DarthEbriate

Now his failure is complete. (not upgrading the backup goalie in the offseason)

That is a surprise given his... inconsistencies... this season.

OK -- let's see how this PP1 looks without Eichel. Hopefully just as good.

In Rochester, certainly.

Bench Skinner, bench Eichel (although for injury reasons)... save some cash and score some goals?

Lovely save! But please do not be hurt... get the bacta!

Good gravy, no! That would lead HCRK to believe that Hutton is better than he is.

Remember, the Moulson will be with you... always.

Skinner's not a system poll; he's a man.

Yup. It should've been either a sign-and-trade for a nice 5x$7M which is a good raise, or even a 3x$7M so he had a few motivating seasons with Eichel to get one more big deal, OR he should have been moved at the deadline as we were already eliminated, with the offer to bring him back Moulson-style in UFA at a salary comparable to what he was getting (there is NO WAY he gets $9 and likely not even 8 on the open market).

It's not just $9M, though. It's 9M in a flat/depressed cap for two more offseasons. It's a player who is very reliant on skating who will be on the wrong side of 30 for 6 years of the deal. If Seattle's smart they take Borgen or Joker as someone cheap with upside. And then, they can even double-dip when regular UFA starts and sign Ullmark to a median goalie deal or sign Hall to less than what we're paying Skinner. The Seattle fanbase is going to be excited regardless. Skinner's contract isn't bad, it's trash-compacting-cap-crushing bad. I go back to --- how many first round picks are you willing to send to Seattle to get them to take that contract? Because if I'm Seattle I'm not allowing a lottery-protected pick from Buffalo. If Buffalo gives me a 1st I'm betting on that pick being top-10.

In this case, I was solely quoting Star Wars....

Yeah... last time it was emphatically Eichel wasn't hurt and it was confidence-based. This time it's conditioning-based. I mean, if this works as motivation for Eichel, great, but it sounds wrong either way. RE: Skinner. I figured the breather would be a game or the planned back-to-back. But now it's a "Asplund PKs for Rieder's spot" and "Mitts has better vision and is starting to gel with Lazar/Sheahen for Skinner's spot. So if Skinner has to wait for Cozens or Okposo to get a night off in order to get back into the lineup, it's going to be awhile. And... if Thompson gets back on the ice before Skinner, then GM Sheevyn might as well just assign Skinner to the taxi squad and then Rochester and be done with it (at least in the AHL he might get ice time and re-find his scoring).

Borgen had a beautiful of this twice in his most recent game... then later in the game he was clearing easily. The one I always grumble at myself is when a PKer gets the puck, the PPers are in a change and back defensively, and the PKer just whips it to the opposition defense. Instead, skate a circle at center ice, pass back to your own D... then go for your change while they make a pass and launch it down ice. Maintain possession, maybe go for a long pass to the other forward for a short-handed goal attempt... and if the pass is missed it's not an icing. But at least burn 5-10 more seconds off the clock. Instead it's right to their D and they're making the pass to their forwards coming off the bench. There's nothing wrong with carrying/holding the puck when you're on the kill.

Never my mind on where I was, what I was doing... always my mind on the macroschedule of the season. The next 2 weeks make or break the season, so hopefully the top six gets going tonight. In two weeks we start our season series against Pittsburgh, but before then we've got 3 vs. PHI, 3 vs. NYI (whom we trail 0-3 on the season), 1 vs. NYR, and 1 vs. NJD tonight. We have to win 2-of-3 in regulation vs. PHI and 2-of-3 in regulation vs NYI at a minimum. 6-2 or 5-2-1 in the next eight games is critical to save the season. If we lose ground to PHI and NYI here, then the season will be over before getting to Pittsburgh... because then we'd need to essentially sweep the BOS and PIT season series to get into the top four. For tonight's game... we know Ruff will have the Devils ready to go to avenge their 2-game losing streak. Expect a heavy surge the first 10 minutes. Let's go, Buffalo!

I care.

Yeah... there are very few point-per-game defensemen in the league... this century.

He could be on PP2, but they've barely been on the ice since the COVID re-start. Unfortunately for Montour, Miller has the right-hand cannon and now Bryson is up for competition, as he's been the Amerks PP specialist on the left side since Pilut left.

It wasn't me, but yes -- the mics were horrible on Sabres broadcasts through the end of last season. This year, they've been better (maybe because they can place the mics in better spots because there are no fans). But like yourself, I'm almost always watching the opposition's broadcast these days. It's more coherent. I like Ray and RJ's chirps at each other, but the play-by-play, hockey discussions, and overall presentation is typically much better with the other teams.

I'd rather have Boudreau or Gallant, if they don't already have handshakes in place with Seattle. Boudreau said "sure" he was interested in coaching the expansion team somewhat recently.

It seems odd, given expectations and performance, despite an "easier" Canada division. As to the Sabres hiring, if he's clean and it's not something related to off-ice, then yes, this is a definite coach upgrade. But -- he'd have to quarantine. So --- could we hire, remove RK and let some sort of interim coach hold over until Julien (and his staff) arrive? Not sure of the logistics switching to a Canadian coach in-season this particular season.

Negative! It didn't go in. It just impacted on the post. Edit: Hey... we should turn this into a sequel. More Death Stars! More posts.

Without precise calculations we could bounce too close to a goal post, but here's what I've got: Skinner (0) +3 goals (career 10% on 31 shots); Eichel (2) +3 goals (career 10% on 50 shots); Hall (1) +3 goals (career 10% on 43 shots) Of course, that just means they'd all gotten hat tricks in the same game and we'd have one more in the win column. But if we had 9 more goals overall in any capacity we'd have a +3 goal differential as a team. That almost guarantees a top-half standing in our division (Bos +15, NYI +1, PHI 0, everyone else is minus). Probably 3 wins or 2 wins and a loser point -- right up by NYI/PHI where we figured we *would* be in the standings before the season started.

I believe in many forms of The Concept Of, the light side and the dark side of the Moulson/Ehrhoff, but I'm unfamiliar with these hockey gods. Who are they? What are their functions, names, and relationships?

Thanks... uh.... GMDR, GMTM, GMJBott, GM Sheevyn. Anyone else?