nfreeman

I don't like Monahan and I'm glad the Sabres weren't in on that deal. Also: the Kadri deal, like the Huberdeau contract, might ease the pain for Flames fans in the short terms but yeeeeeessshhh. That's a lot of term for a 31-year-old.

OK, so the semifinals are on Friday, with Kulich and the Czechs (are they still called that) vs Canada at 2:00 pm ET, and Rosen, Sjodin and the Swedes vs Finland at 6:00 pm ET. TV coverage in the US is on NHLN, but for streamers, it's only on Fubo (brilliant work as always, NHL!). Interestingly enough, it looks like Sjodin got 15.5 minutes of ice time in Sweden's game yesterday, while Rosen got 13.5. Kulich got 15:40 for Czechia.

This is a great point. I don't necessarily agree, but it implicates a bunch of fundamental questions about where the Sabres are, what KA's priorities are, what KA's message to the team is, etc., including: - Is KA trying to make the playoffs this year? If so, it kinda seems like KO should and will be named captain, as that would send the message to the team to the effect of "Yes, this roster is mostly young and unproven, but I believe in this roster and its leadership group, and I know that everyone looks at KO as a leader, and we don't need to wait another year for another leader to emerge, because KO can lead you guys where we all want to go." OTOH, not naming KO captain would kinda send the opposite message, i.e. "I don't know yet whether you guys are going to be able to get it done, and you were pretty lousy again last year, so I'm not locking anything in until I see more from this roster." - As a related point: does KA think the team has enough prospects and picks in the pipeline so that he doesn't need to leave open the option of trading KO at the deadline? Or is he still in assemble-as-many-picks-and-prospects-as-possible mode? Realistically, even if KO, who turned 34 in April, repeats his productivity from last year, he'd probably bring back at most a 2nd-round pick, and more likely a 3rd-rounder, with the pick likely falling in the last 1/3 of whatever round it is. Is that a valuable enough asset to not give the C to KO? - What does it mean if Dahlin or Cozens or a different younger player is given the C instead of KO? Does it mean that KA thinks the team will get there eventually but not this year? Or just that it's quite possible that this is KO's last year and so it doesn't make sense to give him the C? In any case, I voted for option #2 and making him the captain w/o it being a mistake.

So I bailed on the following 2 shows, each about 2/3 of the way through their only seasons: - We Own this City -- HBO -- started off as a pretty good successor to The Wire, but got boring and preachy - Outer Range -- Amazon -- started off as an interesting feud between neighboring ranches with a supernatural element, but got too weird. I was also pretty close to bailing on The Old Man, which started off as a really good spy thriller, but slowed way down into a family melodrama. I'm probably out for season 2.

Well, I agree that it was written that way, but I guess I don't think it was really necessary. He was already going to prison for 7 years. He wanted more than anything to redeem himself in Kim's eyes. Did he need to die in prison to achieve that? I thought he could've told the court that he had lied about Kim, and probably said other redemptive words, without going full hara-kiri and torpedoing the plea deal.

I thought it was Jimmy, thinking back on a reasonably friendly moment with his brother and regretting what he did to Chuck afterward. Separately, I thought it was a pretty good finale. There was never going to be an exciting escape scene or anything like that IMHO -- it was always going to be a reckoning for Jimmy with his past sins, which were plentiful and profound. I thought the scene at the sentencing was maybe a bit contrived, because once Kim was there he didn't need to torpedo his plea deal, but it didn't ruin the episode for me, and I thought the last scene with Kim at the prison and the scenes with WW and Mike E. were all really good.

Most of mine are boosted from some of the many great posts in here: Winning the roulette for Gilbert, leading to Gilbert winding up in his own end Going to a game with my dad in the Aud. Sometimes we sat in the 6th or 7th row deep in the corner and the slappers and big body checks that came flying in were amazing. Rico smashing the rookie goal scoring record in the 2nd year of the franchise. Schony taking on the Bruins Dominik shutting the door on the Leafs in the playoffs 7-6 Who else? Who else? HM: Briere’s double OT winner vs Philly in 2006, followed a few months later by the Sabres destroying Philly 9-1 early in the 2006-07 season, precipitating Clarke’s resignation and Hitchcock’s firing.

Well, I'd probably describe it as them agreeing to pay a huge amount for those draft terms, and the other owners agreeing to sell those draft terms in exchange for that huge amount. So Vegas wanted the opportunity to be good right away and was willing to pay for that opportunity, and the NHL was willing to sell it to them. They still had to be smart enough to utilize that opportunity correctly. Seattle had the same opportunity and, thus far, seems to have squandered it. And I go back to each other team losing only 1 guy, and being able to protect all draftees, all 1st- and 2nd-year pros, their top 7 forwards, top 3 D and top goalie. No one put a gun to anyone's head and made him expose MAF or trade Karlsson.

