DarthEbriate

We are watching a prequel trilogy on repeat. There's a story in there somewhere, but it was hastily written out and is basically only a first draft to make some executives some cash, not of its own artistic merit or a carnal need to craft said story. The fans/players will pay the price for their lack of vision... and execution, because there's little of merit there to execute upon.

One note about Jerry Jones: he is not a meddling owner. He is the owner, president, and GM of the Cowboys and has been since right after he purchased the team. Aside: The only times his teams have ever been "great" are when he had excellent coaches (Jimmy Johnson, Bill Parcells) telling him what they needed AND when he had the benefit of a desperate Vikings GM and that absolutely wild Herschel Walker trade, plus Aikman #1 overall to build upon. The rest of the time, his teams have been buoyed up to "good" by average-to-above-average QB play from the injured-corpse of Aikman, Romo, Prescott. Otherwise, he's just a below-average-to-average level GM who has benefitted from extended periods of ineptitude by NYG and Washington within his own division.

It started before that, before even 7/1/07. It began when the cash-strapped organization decided not to negotiate with, and sign, its two best players before the season began, as though their pricetag(s) would somehow be lower if either got to free agency. The removal of two first-line wingers (who play center, too) and your team's heart-and-soul means loss of playoff revenue, lack of guidance for a young core, and the path to needing to suffer in the first place. Trade Afinogenov at his height, get the core together -- and you can probably still match Vanek (or, having both Briere and Drury, go get those 4 #1s). Later, the commitment to tanking was just another step in the anti-win direction. That's the thing about the Sith. Always two there are. No more, no less.

And have been for quite some time.

Get goalied by the (tied for) best record in the league: OK, yeah, that happens. Lost in OT, hey, loser point. Lose the back end of a back-to-back on the road: understandable. Lose to the Avalanche: sure, I can see that. Lose to the (tied for) best record in the league in OT: yep, that's something that happens. Ahh, but string them all together, put 4 of 5 them at home, [edit: I forgot, and blow a 4-goal lead in on one of the non-OTL games] and it's very, very disheartening. The most sobering is still this: Sabres vs. the "non-SC contender" East teams: PIT, CLB, DET, NYI, OTT, MTL, PHI: 2-6-1. Bad against remotes is one thing, bad against bottom feeders? That's something else.

Good kill. Now, close out the period with a lead.

Good pass, Benson!

Tage and Byram leg-on-leg collusion leads to a couple turnovers and a shot on goal.

Looks fine, right?

That was quick.

On the near side, not on a one-timer, no less. He’s made a few modifications to the power play himself.

TNT!

Yup, which seems a bit much, but there must be an OHL rule against throwing/shooting intentionally into stands as you could kill someone if it were a puck.

So... coming out of the last game, do the Sabres play with intensity and urgency for the first 10 minutes, the first period, the first two periods, or... do they no-show until the 50:00 mark and scramble to get within one before giving up an ENG?

Cue Beethoven's Symphony No.9

Do we drink when it happens? Because then I say no. Choose life.

GM JBott and HCPH took the team in a 180-degree direction: puck-moving defense and speed up front. (Which was the flavor of the day; the LAK big-grrr approach was losing out to those speedier lineups [as their players aged, go figure].) In the summer/opening week of that season, JBott/HCPH had the following happen: Add: D Antipin, D Beaulieu, D Fedun, D Redmond, F Josefson (and D Scandella, F Pominville. Then, off waivers because they had a lot less grit/grinder, they claimed F Nolan off waivers right at the beginning of the season.) Lose to trade: F Foligno, F DesLauriers (and F Ennis) Lose to expansion: F Carrier Lose to UFA: D Kulikov Lose to retirement: F Gionta I put the parentheses in decent moves/players that don't fit the puck-moving D or speed-first forward narrative. You'll notice something. All those grinders and non-PMD like Kulikov: they were young then and are still playing in the league today. All those speedy players, or once-very-good-players like Pominville, they were out of the league shortly thereafter. And Scandella was good enough to be in the top-4 of a Cup-winning Blues squad. You didn't need ALL of them, but you needed a couple reliable grinder cornerstones, especially since they're the ones who get injured from blocking shots and playing physical. Of course, the end result was drafting #1 overall and Dahlin.

This can work. It's the collective push without TNT (or Auston Matthews) at the top of the lineup. But like you say, for an extended time, it will collapse because the players who would need to take up Dahlin's minutes, are even younger than he is and still need to develop a bunch more of their all-around games. Now, it could be really beneficial for next season because Power develops faster. But this team isn't better, and doesn't have the collective makeup, to go without their best player for a lengthy time. The worst-case scenario is it would lead GM Sheevyn to believe that Power/Byram are already the answer and don't need that D-zone veteran (don't worry, he's already going to do that anyway).

GDT 26: The GD Threadening

Probably top 5 draft pick Micheal Misa gets an unsportsmanlike ejection for forcing some bear re-tosses. The Sarnia crew has a little bit of fun tallying the shot accuracy.

Founder and flounder both work in this context. Either sinking ship or struggle and fail (with I think some clumsy inferred). The camouflaged bottom-feeding fish also sort of works if you want to verbify the noun.

@Stoner just wants the fans to take some accountability for the failures of the franchise. Or, he wants me to do it as a Star Wars opening text scroll. 😇

JJP has been a mess all November; Quinn has been a mess all season -- though he has had more jump recently. I'm not going to go back and watch any clips or video, but my recollection of Quinn is missing a shot wide from the slot (maybe blocked off a leg?) and then on the same shift getting caught in no man's land in the D-zone while the rebound goal was scored as either a GTG or GWG, one of them. JJP had a goal thanks to Benson, but otherwise I have no memory of his game, good or bad.

It's the age-old question: you need a #6 RHD on your roster: Risto or Joker? Team Finland takes the 6-4 220 guy. Congrats though to Dahlin and Luukkonen for making their national teams.