DarthEbriate

And yet you call yourself a Packers fan! This is following the standard protocol the last 30 years except for the two seasons when the defense were lights out in closing out games ('96, '10)... and Desmond Howard. And and I'm now officially on the Bills bandwagon this year although I'm doubtful to catch any of the games as I don't have CBS reception. And never fear, it's not a recency thing. I'm on the Bills bandwagon because of Kenneth Davis, James Lofton, and Bryce Paup, and the one defensive guy who had the spiderman tights like the 1988 US downhill skiers and the one guy who had a bubble helmet. Best of luck to you from here on out. (And I do hope you get to steamroll Brady if that is the opportunity that presents itself.) And and and while I'm posting... this now has to be the year Butler makes it into the HOF. Because if John Lynch (longevity, and booth and GM work? I guess? because his numbers are garbage except he played forever) and Steve Atwater (sure, I guess, fine) are in the HOF, then Butler is a shoo-in and Brian Dawkins and Troy Polamalu are first-ballot worthy.

Spurts are fine if they're timely. Even the best NHL players aren't going full bore every single shift. Pick the right spots though and you'll go far.

He's already outdone Steve Bernier.

He gave us cap space to sign Hall, which won us Power! It's all coming together.... Edit: I just checked. Berglund would be in the final year of his contract this year. So I said is true from a certain point of view.

Completely. If you're going to pull that you could as easily say: "VGK's 2022 1st and 2023 2nd have 0 goals in 0 games. Ryan Johnson has 0 goals in 0 games." The second sentence should read "Tage Thompson has turned into an NHL center and has 29 goals and 54 points in 141 games, oh, and Sobotka and Berglund had 8 goals and 20 points in their 108 games." Is the Eichel trade return better than the ROR trade? Obviously. One was given away to avoid paying a $7M bonus (edit: and other off-ice reasons) which let the opposing GM play our team's GM like a fiddle. And now, Thompson is looking great on a freakishly cheap deal, and Johnson is still an asset with a solid future.

A surprise, to be sure, but a welcome one. With 15 minutes to go and 3 plays sitting on 2 goals... trying to win back the fans... Skinner 1 missed shot. Krebs 0 shots. Thompson 1 shot. (Thompson had 2 total shots in the third.) You can't get a hat if you don't shoot the puck.

It would be fun... but we know the drill. VGK's injured players will be practicing with the team but in non-contact jerseys and not fully ready to come back until the playoffs. And the NHL will let it go because the GMs make up the rules and want that Kucherov-capability for themselves. Eichel will get warmup games going into the playoffs while a couple other veterans are on IR "recovering". They won't have to move anyone until the offseason.

The key is for Philly to bottom out next season so that our 2023 2nd from them is at the top of the round.

The beauty is that if he occasionally shows shot and works on it, he doesn't need to be. The threat of the shot opens the way for his slick passes to Quinn, Olofsson, Tager, Power, Dahlin, JJP, Poltapov, etc. I'm an old-schooler who went from VHS to the first DVD with the bad original reprint disc and then into the despecialized cuts. I haven't seen Greedo shoot in years and years (except once on Disney+ to hear the inserted "Maclunkey!" which I found to be fun and silly, no harm/no foul). Han shot. That is all that happened.

The third period is going to be all about going shopping at the hattery. Or at the millinery because that word looks cooler and it might cause more folks to reach for their dictionary. And ballcaps are unisex anyway. To the millinery! And remember the Death Star! I feel we've forgotten. We've gone into Death Star mode with every two-goal lead recently. Instead, it's time to attack and finish strong. In goal: Charles Williams...?

I'm tracking with you -- so far: Krebs/Tuch = 16GP 5-8-13pts; Eichel 0GP 0pts. 😇 And it'll look all the sweeter when VGK trades a good player to be able to bring Eichel onto the roster, then Eichel's Hockey Gods curse causes him another high ankle sprain as well as injuries to his fellow teammates, thereby causing VGK to narrowly miss the playoffs, netting the Sabres a mid-1st pick. (And if it hadn't been lottery protected, then yes, VGK would win the lottery and we'd pick #1 and #6.)

Today Risto is going to look like Bogo's first game with the Sabres. On the stat sheet he could outhit our entire D-corps. Of course, if we have patience (and talent), we should be able to draw him out of position a handful of times to make said hits and turn those into grade A scoring chances.

Playing like the parent club --- Amerks outshot 12-5 in the second and 12-4 thus far in the third. Close it out, kid-Sabres!

Agreed. Murray is another not-very-aggressive Sabre who's happier to wave his stick at the opponent (allowing the player a free pass/release up the ice), rather than take the player into the boards (even softly) and thereby preventing them from joining the play immediately, or forcing them to make a bad pass because they're about to get collided with. Checks don't have to be hits or put people through the boards, but they should impact the play. Murray is another Sabre non-checker. (And every once in awhile, it would be nice to see a Sabre put someone through the boards, just to keep them honest. Maybe even start a fight because of retaliation for a clean hit. Help bring the team together.) But as others have said, the aggression has to be part of your makeup.

Murray does not have the speed to play Tuch's game. There's a reason Tuch was drafted 18th overall and Murray was drafted 99th. Also -- let's hope that Anderson's return doesn't coincide with another goalie getting injured and out week-to-week. (Even Dell!) Rochester needs a goalie back, too.

Mitts is almost back! Will Quinn play on Mitts' wing? No. Sadly, no. And that's with half a season left to go.

That stinks. It also explains why Quinn didn't look as a strong in the 3rd and wasn't on the ice for the game-tying goal attempt. ++You don't believe in the Hockey Gods, do you? --Kid, I've skated from one side of this league to the other. I've seen a lot of strange injuries, but I've never seen anything to make me believe there's one all-powerful force demanding injury retribution for constant "tanking" and "resetting". There's no mystical energy field that controls my injury list.... But, that doesn't mean I'm not building a shrine to make sacrifices for promoting player health going forward.

And look at those dominant +/- numbers. 😇

Just cannot keep a lead.

Blergh

We had the splashy exciting open. Then the opening credits... Now we have to establish things like plot. And character! Boring!

The electric start has turned into a series of icings.

Their defense makes our defense look downright dead puckish.

Thanks, Dell.

QUINNNNNNERRRRRRRR! But that one was.