That Aud Smell

It’s interesting to see Buffalo almost at the middle of the Bad-Dull-Good-Fun quadrants. Trending toward Dull-Good, though, which is nice.

super rough math: the team's raw corsi in and around the 9-game winning streak of the fall of 2018 was ~46.6% - Shot Attempts being 643 for their opponents and 562 for the Sabres (this is actually over an 11-game period of time with the 9-game win streak included). their raw corsi was a bit better than that last night (48.6%). for the year thus far, the team as a whole has a raw corsi % of 49.48%.

btw - was the 9-game streak in 2018?

Hell yes. We'd be talking 41-31-10? (Btw, that's playoff bubble territory.) Good insights. I think an 80+ point team is a good outcome for this squad. A DeLuca .500 team would be a great outcome.

@deluca67 .500?

Checked the raw corsi - it was like 56-54, in the Ducks’ favor. Which isn’t as bad as I’d feared. Go, Sabres!!

I figured this would happen. But keeping effort and pace high should continue to help. And some wrinkles, as you say.

What on earth? Also: Who’s B. Miller?

One thing I want to add - and I don't know if it's been addressed upthread: The fact that this happened with the Blackhawks organization is, I think, largely arbitrary. I venture that this could have, and most likely would have, happened with any other NHL franchise in a similar situation. The temptation in these morality plays is to tut-tut and shake our heads and "for shame, for shame" the Blackhawks. The reality is much, much more complicated, and messy. It's important to reflect on the fact that no one helped this young man. No one. Not the team, not the league, not his own union. The problems and the failings that led to this tragedy are not peculiar to a particular franchise -- they are endemic to our species. Hopefully, less and less endemic as we march on and the arc of the moral universe bends ever towards justice.

It's just such an odd thing to perseverate about, given what's actually at issue. Did TSN embellish their characterization of this player's status a smidge in order to drive attention? Seems that way. Does the exercise of that journalistic license warrant attention in connection with a matter as awful and sad as this? Hard no, from me. This turns what's going on here on its ear. Persisting with semantics in connection with this matter is the weird hill to die on.

Bad things, man.

Let's go, Buffalo! I'm apt to know the score midway through the first, and that'll be it until tomorrow. Minxy Wenches.

Did you see the part of the report where Quenneville was in a meeting regarding the abuse and angrily directed that the matter await the end of the SCF so as not to affect team chemistry? Also, it’s form over substance to get exercised about the media calling this guy a Blackhawk player. The use of “Blackhawk player” is arguably stretching the truth a bit — presumably in order to attract eyeballs and clicks — but it’s not stretching the truth to the point of snapping it or breaking it.

This is so helpful. Sincerely. Thanks, bruv.

This is why I post that stuff here. I need perspective.

@Taro T those look off to me as well. The reply about everyone’s CF being better when playing away from him is troubling.

I thought he was doing okay adjusting to more minutes. #Fancystats say that he's sorta sucked? This reply too:

Yep. This gets tricky at times - especially when a closed door is needed to maintain confidentiality.

That’s it, really. Plausible reasons for isolated/one on one time are also important. We must plan accordingly.

This is a very familiar, and terrible, story. Institutions like the Roman Catholic Church and the Boy Scouts were afflicted with this sort of awfulness on a pervasive basis. But the fact is that every institution that offers abusers an opportunity to exert authority (even if it's only some authority) over and have confidential access to vulnerable people (and "vulnerable" can include young adult pro hockey prospects, junior associates in a firm setting, etc.) is susceptible to having this happen.

he did.

I am a recovered Bills fan. The breaking point was fairly arbitrary. The Bills were good-ish with Fitzmagic, and had a road game against the Bengals in like Week 5 or 6. They laid a stinker. I had a house filled with young kids, and I became borderline nonfunctional, I was so angry. My wife definitely said something - whatever it was, it was nicer than I deserved. But I just had the proverbial thunderbolt moment of -- "What the hell am I doing?" For the most part, since then, I'm in it for the upside. If things go south, I disengage and move on to something else, something useful and productive. Choose your adventure, if you will. It's a damnable myth that you must suffer personal torment in order to enjoy your team's achievements. Stated perhaps more metaphysically: I pick and choose the thoughts and feelings that serve my core values. Those that thusly serve and work for me, I engage with. Those that don't, I try instead to observe from a safe(r) distance.

He was having a rough go of it. I started out with radio, and thought they had someone filling in - didn't even recognize his voice. I do wonder about the long-term future. He's a nice man, and a capable broadcaster. He's just not what I want for the voice of the team. I mean - we're already enduring John "Milquetoast" Murphy for the Bills. Can't we get someone dynamic for the Sabres?