DarthEbriate

It definitely discredits the general improvement and continued growth of an incredibly young collection of players playing key roles (particularly on the blue line).

You may not be the target demographic for it.

Wow. Just wow. So much for a hometown discount. That's a lot of salary to either buy out or to retain in a "give him a chance at another Cup" after Ovie retires. And it gives Okposo's previous deal a little different perspective.

Yup - that would've been him is my guess. Google says he's 66 now (he really was a kid when he started). Shorter/stockier guy, and at least on Sunday he was wearing a big helmet for half the show. The mythology is half the battle.

I think I'm still the same as last year. Either of these, probably the latter because P Control might not work for the families.

I did get to see a live version of Maggot Brain by Michael 'Kidd Funkdelic' Hampton (which is how he got into the band in the '70s; his live version is the on One Nation Under a Groove). That was pretty cool.

More Sabres puckdoku.com today. EA NHL98 and 99 once again made my day for the Leafs/Blackhawks/Habs and goalies. I did the trifecta of Mair, Konopka, and Houser. Pretty nice!

Parliament-Funkadelic tonight. I mean… it’s not remotely the original lineup, it’s now some of their grandkids, but it’s being billed as George Clinton’s farewell tour.

Tarasenko won't replace DeBrincat's scoring straight up, but if Norris is back and healthy the top 6 will be better overall. Chychrun for an entire season is a positive. And an underrated acquisition: swapping Talbot for Korpisalo in the lineup should be helpful, especially since they kept Forsberg. With health and average-to-good goaltending they'll be a 90-110 point team, just like the Sabres.

I agree Tarasenko would've been an excellent fill-in for Quinn. But if I'm Tarasenko, why would I go to a team where my playing time is going to be significantly cut at New Year's if all goes according to plan? He chose Ottawa because DeBrincat is gone; if DeBrincat is coming back halfway through the year Tarasenko likely goes elsewhere. For him, this season is a "get top minutes" on a hopeful team and then next season when some contender caps shuffle (Boston) or the cap goes up, go take either one final good contract with term or start hunting for mid-/bottom- six jobs on contenders to pad the trophy case and legacy.

In the last 7 seasons, the Bruins had 112, 107, 100, 73 (pacing for 107), 100 (pacing for 116), and 107, and finally a 135-point historical* finish. Just regressing to their mean regular pace (108) is losing 27 points in the standings. Now, take Bergeron, Krejci, Hall, Orlov, Bertuzzi, and even Nosek's defense out of the lineup and replace them with has-beens Lucic and JVR (who produced at Nick Foligno level last season -- who I didn't even note as a roster loss). That's worth another 10 points at minimum. Their season will be officially over the moment a Tkachuk runs Pastrnak. *Fun note: 3 of the top 8 all-time highest season team points earners (BOS 135, TBL 128, FLA 122) have occurred in this division in the last 5 seasons. Not highest win %, mind you, because they've had Loser Points to help them. But -- they all had the commonality of 4 teams in-division concurrently tanking or in the dregs of rebuilding, or Kruegering.

Really solid top-6 player, but I think the injuries have probably started him down that slippery slope. I don't think he replaces DeBrincat's goals or production this season.

Boston would make that trade in a heartbeat. They might even throw in Swayman to make the money work for them.

What do you mean, nobody knows? Deck officer! Daily faceoff! Boston's prospective lines are: Marchand-Zacha-Pastrnak JVR-Coyle-Debrusk Greer-Geekie-Frederic Lucic-Brown-Steen Grzelcyk-McAvoy Lindholm-Carlo Forbort-Shattenkirk Ullmark Swayman That's a one-line team with a very good top 4 and one superstar. When half your division is tanking or in serious rebuild mode, that's a playoff-capable lineup. When Buffalo, Detroit, and Ottawa are all ascending, that's a team that had better hope to win a bunch of low-scoring games and collect loser points with defence. The Sabres preferred lineup down the stretch last year (with VO in for Quinn) is: Skinner - Thompson - Tuch Peterka - Cozens - Olofsson/Quinn Greenway - Jost - Mittelstadt (move Mitts to C and Rousek on wing?) Girgensons - Krebs - Okposo Samuelsson - Dahlin Power - Clifton Jokiharju - Johnson/Lyubushkin Levi Comrie/UPL I now believe the Sabres are better all-around (not cagey veteran savvy/defensive) at all 4 center spots. Debrusk is probably better than Quinn right now, and definitely over VO. Pastrnak and Marchand win, but with Marchand not significantly. Frederic is good, but the bottom 6 is all Buffalo if he's matching up with Mitts. On defense, it comes down to whether people prefer Lindholm's experience to Power's potential. Because I'd take Carlo>Clifton but I think the Sabres have the better player at every other spot. Nationally, the vast majority of folks would take McAvoy over Dahlin because of name recognition/good team vs. not yet a playoff team. In goal, yes, the Bruins are better hands-down (until Levi proves himself). Good for them. They're going to need it.

