Taro T

Has to be off draft status. Which is understandable. Because even the guys that do this for a living aren't going to follow closely, what, 900+ prospects (~30 per team with 32 teams). Some of the lesser guys will necessarily be off pedigree.

It was. Like you said, with it being down the middle & low, he hit it about perfect. As soon as he hit it, thought he had a chance & he did. No shame in 2nd. And though Thompson should've been able to beat that velocity, no guarantee he would. If it'd rifle up top he'd've been down where Ovechkin was. Also, people probably noticed, but the 2 guys feeding pucks to the semifinalists & finalists in the shooting accuracy competition were Erik Karlsson and our own Rasmus Dahlin. The other event Ras participated in was the goalie tandem thingy. He couldn't get a clean shot off after getting a bad pass. So far it's been fun. Expecting the 3v3 game to be a little duller. Was interesting hearing some Rag fans talking about some talking heads (TNT, ESPN, ???) making the comparisons of Thompson to Lemieux. Thought our fanbase was the only one hearing that talk. Guess not.

A quality 1 timer (which is what they're looking for w/ the one timer) requires the player to be ready for it, meaning he can't be mid stride. If you notice in your video of the "skating Olofsson 1 timer" he hasn't taken a stride for well over 20 feet by the time Lyubushkin passes him the puck. He has been set to shoot for nearly 2 seconds by the time he gets the puck. Look at the areas that the 1 timers on PP's are taken from. When a guy is getting ready for it, he's in a very limited area typically. There's a reason teams don't typically line up looking primarily for 1 timers from either side - that being that it's easy to defend a motionless PP. And that's effectively what you get w/ 2 guys looking for 1 timers as it's only the guys in the middle spine of the PP moving and often they don't move much either w/ that configuration. You can have Thompson & VO moving around on the ice, but you are limiting their windows to try the 1 timer. Because they're not going to get a quality 1 timer off if they aren't set. The gimmick formations work when used sparingly because the other team isn't ready for them and some confusion sets in. (See Chara or Ristolainen in front of the net.) But when teams know what to expect, they become fairly easy to stop. MHO. YMMV.

Oh, they showed those events in the arena. Mainly during the 3 times the Zambonis were brought out to resurface the ice. THAT was a little surprising. The thing seemed to drag a little, bit thought that was just from being really tired. Woke up at 6 & never really got back to sleep. But then read the comments here & it seemed that people watching on TV were really unimpressed. The "breakaway challenge" was extremely poorly thought out.

They FINALLY went inside. Yea!

Trade his rights right ####### now! 😉

1st vacation in not even sure how many years. An absolute gorgeous night. Hanging out on our hotel room's balcony. Should be perfect. But there are 2 friggin' morons shouting at the top of their lungs down in the court yard arguing about something that happened between LeBron James & Kevin Durant in either 2004 or 2007. They're only been doing this for 45 minutes so far. At least now the argument has slid to Kevin Love. (Somebody shoot me now. Please.)

Point it out to someone that matters. No idea who that would be in this case. Voter fraud in all forms stinks.

EVERYBODY got Reverse Retros this year. (Pretty sure everybody else got them too 2 years ago.) And last year they had the Heritage Classic sweater. They've been talking about adding the goathead since before the 50th anniversary season. Expect they didn't want to continue waiting for a season they didn't have something else coming out to add a 3rd because they seem to do something special EVERY year. Winter Classic; 50th, RR, HC, RR. And 3rds stick around for 3 years IIRC; the specialty ones only stick for 1 year. So the B&R GH should be back next year. The B&G GH will be gone.

Did they show the mascot hockey game at the end? That was hilarious. The East won 7-3 & Tooth had one of the goals. Not sure why they waited so long between events, they were getting set up between things fairly quickly. It still was fun being there. The only thing that was BAD about the event was it took nearly an hour to sign up to get a customized sweater (& that was after being in line 20 minutes after the doors opened). They had 2 kiosks to order them but it was SLOOOOOOW to get through the ordering process. Each choice led to a separate screen. (Adidas or Fanatics; Eastern or Western, Size, Player, Your Name, Your Phone #, etc. ) Dahlin was not an option at the kiosk. Apparently Fanatics didn't have enough time to supply the kits to customize one for him. Might have to look for alternatives to try to get that.

The Sabres WILL be in the playoffs next year. With or without Meier brought in. Do you HONESTLY expect to see the in a playoff position Sabres trade away a major asset like Meier at the deadline (should they even have him)? When was the last time e a playoff bound team was a seller at the deadline? And if, somehow, you don't believe THIS team w/ Meier added is playoff bound, then why would you expect the Sabres to trade for him?

