Randall Flagg

https://www.wkbw.com/sports/sabres/watch-sabres-eichel-re-energized-ready-to-take-major-steps Here's Jack's full interview.

The All-22 analyses I've seen also show that our WRs have been open every play, but that Nasty Nate just wouldn't throw to them. We aren't as bad as we were in Baltimore, even if we aren't good. Josh keeps his eyes downfield well under pressure, but you can tell he doesn't have a feel for pressure just yet, the way Brady/Rodgers can shift around with ease without having to look. Somebody on TBD pointed out that at one point our tackle brushed into his back and he took off, thinking it was the DE. That's something that repetition will improve. I think they've been working on his internal clock, too, though he sometimes still took too long to throw. I don't think he'll miss as many open receivers as Peterman did, at least. I just hope Sunday is close.

I've enjoyed the level of positivity on the board in the last few weeks. It's a lot easier and more fun to read here than hfboards where everyone is bunkering down with their talking points and arguing instead of discussing. I'm going to keep enjoying it because I think it'll be destroyed (rightfully so) by a slow start, and if there's one thing our Sabres do, it's start slow

Tampa's D, right now, is a top 4 unit in the league - that one member (Stralman) is on a slow decline and the other was going to be a UFA (but extended, McDonagh) doesn't really do much to make Steve look bad. Hedman will continue to be a Norris candidate and winner, Sergachev is an absolute stud of a rookie, and Cal Foote is as rock solid a defensive prospect as can be. It might become their weak point in a couple of years but won't be bad for a long time.

One thing I forgot to mention about Dallas is that Jim Nill cannot draft to save his life and it's probably going to lead to the end of his tenure a lot sooner than if he could.

Damn. I hope he can find peace. That really sucks.

On the contrary, I think a bigger problem would be a meddling owner. Name one that wins. A bad coach can be fired. A bad owner can't. Now, luckily, Allen was McDermott's choice this week, and Pegula probably doesn't make roster decisions.

Because....yay, the right decision was made. Eventually the maker of bad ones, McDermott, is gone. What remains, is an owner that is continuing to think he has any idea how football works and doing things like vetoing coaching decisions. Just because it would happen to be a good decision in one instance doesn't mean our owner has a clue about football. And an owner that thinks he does and acts on that thought can cause big problems. Of course, this is why that would be bad, I'm not saying that's what's happening right now.

Dallas Stars Record last season: 42-32-8, 92 points, 6th in the Central Playoffs: None - missed by 3 points Coach: Jim Montgomery GM: Jim Nill Captain: Jamie Benn GF: 231 (19th) GA: 222 (6th) PP: 19.3% (19th) PK: 80.8% (14th) Top 5G: 1.) Tyler Seguin (40) 2.) Jamie Benn (36) 3.) Alexander Radulov (27) 4.) Mattias Janmark (19) 5.) Radek Faksa (17) Top 5A: 1.) John Klingberg (59) 2.) Alexander Radulov (45) 3.) Jamie Benn (43) 4.) Tyler Seguin (38) 5.) Devin Shore (21) Top 5 PTS: 1.) Jamie Benn (79) 2.) Tyler Seguin (78) 3.) Alexander Radulov (72) 4.) John Klingberg (67) 5.) Mattias Janmark (34) Key Additions: Blake Comeau (LW), Roman Polak (D), Anton Khudobin (G) Key Losses: Kari Lehtonen (G), Dan Hamhuis (D), Antoine Roussel (LW), Greg Pateryn(D), Curtis McKenzie (LW) Projected Lineup: Benn - Seguin - Nichushkin (he's back?) Janmark - Spezza - Radulov Comeau - Faksa - Pitlick Elie - Shore/Hanzal - Ritchie Lindell - Klingberg Heiskanen - Johns Methot - Honka Bishop Khudobin Top Prospects we might/might not see 1.) Miro Heiskanen, D, 1st round 2017 2.) Ty Dellandrea, C, 1st round 2018 3.) Valeri Nichushkin, RW, 1st round 2013 4.) Jason Dickinson, C, 1st round 2013 5.) Denis Gurianov, RW, 1st round 2015 My thoughts Dallas finally fixed their defensive and goaltending problems last season, and then the offense behind the top line fell off a cliff. Spezza is dreadful at this point. I bet you didn't know Faksa was 7th in Selke voting, he's real good, but they basically have 5 good forwards and a bunch of 4th liners. That continues to be the case this season. Their shutdown D pairing left, but Heiskanen is going to be great. Klingberg is an excellent offensive defensemen, one of the best in the league. I'm pretty sure Honka, Johns, and Lindell are decent but not great. Seguin is a stud who has become premiere in both directions, not just the offensive one. He's got to stop getting injured right before the playoffs, though, like he has been pretty much every time they've made it if I remember correctly. It's certainly no guarantee that they do. They could be a low to mid 80 point team. They could win that division if people develop and provide the scoring boost the team needs behind the top line. I probably won't notice which one appears to be happening until I look at the standings in April - I just don't care about this team.

I'd agree with the result of the decision but reject the philosophy out of hand

I want to get excited for this, but what's probably going to happen is that Toronto "loses" a young member of their core for like Brett Pesce or something, and becomes a better team for it.

Would Terry ever veto a coach's roster decision? If so, we have a problem.

I think I've hit a point where I wouldn't blink if Bailey was waived and claimed, except for Eleven's rooting interest.

