Pimlach

My complaint - The cost of living. I just did my 2022-23 Punch Family financial review. Looked closely at where the dollars went in 22, compared it 2021, projected the budget for 2023. Now bear in mind I am looking at it from a recently retired guy point of view. Everything - Food, utilities, services, insurance, travel, entertainment, and especially healthcare and drugs - all had significant cost increases. Savings accounts all had significant decreases. I don't have to worry much about kids, clothes, schools, and all that stuff it takes to raise a family, I did that already. I feel for the younger folks raising a family should these trends of the past few years continue. I sure hope we can get the economy on a better track soon.

Given the emotional side of it, the impact to the community, and hopefully a loud and electric crowd, this could be a classic game. I am excited. My wife just told me to get out of the house and go to the driving range. So, I will take her advice and head out at noon.

TNT will get on the board too!

As of now we are 3 points behind with one game in hand. Win to tonight, cut it to 1 point and make a statement. I see Detroit being an intense division rival for a long time. Both teams are up and coming.

That's right he is still 18. Playing in the AHL is proving to be a big advantage for him. He is adding the physical NA game to his impressive skills and shot. He looks like he has a physically strong frame to build on too. Too bad we cannot put Savoie in the A as well. One of these two could be our 3C next year. (?)

Must win. Detroit is a team we must pass in the standings. Will they be ready or rusty? Will there be fans? I think the Sabres come up big tonight.

Even though they are all about the same age, Kulich looks like a man against boys.

Sometimes it come down to means ($), and other times it comes down to priorities. Some people with limited means are still prepared for emergencies like this. They are just wired to be. (and vice versa)

Bummer. Two games cancelled when on a winning streak. Oh well, you play them as they come and control what you can.

Stay safe everyone in WNY. I have three brothers and a father there. My wife has two sisters. We are seeing the pictures and news. Looks similar to 1977 to me. It looks like it warms up by the end of the week and then it rains.

Jerry Sullivan training?

1. Maybe, but lots of hockey left. 2. TNT will pass 50. Dahlin will score 20, Skinner 32, Tuch 28, Cozens 20. 3. The rookies will get going again. 4 The defense will get healthy, no trades to help us until the deadline when we get a D prospect. 5. No one but Power will be most improved from start to finish 6. no 7. KA waits to deadline. Trades Mitts for a D prospect. 8. goaltending will be average. 9. Good season but no playoff , the conference is stacked.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Your best post ever. My Dad turns 90 in 2023. His 6 kids and 16 grandkids are throwing a BIG party. The only unfortunate thing is my mom, all of Dad’s siblings and cousins, and most of his many friends are gone. But it still will be quite a special event.

and for those listening on the radio he needs to tell us where the puck is. He is very bad at this aspect and i can't follow the game on the radio. The lines and circles on the ice help, he should use them.

When you possess the puck you are not hitting. What is their possession fancy stat say?

It’s still snow. Blow 12 inches of snow in my driveway and I have 12” to shovel.

^. Hasenpfeffer incorporated. Rasmus was never dumb. Just bewildered by the genius that is Ralph Krueger.

That’s why I said look at all the data and then get out to see for yourself and talk to people. I seriously doubt that Adam’s bases decisions on players solely on analytics. He watches, he talks to his staff, he talks to coaches, he talks to scouts, he talks to people involved in the league. The best leaders have the ability to effectively use information from multiple sources.

Great player? Granato must be missing that.

This sounds too normal to actually happen.

I learned to spell his name right, Clague, not Clagge. Is he good? Well, the eye test says he is holding his own. He is averaging over 16 mins a game so DG is trusting him. He is +2, even with the bigger workload (yes, small sample size). I think our defense grades like this: 1. Dahlin 2. Samuelsson 3. Power 4. Joker 5. Boosh 6. probably Bryson but he carries a team worst -15 (I place him here by looking at minutes to see what DG thinks). 7. Clague (pretty quickly earned minutes and he is the only "plus" guy in the bottom group) 8. Fitz (just got passed by Clague) 9. Pilut (he had a good game against LV but the least trusted by DG in terms of minutes played) Just add a solid veteran RHD to spot 3/4 and move Joker to the 5/6 pair with Boosh and we get so much better.

Back when I managed X00 million dollar projects, I learned not to rely on any one metric. I looked at a lot of data, some was more effective in early stages, some mid stream in the project, and some when we were closer to completed. Sometimes you have to blend data from multiple sources. Sometimes you have to walk around and ask a bunch of people WTF is really going on? Bottom line is don't use one single metric, look at everything.

Sam developed into a very good hockey player with the Sabres. I recall that DG liked him too and i have no doubt he would be playing good hockey for Granato. A problem that Sam has with Sabres fans is that he was not the dynamic player that you think you should get in his draft position as 2OA. The top scoring forwards in his draft class are Draisaitl, Pastrnak, and Point (in 100+ less games). Sam is solidly in the next tier with Larkin, Nylander and Ehlers in scoring. Sam was very good but unfortunately, he was never going to stay here given the poor way the club was run in his tenure here.

You point out his worst year in Carolina when the entire team was down and losing, and he was still 2nd on his team in goals that year. You just can't argue about his offensive production - he averages 29 goals for every 82 games played, not bad. Take out the RK games and he is a 30+ goal scorer every season. Yes, he is streaky, like a lot of goal scorers. If he gets cold, you won't fix him by putting him on the 4th line and playing him 8 minutes a game either like idiot Ralph did. He is not what I call a complete 200-foot player, but he has greatly improved his total game under Granato by quite a bit. Absolutely, RK prevented Jeff from scoring. I can say that with confidence. The stats say it too. It is a fact you won't score if you don't play. Jeff couldn't or wouldn't, play the RK system. You know the system that had Dahlin holding back and allowing the opponent to get back and wait for us. RK just about ruined several talented players on this team for the sake of his "trying not to lose" soccer system. I do not long for RK, his long meandering talks about nothing, and his soccer system set to ice. I won't defend anything about him as an NHL hockey coach either.