Doohickie

There was a shooting at my workplace this morning. Glad I'm working from home today.

Right. It's the same name, simply the masculine and feminine versions. I found an old document in my great grandmother's name. My family name is Polish, ends in -icki (pronounce ICKEE in English, EETSKEE in Polish). The document with her name had it listed as -icka (pronounced EETSKA I'm pretty sure).

Not necessarily. Would they get revenue from ads digitally projected onto the ice, boards and glass if they're not physically there? Houston. It's happening, I tell ya.

Good point, they can just digitally project it onto the ice for broadcast in real time.

He showed that very early in the season I think. Part of the problem is that he needs scoring line time/power play time in order to get those opportunities. The good thing is he's demonstrating to Granato he's capable of performing when he gets those opportunities.

(and obviously which players to sell high before they fall off the table)

Or plan so that you exchange an expensive core piece for a cost controlled core piece. Adams traded away his foundational piece, Eichel, for a non-foundational top 6er in Tuch (at half the cost), a blue chip, cost controlled prospect in Krebs, and a coupla picks. He moved the present for the future. The ROR trade (if you through out Berglund and Sabotka who were total busts) was also trading a core piece for cost-controlled futures. In the ROR trade, the futures in return have taken longer to pan out but in the Eichel trade they're already bearing fruit. Happily for the Sabres, they seem to all be hitting at the same time. The point is a savvy GM can play those games, letting very good players go when they get expensive (which a team competing for the Cup values) and replacing them with players that are cheaper and haven't achieved their upside quite yet. As long as you have the right mix coming up you can handle that outflow of talent. The key is to have the right number of proven stars on monster contracts versus young but mature or nearly mature talent on value contracts. I think this is what's killing the teams in cap hell (VGK, TO)- they have too many premium contracts and not enough value contracts with the right talent level. I also think this is where analytics comes in, in terms of knowing which players to hang onto, which new players to acquire.

He's finding his touch at Worlds.

Rasmus Squared

Also, a lot of trades are not one for one in real time; they're exchanging presents and futures. Tage for ROR is a case of St Louis getting what they needed NOW versus the Sabres getting players that (they hoped) would pan out in the future. Still too early to say but it might be that both teams won that one. In the Eich trade, it was giving VGK a NOW piece for a lesser Now piece and Future pieces, but so far it looks like the NOW piece to VGK was a dud and the pieces that came back immediately exceeded expectations. Both trades will require some time for the dust to settle but in each case the teams involved may all end up ahead.

I think the distinction is that fans invested a lot of themselves in Jack emotionally. They saw him as the savior of the franchise. Even when the warts became apparent ("not naturally personable" as you say), the fan base still clung to him as the team's only star. We rooted for Jack because rooting for him meant rooting for the Sabres, and we desperately wanted him to succeed. But he was never the knight in shining armor we wanted him to be. When the rumors and reports came out that he wanted out, it was like being rejected by a lover in terms of emotional impact (such is the attachment of fans to the team). It was exacerbated by the fact that Eichel played hurt at the end, putting up poor numbers, then was shut down and didn't play at all. Sam Reinhart was the next closest thing to Jack, but Reino contributed to the team right up to his trade. In fact his role was expanded when he was used as a center. But people never pinned their hopes and dreams of the team's success on him, and the fan base could see how the team kind of pushed him out of the nest by giving him bridge deals rather than a long term contract. But what happened to Sam, happened. There wasn't the drama about it because Sam is more "naturally personable." He's not exactly charismatic but neither does his manner provoke a negative reaction. But at least the ROR trade talk is finally settling down, eh?

Predicting a 4-3 win for the Amerks in OT.

I only think they're dumb because the Sabres didn't think of it first.

Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while.

I guess if they win tonight we can call that a good run. If they win the next series we can call that a deep run. Maybe he needs to take some of the curve out of his stick like Olofsson did.

Most people book based on the listing price and don't look at the fees. It's a way to raise the price without increasing the listing price. Yes, cleaning fees go to the host.

Eh. Yotes have two years to gussy themselves up for him.

According to ESPN Twitter, Game 7s (Dallas went 1-1 in those games last night when the Stars fell in overtime.)

Farm team gonna farm team.

A good deep run will give these youngsters valuable experience that will help the Sabres when they get down to crunch time down the stretch next season. I hope that Krebs can bring this up to the bigs. I feel like he's really close and the challenge of AHL playoff hockey is really honing his skills. Arttu might be getting hooked on North American hockey and the Sabres hooked on him. I could see him following a similar path as Olofsson.... primarily a power play specialist before working more into the general lineup. JJ is just killing it. I felt he was ready this season, he for sure is ready for the NHL in the fall. Quinn will likely be up too. I could see a Quinn-Krebs-Peterka third line scoring like Vanek-Roy-Afeinogenov did back in the day. I could see them on different lines, too, but the prospect of bringing them up as a line is intriguing.

Oettinger is playing out of his mind for Dallas in OT. And just like that, he let one in. Flames advance.

By the way, I would also look at the Switzerland model. Very high level of gun ownership. Near universal military service among males. I would be in favor of universal public service, military or Americorps or Peace Corps, but with full military level gun training in each branch of service. That would reduce at least the "didn't know how to use/fire/store/transport a gun properly" issue. Note though that although gun ownership is very high in Switzerland, there are pretty tight restrictions on who can carry and when and how. They have one of the lowest gun homicide rates. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firearms_regulation_in_Switzerland The point is: The current American system does NOT WORK. Lots of remedies. TRY SOMETHING.