DarthEbriate

The original. Not the pretender, but the original. Original palace song, y'all.

A few years back we drafted Dahlin and I was excited for us to look like Toronto. Up-and-coming offensive talents, with a puck-moving/rushing squad of defensemen that Housley/JBot were clearly in synch on. And then... in a couple years, learn the defense as we go. But at least be fun and attacking. That didn't happen. So... maybe now we can try that again but with HCDG as the commander. I'm curious to see the breakdown of: 1) HCDG pre-practice (immediately after his hire, no practice, the losing streak continuing). My heart tells me to throw this stretch out of the data. 2) HCDG practice, through the time Ullmark and Okposo got injured. That seemed to be the most competitive and upbeat part of the season. 3) The season end-game with AHL goalies and playing out the string.

Even the best head coaches have to be a first-time head coach at some point (that point being at the very beginning).

Execute Order 39! A long time ago, GM Sheevyn appointed Don Granato as his personal representative on the Sabres Bench. But he was only given the rank of Interim. It was outrageous. It was unfair! He had more meatballs than any of the coaches there. How could you be the head coach and be only interim? But now, vindication. When players return to the ice, Granato tells them, "When I left you, I was but the interim; now I am the Head Coach."

More than a little scary. The wildfires have gotten prolonged, enormous, and are health hazards every summer lately. Mt. Shasta (14,000' = 4200m) barely has any glaciers left and by the end of a summer is a skeleton ribbed with snow pockets. In the 20 years I've lived here, Mt. Rainier (4392m, I looked it up!) has looked more and more sparse each fall. Anecdotally -- because I don't ski -- west coast skiing season used to start at Thanksgiving, now it's generally near New Year's. Others would be able to more accurately discuss that. The US tried to convert to metric decades ago, but failed. We lack fortitude.

I love that so many folks like the idea of making food/beverages to make people happy. I enjoyed working as a cook, but didn't like the hours and would rather cook for and with friends/family than for strangers. Since being the starting free safety of the Green Bay Packers was unattainable physically and being the drummer in a rock band (although fun) wasn't really ever the dream.... I'd be an overly-detailed world-building fantasy novelist.

Being a long-time rock-and-roller with a technically excellent band (and immediately recognizable sound) would be pretty awesome. While the previous band would be fun to jam with, this latter band... they're brothers. That's cool. Bolded for emphasis. Posting professionally on SabreSpace is a pretty good gig.

Roger, roger. All y'all keep drinking. (And check in on your neighbors/elderly folks if they don't have AC.) It's hotter than Mustafar in the BC, WA, OR, ID world out here. Inland at least they're a bit more used to the heat. The areas west of the Cascades and Canadian Rockies, though... It's ridiculous. The Pacific's oceanic effect usually has us at 3 to 4 days of 90+. Breaking 100 happens occasionally in a decade. We were breaking all-time records yesterday at 105, and today is forecast for 112. 112! What is this, the southwest?

If it's Granato, great. Let's play some run-and-gun high-event hockey. But! Then we'd also need to be able to lock it down and go full non-event and counterattack once the playoffs start. (Yes, I assume playoffs at some point when hiring a coach.) Likewise, if we hired a Tortorella full-defense style coach, then I also want him to be able to get a team to go full-tilt offense when it's required during a comeback. But no matter the coach, if the team plays like it did for Kreuger it is doomed (and apparently how Kreuger wanted them to play), and if we have no goaltending beyond 20 games from Ullmark, then the coach won't last very long regardless.

Ach -- it's supposed to break 100 degrees before noon today. I would love for some 50s and clouds; it would be a tremendously nice day. Oh my... that would be the nicest day possible after this ridiculous furnace weekend. 🍺 I'll just leave it as any objective- and rule-based game can be a sporting event if it gets itself organized and attended. They're on the same continuum. And any sport can just be a game if it's not organized.

The icky part is the fun part of the conversation. My 'Ebriate brain looks at everything recreational that fits into the "has rules for outcomes" as a game. And then where do we go from game to sport. Let's say I play a computer game, an EA NHL game because it's a hockey board. So -- I play at home 1:1 vs. computer or vs. friends = game. Online vs. friends or strangers = game. I think as soon as I add a Twitch account and people log on online for me to play at a specific time -- I'm crossing into sports threshold. If I'm on Twitch and have a sponsored team and am going to conventions/competitions for a computer game... I'm not gaming... I'm sporting. And I kind of weave that across everything. You can turn any game into a sport if society allows, or rather, desires it.

This is the bestest part of the entire conversation. And if we were at a bar, this is where I buy you the next round, because the debate can go for years. And it comes down to your subjective definition of sporting. Where does the continuum end in what makes a game vs. what makes a sport? Because chess and poker can both be games played by you and me. They can also be played by professionals of the utmost skill, craft, and practice. Working on bluffs, practicing reading tells, practicing faking tells, going over complex game and tournament strategies, even more diligently than a matchup between a cornerback and a wide receiver at the line of scrimmage throughout a football game. Then, it gets really fun. Does it simply revolve around exertion levels? Is golf on a hot day a sport, but on a nice 50-degree cloudy day, it isn't? Is a biathlon a sport, while competitive shooting is not? Is placekicking in football not a sport, whereas the rest of football is? If you're a DH and you're walked in each at-bat, but your team wins because your pitcher pitched a no-hitter shutout, did you play a sport or a game?

