IKnowPhysics

If Miracle is out, I'm guessing Wayne Gretzky on Pro Stars is also out.

Best ever, ever.

Analysis says you value both together: https://www.thescreen.co/single-post/2018/06/05/Turns-Out-Good-Players-Play-Better-With-Other-Good-Players-The-Sam-Reinhart-and-Ryan-OReilly-Story

FTFY

PP could depend on assistant coaches more than Housely. We watched a good PP get slapped when Scotty Arniel left.

Based on his 30 points in 34 games as a Gopher in B1G (NHLe = 0.33), Casey's NHL equivalency is 24 points. Now, he did this as a freshman, so he's young and has a lot of potential to tap.

Many of us have seen it, but no worries. If you hadn't seen that, then you may have also missed someone's breakdown of how close the Blackhawks were to winning the lottery: https://mobile.twitter.com/harrisonbacon/status/991512826656296961?s=21 ball 11.

Eyebrow-raisingly true. They could be in danger of being as spoiled as Patriots fans born after 1991, in which everything was rosy, even for the oldest fans after they were 5 years old. Even going back to the Whalers moving to Carolina: the Hurricanes started in Greensboro (an hour+ away from Raleigh) for two years after moving from Hartford, and once the team actually arrived in Raleigh in 1999-2000, it was only two seasons before their trip to the SCF in 2001-02 (and then a Cup in *shudder* 2005-06). Remember how smug those dickbags fans were? Gross. They've since calmed the down and eaten their humble pie after missing the playoffs now nine years in a row. I really hope Vegas embraces their team win or lose without taking them for granted or getting up on a pedestal.

Diamonds are nice, but our depth is in that area too. We've only taken one winger, Brett Murray, in rounds 2-5 since taking Eichel.

No one wants to stink after tanking. But going into the tank, you had to know that there are several different previously demonstrated models for tanking and rebuilding. Some aren't as pretty as others, but that doesn't mean that they failed. A lot of folks wanted this to be the Pittsburgh model: draft a Crosby, then win a cup. But you have to actually look at what happened to those teams to understand how long tanking -> drafting -> winning takes in reality. For example, Pittsburgh wasn't as easy as get Crosby, get Cup. Pittsburgh drafted: 2002 (5th overall Whitney) 2003 1st overall Fluery 2004 2nd overall Malkin 2005 1st overall Crosby 2006 2nd overall Jordan Staal And didn't get to the Cup finals until Spring of 2008. Blackhawks weren't eactly fast, after being so bad for so long: 2003 14th Overall Seabrook 2004 (3rd overall Cam Barker) 2005 (7th overall Jack Skille) 2006 3rd overall Toews 2007 1st overall Kane 2008 (11th overall Kyle Beach) They won the first new Cup in 2010. Our best bet, and actually the closest model I think that we're following is the Tamp Bay. They had a historic meltdown because of an awful ownership change after winning the Cup in 04, and suffered for a few years of bad management, bad trades, and bad drafting, before being in position to turn it around with two no-brainer picks: 2008 1st overall Steven Stamkos 2009 2nd overall Victor Hedman 2010 (6th overall Brett Connolly) 2011 27th overall Namestnikov 2012 (10th overall Steven Koekkoek) 2013 3rd overall Jonathan Drouin Tampa Bay went to the conference finals in 2011, dropped out, and then showed up in three of four conference finals from 2015-2018, including the SCF in 2015. Buffalo is currently here: 2012 (12th overall Mikhail Grigorenko, traded in a package for O'Reilly) 2012 14th overall Zemgus Girgensens 2013 8th overall Rasmus Ristolainen 2013 (16th overall Nikita Zadorov, traded in a package for O'Reilly) 2014 2nd overall Sam Reinhart 2015 2nd overall Jack Eichel 2016 8th overall Alex Nylander 2017 8th overall Casey Mittelstadt 2018 1st overall Rasmus Dahlin Tanking was successful: the Sabres acquired a stupid number of high draft picks, including three elite 1st or 2nd overall picks, and we are now so ridiculously loaded up with draft talent. We even converted to potential busts in Grigorenko and Zadorov into a statistical and team leader Lady Byng candidate. Any failure of the Buffalo Sabres to win again has nothing to do with the tank to acquire high draft picks. It has everything to do with how the rest of the team is put together around those top players and how the team is coached. That is a failure to build a team around its core players, not a failure to tank. Darcy and GMTM did a masterful job tanking to acquire picks. GMTM failed to get the team back on its feet, despite evidence from other models that doing so in the short post-tank time he had would have been a Herculean accomplishment. It's now JBot's turn to try to lift the team, and despite completely rinsing out the defense from last year, he hasn't had the opportunity or willpower to do it.

