JoeSchmoe

I think the big one is we got rid of Krueger.

I know this is the popular sentiment, but he was 3rd best forward on the team in 5 on 5 GF% at 55%. Add in us not getting his offense on the PP either, and we're a hurting unit.

I said this at the end of the season, but I'm never buying another Sabres ticket unless they're sitting in a playoff position. In the last two years, I think I paid for 5 games (got some seats given to me as well). Being 23rd in scoring last year and ditching two of our best offensive players (Skinner and Mittelstadt) almost guarantees we don't score enough to make the playoffs next year. Now it looks like we're icing two 4th lines next year, with no 3C in sight. We easily have the pieces to trade for a top 6, but I'm guaranteeing ownership won't pay the extra salary. In that case, I'm not paying either. Hopefully Adams gets additional pieces and makes this all for naught, but I'm 100% boycotting. Anyone else in?

Joe Schmoe verdict... Pro's: Bottom end much stronger Apparently tougher to play against Not resigning Girgensons Not getting a top 6 through a long term FA contract (they rarely live up to their contracts) Bryson deal Con's: Not getting a top 6 through a trade Not getting a top 6 through a short-term possible overpaying contract Losing Skinner who despite not being a great defender, still helped us far more than he hurt us (though he will likely fall off in another year or so)

I want to see @Buffalonill take a charity bet. $50 worth of booze to the homeless shelter.

He was decent last year. Advanced stats wise he was better than many of the regulars, albeit not in prime minutes. If we can get him back on the team in the 7/8 spot at league minimum-ish, that's a win.

Jeff Skinner was 3rd among team F's in GF% at 55%. We are worse without him.

And for fun, here's a shot from last summer on Lake Algonquin. Our family has had many vacations on this lake over the years.

Turns out I needed an app to reduce photo size on my Google Pixel phone. Anyhow, I had a really nice paddle on Henderson Lake. For you downstaters, Henderson is considered "the source" of the Hudson River (though there are smaller streams coming out of the mountains that feed into Henderson). The cell phone pics turned out ok, but it's hard to capture the size of the peaks around you.

Just looking at this thread again, I see my previous post was too wordy. Here's the summary: Malenstvn had the 2ND HIGHEST DEFENSIVE ZONE % starts in the league (next to his linemate). He also had the 2ND LEAST OFFENSIVE ZONE % starts in the league. Regular stats or even entry level advanced stats don't apply to this guy.

I just got back on the grid after camping the last few days. Just saw this pickup and was horrified like everybody else. I saw the post by @bg17. I looked into it and it wasn't quite right, his number of shifts on the fly was not out of line. What WAS out of line was the defensive zone starts. I haven't gone through all 8 pages, but did someone post this? This would HIGHLY skew his expected goal stats. Could the Sabres advanced analytics crew have a correction factor for the standard advanced stats based on the extreme number of defensive zone starts? Edit: I just checked again and he had the 2nd lowest in the league offensive zone starts as well. So 2nd most defense starts, 2nd least offensive starts. I can't say for sure but I think our guys did some homework. Was a 2nd too much? Maybe. Is it a guaranteed bust of a move? I'm thinking it might not be.

I'm on Android

Just arrived in the Adirondacks a couple hours ago for a little Schmoe-time. Fishing, hiking, paddling, and maybe some reading during the rain. It's a travel day today, so I'm camped out by the Sacandaga River a little bit outside of Speculator. I'm hoping to hit Henderson Lake for a paddle tomorrow. Still not sure if I'll stay there for the evening or hit the Long Lake area. After that, I'll do a couple nights on Raquette Lake for some bass fishing. Edit: I'm sure there's a how to somewhere, but if anyone knows how to post pics, can you let me know? The attachment limit sucks.

Did anyone else read this thread title and think he signed with the Sabres?

He was a good 4th liner for us. Girgensons was/is a bad 4th liner for us. I always felt like ZG was propped up by KO, and KO was held back by ZG (and his 4 consecutive years of single-digit assists). At a glance ZG is more skilled, but KO's IQ is a net plus whereas ZG's IQ is near the bottom of the league.

If only the Panthers had more players that know how to win. De fault

This is not correct. They were immediately the Jets.

Screw Florida. Always root for the real hockey market.

I agree Tiger was a jerk in his prime, but watching him do what he did on the course was pretty awesome. If he was in the hunt, you had an excellent chance of seeing something good.

This thread is like a good movie... tons of subplots. Teacher salaries, housing prices, culture wars, ocean temperatures, international conflict, and of course token sex appeal.

If you looked at equivalent education, and then derated it by the extra 2 months or so of vacation time, you could probably land pretty close to a number to what teachers are worth. If you have 5 years post secondary and 20 years experience, what's the median salary across all sectors? Derate that by about ~15% and you have a good number. I'd guess that's in the $100k ballpark.

Am I the only one that thinks losing him will actually hurt us? (In the short term anyways. That contract will definitely bite us in the ass eventually). Say what you want about his defence, but he has the 3rd best 5 on 5 goal % on the team behind only Peterka and Thompson. Combine that with no Mittelstadt next year and I see us in a world of hurt offensively... Especially after how lackluster things were this year.