DarthEbriate

Matthews has played in 181 more games than Thompson has --- and more importantly, Toronto has won 137 more games in Auston's career than the Blues/Sabres have in TNT's career. His team wins more, he's a prolific goal scorer, Matthews should have a bunch more GWG.

Speed up the harvest or teleport us off this rock out of the basement. Play doubleheaders.

Two wins today and tomorrow and the Leafs are on the brink of "make-a-big-trade"/"is-the-coach-to-blame" mode. They're down. Start raking them. Upend the entire Atlantic.

I was bummed when the Habs scored three in a row to take the lead and then didn't check the score again. It's a surprise but a welcome one. Take advantage of the season's opportunity, Sabres. Make your own luck.

Some US- or abroad-based Leafs board certainly has. Extended. So... 4 games in a row? It's fascinating. He's played in 4 games as a Sabre and managed to finish 2 of them.

....And here we are complaining about Tuch is always missing the net when he shoots the puck.

Stingers aren't fun. Usually in football you'll see it where the player gets hit on the side of the helmet or has their head down making a tackle and the whole pile is moving into them. Then, they get up, go to the sideline and you'll see the trainers pushing down/in/out on their extended arm to test the feeling/muscle control coming back. A good one -- miss a few plays. A bad one -- miss the rest of the game. Sterling Sharpe's career ended because his stingers kept getting progressively worse (in his final seasons, you can see him wearing two straps buckled to the back of his helmet to keep his head up through tackle contact). The real issue were his vertebrae and the worsening stingers were the symptom.

Is the tie clip with the vest going too far? Or not enough?

Nah. Ellis is a 3rd round pick who was slated to be St. Louis' AHL started/Levi equivalent this season. Houser is a career ECHLer who made it to Buffalo via goalie attrition when Adams' "750k" plan was in full effect. Outplaying Dell. Anderson, Luukkonen, Subban all injured. Tokarski out with COVID. etc. And yes, Houser has the best numbers with the Sabres of any of them.

But the guaranteed NHL salary says he's fine with the AHL this season. Otherwise, he doesn't sign the contract (he was already behind UPL and Lyon both on multi-year deals). Play well in the A this season, collect the cash, and sniff for a PTO next summer.

Why bolt? Georgiev's contract has no AHL salary. Instead of a PTO, Adams gave him $825k as a waiver-proof NHL salary. Easily traded if he's amazing (but he's not). Instead, he got more than he'd have gotten from any other NHL team and he can cash a solid check as the backup.

Why trade him to Toronto? The Sabres are going to ruin their season this weekend.

This is the way. Wait a start or two to ensure he doesn't reaggravate the injury (I'd rather they did that in Rochester -- at least see him recover and play again as part of the conditioning). Then, waive Ellis back to STL before the 30 days expires and say, "Thank you, we've got Georgiev". But his 2024 form was for 20 games. Yes, 20 very good games, but the rest of that season he was just average. The rest of his career he has been below average. Can't risk sending Geertsen down. 4 seasons of $4.75M for a goalie with one 20-game hot streak and otherwise below average numbers? GMs are not lining up for that trade. Maybe a couple late-round picks spaced out over 3 years? Would Adams (or Ruff) in their swansong year, go with Lyon (maximum 44 GP in a season) and Ellis (1 GP)? Not likely. They're going with Luukkonen as their #1 (well, backup as long as Lyon is hot).

Who has never played close to an entire season with a list of injuries as the cause. He is a RFA at the end of the season, which would be enticing to Adams. He's not a scorer, he's not a PKer. He had one hot month (Dec 2023) with 7 goals in 14 games (in a season with 16 goals). That was it. Pass.

Tuch is always going for corners, so missing the net comes with the territory. He could shoot into the goalie's crest each time. But -- that he's always missing the net is a fallacy. He simply alternates good and poor shooting percentages by season. This season is his down year. S% by year: 8.8 | 11.1 | 8.2 | 12.7 | 8.6 | 16.5 | 11.5 | 18.4 | 5.9 coming into tonight's game. The good news is the high percentage years keep increasing. Next year, he'll shoot 20%+ (for some team) and be a 45+ goal scorer.

