ska-T Palmtown

My motivations are purely selfish - it has been much doom and even more gloom here (and rightfully so), but I am an optimistic and playful person by nature so I look for chances to have fun.

As a recovering "concave chest" sufferer, I can confirm that developing a slight semblance of chest muscles did nothing to help my hockey game. Although, that is likely 99% attributed to my general lack of physical prowess at anything other than video games and drinking whiskey - lol.

Dang ... I even tried real hard to exempt you as being the source of my current state of being triggered 🙂 Many credits (people are saying all the credit, really) was given to you for focusing more on the message than the pic, itself. I believe it was those whomst doth piled on after thou that hadst changed the meaning of the Lore of The Chill Bros. If I accidentally implied otherwise, my humblest apologies!

All this misplaced machismo about upper body constitution of hockey players, I submit as exhibit A, the best hockey player on the planet right now: For players looking to do fast quick motions with their stick, muscle mass can actually be a hinderance. Weight training (generally) trains your slow twitch muscles which would likely be seen as a detriment to the insanely fast motions these guys need to perform. Sidney Crosby is 5'-11" and 200 lb. Why is he so hard to play against? Is it is 24" biceps (shoutout to all my Hulkamaniacs out there!), no. It is his tree trunk legs and insane core strength. I am trying to limit my searches of shirtless men (all people, really) on my work computer, but I feel confident Sid is not a beast, either. At 5'-10" and 5'-11", respectively, if Benson and Crosby were standing more than a foot apart in the same room, you would have a hard time telling who is taller. My theory is that many of the Sabres players have never been properly coached (or they just refuse to do it?) on how to play with proper positioning, leverage, and angles (PLA ... can I get that as a trademarked thingy?). Connor Clifton is 5'-11" and 175 lbs (on wiki, anyway) and he knows how to hit. My corollary is that Sabre-Spacers see the lack of proper PLA and think they are "too small" or "too weak".

And, as is common with most lore, much of the original meaning has been lost. If I recall, your original point was not just pool-side chillaxin', but caption (from Tage, not Cozzie) about a big $7M contract. While certainly less offensive than him throwing around "phat stax of cash" lounging on the hood of some mega sports car, I think the perception of a potential "I've made it" attitude was an originally valid point to of discussion. The only part that has ever bothered me (and not from @That Aud Smell's Lore's origin story) is the implications or outright statements that these athletes are not allowed to enjoy their union negotiated down time. It would, however, be a bit uncouth to post "vacay" picks while the playoffs are still ongoing. I am a GenX / Millennial cusper, so perhaps there is some "generational differences" at work here?

I think the "disdain" is for the absolute bonkers idea that a young man taking a poolside vacay pic during the frickin' offseason makes him too much of a "good vibes" "chill bro" to be a captain. It is just plain silly. Silly, I tell you! A quick search of google images will turn up a relaxing vacay pic of pretty much every "worthy" captain out there. If someone were to say "I don't think Cozzie deserves the 'C' because his play is still a touch inconsistent for my tastes.", that is a respectable reason. Not, gee - he sure seems to have a good time on his insta-tok or he doesn't look like an NFL linebacker when he takes his shirt off (yeah, that last one is for the "he needs to eat 30 chicken breasts a day and put on 15 lbs of pure shredded muscle by next year" crowd)

Rando thought - and apologies if someone has already said it somewhere else ... is it at all possible that the players were also talking about internal locker room leadership when they talked about someone pushing them harder? KO was gone - maybe they were saying "gee, he sure was a swell guy, but what we really needed was a real arse-kicker to flip tables during intermissions if we were not crushing the opponent"? I dunno, just some musings.

You can consider me de-baffled on your original point. 🙂 And I was not so much directing at you, just using your post as a launch point for the discussion. I still find it odd how generally (not just you) there is more sentiment of disappointment around what Benson did versus what Quinner or Peterks did the year before. I suspect it is because the season was so disappointing (an 18-yr old throwing in 30 points on a playoff team sounds better than doing it for some middling organization stumbling through the dark valley of no playoffs) and typically if an 18 year old makes an NHL team, it is because they are McDavid/Eichel/Bedard and they are scoring like first line players. I think if the Sabres had been solidly in a WC spot all year and made the playoffs, Benson's season would have been seen as an indication of how strong the lineup was (dang, they did that AND had an 18 yr old) instead of the glaring weakness it was. ("It" being the fact an 18 yr old could crack the roster, not any slight on his tenacious play, dogged determination, or satisfactory point output). The concept of Benson making the team being far worse than his actual play.

It would be amazing if Benny could throw in 25+ goals next year, but if he continues his strong play and ups his numbers even modestly (10-15 more points?), I'd still be thrilled. If he wants to put up 100 points, I won't complain either! 🤣

No notes.

This sorta baffles me ... he was nearly as productive (11-19-30 in 71 games) as Quinn (14-23-37 in 75) Peterka (12-20-32 in 77) when he was 18 while they were 20/21 and people (not everyone, I know) had trouble hiding their boners after the Quinn/Peterka rookie years ...

I have a co-worker in Portland (also originally from Buffalo). He went to game 2 in the series and said it was very noticeable each and every time Our Boy Savoie was on the ice. He said even the Portland crowd buzzed a little when he was out there. Look out, Rochester! We got another one for ya!

I was thinking camp and then The Roc ...

I hope he can come in with his skill and add some of Benson's dogged determination - that would be super nice.

This 'Guy' sure looks like a member of the Chill Bros Club: "Most righteous new contract, fellow Chill Broski!"

They are tied with Vancouver at "three years behind" the Loaves. Great thing about that stat, it will likely remain at three years until the Sabres win a cup, lol

I sort of get this, while I also don't. I haven't seen any evidence that giving Skinny 9 million pegula bucks prevented the Sabres from doing anything. This season would probably be the first where if he is not "earning" his $9M that we could say "coulda spent that money elsewhere." ahem ... casey. (the absurd concept of someone doing almost anything that is actually *worth* $9M is probably a very lonely thread all on its own).

Didn't all the teams make the playoffs for like ... the first 50 years? Not that it makes our sitch any better.

It was interesting that someone pointed out that Afinogenov played for a long time under Lindy, he was also not know for back checking or the like.

Man, that really sucks to hear about Kim - she was young and had such an amazing trajectory. I don't even know what else to say.

Am i jinxing the whole thing if I grab a couple ZB rookie cards off of EBay? 🤣

Haha - this has been my biggest life lesson in the year or so I have actually been posting (after lurking in the shadows for 10+ years). 🙂

Honest question for the folks on the board who know more about actual development: I keep reading that Benson's skating is not great (good, but not great) and he could use a harder/quicker shot ... a player can still work on their skating and shooting at 18/19 yrs old, right?? I mean I read about players who get drafted with "flaws" that they work on and correct. Given his apparent work ethic, I would not be shocked at all (atol) if he came back with improvements in those two areas next fall.

can we get t-shirts??

You weren't making $1.44M right before you retired? 🤣