LTS

Looking forward to kicking back tonight and enjoying the game. It's a craptacular day outside, I drove to Buffalo for a hockey game this morning and am back. I'm ready for this.

@Randall Flagg- I appreciate all the research and work you put into things. You can choose to not believe without more detailed evidence which will probably never be shared because the public should not get the full picture of everything that goes on. Perhaps you have extensive locker room experience and have never run into the situation, but unfortunately I can tell you that I have. Naturally I don't have statistics to back all of this up. In college when I played volleyball we had a situation where one of our best players was also a person the rest of the team really didn't want to be around, for a multitude of reasons. Naturally we all want to win, but playing volleyball just didn't seem as fun with him around. We're off to a less than mediocre record to start the season. We're not great, but we're definitely better than what we were showing. About 1/4 way through the season he lands funny and messes up his ankle. In theory we should be worse because the replacement player is definitely not in the same class of player as this guy. Basically, this guy drops off the planet and we don't see him anymore. We went on to improve our record dramatically, pretty much overnight. We were all having a lot more fun playing. I've also witnessed similar things when coaching youth hockey. A single kid in the locker room is just a routine problem causer. The kids really don't like him and as such they don't look forward to being in the locker room. Practices are annoying because this kid just brings everyone down. He gets injured and is away from the team and there's an immediate improvement in every aspect of the team. We can say these guys are professionals, but I've worked in an office space where we had a person who just dragged the office down despite being a good worker. Their performance never looked bad but the rest of the office just didn't perform the same. They left, everything got better. Just because they get paid a ton of money to play the game it certainly does not mean they can just ignore the impacts certain players may have. Bottom line I am not sure it matters what's true. The Sabres, at the moment, do not miss ROR, that's the real bottom line. St. Louis with ROR does not appear to have improved much over how they ended last season. Will it change? Who knows...

It's not a perfect solution by any means, but it's fair to say that being less educated makes it easier to radicalize people. There is certainly a problem with people who are being educated while also being subjected to an institutionalized radical cause or being a racist or something similar. If their education only reinforces that way of thinking it's unlikely they will question their ideals.

Yeah.. he scored that goal but just before it he took a shot. His celebration was quite muted and he was blowing real hard to get through the fist bump line...

Here's an apocalyptic statement. I 100% agree with you here. For this season, this will likely be the line that gets used. However, as they build towards being a team built for a deep playoff run they will need players who have the ability to put it in the net when they get the chance while still shutting down the other teams top players.

McDavid has only ever played on one team who has a history of completely sucking. So, its not the same as ROR who has played on two teams who have not accomplished much while he was on them. The St. Louis Blues experiment is underway. You can point to the goaltender but they've a ton of talent. If you are offended by this, then I would agree with you. You keep going back to the numbers game but you said it yourself. The pieces that are making a difference this year were on the roster last year. ROR is a really good hockey player and no one is denying that. However, teams that he's been one have not had great success and there's no denying that. In the world of statistical correlation and causation it might not be possible to map, but that does not change reality. It's very possible to have a great player on the team who looks like he's a real boon to the team but still annoys everyone else so much that they don't realize their full potential (or don't necessarily want to). If you cannot accept that other players who are still here care more because O'Reilly is gone then you are completely dismissing any concept of psychology. There's no reason to doubt what d4rk is saying. It also fits with what is happening right now on this team. There are other things that are contributing to it as well without a doubt. One last thought, there's no way to prove that this team, right now, if it had ROR instead of say... Sobotka & Berglund would be playing better. You can't point to what he is doing in St. Louis as proof because that's a different team with different dynamics. Bottom line, this year the team has a different mindset and on the ice it shows. Losing ROR has certainly not hurt the team one bit and there's no proof they would be better if he were still here.

That's the same thing Billy Connolly said... first thing that pops up if you search it. ? I miss George Carlin.

Thanks for the link. I feel like I read that article back when it came out as so much of it seemed familiar but it was good to revisit it (unless I hadn't read it and just read something similar). In either event, I agree with it. My personal opinion is that our education system has been engaged in a policy of dumbing down the population such that we are no longer taught to think critically but just to learn information and regurgitate it without thinking. The questions surrounding what companies like Pearson do with the data they receive along with how they create standardized tests and books for education concern me greatly. A population that is trained not to think will be easier to control. Raising two kids over the past 14 years I have had nothing but disdain for the overall trend in public education. Kids are not trained on how to analyze situations and solve problems. I have been working hard to teach my kids problem solving skills they so desperately need. Yesterday morning, Jeremy White retweeted someone who was mocking another tweeter who posted about the bombs. In it the guy spelled rhetoric as redderick. I've seen similar things like this from Democratic and Republican backing people. It's easy to mock someone like that but what purpose does it serve? Do we need to antagonize someone who is clearly undereducated? We should be disgusted that we've failed to educate our citizens. The less educated people are the easier they are to control. It doesn't take a master degree to pull the trigger of a gun or to mail some bombs. In fact, it might be harder to get someone like that to do it. But if you go out and find those who dropped out of school at 12... well they're a lot easier to influence and incite. We're in for a rough ride, but if we don't get back to enforcing a higher level of education and helping those who are prone to dropping out of school get educated it will only get worse. We don't need to teach people to be the next Nobel prize physicist, but we do need to teach them necessarily life skills.

I don't feel that way. I think he thinks it should have been Jack.

The poutine was lacking but everyone was speaking French. Just kidding.. I wasn't there. I hope that if the Sabres continue to play well the value of seeing the game versus selling the ticket will change and we'll see less visiting fans in the seats... or if nothing else, a Sabres fan buys the STH seat rather than a Habs or Leafs fan.

I never stopped believing... welcome back.

