Doohickie

I'll meet you halfway: Mousse.

Laugh emoji response to the first part. As for the second part, that's what I mean. It's not that Lindy will make a request and Kevyn makes it happen, it's that Ruff knows the players he wants and will work with Kevyn to get those players, or players like them, to get to his desired roster.

I see Granato as a carrot guy. He was always positive. No stick though. I think at the NHL level you need both the carrot and the stick at times and Lindy knows how to do that. I hope.

I hope Lindy appreciates the desperation here, and I hope Adams makes Lindy's desired roster moves happen.

I'm not sure I agree with everything you said, but this rings true. Airing out your dirty laundry never ages well.

Captures my sentiments pretty well. One of the reasons Mitts will not be easy to replace is his versatility. He can play up and down the Top Nine, center or wing. As 3C, he was ready depth to move up to the Top Six in the event of injury.

Around these parts we call him Mule or Muel (the spelling pulled out of his last name). Let's see how they play after a training camp under Ruff. And it isn't necessarily rough/tough that the team needs. It's simply dogging the puck. You know, the thing that Benson does really well; Quinn too, when he puts his mind to it. I think they have the size and speed to do that... they just need to do it. Regardless of what Lindy's plans are, I hope he gives each player some direction on what he wants to see in their game at the end of the summer. (more motor, more strength, etc.)

To me it shows that this organization is finally compiling sufficient depth to protect against injuries. People are focusing on Jost and Stillman, but look at Bryson: He played in both Rochester and Buffalo at a cap hit of $1.85 million. He was our 7/8D for much of the year, but still played 36 NHL games (vs 10 AHL games). Quality tweeners are important depth. We're not used to seeing this because our depth has sucked for the last decade.

Adams always looks vaguely uncomfortable while trying to put a brave face on in his pressers.

That will be a great concert, no doubt.

Yeah, we could use a whole team of Zach Bensons. Uh...

We've got tickets to see Suzy Bogguss two weeks from Saturday. She's a country artist that had some good songs/hits out in the 90s; we have one of her CDs. Pretty relaxed country, lots of steel guitar. One thing that made me decided to get tickets is that she's playing a small venue, fewer than 200 seats, so it should be a good chance to see the musicians up close. This was one her bigger hits, a remake of an old Judy Collins song:

Actually that's not much different from north Texas. I think we squeaked out 80 yesterday. We've had several fronts bringing rain and cooling temps, and nice days in between. Probably the nicest spring in a decade. The last two weekends were bizarre: Friday, beautiful weather; Saturday, RAIN; Sunday, beautiful weather. It was so rainy and stormy that the first of those two Saturdays they canceled the Fort Worth Art Festival (which is a major event, hundreds of artists, huge crowds). April is probably the nicest month in north Texas. Kind of like Buffalo summer- highs in the 70s and 80s, and the spring rains make everything green. By the end of May it will be very dry.

Pressure the puck when the other team has it or when it's loose. Play sound positional defense. Counterstrike when the opportunity arises. Crash the freakin' net. I think Granato's system didn't do step 1 nearly enough, but when they did they looked very good. You mean Samuelsson?

Watching the game tonight I had the same exact thought. I think the Sabres could play that style right now... if only they were asked to. Stars even the series with VGK 2-2. They played a perfect third period to close it out. Roope Hintz blocked a shot and while still wincing took a 3/4 court shot and hit nothing but net.

I actually get a grounding satisfaction from tending my lawn and garden. This weekend I removed some bushes that died during the Great Freeze and replaced them with hydrangeas flanked by Chocolate Chip bugleweed.

Evan Rodrigues has more playoff goals than Tage Thompson. Panthers are clearly better.

You need to use your toes too for the math to work out.

Maybe time to move on from Appert too then.

I don't think a workout coach is gonna keep him from getting injured from blocking shots.

Interesting question. Of course there are those RFAs that sign for less than their qualifying offer. I bet he ends up on an NHL roster next year somewhere. Yes. 123%

It will be interesting to see which defensemen Lindy prefers. There could well be a shakeup in the pecking order. I think our 7-8 Ds (Johnson, Bryson) are actually pretty good and perhaps to get the right mix of puck moving, toughness, and solid D play, one or both of those guys could end up in the top six based on Lindy's system. (anticipating several puke emojis here)

That's precisely part of the reason I'm not keen on the trade to acquire Byram: I'm not sure there as a hole there to fill. Johnson may well turn out to be that player we need on defense, but the fact that Mitts was traded for Byram will inflate Byram's perceived value to the team, not because he's better, but because he costed more to acquire.

In the Mitts discussion, people have argued that Byram >>> Ryan Johnson. I'm not sure I agree. I think Johnson will emerge this season as a top 4 defender. His game coming out of college was mature. He doesn't make a lot of mistakes but he definitely gets the puck out of the zone and up ice. And I still think that Byram may turn out to be more like Risto than people want to admit. For both these players I'm looking forward to how Lindy deploys them. Maybe he can get them to both be top shelf players.

I guess that's my argument against the trade: I'm not sure Byram filled an urgent need on the roster. What I see in him is a player who could possibly a good piece but also is subject to inconsistent play. But the trade *did* create an urgent need on the roster. I think we're much worse off with Byram than we were with Mitts. I'm not saying Byram is a bust or anything. But I'm saying I don't think there is a clear hole that he is filling, but the absence of Mitts creates a big hole in the forward ranks. I also realize the die was cast when Tage and Cozens got their contracts. I think signing those two and making Casey the odd man out was a mistake. I think Casey had made the case that he was a versatile player that could play anywhere in the Top Nine. I don't think you can say the same for Cozens or Tage. While in general I think Kevyn's approach to roster building is sound, I think in this case he messed up.