Randall Flagg

It's an irreplacable role, you do it better than anyone!

update: Team Montour is fine: nfreeman, darksabre, Flagg, dudacek, pi2000, DarthEbriate, WC Team middle ground: Swamp, True, freester Team Montour sucks: inkman, so many posters in random GDTs that I just can't remember who said what, but I swear there are a lot of 'em

What about that season with the Ducks? 22 mins in a WCF run, Fowler, Lindholm, Manson the other guys?

You're thinking of the 4th time he did it, this would be 13 I think

Ooh, a "Team Montour" member. Team Montour is fine: nfreeman, Flagg I guess?, darksabre?, ... ? Team Montour sucks: most other posters

You whine more about other posters in a given week than I whine about this team in a given month. It's way more insufferable to bitch about people on a forum than a hockey team that has won fewer games than all other franchises in the league since the tank ended And some poor reading comprehension there - you compared this year's team to last year's, while nothing indicates we are any better at that this year than last year. "3/4ths of the time in our own zone" is some riveting incorrect information

I don't care why Ralph set it up, I just think we can both bring Skinner back from the dead and improve the play of the single most important part of our team, which isn't good enough with Olofsson there, with one single move. Hockey-wise, with how Skinner plays and produces historically, my explanation for why it would work feels pretty sound, and you did nothing to address it, so I'm going to stick with it. I'm not bashing your coach, I'm trying to fix problems that are currently plaguing your coach's lineup (I don't mean this to come off as mean as it does, I just feel that you can get touchy for things that may tangentially implicate Ralph, especially if it paints Buffalo Bill in a positive light, have removed the 'boyfriend,' which was uncalled for) Meanwhile, show me some film of his horrendous moments versus Columbus and Ottawa? Are you including when he had to play defense on the shorty? Not a good look, but that's not something I'd expect him to know how to do, and so it's not nearly as "horrendous" as, say, Eichel's mis-play in the NZ leading to the 4th Ottawa goal, defensively. Otherwise, I'm not ignoring anything, though I may be forgetting something. Those games could have been plucked out of his hot stretch last year.

Yep. Though I don't think he's gonna get one now. I know he's trying (yes, we hear you, 15 different hockey "analysts" tweeting that he's trying) but this is not the time that teams are willing to part with these kind of players for the kind of return they would get

It's not about finishing, for the offense. They're the worst in the league at sustainably creating chances from dangerous areas of the ice, not at finishing. Your second line isn't true at all. Like this year, two of our four lines were effective at keeping the puck, and two weren't. Like this year, we were middle of the pack in any stat that you could propose to proxy for time spent in our zone versus our opponents. Actually, some even suggest we were in our zone less often last year. You're consistently one of the worst posters here because you couple snark like your last line to mediocre hockey content like your first two

Crazy that we have one single NHL center under contract for next season, and the only other guy on the roster that is a bonafide NHL center that we could re-sign is a 4C

I still like the Skinner trade - a known quantity that was gonna cost money. The other pros he has brought in: Jokiharju, Vesey, Johansson, Miller, Montour, Sheary, Scandella, Sobotka, Berglund, Thompson, Lazar, Frolik, Wilson, Beaulieu, Pominville, Elie, Tennyson, Pouliot, Antipin, Nolan, Josefson, Griffith. These are all guys who played pro hockey for at least a year that were brought in by trade or UFA under Jason. I don't think I missed anyone. Leaving aside quality of player - almost all of these guys were fully established as the player they will always be upon arrival. Jokiharju was a good move, but as a prospect swap it barely qualifies for the type of move you're talking about. Nowhere did the cap guru identify a player that would blossom in a new role after being hidden in his current one, thus becoming a value contract. That's how those things get made. That's why my focus was always Cirelli - he is just a placeholder name for the type of guy we're going to need, since already-good 2Cs don't get passed around like colds. You gotta be able to find guys that can fit and flourish on your team. He found guys that played the same way they always have, or were already on the decline, and we play like the collection of those players that we are.

