Randall Flagg

I bet we're actually on the same wavelength Casey. I think he can be a point per game player in the league. But this coming season he'll look more like a .95 point per game college player than that. Even though I personally closed the book, for now, on Reinhart at C, I don't see how that doesn't get some play this year. It'd be nice if he settled in there.

One minor complaint is that my immediate worries about the 2C spot are probably not going to go away anytime soon.

I remember McCleod and Quenneville both looking better than any Sabres prospect at this thing last year. They looked like they wouldn't have made our team this year.

Asplund is 20 years old. He's going to be the best third liner this team has had in a long time. He's such a good hockey player.

I could see Asplund/Ogelvie/Nylander being a Rochester line. They look good together.

Dare I dream

Dahlin baby!!

Dahlin has such strange body orientation and positioning the defensive zone, and then from it he springs these huge C-cuts that bring him to the forward faster than he anticipates and he can sweep the puck away from there. It's like he baits them into thinking they have room and then takes it away so fast. I've never seen anything like that.

Calgary Flames Record last season: 37-35-10, 84 points, 5th in the Pacific Playoffs: None Coach: Bill Peters GM: Brad Treliving Captain: Mark Giordano GF: 216 (27th) GA: 243 (19th) PP: 16.0% (28th) PK: 81.8% (7th) Top 5G: 1.) Sean Monahan (31) 2.) Johnny Gaudreau (24) 3.) Matthew Tkachuk (24) 4.) Dougie Hamilton (17) 5.) Mark Jankowski (17) Top 5A: 1.) Johnny Gaudreau (60) 2.) Sean Monahan (33) 3.) Mikael Backlund (31) 4.) TJ Brodie (28) 5.) Dougie Hamilton (27) Top 5 PTS: 1.) Johnny Gaudreau (84) 2.) Sean Monahan (64) 3.) Matthew Tkachuk (49) 4.) Mikael Backlund (45) 5.) Dougie Hamilton (44) Key Additions: Derek Ryan (C), James Neal (RW), Elias Lindholm (RW), Austin Czarnik (LW), Noah Hanifin (D) Key Losses: Dougie Hamilton (D), Michael Ferland (LW), Matt Stajan (C), Kris Versteeg (LW), Nick Shore (C), Matt Bartkowski (D), Tanner Glass (LW) Projected Lineup: Gaudreau - Monahan - Lindholm Tkachuk - Backlund - Neal Bennett - Jankowski - Frolik Lazar - Ryan - Czarnik Giordano - Brodie Hanifin - Hamonic Kulak/Valimaki/Andersson - Stone Smith Gillies Top Prospects we might/might not see 1.) Juuso Valimaki, D, drafted 1st round 2017 2.) Tyler Parsons, G, drafted 2nd round 2016 3.) Dillon Dube, C, 2nd round 2016. 4.) Rasmus Andersson, D, 2nd round 2015 5.) Oliver Kylington, D, 3rd round, 2015 My thoughts Calgary had trouble with depth scoring last season, after largely fixing their goaltending problem. They added some wingers and a center to address that. Derek Ryan is a great player to have on your 4th line. They basically raided the Hurricanes this offseason, going for a favorite of mine in Bill Peters for the head coach position. Calgary fans think Lindholm should get the top RW spot but that Neal will spend plenty of time there. I think Calgary's ceiling is the leader of a weak division and a playoff series win or two, with their current roster. Smith plays well in net, and Brodie and Giordano have shown brilliant chemistry in the past. If Neal regresses and the new fits don't work out like hoped, they could again be a low-80-point team missing the playoffs entirely.

Tage looks like a 6-5 guy who's used to NHL-strength players

Mittelstadt has been the worst of the major prospects so far, which is a good problem to have.

Nylander makin me look foolish, keep it up!

Dahlin's breakout pass before he scored was even better than the move he made to make the shooting lane.

Jesus Christ Dahlin is good

Woooooooooo Rasmus!!!

Rasmus and Nylander...That was epic.

Olofsson baby. Great pass by Asplund

They're hitting everything and swarming pucks.

That first Dahlin shift was the most unique way I've ever seen a defender play. And it freaking worked. Woah.

I'm 95% sure the videos were on the website after the fact, so we'd have that at the very least. Of course, I had read the thread which made watching the game feel pointless after the fact. But that probably had something to do with very little good coming from the Sabres in those games.

I fall sorta in the middle here - I don't get a single vibe of true patriotism from paid-for anthem/dedication services 5000 times per year at a game. There are other settings where I am far more likely to be in a reflective, contemplative, patriotic mindset. I cannot connect what guys like Kaepernick do to a disrespect of "troops" because his intentions have literally nothing to do with the armed forces of the United States. However, I don't think his freedom of speech is in question, and I have zero qualms with the NFL doing what they wish in regards to maintaining a view consistent with what their consumers want, and so I don't mind the NFL fining players and banning it or whatever. I can't really picture feeling so angry towards Kaepernick, even if I were to fundamentally disagree with his premise and his methods, that I'd buy a shirt with his profile in gun crosshairs, like I saw all over the place when we played the 9ers a couple years ago. This is sickening to me. At the same time, I think the people who are offended by what Kaepernick does have a point when they think that the side yelling at them (I see this whole thing as two sides yelling back and forth at each other) is missing out on something that a guy like Hank or nfreeman or Neo would probably be able to much more eloquently describe/understand than I could. On a more general level than a song during a game. I think they should play the anthem on 9/11 and for the Super Bowl. It'd be epic and meaningful then, IMO.

We roll with Hutton to start...but when you parse his numbers before last season, they look like Lehner's, as far as high danger saves go. His numbers were sometimes inflated by his team keeping shots to the outside, and when they were taken in places that our Sabres tend to allow them from, he was bad relative to league average. That changed last year in a big way, but I'd be inclined to think it was a fluke. However, Ullmark is going to grab the reigns by Thanksgiving, at which point Hutton will resemble not same-as-Lehner, but a tremendous upgrade to Johnson. IMO

Even with that, there will be trades and UFAs we want and sign, yeah? But playing this game, assuming none of that, this would be awesome if these players hit their potential: Olofsson - Eichel - Reinhart Sheary - Mittelstadt - Nylander Skinner - Asplund - Thompson Fourth Liners But really, this is the roster I want Panarin - Eichel - Reinhart Sheary - Seguin - RW Asplund - Mittelstadt - RW who caressssss What's a salary cap

On some level I'm sure all of my Nylander insistence is rooted in the fact that I have to stick to my guns as the first person to turn on him ? I have to look like I know what I'm talking about! But really I just only use hockey to form/change my opinions so I have to keep parroting the same stuff I've said since April and won't have an opportunity to budge on guys like Kyle and Alex and Pominville and whatever until we have new hockey with which to see a change

I'm probably hearing what I expect to, as well. I did catch the interview last night. If Taylor ever ends up as our head coach, BTW, I think we're gonna like him