Trettioåtta

I know every deadline is disappointing but yikes is this one slow

Addition by subtraction is an oxymoron for a reason - are you really going to get better by losing an NHL-caliber player, to replace them with an unknown or even a worse player? Even if the unknown is a better player, if you kept both you could actually trade one for assets (cough Vancouver goalie situation a few years ago). Sure it might be true sometimes, but ultimately the better hockey player is the better hockey player, even if they are nuts off the ice. The fact is we know so little about the locker room, we can't make a call on who is a locker room cancer. But one thing is for sure, a team of Evander Kanes wins more games than a team of Matt Ellis

Lehner outplayed Lundqvist. Lundy never had to make a game-saving stop

lol poor Lehner. Literally every loss is blamed on him. He made like 5 amazing game-saving stops and its not enough. How about we outshoot an opponent for once? Or limit them to 25 rather than 45 shots?

Enjoyable period

Loving the camera angles Second 10 was better than the first 10...

Done (easy one)

He is like 2 points behind the $10 million dude

I mean he is 56th in the league this year and has never finished in the top 10. The fact is he isn't a top 10 player yet. But he is paid to be a top 5 player next year.

His abject failure in the draft did it. His main strength was apparently talent analysis (especially in the later rounds). Plus he seemed to love trading away picks.

I mostly hope Eichel pulls an Yzerman and decides to learn defence... I think his maturity is his biggest problem. He isn't ready to have a franchise on his shoulders. Its why I never understood the hype about giving him the C - the guy frequently decides to not show up. $10 million for a one dimensional 70 point forward... we need him to be more than that. If there are doubts he can be, we should trade him ASAP (before the rest of the league realises)

Good leadership by Kane. Once again the offense puts up one goal... What has happened to Jack? He is on his way to finishing outside the top 50 in scoring. We are screwed when that contract kicks in if he plays like this. Boston sleeper agent sent in to ensure we suck?

Don't like fights after clean hits That said, don't touch Sam when Jack is around!

I do think Jack needs to mature before he is able to carry this team (he isn't even on track for 70 points this year). I think the first few years of his new contract could be a bit of a failure. He also seems to get on well with Kane, who is a known partier. Sam's play has been pure crap so I really hope he is suffering a perpetual hangover. Oh and Bogo - he loves snow. Plus Jack likes him too.

Sabres score 1 goal and Sabrespsace blames the goalie for the loss... seems about right.

Regular readers of this blog know I keep a Nov. 1 stat. Since 2005-06, six of 48 teams that were at least four points out after games played on that date came back to make the playoffs (This excludes lockout-shortened 2012-13). There were no contenders last season, as the late start from the World Cup put nobody in that position. This year, six will try and beat the odds: Arizona, Buffalo, Edmonton, Florida, Minnesota and Montreal. :(

Eichel + 3rd for Keller (E5)

Last season the playoff cutoff was 95 points. We currently have 8 with 70 games to go. That means we have to win 62% of all remaining points (87/140) to scrape into the playoffs. 40-23-7 would just do it. Amazing how one month of ###### hockey can be so costly. Time to see if this team can claw its way out of the hole. Surely we can't lose to Arizona...?

Joel Armia had similar stats to Nylander in the AHL (admittedly he was a year older but still). Maybe we just have different standards for what a bust is. I want him to be comparable to his brother. I think he will be more of a low-end second line winger who is defensively weak. Hopefully I am wrong though.

Calling it now. We draft Tkachuk and it ends up as another Nylander situation where we get the bust rather than the stud

Yeah I agree with always drafting a goalie. Priorities exist for a reason and focusing on number 3 rather than 1 is a poor way to correct a problem. I think people also don't appreciate how young Lehner is. He could still be in the AHL at his age and people would be hyping him up as the next big thing. He has several years before he is in his prime yet.

We are 30th in the league in goals for per game - despite our top 6 containing Kane, Eichel, Reinhart, ROR, Okposo. Focus on the goalies is not our top priority in my opinion.

Sam was the first forward drafted in his year. He should be putting up 50 points and being a defensive stud or putting 70 up and being a slight defensive worry. Instead he is on track for 27 points and is generally lacking defensively. If he was taken first overall he would be in the conversation for biggest bust of all time. He should thank his lucky stars Florida won the lottery. We had chances and just didn't bury them. The game itself wasn't too bad in fairness, just a disappointing loss

1) Offense 2) Goalie 3) Defense That is the order of our strength. We need offense to step up. Lehner made some big saves and the last goal was a basically perfect shot. Until we are losing games 4-3 or 5-4 I think our offense is more to blame that our D

Offense scores 2 goals. Blame the goalie for the loss.