IKnowPhysics

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.

Petermania is mass suicide.

This defense doesn't deserve this offense.

Go Potatoes.

Must win.

I do scotch. Samesies.

Must win. In his 2GP, Remi was last in 5v5 CF% by a wide margin and last in 5v5 HDGF%. Housley's actions continue to correlate to data, even with small sample sizes. Who leads the team in 5v5 CF% and is second in 5v5 HDGF%? You guessed it, Frank Stallone, er Nathan Beaulieu.

That's a huge expense in a relatively new arena. But if anyone doesn't think that it visually makes a difference, here's some evidence: Red seats: Black seats: The black seats (Staples) are actually wayyy more empty than the red (Little C's), but the red seats absolutely highlight the emptiness.

One of the soldiers that went to war for us through the Sabres' best years so far. Second on the team in +/-, second on the team in blocked shots, first in team Dmen in takeaways when he played for us the first time.

I think this is right. Average NFL career is 3.3 years. No guaranteed contracts. Gotta make the paper while you still can in a sport that has a 100% injury rate.

And we'll have more than $92M (-Shady salary) next year, so we can buy any player we need.

Predictions Summary Highlights/Agreements: Season points ranged from 69-99. All represent an improvement from last season's 62 points. Average was 85. Season goals for ranged from 210-263. All represent an improvement from last season's 198. Average was 237. Season goals against ranged from 229-290. All but one represent an improvement from last season's 280. Average was 254. Everyone picked Eichel to finish top two in goals (at least 27 goals) and first in points (at least 75 points, 86 points average). Everyone picked Reinhart to finish top three in points. The average guess at top goal scorer was 36 goals. Everyone thinks the PP lands between 4th and 18th. Everyone thinks the PK lands between 15th and 30th. Nylander grabbed five mentions in biggest surprise. Mittelstadt grabbed five votes in biggest disappointment. Outliers/Weirdos: Everyone had the Sabres winning 35 games except Pi. Everyone picked Skinner to finish top three in goals except Taro. Everyone picked Skinner to finish top three in points except Taro, Hoss, and IKP. Player outliers: Only one defenseman cracked top three goals or points (IKP: Ristolainen) Only Taro picked Sheary for top three in goals. Only Liger picked Thompson for top three in goals. Only Hoss picked Okposo for top three in points. Goalie outliers: Pi think Hutton plays 70 games, Flagg thinks only 45. Hoss thinks Ullmark plays 36, Pi only 12. Matter thinks Goalie X plays 12 games. Everyone but Pi thinks Dahlin will be the best rookie. Pi thinks it will be Pilut. Wookie can't decide whether it's Dahlin or Mittelstadt. Everyone but JSB, Pi, and Liger thinks Dahlin is at least a Calder finalist. JSB thinks Okposo wins Lady Byng. Everyone but Darth, Huckleberry, and Liger think that Eichel is an All-Star.

Because we're building a dynasty, not a lucky one-off, so we need to master fundamental five on five hockey. There's no doubt special teams can win you the few games that you'll need to edge other teams out on the way into a playoff spot, but being bad at the core game will be exposed one way or another. The good news is it's early and we're getting Ws anyways to stay relevant, positive, focused, and improving.