darksabre

Yes.

I agree. He's shallow. Yup. It's all .

Risto is 23 and eats a lot of minutes, but he's not producing offensively like we'd hoped. Karlsson would be an instant upgrade to our defense if you can get him here on what...an 8 year deal? I think I make that trade if I come to the conclusion that Ristolainen has peaked in his development and is never going to be as offensively productive as we'd hoped.

This whole thing with McDermott is image cultivation. Dude wants so bad for everyone to think he's the greatest patriot, biggest lover of the troops. So he thinks the best way to achieve that goal is to find every excuse he can to try to connect what he does to the military, even when it makes absolutely no sense and is completely out of place. I find it incredibly contrived and insincere. Also: Adversity in pro sports is not even remotely the same as adversity in war. To try to compare the two is foolish and crude.

That is literally what he says. That football players have to be ready for the weather just like "military people", because "military people" also have to deal with weather, which makes them basically the same. That weather will really get ya. Never mind the bullets, IEDs, etc. That weather, it's something else. Experiencing weather really helps me relate to "military people". When I cleaned my car off this morning, man, I was like "Man, now I really respect what military people go through."

Dude probably thanks the troops before he nuts in his wife.

It was literally the first thing out of his mouth at the end of the game. He was probably thinking about how to name-drop "the troops" when he called that punt.

I wouldn't make any assumptions about what is coming back for Kane. I don't think we're looking at roster players for this year. Probably prospects and picks, and position won't be a priority. Best player available would be my guess.

Probably yes.

Would it kill a coach for once to just come out and be like "Oh heck yeah, I made the wrong choice. But my team bailed me out and I'm grateful."

Lehner is well known among goalie coaches/critics for lazy play when he's down in the reverse VH. Greg Balloch on twitter is a good follow if you're looking for someone who is on the watch.

The punt didn't make sense given the context of the game where it was taking teams FOREVER to move the ball down the field. It took Indy, what, the whole 4th quarter to make one drive? It's insane to me that, given the context, any coach thought there would be enough time to score after punting the ball away. McDermott got lucky. But there's a very real chance that that game ends in a tie given everything we had seen to that point.

Charlize Theron is becoming epic.

I will watch anything with Bruce Campbell.

It really is...unnerving...isn't it? Not confidence inspiring.

Oh cool, looking forward to checking that out!

Right, objectively. Guys like Lindback and Nilsson have had the best statistical seasons of their careers playing for the Sabres the last few years. I'm just super wary of looking at Lehner's stats on a bad Sabres team and trying to draw any kind of meaning out of it. I think playing on a bad team can create the illusion of a goalie being good.

This is kinda my thing. It's hard for me to feel like he's going to be the goalie this team needs when it is good and he's seeing less shots. I don't expect Ullmark to be an improvement either. But I don't see myself caring that much. I need the rest of the team to get better.

You know where Karlsson wants to go right? The Rangers. It's always the Rangers.

I agree. I think the big thing for Botterill is: prospect/FA pool, and how much he's willing to tie up in goaltending cap going forward. What kind of contract do we think Lehner is looking at? $6mil/4 years? Do we want to tie a goalie up for that if we think Ullmark is coming up next year? I don't think so. I think Lehner goes elsewhere and gets a good contract and we go with Ullmark at $750k and ______ at ~$2.5mil.

I want to say that I agree with you, but I just don't, and I really can't say why. I think if this team starts scoring more goals he'll end up being worse. I think he looks the best and most useful when he's getting a lot of work. But if you ask him to make that one big save in a higher scoring game where he's not seeing as many shots, that's when he's going to kill you. I'm being presumptuous about where I think this team is headed, and I think as they get better it's less likely that he's "the guy".

I think he's facing low quality shots. Look at how much shooting Chicago was doing. This is like the Ted Nolan years when we were giving up tons of shots and Artus Irbe was making randos look like Hasek. Lehner is basically fine. I get it. Every objective way of looking at the guy says there's nothing wrong with him. But... we know something is, right? Like...I would 100% not fault any coach or GM for buying in to Lehner and giving him some long term deal and thinking "yes, this is the guy".

I don't agree. I think he's playing well. But pretty much every goalie in the league is making those saves every night. He's not doing anything that other goalies aren't doing.

Robin Lehner is that woman you went to high school who is 35 now and who has dated several guys long-term but for some reason has never ended up married. Objectively she looks like a great catch, but there's also something going on there that you can't put your finger on. He's a good goalie in a lot of respects. Most nights he's not the reason they lose, but he's also not the reason they win. Statistically he makes the saves you expect him to make, but he almost never makes that one save you need him to make. He's that co-worker who dependably shows up every day and does what you tell him, but is never going to go out of his way to work some OT or try to make the company better of his own volition. There's nothing inherently wrong with a goalie who just quietly does his thing and makes his saves and gives the team a chance to win every night. But occasionally you need your goalie to come up big. To show they have the capacity to make that one impossible save when the team desperately needs it. Lehner is not that guy. I have no doubt he will have a long NHL career and will play for several more teams. But he's always going to move on, and no one is ever really going to be able to figure out why, but they wont miss him when he's gone.