DarthEbriate

Eakin filling in for Lazar in the ceremonial OT faceoff.

Played like garbage since the 1st, but Toker keeps them in it, and Tage steals a point. Let's get a third one and go home!

The Tage Thompson will be in range in 30 minutes 3.6 seconds!

Whoa. Skinner's assist on the Asplund goal was his second assist of the entire season.

Bad middle stanza here tonight. But it's even. Regroup, lock our S-foils in the attack position and close it up full throttle.

All he had to do was kick it with one skate, and just redirect it with the other foot and no kicking motion. That's a good goal.

Wake up and skate, gents. Don't get mesmerized by their passes. Take the puck and take it to 'em. They feared our attack in the first.

Is that legal? I'll make it legal, to kick it forward, dive onto the ice and head it in off the helmet... like a Skinner-sized cue stick.

Yeah --- that was fun. Led to a Rangers goal, but I had a good chuckle through most of it. This is where the fun begins.

I guess the Rangers didn't realize the PP had ended there.

Yeeesh, bad pass by Hall, Reinhart mishandles it further with the linesman right there... But the Toker has the shields up.

Now let's see the Rangers' adjustments and our subsequent adjustments. Keep it going!

That was an entertaining opening frame. Good, goooood.

He really should've cleared the zone early in the shift. But still, Mitts did deck Blackwell in the head, so... it is justified. Hmm... would've liked to see them spring Mitts on the near-side on that post-penalty rush. That'd've been a nice closing touch on the period.

Mitts threw his mitts. Then Dahlin checks his guy into the net. Then Tage goes after the whistle. What is this?

He faded really quickly last season and just kind of was there for his final 15 or so games before heading back down to Rochester.... so I have to say I'd forgotten he's got some good wheels on him.

Either the Rangers are telegraphing every single pass or we're actually capable of playing defensive hockey in the neutral zone and our own end. Next thing, we'll be intercepting passes in their zone and burying turnover goals.

It could be argued they weren't really doing any coaching to begin with. RaKru actually said that back in the first couple games of the season vs. the Caps, just sorta let the game play out and not coach much (on account of no real preseason games).

We just generated multiple rebound opportunities in front (Okposo with the final jab at it that went wide). It's a completely different offense now.

Asplund yelling, "I use the big shovel! I use the big shovel!"

Missed the game... but Wha! That got him!

I think the Sabres could safely go to 4.25 for Ullmark, which would leave the 2.5-3 range wide open for a quality backup. Definitely should keep it under $7.5M for the tandem. The good news is that Dahlin and Jokiharju are both playing themselves into bridge contracts that are going to be well below where we would have expected to pay them at the beginning of this season. The Skinner contract is still a rock tied around this franchise's neck until the combined Seattle/ESPN/NBC & next Canadian TV deals kick in, plus the return of fans to seats, and jump the salary cap up into the $90s. So right when Skinner's skating will fall apart and there's still 3 years left on his deal.

Definitely. But I also would imagine (particularly with the flat cap) that none of those other teams is going to throw big money at Linus for him to join them. Wherever he signs (and I hope it's with us) he's not breaking the bank. Because as a GM you'd be foolish to pay a guy big money to be the clear #1 when he's been injured multiple times -- including non-contact knee injuries. Any team that signs Ullmark needs a backup who can potentially play a bunch.

Sigh. Upside is all well and good, but it only helps the franchise if, you know... they ever play in the NHL or AHL. And when we do get a 'tweener we let them go: the Hagens, Malones, and Schallers (though he was a college FA I think) of the world. Or we have them in the AHL and let them walk (Blackwell). Sure -- they're JAGs... but they're minimum cost JAGs, rather than trading for Vesey, or signing UFAs like Eakin or Josefson. Don't forget the mind-numbing JBot trade of the 2018 draft. Moving the first pick of the 6th round (156) to Toronto for their 2019 6th (177) -- so we traded a year back and 20 picks down. Then, JBot packaged that low 6th and our 7th to move up to the 5th (143) to take Filip Cederqvist. And the reason we had to trade UP to pick a guy in the 5th round who... yeah, jury is still out -- he seems fine in lower-tier Swedish hockey, and hasn't done anything in his SHL stints (thanks Interwebs!)... is because we had previously traded our 2019 5th (129) to Detroit for Scott Wilson in an unrelated deal so that HCDDB would have a Penguin around to fill out the bottom line. Which... wasn't a bad trade at the time. But still. It's just this wild loop-de-loop "we're still in the same place" with this team.

But he doesn't have nearly the value Eichel does and he's so young he could still grow. At this rate, Sergachev's contract is going to be more than Dahlin's next, which I never thought I'd see. But Dahlin at 3 years at about $4M is a realistic possibility after watching him fall apart this year. That's what I'm afraid of.