JoeSchmoe

Here's an update on Thompson's projected points for this season. This is a historic regression. He has mere glimpses of looking interested since the season started. Put him on in ice for the season if he's hurt. Bench him if he's not.

Up here in Canada, you can't find trades... Contractors are naming their prices. I dropped $800 in labour to a gas tech last summer for 3 hours. The only other guy that came out quoted the job at 8 hours, 2 guys, and over 3 times that.

My son is 16. I'd like for him to get into a trade and use the money I'd use for college to get him set up to work for himself. Unfortunately, the stigma of trades vs white collar has him wanting to go to university.

The frustration with Power is he plays like he wants to be a Makar / Hughes style defenseman but he doesn't have the skill set. He does however have the god given gift of size- which if he CHOOSES to use it, could make him the #1 OA we drafted him to be. The problem is, as easy as it may seem to be able to flip a switch and be a 6'5" 220lb body moving D-man, he instead ends up hugging JT Miller's leg in one of the most disgraceful fight any Sabres has ever had.

Man, I love being wrong about players. As one of his biggest detractors, I wanted Adams to waive UPL. Total wrong call. Rosen is my other pet peeve player in this org. Hated the pick given his only claim to fame was a hot U18 championship. He's been better than what I predicted, but not by much. Here's hoping I can wear the egg on my face for him too.

Fully agree with the bold in last paragraph. Can't agree with the rest. Both of these guys got paid oodles of $$$ to underperform on their contracts and / or expectations. They are direct contributors to this drought. I don't know these guys personally and what they do once they're gone means little to me. In fact, I'd be happier if they go somewhere else and help their new team suck.

21yo Power has 27 hits in his 2nd full year 51 games in. 20yo Power, had 27 in his full rookie season. For context, 18yo Dahlin had 97 hits in his rookie year.

The only evidence in favour of OP being an eventual Norris candidate is his draft position. I know this is going to hurt the feelings of the usual suspects, but he's just as close to Eric Johnson trajectory than Norris candidate. I've said before that I don't agree with Rivet on a lot of things, but his negative comments towards Power's game are spot on. Off the top of my head I can't remember a Dman on this team with a worse size:grit ratio.

I've been noticing a nice decline of an unnamed know-it-all poster as of late. The team sucks, but Sabrespace is firing!

Prove it

I'm open to burning the first year of an entry level deal, because it gives the player less time to prove their worth for their 2nd contract. Theoretically, you should be able to lock them up for less as their stats and body of work would be more team friendly. The problem is, OP's performance in his first full season didn't warrant the contract he got. IMO, nothing he did last year projected out at much more than $8.5M per, even if he improved year to year. If he was tougher... maybe. The 1st OA is what we payed for, even though it was a weak draft year.

Moneypuck has a completely different ranking. While it shows Johnson gives up more shots, Clifton gives up significantly more high danger shots, leading to more expected goals against. Also, going by minutes played, you'd infer Johnson and Samuelson would be playing PK1 whereas Power and Clifton would be PK2 so strength of opposition would be at play. No idea if this is actually correct.

It doesn't account for it at all... at least according to Moneypuck. Questions like that are where the work and the analysis comes in. That said, I don't see Greenway being our best guy. Again, the analysis could be he always plays against PP1. My eye test pretty much matches the PK stats below though.

I agree whom they play with can be a factor for expected goal %, especially if you don't do much mixing and matching. However, Clifton was similarly bad on Boston last year. Numbers wise he's our worst PK D by a significant margin. And he consistently does not make plays 5 on 5. He can hit though, and maybe that's what you like about him. Personally, I feel like we're closer to a wildcard if Clifton is Mr Press Box, and Ryan Johnson is on our bottom pair.

The PP has been the main problem this year. The rest of the league figured it out halfway through last season, and it doesn't look like it's changed at all since. Maybe a new assistant coach with fresh ideas can help. 5 on 5 they are 110/105 GF/GA which theoretically would be wildcard level.

Note I said transaction, not trade. Clifton is last on the team in relative expected goal %. We'd be far better with him out of the lineup and R Johnson in.

Great... another Bjork or Clifton incoming. I hate deals for guys that actually hurt us, rather than help us and Adams last two transactions with the Bruins have yielded exactly that.

Mine: Games in hand? Don’t talk about - Games in hand!?!? You kidding me? Games in hand? I just hope we can win a game!

Love Cozens effort. Tage racing for that cleared puck on the 5 on 3 was nice to see too. Didn't amount to anything, but A for effort.

The league I used to play in was pretty low level. Most of us were 40-55 and not very good. However we had three girls on our team all around 25yo that played competitively relatively recently and matched up really well. They were better skaters than us, worse shooters. One guy on the team could barely skate but he had a monster shot. The game plan was "Girls- get him the puck!!!!". It worked really well!!! He was always our leading scorer. The bonus was going to the bar after the game. Old guys hanging out with pretty 20-something year olds. Seems like an odd combo, but we kept the team together for three years until COVID took the league down. Long story short- Old guys and younger women make for a fun, well-matched league.

This is the beauty of baseball, because it's on every night. Rarely do I get glued to it for more than a handful of innings, but it's reliable background entertainment.

Sadly, I look forward to the games even when they suck. I just look forward to them less.

William von Barnekow

In Canada we use the "the". In fact, I'm just about to hop on the QEW and will need to get off on the 403.

The Must Win banter in the gameday chat is the #1 most tired "buzzword" in or out of the Sabrespace world.