They only did that on the shift after the PP or until they gave up that 4th goal. After that, Cozens took Thompson's spot & Krebs took Jost's spot. Jost took a regular shift alternating between Okposo's line & the Kid Line. By the start of the 2nd, Bryson & Samuelsson had flipped partners. That, and Carolina trying to conserve some energy really helped the Sabres stop the bleeding & make a game of it. And, yes, that's how much Muel's injury was bothering him. Bryson was more effective top pairing vs arguably the 2nd best team in the league's top 2 lines than he was. Considering it was the team they match up worst against, trying to take small comfort from them playing them essentially even or even getting the better of play for ~45 minutes. Hard to do when Carolina adjusted after the 1st to try to just hang on. But will do so anyway. Break comes at a good time as they're banged up worse than at anytime since Samuelsson returned.

Something of that nature will very likely happen. When they were originally floating renovation / upgrade possibilities back pre-Covid, they were floating having tables in the 100's at center ice converting at least the lower half of the seats in 105 & 118 (?) into a very high end full service seating.

IMHO, seeing them live in the building they look pretty good. Agree they look weird on TV being all white w/ blue helmets. The helmets pop on TV & make them seem like Eastern Block Reverse Retros. (Is there nothing Putin won't try to control?) But seeing them live the helmets aren't so dominant. Clearly peoples opinions vary.

Pretty sure it's to be blamed on the Tiny Tot of the Kilowatt, FArt Wander.

D'oh! Thanks for the clarification. Was running on 2 hours sleep yesterday. 🍻

They played the team that they match up w/ the most poorly against w/ 2 key pieces noticeably nicked up. They were the recipients of another "opportunity for a learning experience." Don't see why that would've broke you. Of course, am still awake working off 2 hours sleep for having gone to that game as well. They had good moments, but when the Canes were going balls out showed the Sabres they still have a ways to go. But when one compares it to where they were last year or even early this year, they've come a lot further than what they still need to move forward. MHO. YMMV.

It's you Swampy. It's always been you. 😉

How ####### often on the PP is the winger off looking for the 1 timer able to "fly down the ice?" It is somewhere between seldom and never. And yesterday, that unit w/ both Thompson & Olofsson did get 1 more shot off, by Skinner.

@Brawndo said it, unsurprisingly, is UPL.

Normally wouldn't care, but going to an ASG has been high on the bucket list since '78 (back when the players did care about who won & most all the best players did go). Actually got the opportunity this year & expected there would be 2 Sabres, so wtf not. REALLY wanted to see Dahlin there in addition to just Thompson. And it the league were smart, they'd've found a way to get Cozens there too. Somebody, maybe @LGR4GM suggested going to 4v4 would add 3 more players / division (& maybe even go to 4 groups meaning there'd be 7 extra guys per division). At that point wgaf if Suzuki has to be there to give Moe-ray-all A player. There are 10 guys minimum from each division getting in on merit then. Even just getting to 6 more would've gotten Dahlin there. And this event really isn't for us geezers. It should be for the kids & they want to see guys like Dahlin goofing around.

Actually, the last time they used it (on Saturday) they didn't get a single shot off, nor did they come close to doing so. Absolutely, they won't move Skinner off the top PP unit. And understand the reasoning for that stance. But it doesn't change the fact that the PP would nrarly defonitely be better w/ him not on it. And, as to VO & Tage both on the unit. Not a fan because you now have 2 players instead of just 1 remaining more or less stationary. It's real easy for the D to cover the passing lanes when they never change. IMHO, the better change to the unit would be to have Cozens fake the pass to Thompson & blast away &/or to have Tage give a slap pass across to Cozens or Tuch. Not exclusively, but often enough to raise some doubt about where the shot is coming from. Right now it's 80% Tage & 20% Dahlin w/ 4 guys moving to open up lanes. IF Tage & VO stay active, it helps, but then they aren't going to be as ready to take the 1 timer.

Not a fan of Olofsson & Thompson on the same PP unit. But, yes, if he's going to be there the guy in the middle along w/ Tuch should be Cozens, not Skinner.

Devin Levi has a FORTY INCH waist. That is crazy large for a 6' tall athlete.

Probably was recorded on the 16th. Pretty sure they said the Sabrs had played 43 games. Thanks for posting. Good listen.