For the record, I just wanted to do a The Shinning (do you want us to get sued?) reference. I don't care for Tocchet, either. Arizona "surprised" and treaded water a few years there, but that shouldn't be sufficient to earn a job here. We're drowning and need to get out of the water entirely.

Hehehe... It'd be so much a better joke if it hadn't been our GM. There's a reason our franchise is the laughingstock of the hockey world these days. I don't think JBott gets enough flak for this trade. He should be pilloried for this action. I don't know if JBot understood the Concept of Trades in the NHL. He traded the first 6th for a 6th with a team that was in Cup-contention mode (or at the least a certifiable playoff roster). It doesn't matter if it's the 6th round and therefore the stakes were low. Let's apply the same concept to this year's first round: "Hey Toronto, we'll trade you our 2021 1st (first overall) for your 1st pick in 2022. Come on...". What in the absolute hell? The other thing is his trading-up/trading-down garbage. In the NFL draft, you're picking 22 year-olds who've essentially been playing in your league's sole minor league. You can trade down and accumulate cheaper/controlled players you know will turn into backups/special teamers. In the NHL -- it's a crapshoot after the 2nd round (and really, starting late in the 1st). So, more picks is better in the low rounds, but it's not like the NFL where you can take a guy who's slipping down into the 5th round because he had a) an off-field transgression or more likely b) a late-season injury so you're essentially redshirting his rookie season. That happens all the time. In the NHL, you're taking an 18 year-old prospect who's years from anything. But! The best part of this JBot early-6-to-late-6 trade is then he traded that pick to move UP INTO THE 5th ROUND the following year. I can't all-caps that enough. We traded the 2018 TOR 6th (177), and our 2018 BUF 7th (191) to move up to 143rd to take Cederqvist, who's maybe a 15% chance to even play a single NHL game. If you like him that much, wait until 160 and take Cederqvist instead of Rousek (although Rousek was more highly rated and projects better currently, too). Better yet, wait until 177 and take Cederqvist with that pick. It's silly fun.

All hockey and no coach makes @TheCerebral1 something, something... Don't mind if I do!

Goooood. Gooooood! The question is: Is Dreger a recurring guest? Or is he simply being interviewed as someone who doesn't have the full information yet and therefore... shouldn't have been asked/paid for the interview today because there's no information? The main problem is simply that: "I don't know yet." doesn't make a good interview. So he has to take up an entire show segment saying "I don't know yet." in various ways.

And yet, televised on ESPN. This is really the fun part of the discussion of where something goes from contest to sport. I admit, I had to look up what the Smackoff is. But it appears to be just a popularity contest. It's game vehicle doesn't have rules and appears completely subjective, with the only rule being a time limit so you can't talk on forever. So... it's a contest. Like a bodybuilding or beauty pageant where it comes down to subjectivity. There's no subjectivity in a spelling bee, or a fishing contest by weight/size, or in a basketball tournament. And in some cases, there is subjectivity (did the player step out bounds, was that holding) but it's at least attempted to be removed by rules.

Or in Backstroke of the West... But we can will account and then account for Jack's package.

Poetry slams absolutely could be sporting events. Just look at the national spelling bee (hours and hours of training, nationally televised, and I'll bet some wagers are placed on the side to make it more interesting). Or the 4th of July hot dog and other eating contests. They're incredibly wasteful --- no one needs to eat 60 hot dogs, let alone practice eating lots of anything in order to compete --- but eaters are athletes of a sort. I don't know enough about them, but I imagine if you set some guiding rules (topic, poem style [sonnet], and fixed development time) you could get a really solid competition going and then you'd be able to have some basic judging criteria. It'd be figure skating. Welcome to Poetry SLAM XVIII!

Well, yes, obviously. Go open wheel or you might as well be driving a minivan in a circle all day.

As I stand next to my Buffalo Sabres reverse retro uni race car... If you can convince sufficient numbers of people to gather and spectate upon an event and it has as non-premeditated outcome based on competition vs. other humans or other sentient creatures or vs. a clock, then you could consider it a sporting event. And I like to add that it's strictly for human recreation --- if it were removed from society, then society can still move along just fine. (That addition is to help separate sporting hunting [either for a big head on a wall or for a couple deer during deer season] from subsistence hunting and gathering where if you don't successfully hunt, your family dies of hunger or needs to move to another area for food.) Whether it requires supreme athletic skills can be kind of arbitrary, although that's definitely a bonus. Mental skills and lots of practice are always present. So --- auto racing is a sporting event, from a certain point of view. All these are ways to separate the folks who play Chutes & Ladders at home once or twice with their kids as a game... from those who play high-stakes Chutes & Ladders in professional Milton Bradley leagues around the world. Then, it becomes a sport. Pew! Pew! Pew! 🍺😇

It does leave everyone of note on the table for the Sabres.

Goodness, we'd be upset. As he's here in Seattle instead, all I can say is "meh".

Seattle has announced a "livestream announcement" --- so... a press conference --- today at 10 AM PT/1 PM ET. With one month before the expansion draft, this should be the coaching announcement. Once that falls into play, well, now we're really picking up speed.

I do not like this trade., but if we wanted to have plug-and-play players, between the expansion draft and before the entry draft: Jones (with extension), Merzlikins, Texier, 2021 1st (5OA). I like this more: Add an unprotected 2022 1st so that we have two shots an high-end impact player. If Jones really wants to try UFA (and let's be fair: Buffalo is not even a lateral move from Columbus), then I really don't see a package that Columbus would be willing to give up because then I'm looking at four 1st round picks, no protections... offer sheet style. As others have said, they just don't have the centerpieces.