Interesting. I think a number of people agree with you in being unhappy with the deal that Vegas negotiated with the NHL and the results -- ie Vegas being good right away without having to "pay their dues" like prior expansion teams. I don't feel that way at all -- they paid a $500MM fee in exchange for the right to pick from the other teams' 8th-best forwards, 4th-best defensemen and 2nd-best goalies, from which draft picks and 1st- and 2nd-year pros were excluded, and didn't get the #1 overall draft pick. And they were really smart about building their organization and their team. They wanted to be good right away, and they were, and it was exciting and good for the NHL. The Kraken had the same opportunity as Vegas had, and they made much worse choices and have had much worse results. I agree with you that they got greedy and mismanaged assets and the salary cap, and I can agree with some schadenfreude on that point.

I don't think I'm capable of doing any of those things.

I think this is indeed the plan, and it has a reasonable chance of working.

JFC. It's beautiful outside. Get some exercise and be happy.

I was thinking of Eichel, not Lehner, when I mentioned schadenfreude, but this is a very good point. Lehner sure gets hurt a lot. I still wish him well with his demons though. But I wouldn't be too sad if Jack continues to miss the playoffs every year for a while.

This is obnoxious.

I think Krebsie's Sabres comparable is more like Derek Roy than Danny Briere, although Roy was a better finisher than Krebs and Krebs has a lot more heart and determination than Roy had. Roy (one of my least favorite Sabres ever) was also a smallish center who was physically overmatched when he first reached the NHL -- I recall him getting knocked over pretty much every time he entered the offensive zone. But they brought him along slowly -- he played 2 full years in juniors after being drafted and didn't become an NHL regular until his D+5 season, although that was partially due to the lockout in 2004-05. He improved his strength on his skates over time and became a very productive player in a supporting role, at least in the regular season -- after Black Sunday, he disappeared once the going got tough in the playoffs. (Roy also completely fell off the table after leaving the Sabres -- he was one of quite a few guys whom Lindy got far more out of than anyone else was able to.) Krebs is entering his D+4 season, although the pandemic plus injury resulted in him playing only 71 games total in his D+1 and D+2 seasons. He then played a total of 77 games last year, his D+3 season, spread across 2 NHL teams (57 games) and 2 AHL teams (20 games). So he really hasn't gotten that many reps, nor has he had the benefit of a stable, deliberate development path in a winning environment. Hopefully he'll have that type of environment this coming season and will benefit from it. If so, I can see him developing into a Roy-type role on this team -- a smart, speedy, skilled guy who benefits from down-lineup matchups against the opposition's lower-level defenders, can play a 200-foot game well against those matchups, can play special teams pretty well and is quite productive in that role.

I gotta admit -- it will be hard to avoid schadenfreude if the wheels fall off in Vegas again.

Krebsie IMHO is one of the many guys who will be competing for ice time, PP time and higher/lower spots in the lineup. That group includes pretty much everyone other than TT, Skinner and Tuch: Krebs, Cozens, Mitts, VO, Quinn, JJP, Asplund, Vinnie and perhaps KO (although if KO still has his legs, he'll be in the 1st group). There are a million potential outcomes. Based on Krebsie's history, wheels, vision and attitude, I expect him to swim, not sink. I kinda expect him to win the #3C spot from Mitts by the halfway point of the season. It will be fun to watch.

Leaving aside potential injuries, I think JJP will be in the opening night lineup and Sheahan won't, but I won't be super-surprised if I'm wrong about that. It will be a disappointment though if JJP isn't in the starting lineup by game 10 or so. I guess at that point they'd send him down anyway rather than healthy-scratching him.

Well, I think you're only left to infer that inference if you're predisposed to infer that way.

My point here is that we have no idea what kind of non-publicized charitable donations they make — and since we don’t know, it’s awfully PA-ish to assume that they aren’t doing so.

If anyone wanted to list the Sabres' prospects who are participating in the tournament and their teams -- that would be great.

I think we’ve seen the last of Kim and the last episode will be Jimmy/Saul trying to escape, then getting caught and coming to terms with his crimes.

…since you’ve confirmed that TP doesn’t donate to charity and that this fence caper, for the benefit of these “douchebag cretins,” was the only nice thing he’s done for anyone. Fear and loathing.

I agree that he hasn’t done so, and that a time will come when he’ll need to do so — I just think the choice to sign Comrie doesn’t indicate a reluctance to do so, as I think that choice was primarily driven by the absence of clearly substantially superior alternatives. There were arguably slightly superior alternatives, but not at the difference-making level IMHO.

I agree it’s not a given but I think those 2 are going to be an outstanding top pair this season.