For me with Boston it's the center spine. Zacha - good player. Coyle, 3rd liner. But neither worry me offensively and while Coyle is solid defensively, he's not shutting down opponents' #1s like Bergeron could. Krejci was also very good defensively. Their major change this year will be possession. Faceoffs aren't important, unless you're great or terrible at them. Krecji was sub-50%, but Bergeron and Nosek were elite FO guys (60.1 and 59.3%, respectively). Nosek started 90% of his shifts in Dzone; Bergeron took every meaningful faceoff in late-game situations and on the top PP. Between the two of them they took 49% of the team's total faceoffs. If you remove their faceoffs from Boston's totals, the rest of the team won only 48% of their faceoffs. (Nosek is a sneaky-good pickup for NJ.) Opponents are going to have the puck immediately off the draw much more in the Bruins' zone this year. That means more shots against, more effort expended getting the puck back or out, less immediate transition (win the draw, fire it up ice to Marchand dashing out of the zone -- who could do so because Bergeron was dominating the other guy in the dot), more quality shots faced by their (admittedly very good) goalies.

I'd say about 20 wins. Some on the surface regression and some on the tower from losing two top centers and replacing them with 3s.

Fortunato played in Jacksonville last season and my guess is that's where he'd be slated to start this season. For the Amerks side, it looks like Pilut, Bartkowski, Priskie, Strand, Eliot, and Berzolla either out or undetermined from last season's lineup. 6 out. Johnson (Ryan), Novikov, Jandric, Metsa, Savoie, and now Fortunato in. 6 in. With Bryson or Clague getting waived. It's basically a push on the defensive depth thus far.

What an excellent, excellent player. As a hockey fan, I will miss his play. As a Sabrespacer... good riddance! And take Krejci immediately with you! And may the Bruins look upon this week similar to the week the Sabres lost Briere and Drury and fell from relevancy. Let there be dark days of black and gold ahead.

Come off the bench to become a folk hero, with people dressing as ABBA in the stands, and leading the Sabres to a surprise championship. And scoring the game-winning assist on the powerplay by faking the one-timer and shot-passing it to the crease for the easy redirect?

I like his Russian Four PP2 for the prospects tourney.

A long time.

Sabres back on puckdoku today. That's some good 1999 throwback right there. But I failed overall because I could've sworn McEachern played for the Kings in addition to the Sens.

I dig Kozak's game and he got better as the season progressed and into the playoffs. He definitely should get a taste of the NHL in 2024-25 to see if he can hack it if he his progress continues. There might be an entirely new 4th line that season (and the need for cheap contracts). This season? Nope (barring a horrid barrage of injuries). His best fit for the NHL and his best benefit to the Sabres in the short term might be a Peca- or Weber- orchestrated trade to NYR or STL, or as a sweetener elsewhere. Otherwise, let him grow and find out what you've got in 2 years. This year, let him battle for 3C in Rochester and PK1 time and get to legal drinking age in the states.

The Concept of Barnaby was very important to the Pens.

He won't have to. Quinn will be back in the lineup when the playoffs start. If VO slots in for Quinn with JJP/Cozens or on a Mitts-Greenway line, he'll be a finisher. I'd expect him to have 12-18 goals by the time Quinn is back in the lineup. Probably on PP2. Defensively, the key for VO is having a little more oomph and aggession to battle, another year of growth from his various kid centers in their own zone (Cozens, Thompson, Krebs), and not being on the ice at the same time as Bryson ever again.