IKnowPhysics

Defensmen that I could see Botterill asking about: ANA: Lindholm, Manson, Fowler. SJ: Dillon, Braun, eat Paul Martin's salary. PHI: Provorov, Hagg, Gudas. Rumors for Lindholm or Fowler are so old, they smell funny. Provorov would be a huge coup, and not one I think Philly would want to make happen at the deadline if ever, unless we talk about an enormous trade the size of Kane + Reinhart, etc. But the thought of a Provorov-Ristolainen top pair is a nice one.

Has tanking increased? Yes, absolutely. I think this is part of it. I think the real root causes stem from the consequences of the modern CBA. Long term contracts designed to fit under the cap drastically reduced the number of UFAs. GMs can't rely on the dried up UFA market to improve their teams every year. This has occurred because players don't hold out and leave for "big" money as much anymore. The combination of revenue sharing and salary cap has enabled most teams to afford to keep their best players. Trading has changed as a result of the CBA. Because teams are on a more even playing field financially, teams generally don't salary dump good players. Only underperforming players get dumped, trading them doesn't directly improve your team, and trading for them means you hurt your own cap. Without the financial aspect involved in good player trades, the only way to trade for player talent is to trade away player talent or picks. So you must spend players to get players. If you don't want to do that, you leverage your future picks. The only way to acquire elite talent without giving up current talent is to draft or or trade draft picks. In either case, teams benefit from good draft position. So if you're not going to the playoffs, and you don't want to trade your existing talent, your best move is to better your draft positon. Mostly because you can't rely on UFAs.

My tradey sense is tingling. And erect.

The future just a got a bit more interesting.

Buffalo Bandits

Must win.

Zhitnik-Smehlik McKee-Warrener

This won't necessarily happen, thinks Bob: Yes.

Weird list, let's look at it. Facts: DAL, WPG, NJ, BOS, OTT, LA, and BUF don't see TOR or CGY before the end of December. They wouldn't be there scouting other teams' tactics, they'd be there to watch players or talk to other teams. PHI, NYR, COL, see Leafs this month, but not CGY. They could be scouting Leafs tactics or talking to CGY or other teams. MTL sees CGY twice before end of month. They could be scouting CGY tactics or talking to TOR or other teams. Teams in bold are not currently in a playoff spot, could be sellers. Teams in italics are in a playoff spot, could be buyers. Underlined teams are close to making/not making the playoffs; they might try to buy players mid-season to push their way into the playoffs. Raw opinions: If you eliminate teams trading to teams within divisions: TOR, DAL, WPG, NJ, NYR, and BOS could be shopping for players from CGY, but CGY is only one point out from a wildcard spot. CGY could be shopping for players from BUF, OTT, PHI, COL, and maybe BOS or NYR if they are sellers. TOR could be buying from PHI or COL- but why not wait until those games to scout? Teams far out of the playoffs potentially desparate to make midseason moves with eachother that aren't in the same division: BUF -or- OTT with PHI and COL. But why not talk on the phone? BUF sees PHI twice this month and just saw COL. OTT doesn't see any of the attending teams outside their division this month. Boiled down opinions: Calgary might be in the market to buy to force their way into the playoffs. Nitty gritty: There were rumors that Troy Brouwer was going to get traded early in the season and this hasn't happened yet. CGY is paying him $4.5M through 2019-20 and he has 6 points in 27 games this season (4th among CGY right wingers), so they're definitely still looking for someone to take him. The problem is that Brouwer has a 15 team NTC. BUF and COL have the cap space to take him, OTT and PHI would have to send back salary. CGY is middle of the road in scoring and powerplay, and Mike Smith is middle of the road in SV%, but CGY is 8th-worst in GA/GP and SA/GP. Effectively, the CGY defense (or defensive system) is bad outside of the excellent pairing of Giordano and Hamilton. Their bottom six is also not producing. Sound familiar?

