a playoff level effort to make things happen that a regular season effort level SHOULD be effective enough at. But you can't sustain 82 games at a playoff level. Though am focusing on them being uncertain about whether their goalies will be good enough as a key to the inconsistent play. By no means is that the ONLY issue. The Detroit game was horrible (3rd period not withstanding) and the Avs game was horrible. (Both of which either had Tuch out of the lineup or 1st game back from injury incidentally.) But, it can't simply be a case of lack of effort. NOBODY runs hot and cold literally every other game on effort alone. (The stretch where the 3 headed monster having been slayed being a notable exception to the on again off again play/results.) A big part of WHY my focus is on their belief in the goaltending is, IMHO when they get above average GTing (and both UPL and Levi have provided that at times) they have 1 less thing to be distracting them from trying to understand their new roles. (This probably won't be explained exactly the way it's meant, but don't feel like writing a disertation nor editing for 20 minutes; so with that in mind ...) And they ALMOST get to a point where they just play the way they're supposed to for most of the game. Granato talks about having them play fearless, and most people take that to mean play without accountability. But personally believe what he's getting at is they ARE going to make mistakes (all 19 of them) and they don't have to worry about getting flogged for A mistake. Particularly if they afterwards understand what the mistake was and more importantly WHY the mistake was made. If they get that, then they can fix them. They clearly do not have the new system down to muscle memory. They ARE thinking often on the ice (and NOT in the "how do I make the next play" kind of way but in the "am I where I need to be and understand what I do if the puck goes there or there" kind of way. Throwing on the "if I don't do this right, my goalie won't bail me out" thoughts make that thinking even more pronounced. Especially when they're supposed to be thinking about making the next right play not the last play good or bad. If it was JUST effort, they'd have more back to back bad games. The losing would breed more losing than it has. MHO, YMMV.

UPL started the Avs game very strong. But he misplayed the wraparound and things snowballed from there. Not saying his teammates (cough, cough, E Johnson, cough, cough Krebs) couldn't have helped more or even bailed him out nor that with a ref in a different vantage point the play might've been blown dead before Nickushkin even got behind the net; but he overplayed the initial rush. He should play better tonight and it SHOULD be a good "get his mojo back" game. Here's to hoping he does. This team needs 27 AND 1 both playing near their current peaks to make this the year they finally rejoin the dance or even have a shot at it.

Really don't see it as a lack of effort or a belief that they'll just roll over the next opponent after getting a W. Expect it's more often a case of giving up a bad early goal putting them on their heels for too long to work their way out of it.

True, but the value of his was entirely superficial. Thompson's when on are functional.

Nobody here is a bigger backer of Levi than this kid, but they should play UPL tonight. They'll need 2 good goalies these last 51 games. Time to get UPL's game back.

Since they "killed the 3 headed monster", UPL is 0-3-0 with a 4.51 GAA and a 0.833 SV%. Granted he was coming off illness in the last game, but he hasn't been good since having been handed the reins. But, give him this game. He should be able to play well in it. The Q becomes, do they risk him NOT having a good game and playing Comrie as the backup or do they play Levi as the backup. Expecting they'll make Comrie the backup, but there is a risk involved there.

Go UPL. Give Levi the BJ's. (Unless UPL pitches a SO in Desert Dog land. Then think long and hard about who to give the C-Bus game.) And then, if Levi's still playing the way he's been playing (or he didn't get the C-Bus game) give him the Loafs as well. He won in his last outing against them and played well even though the stats don't agree. Whereas UPL got lit up his last game vs TO and that's the game that led to the ridiculous "hometown advantage" ticketing poicy.