Taro T

Hard to say from the microview of the play. But have definitely seen players, especially those wearing a spoked B, get away w/ much worse. #### those guys!

Was also some of his best hockey. Those 1st 4 w/ Butcher he looked like a new man. The last 4, not so much. Besides, he was still primarily on the left side even then. And, even when he was w/ Psysk, he would shift over a fair amount (though he was primarily on his strong side).

If they keep the predominance of LHD, remember that until he entered the NHL Dahlin spent a ton of time on the right side.

The rosters are 6F, 3D, & 2G. It's 3v3, not 4v4.

Have said before that it really seems that all 13 or 14 F's next year are already in the system. Okposo tends to really work well with both Cozens & Girgensons, so there's the defensively responsible line that can still create chances & score. Let's call tha the Drury line. The line w/ Thompson centering Asplund & Olofsson was working very well prior to Victor's injury. Let's call that the Roy line. Would really like to see Mittelstadt & Tuch together; expect Skinner would start the year there but bounce his way down a few lines by the end of October. Not a true Briere line, but close enough for government work. Which leaves some combination of Peterka, Krebs, Quinn, R2 Rou2, Murray, or a surprise camp standout like Pekar or Weisbach, or other potential surprise filling out the 4th line. Bjork either becomes Amerks captain or is designated 13th F. The D is where outside help comes from plus UPL's battery mate. No reason to believe it'll happen based on results to date, but do expect that Adams finds this team's Leddy & still useful Boychuk (not the ACTUAL Boychuk like he grabbed this year) this off-season as he actually proactively uses that capspace and grabs a couple of really good 2nd pairing guys to help Dahlin, Power, & crew figure it out. (Letang could actually fit that bill at this stage of his career.)

Well, to get Botterill back onto the "short" list, would make sense the list is actually pretty long. 😉

Curling & Bobsled. All the various skiing events, too. Biathalon is an awesome concept. Yeah, the Winter Olympics are IMHO more fun than the Summer Games.

Pretty sure that's why he's out for nearly a month. 😉

Yep. And guess that would officially make this year 1 of the new direction. (But they REALLY need to show improvement next year.)

Apologies. It appears they changed the title of the rule when they came out of THE lockout.

@nfreeman & @SwampD, for whatever it's worth, the refs WERE bad in the JAGs game. That was the one where pretty much no amount of presnap movement was worthy of a false start flag on the home team. There were other bad calls but those were the most egregious. That said, the Bills O-line was far more responsible for that result than the Zebras were.

Has anybody seen Chz lately? 😉

This is actually a good take. Would take it 1 step further. The video review guys in TO (& in each rink) should have a checklist/ matrix that they fill out completely any time there is an off-sides review. (For @SDS, while an individual player is off-side or on-side, the rule is titled off-sides.) The official should note who possessed the puck immediately prior to the puck crossing the blue line & whether there was control or not. Also where all 12 players on the ice are located (in zone or out of zone). This same info should be determined immediately after the puck has crossed the blue line. IF a player has preceded the puck into the zone, there would be 2 more items to determine. Where are all players & the puck at the instant control is effected. Where are all players & the puck at the instant the player (or players) that were over the blue line has (or have) tagged up & is the puck under control or not immediately prior to the tagging up. After the game, both teams will receive a copy of the completed checklists. Take as much discretion/arbitrariness as possible out of the reviews. And, yes, the Sabres owners & GM should make this request of the league either privately or publicly. They could have similar checklists of info to obtain prior to making a determination for puck hit with a high stick, goaltender interference, & the like.

Pretty sparse crowd. ~1,500 - 2,000 would be my guess. About 40% of us in the crowd were Bandit fans. Building was filled comparably to how the MMArena was against Calgary but the Kin-ig-hit Hawks are essentially still an expansion franchise. Styres took the real ones to Halifax a few seasons ago. So, not all that surprising they haven't rebuilt a following. What's our excuse for last weekend's crowd?

So, what, they chose that name because they play like they imbibed too much of it? 😉

Amazing goaltending in last night's Bandits - Knighthawks game. Over 100 shots in total & only 20 goals scored w/ 1 of those coming with the Kin-ig-hits goalie out for an extra attacker. Bandits won 12-8, but it was really tight through the 1st 3. 3-0 Bandits after 1. 4-3 bad guys after 2. 6-6 through 3. Nanticoke is a beast. Was battling through 2 checkers all game. (And it was a friggin' battle.) 1st 2-0 start for the Bandits in 9 years.

This was rhetorical, right? On the slim chance it wasn't, @Weave was on the right track. The reason is $$$$$$$$$$$$ (¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥).

Olofsson was still in the neutral zone when Dahlin had finally tagged up. That's why he didn't need to "tag up." Thompson also was still on the blue line, though just barely.

AFAIK, because the rule states that a player is off-side when both skates are over the blue line prior to the puck entering the zone, no, players have never had to completely clear the entirely of the defensive zone. (Once the player's skate is on the blue line, & the puck is inside the zone, then the puck has preceded him into the zone.) But ALL the players have to have the puck precede them into the zone at the same time. BTW, that rule about players not being able to precede the puck into the zone dates back to the '30-'31 season. Prior to that, it didn't matter but there were no forward passes in the offensive zone.

Yes. The zones do change size effectively, which is quite cool.

Wtf doesn't every team have a player at each position on the ballot? It's not like these are paper ballots anymore & that w/ 16 teams per conference the type face would be too small to read?

Yep. The blue line is part of both zones so by having a skate (and not another body part or a stick rather than the skate) on (& IIRC starting this year above) the blue line the player is considered to be in the neutral zone (because he is as the neutral zone stretches to the inner edge of the blue line (the edge closer to the opponent's goal)). As the purpose of the rule is to keep players from goal hanging when the puck isn't in the offensive zone, really don't have a problem w/ it.

The cynic would say to give the league an opportunity to put its thumb on the scale in favor of MFTs much like the garbage officiating in the NFL seems to do.

Those 2 & the Bondra goal ALL resulted in the NHL changing their rules & procedures because the results were so egregious. Doubt this one rises to that level. But it IS 2 games in a row where replay didn't get the call right in what at the time had been 1 goal games.

On a fluke bounce off a defenseman's leg. Not exactly his typical PP snipe. He's definitely still affected by the injury. But in the last 2-3 games he has actually started shooting rather than always passing. Which hopefully is a sign he's getting close to 100%.