Randall Flagg

Continuing my "old man yells at cloud"... "Two. More. Days." "Josh Allen. Sam Darnold. Baker Mayfield. Josh Rosen. Lamar Jackson." "16 Buffalo Bills.600 kids.And a whole lot of dancing!" All in. The last. 24 hours. Facebook. Page. Unfollowed. Jesus. Christ. Be. Better.

And the green on the Whalers' uniform is just so elegant and perfect somehow

Understood. And fully agree with the last part. I'm regretting the 30 seconds I took to try and catch up on everything in the world last night. Time to retreat back into only focusing on what's in front of me! (the start of hockey should make that much easier) Thank you for answering my questions!

Now, removing all things human from the equation, and going pure-savage-politics, would this be like the onside kick down 2 scores with 4 minutes left after kicking a field goal? Because the Dems obviously would want this to last until at least November, right? And hope to flip the Senate and Merrick-Garland anyone until 2020, whence they could hope to win the WH and get their pick 'back'? I'm spitballing here. And to clarify, I don't believe or suggest this plays any role in what Dr. Ford is saying and doing.

Gotcha. So, is what's is going to happen qualify as faster than Trump can say Stormy Daniels, or does Brett have it easy? To clarify, there's a whiff of "this is unfair" in Swamp's post that I have trouble connecting to how things have played out.

Isn't that what is going on now though? If the FBI HAD caught a whiff of it, he wouldn't be about to be sworn in right now. But now there's a whiff, so stuff is happening, eh? To be clear, I haven't followed this any closer than headlines (a blessing of being in-semester) so I have no idea what impact the investigations/whatever have on him being confirmed.

I'd sign up for your preferred lines so fast Also with pi's mention of Reinhart at C, Eichel SAID on spitting chicklets at some point that Sam actually doesn't enjoy playing center and prefers the wing, which I thought was interesting. Not sure if I've seen it mentioned here

Mildly nervous about the players that didn't skate today. Hopefully it's just them being as careful as I'd prefer them to be, and not something that will linger.

Not soon enough! I'm ready to watch now!

It actually gets sent to my house in WNY first, I didn't change that when I moved because my sister likes to read them. Then they send the issues to me when she's done.

THE CANES ARE USING WHALERS JERSEYS THIS YEAR SO COOL

It's weird that Tennyson is still here, unless they just want bodies for Friday. Not only was he horrible in his NHL time last year, but he might have been the worst D since the start of camp this year. He was the worst one in that first preseason game for either team, and never got better, and from what I've read was inexplicably bad last year against AHLers in Rochester as well, and shouldn't have even been in that starting 6. And yet he survives

He might be, but you're selling yourself short. I propose a race.

And really my whole point boils down to the fact that we've already punted Jack's entire ELC away. We need to be icing our most-skilled, fastest-skating, highest-upside lineup from day one, or else in my view we're punting year 4. A lineup not too different from the one above had last season completely over before October ended, and the rest of the 70 games were mere formality. That can't ever happen again and the skill present there would bring that result dangerously close this year.

I'm surprised Olofsson lasted this long to be honest. Hopefully Asplund is ready to go by the New Year. He's going to be great.

One where every youngster is sent to Rochester. Its composition was something like Jeff-Jack-Reinhart Sheary-Berglund-Okposo Erod-Zemgus-Sobotka Wilson-Larsson-Pommers

That arena and this place will not be any fun to play in or read if we start this season watching the lineup I keep referencing and go 2-5. And the players will feel it.

It might not change much about the record in the first ten games, but like nfreeman says I believe it will have a very real effect on the morale of the players and on the building of structured play of the team, which we've already seen the lineup I posted earlier incapable of having. And FWIW on Sobotka's point totals, I think he's going to be scoring a fair bit less than that here - those numbers largely came in his ill-advised time on Tarasenko's line and power play time, where he did more harm than good - I've mentioned before that in the 10+ games I watched, he was only ever in the bottom six, and I'm not even sure if he picked up a single point in any of those games. I fully get what you're saying and I think it's a reasonable stance to take, I just completely disagree with it. I think it's important to show these guys that we are fully committed to our best roster with the most upside, especially offensively (it's not as if that bottom six can play a lick of defense statistically) from the drop of the puck October 4th. I think the psyche of the team is fragile, guarded, and ready to fall apart if we so much as get a whiff of what 15-16-17-18 was. If Jesper Bratt can run around all October helping the Devils win games instead of Drew Stafford or Jimmy Hayes wasting space with Hall, as they drop 6 of their first 7, then Tage Thompson pushing scrubs out (even to a waiver wire which they probably wouldn't get claimed on, if we can't trade them) and letting an Okposo settle on a more reasonable line can absolutely, 100% change the culture/feel about the team on the ice. And even if the record in the first ten games wouldn't change (I think it would, it is seriously incredibly damaging to put known anchors intentionally spread throughout your entire bottom six because you have to move other known anchors, but the ones with better careers 4 years ago, up into your top six, and I think Tage is a player that will tilt the ice immediately just based on his ability to make and receive passes and win puck battles, which literally none of that bottom six can do any of) the entire look and feel would, and the chemistry we need to get through the long season will start building early, and the feel amongst the fans will be much less toxic.

