That Aud Smell

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.

A follow-up: I count Darcy as having drafted Vanek, Miller, Campbell, and Pominville. Wait - Campbell was Muckler, I believe. Anyhoo - here's a rough list of notable Bruin draft picks during the same period of time (1998-2013 -- I am not sure if they were all all-stars at some point, also I realize the Bruins likely had different GMs during this time): Nick Boynton Bergeron Krejci Versteeg Kessel Lucic Marchand Seguin Hamilton Not a murderer's row, but there's enough there. Also, this list omits Thornton (1997) and Pastrnak (2014).

C'mon, man. I don't give a rat's behind what "people" said or guaranteed. The Sabres are terrible -- but it's almost certainly not because they tanked and got Eichel. /Leaves room before tank debate starts anew. I'd like to say: DAMN. But then I want to see comparable periods of performance from other NHL FO's. Good post. I do especially agree with the bolded.

Agreed. It was well done, I thought - for what it was.

Sabres issue a comparable statement. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DVjjx0NXkAAHGk0?format=jpg&name=medium

1000th home win. Woot.

Words, words, words.

I thought it was done with as much class and taste as can be present when making that sort of announcement. As you indicated, a way better PR spin than Darcy's "some suffering."

Yo. Whodat.

I received a Winter Classic jersey for Christmas, and I'm gonna say: I sorta like that little NY in there. Well turned.

From what I've seen (limited) and what I've read: The team hasn't played terribly since the All-Star break, and, for decent stretches of time, has played pretty well. They just sorta stink. I'd like to see them get 2 here, in regulation.

Bread and circuses!

Holy crap - that is effing awful.

Ouch for the Colts. They Tweeted it, announced a press conference, etc.

This caught my eye from the Percoco bribery trial ongoing in NYC https://twitter.com/jessemckinley/status/960970017130057728 Howe says that even before he introduced @NYGovCuomo to COR exec he predicted if he mentioned Corvettes, the Gov would "park himself" and talk about Corvettes for a while. And sure enough, the Governor did. So, Howe told his ... clients (?) at COR Development that they could butter up Cuomo with Corvette-talk. Reminded me of this nugget: Ryan returned to New Jersey on Thursday night. Barely 12 hours later the Bills called to set up a second interview. Team president Russ Brandon also texted Ryan the next day: “The owner likes red wine.” https://www.si.com/2015/04/14/rex-ryan-buffalo-bills-new-york-jets

I reckon that's a possibility too.

McDaniels would not have taken the job if he didn't have intell on Luck's shoulder. Time will tell how reliable that intell was.

Gotcha. I think this is a reasonable take.

I've lost the thread a bit. @Randall : Do you believe that the league and/or the referees consciously favour the Patriots, whether on a plotted/planned or ad hoc basis?