DarthEbriate

Always two there are. A Master and an Appertice.

I’d say it happens all the time. In the NFL it’s simply tied to the maturation of a quarterback. In baseball, the Astros bottomed out and made it. The Yankees rode a young core of Jeter-Rivera and then spent to keep it going awhile because no cap. In NHL Florida and Colorado and Edmonton are all built around 3-4 who’ve been together forever and you find a guy (Tkachuk, Kadri, … Jeff Skinner) who helps you get to the next level for a season or 5, with that core. The Sabres had it wirh ROR, Eichel, Reinhart, Dahlin and they blew it up by choice.

The most recent is the 2024 7th-round pick (2nd most recent pick): Vasily Zelenov draft measurables were 5-11 170# (or 6-0 180# depending on which source you used). Grabbing draft day weights close to or less than 170, and heights 6-0 or under. Others: 2024 Zelenov 5-11 170# 2023 Benson 5-10 170# 2022 Sjodin 6-0 168#, Lindgren 6-0 176#, Östlund 5-11 165#, Savoie 5-9 179#, 2021 Kozak 5-11 173#, Marjala 6-0 178#, Sardarian 6-1 156#, Kisakov 5-10 150#, Rosen 5-11 161# 2020 Konecny 5-11 156#, Costantini 5-11 173#, Quinn 6-0 176# A few folks bolded could be dropped based on higher weights, but they projected as skilled players when drafted (unlike say... Kozak, who was drafted as a ceiling 4th liner).

Sabres make the playoffs in the 2010-11 season. August 2011, Adams joins the coaching staff. No playoffs since. He is a master of the negative Concept of the Cup. It’s been the rise of Emperor Sheevyn at the expense of the franchise. He doesn’t have to own it. It’s all he’s ever known.

The wedding is just an event. There’s a ton happening for the character. She’s selling her daughter to finance her project, she’s deciding a price to keep her childhood friend and partner silent about the project, and the one person she can’t be seen with publicly is right there front and center with a lavish gift.

Good for them. They got to attend a playoff game.

Andor season 2 was pretty darn good.

Tuned in. Kozak to the net, Clague with a nifty backhand centering pass, and Helenius' shot picks a corner with the screen. Tied.

I think it could be What Could KA Even Have Done? ...but that's not funny enough. Who Called KA an Earnest Howdy Doody? Winds Created by KA's Extra-strength Hair Dryer? Wins Cannot! KA EEE Hath Decreed!

I'd like to see Lou get involved as a voice, but his recent teams aren't all that impressive. I do think it'd be fun for him to get Adams canned, then get upset one day and can Ruff and take over as the head coach for a game, then mid-game, fire all the assistant coaches. The Great Lamoriello Purge. The biggest anti-Lou sentiment I have though is that when he took over the Islanders, they changed the name of the Bridgeport Sound Tigers to the Bridgeport Islanders to "have a stronger sense of affiliation between the big team and the little team." BS. The Sound Tigers was a great name. Let your AHL team be its own brand with its own colors and civic pride and culture. Let it have a goofy name and live out silly minor-league antics. Can you imagine the depression if Rochester became known as the Baby Sabres? For that reason alone: no Lou for me.

One thing can certainly be said about the Avs vs. the Sabres GM. Last season, the Avs started horribly because of a devastating rash of injuries and some of the worst goaltending possible. Once the injuries subsided, and the goaltending was still garbage, they salvaged their season before it got out of hand. Within a two-week stretch, the Avs had moved both Annunen .872 sv% and Georgiev .874 sv% out and brought in the Blackwood-Wedgewood tandem, who would have save percentages with the Avs of .913 and .917, respectively. Adams has been dinking around with goaltenders for 5 years.

Capwages has updated, too. You can now see which teams have the draft capital required for the 2026 picks and beyond: https://capwages.com/tools/offer-sheet Side note: the Mammoth logo is very muddled when viewed as a small icon. It's too busy for its height.

