Randall Flagg

I knew it was going to be memorable but it really was special. I took some friends to that game, who brought adjacent friends, who had never watched a second of hockey and didn't know who that man down there was. They cried during and after his speech. Couldn't really believe what they were seeing and hearing.

I was blessed to be at RJ night, and I saw a group of players that really understood what he meant to the franchise and community. They still talk about the impact of that night. It is one of the things that drive them. That night was the first time the arena was so full, and so full of life, in so many years. These players did not commit the crime that was the quality of hockey Rick saw in his last years, but I know they will absolve it this year and will be thinking about him the whole time

just blindsided

Thinking of PA right now. Seriously That guy is gonna have a rough morning

I have never felt this way for someone I never met

Twitter tangibly changed my life in a lot of ways, it's all about how you use it.

Keeping a goalie who sucks because of his waiver status would constitute having a roster problem, so you need to add a detail about UPL being good in there (not just better than Comrie)

FWIW the few people I know who have lived in Columbus really liked it.

I have never really watched DeSmith, but the Sabres would certainly not be worse off adding this track record to the camp battle Sure maybe UPL is up for beating this out, and maybe he's still bad and will never get good I wish the Sabres were as obsessed with forcing competition at every spot as the bills are

1.) Tampa 2.) Florida 3.) Boston 4.) Minnesota 5.) Carolina But really if I'm getting 31 offers, I am calling up Buffalo and demanding to know WTF the problem is, because that's where I'd want to play San Jose would be sick too

1.) Toronto 2.) Ottawa 3.) Los Angeles 4.) Detroit 5.) NYI

This sort-of tells on him though You went and found his peak, and his peak had .908. He made big saves in the OT of that Minnesota game, he still allowed 5 goals. A lot of those big games wouldn't have been big games had the offense not played at a level we haven't seen around these parts since 2007. Had we received identical goaltending but pre-22/23 sabres offense in those big games, they would have been the same losses we saw from 2015-2021 .908 is a reasonable stat for a backup goalie's baseline. If it's what you get from his best stretch of play, you are in trouble

are you worried it isn't ever going to get done and dahlin is going to walk in like 5 years or something? I'm just confused why you keep bumping this thread

He is 5x the player now that he was here. But he wasn't terrible here (until everyone was). Just couldn't get that level out of him the way Florida can He was 12th in Norris voting and scored as much as Dahlin

The Sabres will be good because: 1.) There is so much room for growth in the special teams it isn't even funny. The power play was horrendous with the puck, but has the raw weapons to be better than any unit outside Edmonton, which led to good production. The penalty kill doesn't even have to become GOOD to get significantly better. And why CAN'T it become good? This area alone could realistically add 5+ points to next year's finish 2.) Devon Levi gives 50 games of top 10 goaltending The team probably got about 20 of these last year. Even if UPL is bad, he was bad last year too. If Devon Levi is a bona fide starter, the net sum of quality starts will be much higher 3.) The previously-impenetrable wall of opponents is showing cracks. And the Sabres aren't scared of them anymore. You can empirically see the shift in this attitude toward the Lightning in particular, a team that has just tormented this franchse the last 10 years. The Sabres can beat every team any night, and they know it now too. The only teams I consider uncatchable this year in the east are not in our division (CAR, NJD) 4.) Samuelsson and Power take big steps in development, turning a shaky group with sky high potential into the force we envisioned on draft day 2021 The concept of Samuelsson becomes a reality. First Overall Picks tend to have pretty damn good second years. 5.) Even if scoring regression is likely to some degree in the forward corps, the talent baseline is so high that the offense will be good anyway. And they will learn defense too - Donny has shown to be very good at doing what he tells us he's going to do. "Scoring is hard and I have to teach these guys how to do it." I expect him to talk to us in September about learning the other end too. I'm sticking with the positives here, because I've already said what I need to about my worries

The other day I was driving down 20A (a horrible road, full of cross-state travelers who think 55 means 45 and 35 means 48 and who for some reason are told to use that road instead of 86 or 90 by cursed Google maps) Going down hill into warsaw, I was behind one of these charming gentlemen, who had slowed down to 30mph about a quarter mile before the sign warns of the speed change. The driver of the minivan behind me was texting and not looking where they were going, and was barreling towards us at 65+ mph, I was watching the whole way, but had nowhere to go because of a huge curb and guard rail on my right and oncoming traffic on my left. I braced for impact, the guy finally looks up and hits his brakes way too late, and makes the decision to swerve into traffic instead of hit me, and thank God they saw it play out and moved over. By the time he came to a stop he was ahead of the truck in front of me. It was wild and I'm lucky

This is very dangerous of me to come forward. Don't wanna say too much. Some of it is classified. Cannot confirm or deny they kill people to keep it quiet. Anyway, yeah here's my full name and face, thanks for putting me on tv! Also I'm pretty sure proper whistleblowing channels are emphatically NOT what this guy is using lol

"Well Paul, I could play better but doing this really lights the boys' tails on fire!" -UPL to Hamilton, WGR, 1st intermission interview. Score: Sabres 5, Capitals 4

Incredible stat

Yeah his quality start ratio would probably turn into a borderline vezina season if scaled to 60 games, which is enticing - watching it didn't feel like I was seeing anything unsustainable Feel like I should put out there once in a while that I am a massive believer in Levi to remind others (and myself) that I can see the good things too

Would .906 for 52 games and .891 for 30 games get it done?

In UPL's 17 wins, the team scored 5 or more goals 12 times. He allowed less than 3 goals in just 4 of these wins, and allowed 4 goals or more in 5 of his 17 wins. UPL's record did not come from good goaltending, it came from the offense winning track meets when he was in net, when it was at its hottest: The red circles are non-UPL games during the time when UPL was stacking his wins. The team was scoring no matter who was in net. As soon as the scoring dried up, he stopped winning, and still gave up a lot of goals: He had a good game now and then, as any goalie in the NHL is capable of, but when people point to his record, it needs to be stressed that he got the wins when the team was potting 6 every night no matter who was in net, and when his wins stopped, it was because the offense fell apart, and he allowed way more goals than can be considered acceptable all along the way. I don't care what his record was. If his performance track and development arc continue, and Levi doesn't become a stud in 60+ games, goaltending will be a threat to our playoff bid

When you control for quality of shot, our goalies are still bottom of the league. Last year's goalies on a top 10 defensive team would allow more goals than good goalies would, to a degree that would be a hindrance to the team's goals. The goaltending was obscenely bad, AS WAS the team defense

If UPL plays the exact same way as he did last year, he will not win even 10 of 25 starts He got insane goal support in his games and almost never allowed fewer than 3

You're allowed to come back