DarthEbriate

This is a fascinating dismantling of a darn good Tampa team. Tampa's going to need about 10 more Palat-style crosschecks on Makar to take him out, but the penalties taken won't help them.

They're shooting under the blocker on Vasilevskiy and they're scoring on it.

So.... Nichushkin, Burakovsky, Manson.... which Avalanche tickles your offseason fancy?

Their next card is being played... get physical and message-sendy and hope that the home-ice and sea-level slog gives them an advantage for games 3 and 4.

Watching game 2... or, you know, just draft the 4 fastest skaters at their positions who also possess top-end skill and hockey IQ. But mainly for speed. And go all-out attack all the time like the Avalanche. As we used to be in the late '90s. Get a Hasek and 4 lines with all the speed. Speed kills. Avalanche Edit: And continuing the posts for our draft this season --- get those 2 power forwards to be the fastest of the power forward/board-working guys available. No slow first steps, no "fast once he gets going" folks, no slow-pokes. Get the speed that drives the ability to play physical and grind teams down, not the physical but only if they can catch the other guy.

Colorado's pace may be unsustainable for an entire game, but it might not be relevant if they're already up by 5 and can coast to a victory each night.

The unrattle-able Lightning are shellshocked. Manson would be a good veteran RHD (and potentially Cup-winning) ... but he's very, very quickly pricing himself out of a realistic cost + contract duration + our team's competitive timeline + not blocking anyone with Buffalo.

That's fair --- I'm seeing him as a #41 and long-term potential player. I'd much rather have a Chesley at 28 if he makes it that far... which I feel with the recent runs on USNDTP in the 1st because it's such a safe and high-floor program.. he's likely gone at 28. Rinzel is the typical US High school risk. When looking at those players you have to trust whatever program he's going to next and his interviews (if any), because the competition certainly won't give the indicator of how good he'll become. Will he be Ryan McDonagh/Tommy Cross/Nico Sacchetti/Will Weber/Alex Killorn? (I had to look up the McDonagh draft year to find them all... those are the top 5 US HS picks from 2007, rounds 1-3.)

For whatever reason, the German and English are the first videos posted.

This is where I’m at as well. 2 NHL-caliber power forwards to replace Okposo and Tuch (in good time), one playmaker/attacker to be a Krebs/Mitts alternative, and one RHD. I’d add a Rinzel at the 28/41 just for rounding out the options list. The best part is in a few years any of these could end up being bottom 6 guys and that might be the best thing in the world because it means the other high-potential players on the roster reached their potential 9 Nazar/Savoie, 16 Ohgren/McGroarty, 28 Miroshnichenko, 41 Chesley(gone by 28 or soon after)/Rinzel/Warren. Many thousands of other permutations — but I’d see a pretty well-rounded haul in 3 years with any 3 of those early.

Yup. I'd like him at 28... he won't (likely) be there at 28. A playoff-bound team will snap up him and his game in the 18-26 range.

This is pretty flippin' sweet.

$5.2M and 3 arbitration-eligible RFAs who will chew up that space in a hurry. Very little depth there... as they learned last season. And so many NMCs and M-NTCs. Even Brayden McNabb got a modified NTC.

All the best to your dad and you and yours. As to the list, I can dig it. And I think there’s an excellent chance to get 2 of them with either Ohgren or Mintyukov available at #16.

Excellent crosswise comparisons and reminders.

Let’s do that 6 more times.

Neither Bichsel nor Kasper would surprise me at #8 to Detroit. And it wouldn’t surprise me that they’re both gone at 16. At 16, either could be a very solid addition.

Pretty much unforced puck over the glass in the final 2 minutes. What a maroon! But so much fun to watch.

Brother! So.... you have a wrong brother. Your drafting has now betrayed him, too.

Someday, someone will name their kid Jaggerest and we'll have to take them. Baron William von Barnekow-Løfberg

Hope she is able to make a complete and speedy recovery to whatever the ailment. Take care, Kim.

Ah... the EA NHL draft-the-coolest-names-because-you-can-always-play-the-game-and-win-instead-of-simming approach... I haven't done that yet except for some goalies... If the Sabres have any intention of checking on Braden Holtby in UFA, then they should totally draft G Braden Holt. G Chase Coward is hilarious to me. He's in the WHL. And there's a Croix Kochendorfer as a good French-German hybrid.

Precisely. It's having the NHL ELCs who could have a Sabres future vs. any player young or older who could be a perfectly serviceable AHLer, but not be in the plans for the Sabres. It's having Rosen in Rochester and learning the speed/ice size and not worrying so much about Scarfo or even Jankowski (who would likely be a much better player than Rosen this season and can also be a good mentor as a former 1st round pick).

That is my thought as well -- at least on the goalie and defensemen contracts. @sweetlou -- are the options listed intended as overpays on short term for Buffalo's non-blocking timeline? As an example, Holtby's last contract and 2 seasons were for lesser starter salary and he played a backup's load. There's no reason to offer him #1 goalie money anymore. $3-3.5M would be more reasonable as a tandem starter, and even that could be argued as the overpay.

It was great and he played well. HC Meatballs was going to put Power in all situations. But the 3rd pair was Bryson/Fitz at the end of the season. Depending on health and UFA (we all agree we need a RHD) and as they start playing matchups more (and other coaches have to start matching up against the Sabres to exploit weaknesses otherwise we’ll crush them!), he could find himself on the third pair and still be excellent and gaining momentum while protecting him over the 82-game grind.