DarthEbriate

@GASabresIUFAN It's so good to see you (nearly) fully functional again! Arttu expresses his relief also. Keep up the rest and mending. We'll need you on the 'Space ice for this season.

Very much so! Think back to us trading for Evander Kane while he was injured, and therefore not a threat to help us win games down the stretch in our quest for McDavid. But he'd be there for McDavid or Eichel the following season. It'll be especially amplified in a shortened season where one "good" stretch by the players could take a team whose front office is actively tanking and propel them down the draft order.

This is getting out of hand. Now there are two of them (who have documented their travel back to Buffalo)!

My pairings aren't so much Risto-hate as who is on the left side. RaKru skated McCabe-Risto together quite a bit last year, so I kept them together. Then, if Montour is on the left, it became a question of who do I play more? Dahlin, then Montour, then McCabe. With Dahlin and Miller trending toward offensive zone draws and McCabe more in the d-zone. I think the 3 pairings I listed are the most balanced, but could as easily see Dahlin-Joker, Montour-Risto and then McCabe-Miller is a much less-used 3rd pair than the top pairs.

Doubly so! I look forward to round 4. Thanks, @Zamboni! I'm of two minds on this round. The positive: Hey, Cal Petersen still has a good shot to be a regular NHL-level goalie, whether starter or backup, and make a career of it. So --- we hit on one pick (not the development/retention, but the pick). I don't know if we'd have had to protect him in the Vegas expansion, but an Ullmark/Petersen tandem last year would've been nice. The negative is across an entire decade --- almost nothing! We had one player (the first, 2008's Lagace) even make a minor impact in the minor leagues. None of the others even made a contribution in Rochester. They're all longshots, sure, but looking through the list: Griffith, O'Regan, Varone all are top-6 AHL-caliber players. Tokarski will be a fine AHL player for Rochester this season. That's what I'd expect to see in this round over 10 years: an AHL veteran-type player here or there. It's not like we had the talent to hold them off the Pirates/Amerks roster. That's Bantha fodder-level drafting.

On defense, next season (once again) hinges on Risto. Whatever the 20-21 season looks like, it'll be Risto's 8th in the league. He hasn't made exponential improvements in his own zone or in his overall game . He's still an offensive-minded defenseman who occasionally agitates and elevates himself against top-flight players, although his elevation doesn't really change their stats against us. (Meaning Ovechkin, which others folks have crunched all the numbers.) Because of the financial situations league-wide, I don't think Risto gets moved via trade. So -- Risto was much better this past season vs. previous years. He went down to just 22 minutes/game and finished a -2 instead of his typical negative double digits. He wandered less in the D zone. He looked OK. But again, he's 8 years in. He's no longer a young defenseman given up on too soon. He's now a minimum $4.5M/year player on his next COVID-impacted contract as a 2nd pair and 2nd PP unit guy who remains a liability in his own zone. He's not the reliable top-pair 2-way D we wanted him to become when drafted. So this is the conundrum: Does this shortened season lead us to protect and extend Risto or not? If not... then protect Dahlin and Joker and... I guess Borgen. And if Seattle wants UFAs in Montour or McCabe, so be it. But I wager no UFA is signing for a ton of cash next year. Otherwise, Seattle can take Miller or Ristolainen for a single season if they want to take the salary. Our D this season will benefit greatly from Hall and Staal. It's a solid set of NHL-caliber D guys that will look just fine with the improved forwards and middle-of-the-pack goaltending. But overall Risto's skills are duplicated by Miller (they're 2/3 pairing, 2nd PP guys who plays physical but aren't capable of shutting the opposition down). I see 2020 (whatever it is): Dahlin - Joker | Montour - Miller | McCabe - Ristolainen (Irwin, Borgen). And then 2021-22: Dahlin - Joker | Montour - either Miller/Risto | TBD - Borgen

Arttu! Where are you? At the top of the Liiga leaderboard. Ruotsalainen's pace is is an outlier for scoring in Liiga. Over the past 5 seasons, the scoring leader has been right at 1 pt/game. This season, a handful of players are playing above that, but too far over it. And then there's R2 up over 1.4 pts/game. For an entire Liiga season that'd pace to 85 points, which would shock the typical 55-60 points that are sufficient to be in the scoring title race. That said --- R2 has 9 PPG to double the closest contender, so he's no 5 on 5 dynamo. That said, said, his 3 SHG also are key considerations for making a Sabres squad in the bottom 6.

