That Aud Smell

That's not pedantic at all. I appreciate the feedback from everyone. I've been with two people who got KTFO by a punch or blow to the jaw area. Both made immediate recoveries and showed no concussion symptoms after the fact. Of course, that was the late 80s and early 90s. But isn't there some sort of sinus/artery sudden impact issue where you can get KO'd (or made woozy) without there being a concussion type impact to the brain? Absolutely. It's happened in hockey as well, I believe.

There is so much going on with this team that #10's play could be missed or glossed over. But him being a legit top-4 guy - which he most definitely looks to be - is a fantastic development. And he's cost-controlled next year as well, I believe.

Yeah - this is almost certainly true. And for someone who was as put-together, powerful, poised (didn't intend the run on P's, but there it is), and, I'll say it, attractive ("pretty" would have been too much there), I think it could be very, very difficult, damn near soul-crushingly impossible, to make public appearances, let alone lead a semi-public life, in a significantly diminished state. Effing Ugh.

Not sure it was said upthread - and I do know it was said on Twitter: That Sabres team looked like the gotdam Harlem Globetrotters out there for most of the night. Shades of 2006 and skating around the Flyers as though they were traffic cones.

The Cozens incident looked more like a blow to the jaw. Those can knock you out for sure, as boxers well know. I’m not sure they’re concussive though.

Btw - firing the safeties coach seems like such a random sacrificial lamb move. The unit under-performed, I guess? No surprise given that Hyde was out for the year, basically, and Poyer played most of the year super banged up.

My sense is that you're mostly talking past each other. For my part, my experience with and connection to the Bills underwent a seismic shift when I resolved - really resolved - that my fandom, and all it entails, was not predicated on them winning a Super Bowl. I think there are many (most?) fellow fans that would hear or read that and be like "dude - wtf? why bother then?" or, quite likely, say, type, or think things harsher than that ("that's fookin' loser talk!"). The New England playoff game last season helped me see my way forward. It was in my head amidst the bedlam and euphoria and near-zero temperatures: "This is it. This. Is. It. This is everything I need." And I later concluded that, to insist otherwise (to myself), was to needlessly buy into a false paradigm ("Super Bowl or bust!"). I just got off that train of thought. I still want them to win a Super Bowl. Very much so. But, once we completed the 20-minute walk from our seats to the car this past Sunday, I was pretty much done with complaining. We didn't play the post-game show (obvi). And by the time we passed the exit for the 400, headed east (north) on 90, we were howling over jokes about all the people who were henceforth banned from attending Bills games (started with the anthem singer, moved on to Kyle Brandt (?), and went on from there (and showed no mercy - lol)). The Bills will or will not win a Super Bowl in my lifetime. And I will essentially have no influence on whether or not that happens (save perhaps for being a loud fan at home games (that's not nothing, but it almost is)). How I choose to carry forward with those truths and uncertainties is entirely up to me. Go, Bills!

Let’s go, Buffalo!!

maybe. or maybe they see him as someone who can still be intimidated. both quinn and peterka will get through this phase of their career - of that i am sure.

Ha - what? It is such a crapshoot.

Funny you should mention that. There was a moment in the 2nd when the teams were scrumming because Dahlin had done something to aggravate the Blues (and the refs, clearly (they hate Dahlin)). And Peterka skated towards the scrum. And someone from the Blues - not sure who, but he had the look of a thick NHL veteran - just stuck a glove into Peterka's mid-section as Peterka arrived and sent him backwards onto the ice. It was kind of amusing.

Amen. I basically missed the first half of the game, saw a lot of the second period on TV, and then caught the rest on the radio. Probably the most compelling play I saw was Joki disrupting a would-be breakaway (player got no shot off) and then stooping to block the same player's effort to play the puck from behind the net and out into the crease area. Two excellent plays on D by #10.

I say this without anything other than the most vague sense of things (... actually that probably goes without saying): The assessment above reminds me a bit of a goalie like Grant Fuhr. He was of course regarded as a clutch goalie, but, again as I recall, when you looked at his numbers, they looked pretty leaky -- even by the standards of the time, I think. I'm not sure what that means. But the idea of the Sabres being a team that regularly scores enough to cover up soft goals surrendered by their clutch goalie who then makes key saves to secure high-scoring wins is ... something.

Even girls?!

He sounds … satisfied?

LET’S GO, BUFFALO!!

Wait. Seriously?

Good observations. That Krebs kid is really coming on of late.

i think "bum" is too harsh, but, by my eye test, he definitely seemed to be on the ice for an inordinate number of dangerous scoring chances. sure enough, when i looked at the natural stat trick advanced summary, they logged him as 9 high-danger chances against (even-strength) and 3 HDC for (even strength) when he was on the ice. oof. the advanced stats also confirm what i'd seen about the cozens line -- that was a rough, rough night. not sure against whom they were skating, but they got sh1t pumped. and none of them got more than 9 minutes at ES.

You may think it's candy, but ...

how do i fade that.

The disconnect on this one is just galling. Elam is a baller. It's obvious that he's good and can maybe be really good. But he was a bad fit for Frazier's scheme at the time he was drafted. And I'm not sure that he'll ever learn to be a good fit for it. Shades of Ronald Darby, maybe.

I won't own all of the statements above (some are over-simplified and/or embellished), but I'll stand by my concerns on those topics as I've expressed them. I think they did remarkably well to finish with the record they did. But they seem to me to be trending downward. And I think that trend started with the second half of the Green Bay game (Halloween). The fact that they won as many games as they did is largely an expression of what an absolute freak show JA17 is. (Quick example: Remember that game-saving throw to Diggs against Detroit? Crazy town.) I'm not sure what Las Vegas will say about their Wins over-under next season, but, if it's 10+, I'd be tempted to take the under.

Recall that McDermott essentially hired Beane. They are a package deal. If one goes, the other must go as well. At least, IMO. This was a great post. I agreed with everything there. This take above, especially. We were walking out of the stadium last night, asking: What's this team's offensive identity? What is it? And what you said above is the sum total of it: "Josh, go do something awesome." The team's OC needs to have multiple plays in the bag that will manufacture easy yards. IT seemed like nothing was easy this season - at least in close games or against good teams. When you have a mutant at QB, it should be fairly easy to get those easy yards because the opposing D has to respect him so much. Fun guy. Fun personality. But, when they ran that play for him yesterday, my son muttered: "He's ... it's like he's not even fast." He should not be in the plans next season.

Let's go, Buffalo!