K-9

I’d argue he was a notch below MacKinnon. Don’t get me wrong, Eichel is an elite player in his own right, but he doesn’t attack the game with speed at every level like MacKinnon does.

Eichel was never not skating the entire time. When were those videos of him skating with his Bruins buddies in the summer? Let me know when he’s back in pads and actually doing hockey things. And 30%-40% better is the definition of pulling numbers out of your ass.

Good point. We forget how well Dell played in the first five minutes vs the Panthers. He single-handedly prevented the Sabres being down 3-0 before we scored our first goal. But as you point out, that early great play became moot when he couldn’t make a key safe in crunch time. But he had a lot of help from a D that can’t cope with pressure in their own zone.

If the Colts had crushed the Bills, it could have been 75 and sunny and it still would have been a miserable experience.

Malcolm wins

Nine points in the 11 games since Granato challenged him with McDavid. That’s when the light switch came on, imo.

To be fair, that fooled everyone except the Panther who made a helluva play to keep it out of the wide open net.

Is it really, though? I mean, really?

Hagg constantly hesitates with the puck. And all of our D lose their poise when the opponent has three guys below the goal line. It's frustrating as hell to watch night after night.

The pass was better than the move around the wheelchair.

Dylan is growing up right before our very eyes.

I'm more interested in how the team in front of him plays with a three goal lead.

I like to think of it as giving up two field goals instead.

I’m terrible at deciphering D pluses and D minuses, so tell me, is he draft eligible in 2022 or 2023?

God help us all.

He was the epitome of “hockey character.” Something Bogo and Kane were never remotely familiar with.

Outstanding. We will never know the damage done when the unnatural leaders on this team gravitated towards the wrong leadership instead of the right kind of leadership exhibited by Gionta and Gorges and brought those lessons into the room when they took on the leadership roles. I think our new young core will see what actual leadership means. I also think the departed players will be more comfortable as players on their new teams now that they aren’t forced into unnatural leadership roles.

Funiculi Funicula!

Monotonous wordsmithing

Fugazi!!

Paging @The Ghost of Doohickie: we have a Fucale mention on line two. Fucale mention on line two.

The video is only a snippet of what I witnessed a few feet from the bench for the entire second period. They were much too comfortable in that embarrassing position for my liking. Resigned, almost. I’m glad they were pushing and fighting and trying to get back in it, but whether or not the yucking it up impacted what was happening on the ice is not important to me. It was a loser’s optic.

I can appreciate what you’re saying, but I can’t agree with it. Being down 4-1 after giving up 22 shots on goal in a period and getting your ass handed to you in the process is never something to laugh about on the bench during the game. There are times to have fun and there are times not to have fun. Last night was a time for the latter. Especially for us fans sitting there feeling miserable while the team is yucking it up.

We sit next to the bench and I noticed this, too. In my book, it’s unacceptable in every way. First time I have to question Granato’s grasp of the situation. If he or the assistants didn’t notice it, they’re not tuned in. If they did, it wasn’t addressed because they were laughing it up the entire second period. This might be indicative of deeper issues and that’s concerning.