Randall Flagg

I have a dishwasher in my apartment. Despite this, I've done dishes by hand every single night I've been there since I moved in three Julys ago for some reason

Everything about what Risto has said speaks to me as "I'd like to leave but of course if that doesn't happen over the next few weeks I'll play my ass off here like always, but I do think I'm probably going to get traded" Perhaps that's just what I want to hear, but that's what it sounds like to me.

That's going to turn into a steal quickly IMO

I'm really nervous about this one. I think I'm going to say that every week though. I just kinda believe in these guys, and desperately want them to show me I should continue to

Congratulations. I haven't gotten to typing it out yet, but 100% of the time I think of Krueger it's using your moniker for him

There is one quote in the nhl.com article that I found interesting, specifically referencing zone coverage in the defensive zone versus man coverage. Phil was definitely more of a man coverage guy, I saw McCabe follow guys out to the point more than once. I have no idea the general pros and cons of either defense strategy though. I thought our team defense as a whole was pretty average rather than bad

Massive articles writing about basic hockey concepts as if there's something novel going on THIS time around, mainly, driving fan discussion here and elsewhere that's far more platitude than substantive. The parallels to the things being said this time two years ago are so jarring that it was worth going back and comparing, and the comparison didn't disappoint. Not feeling pressured, but I'm dropping these massive word blobs because of how, to overuse this word some more, "cringe," these articles come off because of how fresh the last batch still is. I honestly couldn't even finish reading some of those paragraph excerpts And I don't think it's just me feeling that way, based on Thorny and Doohickie's thoughts on the topic, they're posting about it just as agitated as me, so I think there's something to that But maybe my perceived "pressured feeling" also comes from the fact that I don't want to like dissuade any discussion or anything, in pooping on some of the concepts

