French Collection

I’m home alone with the dog all day, she doesn’t care about my problems.

Really good player. He’s been in two of the smaller markets without having any real success. How much has his attitude contributed to the lack of success? His agent must be telling him that he should plan on staying a little longer in his next landing spot. This will hinder future contracts/earnings when he gets to UFA status.

They probably have a shelf full of participation trophies.

There will be a mad rush to meet him if he shows up. I find it hard to believe 148, he turns 19 this year and he has been playing with men all year so you would think he’s been working out.

List of the top UFAs with a short write up about them. https://apple.news/A5RnUZ5OPTCy_KlaGSCIGzw

I just had a quick look at the Sabres’ expansion twin’s record. Even with 12 brutal seasons, the Sabres have a better overall won/lost record than the Canucks. 1879 wins vs 1727. The Sabres have made the playoffs in 29 seasons vs 28 for the Canucks. They have us on Cup Final appearances 3-2. ‘82, ‘94, ‘11. I feel some empathy for them. I have always been indifferent about them in the past. The Sabres should contend again before they do.

I don’t want my players blocking every shot possible in the regular season. There is too much risk for injury with that mindset. I think they need to gauge the situation and act accordingly. It’s not really a switch you can turn off and on but more along the lines of the 80% effort of the regular season. 1 or 2 goal lead in the third period, maybe block the shot. A win in October is as important as March. Safely in the playoffs with two games to play, maybe let the goalie take it.

We just recently cut cable. My hockey fix will be Sportsnet Now for $20 month. Supposed to get every game.

I would hope so unless you’re sitting at #1 with a guy like Bedard available.

Production wise, he has been decent in the playoffs. I just can’t stand his game, holding the puck and circling around the perimeter while the Leafblowers fawn over his amazing skill. He treats the corners like the puck was a cobra.

Didn’t know that, Bogo like durability.

I saw Nylander go into a corner once. He is the reincarnation of Inge Hammarstrom.

I have now tabulated results for 32 mock drafts. The majority of them are from known sources and some are from obscure sources who have been putting these lists out for a while. I am just trying to get a broader spectrum than say Corey Pronman and Bob McKenzie. Some of them have 32 players while a few go 100+ players deep. I am more concerned with the first round and then potential first rounders so players I track need to be on half of the lists to date (16/32). I have around 49 players on my list so that gives me a decent feel for the range of the Sabres potential first three picks. Anyway, I check out this app occasionally, which does a similar thing. https://piyer97.shinyapps.io/NHLDraft2023/ Most of the players are very close to my data but there are a few discrepancies. The largest ones are: App. My data E.Sale 13.4 17.2 B.Yager 13.5. 18.1 R.Leonard 13.6 8.2 D.Reinbacher 16.1 10.9 G.Perreault 21.1 15.7 T.Willander 30.7 20.5 K.Halttunen 33.5 40.6 We obviously use a lot of similar lists but these few stand out. I’ll see what happens when a few more come out and others like McKenzie and Bukala update theirs.

Leafs core 4 is the reincarnation of Bob Baun.

He falls a lot during battles but he engages and wins a lot of them with shiftiness and deception. Once he gets stronger he will physically hold his own and win the majority of battles.

Listened to a segment of Kyper and Bourne. I used to dislike Kypreos when he first joined the media, he struggled with vocabulary and seemed like a loudmouth trying to find an audience. He is way more polished now and has some thought provoking depth to some of his conversations. He is in the Toronto market and is not afraid to criticize the Leafs as well. He was talking about the character of Vegas and how they have cultivated it in their short time. He said you can bring outsiders into a strong group and get more from all of them. I immediately thought of Eichel. He said the Leafs have the wrong approach because their core has a certain mindset and then management brings in character guys at the deadline year after year (Spezza, Giordano, O’Reilly etc..) who are great guys but can’t change the culture in that short of a period and are unable to make a large impact because of that. Bourne said the same thing bout Winnipeg, there is something off about the culture in their room. Kyper said it takes character to find character. I like the fact that KA is cultivating a culture with the Sabres that the players love. I think this is a big part of sustainable success. This seems to be taking forever but there is progress and future looks brighter. I’ll again point out that some great young players signing long term for less than the maximum amount is great for the team in multiple ways. More money for others, more talent can be acquired and more of a team mindset than 20 peons looking at a high priced superstar as the saviour.

The rain and cool weather have kept the forest fires in check. That weather has provided perfect breeding conditions for mosquitoes.

You are right about the physical toll on Florida. They came out hard vs Boston and actually set the tone, physically in that series. Maurice said that the majority of their injuries were sustained in that series. Hitting hurts both the hitter and the recipient. Vegas doesn’t back away from any physical contact but they didn’t go round chasing people. They seemed to have that marathon vs sprint mindset to pace themselves and last through the war of attrition. Their cup winning veterans were key elements in keeping their heads in the game and looking at the big picture.

The three long time core guys have probably opposed going anywhere else to win one last Cup. They figure they are lifers in Pittsburgh and can stay and keep winning there. Reality bites sometimes.

And Dahlin’s buddy. Maybe he takes another developmental bump this year and we see what his ceiling is.

Dubas said he was going to be GM for a while. I think he hires 3-4 AGMs and promotes one down the road. He’s just as big as Shanny now, he wants to keep the power for himself as long as possible.

Benson is super talented but fits into the Rosen, Savoie, Östlund and Kisakov group, size wise. I would probably take him but then at least one D at 39 & 45. Could trade some of those little guys for 4D types later.

I just watched the Jackie Redmond interview with Kessel. “I hope I don’t throw up”. He is still a kid at heart, wanting to party hard.

I don’t see him as top four. He stays back and is very physical but has lost a step. He’s also 33, risky for anything beyond 2 years.

That one is on the media, trying to stir something up. I’m sure not all of the sports media at the time were in favour of the surgery he chose.