Randall Flagg

Just explaining the negativity that you didn't like to see.

Who will have more points - Eichel or the Sabres?

I get that negative perspectives can be tiresome, but I think Sabrespace posters have largely been completely reasonable in discussing all aspects of the team. Unfortunately, when the team has the fewest wins of all NHL franchises since deciding to stop losing on purpose, and is by about 15 standings points the worst team to ever win 10 games in a row in a season, after that epic collapse, the tone of even the most objective posts are going to trend that way.

Damn I forgot all about that guy

And I don't think I would necessarily do it, I just think Pegs would! Let's hope for a 95 point season so we don't ever have to find out.

I think that if we're a low-mid 70 point team again this year he's gone.

I think the Rags are really going to regret that Andersson pick.

Sure they sucked down the stretch - my argument was that it's not a promising thing for the development of a prospect. I would never pin that -14 difference in plus minus on Mitts himself for that reason - I just can't find tangible development from him at any stage in the season. Regardless of why that happened and what the team did around him, that's never something I want to say about any prospect in any situation, much less one as important as Mitts. This is different from saying that I don't think MItts can have a nice season playing with Sam and Johansson or something. I have faith in the kid.

I'm referring to Pronman's placing him as the best non-Dahlin non-NHL prospect, over guys like Pettersson. There was never any justification for that. And it was less than a point per game, in a league where his peers regularly were well over at the same stage (peers being the guys that we compared him to regularly - Kellers, Boesers, Connors etc). I'm not trying to say Mitts doesn't deserve any hype or praise. I think he's a good prospect, and as far as I know, there's nobody else we should have taken at 7 yet even in hindsight. But Pronman doing what he did, and his WJC MVP, created a season that some fans who excuse it now would have called other people miserable for suggesting it would happen beforehand. I haven't read the Athletic piece, and I'm sure it shows a very good hockey player. You could have done the same thing for Tyson Jost at the time, who I continue to see as an eerily similar player on the ice and in the stat book to Mitts. He began to break out at the end of last season, by the way. He's going to be a very nice player.

I might stop by for the pre/post-game festivities and go to the game on my own.

Sure, it doesn't matter to the Sabres, but I think it matters to Mitts. Maybe he developed, I just didn't see it happen, and so I worry a bit. Because a guy like Asplund shows how much a young player is capable of developing in-season.

If it was a good decision to not have him in Rochester last season, I would be inclined to believe that there would have been tangible, meaningful development in Mitts' game from game one to game 82 last year. Trying to be as objective as possible, I didn't see a different player at all, and he may have even been less confident at the end. I can't really find hard evidence he developed. That's scary to me, even if he gets better this offseason, because that could be 6 months that could have had more growth (picture Asplund in the AHL last year). I don't see how Mitts would have been immune to getting better like that - he was simply really bad in the NHL all season long. There's no improvement in his counting stats either - in his last 23 games he had 3 goals, 2 assists, 5 points, and was a -14. In his first 23 games he was 4-4 for 8 points, with a plus-minus of 0. I don't think it's a guarantee at all that he would have had too easy a time in the AHL - a guy like Kyle Connor had a much better post-draft college season, still spent most of a year in the AHL when he had less of an argument to go there than Mitts, and came into the league the following year as a 30 goal forward, already NHL-good. Incredibly skeptical that Mitts would have been too successful for this path to have been worth it development-wise when his NHL season was what it was. The reality is that compared to his peers, outside of a seven game tournament (which we've seen affect player expectations far too much an infinite amount of times), Mitts hasn't showed in high school, college, or the NHL to be the level of player that guys like Pronman had us all ready to believe he was. This isn't saying that he can't become a very good NHLer.

Echoing the ask for where you saw or heard this?

I traveled to Argonne National Lab for a week long program two months ago. It cost a lot, but was to be fully reimbursed by a prominent public university. I was the first to submit everything we needed to submit paperwork-wise for this reimbursement process to begin. We were first told we'd get the reimbursement sometime in early July, and later we were told we'd get it by earlier this week. This is nearly a thousand dollars, since I covered a lot of the various cab fares on either end for a group of us traveling together. I have bills to pay that I literally can't afford this second, because I'm waiting on this money. I got an email yesterday, days after we were told the money would be in our accounts, talking as if they just stumbled across a problem. The problem was that my plane tickets came from Oklahoma, but went out to Buffalo. I had established that this was okay with the guys in charge of the program three months ago - I had personal stuff, and it was cheaper for them by over 100 dollars, so it was good to go. Now the school says they need to do their own cost analysis, which I'm sure will take way too long despite a google search of ticket prices for the flight to BUF versus back to OKC verifying the stark price difference in under 30 seconds. They're acting like I did something wrong, and I'm ***** broke.

He had more problems than that, including a propensity for his only regular even strength offensive play to be peeling off the boards and then losing the puck in no man's land between the circles and the point men

That's all good stuff. And I don't need him to be an X and O wizard too. I do need him to see when his team is consistently doing something worse than most other teams, whatever it may be, and be able to adjust what they're doing in some way to make it better. Whether it's the transition game of the Disco years, or the offensive zone disaster of last year. I don't pretend to know exactly what they'll need, but a coach should have their finger on that pulse, and be able to implement something or other to change it when the reality is that a GM isn't going to be able to reliably concoct something big after the season starts to change things on the roster end.

Don't worry - saving it for the megatrade.

If that's what you got out of the above conversation, we aren't the jaded ones.

I was also this confident that the Canadiens got obliterated in the Domi trade so take that for what it's worth lol

I would think so. I'm a little worried that turns Jack's line into what he and Kane were though - plenty of goals completely neutralized by plenty more goals against

He gon' be better than that just you watch

I think it's a fairly likely and reasonable lineup.

And it's not as if Campbell wouldn't have awesome 05-07 and Blackhawk cup stories. And Ullmark is hilarious. It's the perfect table

An interesting mix of fear, intrigue, and hope accompanies this sentence

Still didn't listen to the interview, but someone on twitter makes it sound like Botts talked about Sheary/Johansson playing either wing, without mentioning center. Which I think is good, I was dubious about the idea of 90 at center. That could help us a bit though. Skinner - Jack - Johansson Olofsson - Mitts - Reinhart Vesey - Rodrigues - Sheary Zem - larry - Kyle At least makes sense for the bulk of the players. Vesey would probably start in Olofsson's spot but I'm being optimistic. Take some of Mitts' sheltering and give it to the 3rd line so they don't give up a hundred goals themselves. That's what I'd do I think, hoping that Johansson fits in stylistically. Or something different Skinner - Jack - VO Vesey - Rodrigues - Reinhart Johansson - Mitts - Sheary Zemgus - Larry - Kyle