Crinnnnnnnnnnge edit: referring to the "truth" junk

Bylsma ran a 2-1-2 forecheck exactly as described. I'm sure people remember some of those pretty Kane/ROR/Reinhart takeaways. "keep the puck in the offensive zone" "us pinching down on the walls, there's a lot of support from the forwards backchecking that allows us to be creative" I remain convinced that any "system dive" for a new coach is simply a regurgitation of hockey tactics universally seen as good and desirable. Like sizzle cautions, until we have enough games to where we can see tendencies on tape, we will continue repeating pillars of solid hockey fundamentals over and over again as if the last coach obviously had no idea what they are Here's how the summer after hiring Phil went: Importance of being able to relate to players off the ice "The on-ice and off-ice areas are difficult to separate, but Jack's recent comments about a coach he can talk to about topics other than back pressure and positioning are particularly telling. Players are people, not cogs in a machine and how you relate to them can make a world of difference." "He sure comes across as a guy you'd want to work for." The summer visits with players, the hours-long skating with Jack just to talk “Phil’s extremely prepared for his meetings, detailed, goes about in a very concise way,” Botterill said. “Second is just his communication skills. Whether star players, up-and-coming defensemen, he’s found a way to interact with them … on a personal level. And thirdly, just his track record of development – whether it’s in high school, whether it’s in juniors, whether it’s the National Hockey League – he gets the most out of his players.” Buzzword hockey This season I'm most excited about: "Housley's system. Fast aggressive hockey that attacks the opposition. A mobile D. Might not happen right away, but I at least hope to sees glimpses of what is to come" "I love the changes I've seen. The execution of those changes is coming along but the defensive pressure system is awesome. They are making a point of using the D to keep pucks in the zone and the forwards are coming back hard as back support if the puck gets by the D. That was never the case before. In the Islanders game I look at the number of off-sides calls they forced the Islanders into and it shows their willingness to hold the blue line entry and pressure the puck and take away the possession entry." From The Buffalo News' system dive: "Phil Housley's system has one essential tenet. No standing anytime. The new coach is transforming the Sabres into an aggressive team, one that features active defensemen and quick-thinking forwards. Some parts of the system – blue-liners leading the rush or firing away from the point – will be obvious. Other things – defenders tightening their gaps and stepping up at the blue line – will be more nuanced. Nearly everything will revolve around skating. The Sabres backed off opponents last season. Then they backed off some more. The result was too much time in the defensive zone. This season, the forwards are expected to be aggressive in the neutral zone. They will quickly close on their opponents, forcing them to make decisions earlier than they'd hoped. It should result in more turnovers. The Sabres also will make it tougher for teams to enter their zone. It was rare for defensemen to step up at the blue line and impede a player's progress. Now the blue-liners are expected to move forward instead of backward. They'll slow the opponents and force them to dump and chase rather than carry into the zone and set up plays. [Flagg insert - wow, I wasn't expecting to find even a "instincts versus thinking" discussion in this! - end of Flagg insert] The Sabres spent too much time last year thinking about where they should stand instead of skating to where the puck could go. At its core, hockey is an instinctual game. Players need to react to funny bounces, broken sticks and referees who are unable to get out of the way. Housley wants his skaters moving at all times, which would give them more opportunities to find the puck when it hops unexpectedly. The coach will give his players a general idea of where to be, but he'll leave it up to them to react accordingly. It's how the Sabres wanted to play last year. Now they have to show they can do it. "For us, the guys playing, it's more than just the system," O'Reilly said. "It's got to be feet first and let instincts take over." " -End of TBN article "I absolutely loved LOVED his comment about providing structure and then TRUSTING THE PLAYERS TO CREATE within that structure." And who wasn't sick of articles drooling over the concept of the "five man attack" by the time that first training camp was ending? “I anticipate an attacking mindset, playing with speed, playing with pace, playing fast,” Housley said. “That includes a five-man attack. Our defense is going to be very involved in the play.” Vouching from former players a la RNH "He brings such a different element to coaching because of the player he was; he sees the game unlike probably anyone else who's ever played the game," Subban said. "When he talks, all that matters to me is what is coming out of his mouth." Ryan Ellis, who's been with Nashville for the entirety of Housley's tenure, spoke highly of his communication abilities. "Phil has been awesome,"he told Yahoo! Sports."Since 'Day One' he came in here, I think for a lot of the D he was a similar player as the way he thought the game and I guess thought the game should be played. Just the little things talking with him day-in-day-out the knowledge that he brings … Obviously his numbers, his games played, his points all that stuff speak for themselves so it's easy to listen to a guy like that and take what he has to say and understand it and learn from it." Unrelated, but comments from Phil's hiring thread: "Does everybody else feel that Jason Botterill is way smarter than everyone else in the room?" "Botterill apparently researched the hell out of Housley" -> "That's why I loved the Botterill hire" "You know the biggest difference I see in Bylsma versus Housley? Housley is a winner and Dan simply isn't." "Oh well, change, optimism, and feeling good. And another cycle begins. Such is life as a Sabres fan." And I'm currently going through crazy deja vu inception here, because I'm reading the exact type of conversation "yeah, we know the last guy also said it, but HERE'S why it's different this time" in that Phil thread w.r.t. Bylsma as we've been having with Krueger w.r.t. Phil A comment from September, 2017: "Bylsma absolutely talked about pressuring opponents, pushing the pace of play, and attacking. We literally drooled over it, coming out of the tank. All coaches sound good when they're hired, otherwise they wouldn't have been hired. "That said, I absolutely love the style of play he's preaching: fast, aggressive, pressure. It's everything I've ever wanted from an aesthetic perspective." This was TrueBlueGED a month into Bylsma's first season as Sabres coach. And that's not to pick on True. We all said stuff like that, but that's the quote I saw right away and that's exactly what's going on here. Either our optimism is right or we look back and say "OMG Phil was horrible. his strategy was never going to work, this new guy though, he's going to be so much better"." Deja vuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu man I'm basically quoting stuff from our very own posters (the identity of them is not the point, and some of them are me) that just kinda explains why some of us sound like poopy pants right now. It's 100% reservation rather than truly believing Krueger is going to suck or anything.