This would be the most black-pilling experience of my life

Ooh you just reminded me of the other thing I was going to post today

Miller, Montour, Risto, Joki. Joki is off the table. I'd keep Miller too. I know that some people will hate me for this, but I'm ONLY trading Risto if it FIXES the 2C position. Not trading him otherwise. fully capitalized intentionally - not "maybe fixes" or "has the potential to fix." Feel free to add any asset we have to Risto, but fix the position. Which leaves Montour and a prospect to Anaheim for Copp, leggo

Why are we rewarding Pittsburgh's player and getting stuck with cap that prevented us from being able to retain on Scandella?

I can't believe these guys keep typing this and hitting "send tweet"

I would say so. I don't need him to go fleece somebody. Just make a trade that fixes a significant problem of your own creation. FIXES, not "fixes" like Johansson "fixes" the 2C issue If you make the other team happy too, so be it, I don't care about them. What percent chance are we confident that this point is reached? I forgot which poster it was, but somebody claims to have talked to someone who suggested that this is the case among GMs. Agreed that it has to be the end if true.

Not to mention actually USING Hunwick for some reason ?

On Ralph: The top line continues to struggle at 5v5 with Olofsson. The way the team is built, they need their top line firing on all cylinders to compete, and with Olofsson all major metrics are substantially worse for the top line compared to without him. In addition to this, the top line scores goals 20% more frequently without Olofsson, and they allow goals 27% less frequently without Olofsson. It may be helping Victor to develop in the tough minutes that come with playing next to Jack Eichel, but it doesn't help the team. Meanwhile, I understand the idea of not giving Skinner minutes he hasn't earned. But this hasn't worked to spur him, because it's not effort that is the problem. This isn't a defense of Skinner, who is on the hook for his own production ultimately, especially with that contract. But he isn't refusing to work. We have seen two of Skinner's best games in a long time both last night and against Columbus, and they continue the trend of him being able to generate, but not bury, dangerous chances. Hell, the play he made to steal the puck, get it to Sheary, almost score out of mid-air, and then tie up the defender's stick so Montour could bury the puck, is probably a top 5 Skinner sequence as a Buffalo Sabre. And it gave us all a flashback of the situations in which Skinner was so dangerous. When there is netfront chaos. Watch his highlight reel from last season. he feasted on chaos created in the area of the ice that the Sabres are historically horrible at doing anything with. He did the same thing to be dangerous against Columbus, and in Ottawa on that first goal. The issue is, he doesn't GENERATE the chaos, he isn't strong enough at making decisions or moves with the puck on his stick to set it up AND finish. He was so good with Jack because Jack can create chaos, and Jeff can finish. We just haven't seen Jeff involved in this chaos, because Lazar, Rodrigues, Sheary don't create it with regularity. At this point, I would say that Olofsson hasn't "earned" 5v5 top line ice time either. He has 7 goals at even strength with Jack in 44 games. Skinner would get to 7 in less than half that time if we move him there, I'd bet anyone on this forum $50. Again, I am not absolving Skinner of his performance of late. I am responding to the reminder that last night gave me about who Skinner is, and am proposing a solution that fixes two problems at once (the top line struggling with Olofsson on the ice, and Skinner being ice cold). Every single great Olofsson moment of the past three games still happens without him on the top line, as they all came in OT or on the PP. We lose nothing except our disadvantage in the only area that we have a chance for success.

We've given a goalie with a .894 save percentage behind a defense that is statistically slightly better than average, 25 starts in 60 games

Do we know who the people are that gave the advice?

What is Shanahan's role/job description in Toronto?

Whether or not there are stats on timeouts, the root of the discussion would be whether or not timeouts can settle a team down, which can most bluntly be summarized by the game returning to a manageable state in which goals aren't being scored on you right away. We didn't take the timeouts, and kept getting dismantled and scored on by Ottawa, within seconds. The goalie and the team were obviously out of sorts by the time goal number 2 was scored, much less number 4

I don't know why he hasn't been able to re-evaluate his or his scouts' pro-scouting abilities, given that we're three years in and still acquiring the same kinds of bad players that contribute to our offensive woes in the same way. Will he suddenly be able to use all of this cap space this summer to acquire players that play a kind of game we haven't seen here in forever, but is all over the NHL today, rather than more plodders that are only capable of passing to point men and for reasons that won't be replicated in Buffalo have even strength goal numbers in the mid-teens? I'm not particularly confident

Where would we be if he didn't have *checks notes* Randy Sexton, and other non-yes-men, challenging him like he was so proud of in brushing off the idea of a President of Hockey Ops?