LTS

This piece does nothing to change my mind. If you watch Ovechkin he's about as monotone as he can be in some of those "promotional" parts. About halfway through I got sick of watching because it was clear that people were simply going with "Well, he's on stage, so he must support him." It proves nothing. The simple fact is that we do not know about the situation. We know Putin is a sociopath. I'm not sure its debatable. We know some super sketchy things happen in Russia. Clearly Putin is okay with all of it (we like to hold the top of all organizations accountable for the actions that occur under their watch, right?) Bottom line, I am defending Ovechkin. I recognize when I don't have the information required. I am open minded enough to think that there might be more than what is presented in the media (whoever heard of the media being biased or fooled?).

The whole team does not initiate contact that often. It's a coaching thing. They are looking to chip the puck and break up ice versus get tangled up in a body. I hope it changes because until they finish checks they will be limited in what they can accomplish. It's not about hitting everything.. but you have to hit some things.

I would have preferred Olofsson. I would have commented in the GDT but I can do it here. Shame on Granato for putting Thompson in the game. I know Tage wants to play and help the team but he hurt the team last night. He was completely ineffective, even more than Olofsson would have been. This mentality of playing players when they say they are ready has to stop. Very few players at 80% are as good as other at 100%. The skill differential just isn't that great. I don't think Thompson was even at 80%.

Really? The Kraken selected Adam Larsson, Vince Dunn, Jamie Oleksiak, & Carson Soucy in the expansion draft. Soucy is about the same stats wise as Borgen and the others are all above him. So he's not even in the top 3 defense they received. Now, let's talk about McCann, Eberle, Gourde, and potentially a few others on Forward. So Borgen did what here? Fought? Big deal. He's not the difference maker in Seattle and he'd be a JAG here too. Would it be nice if he were on the roster now? Potentially. But he's not.. you keep diving back into the history books looking for "what ifs".

How do you know players like Putin? Because they say so? Would one possible alternative to your story be that Putin elevates any Russian who achieves world wide fame to national hero status as a way to market his country and regime and that anyone who does not play along finds people disappearing? What do we really know?

Indeed. It's also why I don't give any crap to Russian players in the NHL being concerned about their own safety or the safety of people they know. It's a very different world.

This is a playoff game. I mean, they should all be playoff games for the Sabres but not all the teams they are playing have the same playoff urgency. This is two teams fighting for who gets a better chance to get in the playoffs. The outcome has a very direct impact... so it will be interesting to see how they face this game and what happens. I'll hope for the best....

People have not let go of the history of Mitts. That's the situation. They'll still look at some of his plays and say he's careless or makes poor decisions but I've seen similar decision made from the Norris heralded defenseman on the team and no one says anything. He's improved considerably and that's a benefit for the team. Whether he stays or not is another story. There are a few others that would get moved first but if right piece for the Sabres was out there and Mitts was the key player going back I think they would move him. He's not irreplaceable, but he certainly is adding value to the team.

You're likely at $89 a month now that they raised the RSN fees.

I'm the same way. I have so much information coming at me on a daily basis that driving in silence is the perfect way to eliminate it all and enjoy the break. Much like I don't listen to pundits discussing the Sabres chances... I'm good with any outcome at his point. I saw what I needed to see this season.

I have no information but one thought I have is that Adams did not fully address the goalie situation because he wanted to minimize the risk of Levi not signing, especially since he knew Portillo wasn't going to sign. A hard liner could say, screw Levi... but I don't think Adams is a hardliner and anyone else is not the GM of the Sabres. I think they will address goaltending in the offseason and I would not be surprised if its Saros. Potentially the case but I'm more along the lines of telling the players who would probably may more defensively to not do so and take more risks. Every coach has a strategy.. and not every strategy is right for every group of players. We'll see what happens.

It's a fair point. I should not have used the word lifestyle and I probably went with terminology that is commonly used and that's my mistake. Lifestyle does imply choice and that's not what I meant. Community is a better term. Is there a rule that says all players on the ice during warmups must wear the same uniform? I support Boosh, but I would love for him to be on the ice (unless that, too, is a risk for him as well).

