That Aud Smell

Yeah - that's definitely not what I'm riffing on. I'm also not suggesting any of that either. I frequently hear that "elite athletes have all worked their ***** off" theme (which I clipped from your reply). Implicit in that concept, I think, is that all of the elite athletes will continue to work as hard as they did before they arrived in the best league in the world, that they will be self-aware and smart enough to know how to continue to improve themselves after they've established themselves as NHLers, and that they will all continue to grow and improve. And that's just not the case. The NHL is a cohort comprised of the world's best hockey players. And that cohort sorts out in a way not dissimilar to how other cohorts sort themselves. Not everyone of them is working as hard and as smart as they should. Some, without even intending to do so, may have lapsed into thinking they'd arrived. Idk. Hope for the best.

Thanks for harvesting his stats. I don't have an eyeball test so much as I have a group chat test. Power was far and away the most motherf**ked Sabre defenseman in my main hockey group chat. And I'll admit: He had many confounding (terrible) plays in his own zone and in front of his own net. I think he'll get that straightened out over time. Hopefully soon. I like his offensive vision and knack for joining the attack at the right time. He'd benefit greatly from becoming a player with merely below-average physicality.

Nine years ago today, the Sabres lost the McDavid lottery.

Not quite. I'd actually thought the photo was taken during this past offseason. Turns out, it was taken at some point after Cozens signed the extension in early February 2023. Was there a midwinter break or something?

What if you had information about or an experience with your co-worker or neighbour - let's call him Rashee - that prompted you to think "ehh, I'm not so sure that a new sports car is a good idea for him."

You're talking in generalities. I'm talking about something very specific. I've outlined its contours above. When the team captured a screenshot of Tage's "7 more years" IG story pic and put it on their account, my immediate reaction was essentially "7 more years? Dude hasn't played but 200 games and has one good NHL season to his name." Together with a host of other factors, the picture seemed to be a bad omen. Sad to say that it was.

That is a sad sack of a wannabe sports blogger.

I was the originator of what you term "egregious indignation." You wanted a different noun there. You may have felt indignation because I was taking shots at our top 2 centres. But that's not what I was hurling. Invective maybe. In any event, the distinction here is low-hanging fruit. Maybe @Mango or @Big Guava. Something tropical, given the photos above. Nobody (including @nobody) would have an issue with their home team's top players being pictured on a Caribbean beach toasting each other's health (and new-found wealth) if those top players proceeded to kick much ass in the season that followed, or, as in the case of Crosby, if that player was a top-10 player of all-time, first ballot HOFer, multiple Cup winner. Context matters. I dug up that photo because it was of a piece with something that had seemed to plague the team from last offseason through this season. That "something" was confirmed by the GM in his post season press conference: A sense of having arrived. Having made it. Arrogance, as one reporter put it (and the GM didn't knock it down). Maybe even a sense of entitlement. [Edit: Bear in mind, it was the team's official Instagram that published the picture to its main account page. It appears many mistakes were made.] So, invective is being hurled. I hope the targets don't duck from its path. To borrow a phrase from @nfreeman: This is obnoxious.

I love the idea. I regret that I’ll be conflicted. This prompts me to reflect: It’s been *so* long since I experienced playoff hockey — would my life be able to accommodate it?! (Assuredly so. But it’d be disruptive!)

Did anyone catch Dahlin’s remarks today? Dude said that the team didn’t practice hard enough and that they’ll need to be more intense in their training and preparation next season. There’s no disputing it: DG didn’t work these guys hard enough. The Beyond Blue and Gold Skinner goofball practice video from midseason — “is practice over? … Tuchy said it’s over … okay, I’m done” — was the Sabres organization telling on themselves.

I think likening our workplaces to the challenge of competing in pro sports is unhelpful. It’s good that the players are saying “play time’s over - we need a new boss who’s gonna put the wood to this team.”

thanks for this. the original context was the rum punch picture, the equivocal showings that followed (especially the slow starts), that reporter's mention of "arrogance" in the locker room, and KA's acknowledgment that there are young players on this team who thought they'd arrived. Might actually be a piña colada, btw.

More generally, I do pine for a team where, up and down the roster, the players can "take care of themselves" and look the part of grizzled (even if lightly grizzled) NHL vets. I feel like our room of chill bros get their vibes disturbed when tougher opponents start pushing them around.

Ehh. Probably some truth here. Otoh, the dude's season seemed to spiral downward after he got his face broken. Maybe he fares better there if his chest doesn't look like an anatomical depression?

i am not one to talk (built like @Scottysabres!), but i thought the same thing when i saw it. his chest looks frickin' concave. time to hit the gym, buddy.

Is a cig all you got working at the moment?

There it is

You gotta add to that mix: The kids are all on a team where the GM sees fit to pass out multi-year multi-million dollar contracts based on a limited sample size. I wish I could find that picture I saw on social media during last offseason. It was a picture of Thompson and Cozens (I believe) in the Caribbean -- they were by a pool, in the shade, drinking rum punch out of clear plastic cups, and toasting each other's success. It gave me a very bad feeling about the season to come. Like I said: I wish I could find the picture.

@Hoss! Quite so.

Poor man's? Like, so poor he's living in a large cardboard box poor, if so. And, cripes - now you've made me miss Derek Roy. This team would have made the playoffs this year if peak Derek Roy were on the roster.

Keep our sweet prince's name outcha (griping) mouf.

Yeah. That generally ends up being the story whenever a sports writer or ostensible member of the "media" frequents this place. In addition to Hoppe, there's Wawrow and some other guy (Dylan something?) whose screen name is eluding me (he wasn't a writer, per se, but I think he was working in (or wanting to work in) sports media.)