LTS

The heads are saying that the deals Seattle had were to pick players and trade them. We know Pitlick is being traded. I wonder if Borgen is one of those players as well. Certainly seems like picking 14D was only because they had deals in place to convert some of them via trade.

Vince says hello.

That's true, it's easy. Easy for you. It's not easy for others who have have been bred to think differently and act differently. Place different values on different things. People on the outside of cults find it easy to say that the cult is ridiculous, that's it's so obviously bad, yet people end up in cults all the time. They find it hard to leave them. Changing minds isn't as easy as telling someone to do something or not do something. I think pointing out that 1% of those who get COVID die is a bad stat. First, not everyone gets COVID, so it's not even 1% of the population, it's 1% of the population who gets it. So now with basic math we can say it's less than 1%. If I go to the WHO site, it says roughly 191 million COVID cases, and 4.1 million deaths. 191 million out of an estimated 7.8 billion. 4.1 million out of 7.8 billion people have died. That's .05% if my horrible math skills are correct. For a lot of people they look at that number, or the 4.1 million out of 7.8 billion and they don't see an issue. For others, it's a lot of avoidable death. All in all, I think we have to understand why people feel the way they do. Their perceived risk tolerance is high enough for them to warrant not getting the vaccine. I should also add, that if we are not willing to try and understand why someone thinks the way they do, why should we expect them to try and understand the way we think?

For some that's true. For a great many people it isn't. It's a well tread marketing move to sell people on the actions that will occur. Once people hear it enough they stop questioning it. They get sick of hearing about it. They perceive the pain of hearing about it as worse than it actually happening. It's all a sales job.

This phrase can be used about so many things. We face low percentage risks every day. When they happen they should be a shock, because they are low percentage outcomes and should not be expected to occur. You can lower your chances of death from COVID with a vaccine, but you cannot eliminate it. Similarly you can lower your chance of heart disease by not eating fast food, but people still go for that. You can lower your chance of skin cancer by staying out of the sun, but I was just in Key West and I can assure you that mindset is not thriving there either.

Ahh, I didn't think of it that way. Derp.

I don't know that it's spin or bull. I've not seen anything from Eichel where he's indicating he wants stay. I know players want to win, but if he's fed up with the losing and wants to move then regardless of the reason it means he doesn't want to be here. I'm not faulting him for that, but I wouldn't want him here either if I were trying to run a team. I do believe if he's not dealt he'd do whatever he had to do to facilitate a trade, such as playing (if he can) and playing well.

Define instrument? -------------- I don't think the Sabres will trade Eichel for an ROR like return. I don't think the owners are even smart enough to realize that if they do something like that again they will not recover the fan base. Given that we've not heard anything about Eichel staying with the Sabres I believe the return will be good enough. Probably not good enough for many on here, but good enough for the majority of fans. It will also be interesting to see how it gets spun once it happens.

This is why I don't fish. Why would I want the opportunity for a fish to ruin my time drinking beer and hanging out by the water. 🙂 Enjoy your time off.

I find it entertaining that his range of rankings is.. 1 to not ranked. I guess there's a variety of opinions on him.

They followed the rules. All teams hold players out until they need them once they are on IR. ALL TEAMS. LTIR, IR, it doesn't matter. Since you can't always assign players for "conditioning stints" the league lets the players take extra recovery time to get in better shape to return to play. The rule sucks, there should be a salary cap in the playoffs, it's that simple. This would fix the problem. Change the rule, yes. Did they cheat? Not at all. You are greener than Kermit dude. It's 100% not the truth. And let's hope Tampa gets blown up this off-season.. because the Sabres need to play them a lot more next season.

Some assumptions here? From what I have read on police reports, the fireworks being used were legal in Michigan and the operator of the fireworks was sober. Basically no laws were violated (as near as they can tell at this moment). Sometimes unfortunate things just happen. Certainly one could argue that being around explosive, incendiary devices increases ones chance of being injured or worse by them. To that end, driving a car increases your chance of being injured or worse. Also, do you anticipate the local authorities to drive around and administer sobriety tests to people setting off fireworks? They don't even drive around and stop people from setting them off.

How much is that a trade is completed and they are just waiting for the end of the Final to happen so they don't upstage the league? I have to imagine that if they aren't at 100% they are 95%.

No bueno my friend. Hoping things are discovered and you can get to recovering.

They put their hopes in one player over the two threats they had. It might be a better long term move for them but long term moves in Washington come with the added meaning that you are looking at post-Ovechkin time (if the guy slows down). I think Detroit makes out far better on this deal. I didn't pay a ton of attention but I did not see Mantha making that big of a splash in Washington this season. Bowman is from a bygone era. I think there were quite a few exceptional coaches then. He certainly fits the bill. I was thinking more along the NHL in the past 20 years.

