bob_sauve28

So much angst has been shown over not getting another top forward. Seems like there is a presumption that the defense is set.

I love that.

He was not a good passer, that's what bothered me about him. Hoping to see better team chemistry at the top.

I remember when they first signed him I was like, well he sure scores a lot of goals, when fired up, but what else does he do? Not a passer, not a hitter, not a great back checker. He did start passing more, but that seemed to fade. Maybe the replacement just adds more chemistry with Tage and Tuch which produces more overall goals.

Yesterday was hot! Total dog day, and training camp is still weeks away. We are still in the dog days Hope they last, too!

Mike Hunt, maybe?

But we also should not turn our back on the fact the kid really might be up to it. Played on PP, killed penalties, was a sound player on ice with huge well of talent. For better or worse going forward, he has earned a spot

No idea how good he will be, but it is good having a player like that pushing everyone for ice time and their jobs. Reminds me of Dave Snuggerud for some reason.

Yup, living in WHY and if I could probably play five days a week if I wanted to. Did that during 2008, would just play really hard, go home, relax, drink beer, wake up relax, go play hockey, rise, repeat. The good old days! You got me thinking about playing in the leagues. Boy was that an experience. Did ice hockey from 2006 to 2018 before that I used to play floor hockey at Milsher, out on Mineral Springs and at UB. Fun. By the end the Good, Bad and Ugly of playing in the league had really turned towards the ugly. But before that it had been a lot of fun. The Good: We had a really fun, close knit team that won games, championships and played a passing, puck possession game in the B league. Good for our league. I did not ice skate until I was 39 years old, so we were not the super skilled people. We would hang out with each other at times, had parties, always drank in lockerroom after games. We won a lot and were rolling but then it all went down hill and the time it started going bad was marked by an event where BEFORE a game--we were easily in first place--we went to a brewery and got wasted. We didn't play the game very hard and got destroyed. One of our players was too drunk, kept falling down but refused to leave the ice and the ref called the game. The guys girlfriend--also really drunk--started screaming at the ref from the stands. It was crazy. We were never the same after that. Still, loved that team and had a lot of fun while it lasted. The Bad: There were a lot of frustrations with the leagues though. Some of us really wanted to win and there would be some players just wanted to be there and could really care less about actually playing hockey well. We had this one guy that was terrible, couldn't really play and then he would show up really drunk on top of it! We had this other guy who no teams wanted and he just shuffled around to different teams, like we took turns with him. There was also more than a few straight up psychotic people. It's funny to think of them now, but at the time you always watched out for them. Then there came times when so many people would join the teams that there were too many players. You just couldn't get enough ice time and that was just it for me. I wasn't going to show up and not play. The cheating, stealing ice time, friends setting up friends to get more ice time, etc, was annoying. Finally, the players that refused to pass, unless their friends were open. Ugh! We had one dude, super nice guy, so you didn't want to confront him, but he was Mr. Stick handle, and that was it. Never passed. Just dicked around with puck until he lost it or whistle blew. It was useless being on ice with him. The Ugly: I'd be interested to hear if anyone else had this experience at hockey. I'm not Mr Social exactly, but in the circle of people at hockey I knew, there were more than a few that went off to jail! Sex crimes and financial crimes seemed to be way more prevalent than I would have expected. This one guy I knew from another team and summer hockey was just not around anymore, and I did not even notice. But I went to where he works--I had an appointment--and I asked his friend, "Hey, where's so-ands-so.?" He said, "Oh, he is working with father in law now." And I took that at face value. But then I started hearing rumors, and the story sort of got out, child porn on line or something and a year in jail. Yikes! This other guy who had pissed me off for pushing me into the boards for no reason--I hurt my wrist--was arrested and convicted of running a Ponzi scheme on his in-laws, lol. I guess he took all their money and got seven years in the slammer. That one guy on our team that had been too drunk to play stole a bunch of money from the league and got kicked out. Then we got this one dude on our team, who played but did not pay--that pissed me off!!!--and took all the ice time--he was friends with the captain, was caught targeted young girls on the internet. I left the team before he was arrested, but it was a big story on local news, they tracked him down in Texas and dragged him back to NY in chains and is probably still rotting away in jail. So I don't think I can handle the drama anymore of being in a league, but I admit I still think about doing it.

I'm just getting back to skating after covid caused me to hang up the skates. I showed up at a drop in skate and potted six goals. I couldn't believe it. Yes the defense and goaltending was bad, but I had not skated in so long. Felt good. I am taking summer off and going to use the winter to skate a lot more as my cold weather exercise. Not sure about playing in a league, though. I'm not as competitive as I use to be and my tolerance for punks is WAY down, so I think its only drop in for me. Still, skating is a cool freedom, if that makes sense and being on the ice and playing is still a great joy.

