pi2000

That brings back some memories.... my Dad used to say "hey, a hockey game broke out"... anytime there was a fight in any other sport we were watching.

Poor guy,... had to endure all that suffering. Hopefully the $27mil helped him deal with his depression.

Monday Feb 18th. Mark your calendars.

Intermediate sticks have a thinner shaft than senior sticks.... and junior sticks are toothpicks. However, I've encountered 60-65 flex senior sticks (with a regular senior width shaft). The only time my boys ever used a junior stick was when they were mites or younger... put intermediate sticks in their hands in squirts, because yeah, they're noodles.

A fight is the only play where ALL fans in attendance rise out of their seats.... not just fans of whichever team scored. The game is turning into a skills contest... which some people like. Don't get me wrong, I like watching skill plays... but I also want to see some emotion, some real hatred between the benches. When Buffalo went down 4-2, if this was 10 years ago... you can bet there would've been a fight within a few minutes of that 4th goal... just to try and energize the Sabre bench and get some momentum back. That simply doesn't happen anymore and we see teams simply throw in the towel when things aren't going their way.... and as a fan it's disappointing.

William Karlsson scored 43g last season and got a one year $5.25m deal, largely because his shooting % was outrageously high at 23.4% AND he was a RFA. He's on pace for about 30g this season, shooting at 17%. Skinner is on pace for 64g this season and is shooting 23.4%... same % as Karlsson last season. For that reason, I suspect they won't offer him anything over $7.5m. $7.25m would be my guess since it's obvious he really enjoys playing in Buffalo.

Guhle doesn't look as good now that the overall talent level on defense is improved. A few years ago he looked great... comparatively. I think he'll be a career AHL depth guy... unless he suddenly blossoms in his mid-late 20s.

same

Generally you'll lose flex when you shorten the stick. If he had a 102 and took an inch off, then it's more like a 110 flex. That number represents the amount of weight (in lbs) required to flex the stick 1 inch.... they test this by tying weights to a string and hanging it from the stick (at the flex point), however these tests show that flexes are not consistent across brands and even individual sticks. Some sticks have lower flex points where cutting the knob down won't have as much impact on flex as it would for a stick with a mid flex point. With a whippier flex you can keep your hands closer together... with a stiffer flex you need to change hand position to get more leverage. The trend is definitely moving toward whippier sticks.. personally, back in the early-mid 90's I used a very short stick, went from Louisville TPS's (Lafontaine) to Easton aluminum my last two years of college. Flex was somewhere in the low 90's, 92 iirc? One isn't neccessiraly any better than the other... it's just a matter of personal preference but switching around does require adjustments to hand-position, timing, passing, etc... just whatever you get comfortable with and success with will stick.

Eliminate conferences and go with 5 divisions. Re-name the divisions to honor the greats.... Orr, Howe, Gretzky, Lemieux, Pi2000. 4 teams per division make the playoffs.

If you want a 5 game first round, then you need to seed 1-16, or 1-8. A 5 game BUF/TOR series matching two of the top 3 teams in the conference just isn't enough games.

They miss Pilut.

He's a riot on instagram.

developed into something else something. else. something. else. I figured it out... and it makes perfect sense.

They're on pace to make the playoffs, well over the pace in fact... with Mitts as 2C. If it ain't broke...

In hindsight, if STL knew they were going to be a bottom 10 team, there is no way in hell they include a 1st round pick.... let alone make a deal for ROR who was supposed to take them to the next level. Little did they know that next level was the basement.

No. In fact. I have a special kind of, hate, for it.

First shift I saw him play I immediately thought of Josh Gorges. Hell to the no. Do NOT trade any D depth... you need D depth and they finally have it... let's not ***** it up. You can never have enough NHL ready D-men on your roster. The only wise move at this time is patience. I wouldn't even add at the deadline if it means trading picks or prospects. Like JBOT said, they're not 1 or 2 players away from a Cup run. They need to continue to build through the draft and develop their young players.

The fact that STL is sucking a bag of ***** helps a lot. What was expected to be a late 1st rnd pick in 2019, is now looking like a potential Lafreniere lottery pick in 2020. That pick and Thompson probably would've got it done.

Interesting... sucks about the spiral fracture. I've seen a few of those and it's not pretty, trying to get the skate off, etc... I grew up playing in the 80's and 90's. Skates were not nearly as stiff as they are today, specifically the tongues. When I was young I'd lace them up all the way tight, then put a few rolls of tape around the top. As I grew and got stronger I stopped with the tape, but never considered skipping the top eyelet like I do now... otherwise you can't bend forward and get your weight on your toes. Some serious skate re-design is in order IMO.... you should be able lace all the way to give rotational support, but you need the forward flex.

I think you can find guys who play the same type of game but can contribute more offensively. Those spots need an upgrade IMO, and they'll have the money to do that.

They'll have around $27m in cap space next season as Larsson, Girgensons, and Beaulieu are also coming off the books... McCabe will be an RFA and probably gets around $2.5-3m. Skinner gets $8m, Beaulieu $2.5m or so... leaving them with $14m to spend on filling a handful roster spots depending if they fill those with guys in already under contract in Roch, or FAs.

While it's nice to have his cap hit off the books, it would've been preferable for him to actually live up to the deal and contribute to this team for the next couple seasons. Frankly, this is a disappointing outcome, and the Sabres are worse off for it.

He didn't body slam Skinner. Yandle dropped his gloves, Skinner realized this and turtled allowing Yandle to throw him down to the ice... he wanted no part of Yandle and he drew the penalty. It wasn't a malicious play by any means. Yes, Skinner pitchforked him... I don't believe his intent was to knock him off his skates... that move is typically used to knock a guy slightly off balance giving you more leverage to win the 50/50 puck.... but, that said, intent doesn't matter, it was still a trip and correctly called as such. Now, if that happened to Eichel and he suffered another ankle injury, then yeah... we probably view it much differently. Speaking of Eichel and ankles, I read an article in The Athletic that details why all the best skaters in the game today don't use the top eyelet when tying their skates. Eichel is one of them and I wonder how much that had to do with his ankle injuries.