That Aud Smell

Congratulations on the anticipated arrival - exciting (and stressful) times. Avia is a lovely name - it just sounds nice. There's an Aviana in one of my kid's classes - that must be a related variation. A worthy choice for a name, to be sure. ++ A short story to share: My sister-in-law was pregnant with her first child at the time that my wife and were engaged. When she was about five months along, she started letting people know what the baby's name would be. The choice was a little non-standard, but seemed fine enough to me. Besides - what did I really care about what my fiance's sister was naming her kid? I'm sure people's mileage will vary in other settings, with other families and friends, but my experience with that advance-name-disclosure process convinced me that we'd never tell anyone what the baby's name was going to be ahead of time. My sister-in-law got legitimate blow-back from certain people and suggestions for alternative names -- there were only a handful of people who were rude enough to do this, but that was enough to poison the process. I was baffled, myself. Once the baby arrived and had the name that some people had thought - in the abstract - was a poor choice, everyone loved that kid and, within weeks, no one could imagine that kid with any other name. So my wife and I always came up with a slate of fake, but plausible, possible names for each kid. The names were ones that we didn't intend to use with that kid, or any other kid we might have in the future. By the time our last kid arrived, some people were on to us about the misdirection.

That never struck me as momentum, so much as execution and failure of execution.

Not even in game mo'?

Yass, MODO!

His father did/does. Not sure about the teammates.

In re the team being shallow and just not very good (yet): That lineup without Okposo? I see Moulson and Deslauriers and a not yet effective Ennis? Blechk. And that's to say nothing of the D. That's just not a good team. Some good/very good pieces, one great one. But not a good team, yet.

Occam's razor.

Wut. Maybe I am misunderstanding what's being said. Were you and d4rk talking about how members of the current core were ominously starting to sound like, resemble the departed rotten core? You were, weren't you? That's the narrative to which I was referring.

The narrative would maybe be a la David Byrne/Talking Heads "Once in a Lifetime": Same as it ever was. (/arm chopping) Thing is: Maybe it isn't. I'm betting it isn't. In fact, I'm happier believing it isn't. In matters sport, I'd rather be happy than right.

So, the Sausage Grabbing Marys have begot the Narrative Loving Eeyores? The idea that this promising group of players is headed the way of Roy and Stafford is more than borrowing trouble; it's inventing it. That's my fault. I requested an explanation.

I'm still not sure what we've is saying.

Hmm. I suppose that bears watching. Maybe a light monitoring. At this point, I am wholly confident that our current core is nothing like the rotten core that post-dated 7/1/07. I mean, every one of those guys - Roy, Pomminstein, Vanek, Stafford - proved to be a limp biscuit when the mantle of leadership fell upon them. I get no such vibe off of Eichel, Reinhart, ROR, or Risto. I'm excepting the Dreary Dan issue from this analysis.

But, what is SGM Redux? Also, I think that'd be more effective if you just K'd me. Nah?

SGM? I haven't seen the context of Jack's comments. Here's what I could find: "It wasn't too scheduled. It was just out of nowhere," Ryan O'Reilly said. "He walked in and said there's a meeting. It was good, something we needed to hear after the deadline and all the rumors. It was nice to hear him say this is the group." "More than anything, he said he still has a lot of faith in us as a group and that this season is far from over," said Eichel, who responded with his third three-point game of the campaign. "He hopes that everyone wants to be here, that everyone cares about each other, gets better and moves forward with this organization. I thought it was a great speech by him. I took a lot out of it." So, ROR was the one who said this was something the team needed to hear after the deadline. That is about as innocuous as it gets -- standard stuff. I would bet that many GMs check in with their players after the trade deadline to give them the GM's view of the world. It's a stressful time for many of the players, etc. It's welcome, "needed," or whatever, for the head of personnel to come into the room and tell the fellas that he believes in them. What good GM wouldn't do the same? As for Eichel, I see nothing there that's of any concern. What a fart in a bottle this is.

Who's laughing? The what now? I literally can't follow this. What vibe? And why does that vibe make me not want it to be roster? WHAT'S HAPPENING? Edit: Oh wait. I think I get it now. We've was speaking directly TO d4rk there. Okay. I think.

I'm quite sure that's what you see. Re the hands issue, I think it's an interesting distinction. Okposo is a good shooter and has good instincts on getting himself in scoring positions. But I think the point was that he doesn't have the hands that enable a player to pick up ~6 garbage goals a season. Remember that weird one Gionta got a little while ago? Those are some nice hands right there.

I think the things that get said to the media matter not a whole lot. I think this team has been inconsistent because they're not yet very good.

^ I'm not sure how you put all that together based on what's actually knowable about the team. Who exactly needs their hands held? And did GM TM come down to give a pep talk because of Hot Daniel's lack of influence or because the trade deadline (over which he presided) had just passed (and he had arguably thrown some shade on a couple of players)? My view is that it was the latter. Did the pep talk have any real influence on the team's actual performance? My view is most likely not - the team played much the same way they have been playing of late (scoring goals, surrendering leads), except it was against a terrible team. And who said working hard and believing in themselves is such a problem? You did. I think you're looking at things in a way so as to have your biases confirmed. No shame in that, really.

Up the dosage. My eyes are open, sir. What leads you to believe that the team wasn't hell bent on making a playoff push back when the thing was more attainable? Eichel's tantrum in Boston didn't suit you? Looking at what's being reported now, and inferring that the team has some fundamental character flaw because they're only now awakening to the urgency with which they need to play is ... is ... I dunno. Some serious Team Storm Cloud stuff (do I have it right?).

Jesus, dude. How exactly are you piecing together this crystal clear picture of what's happening with the team? Is it from Ham Sandwich's breathy/breathless coverage? You may want to up the dosage.

I think you wrongly infer that this was not the mentality three weeks ago, three months ago. Which brings me to ^ QFT. On #1, Bogosian regaining form as an okay second pairing d-man is one of the principal reasons this team could make progress next year. On #2, he had a rough game all around. I have never noticed him having bad hands. I will pay more attention going forward. On #3, if he can keep this up (that is a significant "if"), he will have earned a permanent spot on the team's 4th line. Such a smart, hard-working player.

YASSS

Poor decision by Okposo in the O zone led to that break.

Blech

(Get that puck deep.)