That Aud Smell

I don't think that style of call will ever be found in modern hockey PBP people. Rick was a master of course - and Ted Darling did it nicely as well - because they cut their teeth doing radio calls. IMO, Dunleavy's okay. And frankly, I'm okay with that so long as the hockey team improves. As posted here multiple times, I still can't stand his inexplicable aversion to announcing that someone has scored. The making of a goal does not call for the continuation of a narrative. It calls for an exclamation. An ***** one. Edited: The filter struck the word ej.aculated. I meant it in its secondary (?) meaning. As in: "'He SCORES!' ej.aculated the announcer."

I’m sure it’s about more than just the goalie — but, yeah.

Speaking of hustle - I saw Mittelstadt deny a breakaway to Gudreau (so many likely spelling errors here) by hauling ass back into the neutral zone.

Yeah - I now appreciate the nuance involved here. Not all ACL repairs are created equal, obviously (except it was not obvious to me initially).

Meanwhile, the Leafs have the 4th best GA in the league.

This is encouraging.

I love it. That said: Was this the case of another shite goalie benefiting the Sabres? The Dahlin goal was sorta soft.

Me neither. I just heard ACL tear repair. That’s usually a year or so.

Based on my experience as a sports fan: No. For what that's worth. Rapaport/Schefter each have detailed Tweets out there describing how and why it took this long to discover it. They went in to realign something in the knee that was out of wack (something about a part being in the wrong "channel") and, in so doing, saw (*saw*) that the ACL was sufficiently torn to require repair (and I believe they repaired it on the spot (?)). What also hurts: Miller being shelved until early 2024 makes his contract a problem. And then who knows how effective he'll be when he returns. This is a second tear of the same ACL.

Ooof. Without Miller's presence off the edge, I have a hard time seeing the Bills winning the Super Bowl. Sucks.

No game is a given W in the NFL. That's just a fact. That said: The Bills have tougher sledding generally over the remainder of the season' schedule than the Chiefs do. I'm not sure how Cinci's schedule is looking. Then again, my sense is that every team is playing more divisional games over the next 5 weeks or whatever. Divisional games are always unpredictable. This weekend is a big test. The Jets D is nasty.

Let's go, Buffalo! On the day after his feast day, the power of St. Rick compels you!

Interesting. I remember hearing Granato talk some time ago about how his principal focus with the team has been to get them to learn how to create good scoring chances in the best league in the world. And he made some remarks about how *difficult* it is to do that - both to teach it and to learn it and to do it.

I like this Twitter account. These are thought-provoking Tweets. And I think they may be correct as well.

When Reinhart was in the Sabres org, I recall a story about how he lit it up in the WHL in the year preceding his draft and then took a step back in the year after the Sabres drafted him. I recall the report stating that the Sabres had essentially planned for/caused this to happen because they asked Reinhart to return to juniors but focus on certain things (weight gain? strengthening?) that would help him as a prospect but not help him in the short-term of his final season in juniors. Any chance that's what's going on with Savoie? Because otherwise - woof.

The line is terrific, but this is also true. The shortie he scored against DET sticks out in my mind. It was a great play but also a pretty soft goal (that goalie was *leaky* (Samuelsson's first ever NHL goal against the same guy was a howler)).

He was bad. But it was cool that he paid an homage to Ryan Miller's WTF wave. Between Dell and the Detroit goalie (whose name is an alphabet soup), the Sabres have recently seen some goaltending that will help the shooting %.

I don’t think so. In fact, I think the Bills got it back after that call and had their 9-minute killer TD drive. This is more just a discussion on whether what Poyer did should be ruled a catch. The more we debate it, the more I can see the logic (?) of differentiating between what happens on the field and what happens off it. But as soon as I see it, my opinion snaps back to believing that was a catch.

Oof. My mistake. I was stuck in the “ball (came loose and) hit the ground” line of debate. I just don’t get the logic of how that’s an INT if he stays in bounds but not if he’s out of bounds. I’ve watched it - understand the rule and the distinction it makes - and concluded that that’s a catch and that the rule is dumb.

But it didn’t.

After the stress associated with the last several games -- shoot, going all the way back to the 2nd half of the Green Bay game! -- it was so nice to have a game where the Bills essentially coasted to victory. You are far from the only person. I think the general consensus is that it's a terrible rule and should be changed.

Bills placed Miller on 4-game IR. We can't even trust the players to break their own injury news! Miller said a couple days ago that he'd be back for the Jets game. GO BILLS!

Hear, hear. Me no likey. GO BILLS!

Why the hell not. Let's go, Buffalo!