nfreeman

McCabe-Borgen are going to knock some heads.

So one of my closest friends (and as you get older, these sadly become fewer in number) had heart surgery yesterday -- aortic valve replacement. He's in his early 50s, and while the state of our medical science has fortunately advanced to the point where this is a reasonably common and usually successful operation, it's still a freaking operation on his heart in which the chest is opened and the heart is stopped for a few hours while the valve for the most important blood vessel in the body is replaced. So I was kinda worried. Then I heard from his wife this afternoon that all is good. So I'm grateful.

Fear and loathing? What fear and loathing? Do you feel the same way about all owners of yachts? How about private jets?

I don't think the Sabres are going to lie down. The jury is still out on RK, but the team shows up and competes, even when it seems likely that they would be demoralized. Now, does that mean they will get good goaltending and/or that their top guys will stop squeezing the stick? Unfortunately not, but I do think they will start scoring sooner or later. Maybe the turnaround starts tonight.

Good article. I've been saying for a while that the goalie pads are way too big. The difference between the amount of net to shoot at in the 1980s vs now is enormous. I'd rather make the goalies wear kevlar or similar body armor than enlarge the nets, but I could live with enlarging the nets. The game has really suffered.

It's way too early, but right now Hall is in the top tier of "all-time most disappointing Buffalo sports free agents." I thought he was going to be Stefon Diggs, not Ville Leino.

Just out of curiosity, where do you teach (i.e. WNY or elsewhere, and what grade), and how many days per week is a given student in school in person? I don't doubt that busing, heating/resources and mask compliance are real issues. But to say that public schools can be opened over the objections of the teachers unions belies reality in most parts of the country. https://www.npr.org/2021/01/27/960868462/dont-call-it-a-comeback-school-districts-that-never-opened-are-having-trouble-no And this: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2021/01/25/biden-wants-schools-open-but-teachers-unions-have-other-ideas/4165684001/

Yes -- figuratively. My point was that his team was not one of the better teams in the league, and was not in a big market, and was known for selling off its best players. That's not the kind of organization that pays its management multi-million dollar salaries.

Here's a well-written article (by an epidemiologist) advocating a full reopening of schools: https://www.vox.com/2021/2/15/22280763/kids-covid-vaccine-teachers-unions-schools-reopening-cdc?fbclid=IwAR3x0jx_X5d_mOGJNqr-Bmkl22h3AbTi9-bdXWHlI0BoMcQMJpeG4lVfCKk

I'd be pretty surprised if his job running a 2nd-tier UK soccer team paid $3.5MM per year.

Well, Okposo has been comatose since well before RK arrived, so I don't see how that one is on RK. In any case, my point was that RK is not going to get canned in the near term. If the Sabres finish the season having won 1/3 of their games everything is on the table after the season.

Eichel had by far his best season last year, his first with RK. This is a very strange season that started following a 10-month layoff and has already included a 15-day hiatus. We have played 12 games and been competitive in 10 of them. It is insane to think that RK might get canned in the near term

Morale is low following a disappointing loss last night in which the Sabres were unable to muster any shots on goal in the 3rd period, after playing competitively with a good Islanders team for the 1st 2 periods. The fan base is good and PO'd. The expensive forwards haven't done anything. The goaltending is lousy again, and everyone saw it coming. The coach talks a good game, and he seems to connect with the players, and he has clearly improved some parts of their play, and there are a number of key factors out of his control, but still: where are the wins? Most ominously, there is reason to be concerned that the franchise player is mailing it in until the season ends, at which point he'll demand a trade. As for tonight, the roster has taken some major hits due to Covid -- ESPN reports as follows: Still: we're here because we care about this team. Tonight could be the night when they start to right the ship. They haven't been that far off. A save here or there, a star forward burying a chance instead of shooting it into the goalie's pads, and they're 6-5 and in the playoffs instead of 4-7 and out. I'm not giving up hope just yet. Let's see how this goes.

But both the Murray and Botteril hirings were the result of taking advice from NHL insiders. I agree. He's coached 80 games with the Sabres, the first 69 of which were spent trying to make chicken salad out of JB's chicken poop roster, and the most recent 11 of which have been spent trying to get a team's sharpness back after a 10-month layoff plus a 15-day layoff and a virus outbreak -- and he's had bottom-20% goaltending the whole time. I think he's also reasonably well-respected around the NHL, and dumping him at this point would be another log on the fire of TP's reputation for firing people. Yes indeed -- and they played pretty well in the 1st 2 periods last night before running out of gas in the 3rd.

The overall picture presented by the Isles in 2018 was no better than that presented by the Sabres. Also, what about Bylsma?

So, the Leafs blew a 5-1 lead vs Ottawa today and lost in OT, 6-5.

That is interesting regarding Trotz. However, if Lou was willing to go to the Isles he probably would've been willing to join the Sabres.

In the summer of 2018, after JB's and Howie's first year, a year in which they were both trying for the Sabres to be a good team, but still led the Sabres to finish DFL, both Lamoriello and Trotz became available. The Islanders, which had been about as bad a franchise as the Sabres for a number of years at that point, snatched both of them up and immediately became a solid NHL franchise. The Sabres stuck with 2 guys who in retrospect were in way over their heads. And here we are.

Not sure but I don't think the Sabres have a shot on goal in the 3rd period yet and we are 7:45 in.

My recollection is that he had a good relationship with RK, who had resurrected his play from being a frequent healthy scratch and scapegoat the prior year. I wouldn't have been surprised if he had signed an extension. I don't recall who his most frequent partner was though.

I think the diamond is in the right place and that Pageau was well below the dot.

Well, that move was certainly a debacle, but Scandy was an upcoming UFA when they traded him, so they would've had to have given a new contract (which might've been the right decision).

Like most of their games this season, the Sabres are very competitive against a good team, but are being let down by lack of production from their top guys, plus lousy goaltending.

2 out of the 3 Isles' goals have been of the "get dirty down low" variety.

Pretty fortunate deflection there for Anders Lee, but the record should still reflect that the scoring play started when Reino lost a battle on the boards.