Randall Flagg

From both teams, a surprisingly structured period for the B-team first preseason game. Looked sorta like a particularly boring game in mid-February.

My sound actually was cutting in and out.

send me a message if you're browsing this thread and the letters V, L, and C are of great interest to you

Columbus's lineup looks just as empty as ours, so I don't think the game should go too badly

Gotcha. This particular conversation closed nicely then.

Paul Hamilton is the only known source of the particular "Jack likes ROR, but not vice versa" rumor. They might not have liked each other, but there is zero chance that fistbumpgate was anything but an incidental thing that was turned into a joke. Especially because after like, twice, they went back to celebrating together like they had for two years.

I took Biron's quote encompass not veteran players but the entirety of the city of buffalo - the team, the fanbase etc. FWIW. As for the bold. Still not biting on this at all. Jack's on ice play, both to the eye, and to any particular metric, has improved steadily each season. Last year was his best even strength offensive and defensive season ever. Both in terms of raw production and underlying fancystats. The fact remains that he was given trash to play with while doing that, the depth scoring of the team plummeted, and the goaltending fell off a cliff (which we now have real insight into). Those things tanked us last year despite every top six member having their best season as Sabres as far as underlying numbers goes. Unless the claim is that Benoit Pouliot and Jacob Josefson were just sick of Jack and his 'tude, and THAT'S why they weren't as good depth as a demonstrably and obviously better third line of, say, Foligno - Larsson (pre-injury) - Gionta which was arguably our best ES line in the previous seasons. And not that they were worse hockey players doing worse things on the ice. And even IF that was the case, well, what kind of professional lets being grumpy about a teammate's leadership affect their on-ice production (which actually is in line with what their career arcs would expect)? That would be straight trash and not anyone's fault but theirs. I pictured the Moulson ice cream freezer during that part of the article ?

I trust what Jack said (by the way - he wasn't asked about it. He specifically brought up those rumors out of nowhere and addressed them with that explanation) more than I trust most of Paul Hamilton's locker room waffling.

If you like Offensive savants, you should see the video floating around online of the Rams' coach McVay - the guy can apparently recall every offensive play run by every team he's coached and what happened as a result

Sabrespace got played

The Panthers just named Barkov their captain.

That meme is legendary As is any meme that comes from stock images

Allen looked like a raw rookie with no help. It could have been a lot worse IMO. Things like the footwork improvement that showed in the preseason weren't there, because for the first time in his life he had NFL starters trying to rip his head off and a line trying to help IMO. I was actually kind of enjoying his game, which was indeed bad by NFL standards, but very much looked like rookie qbs of the past. (I don't want this to be interpreted as anything like a direct comparison - but if Peyton Manning can throw 28 picks his rookie year, I'm going to watch Allen throw a bunch, and when he hits 245 yards and throws a strike TD, I'm gonna goddamn enjoy it, at least that we have a guy with tools to try and develop)

I think I read that there is a stream available in the Columbus region, which means if you find that link and use a VNC, you'd be able to watch. Just like the prospect scrimmages

They were better than the Pats that whole game, I was so sad when the Pats came back

It sounds like Bogosian doesn't have any issue, it was just a general maintenance day. I'm not convinced a scrimmage against the Sabres would be worth risking anything for him, so I'm cool with that decision. He'll surely play plenty of preseason minutes. Reports from a guy at the scrimmage on hfboards are that Okposo looked good and faster than last year. It'd be great to add 16-17 KO to this team.

Los Angeles Kings Record last season: 45-29-8, 98 points, 4th in pacific Playoffs: lost in 1st round to Vegas Coach: John Stevens GM: Rob Blake Captain: Anze Kopitar GF: 237 (16th) GA: 202 (1st) PP: 20.4% (17th) PK: 85.0% (1st) Top 5G: 1.) Anze Kopitar (35) 2.) Dustin Brown (28) 3.) Tyler Toffoli (24) 4.) Adrian Kempe (16) 5.) Tanner Pearson (15) Top 5A: 1.) Anze Kopitar (57) 2.) Drew Doughty (50) 3.) Jake Muzzin (34) 4.) Dustin Brown (33) 5.) Tanner Pearson (25) Top 5 PTS: 1.) Anze Kopitar (92) 2.) Dustin Brown (61) 3.) Drew Doughty (60) 4.) Tyler Toffoli (47) 5.) KJake Muzzin (42) Key Additions: Ilya Kovalchuk (LW), Peter Budaj (G) Key Losses: Tobias Rieder (LW), Torrey Mitchell (C) Projected Lineup: Kovalchuk - Kopitar - Brown Pearson - Carter - Toffoli Iafallo - Kempe - Vilardi Clifford - Thompson - Lewis Muzzin - Doughty Phaneuf - Martinez Forbort - LaDue Quick Budaj Top Prospects we might/might not see 1.) Gabe Vilardi, C, 1st round 2017 2.) Rasmus Kupari, C, 1st round 2018 3.) Kale Clague, D, 2nd round 2016 4.) Jaret Anderson - Dolan, 2nd round 2017 5.) Akil Thomas, C, 2nd round 2018 My thoughts The Kings' only major change is the addition of Kovalchuk, who is old and slow but still had a tremendous scoring season in Russia last year, and he should be a good piece for them. They are so old and slow too. But they're damn good at defense and keeping the puck out, and that'll help them in their quest to ultimately be another playoff team that gets beat in the first, mayyyyyybe the second round. Kopitar and Brown bounced back in a huge way, and a healthy Carter will help them out. The fourth line has good fourth liners on it and the third line could be a very intriguing kids line. Injuries would be the most likely cause of them missing the playoffs in a division that appears to be weak. But I can't see them getting too far.

I hope they lose just because of that.

Eat it brady

Until the clock winds out, I always assume NE is winning whatever game they play, but I'm still enjoying this game.

McD also took over defensive playcalling from Frasier in the 2nd half, apparently.

We've only seen Ivory a few times, but since he already has more yards one one play than Tolbert has in his whole life, my fears that that was another Tolbert signing look to be unwarranted. Also, I realize my hypocrisy saying that after going after inkie earlier, but that can be explained as follows: I'm a Bills homer

If you'd like me to properly qualify the statement, being extra careful, With questions about their rookie kicker being spooked and not being in the right headspace, as the time wound down and the drive was going so well, I am a little curious if they are wishing that they would have pushed the pace a little more and taken a real shot at a TD with the offense that has not had such concerns. There, I fixed a passing talking point to being something maybe technically allowable

You should relax and join the fun of armchair coaching in the football thread on a board that has nothing to do with football, eh?