ska-T Chitown

I wanted to say "but you can't hire a milquetoast with NHL experience" ... then I remembered who coaches our vaunted PP. If that was your point all along, I formally withdraw my objection.

I don't necessarily disagree that DM might not have what it takes to be a successful NHL coach - but the "he didn't play high level hockey" argument is a strange hill to die on when other posters have provided contradicting examples at a 2 or 3 to 1 rate. As an aside: Not to detract from "Bowman's acumen" - but other than his early success with the expansion Blues; he took over the defending SC champion Montreal team. With only slight hyperbole, I feel like I could lead a team with Henri Richard, Guy Lafleur, Steve Shutt, Larry Robinson, and Ken Dryden to many victories. No cups were won in Buffalo while he was there. Again, in Pittsburgh took over a defending SC champion team. And coaching the early 1990's Pens to any kind of success probably required 5 active brain cells. Then he went to mid 1990's - early 2000's Detroit - lol. Osgood and eventually Hasek in net. Fedorov, Konstantinov, Kozlov, Lidstrom, Fetisov, (a few other "ovs"), Shanahan, Holmstrom, Cheap-shot-Chelie, Luc Robitaille, Datsyuk ... yes, I can see how great of a hockey mind you must need to win with that group, lol.

There needs to be a smirk reaction for this ^^

haha, yeah - totally get that. It can be tough to keep up with everything with the 100's of options to follow. I was just having some fun on a particularly slow WFH home day while I wait for our suppliers to actually do things so I can do my job 🙂

I specifically did not mention which side of the debate I would be on, nor will I do so now. I shall not take your bait, however masterful it may be. Good day to you, sir. Good. Day.

slippery slope ... we might suddenly veer into a discussion on Justin Timberlake's questionable actions with/around/towards women and I haven't the energy for that.

could we hire Dave Andreychuk as a "netfront presence" coach? lol

Personally, the only false hope I get from it is for maybe a playoff berth this year, becoming mediocre this year does not change my perception that to really compete for a ship, hard choices need to be made.

Your premise is that NHL enforcers die at a higher rate and at a younger age than the average NFL player? I have not facts to refute your hunch, but that stat from Buffalonill sorta leads me to believe your hunch might not be as spot on as you think? (And also what Weave said about using substances to cope) (But also not the part where Weave disagrees with the CTE stat thingy) 🙂

I can't necessarily say that any of that is wrong, but I disagree with the general sentiment(s) for two reasons. First, regardless of how long he has been in the league, he will barely be 24 by the time this regular season wraps up. Given the disarray he is generally surrounded with, I still find Dahlin to be better defensively than most other D-man that perform at his offensive level. Quinn Hughes is listed at 5'10" and 180 lbs. Every last member of the "dirt and grit" brigade here would be all over him every time he got pushed off the puck. Last night, mega hit on Olaf not withstanding, I saw him get bumped off of plenty of pucks in his own zone. (yeah, I know I sorta mixed up two parts of the thread, but I like that point so I am gonna leave it) Second, we have no idea what Dahlin is like in practice, in the locker room, or outside the rink. There are many different types of leaders, even in sports. Maybe players that lazily drop the puck back on that stupid PP puck drop play give Dahls a wide berth in the locker room after games as he sits and seethes and stares them down with his icy blue Nordic eyes. We don't know. Maybe he is the guy in practice who yells "AGAIN!" when the drill does not go right. Or he quietly skates back to the starting point, motions the offender over and says "now do it right". Unless someone has been sitting in practice watching - my hypothesis is just as good as any other. The Dahlin won't be a good enough captain debate is just PTSD from this team being so under-achieving for so long. Sure, Sid is a top 20 (or higher) all-time player, eats the broken dreams of his opponents, drinks thawed rink ice, and shits pucks ... but there was so much talent and cohesion on those SC champ teams, the equipment manager probably could have been the captain. The captain does not need to be perfect if the team is well constructed.

I don't disagree with your argument much. I am probably falling victim to home town and recency (any wordies out there know why "recency" is not a word?) bias, but I was saying *IF* somehow he played like he did last night for a majority of games, he would no longer be in the liability category that he generally seems to reside in.

I agree with the macro view of Skinner. But I watched most of the first two periods last night and I thought he was actually pretty hard on the puck last night. He made a few bonehead passes, and did lose some puck battles, but he was forechecking (fore-pestering?) pretty hard and I actually noticed him zipping around in the D-zone at least trying to cover players and/or areas. Maybe I was drunk or delirious from lack of sleep and by no means does this mean he is getting a selke - but I think if he played that way consistently, we could leave him alone until we buy him out?

I've played on beer league teams where you are like "I know Steve sucks, but he's a helluva guy and his wife just left him and he tries, we can't kick him off." Hell, I have probably been 'Steve' (minus the wife leaving part 🤞) on a few teams. But that has no place on a professional sports team. No one in that locker room should be able to say with a straight face that Comrie makes the team better unless they are a pathological liar.

Erik Karlsssssson won the Norris by playing ZERO defense for a bottom team, so it is not required. Regardless of whether or not he should have won it, he did.

He's done that in at least one other game, too.

The ticket prices make me sad. My wife and I did a trip to Prague, Vienna, and Budapest in 2018 - Prague and Budapest were 9/10 would absolutely visit again.

The bold. 1000% is what I was thinking, but you worded so much more betterly.

The Sabres have some really good players. Overall, more than they have had at any one time in a long time. When I look around the league, though - there are so many elite players out there. As much as I love Dahls, he is our only player close to elite and I don't quite think he is there. Thompson thought about it last year, but for whatever reason this year he is barely even really good. Last year even opposing arenas would buzz when he touched the puck. Every home fanbase overvalues the players with whom they are familiar because we see every play and think "gosh with a little luck that guy would be scoring as much as kucherov", but I bet if you watch all the TB games, you would see "all the little plays" Kucherov makes that don't result in points and realize nearly every Sabre does not make even half as many little plays. I think the confusion is that the Sabres have the talent to be a playoff team, they do not have the overall talent to consistently beat the 1-4 seeds in a playoff series. I wish it wasn't true, but I think it is. The only outlier would be if UPL went on an absolute heater and carried the team for 8-10 games.

Up too late last night, can't make it tonight. Go on, leave me ... just bring me that sweet 'W' in the morning!

The Sabres zone entries on the PP give me actual physical pain.

Those last few minutes were not so bad.

Now lookit what you did!

I will say 'thank you' and pretend that I will remember that in the future!

Dammit, now i have an overwhelming desire to eat incredibly thin pancakes stuffed with delicious things that practically make them dessert!

If the Sabres manage to defy the odds and pull this off - I wanna be there! Happy as hell, whooping it up!