The annual Star Wars names entry. Looking at players that could theoretically still be on the board at 9: Highly unlikely unless 2+ reaches are made: Martone - Rebel guerilla leader; hunted by the Empire. Per Wookieepedia, Martonn was a male Zabrak inciter residing on Dromund Kaas. Desnoyers - "Star Desnoyers! Two of 'em coming right at us." I could do so much with this. My preferred SW choice. So much potential. One of them will be there: Frondell - Heavily industrialized planet known for its shipyards; currently loyal to the Empire. O'Brien - boring Earth name. Move along, move along. Mrtka - The MRT-K Assassin droid. It's a prototype. Martin - He's a hard-working dad just trying to make his way in the galaxy. Per Wookiepedia, Marten was a male miner living in the town of Vexen on the planet Kallistas. His twelve-year daughter received a cybernetic arm replacement thanks to Jondrell Inx. McQueen - "Queen Amidala has escaped again -- find her!" "Roger, roger!" A Trade Federation battle droid -- with bad back -- easily dismantled and injured. Roger, roger! Others to consider, but are outside the top 9 in most mock drafts: Eklund - Rebel X-wing pilot Jackson Smith - boring Earth name. Move along, move along. Nesbitt - a stodgy Imperial officer Aitcheson - H-S1 is a plucky astromech droid currently working in the Barrie system. Carter Bear - An Ewok. Some folks think that Ewoks are little teddy bears Carbonneau - "They've encased him in carbonneaunite. He should be quite the scorer, if he gets on the frozen ice sheet, that is." Past Star Wars players and their outcomes for your reference: 2019 Byram - Rebel pilot 2019 Cozens - Imperial officer 2019 Krebs - An Ewok  2020 Quinn - sounds like a smuggler 2021 Power – Unnnnnlimmited Owen Power! 2022 Savoie - Force-sensitive human who is seduced by the dark side of the Concept. 2022 Kulich - An asteroid belt in the Inner Rim 2022 Östlund - Imperial officer. 2 Osteds are Imperial navy officers! Amazing. Alater and Wermis! 2023 Benson - "I don't know anyone named Ben Son, but Old Ben…is kind of a strange old hermit." 2024 Konsta Helenius - Denizen of the local cantina

This is Reimer erasure! 😇 Reimer was fine in his first 9 games with the Sabres. Note: 2 games were coming in for a yanked UPL. The larger issue is that game #1 was 11/23 at the beginning of the losing streak (Reimer was OK giving up only 2 goals in a 3-0 loss) and game #9 was all the way to February 4th. He rarely got a chance to start. 1st 9 games: 2-4-1 .908 sv% GAA 2.2 no offensive help 2nd 9 games: 6-2-1 .900 sv% GAA 2.9 offensive help! final 4 games: 2-2 .882 sv% GAA 3.5 largely influenced by the 7-goal game Tampa decided to unleash at the end of the season Play him on a set, well-rested schedule--but play him consistently--and he'll stay fresh while also taking 5-10 starts away from UPL over the course of the season. But that's all last season. All that said, he should be upgraded next season unless is pounding on the door to keep his career going.

Those Bryson numbers... but he's happy just to be here. Wants to be here. So, we're good. And his in-season signing -- how little faith do they have in Ryan Johnson to be a #7-8 next year? I'd estimate Joker would then be something like a 33% O, 45% D while with the Sabres --- given that last season he barely played with Dahlin after the 1st month of the season (based on opening lineups).

Then, hope JBD is a valid top-4 with Power. And secondly, depending on the timing of the Byram extension, say goodbye to either Peterka or McLeod via trade or offer sheet. Or bridge every RFA and simply push the can one year down the road and start losing them then. With Adams as GM, it would look like the Montour/Reinhart/Ullmark 1-year deals all over again. Then, he'd re-panic again, and start dishing out the 7-years to all the kids: Benson, Östlund, Novikov, whoever would take them.

There is this, as well. He's coached 15 seasons since Briere/Drury left town and has had a playoff team 5 times. The playoffs are an outlier for when his team has an abnormal blip in defense/goaltending before plummeting back into the bottom third of the league the following year. Maybe that's enough for the Sabres fan base, though. Make the playoffs once and then disappear again for 2 years while Ruff gets replaced.

Unless I'm wrong, and I'm never wrong, we're headed dead into the Fire Swamp discussion of a lack of physicality. Last season, the goaltending was poor. Reimer was fine (league average-y) and everyone else was just plain bad. Their skaters did them no favors though. 1 new defender could be enough, but it has to be Power's partner, RHD, capable of playing 22 minutes/night and killing penalties at a high level. Maybe one of these grizzled semifinals playoff teams will get disillusioned by an "early" exit this year and figure they need someone with better wheels --- ever-desperate Vegas moving Whitecloud, for example, to keep up with their competitors for next season. General fixes: 1. Forwards need to be better in their own zone. In position, active sticks, win more puck battles, and if nothing else, get it out and make RJ happy. Removing Cozens and his chasing was a good start. 2. D-men cause more offside. It feels like, Power especially, our D should be much better at negating rushes at the blueline by stepping up and using their reach and causing that extra stickhandle to force opponents offside. Limit the easy entries 3. D-men tie up sticks and box folks out. So many deflections and free rebounds. 4. Power throw 1 hit. One attacking downhill hit on some hapless winger getting the puck in his own zone along the sidewall and turning up ice OR one winger wheeling around behind the Sabres net and crushing him from the other side. Get out of position, get called for charging, leave his feet, it's all OK. Just attempt one body check that's out of character so he learns it won't hurt, it won't be the end of his career -- even a fight afterward, he can turtle bravely -- it'll all be OK. Because if he doesn't learn in the regular season, he'll disappear in the postseason and the team can't have that. Curiosity has me wondering about the rankings of Bryson and Jokiharju as well.