RIP original Vader: Mr. Prowse. Who by all accounts was a problematic gabber as he spoiled the whole "father" twist while promoting the film. Also --- my submission for best of the 80s is Purple Rain. Kick off with Let's Go Crazy and then the rest of Side A goes through the gambit/range of Prince in pop, big soapy ballad, random, and dirty sexy fun. Then, Side B is a tour-de-force of When Doves Cry - I Would Die 4 U - Baby I'm a Star - Purple Rain. And of course --- The Empire Strikes Back soundtrack ranks highly as well.

Would this be the best of the worst-selling albums of the 1980s? Or just an overall best album by decade?

That's cheap for Sergachev. 4.8 is a great deal for Tampa. Without covid, I'd have bet on Sergachev at nearly 6 if not over. ... and.... Dahlin will make more. But given the economic state this year and next, maybe that keeps Dahlin under $6M/year. It shouldn't in normal times. But it could. Maybe something like $5.75 x 4. That would be pretty sweet.

I'm picturing a Red Dawn letter jacket. As to Casey's RFA deal, there's no rush until some concrete plans are announced for the season.

Rye is the bread to use when you want to punch a sandwich up or make it unique. Reubens and patty melts are built on good ryes. The beef on weck relies on caraway seeds. Rye isn't overrated. As Bogart once said, "I got a pretty good bottle of rye in my pocket" and... well. Agreed that any ##/multi-grain is overrated. How many "healthy" and "old-world" grains can we fit into this loaf? I don't care. A bread shouldn't crumble when used in a sandwich. The other contender I want to mention because of its current trendiness is sourdough. Because a lot of wannabe home-baker/chef types have are exploring their quarantine time, everyone and their mother is chirping about their "starter" and making their own amazing sourdough. And while sourdough is a delicious bread, it's not the end-all/be-all of bread (no bread is; they all have their place). But people championing in it in the short-term makes it overrated.

It makes for the prettiest lightsaber blade (meaning green).

Saw we had some new duds so I built a pod car racer. It's the fastest ever built. I would have gone with some slick whitewalls, but alas the sweater, so I chose the gray wheels. Some would say the swords would be hazardous on the nosecone, but they're no more dangerous than the lack of guardrails next to the bottomless shafts of most Imperial-constructed workplaces.

Execute Order... 25. Portillo will be at University of Michigan whenever they next play. He was good in the USHL, next step is college. It's likely a couple years before he heads to Rochester.

It is regrettable he didn't learn his lesson and get comeuppance in a more timely manner, but the loss of an NHL signing and UND scholarship will hopefully be a punishment he learns from. It's never too late to learn from your past. And he gets a second chance in the KHL. The cynic in me simply says he's obviously not that good. Otherwise his second chance would have been with UND and the NHL.

Hutton + someone = someone new

That's a nice one-year deal for Edmonton. Kahun would easily push Ennis down the lineup at this point if he switches to the other wing. And it's nice for Kahun as he's an injury from skating alongside McDavid or Draisaitl. That's a pretty good way to bet on yourself and pad some stats.

In addition to a Bond as background noise, I'll have to watch either The Name of the Rose or The Hunt for Red October this weekend. His comedic timing and delivery was also underappreciated, as the entirety of Last Crusade shows. "Son, I'm sorry.... They got us."

It won't be us because Vesey. It won't be Detroit or Ottawa because neither Cirelli nor Sergachev is sufficient to take them out of the top 8 picks. But tons have teams can easily drop 6.5 on Sergachev or Cirelli, and are just afraid to do so. Our RFAs came in under what I expected (I thought Olofsson would be more like Kubalik in the 3.4-3.7 range). So maybe Tampa gets them on super-cheap team-friendly one-year deals (like Cirelli at 3.5 and Sergachev at 3.8... which still puts them over the cap), but just paints all other GMs with their 1-3 picks as cowards for not prying either away at 5/year.

