PASabreFan

A whipping boy is a scapegoat. He unfairly receives blame that should be placed on others. Our classic scapegoat is Carter Hutton — allows three goals behind a porous defense and a feckless offense and loses 3-0 and is fingered (shut up). Your unquestioned leader, captain and best player, highest paid on the team, can't be a whipping boy. He's the alpha male and the top banana. The buck stops on his desk. Although close in salary, Jeff is JAG. He's in the whipping boy pool with Eakin, Risto et al.

Maybe the broadcasting template was laid down starting in the very early days. You have an understated national broadcaster out of Canada as your television voice; the style is on the bland side, emotion is sparse and saved for the biggest moments, and even then, the moment is allowed to star (quick, do your best Ted Darling goal call in your head). You add a relative unknown on the radio, seemingly an underling to the television voice (and to this day, Rick still considers Ted to be The Voice of the Sabres); the descriptive style is perfect for radio, passion brings a passionate game to life in listeners' imaginations, and the call is the moment. I'm biting a piece of taffy in half as I type these words, but maybe Dan is our Ted. Our Rick? He (or she) is out there, young and untested, wildly calling games in the OHL or USHL. The simulcast worked with Rick as the sole voice. It doesn't work with Dan, but you can see why the Sabres wouldn't want a third voice just for the times Dan was on TV. If Rick retires, the simulcast has to go.

Whipping boy=player who's unfairly criticized and, especially, blamed

Yes.

Yeah, I dunno. For a looooong time, any criticism of Jack was not met kindly. This season things started to change. And probably rightly so. It was a bad look for Jack most nights. People can point to injury, but I wonder what injury had Jack chatting with his buddy on the Isles about his buddy's stick. He checked out. I do wonder how a 10 million dollar player on a 31st place team can ever be a "whipping boy." My thoughts are that the bolded is very premature and extremely wishful thinking.

https://www.statmuse.com/nhl/game/3-9-1975-pit-@-buf-13911

I feel like 8-4 is a rare score in hockey.

With a nine iron.

PA WUZ HERE

Good night buddy.

Carter. Finally got his four more years.

Josh's wide hips will serve him well on the field and in his prime child-bearing years.

Ray: Pitt and Buff. R.I.P., @inkman.

Skinner sighting.

This game is so Buffalo at Pittsburgh.

Dunleavy with The Dunleavy. Sorry — I'll stop when he does.

Internet giraffes are slow.

I started a GoFundMe for suspenders for Dan Girardi.

TIL...

That's the idea. The anthem singer and PA guy are obnoxious too. Buffalo should look into it.

I like Rob's attitude re: officiating.

Terry just got his Olean Times Herald in the mail today with the story about Houser being from Pittsburgh. Hoo boy.