LTS

I think Ullmark stretched something a little too far on one of those late game saves the other night. He looked slow to get up... he made the save though! ?

What is the proper chance? How does one earn it or do you expect him to just get paired with some wingers and see what happens? These arguments (made by you and others) boil down to the same basic question. Do you believe the coaching staff is able to evaluate the players on the team or not? Given all the time together, on the ice and off the ice, they make decisions on who will play best together and secondary spots as well. Keep in mind he was put on PP1 and did nothing. Given the improvement in this team I am more likely to put faith in the coaching staff (and the players who play). Berglund didn't earn his stripes and now he's walked away. Based on the given evidence perhaps he should have turned in his paperwork (or fire his agent for not doing so). Either way, he's gone the unprofessional route. I'd lend credence to a mental issue only if i heard other players saying "He's dealing with some stuff" and other similar things. Instead you clearly can tell it's more of a "we don't need your drama here". Eichel's comments and his use of the team motto "All in, all out, all the time." isn't done by accident. It points to Berglund not buying into the concept.

Careful... I got roasted when I suggested that the Leafs were not light years ahead of the Sabres in their rebuild earlier in the year. The playoffs have a tendency to destroy offense. The Leafs Nation... can suck it. I don't care what they think. They've been overestimating their chances since 1967 and are blind the salary cap train that is about to truck their team in the next season or two.

You gotta win to win it all. Whether you beat the best team in the first round or the last round. If the owners were worried about other things they'd modify the playoff format. It's not happening, yet. It probably will be modified again but the same holds true. If a team with 155 points loses in the first round then that's just too bad. If you want to use the regular season to determine the best teams then you remove the playoffs entirely and let the top two teams play each other. As long as there are playoffs the "best" team is the one who survives the playoffs.

While you could say that Guhle would not have had to play defense if the puck had gotten out of the zone I don't see how you can put the penalty on Reinhart. Guhle twice had his hand move down to grab the player and he pulled it back and then the third time he got called for it. Frankly I thought he actually tried to grab the Bruin to keep him from falling but it's still a hold. I don't see the penalty as a direct result of having to cover for someone's mistake (like hooking or tripping a guy who gets the puck on a turnover with a clear path to the goal).

So he would have been fine with being assigned to Rochester?

I mentioned it in the above quote. Hopefully that answered it. Basically, shoddy defensive zone coverage and no real speed. They looked much better in the Bruins game although the Bruins aren't half the team the Caps are at the moment. Even then, the defensive zone coverage has to improve as they gave up both goals last night on poor coverage. Given where the team has climbed to this season I am happy.. how could you not be. But that game was not enjoyable for me to watch with them playing so poorly. A year ago I would have been ecstatic with the outcome.

The Sabres were lucky. I grew tired of the Caps continually exposing the poor defensive zone coverage of the Sabres. Saw it again last night in the Bruins game. Look at both goals and where players are looking and standing. The Sabres looked slow and sloppy most of the night. What is the point of your question? What kind of response did you hope to elicit? I'm not entirely certain but I'll attempt an answer. No, they were not. I would agree with your last statement. There are things people see and things people don't see which will influence their enjoyment of the game. Some people find the all-star game entertaining. Then again, some people think Taylor Swift has talent.

There are even some of those here.... like me.

Another game to watch... yay? Last night was miserable to watch. Oh well.. Let's Go Buffalo.

This is the one thing that gets lost when we have these discussions. Back when I used to have some connections I would get hints of things that were happening. Even then, the people who knew weren't saying specifics, just mentioning that there are some "things and such" going on that shape what we, the fans, were seeing. Bottom line for me and ROR... if every team he plays for continues to struggle when he's there, then it's enough for me. I don't care what the situation is with him, just glad that he's not here and the team is improved.

Says the guy with no money... ? Actually, I can watch the game while I am at the rink. It's not as fun but I will see parts of it.

Good news... my son does not have a hockey game tonight. Bad news... he has hockey practice for both of his teams tonight. I might get to see the third period. Let's Go Buffalo!

Look at how much makeup they have on... that's sad.

There it is! Finally someone mentioned Scrooged. I was wondering why it didn't get more love. The Ref is a great Christmas movie as well.. I had forgotten about that. At some point we'll catch hell for mentioning it because Kevin Spacey is in it, but it happened before we knew anything about his life.

Another game I won't see... Hopefully it's one that I wish I did. Meh...

I'm trying to find one redeeming quality about that movie.... can't find one. Not worth fighting over.

Interesting tidbit... I came across Ryan's article on Eichel's usage on the power play and realized that he was an assistant coach on my son's team last year. He's a really good guy and it's great to see him writing about this stuff.

It's not always the games... ? There's actually only been two games.. Detroit SO win, Toronto OT loss... today is the third.

And the boy has a varsity game at 2pm.. of course. So, we'll be missing this one. Sigh. Let's Go Buffalo!

The best part about reading all of the industry information are the statements about how well respected she has become. That's huge for Buffalo just as much as it is for her.

No worries. Thanks for clarifying. I mean, I'm not keen on the topic of dying overall and it's certainly not uplifting in the overall sense.

Not sure why you said that... This isn't being 22 and being able to reshape your life. You've lived a long life at 92 and you've lived it a certain way. Unfortunately he had some internal issues that creeped in and he was basically "getting by" each day. He was no longer the person he had always been. So, he was miserable. No one wanted him to die, but they take solace in the fact that he's no longer waking up each day and getting mad about the fact that it happened. (This is how it was relayed to me.)

Not all seats, the vast majority of seats at Key Bank Center are held by STH. Hasn't the cap been around 13,000? I would also think that many of them are in the lower bowl are. The # of tickets sold will drop. But the Toronto games will probably be the last ones they would give up selling. The game on March 20 (Wednesday night), section 117 the cheapest ticket is $175 for two. It goes up quickly to $395. Compare that to the Blues game (return of ROR) on Sun March 17 where the same section is $80-$150. If i want to get the biggest return on tickets I can sell, the Toronto games stay for sale until I need to go to every game. A bunch is okay... being near 50% or higher just sucks.

A lot will depend on the kind of person you are as well. People who've made a lifetime of being more active usually don't adjust well to changes in lifestyle that require them to be less active. Quality of life is the key. Is the life you can still lead going to be fulfilling to you? A friend just had his uncle die at 92. The guy wanted to die basically. He was done sitting around all day long not being able to do anything. No one is really upset because everyone knew he was basically living out his last days miserable with his condition.