dudacek

Probably doesn’t affect your point, but since his call-up Pilut has averaged 18 minutes a game, Beaulieu 16. Pilut doesn't PK and gets spot time on the PP. Opposite for Beaulieu.

I think there is a lack of recognition from some that 23-year-old Sam just might be a better, more mature, player than 21-year-old Sam. I wonder if we are going to be still talking about Tage Thompson’s crappy puck protection and Rasmus Dahlin’s giveaways when they have matured into their adult NHL selves? I’ve been waiting for Pi’s take on sam’s +13 in his last 20 games (best on the Sabres, 10th in the NHL)

I don’t think Pilut is as good (yet) as Scandella and McCabe and he is not significantly better than the way Beaulieu is playing this year. If the Sabres and Beaulieu struggle after he gets sent down call him back up. That’s assuming we stay healthy and we can’t call him back up regardless. We’re what, 25-30 games from the trade deadline, when the roster limits vanish and we can call him back up for the stretch run without waiving anybody? Isn’t our record without Pilut playing better than our record with him? Playing Beaulieu over him for those games isn’t going to be the difference between making or missing the playoffs. You are going to be happy we still have Beaulieu when Bogo and McCabe go down in the playoffs or the stretch run. Remember the lesson Tim Murray never learned: you can never have enough defencemen 😋

You could see in his body language on that one Casey set him up in tight that his lack of scoring is getting to him. He also rang that one off the post n the 2-on-1. The goals will come if he continues playing like that. To my mind he’s played like that for most of the year, just not the past few weeks.

Too soon to say on @nfreeman‘s question but over the small sample size Pilut has been a better 4/5 D than Casey a 2/3 C. Casey remains the better prospect long-term. I have been surprisingly content with the play of Beaulieu and Nelson this year in the number 6 role. They are both plus players scoring at 20-point paces. And I would still send Pilut down for asset management reasons: I doubt the other two would clear waivers; I like what Pilut would do for Rochester and the development of the group down there; and I want those extra blueline bodies for a playoff run. But Pilut does look better than each of them over his small sample size and might be a long-term NHLer. He is giving us options. Does Scandella/McCabe become the third pair down the stretch? Can we now afford to package one of these guys and a pick for a roster upgrade? McCabe and a first for Schenn? Plus a prospect for Parayko? What will be Botterill’s mindset?

Past 20: 2/14/16/+4: Leads the team in hits and blocked shots. Fourth in the league at 26:03 per game.

Here’s another interesting stat on Sam Reinhart’s recent even strength play: +13 in his past 20 games. Since he broke out of his slump in mid-January? 64 points in 70 games.

Damn, we lost 5 of our last 7 and we’re still a point out of second in the conference and have a 10 point playoff cushion. We should have tried this 10 game winning streak thing years ago.

Nice to watch a rather routine game where we led from start to finish, and clearly were better than the opposition, yet was always close enough to stay entertaining. Haven’t seen many of those in the past decade.

He’s planning on selling next year. Built the house himself 50 years ago, but just can’t keep it up anymore. There are pluses that outweigh the odd otter infestation. This is his beach

They ain’t the cute little critters you see in the memes. They ***** everywhere and have their own special brand of stink. As soon as we got in there searching, my daughter and I were “smells like otters.” Dad has oceanfront property and has been battling them on the beach off and on for years. But they’ve always stayed on the beach. We discovered what appears to be a path up the bank to a hard to access corner of the house where it looks like they found an opening that let them get inside the foundation. We’ve got a restoration company lined up to do clean up and close the access next week. My brother-in-law and I are probably going to start ripping up the floor this weekend to save the expense of them doing it. I’m not looking forward to what we will find.

My dad’s house started stinking and he suspected a rat might have died in the walls. We inspected and discovered what appears to be an infestation of otters. Will likely have to cut open the floor to find it. Fingers crossed we actually do that in the right spot instead of turning the downstairs floor into a giant whack-a-mole board.

How good is Rantanen? Sincere question because he haven’t seen much of him this year. Ive always liked him as a prospect and a young player, but sort of projected a Filip Forsberg level guy, not a MacKinnon-level. He’s certainly surpassing that on the stats sheet. Related, MacKinnon is the best value contract in the league by a mile. How does that affect Rantanen and how will Rantanen’s raise affect MacKinnon?

This. It’s all part of the maturation process of a young team.

Is it possible that Jack and Ryan didn’t have issues with each other AND that Ryan’s departure has helped facilitate Jack’s current ascendancy as both a player and a leader? Botterill created a vacuum and Jack filled it?