DarthEbriate

Phew, the 26-62 adventure continues.

All part of GM Sheevyn's sequel trilogy-level plan... Expose Eichel to Seattle in exchange for 5 first-round picks including those acquired from other teams, a couple players selected from other teams in the draft, AND Seattle has to take Skinner's contract (waiving NMC) edit: whatsa meesa saying, and Okposo's contract.

I suppose it should be pointed out that Mitts now has more goals than Skinner on the season.

Scrappy powerplay battles... Does Tage ever make a non-non-look pass?

Sheahen, the power forward 1C, drawing penalties!

And the NJD trivia answer: Chris Drury 234 games. I'm surprised. I thought Drury did a lot of splitting time on the C. Peca didn't play that final season otherwise he might've had it.

On delay just about 30 seconds... Mittelstadt!!!

Good fight by Mitts on the PP to keep the puck on our side.

NJD broadcast trivia question: Which Sabres player had the most games as captain during Lindy Ruff's head coaching tenure with Buffalo (1997-2013)?

Ullmark has been covering up a lot of sloppiness.

We always seem to be slowing down on our 2 on 1s... rather than forcing the issue and making the D or goalie have to scramble.

Nothing like getting your goalie into the flow of the game with that first shift in the 2nd.

Now his failure is complete. (not upgrading the backup goalie in the offseason)

That is a surprise given his... inconsistencies... this season.

OK -- let's see how this PP1 looks without Eichel. Hopefully just as good.

In Rochester, certainly.

Bench Skinner, bench Eichel (although for injury reasons)... save some cash and score some goals?

Lovely save! But please do not be hurt... get the bacta!

Good gravy, no! That would lead HCRK to believe that Hutton is better than he is.

Remember, the Moulson will be with you... always.

Skinner's not a system poll; he's a man.

Yup. It should've been either a sign-and-trade for a nice 5x$7M which is a good raise, or even a 3x$7M so he had a few motivating seasons with Eichel to get one more big deal, OR he should have been moved at the deadline as we were already eliminated, with the offer to bring him back Moulson-style in UFA at a salary comparable to what he was getting (there is NO WAY he gets $9 and likely not even 8 on the open market).

It's not just $9M, though. It's 9M in a flat/depressed cap for two more offseasons. It's a player who is very reliant on skating who will be on the wrong side of 30 for 6 years of the deal. If Seattle's smart they take Borgen or Joker as someone cheap with upside. And then, they can even double-dip when regular UFA starts and sign Ullmark to a median goalie deal or sign Hall to less than what we're paying Skinner. The Seattle fanbase is going to be excited regardless. Skinner's contract isn't bad, it's trash-compacting-cap-crushing bad. I go back to --- how many first round picks are you willing to send to Seattle to get them to take that contract? Because if I'm Seattle I'm not allowing a lottery-protected pick from Buffalo. If Buffalo gives me a 1st I'm betting on that pick being top-10.

In this case, I was solely quoting Star Wars....

Yeah... last time it was emphatically Eichel wasn't hurt and it was confidence-based. This time it's conditioning-based. I mean, if this works as motivation for Eichel, great, but it sounds wrong either way. RE: Skinner. I figured the breather would be a game or the planned back-to-back. But now it's a "Asplund PKs for Rieder's spot" and "Mitts has better vision and is starting to gel with Lazar/Sheahen for Skinner's spot. So if Skinner has to wait for Cozens or Okposo to get a night off in order to get back into the lineup, it's going to be awhile. And... if Thompson gets back on the ice before Skinner, then GM Sheevyn might as well just assign Skinner to the taxi squad and then Rochester and be done with it (at least in the AHL he might get ice time and re-find his scoring).