MattPie

Corey Crawford to the red and black courtesy phone, please.

Nah, how is she going to have a sweet wedge of cheese hood ornament?

LOL. So what did you get, Chz? Scania? Freightliner? Volvo?

2nd all time... so you're saying it's possible? :)

The NFL playoffs have had the same structure, with an increasing number of teams, for quite awhile, haven't they?

Hopefully he isn't like me and was at the bar at 12:01 AM the night I turned 21.

I thought about writing something like, "Torontoans would be so self-absorbed to refer to the team as that", but I wanted to be nice. :)

I've had some decent Italian in Philly itself, but out here in the burbs it's really hit and miss. There are tons of places, but they mostly do that pizza that's mostly thin and bland. The any that uses red sauce is marinara, and similarly bland. It's a shame too, as a pizza chzsteak (red sauce and mozzarella in addition to the meat) would be a ton better with good sauce. Some of the I think are really Latinos; I'm not saying that's an issue other than dishes will be weirdly wrong; my wife ordered penne with vodka sauce and it had shredded cold cut ham in it. WTS.

I'm quoting myself over here since it fits in this thread in addition to a forgettable GDT.

This still supposes that there's some move out there that A: will make the Sabres better long term B: JBot/etc. knows about C: and somehow isn't being made because the fans aren't mad enough. Yes, moves may get made if the fans get angry enough, but are they really good moves all the time or just "hey, we're doing something" to mollify the fans.

:) Well, Kane is on pace for roughly 45-37-82 for the season, pretty well!

Sometimes an outside observer can see things people that are close to the situation cannot. Kane could also be there to beef up his numbers for trade purposes.

I can't help but read that as "The Football Club", like TPC in 1984.

I'm wondering if the reasoning may not be entirely performance related. Is it possible Kane is bolted (with lock nuts and safety wire) to Eichel's hip for protection?

I'm saying much will depend on the next 10 games. I'd put it as unlikely given what has happened so far, but there's still hope that the team will build up a head of steam as the players get more comfortable with the system and each other. If the next 10 are .500 or worse (currently, .364), I abandon (almost) all hope.

The mind sees what it wants to see. The Sabres need to play ~.600 (points%) for the rest of the season to get to 94 points. That's a 99 point pace, 6 points out of every 5 games. Least year, a 99-point season is 6th place in the East. It's not hopeless, but if this goes on for too much longer it's going to be tough sledding. If they play .500 for the next 10, they'll need 1.25 points per game for the rest of the season, a 102-point pace, or 4-5th in the East last year. Unless the system really starts to click, I have a tough time seeing this team run at a 102-point pace for 5 months. And that's just to get to 94 points; 94 points missed last year, 8th was 95. Math is an unforgiving mistress. I was always a believer that you could come back from early season woes (Lindy's teams conditioned me), but I'm mostly turned around on that now.

I have the opposite problem: I have them every so often, but never a truly good one. There are a lot of I-talian pizza/sub/cheesesteak places around here, but none of the have sauce I like. Maybe if I headed to Philly proper, but I'm not driving 40+ miles for a chance at a sandwich.

Let's not get crazy here.

No argument here.

Nah, at this stage of the season win or point streak of 4-5 games makes a huge difference.

That's fair. I think his skill isn't flying around the ice like Eichel, but a lot more subtle. We've seen some of the great passes and vision, but so far it's not clicking and turning into goals. He's a skill player. I want to see more too.

I'd have pulled him, just to get some practice in that situation.

Update after 11 games. The Sabres have lost 14 points (6 losses, 2 OT), so they sit at 56 points remaining. To reach 94 for the season, they need to manage 1.21 points per game, or a 99.3-point place over 82 games. That's 6 points per 5 game block, 3-2-0 or 2-1-2.

For instance, Stamkos has regularly had more goals than assists; this year he's 3-17-20 so far though. You can run a line in different ways; two wings who feed the center makes some sense in you have sniper at C, or the LW making plays to the C and RW works too if you have that mix of players.

I'll never fault a skill player for being physical. At 6'1" and 200 lbs, he's average sized but big enough that if he gets the hang of using his body that'll just make him better in the long run. I'm willing to wait a bit to see how it pans out.