nfreeman

Does anyone have a #fancystats breakdown of McLellan?

Works for me. Now get a better goalie please.

Well, the question is pretty reductive and I assume not a real question so much as snark, but of course it’s impossible to know why exactly they underachieved. Certainly crappy goaltending was a major factor. Having said that, the team strikes me as immature, of intermittent focus and in some cases entitled. It’s certainly plausible that these factors contributed to consistent sloppiness in the D zone, and that these failings are susceptible of being remedied with diligent and attentive practice, motivated by the desire to avoid a scary dude. Separately: there is NFW they are hiring a Swedish coach who doesn’t even coach in the SEL.

My top choice is Quenneville; #2 is AV. I think it needs to be someone who the guys are kinda scared of.

No one from ‘05-‘07? McKee Connolly Drury Briere Max Soupy Miller

Serious question: does Skinner getting bounced from Jack's line for the last dozen or so games of the season affect his desire to return?

At the time of that photo? I beg to differ. That looks like pre-Baywatch and pre-Tommy Lee, which IIRC was when she got famous. Of course, her cinematic peak was Borat...

Here's Greg Wyshinski from ESPN, who I think is pretty good, on with Schopp and Bulldog: https://wgr550.radio.com/podcast/896/rss.xml They do a couple of general NHL questions first, then about 10 minutes on the Sabres. Among other things, Wyshinski thinks Howie does not get canned but will be on a short leash next fall.

Completely agree -- I just meant not as big a star as someone like Julia Roberts or Jennifer Lawrence -- so I wouldn't necessarily recognize her old photos.

I'm supposed to recognize a B-list celebrity's 30-year-old, pre-plastic-enhancement photos? Really? Man card revocation officially under protest.

Too early to tell IMHO. We don't know how good (or bad) TT or Guhle will become or for that matter how Montour will handle the opportunity to be a top-pairing guy (or whether ROR will get angsty again and want out of STL in a couple of seasons). Right now the Sabres are clearly on the short end, but there are plenty of scenarios under which the trade is a wash or a net gain for them.

I saw this on a reddit Buffalo thread and thought it was pretty good: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-my-hometown-taught-me-life-business-rob-baiocco/

Who’s the cutie?

I looked at his game log — out of the 10 goals in Jan and Feb, 1 came in the first game of the year, which is fine but was probably before the bottom really started to fall out, and I think 4 came at the end of Feb when it was too late. There was a stretch from early Jan to late Feb of about 19 games during which they went 6-13 and fell from about 3-4 games over DeLuca .500 to about 3-4 games under. That was when the season was lost, and it was during that stretch he was meh (before, as previously noted, closing up shop for the season in March). Certainly Skinner fell off the table too, which is disappointing, although it was immediately after that gruesome-looking ankle twist. He may have been hampered, and was also probably hampered by Eichel’s up-and-down pay during that stretch as well. Even so, Skinner had a better season than Reino, and is currently a better player than Reino, and by more than a little. Reino may get there though, and you are right about the relative contract risks. My bottom line is that I’d like to keep both of them, and I don’t mind making Reino earn it for another year since he’s still restricted a year from now.

Interesting questions, especially when you put it that way. Not sure about Reino. He's shown enough so that I'd be happy to secure his rights for a long period, but not enough to support a major cap space commitment. I'd give Skinner $8MM x 8 years, and I'd probably go to $8.5MM to avoid losing him.

Reino definitely took a step up this year, and I am looking forward to seeing him next year, preferably as the leader of a 2nd line with upgraded 2nd-line linemates. But it has to be said: when the season was lost, in January and February, he was just meh. And when the team ran for the bus in March, he brought the Doritos and the boy band mp3s. It wasn't as bad as when he showed up for the previous season 40 games late, but it was still nowhere near young-star-level performance, or Draisaitl-level performance, and definitely far from fat-contract-worthy performance. YMMV, of course.

Everyone is entitled to his or her opinion. You can disagree, which is fine, but it's important, and required, that you communicate here in a respectful and non-obnoxious manner.

That's a low-maintenance spouse you have there, sir. Nicely done.

Good to see ya sir! This is pretty obnoxious.

Drive faster, eh?

I also liked his perspective on Eichel -- i.e. he hasn't delivered what everyone was hoping for when they tanked for him, but getting rid of him would be dumb, and the sky's still the limit -- I think they referred to him as a "potential nuclear weapon."

Well, it's also quite possible that Olofsson is savvy enough to know that paying tribute to his time in Rochester is what the organization wants to hear, so he's being a good company man in order to generate internal goodwill.

I think @novascotiaguy and @New Scotland (NS) should carpool to the meetup game next year.

Awesome.

So @dudacek posted the link below, in a different thread, to a 31 Thoughts podcast with Elliotte Friedman and Jeff Marek. They do a nice, in-depth Sabres discussion for about 8 minutes. (I listened to a few episodes of this podcast early this season and then bailed because I find Friedman too verbose and it makes the podcast too long IMHO. But it doesn't bother me when they're doing the Sabres.) Here it is: https://www.sportsnet.ca/podcasts/31-thoughts-podcast/march-21-2019-cracks-maple-leafs-armour/ The Sabres discussion starts at the 20-minute mark. So, if you come across something similar and you think others here would appreciate it, please fire away.