LTS

I love that he said it. He tried to be nice and reporters kept hounding him.

So he lied when he said he lost his love for the game? https://buffalonews.com/2018/04/09/sabres-oreilly-says-he-lost-love-of-game-lacked-mental-toughness/

They are. Actually hits to the front of the head are usually less likely to cause concussion. Based on all the training we received about it in recognizing the kinds of hits that are more likely to cause concussion it's hits to the back, side, and top of the head along with any hit that causes sharp rotation. A punch to the jaw is the kind that causes a sharp rotation. Bottom line: it would be better to be punched straight on into the face than anywhere else. Not that it can't cause concussion.

Every person on here who has blamed Berglund for leaving? Exactly this. And for that matter.. the Blues are a better team than the Sabres. Just because they were losing in the beginning of the season doesn't make them a bad team. It just means they were going through a bad stretch. They had poor defense and poor goaltending. They've fixed that. They also got rid of Mike Yeo who has proven he can't lead a team. No, the answer is not fire Housley. Berube is able to do with the roster what Yeo could not. Housley doesn't have the roster that should be winning. It's time to move on.

Wilfully or through an actual ailment? The only reason I would say that is that I've seen him engage at times and other times he's just not doing it. Because the roster just isn't good enough and it's extremely young. They got rid of Claude Julien after 10 years. There's a minor difference in what you are suggesting. This will be how it is for the rest of the season unless they learn to play with confidence. They are lost because they lack that confidence. Things are not working for them and they don't have the answers. The people who compiled a large part of this roster are gone. There are a lot of aspects of this roster that are still there as a result of front office screw ups prior to the existing front office team. Every time you change, you reset the clock. Especially if there's no established base to work from. The Sabres are on a path. It just takes time. No fan wants to hear it, but that doesn't make it any less applicable.

There's a line in one of the articles.. the third maybe? I'll quote it. This is a phrase that you see so often muttered in politics and, to me, is the most damning. "The messaging". I don't need messaging, I need the truth. Messaging is a function of marketing which is a function of spin. When you hear things like this it becomes abundantly clear, again, to me, that someone is shading the truth and playing the word game to avoid talking about reality. Heaven forbid something tarnish that JT polish though. He can talk about quantum computers you know. Given how many "news" items these days are nothing more than complex "messaging" campaigns, I find it hard to believe anything. Hell, I could say I find it hard to believe that his administration is guilty of it as well. I'm just waiting for some counter-message event to occur that throws the allegation into question and makes it appear as a collaborative creation to upset the current administration. In short.. who knows what to believe anymore.

Politics. That's the reason. It plays well to be mad about someone else making the tougher decision to turn down what was sold as a major benefit for jobs and a community. I can applaud any politician who makes the tough decision and goes against popular opinion to do so. We're talking about a society that makes fiscal decisions with such intelligence that credit counseling is a lucrative business. We're the reason credit cards were invented. All they see is "so many jobs". What they fail to see is that the corporation still pays the same basic wage, pockets the additional revenue, and moves on. Meanwhile, you bring an extra 25k jobs into an area that is already overcrowded and what happens? Streets have to be changed. Housing costs go way up (as if they weren't already extremely high). There's a ton of other collateral damage that comes from it. If Amazon really wanted to make a difference, they could open their HQ2 in a place like Detroit or another area that could truly benefit from having a large portion of jobs created to help stimulate the economy. They could do it without all the tax incentives. As for the University of California comment, I have no knowledge of it nor can I see its application here other than to say the world is full of very stupid people and somehow they find a way to get their names into the headlines.

I think Eichel has the right to call people out on the team. He should. if someone points out his flaws, he should own and accept them as well. That's holding each other accountable. If no one says anything, that's a much bigger problem. That's giving up.

I could go through the video of the last game and clip quite a few instances where Jack's lack of urgency was rather apparent. When he has the puck he's very talented, perhaps also a bit arrogant (something I recall writing two years ago about him). He's not lazy with the puck. He's lazy, at times, when he does not have the puck and he's expected to play defense. His game is not at the level it was earlier in the season. Early on he was on bodies and taking pucks from people. He's back to playing a perimeter game, reaching, and not really putting forth the same effort. Is it really safe to assume there is a coach who is going to change him? If Eichel persists in this way then the right course of action is not to replace the coach. That said, I'm not at the point where I am 100% saying it is him. I think there are other issues. However, I do see instances where he's definitely not setting the example he has shown the ability to set. That's my biggest problem at this point.

I think people were onboard with Amazon HQ2 until the number $1.2B was thrown out there with regards to the tax breaks they were getting. That's pretty damn significant for a company of Amazon's stature. It's not a healthy way to try and grow. But that's a different topic. I do agree with the media influence. If only media were truly unbiased. I've not found a single unbiased one yet. Even NPR, who people like to point to, has a pretty clear agenda. At least in much of their news programming.

It's getting to be time... where candidates from parties rip each other apart, then only 1 wins and suddenly their former opponents are the greatest thing ever. Bernie... sigh.

