Marvin

Good luck, man. You too @jsb and everyone else who is affected.

I am putting at least some of this on the coaching philosophy. I also think some of this is are the long layoffs. First, we have coaching. Remember that Ralph Krueger wants players to play "above the puck"; i.e., be between the puck and their own goal. https://www.radio.com/wgr550/articles/news/its-about-playing-within-our-principles-and-structure He benched Skinner for weeks because his instincts are to play sometimes below the puck. If they are playing entirely above the puck, then you miss out on chances down low. That is often more passive mindset, so I think they are missing out on some chances down low. And this is bad for Skinner in particular because he tends to be more aggressive in the offencive zone, which means he would get caught below the puck on a break-out. Second, we have the long layoffs. After two weeks, this team was not in game shape -- they faded badly as the time went on. Moreover, because they could not even practise, they were often disorganised, unaware, or panicky. The layoffs also exacerbated the problems that they still have little chemistry in the offencive lines and their defence pairings are largely ineffective and unstable. The goaltending sometimes being awful does not help. And then all of these problems on the back end mean that they can't effectively move up ice, can't get possession, have to be extra conservative, and are just playing, to quote Foghorn Leghorn, as sharp as a bowling ball. I am sure there are other things, but these are my big complaints.

I just saw a map from The Weather Channel that indicated that every county in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Arkansas is under a winter storm warning.

Maybe she should explain to the team what the playoffs are like.

No. They have not been Strachan with Messy Balls.

I presume you mean the 14 on the Anti-Defamation League site?

The big joke in Slap Shot is lost on modern audiences, though. I remember everyone in the theatre laughing out loud because Dickie Dunn was so credulous about the ridiculously absurd notion of the team moving to St. Petersburg. Now there is an NHL team near St. Petersburg. I so envy you being able to go to that game. I remember that the fans only started to lose the nervousness at 3-0. We only really started to believe we could win when we made it 5-2.

IMHO, Tyson Strachan was worse than both of them.

Titanic is well-crafted, but with a trite plot and a story which was emotionally dishonest to the females who were so drawn to it, I can safely say that it was far from perfect. My criteria include emotional honesty, strength of characters, strength of plot, unpredictability, and quality of the payoff. After that, I look at the sets, wardrobe, incidental music, and all the production-oriented stuff. For instance, I did say that Casablanca is my favourite film, but it has some glaring problems. (How the hell did the police miss the Letters of Transit? For that matter, Letters of Transit were complete bupkes. Someone with Louis Renault's occasional slips on his loyalties would have been replaced by someone with clearer loyalty to the Vichy government. And Sam needing to say, "Mr. Richard" and "Miss Ilsa" really grates on me.) But everything else about it is just stupendous with one of the best payoffs in the history of American film. Conversely, everyone I know who is experienced in film making, even as an amateur, puts Citizen Kane head-and-shoulders above everything else; many deride people like me who point out its flaws as "stressing the unimportant". I get it, to some extent -- film-making can clearly be divided into pre-CK and post-CK pretty readily. But a glaring plot hole is still a glaring plot hole. Also, movies eventually become dated. Let me put it in hockey terms. At the time, in 1976, it was more important for many fans that the Buffalo Sabres beat the Soviets than it was to win the Stanley Cup. I don't care what other people think. For me, even when the Sabres win the Stanley Cup, this was more important. Only Paul Henderson's goal in Game 8 of the Summit Series carried more weight. How could I say that? Let me put you into the mindset of the Cold War and the American Psyche. Italics indicate the subconscious baggage we were carrying at the time. NYC required a bailout from the Feds just before the Soviets came. The strongest teams in the league so far had only managed 1 tie and, frankly, most had been embarrassed by the Soviet teams. The Soviet hockey people claimed that our top teams weren't of the same class as their top teams and the NHL didn't have a good rejoinder. Nixon was a crook and Ford pardoned him -- and he had THREE assassination attempts against him. We were afraid if the refs called the games fairly, the Flyers were going to spend the entire game shorthanded. Besides, Tretiak could steal the game all by himself. Stagflation was horrible for the country. The worry on the NHL on NBC broadcast with Tim Ryan, Ted Lindsay, and Brian MacFarlane was palpable in the pre-game. The Soviets were making hay internationally, particularly in the UN, that our bailing out of South Vietnam, Bobby Fischer's antics, and the NHL's failures proved that capitalists were weak mentally. Damn it, it was the Bicentennial. Freedom matters. Kill the Commies. Even non-hockey fans across the US and Canada were desperate -- the Sabres were potentially the last chance for a win by the West. All of Western Civilisation might ride on this game. There was that much pressure on the team. They had to win. Watch the game again. Look how sloppy the Sabres were trying too hard on a lot of shifts. Listen to the nervousness of the fans before the Sabres broke through in the first period. Listen to the positive energy, relief, and triumphalism at the end of the game. If you weren't alive at the time, you just won't get it. My belief is very dated. Several talk show hosts across the nation have made fun of me for saying exactly that on the air. I don't care -- it really was that important. The National newscasts in both the US and Canada said so. Hockey Night in Canada said so. President Ford said so. Movies are the same way.

How about Doug Janik or Nathan Paetsch?

