DarthEbriate

Funny, I went with Tsyplakov... but that was 20 years ago. A lot can happen in 20 years.

The best part was that we won the game. My memory of this was I listened to it via online radio live and was floored by it. The call was RJ at his peak -- the call and then he backed off and let the roar of the arena tell the story. That was what I remember - the crowd roar just didn't die down over the radio. Now, they were cheering for the continued fracas as well, but it was the sustain. So! A couple hours later when I went out for beers with friends (mind you, west coast so it was probably 10-11 PM) and I directed friends to watch the bar's TV as sportscenter highlights were coming on... the bar in Seattle let out a collective "oooofff" when they saw it. That hit was visceral to innocent bystanders who had no interest or connection to the teams or even the game.

Definitely (as they will for us), if either team is selling at the TDL next season. But just as an example, if Carolina ends up exposing Skjei at 5.2 and we expose Risto at 5.4, and Seattle's analytics department likes Skjei plus the extra couple years ... then they pick Skjei and from us they the much cheaper Miller as a 6/7. We get to keep our muscle and all 3 of the kids. This is where the fun begins.

If Seattle follows Vegas' lead they'll have no fear of overstocking on defensemen. Vegas drafted/acquired a whole boatload of them and while some guys must've been upset they started out in the AHL, Vegas was eventually able to move them (cough cough, Miller for a 2nd and 5th) while our JBott moved our glut of D for a 4th (Scandella), a nothing (Bogosian), and a disgruntlement (Pilut). Gotta have faith in your GM. If I'm Seattle and my options or Bjork or Borgen, I'm taking Borgen. However, this article does give fodder to the "expose Risto" and protect Borgen. You know Seattle has other, better $4M- and $5M-defenseman options to play in the top 4 than Ristolainen (all around) and that Seattle loves analytics. You might have put the poison in your own glass counting on your great strength to save you. So Seattle can clearly not choose the D in front of you!

Quality, consistent goaltending. (And a coach who isn't opposed to attempting to score 5 on 5 or play to the strengths of the roster. You know: anyone but RaKru) We see it year-in, year-out... a hot goalie for a couple months and you're in the playoffs (let alone that the hot goalie inspires all sorts of team confidence). A hot goalie during the playoffs and you're another round further. Some of them had great teams around them, but there's also a reason that Hasek, Brodeur, and Roy were always in the playoffs (I'll even throw in Belfour because he's also a HOFer). And that reason was that they were always consistently better than their goalie peers. Get a healthy HOF-caliber goalie for 10 years and you're always in the conversation.

I hate sand.

It worked the last time... In exile... you must go.

I'll pencil him into the Amerks lineup for next season. Execute Order 37.

Malakili whimpering

Wombats fly now.

Reino and Risto are in tricky positions this offseason. You can get more from a trade if you give the new team a season to make their decision (Skinner). If Reino is going to go, or if the team knows they're going to let him walk --- this draft is the time to move him, rather than just get a prospect and a late 1st at the trade deadline. These are the decisions that I don't envy GM Sheevyn. Because Sam is a really solid player and can be the 2nd line Sharp on a Cup-contending team, no problem. And once he gets a taste of the playoffs, I think Reinhart has another level of his game to unlock.

Reinhart's pressers will be fine. He was giving standard answers to standard questions and then Hamilton did the standard Hamilton-ism where he answers his own question to serve the story he's already decided he was going to write and states it in a manner that it had been a lack of effort. But if Hamilton had watched Saturday's game he'd have seen that after a sluggish/messy first, the Sabres hounded the Pens and had them reeling. Saturday was not a lack of "moving your feet". And Sunday was a continuation of the play style and tempo that we've been seeing for nearly 60 minutes/game for the past couple weeks now. A better question for the sound bites and the average person who missed watching the game live could have been --- Hey Sam, great game! Beauitful goals. On Saturday the NBC broadcast really went on how the 1-2-2 semi-passive Penguins defense really clogged up a lot of your rushes. Today, you seemed to have a lot more plays off the rush --- what adjustments did the team make today? Did the Penguins do anything differently?" That will get Reino's analyzing hockey IQ going. Give him the seed. And if the answer is "we were more willing to dump and chase on occasion" then Hamilton can write that to his intended "move your feet" storyline. Just don't provide your own answer to the question before you finish asking it.

