That Aud Smell

God bless him.

Imaging because of a tweak felt in the neck? That's a level of caution that may have arisen from what happened with Eichel.

Man, he better be. He has to be. I imagine GM KA on this topic occasionally acting like a driver on a long highway trip who’s drifted into a state of inattention and then suddenly snaps back with one of those OH SH1T! moments followed by a brief cold sweat (maybe felt right on the ol’ bald spot (speaking from experience)).

Gah! Yes. Of course. Thanks.

I looked for a thread dedicated to the opening regular season roster, but didn't find it. In terms of what's new or new-ish, it's just: Benson, Clifton, Greenway, E. Johnson, [edit] Levi, and Savoie. Other than that, it's a very familiar roster. Three goalies! Will this be enough to make the playoffs? Lord, I hope so. +++ Forwards (15): Zach Benson, Dylan Cozens, Zemgus Girgensons, Jordan Greenway, Tyson Jost, Peyton Krebs, Casey Mittelstadt, Kyle Okposo, Victor Olofsson, JJ Peterka, Jack Quinn*, Matt Savoie*, Jeff Skinner, Tage Thompson, Alex Tuch Defensemen (7): Jacob Bryson, Connor Clifton, Rasmus Dahlin, Erik Johnson, Henri Jokiharju, Owen Power, Mattias Samuelsson Goaltenders (3): Eric Comrie, Devon Levi, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen *IR

What in fresh hell is this about? Tell me how the bingo ladies hurt you, @.... 😔

I didn’t get to watch much of the Jax game. I read that Elam got benched for Ingram. Man alive. The guy is firmly in bust territory. He has the physical tools - he just can’t implement McDermott’s scheme. Which brings me to Surtain. My sense is that McDermott’s nuanced zone heavy D is something that makes it impracticable to plug and play a guy. Otoh, there’s a long season ahead - plenty of time to catch on. Given the learning curve, it just may not make financial sense in the end. Has this Bills team brought in defenders through trades in the past? (Have they known the system?)

I voted “3”, on balance. But the game against Pittsburgh was concerning, as others have noted. And Crosby absolutely sent a message to his teammates — and they responded. Buffalo did not respond. Not a great look.

This ⬆️ seems prescient. What exactly are those gymnastics?

i feel like this is true of fans for all NFL teams. it is truly a week to week league.

agreed that consistency has been the differentiator between mahomes and allen.

You look at the depth chart, man, and there is just no fat to cut. I think it'd hafta be a DE/LB.

so - what to do? is there some super brief IR trickery they can deploy with Rousseau?

Wow. And yikes. Maybe they’ll be palatable with some Frank’s?

Rousseau officially out for Sunday. Bummer. From what I gathered on (fka) Twitter, he got stepped on in the Miami game. But he then played through that for much of the game. Hopefully it's just a contusion/bruising that swelled up once he took his cleats off. Fingers crossed that there's nothing broken. Per McDermott, Rousseau's status will have no bearing on whether Miller plays. If they activate Miller, they will need to waive someone. Based on snap count, I'd guess they'd waive Kingsley Jonathan and hope he goes unclaimed (although I think that unlikely). I like Jonathan's upside more than Shaq Lawson's known skill set (which is solid, but unspectacular), but I think McDermott would want to keep the steady veteran as one of his ends.

I saw somewhere that Rousseau’s injury isn’t looking good for this week. Rough news, especially if it’s anything serious. The guy has been a revelation so far this season.

I had not heard that he was hurt. Dammit!!

I have the same question. It appears that the Poona Ford signing motivated Tim Settle, since the former has been unable to supplant the latter.

nah, man. that'd be crazy. foolhardy too. of course the player wants to play. the medical team must have a schedule established for easing him back into things. nfw they let him play. i'll eat my zubaz undies if he plays a snap.

It was drier than a muhfugger throughout September. Of course, a drought-driven drying of leaves is different than the leaves changing colour.

I'm not saying solely. But the change in sunlight appears to be a stronger influence than temperature. And there are other factors too -- not the least of which, I'm guessing (and not Googling!), are things like how wet the spring was, how dry the summer was, what condition the supporting soil was in, etc.

Myriad reasons. Taro touched on some of them above. I also think that dilution of the quality of the game is inevitable. There's also the matter of how some franchises don't belong/are not supported where they currently are (Arizona, principally) - they ought to be relocated to new markets before expansion is permitted. Mostly, though, I see the march towards expansion -- does Bettman ultimately envision 36 teams? and 6 divisions of 6 teams each? -- as something unduly motivated by a desire to increase revenues without addressing other persistent, underlying issues that suppress profit growth and market share. Just getting bigger is an easy, short-sighted "fix."

I had the sense that September was weirdly warm. It prompted me to conclude that the leaves turn not so much because of temperature drops, but more because of changes in the amount of daylight. Idk. Yep. The El Nino should keep us mostly mild ... but all it takes is a little weeble wobble of the Polar Vortex and WHAM! several feet of snow somewhere east of Lake Erie.