MattPie

Wherever there are four Anglicans/Episcopals, there's a fifth.

I wonder if Kane took a look at Rochester's facilities, knowing that a two-week conditioning assignment was in his future and said "no way, that's from the 1970s". 😉

I feel like I've seen this before.

Not since High School. 🙂 (not kidding, in the early 90s I remember doing it as a several-week module during the winter) MsPie's father is pretty into it; several times a week, has portable net and lines in the driveway, etc. He qualified for the NYS Senior Mens Championship or something last year, but got sick and couldn't play.

I keep coming back to the best analysis I remember seeing anywhere posted here back when Ryan Miller flamed out after the trade to St Louis. We tend to think of goalies as "the same" other than skill, but they have their own styles that mesh better with some styles of D. I think back then, the idea was Miller liked to play towards the top of the crease. The Sabres worked with that by having the D low to make sure forwards down by the goal line were tied up, since Miller would be leaving angle shots kinda open. The Blues played with the D further up, so Miller kept getting burned by passes to those low forwards. (I may have completely botched that) Anyway, if some decent guy comes in but his style doesn't mesh with the way the Sabres play D, it'll get ugly even if the Sabres aren't objectively bad. I'd say for UPL not being the quickest to get across and set, the Sabres need to focus on typing up low forwards and slowing down the cross-ice pass. UPL seems OK (lately) at stopping shots as long as he doesn't hunch down, and he's big. Interestingly, Levi might be the opposite since he's a smaller, quick goalie. The Sabres may need to do more to pressure the initial shooter and allow Levi's athleticism cover cross-ice passes by moving quickly to follow the play.

Honestly, having the AHL team 90 minutes down the road is a luxury already. I don't think it needs to be closer in a smaller town like Buffalo. LV is probably a unicorn here, since they have a new franchise and success, but I'd be surprised if the AHL stays there longer term when the newness wears off. I could be wrong. I looked at a couple teams to see arena ages: Hershey Bears: 2002 Syracuse Crunch: 1951 Laval Rocket: 2017 Milwaukee Admirals: 1950 Providence Bruins: 1972 Amerks: 1955 So it's a mixed bag.

We can argue about the timing, but this is the right decision. It would have been way worse if the Sabres were stubborn and kept him up. This doesn't sound like a temporary assignment though.

Get your self-reflecting, introspective #*&% out of here.

UPL is like 24 years old. Could he fold? Yes. Could he be coming into his prime (like most goaltenders at that age)? Also yes. The greatest high is being able to smugly say "I told you so".

I suspect that the 2nd round of the playoffs, which often isn't as competitive as the first, is the let-down of going 110% in the first round.

Pizza: that's good, because the pizza I've had from LC is straight up bad. Parks: that's amazing.

Probably, although on the Sabres does he push down Tuch or JJP (or Quinn when he's back)? I don't know at his current age that's a slam dunk to replace any of them. Especially with the Buffalo "play the kids" Sabres.

TIL the owner of the Red Wings also founded Little Caesars. huh. In any case, Detroit has their own style pizza (obvs you know this Doohickie), it's a little thicker than Buffalo, Focaccia crust, and usually square. It's probably descendant of Sicilian.

There are a lot of scenarios here Didn't want to go to Buffalo since they're struggling Knows this might be his last hockey contract so took the most money Buffalo wasn't interested enough or didn't offer much Didn't think he'd crack the top-6 in Buffalo, unlike Detroit (? I have no idea what Detroit looks like this year) Just doesn't like Buffalo pizza after eating deep dish (he is hitting all the "pizza" towns though, Chicago, NYC, and now Detroit)

Yep, I was nominally an Eagles fan during the Reid years (2nd team, of course). People would *rage* about Andy Reid at the end of games. McD is in the same league in that area, and that's not a good thing. Even before this, I was thinking McD's handling of the end of games was similarly questionable.

Yeah, someone at work asked it I was going to get hit since they heard about it (in Texas). Finger Lakes are in the shadow of the strip of land between Lakes Erie and Ontario so we're forecasted for nothing. But it looks like the Southtowns are going to get it.

Would Beane be that much of a loss?

I think this is the crux. He's good at making the team play well, but does not seem effective in the highest of pressure situations. He wins games because the team plays well enough to get ahead. Even behind earlier in the game, he's OK because it's not 100% make or break yet. But get to the end of a close game and he just can't manage things. Fine for a regular season coach, but you're always going to be disappointed in the playoffs.

Spicy. There are going to be a ton of people spilling their complimentary hotel breakfast coffee after reading that one. (I don't think it's wrong, either)

Very succinct explanation of the McD effect.

I never thought of writing or composing as type-2 fun, but it makes a ton of sense. I've surprised myself by taking a liking to type-2 fun in the form of riding bicycles up hills. I'm terrible at it, but it's such a joy when I'm at the top. Maybe it's not such a surprise; software troubleshooting is similarly miserable until it's fixed, then it's a huge high.

I'm not sure I agree, but I also wouldn't be surprised if you're right. If the Sabres get to point that everyone is healthy and they have to send someone down, I could see it being Benson rather than having to put someone through waivers but that's about it. See Grigorenko, Mikhail. He played 25 for the Sabres in 2012 was sent back to the Q because he wasn't cutting it.

Responsible adults and news outlets make sure they got it reasonably right before putting everyone on blast. You shouldn't believe preliminary reports and shouldn't repeat them, since they're BS.

Won't someone think of the poor Fox News reporter that spent all day polishing up the article blaming President Biden for this terrorist attack, only for it not to be used?