It appears she's a RNFA. I'll see myself out.

Gotta agree with @Taro T on this one. The savings aren't worth it this offseason. Eakin can be 13th forward next year or sent down, whatever. Miller has a role as third-pairing D and his salary is tolerable. But I'd rather send Miller + 3rd to Seattle to move his salary that way (and keep the young D united). We shouldn't need the money this year. Even with the late resurgence, our RFAs not named Reinhart (Dahlin, Jokiharju, Mittelstadt) aren't going to break the bank. TBL was able to sign Cernak, Cirelli, and Sergachev all for fairly low prices last year because of the flat cap and I bet we can do similar on our key youngsters this summer. Everyone young knows to take a lower bridge, and then get ready for the cap bonanza in a few years when the new TV contracts, Seattle cash revenue influx, and vaccinated global populations crank the cap up.

It goes back to practice. At this level, you are the effort you put in and what you choose to practice. Since Granato took over, they've practiced hard and they've practiced at tempo. And it was pointed out that they didn't practice the PP for a little bit with Granato because 5 on 5 needed so much work. In the last week, it's been apparent they've gotten the PP practice time back as well. Once the RaKruStink dissipated, and we stopped blowing the late leads... well... the April splits are beautiful to behold. https://www.espn.com/nhl/team/stats/_/name/buf/split/48 Now, can we keep it up against Boston while they fight for their playoffs lives? That's the next step.

A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one. Congrats to Toker and Pastorius!

It's our Boston playoff series week (and another 2-spot the following weekend). Let's play like it. Up the intensity, up the ante. This team doesn't need Dalton Smith. It needs to keep doing what it's been doing. Tage got beatdown by Miller, but he stuck his nose in there anyway. It needs Caggiula to show his speed and all-out-attack. It needs Casey and Victor and Bjork to keep being relentless on the forecheck. It needs Miller, Samuelsson, and Risto to keep laying hits on anyone at hand. And most importantly, it needs our team to band together when the time comes. That means if someone runs Dahlin (and he, Bryson, and Joker will have huge targets on them to get our puck-movers off their games) we address it immediately. If that means Dahlin gets up and starts wailing for the first time in his life, so be it. Or Reinhart jumping in as he used to do when Eichel would get blindsided. They'll try to bully us and get us to check out (which under RaKru we would have). Don't check out, don't back down. They wanna go, we don't care. The Bruins want to risk suspensions and injuries and put a damper on their playoffs? We don't care. We're going to spoil their playoffs this week and next. That's our goal. They're going to miss the playoffs and then Hall's #1 fortune is going to run out on them. It's time for the Bruins to end.

That was one of the most obvious and awful things about the RaKru team -- and all of last year, too. When another team pushed back, or turned it on for 5 minutes, or got a goal to tie the game... we had no response. We'd fold. Ullmark could sometimes save us, but we didn't as a team simply shrug off the problem and battle through it. That is another heartening thing about Sunday's game (these past few weeks, actually). We give up the shutout. Whoops. And now, immediately afterward, Pitt gets a power play. Under RaKru -- we're giving up a PP goal and ahead only 3-2 and lapsing back into full on Death Star mode and waiting for them to tie it. Instead, it was an easy kill, and we arguably carried play the rest of the way until 20 seconds to go.

Samuelsson stayed paired with Ristolainen until the very end. Nice.

Regulation, but yes. It's still a joke what we've been since Ruff.

Since 2/19... Twenty Twelve??? Are you kidding?

Fiddlesticks. Though if there's any Pens player that has impressed me this weekend it's been one Theodore Blueger.

Great shot kid, that was one in... a... well, of four.

Skinner with the somewhat-easier-than-normal-given-his-skating-prowess fall draws a penalty. Now let's bury this thing and go home.

Now, how do we respond to a little adversity? I like this... we need this challenge.