Now, bully and harass Toronto to sweep the home-and-home, then revisit a reckoning upon the Bruins, and maybe they're on to something.

Never. I've already posted months ago. We can give Jarmo credit. But moves like getting a mid-20s top-4 potential D (like Kesselring) and heart-and-soul middle-6 guys like Zucker and Doan should have happened five years ago when they had Eichel and Reinhart. Multiple resources should have been thrown at goalie, not $750k offers. Adams convinced the owner they should rebuild again. To hell with him. That's just it. For anyone who wants to trade UPL for something useful, you've got to add and add and add (retention, too). He has no trade value. Put your Opponent's GM Hat on and ask yourself, what would you trade for UPL? Unfortunately, Quinn can go invisible for weeks. And last season it was through New Year's. But maybe he's finally going to go from inconsistent young player to semi-consistent veteran? Greenway and Kozak as your 12/13. Geertsen to the minors.

If Quinn can play the entire season like his 2025 side of last year (ignore the 2024 side!) he would be a 20-30-50 guy. And if he's the only defensive liability on his line (no Cozens) he might become a... good hockeyer.

Gahhh! My grits! I was busy looking up Danforth/Krebs career stats. Curse you, Sabres! (Not scorched, but a lot of sticking. So close.)

It's pretty wild that we need our 1st-round key-piece-of-the-Eichel-trade guy on his second contract to become as good as a try-hard undrafted undersized college guy who played briefly in the AHL before going to Liiga and the KHL (COVID year), before making his NHL debut at age 28. Their points per 82 games are very close (though Danforth has the definite edge in FO% and hits; Krebs a large lead in assists).

Hmm. Heading to the third of game #7 on the season and G Ellis (making season debut) has more assists than 1C Norris, 2C Kulich, 3C McLeod, and 5C Kozak combined. (Krebs messes it all up with his two assists.)

My roster isn't cap compliant. Son of Ben - Jackikin Eichwalker - Reino Samidala Jef or Quinn Solo - Tagebacca - Tuch Icewalker Dylando Cozressians - City in McLeods - TBDoan Zemgus - Wedges (Krebs) - Dad Kposobi (Shmeerod) Muel-PO - R2-D6 Unlimited Uncle Owen - Kessel Run BB-4 - Bryson Goalless Levi HC Grand Ruff

But who will protect them when... who is definitely not that guy... Edvinsson... starts taking liberties? 😇 The question for the fourth line (which was very good with Mal-Kozak-Danforth, and still good when it was Malenstyn-Kozak-Dunne)... is Krebs an upgrade from Danforth? We should hope so.

The dreaded TNT/HBO non-viewing, radio-only abstract painting description call tonight here. Hope Östlund plays well. Detroit is playing tremendous hockey to start the season. Need Ellis to play above expectation and for Dahlin/TNT/Tuch/Byram/McLeod to all show up at both ends of the ice to get a win.

1) So don't sign Georgiev. Call Reimer and when he says "No thanks, I'm better than UPL anyway", then call the next guy on the rolodex. If you only need a camp body, don't waste the contract. Keep calling around -- you can always claim someone (Ellis) off waivers at the season's beginning as well if end up liking them more. 2) They have made it abundantly clear they are not calling up Levi in the first half of this season. Ellis, waiver-passing Georgiev, and the planned tandem are all ahead of him 3) Sure, starting tonight. Maybe. He could benefit from no NHL tape on him and get one of those new guy great starts. Or, he could look like an AHL goalie who hasn't played in 2 weeks facing off against the hottest team in the conference. 4) Except Lyon, their goalies have no trade value right now. Partially because of their extreme surplus on the roster and partially because goalies in general have low trade value unless they're a proven stud. The most recent goalie trade was Pheonix Copley -- established AHL starter for 10 seasons, same NHL career sv % as Luukkonen (tweener level backup) -- for future considerations. The trade market is to give them away.