TheAud

I'd go: 1) Gare 2) Martin 3) Andreychuck 4) Mogilny 5) Vanek 6) Eichel. #6 is rising in the rankings however...

I like this simple, but normalized set of data to compare players in a similar situation (1st two years of their career, picked #2 overall). If Samson ends up being the "average" of the three guys above him and three guys below him on this list, I am happy with that: Landeskog, Seguin, Shanahan, Marleau, Van Riemsdyk, Barkov Baker forgot to include Eichel. He would rank 4th on the list with Malkin, Heatley, Yashin above and B. Ryan, Falloon, and T. Linden below. I certainly hope Jack ends up with a better career than all but probably one of those guys.

Do not build a team like the Team USA in the World Cup of Hockey. Now who was that GM again?

Another example in a different sport is the Bills under Wilson. He wasn't a great owner (I'd argue he was a great man when you consider his charitable donations and legacy) he managed to stumble onto the Polian/Butler/Levy combination and ride that to great sustained success for a period of time before he blew it up. Otherwise, he largely flitted between mediocrity and putrescence for the other 30 years with occasional luck sprinkled in (I am not including the AFL success early on...that was a different situation entirely).

Well, there's George Soros.

Mitch Trubisky is going to be the new Sabres team President? I'd prefer Watson.

That would be such a blessing. The Bills have been burdened with an inordinate number of late season home games by which time: a) The preponderance of harder-to-win road games have stacked the deck against their already slim playoff chances by the end of the season and b) The weather has become, shall we say, chillier, making it less desirable for fans

This is a radical and novel argument I need to ponder for awhile to comprehend.

Going to see Bela Fleck and Abigail Washburn tonight. This is a cool one: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=S5AsyuNia5Y

I beg your pardon

I'm as down on the franchise as anyone but won't read anything from Sullivan. Even a broken clock is right twice a day.

GP G A PM SOG S% ZG 80 11 14 22 131 8.20% Turns 24 next season JL 80 10 12 35 98 10.10% Will be 25 next season (+1.5 years vs. ZG) Here are their career basic stats on an 80 game season (I know it's an 82 game season but everyone misses one or two games). ZG has slightly more offense, JL is a bit more of an agitator. ZG is 1.5 years younger. I would have thought ZG's high shooting% in his second year would show up here but it's actually two points lower than Larsson. If forced to choose I'd prefer to keep Zemgus. He produces similarly to Johan but I feel he's been somewhat mis-used by Bylsma and still has some upside. Whereas despite popular opinion that the Gionta, Larsson, Foligno line was some great functioning 3rd line I thought they were terrible, constantly being out shot and pinned in their own end. So I can't get too excited about Larsson.

Gotcha thanks.

So for those of us stuck in Delta airlines hell in LaGuardia airport and only following the game online...did Gionta retire or what?

But wouldn't it be so Buffalo for Ullmark to come up and impress McPhee with a 30 save shutout and then get plucked instead of Moulson, Bogo, Ennis, etc?

This is Ullmark's tryout for Vegas

I like Carrier more than Larsson or Girgs in terms of potential contribution for next year. I really feel like Bylsma mis-used him. He's an agitator, forechecker, and can help with scoring. He seemed to bounce between 1st and 4th line with zero PK or PP time. Of course he had the injury too. But isn't it weird he saw so much time with ROR and Kane (I think) yet couldn't crack 9 minutes of ice time per night? Anyway, I think if he could get comfortable on a 3rd line and get 12-13 minutes per game, maybe including some PK time where his speed would be useful, I think he's a solid contributor.

I was faced with this sort of scenario prior to Christmas last season. I had gotten a Ristolainen jersey as a gift (my Mom won it in a raffle, and it happened to fit me) but my then-girlfriend (now wife) wanted one and didn't know a single player at the time except Eichel (she knows most of the roster now). However we were already committed to Eichel jersey's for both my then 11 year old daughter and my wife's sister. So...she had me explain the characteristics of every player on the team as we looked at their jersey's in the Sabres store. After I described 15 players or so, she picked one. O'Reilly. So far it's proven to be a wise choice. At this point no additional money will be spent on Sabres gear or tickets until the coach is fired. Last time I did this was during the year or more preceding Darcy getting the axe.

27-6 shots on goal. Advanced analytics says "this is not good".

Shortie

The Kane penalty was absurd. The guy gets whacked not 5 feet from the ref who's staring right at it. My only complaint was Kane's response he needed to absolutely level the guy then tell the ref this is going to get worse if he's not going to protect him.

I am sure that's Alex's perspective. I don't think it really matters though...NHL debut will be exciting enough. Probably could have used him yesterday and then he'd face his brother today.

At least they didn't pick a game for his NHL debut that has extra pressure or scrutiny...like, oh, I don't know...against his BROTHER.

You guys remind me of the bit about people that speak two languages are called "bi-lingual" and people that speak three languages are called "tri-lingual" and people that speak only one language are called "American". BTW my wife is tri-lingual and I am American.

Those damn capitalists...