Didn't Dennison's offense drop 48 points two nights ago? Not to say I like Dennison. Even when we were a playoff team and the Jets were bad, they blew us off of both lines. That team has some beef in the trenches. We need a lot of that. Bosa OL WR OL OL WR OL and sign the best FA WR you can Also apparently the All-22 review guys weren't as low on Star in Baltimore as I was. Not to say that I come close to approving of that garbage contract they gave him.

And damn, Risto's going to be able to cross check guys after they're done scoring on him even better now

Jack's progression in the leadership department over the last year and a half is there for anyone who wants to see it. He's probably not ready to be a captain right this second, but he will be at some point, and whether he gets the C or not he will be a leader.

I'm excited about Asplund, but he played against a bunch of undrafted invites and 3rd round picks - we'll need to see how he looks in the preseason before having an idea if/when we'll see him this year.

If there's a team whose main offensive zone goal (separate from ability) is not to create slot space and get the puck there, that team should fold And of course, there are plenty of times where the only option is to pass to the point, and the only option from there is to shoot, or even just wring the puck around, and of course that's what should be done in those instances - but teams should never, all things equal, prefer the point man versus the guy in the slot

Hedman for Larkin straight up coming any second now

Psh. It's Sunday at 11:17am, and not a minute later

Just realized I wrote "tumors"

Ironically, if he's a 60 point floater then I'll be thrilled - I'm softer on guys who score a lot but infuriate people (Derek Roy etc) than most fans are

Also, Tyreke Hill and that running back whose name I don't remember. Hunt? Watkins is like the 4th WR on that team

This morning I wondered why we still had work and class today. But I realized it's pretty awesome - they wanted to hurt America and destroy what it stands for. If we shut everything down on that day, year after year, in some sense that could be seen as a technical success. But instead, we keep on going. We keep building, and fixing, and working, and creating. Products, infrastructure, relationships. And all the while, remembering.

Columbus Blue Jackets Record last season: 45-30-7, 97 points, 4th in the Metropolitan Playoffs: lost in the first round to Washington in 6 games Coach: John Tortorella GM: Jarmo Kekalainen Captain: Nick Foligno GF: 236 (17th) GA: 226 (10th) PP: 17.2% (25th) PK: 76.2% (26th) Top 5G: 1.) Artemi Panarin (27) 2.) Cam Atkinson (24) 3.) Pierre-Luc Dubois (20) 4.) Josh Anderson (19) 5.) Seth Jones (16) Top 5A: 1.) Artemi Panarin (55) 2.) Seth Jones (41) 3.) Oliver Bjorkstrand (29) 4.) Pierre-Luc Dubois (28) 5.) Alexander Wennberg (27) Top 5 PTS: 1.) Artemi Panarin (82) 2.) Seth Jones (57) 3.) Pierre-Luc Dubois (48) 4.) Cam Atkinson (46) 5.) Oliver Bjorkstrand (40) Key Additions: Riley Nash (C), Anthony Duclair (RW), Adam Clendening (D) Key Losses: Thomas Vanek (LW), Jack Johnson (D), Matt Calvert (LW), Ian Cole (D), Mark Letestu (C), Jordan Schroeder (RW) Projected Lineup: Panarin - Dubois - Atkinson Jenner - Wennberg - Bjorkstrand Foligno - Nash - Anderson Milano - Dubinsky - Duclair Werenski - Jones Murray - Nutivaara Kukan - Savard Bobrovsky Korpisalo Top Prospects we might/might not see 1.) Liam Foudy, C, 1st round 2018 2.) Gabriel Carlsson, D, 1st round 2015 3.) Jonathan Davidsson, RW, 5th round 2017 4.) Alexandre Texier, C, 2nd round 2017 5.) Vitaly Abramov, RW, 3rd round 2016 My thoughts The elephant in the room is the Artemi Panarin situation. Losing him for nothing would be devastating, as he's a huge part of their offense (and scored 12 more points than DOUBLE the amount the guy he was traded for straight-up scored). They could probably get a decent haul though if they need to trade him. Presuming that he plays the whole year, the team is set up to contend for a 2/3 seed in that division. They have a rock solid, if not spectaular, group of forwards, with room for improvement - Atkinson missed almost 20 games and Wennberg fell off a bit. Those guys have room to grow and PLD is only going to get better and better, and was already a very solid possession and offensive center in his rookie year. Early returns on picking him over Puljujarvi are very promising. Bjorkstrand is going to get better too. They have legitimate NHL depth on every line and can do things like insulate Milano to hope he can explode offensively. Their top 5 defensemen are also legit, though the depth is quite thin. I don't know anything about Kukan, maybe he's a good prospect, but Jones finished FOURTH in Norris voting at age 23 (I love this guy and think he'll win a couple) and Werenski is well on his way to being a top-pairing D man if he isn't already. Nutivaara and David Savard are both just solid second pairing defensemen, I'd kill to have both of them on our team. Murray is solid when healthy too. I think these guys will make the playoffs this year. The only issue is they always seem to face a team that wins at least 3 rounds when they make it. They've drawn each of the past two cup winners in the first round. If they can avoid that, they should be able to win their franchise's first ever playoff series, with the important caveat that Bobrovsky's playoffs versus regular season splits aren't as different as they have been every season up to this point. Just a solid NHL franchise all-around. We'll see what happens with the Panarin situation.