Doohickie

Honestly I think what Hagel did was worse than Malkin's swing in the heat of the moment. Hagel's attack on Dahlin was premeditated and Dahlin was already skating away.

Your comparison is apt I think. The comparison I've made in the past is Kevyn Adams was the cool uncle who bought the kids booze and smokes. Jarmo is the stern father pushing the kids to get good grades and succeed.

Drop all depth charges!

The Sharks are a point out of the last WC spot. They need this game. This is a classic trap game. If the Sabres come out like they did in the first half of the TBL game though, it will be over by the start of the third. I don't expect a drop off in urgency just because they nosed ahead of the Lightning. They've been fighting for their lives since December and there's still more work to do. Must Win.

I don't think it's relevant with respect to calling out his goonery. Two separate subjects.

John Quincy Adams Samuel Adams Ansel Adams Gomez Addams Morticia Addams Wednesday Addams Douglas Adams Ryan Adams Oh.. and umm... Kevyn Adams Lindy's not getting it.

I also think that Consensus-Builder-in-Chief Kevyn was heavily influenced by Lindy's vision (vision being something Kevyn lacked) and later Jarmo's vision, which seems to be compatible with Lindy's Kevyn made a lot of good trades and signings to get good, talented players, but without an overall vision for the team, and without setting a clear direction for them, they just kind of floundered. Things were getting better under Lindy, and to this day he says the turnaround was due to players returning from injury, not from Kevyn's departure. But I think the cherry on top was Jarmo coming in and setting the tone, pointing out that less talented teams were beating them because they outworked the Sabres. Kevyn wanted everyone to be happy. Jarmo wants them to be successful.

On December 17 with 32 games played, the Sabres were still in last place in the East, two days after Jarmo was elevated to GM and despite having won their last 3 games. 32 games after that, they would be at the top of the Atlantic Division, 2 points off the conference lead. I find it interesting that prior to December, when Sabres fans talked about making the playoffs, we looked at which other teams would have to slip down below us. The real answer, of course, is who cares? Just win and things take care of themselves.

That team sweater just begs for ridicule.

A little fisticuffs is one thing. Purposely trying to start fights because you're not good enough to beat the other team is BS.

I don't care that his father died. He's still gooning it up. And no, I'm not a fan of goonery, I'm a fan of hockey. If someone starts the fight I don't mind ending it, but the game should be about hockey, not fighting. Besides, it's not like he's reading these posts and crying into his hankie thinking about his poor dad.

I noticed that too.

Why not? If he coaches goonism, he deserves to be called out for it. I've noticed that the Sabres are approaching MFT status.

I liked Sam Reinhart but I like the Sam we have now.

GREAT (John) SCOTT!

Might be confusing him with Pearson.

The Sabres and Lightning have never been good at the same time until now. It seems hard to envision them as a rival but TBL is doing everything they can to establish one. I see the Sabres as simply trying to win games.

I think Carrick was coming either way. We got him for a 7th, right? There's something I like about his journey to get here. He obviously has had to work hard to stay in the NHL; he takes nothing for granted and appreciates everything. I think going from a worst to first situation... that's closer to his summer home (greater TO), and getting an opportunity to contribute right off the bat, must have him absolutely giddy. We haven't seen any of the other new recruits.

I looked at the schedule and saw @TBL twice (out of six games) in February, and then again in March and early April in Buffalo. I wasn't thinking of playoff implications, I just thought, whoa, that's a tough stretch, especially the away games. I really feel the Sabres are taking it game by game and not getting too juiced up, but TBL is afraid of us and trying to intimidate us. As I said earlier in the thread, their attempts to intimidate have failed spectacularly.

One last thought: This was *not* playoff hockey. This was a game to set the tone for the playoffs but little Sheldon Cooper is never going to go into a playoff game with this mindset. The purpose of this game was, even if they lost, to send a message to the Sabres showing what they're capable of. In the playoffs though, you bet they're going to focus more hockey and less on gooning it up.

He's just not that good.

No,not really. Any playoff team has, on average, a 1/16 shot at the Cup. Pres Trophy winners get the Cup more than that.

And Vasilevskiy, who most people recognize as a damned good goalie, allowed 5 goals on 14 shots in the previous game between the Sabres and Lightning. Every goalie gets blow up once in a while.

Yep.