Randall Flagg

I"m glad it's good news, but Brawndo's post beat my feed by a good 45 seconds. Beautiful feed from Casey!

Once again, Larsson's shift against Malkin starts in the defensive zone, and then they take the puck down and spend Malkin's entire shift in the offensive zone, drawing an offensive zone faceoff for the next group. They do what we need them to. Go fourth line!!

Marco those shot blocks are killer

Classic Larry/Zemgus shift. They are a good 4th line.

Ooooh Vesey almost snuck that in

Nice stick by Johansson.

Woah momma it's hockey time

Remember @Brawndo, for us streamers, give 5 Mississippis before you click "Submit Reply."

Gotta get used to these earlier dinners. 6pm game time sucks. Dishes all done though!

Jason's public speaking gets better every time I hear him.

White tee shirts with the alternates for our home opener. That should be neat.

In my brief check-in with EDM/VAN, Larsson blocked a nasty shot, I wonder if it's about that.

PUMPED

Remember the last time we were in this building when the Pens scored on a 2 on 1 and the refs ignored the fact that it happened because Bogosian was flagrantly tripped at the blue line while in possession of the puck? ***** that was infuriating

That really was a thing too, wasn't it? Also didn't the Sabres randomly suck ass on Thursdays or something?

That's why I'm clarifying, I was a bit confused. I think he's referring to "Sobotka Derangement Syndrome." I called myself the founder because I'm pretty sure my anti-Vlad fervor goes back the farthest And, I might add, wound up correct last year despite heavy opposition last summer and fall

Nonsense. I spend literally hundreds of hours a year reading, writing, looking up, and re-watching hockey games/things because I'm insanely interested in understanding this as much as possible. As a fan, all I want is for my team to win. Combining these two facts with a team that has the fewest wins int he last 7 years might make me sound "happy to lose," but that's not the case at all. I root for the team, and call its decisions how I see them. I literally couldn't care less if I wind up being wrong, but my goal is to be as accurate as I can be, and LEARN from when I'm wrong, which happens all the time. Again, see the tenor of my posts in the Bills thread, now that I have a lot of confidence in just about everything the Bills' front office does. If Sobotka and KO play great, I will be thrilled. Saying that I don't believe they will play great, and outlining in copious amounts of detail why I think that, does not constitute wishing for that to happen, and I'm honestly annoyed that it's now a thing that people are claiming.

Interested in seeing how many minutes Risto gets. Since it's only been one season, I'll call the Ullmark/Hutton road/home splits a coincidence until it continues. So I'm not bothered by the goalie choice. I've already said my piece about these lines. I hope they work. Pittsburgh has line-matching advantage tonight, and that could give three of those lines big problems.

Like the nfreeman acronym SDS? I'm the founder of SDS. A lineup choice that I disagree with doesn't mean I hate the coach and want my hockey team to lose? That's what I'm referring to when I talk of the "universe you're building." You've now got a string of posts that makes stuff up and projects things that people aren't actually saying.

The little universe you're building for yourself is interesting to watch unfold. There aren't any Ralph detractors, and nobody is going to be miserable if we're good lmaoooo

We've scored more than one goal on opening day only once in the last six tries. It was when we scored twice in a loss to Montreal 2 years ago. A total of six goals in the last six opening days. Let's get some goals tonight!!

In the most recent sample size of regular season hockey, it's easy to argue that Crosby was the best player on the planet.

Whatever problems this roster might have, it's not a bad enough roster that we don't have a real chance tonight or any given night. So while my big picture view is skeptical, I'm excited and will have a lot of fun today! And if they're going to surprise the less optimistic fans, it starts tonight. It's very possible that Krueger combined with young guns taking a step and a defense reaching critical mass will lead to very good things very quickly. Either way, we might get blitzed tonight. Pittsburgh has a habit of going big either way early in the season - seems like I'm always either watching them win 6-0 or lose 7-1 in October. So, like any other individual game, let's not sweat this one if things don't go our way. It's going to take 15-20 games to get a real handle on what the team is. Also, remember that if Jack starts out slow in the goal scoring department, it's because we don't play PHI/TOR for a while. The guy was pacing for like 12 goals for about two months last year, and then five periods against those two teams turned it into a 30 goal pace. Likewise, Sobotka scored twice in one game last year, so a good performance or bad performance by anyone tonight doesn't cement anything ? Let's go Buffalo! Excited to watch: Olofsson with our two best passers Johansson with Skinner Dahlin, Miller Joki in NHL action

Byfield is my guy

I know @miles made a thread already, so I'll link it, but I'll put a poll in this one so we can formally record our choices and brag if we're right. Here's his: I'm assuming that KO and Vlad play while Rodrigues sits, and Scandella and Joki play while Gilmour is an extra. Will change if that changes in the morning. Just because of how vigorously I've criticized him this summer, my choice is Vladimir Sobotka, 3 minutes into the 2nd period. If mods think I'm stealing threads and that's not fair, go ahead and put this post in his thread, but add a poll!!!