IKnowPhysics

If it makes you feel better, I was at the Game 6 against Philly at home in 2001 when we trashed them 8-0 to take the series. We found Flyers jerseys in the bathroom trash cans. Separate game: Tim Connolly was the starting center and was lined up at center ice for the anthems. Lights go down, Dougie walks out, announcer says "please rise" etc, but there ends up being a 5 second pause between the announcement and the organ starting up, which was quiet enough to hear a pin drop. Someone in the 300s yells at the top of their lungs, "CONNOLLY SUCKS!" which every single person in the arena heard and started laughing. Timmay had to stand there and eat it through the two anthems.

That's Terrelle Pryor's secret, he IS the QB.

Bold move, Cotton. Beaulieu and Nelson played 58:07 of 5v5 last year and posted a CF% of 40.38, team worst among any pairings that lasted more than 35 minutes of 5v5. It'll be an interesting result if they do better- either a commentary on their growth or perhaps better support from the forwards. Moving Dahlin to his off hand is also interesting.

1) Doohickie for the multiple points he scored in the Montreal GDT 2) Flagg for the assist on those plays. 3) Carpandean for making new charts, hopefully.

I haven't read that one yet. The authors wrote books on basketball analytics, this is their first hockey book. Someone did a terribly written review of that book, more from the perspective of whether analytics has any value or not: https://www.wingingitinmotown.com/2018/4/24/17272436/book-review-hockey-analytics-a-game-changing-perspective I've read Rob Vollman's stuff, and I like it: http://www.hockeyabstract.com/fan-s-guide-to-hockey-analytics

This team's starting to show signs of the never-say-die resiliency that has historically defined the franchise.

At the December Ralph game, dude in front of me straight up pissed his snow pants, turned around and apologized for pissing his snow pants, and continued watching the game.

PHam says Jack's good to go.

Doohickie Unchained

Good question. No. It's the lexan cover for the video monitors in the bench floor (there's one or two of them). That's what the coaches watch for replays, etc, that aren't on the jumbotron for use in deciding when to challenge goals, etc. I would not have known the answer to this is if I didn't just have baller seats at the Kings game.

Haaaaa. Welcome to the club finally. You're not the first and you won't be the last. I have two strikes and a brief ban from a couple years back because nfreeman didn't like that neither the word dick nor compound words with dick as the root word were being caught by the profanity filter. ProTip tho: if Flagg is really stepping on your nuts, put him on ignore. No shame in that. Then when you opt into reading his posts, it's nobody's fault but your own. You'll realize that and respond negatively muuuccch less. Disclosure: Flagg is not on my ignore list.

Steve Smith don't give a *****, his job's not done. Even after the choreographed arm pump of Housley and Payne. George Babcock looks like he's about to throw Rich Stinziano off the bench in the next frame.

I stand by it. Pommer hasn't missed more than seven games in any season. His point production changes with his teammates/usage, but he's produced consistent rates of CF/60, SF/60, FF/60, HDCF/60 throughout the past five years with no sign of slowing. Barring fluke injury, he'll be an effective forward in some capacity for three years. Also, NHL Age Curves: https://hockey-graphs.com/2017/03/23/a-new-look-at-aging-curves-for-nhl-skaters-part-1/

That was the USS Little Rock at sail, for trying to get this team moving after the EA Sports NHL 15 tank cover avatar. I had this avatar before and I missed having its subtle visual humor.

If he's Jack's right wing and produces consistently (he's on pace for 57 points), considering his any-situation ability and veteran determination, it'd be worth it to pay Pommer $4M x 2 years or $3.3M x 3 years. But if he posts 50+ points, it'd be silly to think we'll retain him at $2M, unless he really really wants to stay. If he does not perform at that level, then he should not be retained at that level.

Doesn't matter had sex

This is actually the perfect time to light up his guys. You can't keep beating a team once it's down, you'll kill morale. An effective coach can yell at a team after a loss only once in a while to try to reset or rewire their heads, otherwise his constant hardcore berating goes stale and he'll lose the team. But if the team is winning, a coach can push them harder and faster because the wins will give the players the confidence and will to perform and endure. The coach can then keep raising the expectations to get them to continue elevate their game. After a big weekend in SoCal, this is Housley raising the expectations.

Good article in the A by Lebrun about Nylander's contract situation and how it compares to Peca/Sabres, with interviews of Peca and Regier.

