French Collection

Dog has been walked, wife is gone and I am on my third cup of tea while watching the Open Championship from Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland. This course is amazing, we saw it while travelling this spring. I just love the history of the game and the rawness of links golf.

Another hard to play against guy that they whiff on.

Mule and Rosen for Chinakhov + 2nd.

However, he will never have to buy a round with the other guys knowing his salary, lol.

He is already dreaming of his twin towers manning the blue line. He has Jack and Sam’s tandem bike all shined up.

The same way that every draft pick was way higher on their board and they can’t believe he fell to them. Most teams claim this and there is some truth to it but every first rounder they got being rated 5 picks higher is hard to believe.

Wow, that is better than Bryson’s job.

Power should pass him this season but your point is well made. A healthy Mule (yeah right) could close the gap.

Isn’t the home team responsible for the EBUGs? There shouldn’t be a need to travel. I can see an ex ECHL goalie getting a small salary to attend every home game and have a few perks like practice time, tickets etc…

They should try it, I think it could work.

Dahlin, Benson, Tuch, Zucker, Greenway, Thompson, Krebs, Byram, Kesselring, Doan and Danforth will show up. Kulich can get there. Norris, Timmins and Malenstyn can buy in if the rest are doing their share, they are not lead dogs. Power, Quinn, Bryson and Samuelsson need to be dragged into battle or purged if the Lady Byng is their idea of hardware. They will never be Bennetts but they need to want to win 50/50 battles.

I expect his best season to be the 26/27 season, as he sniffs the big money of pending UFA status. No stats to back this up but 80-90% of career seasons happen there. That will be when they will have to trade him.

There are a lot of ifs involved in this team hitting its ceiling. We all see it and all we can do is hope. They need to come out of blocks strong and get points early when teams are getting their legs and figuring things out. Once mid season hits and teams start grinding for playoff spots the Sabres “softness” will be exposed.

The sphere draft was amazing to watch on TV, I can’t imagine how it was in person.

I play a par 3 course once a week with my Mother who is in her mid 80’s. I feel like a young guy on this course, definitely no scuffles even though most are slow movers. You are right that weekends are busy at most courses. My brother in law, also retired, is my playing partner and we get out whenever we want. His son and son in law want to join us but weekends are their only options so we get the dew sweeper tee times. No scuffles, we are usually first out and setting the pace. The young guys lose balls going all out for distance but we speed them up by allowing the odd foot wedge shots.

True, you never know. A much smaller guy could be MMA trained or a black belt in some discipline.

Tier 2 Jr. A in Canada will suffer, many NCAA bound players used to play in the BCHL, AJHL and OJHL. Guys like Makar would now play WHL instead. Those leagues will turn into feeder leagues for the CHL.

There might have been more than alcohol in his system to have him get up multiple times from being rag dolled. It looked like Benson going after Ryan Reaves type of matchup.

I think with the NCAA as an option there may be fewer teenagers stagnating in the CHL once they have hit their junior ceiling. I believe the CHL teams will become weaker as their top players move on earlier to NCAA or pro. They are a development league but selling tickets with kids like McKenna is more profitable.

I thought it was just my take as a grumpy old man but individual success has become the most important thing in people’s lives. In simple things like cutting in line or aggressive driving people give off the impression that they are more important than me as a reason for their behaviour. Patience seems like a lost virtue. I spent nearly 40 years honing my skills and rising up the ranks. Before I retired I had apprentices thinking they were management material and new employees wondering why they weren’t paid journeyman wage (4 years of experience + competency testing) earlier.

There have not been many changes to this team so I am of the position that most of the lineup will have to perform near the top of their abilities, young guns take a step forward and avoiding a major injury to any of Dahlin, TNT and Tuch in order to make the playoffs. Hope is still KA’s strategy. Goaltending is better, provided UPL can play decently, somewhere between his best and last season. Defense is better with Kesselring and Timmins vs Jokiharju and Clifton. Power should take a step forward to help. Byram still has upside. Scoring is down with the loss of JJP. Doan can get half of his goals. An uptick from Quinn, Benson and Kulich can cover the rest.

Trying to stay positive about him, it can’t get much worse, can it?

Spending 15 years as a hockey Dad, through minor, AAA and junior levels, I believe the toughest position mentally is goalie. The goalie parents were always stressed because an error ends up in our net while my kid throws someone a pizza or gets walked and can be bailed out by a teammate.

He is a good middle 6 C. Capable of moving up or down and even playing wing.

Scottish Open golf has a great field as many of the world’s best get acclimated to the time change and links style courses. Coverage doesn’t start until 11:00 so that is my complaint.