TrueBlueGED

I'm thinking this is right. His point play continues to impress me more than anyone not named Ristolainen.

Samson's hands are magical.

What a shift by the Eichel line :wub:

I think he's making the team.

I wouldn't mind if I never watched another game from this camera angle again. It seems like it'd be fun in spurts and for certain replays, but as the main camera? Vomit.

Sir, please calm down.

I can't even...

...is O'Reilly wearing skinny jeans?

Got my hands on some of an early batch of Founders KBS. The only question is whether I have the discipline to save it for the Bills game.

Promise me that if you crash the SS party, you won't shave your ass in front of us.

You didn't click the link, did you? :p

Depends on the defenseman. I've seen what I need to out of Risto to think the upside of a longterm deal outweighs the risk-mitigation of a bridge.

Is it so taxing to wrap a towel around? There is not a single good reason to be shaving in the gym bathroom buck ass naked.

Aren't the USA Today previews written by Kevin Allen? If so, there's no chance in hell it's based on a statistical model. Ultimately, I think opinion around the league about our blue line is more in tune with what I believe than seems to be the consensus around here. And nobody outside of Buffalo believes in Lehner.

Didn't Weber sign a PTO somewhere?

I was so far behind in this thread I thought something really important happened that I missed. Every page, I thought "THIS will be the one with the breaking news". And every time, I was greeted with more morality of the tax code. I hate each and every one of you :devil:

Pretty sure EJ is gone after this year. It a big risk either way, though. Zero practice time in a completely new offense, plus coming off a brutal injury? To say nothing of possible acquisition price. Particularly if we miss the playoffs again but Rex/Whaley stay, in can't imagine them taking that kind of a risk. Now, if Rex and/or Whaley are gone, then it seems more realistic. It's not often a coach who has always run the defense would take a step back and hand off play calling to somebody else, to say nothing of the OC change in week two. I'm reminded of Ron Rivera when he was maybe a week away from getting fired fundamentally changing his approach. Who knows if the results stick, but I do think he should get credit for putting ego aside on the defensive side of the ball.

I don't remember reading any specifics either. My guess is he was dropping back and planted and it went all wrong, but it's just a guess.

I'm excited to see Jack and O'Reilly on the ice, but really, I'm just itching for the regular season to start.

*patiently waits for people to give Rex any credit* More seriously, if Bridgewater were to become available, I'm highly interested. The problem is Tyrod's option. It's not like we could go QB-less on the chance that a guy coming off a major injury becomes available for trade but won't be ready until...October.

I'll just say, that is one fugly worst case scenario.

In my view, we've already seen the flop. That's our fundamental disagreement, in a nutshell. ELCs are certainly one source of bargain contracts, but I don't know why anyone would be more confident in hitting on those (seeing as we're not going to be drafting top-10 anymore unless something goes horribly wrong) than betting on the development we've seen out of Risto in one AHL season and two NHL seasons.

In a cap world, sustaining success hitting on some bargain contracts. One way to get a bargain is to bet on development. Will it always work? Nope, and Myers and Bogosian are examples of that. But it also works. Roman Josi is making probably half of what he would if he signed a contract after emerging as the best defenseman in Nashville. That's a huge win for Nashville. And going bridge to "prove it" can cost a team big time. See: PK Subban. Paying everyone market value makes it nearly impossible to put together a championship roster as it necessitates hitting on all of your cheap help because you're not getting any value out of your vets. Besides, I think the downside of going long term on Risto is being greatly overstated. Risto right now is a top-4 Dman, and would be in the top-3 for any team, which puts him around the $5 million mark. Even if he ends up at $6 million and doesn't progress, that's still merely an inefficient contract, not a cap crippler. It's only crippling if he gets worse. What do you think the chance of that happening is?

I'm assuming this is tongue-in-cheek.

Here's what I don't understand about your position: a 5-6 year deal is fine, but an 8 year deal risks completely and hopelessly destroying his drive for greatness. I just don't understand the cut point there.