MattPie

Or anyone that has something to lose when speaking the unvarnished truth, really. Private Reiben: I'm sorry, sir, but uh... let's say you weren't a captain, or maybe I was a major. What would you say then? Captain Miller: Well, in that case... I'd say, "This is an excellent mission, sir, with an extremely valuable objective, sir, worthy of my best efforts, sir. Moreover... I feel heartfelt sorrow for the mother of Private James Ryan and am willing to lay down my life and the lives of my men - especially you, Reiben - to ease her suffering."

Oh great. :) I spend around 22-24 hours over the weekend prepping the yard to undo the changes we made a couple years ago. We put on a deck and got a free swingset in the last couple months so lots of places that were beds now need to be grass and lots of places that are grass need to be beds. I think I'll be done in another weekend or two. :( Genny Cream recommended.

Nah. For me, it's taking far less interest in hockey rather than shifting to another team. Besides, I'd have to find another board and figure out who all the malcontents there are.

I've always been primarily a Sabres fan and far less of a hockey fan. I may catch some of the games on broadcast TV when I remember they're on, and I'll probably pick a team to root for in the finals, but otherwise I'll be doing something else. There aren't many East teams I could stomach rooting for. Maybe the Caps due to Ovechkin. I'll likely root for the West in the finals, sine few of those teams result in visceral hate.

It has for me. These couple years were going to be some of the best chance the Sabres had for a cup (Eichel, Sam, Risto on cheap contracts making room to bring in good vets), and from the looks of it they're going to get pissed away. Assuming ownership is pulling at least some strings, I'm getting to the point where the Sabres aren't going anywhere until someone says, "we can do it your way, or we can win."

I'm not a true fan apparently. Is there some place I need to send in my membership card or can I just burn it?

New Task: disable GameCenter Autorenewal. Due, 4/17 New Task: unsubscribe from Sabres email. Due 4/17

For successfully trolling?

I wasn't running him out of town. Maybe I'm remembering wrong, but it was contentious. "The Board" isn't an automaton with one opinion.

I guess I'm going to see how my October evenings operate with a healthy dose of newly freed time. I won't be watching unless I hear that "new system" Byslma promised is implemented. My man!

Put me down for either than "run 3 lines with Sam" or "put ROR as #1 or #2 LW" options. Trade Kane if you can't sign him. I'd prefer to see this team as a top-9 that can score and varying levels of D, but Bylsma needs two lines of grinders for his system so were stuck with top-6 and bottom-6. (Another reason it's pretty unlikely I'm not renewing GameCenter if he's back in October)

I remember that, I watched almost all the games back then on the midnight replay on Empire (ah, to be young again).

The converse is also fun, using an old vodka bottle as a water bottle.

There are people that consider those armed men out in Oregon that occupied and tore up a Bird Scantuary and got away with it heroes too. Just make sure we're not making any blanket statements here. :)

I guess The Sabres better trade everyone and hope we draft a leader this year. In all seriousness, I don't know where you're coming from. Most of the guys that will likely become leaders are less than 22 years old. Coupled with an old-school coach that prefers Vets, and the Sabres have few drafted vets left (Ennis and ???), I'm not sure what other outcome to expect.

I haven't watched Lindy since he's been gone, is it still his system? Even here, he was somewhat adept at reading the league and players to find something that worked. Dallas' 5-on-5 CF% is exactly 50% right now, so it's not like he's playing an excessively dump and chase game.

It's Mr. The Cougar Mellencamp to you.

I'd be more excited by the Sabres at the end of the season than I was in the beginning.

Times have changed? My guess is keying cars started shortly after the first cars were built. Except they didn't have keys, so they'd use a stick or something.

Maybe we should call unrecovered chip-ins intentional giveaways if it's not a line change. I agree that chip-ins create forecheck opportunities. Keeping the puck on your stick creates scoring opportunities. I know which I want to see.

The Inn serves a nice brunch and dinners, take d4rk! :) Wrapping up Arts and Crafts Decor Chat for now :) : Playing with Science is a spin off of Star Talk Radio (with Neil DeGrasse Tyson), and they're doing a two-part podcast on the physics of hockey and what not. Good listen for some not-obvious stuff about shots and sticks. The hosts are chuckleheads, but worth the listen. https://player.fm/series/playing-with-science/hockey-physics-on-ice-part-1

chz doing some guerilla market research for the team. :)

Thank you, I appreciate the answer. I said above his record does seem pretty good. To me, it seems like his real success was early on and became less effective as time went on (or the league moved on and/or learned how to counter his system), but cognitive dissonance is powerful so I can't say I'm evaluating with an unbiased eye. Do you feel he's a good enough coach to keep and turn over most of the roster to fit his system? In my limited viewing this year, I'd say Jack is *not* playing the system; how often does he take a long pass from the D vs does he go blowing through the neutral zone with the puck on his stick? I'm not sure if that's condoned by the coach or if Jack is giving HHDCRGDDB the finger every time he does it.

I'm trying to figure out the staunchly pro-Byslma guys. What's the attraction? Do you like his system? If you read his wikipedia entry (as I just did), it sounds pretty impressive. He won the cup in his first NHL coaching season (although I've read here he kept Therien's system that year). Since then, his teams have been good in the regular season but didn't get back to the finals. Can you really pin all that on Fleury? Even though Crosby and Malkin are two of the best centers in the game? I wonder how much of Fluery's post-season woes are him and how much is a system that gives the puck away constantly.