Marvin

There is a lot to like about this rebuild -- not stripping the roster bare and having a roster of 20 actual NHL players (albeit with most about 1 line/pairing higher than they should be) are two things I prefer over the last one. However, IMHO, goaltending should be a much higher priority -- even though the analytics deities will smite me with my mathematics degrees. IMHO, learning you can trust the guy at the back is as much a part of player development as anything else because you are more likely to stay disciplined within the system and not try to overplay your position in a given situation.

welcome back!

That is 5 too many for the TV show title. And Utica does not fill Amerks' fans lives with love.

That is a terrible joke. And a very painful memory.

This is a spectacularly well-titled thread.

welcome back.

Mike Bales is fine. He is trying to make a silk purse out of the sow's ears which the GM gave him.

IMHO, it is more realistic to wish for great ensemble play in the defence rather than hoping for a couple of great players to suck up 25 minutes a night. As an aside, I saw a lot of Niklas Lidstrom's youth when I was at Michigan State. He was a mediocre defencive defencemen for his first few years, particularly when he was paired with Paul Coffey.

IMHO, that's two summers too many.

Welcome back.

We are well past the point of lockdowns. This is just crazy.

Whisky. Tango. Foxtrot.

Sometimes, you need the right players for a coach just as you need the right coach for the players. If you match these up just right, the whole can be much larger than the sum of its parts.

Drat it! I was going to do one of the first two! Macon Whoopees.

Italics: There are people pushing for the age groups to be 6 months rather than a year apart in juniors because of exactly this reason. The idea is to more equalise size at that level to get more useful coaching for the vast majority. Bolded: It is the job of people in jobs like operations research and industrial statistics to quantify that kind of information. Indeed, there are analyses in managerial statistics which try to quantify when one person "lifts" her/his team mates, has business sense, etc. -- my uncle bought me a book on that for last Christmas. (He is pissed off that I am not on a managerial track and don't have an MBA.) There need to be a lot of models tested and vetted before this becomes a standard analysis. I am very curious about how one would quantify hockey sense, grit, and "lifting" one's teammates. Edit -- And in case you think I'm nuts: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-63026-7

Nearly a decade on, this still makes me laugh and cry simultaneously.

The Sabrespede. Very few things make me laugh at professional hockey players because their coach is so incompetent.

I know. WWKB was streaming the betting stuff when the Sabres game started. I used nhl.com on Wednesday because WGR had ESPN on.

Welcome to the board!

Let us face facts: this team is going to have problems on the road. They will get unfavourable defence and line match-ups which will take more out of them as the game goes on. There is not enough talent to overcome that too often.

The Bills overdid it with skill players and chintzed on the lines. If the right teams have the right preparation, then the the Bills will have problems.

Same thing here. I had to log onto NHL.com, get to the part where it links to the audio, and then go there.

I would like to see height, weight, position, ice time, production, and other stats run with a nice multivariate statistical analyses. That would be the grist for a MS thesis, I should think.

As in his first one? 😉

If the O-Line were better, then he would be too. Teams would have to respect the run and JA would have more time to throw. The Bills' offencive and defencive woes start in the trenches. Until those are fixed, they can't compete for a title.