MattPie

I think this is the real point. The Marlies Zamboni driver and that guy in Chicago are very likely better goaltenders than any skater on either team. If you're talking the quality of the game, this is the best way to maintain it. Would the league be better off seeing some D wobble around in net and let in 5+ goals? In football, there's a valid game plan that involves 0 pass attempts. In hockey, there's no way the goalie isn't going to face shots. Might as well put the best player available out.

If they win out they get to 98, which is one point better than Toronto's current 97-point pace. Do you think this team is capable of winning every single game for the rest of the season? Do you think this team is capable of losing only 3 games for the remainder? That what they need to get to 92 points, one better than Florida's pace. They're not going to be the best team in the history of the NHL running at a 136-point pace (15-3-0) and even that likely won't get them close. I suspect I'm missing some humor here.

Not even, they had maybe 1 game in hand on Floronto and were even with Torida. It's just one of those "maybe sorta they have a chance" and then "until they lost 3 4 in a row."

It reminds me of that year that the Sabres were around 8th at the trade deadline, then when on to lose a bunch of games in a row to drop into obscurity.

I think this is it, thanks for pointing it out. It's not really the proximity, but Yankees fans are like Cowboys fans where people that don't live particularly close to a team with a city tend to default to a couple big name teams. It helps that the Yankees are relatively close and the Blue Jays, Pirates, and Indians have a checkered past.

I just looked at the trail map, seems like they've expanded in the long time since I've been there. The other peak at the time was abandoned, but people would hike along the ridge and ski down the trails cutting back over to the active area before the bottom. It was awful for out-of-shape me; I had a cough for weeks after as my lungs repaired themselves.

I never got around to skiing out west, but did a bunch in NE. Friends that did said west the snow is way better but the terrain is similar unless you're really in the weeds. I liked Sunday River a lot, and Cannon Mountain to name a few of the lesser-known places. I closer gem is Plattekill in the Catskills, really laid back place with good terrain.

Saw on the twitter that they decided to leave it alone.

Keep an eye out for gear swaps (although those are in the fall most of the time). And buying "last year's" stuff is always a good plan. Additionally, there will be bigger stuff in NE and out west, but generally it's not that different than HV. The runs are just a lot longer.

To be fair, it's unlikely there are many 19-22 year old impact players coming from the later rounds of the draft on any team. Also, love this rumor: "GM who in three years has had mediocre results may get fired". Couldn't have figured that one out myself.

Literally. Sabres' max points for the season stands at 100.

This one's a MattPie original, lol.

1: teams already can (and do) carry a 3rd goalie for the playoffs. I suppose you could expand the rule that in the last N games of the season the team can also have a 3rd goalie on the roster. Frankly, if a team misses the playoffs by a game and they lost in February or early March using their opponents EPUG, cry me a river.

Heh, duh. I even saw a picture of him playing at some point.

It's not going to be your #3 on the depth chart, of course. Many (most?) teams don't dress their #2 as the backup, so this emergency guy is probably #5 on the depth chart. I think there are a bunch of guys (especially older guys) that are never getting out of the ECHL that'd take that gig. That being said, I have no issue with the EBUG rule as it stands; it happens so rarely and it's kinda fun. I have little worry that one regular season game is going to turn the tide of a season for a team; if it truly does there were 81 other opportunities that make it otherwise. Yeah, I suppose the guy could throw the game. I'd think anyone who was on the list would be competitive enough that they'd want to look good given their one shot at 15 minutes of fame that they'd play their best. That's a tough one; look terrible at playing goal vs. possibly being a hometown hero if you stunk up the ice so bad as to let your home team win. For that matter, do we know if the Leafs are Ayers' team? He might be a Habs fan, lol.

7-1-2 and then 7-1-2 again, and then it's *maybe*. I'm there were people that lamented watching game film. "In my day, we sent people to the games. There's no way you can understand a team watching film."

As I'm reading it, quality is on the Y-axis, quantity is on the X-axis. So, the Sabres aren't taking a lot of shots AND they are little below average on quality. The Avs throw everything at the net no matter where they are on the ice. The Leafs/Flames/Canes cluster are throwing a fair number of shots AND they're from dangerous areas of the ice. And yes, Moe-ray-all seems to be doing the right things and may not be getting bounces. You could argue whether their approach or the Leafs/Flames/Canes approach is better with fewer higher-quality chances is better, but they're all on the "good part" of the chart.

So what we're saying is we'd have been fine if Botteril overpaid for Trochek? From the sounds of it, Buffalo and NYI were close and Buffalo needs to overcome the division playoff picture. Not a good look on Tallon if he trades the guy to the team that makes a run and eliminates them from the playoffs. Buffalo would have had to wow them to make that trade.

I agree with everything you've said before, but the likelihood of both Florida and Toronto suddenly being terrible after being OK for 50 games (barring injury or something) is probably less than the probability that the Sables only lose 7 more games this season (92 points). I would have said 10% from the hip, but I'm an optimist. My bold prediction: Sabres miss by 4 with 90, Floronto have 94 and 93 (don't care which is which that much).

Making up 6 points in 20 games sounds easy, but the simple math makes it look daunting. Toronto is on a 94-point pace thus far. I did the math over in the Simmonds thread, but the Sabres need to go 7-2-1 per 10 games for the remainder of the season to pass that. That's a game better than the recent hot streak. I don't think they'll hold that pace. If it were one team, maybe, but the cosmic billiard balls need to line up just right to have two teams flame out at the same time.

That's fantastic.

Goaltender looked really nonchalant until Kahun was well into the slot; do Germans not take wristers in a shootout or something?

Very true. The Sabres played a good 1/8 of the season, and those two (I'll take your word for it) didn't. There's a lot to wonder if this is turning point for three teams or an aberration. I tend to think by now you've seen how these teams are, but I could be wrong.

Toronto is on pace for 94 points right now, and they're not playing against the Zamboni driver every night we'll give them a game over that pace due to playoff run and playing at least one team that's playing out the string. 96 points. Florida is at a similar place with a 93-point pace with a game in hand on Toronto that'd put them at the same number of points (72) with a win in game #63. Let's put them at 95-96 points for the same as above. Buffalo is at 66 points with 20 games remaining. which is an 87-point pace. To reach those theoretical 96 points that's 30 in 20 games, 15 points in 10, for a record 7-2-1, a game better than their last 10. That's not impossible as they've proved over this stretch, but they're going to have to improve this pace to make it. I'll be happy to be wrong.

Not the same one, but...