That Aud Smell

Ah - gotcha. Yes. Quite so. Abso-frickin-lutely. Agreed on wanting that time to come when fans from other teams are like "man, f#cking EICHEL."

And I don't discount that there's some youthful, cocky, I-got-better-things-to-do-right-now underlying this. He'll grow out of that, mostly, I think. But Eichel has some as.shole to him (which I think works in his favour); he can be pretty damn prickly.

I agree that Eichel is a bit immature. Nothing wrong with that. In fact, I'll posit that it's better that he's like that -- he's real -- not some carefully managed brand (*cough*McDavid*cough*). He's also a super enjoyable personality.

I take that with a pretty serious grain of salt. The young players are young; young people that age tend to exhibit some of that sort of behaviour, as a group. And Hamilton's old(er) and getting into that sensible shorts with black socks pulled up to his knees mode. Additionally, Eichel has more than a little bit of as.shole in him; in a good way. I don't know that he's rude or unprofessional, but, if I had to be interviewed by him on a regular basis, he would drive me insane. The manner in which he frames questions is just ... bad. The answer he desires is either stated in the question or strongly hinted at. I think that's fair. When Eichel is 25 or 26, he'll likely look more comfortable doing that.

Missed that. Has this always been the case? Have top-4 d-men always been so hard to come by? Along with many others, I scoffed a bit when Taylor Hall yielded Adam Larsson. But ... that now seems about right. Right?

I hear you. I think the Patriots do more cheating, and more effective cheating than most of the league's other teams. But I think every team pushes the envelope in in its own ways.

Hear, hear. I'm not sure, though, that Kane (or even Kane+) nets a top 4 LHD. Cripes. When did capable d-men become such a rare commodity? Also, @Scottysabres, I've very much been enjoying your input - thanks for showing up!

Feck's sake. EVERY TEAM cheats in a manner similar to what the Pats do. Some do it more than others. Some do it better than others.

And smaller goalies too?

I still hate how he needlessly takes so many low-percentage shots. And I still think his hockey IQ is below average. But the guy goes 110 mph, every shift (EVERY shift), fairly terrorizes his opponents, knows how to finish, and leaves it all on the ice. He's got 1 year left after this one. Will he have sufficient value at the trade deadline to justify a deal? I sorta tend to doubt it. I think other GMs will worry that he'll disrupt their team's dynamic during a playoff push. Question becomes: Do you re-sign him to a deal worth ~$5.5M per season?

"it's interesting how that works ..." https://twitter.com/Matt_Bove/status/829174107568750592/video/1 I'm fascinated by the various ways in which this statement can be taken.

Sabres stats on Twitter just put this out there (in re Sabres goalies both being top 10 SV% at present): "Per Elias, the last time 2 Sabres goalies finished the season in the top 10 was in 1992-93 (Dominik Hasek-7th, .896 & Grant Fuhr-9th, .893)." Look at those SV%'s!

Ah - ... . I mean. That is to s-- . :cry: Word.

Haha. Hey - my remark re Erie, PA was made because of the reference to using ranch with wings. Then someone said in response "What is this? Alabama?" To which I rejoined, "or Erie, PA." That was because, to my astonishment and dismay, you need only go ~90 miles down I-90 to find that the true and right practice of serving wings with blue cheese dressing is not observed in places outside of greater Buffalo (or places that are *of* Buffalo).

Fwiw, I saw a Tweet to the effect that the FO people hinted today that Julien's refusal to play or give larger roles to young players was part of the reason for moving on from him. I don't think that was in any way meant as a shot re Seguin. But ... if Julien had a hand or role in that deal, that should count as a major strike against him.

Have they announced that the actual cause of his long-term absence is Marfan? :ph34r:

Hmmmm. *SIgh* Yeah. Maybe. But where's that quote from Nashville GM, who talked about how he had to figure out how to explain to his owner, after the fact, that he had traded away the face of the franchise? Never. Which means: IT'S (OVER!) DUE TO HAPPEN!

Now that's a gotdam party. This made me laugh. That, or Erie, PA.

Damn it all. I would love to see the Sabres hire Julien. I can't abide the thought of another year or more of Hot Dreary Daniel.

Well - that's some good news for Rochester.

(Sam Reinhart will be fine.)

His play has been a pleasant surprise. The guy still has gas left in the tank. In terms of what to do, this is where my mind first turned: And I'd like to think that the Sabres could get a 2nd or promising (D?) prospect for him. Hopefully, he'd be open to moving to a Cup-contending situation for the spring.

We kicked this around pretty good once upon a thread. I think Eleven championed Marino? I dunno. I get the whole "championships are team accomplishments" angle, but I think that, for the overwhelming majority of casual and serious fans alike, you get into the GOAT conversation by winning playoff games and titles. By performing at a high level when the stakes are the highest. And I think that's more than fair. Is the object of the QB position to accumulate the most gaudy passing statistics possible? If so, then the GOAT QB is probably Peyton Manning. Is the object of the QB position to be the most pure, natural, accurate thrower of a football of all-time? If so, then the GOAT QB is probably Marino. But I think the ultimate object of the QB position is to guide your team to as many championships as possible. Brady is the GOAT, and I just don't think there's a real argument. It is funny and supremely stupid for the rabble to get cheesed over Eichel celebrating the Patriots' victory. That's his hometown team, for crying out loud. I'd have a lot less respect for him if he tried to play it like he's all in on the Bills now. This is not dissimilar to what the Leaf idiot-fans did with Matthews when he Twitter-applauded the US Juniors team.

That's where it's at. There's a way in which I dread the Bills' next appearance in the Super Bowl. That afternoon and evening is a national day of recreation and just hanging out. Also: I am ALL IN on Matthew Ryan. Always loved that young man.

I listened to most of 1st on radio. Even without seeing the play, I sensed that Evander was _rawking_ his high volume, low quality SOG ways. Sounded like he attempted 10 shots. No wonder he's a Corsi darling.