These are good points. From a scoring perspective, I think when you watch him play you can see how close he is to being even better than he is now. Whether he can get to that next level remains to be seen. Perhaps when the team has a few more players. The big knock is his play on defense and away from the puck. I think this translates into people being down on him overall. It's not necessarily wrong either.

That only works if the new guys are the ones that are lazy. At the moment, I see Eichel as the poster boy for lazy. In reality, who else can you pin it to? Ristolainen and Bogosian? They aren't new. I'm not putting it in Dahlin (first year), Pilut (first year), Mittlestadt (1st year), Thompson (1.5 year), Sheary, SKinner? (not lazy). Sobotka just isn't good. I don't see lazy out of Reinhart, Rodrigues, Larsson, Girgensons. Pominville isn't lazy, he's just slow. Really, as I keep thinking about it. I see one player truly being lazy but it's so prominent that it casts a shadow over the whole team.

It's certainly not the best there is to offer. But why do people go into politics in the first place? It's not a well paying job, in theory. Sure, it's better in salary than a lot of jobs out there, but the people who enter politics (many lawyers, etc.) are talented enough to make good money in a different profession. There aren't a lot of electricians or line workers going into politics. The real money of politics is, of course, not in the salary. It's in all the stuff that surrounds it. It's those surroundings that corrupt everything. It's just clear that while so many people, at least in my circles, seem to be aware of the issue, there are far too many who are living each day oblivious to their world or at the very least so misinformed and sold on it that they don't want to know different.

When you ask that question, take into account how these people get into their positions to begin with. As unpopular as an opinion as it seems to be, the American people are too easily influenced into believing misinformation. Either they are the one's who are too stupid or they are too distracted to be be informed enough. Either way, it leads to blind partisanship. This blind partisanship, combined with people's in ability to admit their own mistakes, leads to excuse making rather than owning their role in the situation.

Truthfully I would be supremely skeptical of everything that is done with North Korea, even if it weren't with this particular leadership group in the Oval Office. I'll have to be more "wait and see" before I wade into forming opinions.

You don't fix dumb and lazy. Players either have the capacity to learn or they do not. If they are dumb, it's implying they do not. Lazy is lazy. Perhaps Housley needs to be more of a motivator but at this point we're seeing a similar response from the same players with multiple coaches and GMs. Perhaps the finger shouldn't be pointed at the coach? Right now there are players on this team that are not interested in playing at their level. What I saw from Eichel last night was inexcusable. As a coach, I do think Housley should be reprimanded for not putting Eichel on the bench. I would. He needs a wake-up call. For what it's worth, and it's a minor point at best, this was Schneider's 2nd win in as many games. He came in relief in the Devil's game before they played the Sabres and the team came back to win thus giving him his first W.

Kopitar and Doughty for Eichel... ?

Good ones? ?

It's all good. Let's see something tonight. Sadly I am back to being entertained by the trade chatter. I'm looking forward to that deadline more than anything else right now. While I hope for the Sabres to win, I'm not discouraged by their losing. I'd like to see a bit more out of them, but it is what it is.. Let's Go Buffalo...

The Islanders most notable improvement has been in their defensive play. They've gone from league worst in GA to the league's best in one year. I am quite certain that has nothing to do with Tavares as much as it does the other changes they've put in place. 50% of their goaltending is the same and Greiss is killing it this year. I think the Canadiens are a great example of what a "team" can do. They dealt out the bigger names and are now playing a team game. I'll admit I don't watch as much of their games but it seems to me they are just clicking. All of it boils down, to me, that it's not the coach. There are some issues still in that locker room and it falls on the players. I'm still reluctant to point fingers at Eichel and say he's the vast majority of the problem, but I do think he still has to grow up more. I believe Okposo's comments about guys getting too high and too low were aimed at Eichel. There are still talent issues here. There are a few more players that need to be moved out. This team is still performing how I expected it to this year. It was bound to be frustrating. I am hoping Botterill brings in a little more talent and a solid locker room veteran to get this team over the hump.

Players do sign for less money to play where they want to play. Some also happen to sign for top dollars and get to be where they want to be. OEL did that with Arizona this year. He could have earned more elsewhere, but wanted to stay in Arizona. A team that has had nothing but questions surrounding it, its arena, and its ownership for years. Yet, he wanted to stay there. It's not like it's unprecedented. Getting paid is certainly not the end all be all for players.

I was all excited to watch it, then I realized it was on NHL Network, which I don't get. So, I saw it in my guide, because one of my kids switched the filter to be all channels. I clicked to watch and got the "You need to subscribe" message. I was disappointed. I also made my kids go outside and clear the driveway using their toothbrushes as punishment. (That part is not true.)

It's Friday Night... Just got paid... That's not true. Let's Go Buffalo.

Watched it during the Superb Owl. It was a worthy replacement. It still felt like a "filler" movie but it was highly entertaining, so I didn't mind.