That Aud Smell

Mario Lite, I suppose? Which would be AWESOME. Eichel's coach at BU, I think, was the one who talked about the similarity to Mario. And you can see it - Jack gets in the zone, assumes what looks like a wide stance (thanks, perverted Congressman!), sticks his ass out, gets his elbows wide, and no one can touch the puck. It's mesmerizing. Yessir. Reinhart is a good hockey player, who is going to get better. He is not the winger that Jack needs. Reinhart is a centre. Good. But sub-optimal.

I'm not sure how much of that was GM TM. PLF seemed to pave his own path out of town. Patrick always seemed like he was just here for a cup of coffee - doing a favour to (and getting checks from) owners who were learning the ropes. Same-wise for Sawyer, and he's not really a hockey person. Battista? Pssshh. It's PLF whom I miss. I wanted that to work so much. Then again, look at the bumbling going on in Colorado. The former franchise player as president model seems to have worked in Boston, but there are surely no guarantees. I won't be satisfied, I think, until the Pegulas have presidents of football and hockey operations, respectively. Thing is - I think Brandon has Terry convinced that he doesn't need them. My pet theory: Brandon has a peculiar talent for understanding what motivates and appeals to owners, and then pitches them on just that. In corporate MBA speak this is called something - mirroring, maybe? Ed Helms' character in NBC's Office did a bit on it in one episode. It's basically a really effective way of ingratiating yourself to your superiors -- you just give them back who and what they are; this is especially effective when your superiors understand poorly who and what they are (that's where the skill comes in). Per PA, I think the idea is that owners are supposed to hire the people who hire the people. Maybe they also should think about hiring people to hire the people who hire the people?

Seems reasonable. :death: It can't come too soon, really. Good job. Good hustle. I know it. He said it. JFC. Just hit the bricks already. Also, for those who've said it, I agree that if GM TM doesn't separate Dreary Dan than he can take a flying leap as well. Of course, that would leave the Sabres hockey department completely rudderless. Which would also suck.

Yes, yes, yes. This also explains why he is so horrendous in shootouts.

Hahaha - YES! I hear you. It's a limited number of spins around the sun. I'm gonna take each day as it comes, and enjoy the sh1t out of 15 sometimes looking like Mario Jr. Brw, my favourite NHL factoid: Jaromir was an anagram for Mario Jr.

:w00t:

Just learned that my youngest is going to sit in a box with a friend from his soccer team. It's a little insane to send a kid his age to a 7:30 game on a school night - but fuggit. I will admonish him not to be a Chet. He's fired up - he's got his Eichel jersey-shirt ready to go. Last game we went to was St. Louis, and Eichel made at least two plays that had us standing up to see how it'd finish. The kid joked on the way home from that game that it was like Eichel's super power (the power to raise butts from seats). He told me just now that he's looking forward to seeing #15 use his super power.

Are you in? Or are you https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhkE8O2e5RE

Um, no. That makes you a very normal Sabres fan. :w00t:

Seeing the Flyers jersey always gets my blood boiling. I would love to see Eichel get his first hat trick before the season's over. Why not tonight? Let's Go Buffalo!

Good stuff, Flagg. I lack the context you have on other players, but I'm all in on enjoying the Sabres even if it's only because of the chance to watch Eichel do stuff.

I understand what you're saying, but, boy - you sure do hear that said (that the winning started at the top) with regard to just about every winning franchise don't you? OTOH, consider the run of success the Bruins had with one of the most miserly, cheap owners in the history of pro sports. (At least, Jacobs was reputed to be as much for many decades before the Bruins all of a sudden got good.)

Can confirm. Is true.

Well put. What a mess. I read twice over the weekend that it's expected that Mike Glennon will get ~$15M annually. MIKE GLENNON. The more I think about it, the more I'm unclear on why the team would pass on paying Taylor middle of the road starting QB money. He's flawed, for sure. But he's shown he can do stuff in the league. He'd probably slot in as a mid-pack quality starter if he were retained. I -- I just don't get it. The only thing I can think of: The team as otherwise constructed can't support/abide paying a decent QB the going rate for a decent veteran QB.

For a couple of hockey fans, you could do a lot worse than giving a boy that as a middle name. Lord Stanley's Cup, and all.

I'm hearing this chatter on WGR and on Twitter -- that retaining Taylor is penny-wise and pound-foolish; that Taylor can probably get you into the playoffs, but don't you want to set your sights higher than that. Effin' A, man. This team hasn't been to the playoffs in whatever-however-many years. Baby steps. I'd be more than happy with a plan to make the playoffs, and then reconfigure once (if) it's established that Taylor can't get you over the hump of a first-round exit, etc.

might want to throw "AH-vee-ah" into the mix as well.

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.