Cascade Youth

Some days I’m not even sure what to make of reality anymore. https://sinbin.vegas/robin-lehner-files-for-bankruptcy-due-to-ownership-of-exotic-snake-farm/ Golden Knights goaltender Robin Lehner and his wife Donya filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy with the District of Nevada on December 30th, 2022. According to the public filing, Lehner estimates the worth of his assets between $1-10 million while his liability to creditors is between $10-50 million. In the bankruptcy filing documents, Lehner is said to be the owner of RL Exotics LLC, “which operates a reptile farm in Plato, Missouri, which is an operating business with 3 employees, and which requires reptiles to be maintained and fed.” Lehner was first linked to snakes back in 2017 when he reportedly purchased a collection of exotic snakes for $1.2 million.

Love Tuchy - but he’s having a really rough game.

Comrie may be Tokarski-level bad.

This is garbage.

Power is having a rough first period.

Staying healthy is the key.

Depressing lack of urgency.

I am ready to move on from him. He seems weak - both mentally and physically. Just so rarely makes strong individual plays and has yet to take a game over. He doesn’t have it.

Interesting too that Skinner is thriving in THIS kind of environment - I always thought of him as kind of a dumpster-diver scorer who was at his best in a high shot-volume offense. Either he’s adapted or I was wrong (or both). And for that matter - also interesting that VO, supposedly our best pure shooter - is struggling in this type of scenario.

He is “driving play” as they say.

Ten year extensions for everyone.

I am in my 40s and it really feels like the Sabres will suck for the rest of my life.

Team looks flaccid yet again. Zero aggression, passive and disinterested as they watch the game like fans in the stands.

10 year extensions for everyone. The unseen hand of progress.

Most sports teams are owned by family offices. If you’ve ever worked with or for a family office you understand how dysfunctional they are. The Pegulas are nice people who have absolutely no idea what they’re doing. They just extended the entire Sabres regime simply for not embarrassing them to the level of their predecessors. They are clueless. The good news is the odds are stacked in their favor - it’s nearly impossible to be this bad for this long and odds are good that simply staying the course should do it. But man, they are really bad at running a business.

Most likeable Sabres team in about 17 years. EDIT: see ⬇️⬇️⬇️

Couple of points I’ll add (did not see the third bc of streaming issues): Quinn looked way more lively and engaged. He’s a slow starter as we know but maybe the lightbulb is going on. Dahlin has been the best player on the ice most games this season. Why are they so bad at faceoffs? Amazing they had such a big shot advantage with such a big face off disadvantage.

Krebs has no business being on the PP unit and frankly might need more seasoning in Rochester. He is WEAK.

https://theathletic.com/3684711/2022/10/14/nhl-teams-players-contract-trends/?source=user_shared_article

But both teams were playing fast and aggressively. That’s a rivalry we should start getting used to. More than anything I’m just glad that the Sabres continue to play WATCHABLE hockey. They’re not gonna win every night with the way they play and with all of the youth but they’re playing fast, they seem to have a plan on offense at all times (defense not as much, yet), and man do they have energy. I will watch that brand of hockey any day.

Again, from my untrained eye, he seemed to learn to use his elite reach to create spacing for himself, allowing him to shoot more frequently. The position change obviously helped by giving him space-creating opportunities.

Tage also creates his own shots by using his elite length and reach.

Here is a more data-driven (sort of) analysis (paywall): https://theathletic.com/3559089/2022/09/02/nhl-contracts-shooting-percentage-tage-thompson/?source=user_shared_article

He had to torpedo his plea deal in order for Slippin’ Jimmy to defeat Saul.

How does this stuff still happen in 2022?