French Collection

He has already passed Rosen and is quite a bit younger and able to play C or W.

Yes, he is ready to retire and will very soon. He would have stayed on longer to boost his pension had he been promoted.

I just watched Benson’s post game interview from Tuesday. “We were menaces out there”. Love the language, it describes him well.

My buddy has been at his job for 30+ years and is given all kinds of special assignments and temporary roles. He cannot get a permanent supervisor position because he is a white male and they are trying to diversify their company. He gets passed over and then is asked to “mentor” the new boss. Some of these new bosses have 2-3 years of experience.

Decent roster for the Dead Wings, it will be a good test for the young Sabres/Amerks.

Two and a half weeks post surgery. Feeling much better and I am able to take 1/2 golf swings. Another two and a half weeks for my follow up with the surgeon before I can play. The season is coming to a close but my reward for this patience is heading out to Cape Breton Island and playing Cabot Cliffs, the #1 rated course in Canada, in mid October. I will be rusty, but don’t care.

Occasionally in the trades there are workers who are a hazard to themselves, coworkers, the public and company assets. Some get moved into office jobs to improve safety, productivity and morale.

Mike Harrington’s video set up looks like iPhone 3 quality.

I am not sure when he comes back but thought that he wasn’t too far off.

Personal coach for Helenius? He could help the kid out.

The Toronto sports media has been wrong about the Leafs for 58 consecutive years, they definitely have it right this time.

Maybe having 4 goalies that are capable of playing NHL hockey adds a layer of accountability. If you aren’t cutting it, you get cut. Training camp and the pre season are not enough to hitch your wagon to one guy but a short leash with possible “good” alternatives helps the team. Negotiating a 4 headed monster with waivers will be a challenge, with Levi being the only exempt guy. The problem with these 4 is there is no history of them being the guy for more than just short stretches. Georgiev had one good year while UPL has had one mostly good year. Lyon has been a career backup with some good runs while Levi has been the man at the lower levels.

I checked out the arena in Kirkcaldy this spring while travelling and golfing in the area. It is quite the old franchise, 1934 or thereabouts.

Goaltending is such a mentally demanding position and UPL seems fragile in that department to me. He seems to need way more confidence building than other players. A good sports psychologist would do him more good than a trainer. I really don’t care which of the 4 NHL goalies takes the net, I just want some competency to give them a chance to win games. Levi is my favourite because of his personality and potential. I also want to see some positive returns from the Reinhart deal.

I got your message, but I hope KA’s 10 year plan includes a few meanies, not every player that wants to be there has to be nice.

He is hard to play against at the junior level, get better kid and show us something in a few years.

I doubt any of this is true but his brother is a Maple Leafs forward.

It would be great if The Beast had a fantastic summer and beat those guys for the net. My leash for UPL is very short now.

Throw in TP cutting costs by getting nearly expired food, produce that is not ripe and skipping a few spices.

They can be core pieces, I guess. Norris is paid like one, his durability will determine his worth. Kesselring is their 4th best Dman so that is on the edge of “core”. I think he will elevate Power’s progress so there is that. If Norris plays 65+ games, that will be better than 82 Cozens games. He was brought in to be a part of the core. Kesselring is a hope to become a part of the core. Winning teams have a core of stars that they roll out (Bobrovsky, Barkov, Reinhart) ( Vasilevskiy, Hedman, Kucherov, Point) but they also have some “core” role players.

Benson’s playmaking could shine this year playing with TNT & Norris, two shooters. His defensive game is already at a great level so this part of his game can take a step forward. Tuch and Greenway will push Geertsen to the fringe, where he should be until the Sabres get bullied. Lindy saying he can play wing or D and be an enforcer means he will be a press box hero until muscle is needed.

No core pieces have been added so this is still KA’s dream of draft and develop guys who want to be in Buffalo. He has run back the same group with some changes around the edges. One more year of experience will get it done this time, in his opinion.

TNT may have been a sounding board because of his knowledge of Kesselring and Doan.

Same here.

Unless it was UPL version 23.24 he was not going to help. I agree that the hope was a bounce back season and it is possible for him to play some good hockey this year and help the team. Maybe this all accelerates the move away from him. A real battle between 4 goalies could have someone emerge as a decent option, which wasn’t the case last year until Reimer played well when it didn’t matter.