And now you know why I don't do fantasy anything.... my team sucks. Even when I have a chance, I have no chance. Do you play Hellebuck against the Leafs or Vasilevsky against the Avalance? Seems like a lose lose.. but the Avs have been a scoring machine and Toronto has been somewhat slowed down and the Jets are at home. So yeah, of course Helle lets in 4 while Vasilevsky pitches a damn shutout. FML.

I think this is an easy one for the Sabres and Pominville. The Sabres will basically tell Pominville where he fits in the plan and what they'll pay him on a 1 year deal basis. They'll tell him to search around to see if he can do better and wants to sign elsewhere. He's certainly not someone I'm looking to throw off the roster when he can be signed for the right money.

I don't think he's the only coach either. However, he has to be the first to go given how this season is starting. I doubt he gets another shot for awhile given his recent failures.

This thread is great. It should stay pinned for later in the season when the Sabres go through a rough stretch just so people can come back in here and be reminded of what this team can do and how it can make everyone feel. They are still learning and there will be some rough patches but watching what this team has done and more importantly how they've done it over the past few games is enough to have the hope that people have needed for quite some time. The defense still has room to improve. Scandella was trash out there tonight and could use a few nights off to get his head straight. I only blame him for the Armia goal as he basically stopped skating and that's why the linesman waived off the icing. Sure, you can argue that it should have been called icing anyway and most of the time it would be, but that Montreal player didn't stop skating for a second. That's a notable point. If Scandella skates it out that gets called and there's no chance at the net. The first goal was a bit unfortunate as I believe it hit something on the clear and it popped out into the ice, but Scandella has to be better there as well. Larsson should get credit for his play (some have mentioned it). It seems like every time I see him on the ice he's maintaining possession working it along the boards in the opponent's end of the ice. I'll take a player who can go out on a shift and do that with consistency. That whole line just seems to work well at slowing down the pace of the other team. The way I see it, they give the Sabres top 2 lines a chance to rest and can do it without risk of giving up a goal. There's a video of the Okposo goal that shows Dahlin passing the puck to Okposo at the same time Eichel is pointing to Okposo. It's a great indicator of how those two think the game and see the ice that they realize the right pass at the same time. It's pretty cool to see. Final thought... Jack Eichel is leading this team. He may not have had points tonight and we are probably looking for more goals from him but his physical play and determination are on full display and the team has to feed off that. It took years for a player like Ovechkin to learn how to really play a sound defensive game while maintaining his scoring touch and it seems like Eichel is well on his way at a much faster pace. The goals will come for him. Actual one more final thought... we watch other team that generally back off and try and to close Eichel into a space because if they try to play him man to man they know he'll make them look stupid. I see teams doing similar things already when Dahlin has the puck. Teams are backing off knowing that he has the ability to make any single defender look silly out there. It might not be as pronounced as it is with Eichel, but it's there. That's some significant praise for the kid's ability.

Sweet. I'll stop using that reference. Let's talk about sheep. ? Billy Connolly once talked about sheep and cliffs.

I am very familiar with Spanish. I would be rusty now, but I had 7 years of it throughout middle school and college. A sound strategy. That's good news. Hopefully it's not too impacting mentally.

I am hoping that once I get home there will be a reason to keep watching... A win would be huge... (I feel like any win is huge over the past few years).

Sadly, I've not had the benefit of traveling much internationally. I have been to Costa Rica. I love Costa Rica. I would seriously consider it. I would also consider several Scandinavian countries... but of course I need to research it a bit more than I have and i would prefer to at least visit a few times.

You are glossing over the point that was being made Hank. I am not claiming this as a precursor to rounding up citizens. I am claiming that the incendiary language used by the Republican party does serve to embolden the more fanatical supporters to engage in actions that make law abiding citizens who are "brown" (as it was put before) to be very concerned about their safety. The government rounding up citizens would be a very bold move and it certainly would draw a lot of questions around the world. However, inciting extreme behavior in fanatics whose actions may encourage a certain demographic to leave or not show up would draw far less questions as there is still plausible deniability.

Ugh... I think "stunt" might be a tame word here. It could certainly be timed to illicit a certain reaction in the voter base. Lots of potential theories which is why I mentioned in the other thread that more investigation is needed. It could be setting the stage to actually decrease voter turn out as well. Imagine the next wave mentioning that devices might be randomly showing up at election locations and you've got a full on panic ensuing where people are afraid to vote. This is some serious crap. We're entering into the kind of crap that only happened in countries that were full on politically destabilized. If it turns out to be the actions of a single lunatic I'll feel slightly better but if there's any kind of coordinated effort behind this it might be the last straw of me moving on out.... of the US.

People read what they want. The phrase "Too ******* slow" does not definitively mean it's not fast. It means its not fast enough. Kind of like the fastest boxer might be "too ******* slow" to block Bruce Lee.

CNN, George Soros... yeah.. This is lunacy that's been spreading. The incendiary language being used by both sides knowing that it will lead to certain people taking these kinds of insane actions.

And while there's no proof yet and I am sure more investigation is needed, the recent explosive device directed at Soros and now this: https://www.npr.org/2018/10/24/660161491/u-s-intercepts-suspicious-packages-addressed-to-clinton-and-obama The world is full of lunatics who are willing to act on innuendo of those leading their cause. They won't bother to see if that person is a 3rd generation hispanic, they'll just see what they see and act accordingly. "They're all the same."

I would imagine they might be more afraid of the incendiary nature of the citizens who support that "wall" and what they do about it. Here's an example: https://www.wdsu.com/article/you-do-not-harass-hispanic-women-customer-defends-spanish-speakers-in-viral-video/23609442 Now imagine if people felt empowered to act even more violently about things. Because that's the path we seem to be going down with Republicans labeling Democrats as radicals, etc.