Probably like 10 games for me personally before I start to get annoyed. If Jack's got 10 points, Skinner and Sam 8-10, most of the ES variety, and the team is doing okay, then I'd keep it rolling to continue building chemistry, but if the Sabres' other lines can't score and there's nothing particularly different about those players' stat lines from any time in the past then I'd prefer that the guy who pulled scrubs to higher point totals and better possession stats in Carolina get his own line.

I kinda think they were counting on it. Whenever Botterill was asked about his defense, his default answer was that they were "looking forward to Bogosian being healthy again." Because the press, and us, were rightly concerned about the only actual change in the organizational defense, aside from a couple of 7Ds leaving and being replaced by same-ability 7Ds, was an 18 year old draft pick.

Thanks! I agree completely with those tiers, though I do believe the Sabres still comfortably sit in Tier 3.

I just realized there's a The Hockey News' Yearbook edition with Jack on the cover, so I have no idea why the one they sent me has Larkin and Kane.

Marner went absolutely nuts tonight, highlights worth watching

St. Louis Blues Record last season: 44-32-6, 94 points, 5th in the Atlantic Playoffs: None Coach: Mike Yeo GM: Doug Armstrong Captain: Alex Pietrangelo GF: 226 (24th) GA: 222 (6th) PP: 15.4% (30th) PK: 79.7% (18th) Top 5G: 1.) Vladimir Tarasenko (33) 2.) Brayden Schenn (28) 3.) Jaden Schwartz (24) 4.) Patrik Berglund (17) 5.) Alex Pietrangelo (15) Top 5A: 1.) Brayden Schenn (42) 2.) Alex Pietrangelo (39) 3.) Jaden Schwartz (35) 4.) Vladimir Tarasenko (33) 5.) Alex Steen (31) Top 5 PTS: 1.) Brayden Schenn (70) 2.) Vladimir Tarasenko (66) 3.) Jaden Schwartz (59) 4.) Alex Pietrangelo (54) 5.) Alex Steen (46) Key Additions: Ryan O'Reilly (C), Tyler Bozak (C), Patrick Maroon (LW), David Perron (RW) Chad Johnson (G) Key Losses: Carter Hutton (G), Patrik Berglund (C), Vladimir Sobotka (C), Tage Thompson (F), Kyle Brodziak (C) Projected Lineup: Maroon - O'Reilly - Tarasenko Schwartz - Schenn - Perron Steen - Bozak - Fabbri Barbashev - Thomas - Jaskin Edmundson - Pietrangelo Bouwmeester - Parayko Dunn - Bortuzzo Allen Johnson Top Prospects we might/might not see 1.) Robert Thomas, C, 1st round 2017 2.) Jordan Kyrou, RW, 2nd round 2016 3.) Klim Koston, RW, 1st round 2017 4.) Dominik Bokk, RW, 1st round 2018 5.) Jordan Schmaltz, D, 1st round 2012 My thoughts I'm pretty sure this team was losing-in-OT-instead-of-Regulation-in-game-82 away from a postseason birth, and their roster up front improved quite a bit. Fabbri coming back is huge, and they added 3 players with more than 40 points last year (2 with more than 60) to their roster which should combine with that to help their offensive numbers. Their defensive numbers don't need help. If things mesh well and Tarasenko bounces back from his slightly-disappointing season last year, they can contend for a cup. However, that goalie duo has the potential to be bottom 3 if Allen can't get out of his own head, which absolutely happens sometimes. Steen was terrible in the games I watched, but they don't need him to be great anymore. Schenn is awesome and that fourth line has two very good defensive players insulating a rookie. They should be interesting to watch (I was going to use "fun" but Blues hockey at its best is not fun to watch)

This sounds well and good but I have it burned into my brain from last year just how bad our bad vets are, and to see ALL of them back and playing above where they should be, when a guy like Tage, I mean, how can you say that the best place for Tage isn't the NHL? The guy was a key part of Crosby's few minutes spent in his defensive zone tonight. This sounds like the perfect description of the team that offseason time has dulled the memories of, but if it comes to play with the specific players and roster I describe above, none of them, the team, the fans, or the young kids who simply have shown NHL readiness (mostly Tage, but also apparently Nylander has pushed strong lately and Casey supposedly had his best game tonight) will benefit. The season is now. it starts in October. I dunno. That conversation makes sense if you're talking about Robert Thomas and Jordan Kyrou on the St. Louis Blues, and Jason Pominville and Derek Roy on a Sabres team whose vets owned the shot and goal shares. Ours TANK our shot and goal shares.