DHawerchuk10

I don't mind Edwards' "homerism" as much as his lack of hockey knowledge. He reminds me of a fan who wants to come off as smart, so he just parrots what he hears from other media outlets without doing any thinking or observing on his own. Edwards is directly responsible for having me go from Center Ice to Game Center. Every time the Sabres played the Bruins on Center Ice, they would always carry the NESN feed. Enough was enough, so I purchased an Apple TV with Game Center to pick my feed.

Yeah, I am blown away by that notion as well. To consider we are potentially part of a multi-verse, and my brain starts oozing out of my ears. If you are ever fortunate (or unfortunate) to take a class in signal analysis, that is when the real fun starts. Younger folks seem a little more adept at this sort of thing than when I attended school, but this was definitely a weed out class at UB way back when. The average grade was around a 23, and the professor only applied a minor curve (i.e. everything below a 50 was an F). The final exam looked like it was something found on the ship from Roswell.

Be grateful you don't. Power Series will make your head explode. In all seriousness, Diff Eq is pretty easy if you have to take it. If you took Physics at UB, it is a complete waste of time. Nothing but deriving equations, and absurd problems (i.e. the magical "frictionless surface"). Hopefully they breathed life into that curriculum since I went there, because teaching just theory without practical context is a sure fire way to turn off people's brains.

Those were simpler times.

I didn't know the terrorist group was into ranking emerging hockey talent? "Death to the infidels! Allah be praised, Connor McDavid is the number 1 prospect"

Lucic is a candy a$$. Great to see Prout cave in his face.

well, I disagree with your disagreement. Smehlik is Myers' upside in my opinion. He was exactly like Mike Wilson the past couple years (outside of an occasional burst, he fell a lot, and got beat on the outside). Hopefully this year he'll progress past that. Disagreement aside, I'm just excited you drew a comparison and gave a thoughtful opinion outside of the typical "he's a good skater", "he has size", "he won the Calder and has potential".

I agree with you totally. I am totally baffled why people think Myers is anything special. I will admit he has been solid so far this year, which is a huge departure from how he started other seasons. But I haven't seen him do anything spectacular. Nobody ever seems to respond, but I am genuinely curious what people think his upside is. Nobody ever wants to hear this, but he draws serious comparisons to Mike Wilson, another large defenseman from years gone by. Myers has more offensive ability than Wilson, but on the defensive side, I see no difference. Neither of them utilize(d) their size properly. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, what is the point of having a 6'8 defenseman who isn't intimidating? The guy doesn't have to fight everyone in sight or throw huge checks every shift, but he could skate with a carton of eggs out there without breaking any right now. So to me, his size doesn't mean anything. His skating ability is really nothing to write home about either. "Skates well for a big man" is an under-handed compliment. It equates to...."Wow, I would expect you to fall over every two seconds, so the fact you show some dexterity is amazing".

1999. Even without the injuries, its difficult to say whether we would have beaten the Canes. I think people assumed that based on the hope generated from the Ottawa series. Based on legitimate hope, I would vote for 2006, but I don't agree we would have walked through the Canes or Oilers. That is a false assumption that gets worse over time.

I suppose it depends on what circles you run. This lost me a bet once, and everybody looked at me like I was a crazy person for even suggesting Ruuttu was traded for Hasek. Yeah, this ranks pretty high with me as well...definitely top 10, especially seeing that McDonagh is developing into an all-star.

Or put the MSNBC spin on it..... "Vanek faked an injury during the Bruin series because George Bush told him to."

Outside of being a lopsided trade, this was the most blurred trade of all time. Very few people remember it was really Christian Ruuttu traded for Hasek.

The atmosphere you describe in Nassau Coliseum is exactly the same as it has been or the past 10 years. I don't see how it could get any worse (hostile might be an upgrade over the total indifference I normally see there). If anything, it may get better depending on how many nostalgic Islander fans out there.

I have a feeling that teams were scared away by Barbashev's offensive "upside". If you read the write up on him, he sounds exactly like the kind of guy I would want on my team...so you have to wonder what teams were thinking. I personally would have preferred Barbashev as well, from reading about him, but since I have never seen him play, I have to trust that Tim and the staff know what they are talking about.

Start printing up your Reinhart jersey's ladies and gents

Swish!

Wow...a MMA guy with one hand.

I agree completely. Reinhart is the guy!

I hear what you are saying, and that is hard to argue, but quite frankly, I am not concerned about Tyler Myers the moment he is off our team. I am only concerned about the guy or guys we have coming back. If he does well, and our guys do well...then great! Losing trades is always tough to swallow, but these are risks that have to be taken sometimes, and you can't be afraid to take said risks for fear of that player doing well in the future.

The confident Myers is merely a capable defenseman. The only reason why he looks so good when he is playing with confidence, is because of how awful he was prior to that.

But you see, that is the thing. It is always "he is going to break out next year", and then the excuses come out when it doesn't happen. When is enough, enough? There is no reason to believe he will be much better this year than last. He certainly had his moments under Nolan, but I wasn't impressed enough to revamp my opinion of him. It seems there is a contingent out there (and this isn't directed at you personally) that are just so willing to delude themselves with Myers. When he plays well, the "look, he is a superstar!" starts coming out in spades...while the sub-par games are quickly swept under the rug. Its almost like they have their own personal money invested in Myers and can't accept a loss on that investment.

I think the bigger question is, you liked Housley? And strong enough to compare it to ice cream, fireworks and hot women? I would like to see what you consider a beautiful woman then :) Probably Phil Housley.

Right on! His size, and expectations therein, just doesn't mesh with his style. I flat out don't like Tyler Myers (least favorite Sabre since Phil Housley), so my projection of him is somewhat colored, but I don't understand what folks see as his potential. They say he has a high ceiling, but what is that? Even during his heralded rookie year, he showed indications that his offensive abilities might outweigh his defensive awareness, but people dismissed it because of his age, and "it could only get better". I think Myers will improve on his shortcomings, but never to reach elite status, nor a #1 defenseman. I have no qualms dealing him to another team if it can net us an upgrade at forward. We can't be afraid of that "one good season" he might have if we let him go. Lets face it, the kid isn't that young anymore by NHL standards....you are seeing pretty much what you are going to get aside from slight improvements here and there.

What irritates me about this is, that there are clearly markets free agents don't want to go to...whether it be misperceptions of the area, contender status, or whatever. A team like the NY Rangers will never have an issue attracting free agents, while teams like Buffalo, Columbus, Winnipeg will always have some sort of issue. The draft process helped level this out to a certain extent. If small markets are underperforming while this is rolled out (and they are), you can create a situation where teams just stay bad and have no way of improving.

I think they are an excellent target especially with our recent trade history.