nfreeman

Liger -- FFS, can you please take it easy? Lately you seem incapable of brooking any disagreement without taking it up to 11. Times are good -- enjoy the conversation.

I’m just gonna say it: there is a decent chance that TT becomes the new Afinogenov — a dangerous and explosive young scoring forward who is occasionally electrifying (albeit in a different way from the way Max was).

Good to see ya sir!

Do you not think they would send Hunwick or Pommer down before unloading Beaulieu? Or that someone else is likely to be injured between now and the time the decision needs to be made?

Longest Bills TD pass in 29 games per the announcers. And a very sweet play.

You’re just showing your bias.

I think the likelihood of a trade to free up roster space is very low and is zero in the case of Beaulieu. Someone is usually injured. If they were really in a pinch they could waive Hunwick or Pommer since no one is going to take those contracts. The reports on Guhle this year are not great. Hunwick hasn’t played a minute this year and was a frequent healthy scratch last year. There is NFW they are going to trade Beaulieu to make room for either of those 2.

Ullmark is playing well enough, and JBott and Howie appear to be smart enough, so that Ullmark will play whenever the Sabres have a back-to-back, plus the odd game here and there.

I want TT to be the 5th guy on PP1, and I want the entire structure of the PP to be redesigned around getting it to him so he can fire the weapon. Holy mackerel.

My game notes: - Ullmark was outstanding other than on Detroit's 1st goal, which was fairly soft. - Tage Freaking Thompson!!! - Serious question: can anyone remember a rookie scoring 2 goals that nice in 1 game (or 1.5 goals, if you don't want to count the SO goal as a real goal)? Not to mention how clutch they were? - I didn't really like Eichel's game tonight. Too much cute, not enough shoot. - For that matter, I again didn't like the results of moving Reino up with Eichel and Skinner. Reino didn't play badly, but that line didn't do much other than a couple of good shifts, and there was a significant dropoff in the effectiveness of the TT/Sobotka line with Pommer instead of Reino. Perhaps the idea was to reduce Pommer's load since it was a back-to-back. If that's the case, I'd rather see TT or ERod with Eichel and Skinner than Reino. - I also thought McCabe struggled a bit tonight. But Risto played like a boss again. - The checking line isn't nearly as effective with ERod and Elie instead of Berglund and Zemgus. - Elie could've staked a claim to a spot in the lineup by burying the shortie late in the 3rd instead of blasting it wide from point blank range -- but not this time. - KO was really strong on the puck all night. He just doesn't have quite enough touch to turn his possession wins into chances very often. - I've noticed more situational coaching moves by Howie lately -- Larsson taking D-zone draws with Eichel's line and then quickly changing for Skinner, Eichel's line going out of turn for O-zone faceoffs, etc. - The Sabres have played much better to start the game for the last 3 games now after a stretch of not showing up for the 1st 25-30 min. 9 in a row. It's been a long time since we rock and rolled.

EIGHT of the 9 wins have been 1-goal games, including 3 in OT and 3 in the SO. Amazing.

Awesome.

TT should be on this peeper!!

Detroit is 4-1 in OT this year. Sabres are 3-2.

They don’t make the end of the game stress-free, innit?

MJD -- obviously, you must be "biased"! (Which I think means "having an opinion that differs from mine.")

Is Zemgus banged up? Hopefully not, and this is just internal competition to keep everyone focused and hungry (which I think is the case with Nelson coming in for Beaulieu).

I just watched it again and I think this is exactly what happened. Awesome.

I have been pretty pleased with TT-Sobotka-Reino in the past couple of games. I think it has emerged as a nice 2ndary scoring line that creates a good number of chances, and Reino deserves much of the credit for that. I like the way Howie keeps Reino as a "break glass in case of emergency" option for juicing Eichel's line when needed. I do not agree that Reino is the best on the team, or even among the best, at the chip-and-retrieve. I think he's quite good on entries and solid but not outstanding on exits (that Athletic piece was based on a pretty limited sample size). I think the GF/GA metric is pretty much irrelevant for a guy who plays on PP1 but doesn't kill penalties. OTOH, I think TT-Sobotka-Reino is better in the D zone than Eichel's line (although, to be fair, Eichel's line usually is playing against stronger opposition than Reino's line). I think we can pretend all we want that Reino isn't a lousy skater, or that whatever skating deficiencies he has don't matter, but I think he is, and they do. There is simply no comparison between his ability to get quickly from the slot to the corner to battle for pucks as opposed to guys like Skinner and Sheary (and for that matter KO and TT). It is a testament to Reino's talents that he can still be an effective NHL player despite his skating. I think before we start agitating to give Reino a fat contract, it's important to remember that he has 3 goals in 23 games this year, and 11 ES pts in 23 games. It's also important to consider that if the Sabres keep Skinner, there isn't going to be much cap room left, and some tough decisions will lie ahead.

Dude — this and several of your other posts in this thread are highly obnoxious. This is not how we communicate here.

20 oz of iced coffee with milk and sweet ‘n’low around an hour after I get to work. Peet’s is my favorite as well. I also like Gevalia.

As for concerts: the great Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Springsteen, Rush, the Police and Journey come to mind. The Aud was included on just about every big rock tour. I don’t know how good or lousy its acoustics were, but it was just as small and packed in for concerts as it was for sports. I sat 3 rows from the roof for Springsteen and it was great. All of the concerts were awesome experiences.

We’ll, he’s sure off to a good start in his contract year.

I saw “Widows” last night with my wife and sister-in-law. Pretty disappointing. C-plus or, if you’re being generous, B-minus.

It’s steep but miles further away.