Now serving Order 24. I like the numbers on this deal. He's going to score goals wherever he lines up, and balance PP1 with Eichel.

Offseason plan goal: get a 2C and a top-six F to flesh out the top six. Achieved! (Let's not talk about balancing D handedness or goalies yet.) Instead, let's just admire that we have a complete top six for the first time in a decade. I went back to look at all of the previous top two lines on (more-or-less) opening night each year. I also noted where we had a rookie (strictly <82 GP and Calder-eligible). Two things of note: 1) we've had really poor top sixes since we last made the playoffs, and 2) we are always adding rookies, so Cozens, get ready to skate! But Hall-Eichel-Reinhart / Skinner-Staal-Olofsson or any combination thereof looks might nice compared to the following: 2010-11 (10/8/10) Ruff Our last playoff roster. Vanek - Roy - Stafford Ennis [R] - Connolly - Pominville 2011-12 (10/7/11) Helsinki/Berlin - Ruff Adam had played 19 NHL games the season before, and had a hot start between Vanek and Pominville Vanek – Adam [R] - Pominville Gerbe - Roy - Stafford 2012-13 (1/20/13) - Ruff 48 game season. Note that Leino was out and likely takes Foligno's spot if healthy. Vanek - Hodgson - Pominville Foligno [R] - Ennis - Stafford 2013-14 10/2/2013 - Rolston Vanek - Hodgson - Stafford Ott - Ennis - Leino 2014-15 (10/9/2014) - Nolan Foligno/Hodgson eventually made up the 2nd line once Reino went down, including Foligno at center as Hodgson's health was further compromised Moulson - Ennis - Stafford Hodgson – Reinhart [R] - Gionta 2015-16 (10/8/2015) - Bylsma Technically, Reino only had 9 games of experience, so he’s Calder-eligible this year, too. Rookie up! Moulson - O’Reilly - Ennis Kane – Eichel [R] – Reinhart [R] 2016-17 (11/29/2016) - Bylsma (I cheated and delayed to get past Eichel’s injury. Note that opening night had Ennis on 1LW and Larry as 2C. Sadly, Ennis was hurt just before Jack returned, so we didn't see a top 6 with he and Eichel in the lineup until later that season.) Carrier [R] - R.O'Reilly - Okposo (pre-ICU) Kane - Eichel - Reinhart 2017-18 (10/5/17) - Housley Kane - Eichel - Pominville Pouliot - O’Reilly - Okposo (post-ICU) 2018-19 (10/4/18) - Housley Added an optional #2, based on ice-time it was the vets: Sobotka, Berglund, Okposo Skinner - Eichel - Reinhart Sheary - Berglund - Thompson [R] OR Sobotka - Mittelstadt [R] - Okposo 2019-20 (10/3/19) - Krueger If memory serves, Vesey played a period or so with Skinner and MoJo? Olofsson [R] - Eichel - Reinhart Skinner - Johansson - Sobotka/Vesey

Ah, this takes me back to my Lego Space compatriots! Do they all have to wear the black visors? Ala Blacktron series 1. Or can they go with a neon-green visor and fully embrace Blacktron series 2? Edit: Also, Pegulas... two words: "Neon Goatheads" followed by three more words of which one is a contraction of two words: "Don't do it."

Yeah, I'm just throwing in the names of various tweeners who could be protected or not depending on how the year plays out, and who have RFA or multiyear deals remaining. If Mitts bombs in the AHL or Tage blows out his shoulder again -- we might not need to protect them. Similarly, if Cozens and Eakin form some amazing chemistry and you want to keep that rocking next year as Cozens plays center more and more in increased minutes, maybe Eakin is protected. As to Borgen, it all depends on if we move a RHD or if there's a lengthy injury. I'm still penciling in Montour on the left and Borgen as my first call-up on the right side until Krueger shows otherwise.

Unless Girgensons has a statistical anomaly of a season akin to his 15-15-30 sophomore season, there's no way we're protecting him. And, given what he provides, unless we give Seattle a sweetener to take him, there's no reason they take him in the expansion draft when they could take whoever of Tage, Mitts, Eakin, or Borgen, whomever we decide of that group to not protect.