That Aud Smell

I love it. You stop that. Man, I scowl and shake my head disapprovingly at kids in U-12 soccer leagues who wear the 99. SHOW SOME RESPECT, KID. That guy can't think his way out of a brown paper bag. No thanks. It's Jack's team -- for good or for ill. I'm actually quite unsure about what the means for the franchise. But it's time to find out.

I'm glad for England, honestly. And, man - Hendo owes Pickford a new car or something.

Lord help us. Let's pour some out on the curb for small ice and grindin' them b1tches down.

I was watching a World Cup game - before the knockout rounds started - and a commentator was observing, rather wryly, that the two teams pitted against each other wouldn't know how to go about winning the match because both teams predicated their success not on possession, but on skillful counter-attacking. For the life of me, I can't recall who the two teams/countries were. But my sense is that they were both fairly good sides. I realize it's a bit of apples and oranges, but it did provide me with some food for thought on the subject of possession as an end-all-be-all advanced stat.

Also: He wore 9 at BU. I say do it, young man.

I sorta love the idea. A fresh start. I recall him going through a bit of a thing with his number when he arrived. He first requested 11, IIRC. (Ha.) I think he knew 9 was taken, but he had a history with that number too. I think 15 might have been his 4th choice -- he talked about it being a lucky number for his father (maybe his birthday?).

Give it time. What was being stated upthread was that: It's an open secret that ROR went through benders of heavy drinking last season, and there were times when heavy use of the sauce could, by way of inference, be linked to his inexplicably inconsistent play.

They have? Edit: Bartenders and liquor distributors?

Days gone by, I think many players did get away with it. But the professionalization of the league's players on just about every level has made it much, much more difficult to do that -- unless, perhaps, you're getting a bump or boost from another substance to get you through a bad day.

Oooh, man. Now I'm getting fired up. LLLLLEEETTT'S GOOOOOOOOOOO! Interesting - I think that's right, actually. When did Samson get slapped for the missed team meeting? Or was that during Hot Daniel's tenure? "Benders," as in he drinks too much? I inferred as much when he drove his fancy truck into a Timmy Ho's.

I think that's right, Liger. Dahlin's attitude and temperament ("I'm boring," he said) *and*, as others here have said, his elite level of play should all help push Eichel in a good direction. Hamilton did reiterate that point about ROR, but he also acknowledged that Eichel acted like an entitled jackass in his early time with the team and pissed off just about the entire room of veterans in so doing.

Btw, Hamilton was on with Schopp and Bulldog last night and spoke to the issue that Andy Strickland had raised with White -- that Eichel had pissed off several veterans, not just ROR. It starts at the ~31:00 mark of this segment. https://wgr550.radio.com/media/audio-channel/07-02-schopp-bulldog-hour-4 This sounds less controversial to me now. The upshot appears to be that Eichel blew into town as a brash, cocky kid who decidedly did NOT play the role of humble rookie, and that that he pissed off a lot of the veterans as a result. It also sounds like most veterans got over it, as Eichel matured and improved his attitude, but ROR held onto those initial feelings and continued to harbour ill feelings for Eichel. I think Bulldog hits the mark in the course of the conversation: If Eichel is, in fact, the root of the problem, the team is pretty well screwed for the foreseeable future. It doesn't sound like that's the case, though. It sounds like Eichel needs to grow up, and that he's in the process of doing that. I continue to think Dahlin's arrival is going to help that process, somehow.

Everything that I'd heard and read about O'Reilly and the trade convinced me that JBOT was dealing from a significant position of weakness in dealing him. Those recently Tweeted statements serve to confirm that.

This game is nuts.

First of all: Welcome aboard. Second of all: Fantastic avatar. Third of all: O'Reilly became a mopey emo passive aggressive navel gazer who bummed the young fellas the hell out. Botterill (JBOT) knew what he had to do. Fourth of all: Just kidding about the "third of all" above. Sort of. Mostly. It's not entirely clear why JBOT had decided that O'Reilly had to go. But it is clear JBOT had thusly decided.

That is fairly interesting.

For sure.

RO(a)Ring with laughter over here.

He gets his own goal song?

An old friend of mine lives in the STL area now - has for about 10 years. He's transferred his allegiances to the local teams. He was born and raised in upstate NY and grew up a fan of the Islanders. He promised me one thing: Berglund will end up making you insane, as a fan. He said it's a combination of the fact that he'll do good things, disappear for stretches of time, and carry that presently 4-year term on his contract.

I think this is low-key one of the reasons he's been brought in.

There's not an NHL club that operates or plays in a vacuum. So I'll pass on the question. The problem is situational. Adding a young vet that is similar to E. Kane to the Sabres when Eichel is entering his age 30 season (still with the Sabres)? Probably not an issue. Adding a young vet that is E. Kane to the Sabres when the core is young and still finding its way? That was apparently a very real issue. It's unremarkable, really. Or are you finding fault with the fact that Eichel at age 19 wasn't magically transformed into the second coming of a grizzled Mark Messier?

What a weird take. Do you think Kane's influence in the Buffalo room is apt to be the same as it is in the SJ room? Eichel -v- Jumbo? C'mon. Yep.