The vast majority of society does.

Society has been trained to look at what's wrong. To point out the negatives, especially in others. We're believe our lives are incomplete unless there's some level of misery to it. It's ingrained in humanity. There are many theories that Utopia would destroy humanity. Some of society certainly look at the negatives even more and I dare say the Internet and subsequent tools to expose us to even wider sets of beliefs has certain enforced the misery complex. It's only natural there are people here who would fit the bill and trend towards more negative tendencies. The team still makes mistakes but it's generally been said that this years team focusing more on offense and scoring than defense and I think its shown. It's a game plan by design. The team has to learn to balance the two but I think it's far easier to play shutdown hockey than it is to score goals. So, I am happy they learned the creativity of offense. Now, if they can incorporate the defensive side of the game we may feel that the goaltending is not as bad as it seems. I'm not saying its great by any means.

Choosing to support something or choosing not to support something is the right of each individual. The issue is when one person takes action that would diminish the quality of life of another because of what they believe or how they choose to act. We should all be afforded the freedom to believe what ever we want, however misguided or ignorant someone else may see it. We should all also be afforded the opportunity to live our lives how we want when those actions do not harm others. We need to be thicker in our own skins and learn to ignore those who may speak against what we believe; at least if those people speaking are not interested in intelligent discourse. To wear a jersey or not it not going to harm a person on this Earth despite what people may infer. If someone who supports the LGBTQ+ lifestyle takes offense then so be it. If someone who does not support the community takes offense that the Sabres organization chooses to have Pride Night, then so be it. Taking offense at something is the action of the one offended. They have chosen to lend validity to the actions or words of another that have not caused them harm. The "so called" mental harm people feel is nothing more than their distress at someone not acting in accordance with the way they believe life should play out. No one HAS to be any particular way in life so long as they are not going to harm or impede others. Let's move on such petty trash where we spend so much time looking for what's wrong in the world we forget to look at what's right.

I'm going... simply because I've never had the chance to do so before. I've listened to some of the new songs and I like them.

The VPN will work until ESPN gets the IP address of the VPN endpoint and blocks it. I presume ESPN is actually using one of the common security services that categorizes URLs and IPs and simply blocks requests coming from any IP that ends up in the VPN category. I can do that with my firewall.

The guy who has to wash the dishes does not agree.

Missed the Caps and Flyers game due to work travel... I'll 50/50 today's game simultaneously watching F1... I hope they give me a reason to tune in fully to the game versus the race...

What I notice most about Quinn is that he will use his body. Last night he stood up a Leafs player on the rush in the neutral zone. I'll probably take his offensive skills for granted, but his willingness to step up in open ice and use his body tells me he has the willingness to do what is needed around the net. He's going to be very good.... hell, he might already be very good.

They've played a much stronger defensive game since giving up 10.. no goaltender would have bailed them out the way they were playing before. Krebs was responsible for the Matthews goal though. He pinched while Dahlin was in the zone, then skated hard to get back, then coasted again and left Matthews alone. Overall they are playing more physical, more engaged and at a higher pace. I still think bigger teams will give them troubles though. The Leafs aren't that great either. Their defense continues to be suspect. Lovely game though... right now this team is going where it needs to go for me to stay happy.

I think it deflected of his stick. I've had that happen before. I was rushing the point and deflected a slap shot right into my throat. Thankfully it hit slightly lower and off center a bit to hit the collarbone area right at the base. It was odd because in theory the shoulder pads would protect him but it might have hit between the chest pad and the shoulder pad.. sometimes the damn pucks just miss the pads.

Is that where it hit him? I thought it hit him in the shoulder.. Or are we not referring to the same moment?

Put both hands on the stick and go to work. NOTE: I felt, because it was you making the comment, that I had to reply as such. 🙂

It's not just the D.. it's everything about how all 5 players cover the defensive zone. The Sabres are monumentally bad at defensive zone coverage and there's I believe it's as much the system as it is the players.