I completely disagree. Because of the talent gap between this year's and last year's rosters at this camp, we played worse hockey this year, including at all that fundamental stuff. The D group was Dahlin - Borgen - Pilut - Laaksonen - Guhle and fillers. These guys smothered people at the blue line, and did it better than the weaker names did this year. If we're comparing them to the Sabres themselves, then sure - but Housley, in his own words, talked about doing the same thing. The problem is that this year Ristolainen, Scandella etc. simply couldn't risk doing this without falling on their faces and getting blown past. Their general "backing off" was never a coaching instruction and quite frankly wasn't as severe as has been claimed this summer. And compare Scandella this past year to Scandella under the same coach in 17-18 - something happened to that man, because when I re-watched games after that season I was stunned at how good he was at stopping rushes even ABOVE the blue line, while his main trick was to ride guys into the corner and then snuff them out and separate them from the puck. He didn't do anything close to that this year, and it wasn't a coaching thing. Perhaps people saw Scandella's 17-18 tactics as being soft on the blue line, but it was calculated and effective. And it probably made him skirt positive grades on "zone entry allowance" charts. But the point is, there is no coach in the NHL that wants their defensemen backing off the blue line, and a lot of defenders whose talent level dictates that it's the pragmatic thing to do, and even if Krueger will somehow get these same guys to do it more often, it certainly would not have already manifested in a meaningful way in this prospect tournament, in which they were actually a bit worse at every basic good hockey fundamental like that example than they were last year under the last regime, purely because of talent differences. Also, as I'm skimming last year's prospect thread, there have been more than one comment about Thompson being ahead of everyone else on the ice in both strength AND speed, to help bolster a comparison you made on Friday to Cozens.

Jordan Poyer's hat. His locker is next to DiMarco's

Ty Nsekhe's story is insane. https://buffalonews.com/2019/09/10/buffalo-bills-ty-nsekhe-nfl-football-washington-redskins-rams-new-orleans-saints-texas-state-tarleton-state-northwestern-oklahoma-state-jim-rome-cody-ford-dion-dawkins-josh-allen-2019/

What differences in the prospect games? The Sabres were literally better in last year's prospect games, with Tage, Mitts, And Dahlin in the fold. I mean I guess I only watched 1.5 of these ones, but quite frankly I saw less accurate passing and otherwise not much else was different. The puck dominance in last year's BUF-NJ game was something that didn't get approached this year. We're 10000000% projecting here.

There was a Kevin Fiala saga?

Krueger didn't even coach these guys, it was Taylor again. It's definitely just a mirage, because of the fact that so many of these players have never been together. You'd be more accurate comparing "giving up the blue line" in this tournament to what Rochester did last year than Buffalo, but either way, because they didn't actually practice in a meaningful way for this thing, it means nothing. Phil said all the right words about not "giving up the blue line" too, but a lot of that falls on the player's spatial awareness and trust in their own abilities, ultimately. And the single best thing Phil did for the Sabres was fix their transition game. The difference in puck support in transition from October 2017 to last April was large, in a good way.

Are you comparing this year's prospect tournament to last year's prospect tournament? Or this year's prospect tournament to last year's Sabres?

By who? None of these defensemen or forwards have ever played meaningful amounts of time together And they practiced like once or twice for this thing

Is that the same trainer that was suing him because he didn't pay them?

Everyone I know loves Black Mirror and tells me to watch it. The first episode was disgusting and awful and the second was cringe and impossible to get through and I never went back

JFC

It took me a full calendar year to finish season 1. Seasons 2-5, especially 4 and 5, took me on the ride of my life.

I feel this. I hope the Bills don't - in the NFL, every non-Dolphins team can beat every other team any given week. We need to be ready for Saquon. I'm excited to get to watch him, and terrified of what he could do to us. A few teams destroyed us in the run game last year. I don't think we'll overlook them though. Matches my eye test, and I hope it's a sign of how things will always be - I thought he was as accurate as any NFL QB ever is in any given game.

Johansson is comparable in hockey effectiveness to Dzingel when both are healthy, and Joki + C. Miller is a completely reasonable addition that can probably mimic what a bad-back Gardiner will give the Canes over 82 games. Now, it's possible that Canes stay healthy and Johansson continues to have injury issues, but I think on balance we've added similar amounts of hockey ability there. They lost Williams, a good top/middle six winger as well, so they aren't just adding to their base. Agreed on Risto, I still think that's going to happen.

We're just one trade from having a similar list. It's important to remember how religiously the twitter hates Risto, so if you don't feel that strongly, things don't look as bad

If Faulk gets both Kase++ and 6.5-7 mil, we need to trade Risto and the return needs to map accordingly