That Aud Smell

Sorry if I missed this upthread. He dissolved PSE?! That’s a big deal.

Oof. It’s become the norm. I’d bet Loonies to donuts that this is a prelude to selling the Sabres.

ah shoot - i keep forgetting this. nfw then.

It doesn't strike me as utterly obvious to nickname LeBron James "King James." It's a really good nickname, which is why it stuck, but it wasn't inevitable. The Akron Hammer didn't stick. Nor did efforts to call him L-Train. As for Dominator, it seems obvious now. "Dr. Dom" didn't stick. "Gumby" didn't take. To Hasek's relief, "The Count" didn't become a thing. (See linked and below.) But someone coined "Dominator." I think it was Gurtler. https://www.thehockeybeast.com/nhl/the-dominator-once-had-a-completely-different-nickname-that-he-hated-the-story-of-its-origin-is-absolutely-incredible/ Before The Dominator became a thing, he was nicknamed ”Dr. Dom” by Mike Keenan and ”Gumby” by broadcasters. But for a short period of time, he was also nicknamed ”The Count,” and he didn’t like it one bit. ”We’re going on a road trip, and we’re getting on the plane, and he had an overcoat,” said Mitch Korn, Hasek’s former goalie coach in Buffalo, in the podcast When Goalies Were Weird. ”He did not put his arms through the overcoat. He buttoned the very top and, (like) back in medieval times, it looked like a cape." ”And one of the guys nicknamed him The Count.” “He did not like that,” Korn said. “And it hung around until he got good. And when he got good, it disappeared in a hurry, replaced by The Dominator.”

I am amused by how little reliable information is out there on the origins of Hasek's nickname. Here's the only thing I could find linking it to Gurtler. Good ol' buffalo74's wordpress blog. https://buffalo74.wordpress.com/2011/03/12/dominik-hasek/

I tried to manage my excitement over the kid for a while, and then I was like "ahh fuggit - he's the next Travis Kelce." More seriously: There seems to be something in the eye test with him that suggests he could be special. We'll see how he looks in a regular season game first, I suppose. If Kincaid delivers on his early signs of promise and if the Torrence kid (mountain of a kid) continues to hold firm at RG, 2023 could end up being a fantastic draft for the Bills.

Like Quinn, he does play right wing. And I thought I heard some analytic online person explaining how his underlying metrics suggest that he's not totally washed. Hmm.

On second thought, maybe not. I heard it said that Gurtler came up with it. Not true? Dom's not a reliable source. He recently credited it to RJ. I am sure that's not true.

Hmm. I'll take your word for it.

I believe he coined "the Dominator" nickname.

now you've got me cringing in recalling a brutal john guertler call.

Great idea. I do wonder about how the thing could be engineered and built such that the proffered hand didn't end up breaking all the time.

Agreed. If the Bills were to make the playoffs as a division winner or strong wild card team this year and they were mostly healthy at the key positions, they will be "a contender."

Things are slow in the sports world. Lance has re-tooled his article from last month into a piece posted today. https://buffalonews.com/sports/sabres/which-sabres-prospect-will-earn-the-roster-spot-created-by-jack-quinns-injury/article_c7d32092-3613-11ee-aecd-03ec2a23bcc9.html I appreciate that they're being more careful with their language this time around:

Rick gets all the accolades and deservedly so. Lorentz was spectacular in his own right. There was real artistry to his ability to see what was important, distill it into bite-sized pieces, and then fit it into the limited windows of time he had as the colour commentator. I miss him dearly. I still think about Lorentz's breakdown of Pominville's series clincher against Ottawa in 2006. Noting that Pominville was attacking the forward (Alfredsson (sp?)). And then when it came to beating Ray Emery -- words to the effect of " ... look at him. He doesn't move. He doesn't get across. This has been an issue all series long."

Or they just never knew and only learned that today. (Like me.) RIP Carmen Perreault.

Good point. And we may add to the inferences above: He might just be a private guy and/or an introvert who doesn't like serving in the role of local celebrity.

There definitely was some disaffection following his retirement. I thought maybe some fences were mended when the Pegulas bought the team and Terry delivered his maudlin "where's Perreault ... you're my hero" line at the opening press conference. I also think -- and this is really just a guess -- that Perreault has a deep, strong preference for the Quebecois culture. Being a regular ambassador for the Sabres** was just never going to be a fit for him. **Pronounce it like Stan Filpowski would pronounce it at the Corpus Christi fish fry. Real nasal like. Very, very non-French.

Tricky sculpture to make. I’d want him shown in one of those moments where his face is contorted from making some memorable call (meanwhile his hands are folded daintily on the table top).

And here's what I do not get. At. All. McDermott's defense is predicated on DBs who are excellent at playing in space. Coming out of Florida, Elam was tapped as a guy who excelled at press man but would not be a (natural) fit in a complex zone heavy scheme. Ronald Darby, anyone? I still don't get why Beane took Elam. My pet theory: Beane's admitted fondness for defenders who get described as "long" (and otherwise get talked about for their remarkable physical attributes) got the better of him. Think Edmunds and Rousseau (sp?). But this guy was a bad fit out of the gate, and he remains a bad fit more than a year later. Seems like bad drafting.

The following is a quote from the Bills DBs' coach during training camp: “I think one of the things with Kaiir that we all have to understand, and me specifically as a coach, is you’re always trying to figure out what that player does best. If you compare him to Dane and to Christian, they all have different skill sets. And the thing that Kaiir really does best is play at the line of scrimmage. His ability, his length, his size, his strength, and the more he’s able to get his hands on a wideout, the higher level of success that he has. So [we want to] put[] him in positions on our defense where he can do that and then emphasizing that while trying to develop some of his play in space but realizing that OK, this is what he does best. And all those plays that he’s made so far in this camp, whether it be in one-on-one situations, which he’s done a nice job of in our individual one on ones or in team, have been when he starts at the line of scrimmage, can contest the wide out, he can minimize the space.”

Absolutely horrendous.

Allen’s first completion was an easy 8 yard pitch and catch to Kincaid. He had a nice timing route to Diggs on that second drive for ~15. He had an easy slant to Diggs in that last drive (which should have given them 2nd and 2, but of course there had been a pre-snap penalty). He was 7/10 despite numerous bad penalties. The Bills need to do better than what Dorsey did last season. They can’t always rely on Allen wearing the Superman cape. I just don’t think yesterday’s game is a harbinger of what they have planned.

Knox? Taron?

No scheming. No opponent specific game planning. No showing anything you plan to showcase in Weeks 1-4. I’m no fan of Dorsey, but a preseason game isn’t the place to watch for an OC to shine.