Girgs deserves some time out after the way he played against Pittsburgh (specifically for this ).

I vote for the goal by either Ristolainen, Scandella, Criscuolo, Gorges, Antipin, Baptiste, Falk, Fedun, Fasching, Redmond, McCabe, Bogosian, Moulson, or Tennyson. Ugh, I hate this team.

Wrt the second link, use this chart, select Buffalo, and mouse over the icons for player names. The clustered name label locations in the image stills on twitter can be pretty misleading.

Eh, he's young and just lost a good mentor on his first pro team. http://buffalonews.com/2017/12/04/sabres-waiving-of-moulson-hits-okposo-eichel-hard/

I thought I should look that up, and I was not disappointed. Possible American translation: "this is Looney Tunes."

Here's the series of clips in order: First situation at the end of the game, they were already on the powerplay: https://streamable.com/wng4z Paille killed: https://streamable.com/hrxrc Closeup of the elbow on the other guy after the Paille hit: https://streamable.com/ti23l in gross. The only explanation is coach-directed intent to injure. If there's a unified governing body, Larkin and his coach, Sean Simpson, should be suspended for months.

I think desperate teams have short memories.

To get 93 points, a team has to go 0.567 points percentage on the season. We're currently at 0.357. We need to go 0.610, or 42-26 (to confirm Darth). What does a 0.610 the rest of the way looks like? It would be finishing the season at a pace that a top 10 team (100+ season point total) carried all last season. Is this impossible for any team to do? No. Is it possible for the Sabres to do? That's for discussion. Whatifs: If the Sabres continue their current pace for another 8 games, they would need to go 0.646 to finish the season at 93 points, or averaging what a top 5 team carried last season. If the Sabres continue their current pace for another 14 games, they would need to go 0.678 to finish the season at 93 points, or averaging what a top 2 team carried last season. Considerations: If this team can play top ten hockey starting right now, we can make the playoffs. If this team can play top five hockey starting within 8 games, we can make the playoffs. If this team can play top two hockey starting within 14 games, we can make the playoffs. Personal belief: Unless we bust out a winning streak, we aren't going to be better immediately. And this is not a top two team at any point this season. So in my mind, we need to be a top five team by Thanksgiving. That's asking a miracle of coaching for this defense. I'm still in it, but we'll likely know by turkey dinner whether we need to schedule vacation time in April.

I love our veterans. I work with veterans everyday. I routinely work on Air Force bases and contractor sites with active and veteran personnel and employees. My best friend served a few tours, and some of my favorite colleagues have did a few rotations on subs. I love the job they do/did and I highly respect the choices they made. But this is what throws it for me. The government pays huge sums of money to sports franchises in acts of "military appreciation." If they wanted to appreciate the military, they should be putting that cash into well-run veterans' programs instead of the pockets of the sports franchise owners. It's nice if veterans, that desire such, feel appreciated by the act. But I don't want "military appreciation" to irreversibly become marketing slang for "recruitment expenditure." I'd like veterans in need to be able to get the help they deserve. If professional sports wants to get involved, they should be donating that time and money. Because, at a callous and sly business level, they're effectively marketing the franchise to veterans and the veteran-appreciative demographics.

People forget that it takes time for players to adjust to a new team and new system. Pouliot has to do that with at least nine other guys new-ish to Buffalo. And on top of that, every other player on the roster is new to Housley's head coaching, even Housley.

Also, not unrelated, an interesting read (if can call Twitter a read) on Putin's control over the KHL and why Ovechkin pushes a pro-Putin agenda: http://twitter.com/SlavaMalamud/status/884522437454561280

Seems like Housley's pretty pissed at the effort level. Unless someone stands up in the locker room, players might sporting the scarlet A's for a while.

Hey now. I go when I can.

Putting down a few drams of Basil Hayden while staring into the Pacific. The addition of rye in their bourbon adds a good bit of spice.