Up from 4-9.3% from $75M this season. Sabres currently have $19.2M in cap space, would have an extra $3-7M.

TBN offered targeted buyouts (severance packages) to some staff they desired to part with, likely based on TBN's perceived value of their work (read: cost and/or quality and/or readership). According to Vogl, TBN also sought employees to volunteer to take a buyout. Vogl wasn't asked to take a buyout, instead, he volunteered. Gleason and Vogl volunteered for buyouts. Judging from the tone (and the lateness), Sullivan didn't volunteer.

I internally set an over/under about how many posts would go by before someone to mentioned the Great Jim Kelley. I set it at only one page, and I'm glad the under came in. Although I would have realllllly enjoyed a few more years of his thoughts and hard work, especially through the tank, I'm glad he doesn't have to watch this.

Each of those tweets was one tweet of several by each person on the subject. Context may dull or sharpen this opinion. Well, so far, Sullivan's only posted the one tweet, but it's early.

The Buffalo News, after sending out a letter to the editorial staff describing dire financial issues, has bought out three long-time sports writers within the past week. John Vogl took a voluntary buyout on May 22nd: John Vogl‏Verified account @BuffNewsVoglMay 22More After 16 seasons covering the Sabres, my last day at The News is May 31. As I've said often, I truly appreciate you reading and following along. It's been fun. I still have more stories coming, so don't go anywhere. Bucky Gleason asked for and received a buyout on May 25th: Bucky Gleason‏ @ByBuckyGleasonMay 25More I requested, received and accepted a buyout from TBN. I want to thank sports editors Howard Smith, Steve Jones, Lisa Wilson and Keith McShea for hiring me, believing in me and/or supporting me for the past 20 years. I also want to thank the readers for their passion. Jerry Sullivan accepted a buyout today: Jerry Sullivan‏ @ByJerrySullivan27m27 minutes agoMore I've accepted a buyout today after the News took away my column. They felt my voice was becoming bad for business. It's been a privilege to cover Buffalo sports for 29 years. I wrote for the readers, who deserved a fair, objective and passionate perspective, even when it stung.

Black isn't bad. For a not-crazy-expensive daily, I like Sheep Dip. It's a blend of 8 to 16 year old Islays with a good flavor profile- very slightly sweet (but not as sweet as Mac 12), long, a little less peat than the standard younger single malt Islays. Prices vary, but I usually can get it for <$50. Definitely a good daily for Islay lovers.

Yep. And with words like Hedman, Doughty, and even Lidstrom being used, Svech would have to literally be Ovechkin and then you still might take Dahlin.

If by Eichel, you mean #2 overall pick.

Keep him. No question. He's an intelligent, skilled, effective core player that eats minutes in tough situations and shows IQ in all situations. He's the veteran leader you need. He played the hardest minutes among our forwards, and he was actually successful at it, and not just by Corsi metrics. He finished 3 point behind Eichel, 2nd on the team. Led the team in PPG, PPP, and SHP. 2nd in shots. 1st among forwards in shifts/GP. 1st among forwards in blocked shots. 1st on the team in takeaways by a country mile. Best faceoff percentage of anyone in the league with more than two dozen faceoff. He's a Lady Byng finalist. You have him locked up for years. How do you replace all that with any three players, let alone one?

Get ready for the hype train... Kris Baker on Dahlin: (6:25) I think his floor is probably Drew Doughty, a guy who can impact the game offensively, he can play defensively, he might win some Cups... The biggest challenge when I'm talking about Dahlin is trying to stay guarded and grounded in reality and little bit reserved- you don't want to oversell the kid (he's still a child, you know?). But going back through the mental rolodex (of prospects), he's unique and you can throw any word out there and he's going to over-deliver- I'm very confident in that. So, when you say he's a perennial All Star, that's a pretty nice floor. ...Victor Hedman was a very dominant young player when he was 16 and 17, and of course he had the size. But Victor Hedman couldn't do the things with the puck that that Rasmus Dahlin can do. He couldn't skate up the ice with that speed, head up, 360 degree scan, and just see everything happening. Even maybe a second or two before it comes to fruition. ... It took Hedman at least five years to for Hedman to find his groove. It's not gonna take Dahlin that long. ... Jovanovski, Chris Phillips- these guys don't come close to Rasmus Dahlin.

Taro Tsujimoto.

The Buffalo Sabres are the 2019 Stanley Cup Champions.