I am a "Never Trump" Conservative -- I voted Libertarian in 2016 (I live in NYS, so my vote is irrelevant) and Biden in 2020. The judges were never worth it to me -- particularly now after the damage to our country. I view the tax cuts as a very bad idea during economic expansion -- that's when you raise rates and cut spending to lower the National Debt. (I am a fiscal conservative -- running up a deficit now is forgivable because of our dire economic straits.) I view those who stormed the Capitol as terrorists. I think that impeaching then-President Trump absolutely essential. I view convicting him as necessary. We are hearing of several Senators who voted for acquittal because of threats to themselves, their family, and friends. That's terrorism winning. "Any coup which goes unpunished is merely a dry run."

I put in Hoop Dreams, Five Fingers, Network, and You Don't Mess with the Zohan. Documentaries are fair game.

I remember it being on channel 7's "Movies for a Sunday Afternoon." My sister and I blurted out after the childhood scene ended, "it's the sled." There is great direction, production, characterisation, and such in the movie -- but when the answer to the motivating plot point is immediately obvious to an 8 year old and his 7 year old sister, I figure that qualifies it as over-rated. Addendum: the point of the sled is symbolic -- it was the last time Kane was really himself. It symbolises his loss of identity and explains why he had no empathy and that all his achievements rang hollow in the end.

The "3rd" uniforms have been fabulous. Returning to royal blue. Recolouring KBC like the Aud was so good that, when they renovate the place, I would love to see a variety of colours. On, the ice? Sheesh. Help!

There are so many. Casablanca is my #1. I am a huge fan of Kurosawa, Hitchcock, the Coen Brothers, and Mel Brooks, among others. I am a huge SF fan, so be skeptical of my recommendation of Star Trek II, IV, and VI. I love Kung Pow: Enter the Fist, but its silliness is not for everyone. I also have a heavy bias towards comedies with strong plots (e.g., Slap Shot), Cold War stuff (so John Le Carre), and anything that makes me look at things differently and sympathetically. Let me give you a few that you might not know as well: Network (when this came out, it was considered ridiculously over-the-top; now it looks like a ****ing documentary) One, Two, Three The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance Five Fingers Hoop Dreams Safety Last Das Boot Battleship Potemkin Metropolis The List of Adrian Messenger The Picture of Dorian Gray Nosferatu Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown Operation: Petticoat (1959) Ice Station Zebra How to Murder Your Wife Gattaca You Don't Mess with the Zohan (and remember: this is a biopic) Seems Like Old Times Bamboozled The Most Dangerous Game Stalag 17 Run Silent, Run Deep The Enemy Below The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3 (1974) All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) Papillion 12 Angry Men (1957) Brazil The Prisoner of Zenda (1937 is best; 1952 one is solid)

The next night, the Sabres were playing in Montreal. I remember the Habs fans giving the Sabres a minutes-long standing ovation before the game. My strongest memory was the Habs' fading great Yvan Cornoyer giving a bear hug to Jim Schoenfeld and Jerry Korab early in the broadcast. The Sabres were one of the top 5 teams in the league from 1974-8, 1979-81. The problem was they would run into one of the other top-5 teams in round 2 while the top 3 got free passes into round 3. The other years, they varied from solid to very good: 7th in 1978-9, 6th in 1981-82, 11th in 1982-3 (lost in game 7 of quarter-finals), 4th in 1983-4, 9th in 1984-5, and even 14th missing the playoffs with at .500 record in 1985-6. They should have been better in the playoffs, but still, Sabres games were consistently a positive experience from 1970-2001. For the more recent high point, I point to Briere from Fitzpatrick and Derek Roy at 4:22 of OT in Game 6 against Carolina. There was still room on The Believers' Bandwagon. You need to see this with Rick announcing: Edit: Vanek at 1:16 of OT. Back when Pegula's purchase carried the team to the playoffs.

I saw a schedule online. Is it true that the Sabres are playing Monday night?

To be fair, under Housley, once teams had figured out that they could cave-in 2 of the other lines, the only time he, Eichel, and Reinhart could get scoring was when they followed the LOG line and then they were the only line the other team actually had to defend against, so you saw his numbers fall gradually over the year. This was hardly unexpected. (I will not rehash how negligent I thought GMJB was here.) Having said that, he needs to be better, but the bottom of the line-up is not a good place.

Mike Boland. There's a name I haven't thought about for a long, long time.

This is a good point. Does anyone know is there is a follow-up to a positive test to verify it? One of the simplest tests had a high false-positive rate.

With so many players out and the schedule being compressed, I think now is the time to panic.

Thanks for that reminder, PA. I very definitely remember this being rumored for years.

The number was revised to 10 by the CDC a month or so ago.

Yup. The young guys are going to get more games. I expect Staal and Okposo to get a lot of "maintenance" days. The one upside is that guys will learn more quickly what the other guys are doing out there and may play better as a group. I give them no excuses. Let's make the playoffs, dang it!

For me, the "Thank you, Sabres" game from 1973 is up there. Defeating the Soviets in 1976 and 1980 are up there. For those who didn't live through the Cold War, you can't understand how important winning those games were. Hiring Scotty Bowman was a big deal. The 1975, 1980, 1983, 1993, 1997-1999, 2001, and 2006-7 playoffs were awesome. I have a lot of high points, but those are some of mine.