That Aud Smell

As much as I enjoyed the final stretch of this season, I don’t put stock in the idea that this team will inevitably pick up where it left off when October rolls around. This will be a long offseason. The personnel will change slightly - making chemistry different in September. And all of their opponents will have much to play for when the 22-23 season begins. The Sabres will have to find their way anew - and the experience of the latter portion of 21-22 will help, but it won’t guarantee anything. Some consistently solid goaltending should guarantee improvement though. 🤞

Had a hectic pandemic-disrupted day yesterday. Wound up watching parts of the game where the Sabres looked mostly discombobulated. Then, as fate had it, I listened to the last 7 minutes of the 3rd and OT in my vehicle as I waited to pick up a kid from work. The symmetry for me, personally, was quite moving. I wasn’t under the covers of my childhood bed listening to an RJ call from Vancouver or L.A. I was a middle-aged dad waiting on the end of his kid’s closing shift that was running long (because of COVID (absence of a co-worker)). She got to the vehicle as the post-game started: “Sorry, we ran late.” No need to apologize, kid. In fact: Thank you. I was just sitting here thinking: It’s been a hell of a ride.

Heard three pundits on podcasts in the past 72 hour stating that this draft is watered down — not a lot of top-end talent. Not as much as there usually is. FWIW.

Lllleeetttt'sssss GO, Buffalo!

Eichel is fading into Bolivia.

The hell is going on with the Stars D??

I’ve missed chunks due to a wonky connection, but Eichel’s looked dangerous, creative.

Where's that cool ass chart that looks like a boss sledding hill -- the X axis is draft position, and the Y axis is number of NHL games played, or a likelihood of having a successful NHL career -- something like that. It is a precipitous and steady decline as you move away from the top of the draft. But gather, ye, yer lottery tickets while ye may.

I want to be a person who would not delight in seeing Eichel struggle and suffer as a hockey player. I am not yet that person. A big ol' eyes to the sky moment followed by a stick smash would be glorious.

what the hell is going on in las vegas, man. what does the coach gain here by not taking the high road? "obviously, we wish robin the best in his recovery, and we have to be ready to carry on without him, tonight and hopefully into the post season."

The guy logged on to Twitter for the first time with an avatar where he's pictured wearing a shirt that a Buffalo shirt company made that says "BRETT HULL IS A CHEATER" (with a graphic of a crease, skate, and puck). He's alright by me.

Pass it on.

I will never navigate there willingly. I loved the site during its original iterations. Once the VC ghouls came in and hollowed it out as a profit center, I logged off.

Good post. A thought that's been kicking around in my head over the past couple of weeks: Las Vegas -- and, by the way, it's effing LAS Vegas, they don't get to jettison-by-branding the Spanish article that's part of their city's name -- is a franchise located in a town that's founded on the glitzy, glimmering shine of fool's gold, the vain hopes of get-rich-quick wanderers, and entertainment nightly performed by the permanently famous. Until recently, I looked at the pre-game theatrics of the Las Vegas Knights and envied them (maybe I still do, a bit). More recently, though, I see that stuff as being of a piece with a franchise that may be unduly influenced by an urge to entertain with the biggest, splashiest show that can be assembled. Trading for Eichel seems emblematic of that. That big casino on the strip might not be the only mirage in town.

Wait … what? I’m having a senior moment.

Sit on it, Potsie. We all indulged your maudlin nursing-home-handshake-ring story.

I appreciate this. It speaks to something so important - something different than what I am trying to articulate. I’m in a very particular headspace of late. Nothing unique. Many others (especially the famous mystics) have inhabited it and described it far better. It’s just being present to the present. Life is today, life is now — “this is not a drill.” Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans (or as you’re looking forward to things to come, as you’re hoping for things in the future (in this connection: playoffs, a Cup run)). When my son and I went to the wildcard game against the Patriots, and our STH-heavy section in the 300s ended up just laughing at how badly the Bills were humiliating the vaunted enemy, I just wanted to grab every nearby fan by the shoulders and entreat them: THIS IS IT. This is what we want. This is all we need. This is amazing. This doesn’t have to be the big game in 4 weeks time. That game will be a very different experience when the Bills are next in it. We are all here now. Our hearts could not be more full. That would be impossible. This is it. There’s nothing more that we need to hope for, *right now*, at least - in this moment. And I love this Sabres team.

edit: nicely turned. my feelings and thoughts aren’t well processed on the subject. but there’s a limit, obviously.

This is difficult for me to articulate, and I don’t think it will be a popular sentiment, but my feeling is that these games matter as much as any others. Partly because they’re being played now - and now is all that’s promised. But largely because of how this team is playing.

I agree with this thread title so much. Thanks for posting @matter2003 The Sabre fans in my office were reminiscing the other day about what things were like in Buffalo when the team was good - the Hasek years, sure (although that felt more precarious to me), but more so the 2005-2007 teams. When you're in a town that sees a real winter and has 4 seasons, there's something uniquely intoxicating about your hockey team making a playoff run in the spring. Such a perfect combination. (And at the risk of a heresy: Playoff football cannot compare in that regard.) Anyway. I've been thinking so much lately about how much I'm going to miss this team. I do believe that the organ-eye-zay-shun has turned a corner, that they are on a good path, and that next season should be one where they're in the mix. But I'm also cognizant that this season is this season. Now is now. There are no guarantees that the team will "be" the same way next season. And I mean, sh1t -- they might be better next season. Hopefully they will be. I think there's a good chance they will be. But there's been something so enjoyable about this team - the way it evolved, came together, grew. I hate to see them go. Let's go, Buffalo!

I think the ice might be awful.

And that is exactly how I imagined he’d get his first — by being instinctively up in the play.

Skinner making like Lafontaine on the May Day goal.

Yeah - he should definitely be part of the team going forward. (I know that’s been a debate at times.(

Get it back to start the 3rd. Goals 1 and 2 were some LOL material.