And yet they just kept trying to do it. I sure hope we see some fresh ideas, play, etc on the PP

Fine, I'll take a fringe playoff team over a non-playoff team. Right? Let's not lose sight of the fact statistics are for losers. UPL was supposed to be a bust, too. How'd that analysis turn out? They have remade much of the team, did addition by subtraction with Skinner, new coach, good goaltending, depth at defense, and a couple of rising stars in Quinn, JJP and several others. There is reason to be optimistic. Get the PP and PK going and this team can actually be really good. And if it's a fringe playoff team this year, they will only get better with playoff experience. I'm loving this awesome summer, but can't wait for Sabres season to begin.

I would at least try, as an experiment, putting TNT in front of the net on PP. I think he might excel at that, like maybe, Dave Andreychuk? He has good hands, good reach, is a big body for sure.

I hope Quinn and JJP are part of PP unit 1 or if one or both are on unit 2, they see a decent amount of ice time

Yup, then add in the new bottom six they have and hopefully they will take off being a tough, fast team that doesn't give up much, scores timely goals and shuts down the other team when it matters most.

Cozens, Quinn, JJP and Tage will carry the team offensively with the defense contributing, too. They will also get decent scoring from the other forwards. That said, I think the real improvement will come from this team giving up fewer goals. The offseason moves really point towards the Top Brass creating a team that is harder to play against, shuts down the oppositions scoring chances and tilting the ice in the other teams direction. If this means they play boring hockey and win a lot of games 2-1 I'm all good with that. For me, I'll love to see them take a 1-0 lead into the third and win the game 2-0 with a TNT open net goal late. Just beautiful!

And Make SS Fun Again?? 🤣

Pat LaFontaine

I just finished "Dewey Defeats Truman" about the 1948 election Truman was supposed to lose. It was written by A.J. Baime Harry Truman was very unpopular following FDR's death. Post War Inflation was souring the electorate's mood on him, even as he was pushing through some of the most important foreign policy moves our country has ever made, the Truman Doctrine to confront the communist menace and the Marshall Plan to fight the communist by improving the economy of war torn Europe. Truman's opponent was none other than our very governor, Thomas Dewey, a Liberal Republican who in the past had broken the mob and the rackets in NYC where everything from milk to artichokes had a 10% mark up because of gangsters. Dewey took them apart. Dewey had lost in 1944 to FDR but was considered a shoe in against the apparently much weaker Truman. By 1948 the Democrats had had the WH for the past sixteen years but the Republicans had taken back both houses of congress in 1946. This Congress had passed all of the foreign policy stuff on a bi-partisan manner, but on domestic policy the congress rejected all of Truman's liberal, New Deal like, proposals. The stage was set for an epic election battle that Truman would succeed in making about the issues. Also running was a splinter group from the Democrats, the very strange, though, apparently incredibly smart and talented, Henry Wallace. I say "smart" but do not mean it in a political sense, Wallace was a wiz kid with some type of agricultural stuff. He had been FDR's VP until 1944, when Truman replaced him, and he had not forgotten that. He hated Harry! He also hated our foreign policy which he claimed was provoking the Russian bear. He apologized for Stalin, said the Marshall Plan was imperialism and other crap, all while the Berlin Airlift was heroically underway. He was also--as were Dewey and Truman--a champion of Civil Rights, and he attracted a lot of black and radical left support, saying that if communist wanted to vote for him he would take their votes. Another party in the race, also a splinter group from the Democrats, was the States Rights Democratic Party led by Strom Thurmond. It was a racist party protesting Truman's Civil Right's plank, which Truman refused to back down on. Truman even used an executive order to de-segregate the military. The South was not happy at all! When Henry Wallace tried giving speeches in the south he was pelted with tomatos and eggs. It was the first time southern racism was on full display to many Americans. Truman opened the campaign with a roar. In a surprise move he called the 80th Congress back into session declaring that inflation, the housing shortages and other issues demanded bold and immediate action. He knew they wouldn't do anything, and they didn't disappoint Truman ran with it. His election campaign was not directed against Dewey, but against the 80th "Do-Nothing" Congress. He stormed the country by train, stopping at big cities and small towns alike and giving speeches where he bashed the 80th Congress for being controlled by the special interests. He pointed out again and again to the farmers that usually backed the Republicans that the 80th Congress had eliminated grain bins, that had stored grain when there was over supply. Now it was sold off at market price at a lower level. Truman won an unusually large number of famers. Dewey did not run an aggressive attack campaign. He did give a lot of speeches but was more about explaining what he was going to do when he won. He spent a much publicized afternoon with Dwight D. Eisenhower, looking presidential. Dewey did not want to make a mistake and felt he was going to win. The pollsters were so sure Dewey would win that they stopped polling a month out. This was the first time the Party conventions were broadcast live on TV. Everyone was shocked that Truman won. The Chicago Tribune published by mistake a headline declaring Dewey the winner. Strange to say, Dewey and Truman agreed on almost all the issues, but Truman just stuck it to the Congress he had worked so well with in foreign policy. Love and war.

I just hope we are "fine" with this. I can see a few injuries happening and we end up wishing we just kept him, but it is what it is

So this was an "addition by subtraction" move? I just wonder what this is going to look like a year from now. Edmonton seems fine with him.