That Aud Smell

As did I. And I could not disagree more: The extent to which d-men have become more fluid, mobile, and agile is a huge factor in making it harder to score. It's a message board. That's generally all we do. I think pro athletes -- as a group -- are getting better. There's myriad reasons for that. Fascinating TED talk on the subject:

I saw several Tweets that were aghast at Lehner's technique on the tying goal. 4:00 mark here The consensus seemed to be that if Lehner moves in a way where he remains more upright, he saves that puck. One Tweeted to the effect that Lehner must have thought he was in a beer league impersonating Hasek.

The passage of time has made it clear that the Ravens D that year was not just great, but incredible -- likely one of the best units, if not the best unit, ever. The Broncos did something similar in recent memory, but still needed Peyton Manning to come over and get them over the hump. The rule changes of the last 10-15 years or so have really left no doubt that you need a great (or good capable of getting hot and being great) QB in order to win it all. I'm not sure whether the 2000-2001 Ravens would have won a SB in the current NFL.

Boy, I hope not. He's a nifty player. I posted upthread: He made a pass to Wilson moments before that flub that was spectacular. That mulligan was on Johnson.

Quintessential stuff right here. Fingers crossed that he doesn't regress. I said shut it down. SHUT IT DOWN!

I'm always on the lookout for improvement, even if the season is lost. I didn't see much of the games when they started out that post-ASG home stand and lost 3 (or 4?) in a row, but I recall hearing analysis that they looked pretty decent actually. Last night's game had some score effects (I think I'm using that right - puck luck, basically), a shaky backup goalie, and the continuation of a torrid power play pace. So, it's nice to see. There are factors at play that can't be maintained, though. They still really need a few more, better players. I was at the game, and even in real time, I was thinking by the 3rd that PH was playing the guy way too much.

Hear, hear. Also: Please, HCPH, don’t fall into playing ROR 25 minutes a game (which is what happened last night). Seriously. Nelson especially — if he can keep up his current trajectory, he’s gonna be good. Agreed, agreed. The chirps about how bad the home crowd is can go away forever. Last night, the team showed a real pulse, and the crowd responded in kind. Getting some puck luck against a bad goalie helps, of course.

The Ewing Theory. Also: Score effects and puck luck help.

Amen.

The pass Antipin made before that goal was unreal.

We are on the refs in here — three missed calls before the Bolts got that power play. Also, TB 21 made Sabres 71 look like the AHL player he likely is.

As to the latter, I have not yet watched any of the hockey. But I hope to. For my own part, I greatly enjoy watching top flight women's soccer -- women's basketball, not so much (although I don't watch much basketball of any kind).

I'll be attending tonight - I got a call from an old friend who happened into some very nice tickets and he wanted to make an evening of it. This is a guy who used to drink everyone under the table, back in the day. He's mellowed out considerably since (in fact, the arsehole ran a half marathon in 2017!). But, um, it is Mardi Gras. So we got that going for us.

You hoser. It seems more than fair to say that his posture and stance on the ice are unorthodox. I don't know whether and to what extent that lack of orthodoxy has played a role in his injuries, but two high ankle sprains in two seasons (suffered in not dissimilar situations) are an obvious source of concern.

Please don’t misunderstand: The participants were talking about Eichel in amazement and wonder — but pointing out that he’s a unique animal — that you could never (would never) teach kids to skate that way. Hmmm. I dunno. I think he meant what he said.

I’ve heard it discussed in great detail — someone on the WGR hockey show a couple years ago (Mair?) — how unorthodox Eichel’s skating technique is — that he does multiple things just “wrong.” That may play a role in these awkward falls. But I don’t think it’s laziness.

Not this year, no. But in years past, plenty. The guy had quite a run going, and word got out that the asking price was quite high. I wonder what that market is like now. Far, far cry from the king’s ransom reported a while ago.

JBOTS may have waited too long. Pigs get fed, hogs get slaughtered.

That’s kind. But, man, I so don’t want a repeat of that 80s let-down.

Reminds me of one of my favorite Sabre games of all time. Mid 80s - down to Boston 6-2 at home. Stormed back to win 7-6. Andreychuck, McKenna, Cyr, Housley — all kids, leading the way.

Oooh - a fancy stats analysis of the 1999-2001 era teams. I would love to see it.

Hasek, and Muckler? I think so. Mostly Dom, though. Yeah. Good call on that terrible run -- of course, that was mostly when the team was finishing at the top of the league. Easier to miss there.

I dunno. Super pumped? Speaking only for myself, I was hopeful and optimistic, but skeptical and guarded as well until I saw good outcomes. Incredibly high likelihood that rebuilds don't work? There again, I just don't know if that's true. I'd love to see a deep dive of data on the subject (and, of course, can't create one myself), but I'm not sure what sort of sample size we'd be dealing with. It had occurred to me that, like a lot of situations and scenarios in the world, people tend to cherry pick information to support how they instinctively feel about something. For those who were/are averse to the idea of a manager engineering non-competitive conduct on a pro sports team, there's plenty of examples out there about how those kinds of bottoming out efforts don't work. And for those who support the idea of grabbing as much indisputably elite talent as you can before building your battle-bot (and will abide tanking to do that), there are examples out there of how it can work. I'm just not sold (yet) on the theory that, say, 4 out of 5 (or 9 out of 10) tear-downs fail.

What's said below is in line with what I think of this contention. I think this is as big a contributing factor as any. FGMTM was charting a course toward LA Kings 2.0 at a time when every other successful team had players that were cutting weight and getting faster. I think it's more true to say that "the tank did what it was supposed to do; the rebuild failed" than it is to say "what we are seeing now is the inevitable result of a tank -- tanks are bad per se". Yep.