There's some things to like and some others to watch out for longer term. Defense: Dahlin was paired with Nelson. Okay, that might work... but we also might have to shelter the ***** out of them so they don't get killed. Bogosian and Scandella pair played great both games. Risto paired with McCabe. They tried this pairing a little last year and it didn't work. It didn't really work that great in LA, but was alright in ANA. This is a wait and see, but if it doesn't work and they are forced to eat minutes to shelter Nelson-Dahlin, then it could make us bad. Forwards: The Skinner-Eichel-Pominville line was dominant in both games. Pommer recorded his 700th point in LA. Skinner is leading the team with +8. The line of Sheary-Reinhart-Sobotka also quietly crushed it. They didn't score any goals, but their possession was better than Skinner-Eichel-Pominville in ANA yesterday, likely due to better matchups. This is the clearcut 2nd line in 5v5 minutes. That said, Sheary hasn't recorded a point in four games and is lagging the team with -7 in 9GP. The 3rd line was Larsson-Berglund-Girgensens. They held their own defensively and ended up creating a couple high danger scoring chances. 4th line was Rodrigues-Mittelstadt-Okposo. Rodrigues, by the way, has 4 points in the last 7 games. Okposo on the 4th line is a put-the-veteran-with-the-kids move by Housley, not a demotion: Okposo got powerplay time and scored a PPG in ANA. Goalies: Ullmark has played 94 minutes of 5v5 and has yet to allow a 5v5 goal. That includes 13 high danger shots against. Even with only two games under his belt, Ullmark's Goals Saved Above Average is 6th among goalies, making his 5v5 GSAA/60 (2.12) by far the highest in the league. Hutton has seen 311 minutes of 5v5 (5th most) and has corresponding ranks of GA and saves. Hutton's 5v5 GSAA is 0.04, so he's riding middle of the road.

Just wrapped up an outstanding weekend. Many of my friends were out of town for my birthday a few weeks back, so I basically told them no biggy and to prepare themselves for the Sabres' road trip. Went to see Gwar with a friend on Thursday, great act and good openers, got completely soaked with fake blood. Awesome time riding the Metro back home looking like we both died eight ways. Played hockey on Friday, won our first playoff game with a solid team effort to a 5-3 final. Saturday went to Sabres@Kings with three friends, one of whom is getting heart surgery next week. We sat on the glass behind the Sabres bench, got some great photos. My one buddy is a Wild fan, so he had his Wild shirt on under a Sabres jersey. When Pommer came back to the bench, my buddy lifted up his jersey and pressed his Wild shirt against the glass and screamed "POMMMMER", which made Poms crack up laughing. Scanny hosed Bogosian with the water bottle when he came back to the bench after scoring, and then George Babcock towel-snapped him in the ear with the gatorade towel. Hilarious. We cheers'ed Patrik Berglund through the glass (beers and his water bottle) after he cranked out a tough shift. Skinner (who's f-ing tiny, btw) sat at the end of the bench and wore a very focused, serious face throughout the whole game, until after he finished his hatty and Rodrigues basically made fun of him for being too serious until he cheers'ed us through the glass too. When the final horn sounded, I cheered and bounced myself off the glass, which gave Okposo a big shiteating grin. Ate decent wings (two whole plates of all drummies by chance) postgame. Celebrated the road win at a strip club, which is out of character for us, but had a great time. Sunday had football brunch with bottomless mimosas, watched the Bills win scorigami 37-5. Went to Sabres@Ducks with 12 friends and sat in the cheaper seats. Had a great time. Celebrated the road win at another strip club, had another great time, we showed the girls in our party the art of polite tipping at the stage, they had a blast. Professional-level ***** around all weekend. Everybody had fun and nobody died.

Sabres goals by period (GF/GA) this season: 1st 4/6 2nd 5/4 3rd 3/7 Sabres shots by period (SF/SA) this season: 1st 46/73 (38.7SF%) 2nd 58/62 (48.3SF%) 3rd 55/67 (45.1SF%) Number of times we outshot opponents: 1st 0/6 times 2nd 3/6 times (BOS, COL, ARI) 3rd 2/6 times (BOS, VGK#2)

Hurt in a car? Sign Matej Pekar.

Must win.

And #1 in our hearts. He's like Rudy, if Rudy sucked shitballs.