Randall Flagg

Through two weeks, according to PFF, Josh Allen has the best adjusted completion percentage while under pressure of any QB in the NFL (this stat is completion percentage while ignoring throwaways, spikes, receiver drops, or throws where the QB is hit during the motion)

Still haven't forgiven Big Buff completely for that elbow to Sam's head, but man is he a unique and fun hockey player to watch. He can move so well for a guy so big, and brought those forward puck skills to the defensive position in a way that only Burns could match/exceed

Remember that game in Houston with the back-to-back 83 yard TD passes to #83? I loved Lee Evans so much as a kid And then we won with seconds left in the fourth quarter on a back-of-the-end-zone strike to #81. I have no idea if that was James Hardy or Peerless Price's brief second stint here

We held Eli to 166 yards before he piled up 90 in those last two drives with 4 minutes left where we gave him the underneath stuff to run the clock off. It bummed me out because it inflates those stats and I think it ended our streak of holding passers under 190 passing yards, which was by far the longest of every team since the legion of boom

Oh for sure, I don't mean to claim it's the best play a Bills QB has made. But I started watching the year that Holcomb lost the job to Losman. So it's likely the best play by a Bills QB I've ever seen made I meant "live with my own two eyes" even though I didn't say it

This is close to being true. His point totals are certainly helped by playing next to MacK, but MacK is also boosted by Mikko, who is outstanding in his own right

Sam had come off a rookie year (equivalent with respect to his draft year) where he scored 11 more goals than Casey and 18 more points, looking better shift in and shift out despite way less time in the offensive zone, and with every other stat and metric in existence heavily favoring him over Casey. The bold isn't even close to being true.

What are people assuming it will be? I've seen a lot of pragmatic discussion of things like Roslovic and a mediocre vet. I've seen a lot of discussion about adding Mitts, perhaps our best prospect, to the trade to get something more worthwhile. Do you think it's going to be like a second rounder or something?

But True's not wrong that in taking the whole package, having a guy who's probably the ~12th? best center in the league along with doing worse at the other 3 spots combined than literally every other team, is worse than most NHL teams can claim. The centers behind Jack are by far the area in which we were the worst relative to other NHL teams last year - ie, it's the team's single biggest weakness.

Eichel is a top 15 C, but the centers behind him were THE worst in the league last year. Not a lot of teams have a combined package of centers that was worse.

Based on the prediction thread....a lot of people do!!

This was the play I was trying to find. I think it might be the best quarterback play I've ever seen a Bills quarterback make. Happy to receive reminders if I'm missing some.

Jimmy lays awake at night, anxiety wracking his brain, forcing him face to face with the prospect of not earning pi2000's respect

This is a great idea, I'm on board

My thing was always that this is only evident in his hands, and even then, the little stick wave he does over the puck doesn't do much when an NHL defender with NHL strength bears down on Casey and forces him to be strong on the puck while carrying it. A guy like McDavid has the hand speed WITH a wrist strength/spatial awareness combo such that he doesn't lose pucks, but Mitts' biggest problem is that he's alarmingly bad at hanging onto pucks in the NHL, because his stickhandling is all show and no results. I remember his very first prospect scrimmage, we fawned over a video where he buried a backhand bar-down in the shootout, because of the stickhandling he did before it, but when you zoomed in on the video, his stick literally just whipped back and forth over the top of the puck really fast a few times before he slapped it on the backhand, it wasn't actual stick handling. A counter example would be how Dahlin is almost over-cautious in his cradling of the puck with his stick - there is no wasted motion, only such that confirms he has concrete possession of the puck. HIS stickhandling gaffes just come from having his head up, I've rarely seen someone have such a high degree of control of the puck that's on his stick. It's like an NHL video game slider, Casey's is near the bottom in actual puck control while doing his thing where Dahlin's is near the top. Or like the puck is a magnet, and Casey's stick is not magnetic while other skilled players' sticks are, because of technique I'm worried this is going to come off as just writing Mitts off completely, I still think he'll be a good NHLer and I just am writing about the things I think he needs to work at before he gets there

That's why I only suggest this with Tampa. I've been asking for years how they can afford all of their guys, and when Point gets double digits AAV, it will become a reality that they need to start cutting guys loose. And a lot of their vets that they'd like to cut lose have NTCs

I think I fixate so much on Cirelli because we're simply not going to be able to trade for a Trocheck, Kuznetsov, Tavares, Malkin, Horvat, Point/Stamkos etc. And it's going to take a while for our prospects to hit that level even if they are capable of it. And giving a lesser guy like Hayes a contract like that is simply not smart. So the next logical step is to find a guy who's not quite there yet, who is hidden deep in a talented lineup, who has drive and talent ready to flourish when given a chance. I skim rosters and can't see a whole lot of centers that fit this description in an obvious way, so I default to talking about the one that I believe in the most.

I'm not saying it's written in the notebooks at KBC, but am proclaiming that this will be how it turns out. Cirelli will be the savior. (everyone feel free to beat me over the head with this stuff if he doesn't develop the way I think he will lol, I deserve it for the levels of spam I've hit)

We're going to let Tampa pay Point and then offer sheet Cirelli next year when they will by disallowed by the laws of physics and economics from matching it no matter how much they'd like to, and that's how we're going to fix the center position. You heard it here first (actually tenth, I know I've said this at least nine times)

TrueBlue and I were regularly posting evidence that ROR was usage tweaks from being a Selke winner, and thus outlining acceptable trades as only including NHL players at least as good as he is, for months and months before the trade even happened haha, literally citing exactly what would happen to the center spine with the murkiness left in his wake if it were to happen another way There's a reason we were probably the two most apoplectic posters here on July 1st and 2nd of 2018

Acting. You should, roughly speaking, build your NHL roster as if your prospect pool is completely empty, at least when looking at the important positions. Let growth and then overtaking of veteran players FORCE the coach's hand and always assume it won't happen, while doing your best in player development to maximize the chance it CAN happen. But, unless in a crazy cap bind or looking at stupid contracts, always assume it will not happen I actually wrote a little thing about my personal, fundamental 'tenants' for roster building over that time I was gone from here, not sure where it is now. But we violated about five of them last summer hahah

I've never assumed it's a given he'd be an NHL PLAYER, much less center Won't do the same of Cozens either, or anyone else not at the level of Dahlin, Jack, or Sam as prospects GMs can typically find a balance between acquiring and grooming prospects in a prudent way to supplement, and then become, an NHL roster. We goofed because we had them BECOME the roster before allowing them to grow into being able to supplement NHL players at NHL positions

That absolutely gets Rakell, and maybe some more, assuming they have baseline opinions of Mitts and Risto. If they like one of the two less than an average GM likely would, then we'd be better off offering that package to a team that likes 'em both. Rakell was pretty bad for himself last year so they're in a position of selling relatively low.

For the viewing pleasure of PA and anyone else If by being worried you mean act under the assumption that no future or present 2C is currently in the organization then I beat you there by about 14 months hehe (not because I don't think he can get there, but because the chance he does is low enough and far enough away that if we want to win games before this decade ends we need to do something big there)

I don't have much to say about that one. More interested in perpetually refreshing the trade rumor thread