Absolutely. Because you (the Dad) think you know a little more about numbers than some tutor. Can't have your kid learning long division the wrong way. Plus, you also might learn a little bit more about the information yourself, because you're curious and want to be able to have good conversations at the dinner table each day.

But first, your son got to hire his friend who just graduated 9th grade, but who has no experience as a tutor. Meanwhile, you are calling around for tutors who've gone to college and have a good background in all the topics your son will be taking -- but offering minimum wage, and asking the tutor to work only at the direction and schedule of your son.

It's an Amerks thread. (Where they both belong.)

The evidence for Metsa is that he is 5'9", doesn't have an NHL contract, and Leone can't keep him out of the lineup; they're simply better with him dressed. He even is an alternate captain this season. AHL statswise, Metsa has the edge, though it's not by landslide. Bryson: 76 GP, 4-29-33, +10. .43 points per game. No playoff games Metsa: 123 GP, 14-56-70, +30. .57 points per game. Playoffs 21 GP, 1-5-6 +2

I think the overarching discussion has been the trades, so I'll go with a no trades premise. Adams becomes GM and starts doling out 7-year extensions to the key core folks (Reinhart, Montour, etc.) rather than preaching another rebuild around a new core. It's now 2025, which roster do you prefer? I also presumed the Granato was coach in Roster B for at least a little while, so TNT can play center, if needed. Roster A: Current Sabres roster, if they were active in the playoffs, with AHL callups noted: Benson - Kulich - Thompson Peterka - Norris - Tuch Zucker - McLeod - Quinn Malenstyn - Krebs - Greenway (Lafferty, Kozak) Callups: Rosén, Östlund, Rousek, Murray, Wahlberg, Neuchev, Helenius Samuelsson - Dahlin Power - Bernard-Docker Byram - Clifton (Bryson) Callups: Johnson, Clague, Brännström, Novikov, Komarov Reimer Luukkonen Callups: Levi, Sandström Roster B: Adams Never Made Any Trades * You can choose Hall or Skinner, not both ** You can add F Marcus Johansson. I negated it because Staal retired and none of the Staal trade return pieces appeared on the NHL/AHL roster. I treated it as though MoJo left in UFA. *** You can choose Clifton or E.Johnson, not both **** You can add Ullmark at the expense of Reimer, or let Ullmark walk in UFA Peterka - Eichel - Reinhart Hall/Skinner* - Thompson - Benson Zucker - Mittelstadt - Cozens Lafferty - Lazar - Quinn (Kozak)** Callups: Aube-Kubel, Savoie, Asplund, Rousek, Murray, Neuchev RETIRED: Okposo Dahlin - Montour Power - Lyubushkin Samuelsson - Ristolainen (Jokiharju, Clifton/E.Johnson***) Callup: Bryson, Gilbert, R.Johnson, Clague RETIRED: Butcher Reimer/Ullmark**** Luukkonen (Johansson) Callup: Portillo, Cooley, Sandström

Having a player ask out shouldn’t be a major problem for a franchise. There could be numerous reasons for such a thing. The issue with the Sabres is it has become systemic and rewarded. The issue here is that instead of investigating the real issue, the owner/GM team double down on their EEE and woe-is-us ways. The instant Eichel asked for a trade, the owner should have asked why. Why is my bordering-elite, bond fide 1C All-Star captain wanting out? And then address that issue. The issue being Adams got hired on the premise of beginning another reset around a new core. Naturally a player entering his prime, watching the general ineptitude and keyed in with players/friends around the league is going to say “enough”. But instead of thinking in terms of hockey and building around one of the most talented young cores in the league, Pegula chose EEE and futures, and being the laughingstock of the league.

It was another thread in here where I listed out what has to happen for Boston to turn it around very quickly. I wrote out a bullet about Minten making the jump he’s capable of to a nasty 2/3C. 3 who can jump to 2. But then I looked at his numbers and figured he just doesn’t have the offenee. However, if he does do that…. Dang. I do like the player a bunch.