Sure Babcock was the guy he wanted, but Babcock also failed in Toronto, with more talent. Murray also didn't do Lehner any favors once he got him and ultimately the Sabres didn't help Lehner with the mental health issues he had. All on Buffalo for failing that. When Trotz signed coaching contracts were generally for lower amounts. Babcock, Bylsma, etc. raised the bar. Trotz was right to want more and he got more. Meanwhile Washington might have been happy with one cup but this past season they made an absolutely terrible trade for Mantha in a desperate grab to get back to the Cup Final. I think they care. Either way, debating Trotz is fine, but he's the only coach who really has had a profound impact on a team when he joined and continues to have that. He may also not win it all on Long Island. For me proven coaches are a concept. The only thing most coaches have proven is that they are good at providing a small boost and not destroying a team. Very few are perennial winners, at least in the NHL.

Saw a stat this morning.. can't readily find it again right now. Since 1901 four times has a player pitched 10 strikeouts and hit two HRs in the same game. Some guy in 1954 Some guy in 1971 Shohei Ohtani in 2019 and 2021. He leads the league in HRs. Here is quote from MLB He's kind of insane. I'm not even a fan of MLB but what he's doing is too good to not notice.

It's a different feel because we're not used to it. I think it will continue to grow and become more commonplace and in a few years you won't think anything of it. Just like with male announcers, there are good and bad. In the realm of women PBP there probably isn't a big pool of talent at the moment but as it grows the best will rise to the top. I keep thinking of AJ Mlezcko. The first time I heard her it was different. She also was not good. She was lost, didn't have the flow, the points she made seemed disconnected. Now I absolutely love hearing her analysis, especially if it means Pierre Maguire was not doing it. I'm happy she's on the ESPN list.

https://www.nhl.com/sabres/news/5-things-to-know-about-sabres-coach-don-granato/c-325513248 In the YouTube video he references Dallas Drake, who had been in the league 14 years coming to him in a panic over whether he did the neutral zone forecheck properly (the head coach had laid out the system). His inference is that Dallas Drake may have 14 years but he realizes if he doesn't do what the coach wants he's not a superstar and could be benched or scratched, etc. Granato's response was, before the coach laid it out you were doing it fine, do it like you know how and you'll be fine. I see the same for Dahlin. He made a mistake and he's on the bench. He lives in fear of making a mistake so now he's thinking about making mistakes or not making mistakes and he's not supposed to be thinking, he's supposed to be reacting. The time for thinking is off the ice, not in the middle of the play.

Dahlin's quote on Granato sums up why he improved. If you add that to the YouTube video posted in the Granato thread where he talks about coaches getting in players heads over adherence to a system versus following their instincts you can see why Krueger destroyed Dahlin and why Dahlin showed incredible improvement under Granato. Watching that YouTube video was very telling and provides great insight into the little things that make coaches different.

The ESPN coverage crew.

https://www.nhl.com/news/barry-trotz-resigns-as-washington-capitals-coach/c-299101550 https://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/things-fell-apart-barry-trotz-capitals/ There was more to it than just the pay. Yes, one might argue the Caps chose to act this way to encourage him to leave.

Gerard Gallant has not lasted more than 3 seasons with any team. With Columbus he never made the playoffs, with the Panthers he made it once, lost in the first round and was left looking for a cab the next season. Vegas was never as bad as people thought and that is evidenced by their continued success. Despite his success in Vegas, the team declined in the second year, and he was fired in the third. IN short, Gerard Gallant has a track history of not lasting more than 3 seasons and I would think that would be something Sabres fans would be concerned about given all the changeover that has occurred here. I'm not worried about consternation on this board. Vegas was a team that was riding a city high excitement wave, with no expectation of success, and was a better team than people realized. Gallant capitalized on that but let's not pretend he did anything special. The team was close to being back in the Final this year. They've been good this whole time. Do you think the Rangers weren't poised to make a big jump next year already? You can give Gallant credit, but that team is already set to make waves next season. Let's see how long he lasts.. As for Dudley I understand now that you were comparing him to Lamorello. Dudley has proven success, but the Sabres didn't want him before. Washington didn't let him go. He left Washington, after winning a Stanley Cup, to join the Islanders. When the Sabres went for Krueger (over anyone else including Q) I think it was a strict "we want this guy" and we all know it was stupid. Bylsma was not an unknown however. Housley was a rookie. Interestingly enough... Granato is here and he was an assistant under Q and now Granato is the coach. How much of the Q mentality is here in the form of Granato? And Granato is in a hockey family, through and through. He's not completely from the outside.

How candidates other than Don Granato answered that question. I'm fine with this hire as I outlined elsewhere. Whether fans like it or not, this is a team that is about to change again. We've lived through it for a long time and hate but the players and coaches have not, well, not the players that will still be here anyway.