TrueBlueGED

Yes. He is who he is. Embrace it for mild to moderate success or try to make him something he's not for failure.

I just can't envision Bylsma opening the season with Kane on Larsson's wing. Maybe by game 15. Edit: Didn't he also say something about keeping Girgensons at center? Wouldn't be surprised to see him on the 4th with Des on the wing and Grant as the extra.

That's freakin awesome. On the Bills: it could always be worse, we could have a legitimate franchise quarterback and nothing around him, and handing out contract extensions to the architects of said situation. Yes, I'm thinking of the Colts here. They have Andrew Luck and they're, in my humble opinion, significantly worse than we are. Also, Jacoby Brisset starting is awesome because it means my repeated "We're not losing to Jimmy Garoppolo" declarations will be right no matter what! That's what you call falling backwards into success!

He's perfectly capable of having a big game. Not consistently, but he's had three relative dogs...he's due. We're winning. *I've been drinking all night at a fantasy hockey draft.

Jimmy Garoppolo is not a real quarterback. We're winning.

Cue conspiracy theories about Murray still wanting another high pick.

Kkkiiiiizzzzeeerrrr! (I may or may not be a ND homer)

Way to dance around my question :p

Merely a flesh wound!

Are you just in general against betting on progression, or is this specific to Risto?

Whether it's stingy depends on what the team's offer is. If the Peters report is accurate, that's being stingy. But if Murray is offering around Rielly/Jones money, that's proper valuation.

I figured the starred line at the end would signal I was mostly just having fun with it.

I just can't listen to Peters on a regular basis. He's like Rob Ray: okay in small doses, but gets progressively worse the more he talks.

Bogosian with a mild groin strain according to Bylsma. So it starts. *dives back into bunker to avoid incoming artillery*

It's not getting ignored, it's that the research shows it's not that big of a deal over the course of the season. On a shift-by-shift basis QoC is very important for performance, but over a full season there's not enough variation in it between players to explain performance differences between those players to any meaningful degree. Maybe it's a problem with the stats (and before anyone says it, the smart critics use TOI QoC, not Corsi), but it's not being ignored. Where I think the stats people are missing the boat on Risto is underestimating the effect of playing with Gorges, and playing for Ron Rolston and Ted Nolan (since many of the stats articles are using 3 years of data) on arguably the two worst teams of the modern era. And hell, even Bylsma didn't coach a possession-friendly system last year and awful possession players like Deslauriers were still skating a regular shift, Kane was flinging poo at the net and killing zone time, etc. All that said, all of the top defenders in the league for have positive possession numbers, so with the team ready to compete and more experienced across the board, you'd hope Risto's numbers improve. I expect them to. But if they don't in the next year or two, it's cause for concern for exactly how good Risto will be. The only top defenseman with "poor analytics" I can think of is Shea Weber. All the rest pass both eye and stats tests.

http://www.bigditchbrewing.com/signatures/

The Wegmans I shop at is now carrying Big Ditch 6-packs. I'm ecstatic.

Oh, I'm not blaming him at all, I just thought it was a comical scene.

Falling into success...in the most literal sense possible :lol:

I really liked Hunter coming out of college, but man, talk about a guy that doesn't have his head on straight. Could be a really good get if he figures it out...but yea, likely not. Me three. Though this doesn't do much to quell my suspicion that the team should have brought him back more slowly in the first place.

Yea, what Peters said looks to me like an opening offer, not something the team offers after months of negotiations.

Correct. He's quite a bit more talented than Moulds.

I bet it's one of their expensive depth pieces.

Were you the drunk guy sitting next to me who kept mooning the Pittsburgh fans in front of is telling them to on your ass?

It will never get any lower than losing to Pittsburgh's third stringers when we were in a win and in scenario. (Did we need help too? Honestly can't remember. But that was the low point for me, and it can't get lower).