That Aud Smell

Hahaha. Well, I know enough to know that the #fancystats community sorta rolls its eyes at reliance on Corsi or Fenwick, without more.

^ I’ll never understand the hostility. Basic advanced metrics give a fan a sense of whether a successful team is good, fortunate, and maybe in what combination of the two. If it’s not your cup of tea, fine. But chirping those who are interested is pointless. Also, I know Dahlin was largely a mess last night. But, hey, what about this?! https://www.instagram.com/p/BqYpeuWF7Rb/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=bh0cievul9q2

Within that boiled down reduction, I also perceive a large bureaucracy having shown some surprising flexibility in the face of one of its participants being subjected to brutal bigotry.

I knew the team would need some unexpected performances to compete for a playoff spot. I didn’t expect one of those performances to come from McCabe. I wonder how his usage and partnering are affecting his overall play. OTOH: Woooooooooooooo! MCCABE, BABY! But, sample size. Also, the Sabres’ overall metrics in this game were good. C Well, it’s because of more than one good game. But, yes. A weird urge. Any way to isolate what his play’s been like the last few games? Because the eye test says he’s been pretty effing good. Sir! Sir! You do realize that @PASabreFan was essentially vindicated by that thread? Sir! Welcome!! Here we go, Sabres, here we go!! I had the sound low, and was watching in rapt amazement at how gotdamn FAST the team was playing once they got going. Poor Rob. He tries. But it seems he can’t help but show his slip when the game’s moving in a direction with which he’s not personally familiar.

He had more conventional options.

And that play was audacious.

That play wasn’t lazy; it was ambitious.

Echoing what was said upthread: Can’t recall the Sabres looking this good in a long (long) time.

And now 40 bails them out, a bit.

Holy sh1tballs

"Sh1t happens, life's tough, get used to it" has its place when someone is dealing with the arbitrary nature of the universe. A rough diagnosis. A job is lost through a merger. A hot water tank goes right before family's coming to visit. It has no place when the issue at hand arises from active bigotry or affirmative acts borne of hate.

I don't think the fall-out from being made the object of your parents' bigoted rejection is the place to learn lessons about how life is filled with tough choices. I would also dispute the idea that a college athlete's desire to maintain NCAA eligibility, and have a place to live and food to eat, is "having it all." Fortunately, the NCAA saw its way clear to figuring out a way to make this work.

I am well familiar with it - yes. That often holds true in small(er) sample sizes.

I know. I KNOW.

I peeked at our basic advanced metrics. We’re hovering around 20th in the league on Corsi/Fenwick. Our PDO’s pretty high - top 10, iirc. So, we’re a developing team that’s had some good luck of late, yeah? I mean, I’m good with that. I just want to have a fair understanding of who and what the team is.

And the article details the regrettable odyssey with the NCAA and its member institution in some detail. Including: “Yet now the NCAA may force her to choose between accepting that financial help and maintaining her eligibility to participate in the sport she loves.” The article also appears to have been updated. It didn’t have a rosy ending when I first read it. Also, the article, even as updated (maybe just the headline?), concludes as follows: “Whether she will be abandoned in the end by her school and the NCAA remains to be seen.”

The Tweet states: “So far they have told her to choose donations or eligibility.”

Easy, Grace. (I didn’t even hit you with an ambiguous .gif!) I’m legitimately confused. I’d heard and read that the NCAA was initially like “too bad, so sad” about her situation. I inferred that they’d changed course.

What. A. Game.

That pass from Dahlin was *filthy*.

Sometimes a picture’s worth a thousand words, bruh. It sounds to me as though her participation with that cross country team is hugely important. To her. Right now. You quoted what came out very recently. Prior to that, there were weeks and months when they were saying something else.

/spit take. (Um, that’s maybe not quite what I meant.)

These guys are ... good? For sure: I am drunk.

Having the college honour the scholarship would not address one of her most pressing concerns: Her need to be eligible for cross country. It sounds like that team is her principal support network. I won't pretend to know the machinations of NCAA enforcement. I know enough to know that their rules and regs are cumbersome and Byzantine, and those who enforce them often come at issues in the same spirit. There's a creative solution to be had there. I hope they find it.