dudacek

I go back to the Botterill’s comment about the trade he took 14 months to consummate. I gotta believe he’s not making a trade because he’s waiting to make the trade. It better happen soon. Oddly enough, it was the defence that sucked most tonight. I thought Bogo and Miller were awful, Joki had one of his worst games and McCabe continues to struggle

Defence looked like they spent the night in the bar that period. I can’t explain the special teams. We can still win this.

He talks about being a bad person himself and the chance he’s been given not to be. The related concepts of judgment, consequences and redemption make for a fascinating discussion.

Some snippets: “I can say pretty open and honestly that I believe that 95 percent of every type of that type of scenario of the coaches discussion that’s in the moment right now, 95 percent of these coaches, they’re not evil people. Maybe 5 percent are an evil person. These people are not evil people. They’re not bad people. They don’t want to screw people over. But we’re judging people’s actions many, many years ago through today’s society’s glasses, which is highly immoral. So what I mean with that, 10 years ago when I came into the league, 15-20 years ago, those things were the norm. It was the norm. Because these types of people thought that that was the best way of bringing performance. I think in general, hockey and sports systems in general stems from the military quite a bit, on how to get ready your troops to go into battle and what they thought at the time was the best way to prepare someone to become stronger or be able to take pressure. That was the education level back then. That’s what they thought worked. Does that make them a bad person? “It’s as much as we pretend that no one has issues and no one has mental health problems. We all deal with something. But we pretend that we’re so much better than everyone else. The cancel culture is killing me because the hypocrisy is out of this world. It really is. And I feel bad that the coaches are the ones next in line to get destroyed with no fair hearing, no fair structure. And we as a league and players haven’t given them an opportunity to change. We haven’t talked to them, we haven’t educated them, we haven’t educated ourselves.

Really interesting interview here with the Athletic, in the wake of the Peters situation. https://theathletic.com/1433063/2019/12/04/these-people-are-not-evil-people-robin-lehner-on-cancel-culture-mental-health-education-and-second-chances/ Inspired by his assistant coach Marc Crawford being investigated, but far more wide-ranging.

Deluca .500 is just a way of translating the significance of the pre-OT NHL .500 to the modern significance and only really matters to us fans who grew up in the ‘70s when .500 meant something it no longer means. What we old guys tend to forget that muddies the issue is that half the league misses the playoffs now, as opposed to 5 teams back in the day. Also, Deluca .500 equates OT losses as actual losses, when actually they are ties. It’s the OT wins that actually skew things. Translating today’s standings to Adams Division rules: Buffalo 10/10/8 for 28 points, exactly a .500 team. Boston 18/3/7 43 Buffalo 10/10/8 28 Montreal 9/10/9 27 Tampa 10/9/6 26 Florida 8/9/10 26 Toronto 9/13/8 26 Ottawa 10/16/3 23 Detroit 6/20/4 16

I don’t subscribe to the theory that Hutton is worthless because of his horrible November any more than I did that he was untradeable because of his ridiculously awesome October. GMs probably value him as an excellent backup capable of stints where he can be a good starter, particularly in a structure system, because that his what his career overall has shown him to be. You’d have to be foolish to think the Leafs would love to add a Hutton/Miller combo if they could fit it under the cap and had the right players to offer the Sabres. He doesn’t have a ton of value, but his value isn’t nil.

Here’s something to consider: pretty much every NHL team these days has an 8-2 and a 2-8 run in them and will experience both over the course of the year. It’s the nature of parity, OT and the way the game is played today. And it’s why we probably shouldn’t overreact to any hot or cold stretch.

To my eyes, Risto remains the best Sabre at winning contested pucks and separating attackers from the puck. It’s a skill that appears underrated around here compared to how it seems to be valued by NHL coaches. His puck carrying skills are above average while his puck moving skills and reads are mediocre. He’s an imperfect but good NHL defenceman who continues to get top four minutes on an improved defence here because he is good enough to get top 4 minutes on pretty much any team.

I was looking more at teams getting poor goaltending and in danger of missing the playoffs because of it. Think the Blues before Binnington came up. Montreal, Toronto, Calgary and San Jose are four that come to mind, not that I’d want to deal with the former pair. It’s not that Hutton is a star, but he’d probably be an improvement over what they’re getting from their backups (maybe even their starters in some cases) and he has an affordable contract and a good reputation for character.

Can’t think of many more elite Sabre offensive stretches than the 10-11-21 run Jack has put together over the past 12 games. You’d have to back to 16 and 89 nearly 30 years ago.

Anyone think there may be a market for Hutton?

UPL is a stud who will see AHL time this year. The question is will it be under circumstances that allow him to shoulder one of the others aside? Does UPL have a burning desire to rise to the AHL? Has UPL’s presence elevated Johansen? Have both of them kept Hammond on his toes? Is the competition created by Botterill working? These are the numbers of the Amerks duo:

Hall apparently had some high praise for Ralph the other night.

It’s not even winning any more, the team’s two most recent hot streaks have proven that. It’s belief, the idea that something memorable is going to happen and we have a chance to be a part of it. @PASabreFan posted in the last game day thread “it’s going to be a great season, we’re not going back.” The sentiment stuck out like a sore thumb in the usual sea of “we suck;” unabashed enthusiasm and optimism have been foreign to this fan base for a long time. We’re followers, analysts and critics, but we very rarely allow ourselves to simply be fans. The butts will return to the seats when we finally start trusting the franchise again. **** @Neo outstanding post. The more connected we’ve become, the more rare our universally shared experience.