DarthEbriate

Hey! Girgs... in front of the net! Maybe try that on the powerplay?

Brain fart, Dahlin.

Even Pang is a little bit embarrassed that that shove drew a roughing call. Arrived for the 2nd. Lock S-foils in attack position!

I realize Bills fans are salty for being the Patriots' plaything for 2 decades and want to discredit everything the Patriots did at any opportunity, but Belichick is an excellent coach* (and was initially also a good GM). It wasn't all Brady. Good coaches adapt to their players available (never had an elite WR or RB except a couple seasons with Moss, varying between running teams, spread 5 offenses, and heavy 12 personnel. I mean, look at the run-only game against the Bills --- and it worked!). On the defensive side, lights out. He destroyed the Greatest Show on Turf (remember, Vinatieri had 3 GW Super Bowl kicks, but two times that's the defense, not Brady), owning Peyton Manning, etc. As a GM, early on he was very good, later.... not so much. But the key thing for Belichick was the ability to move players the year before they slipped, or at their highest value. Richard Seymour comes to mind. Keep the winning going or get tied to your veterans? As a GM, he was cutthroat for awhile there, and it worked. *Show me an all-time great coach who didn't have at least a competent QB -- and don't offer up one-hit wonders like whoever was coaching Trent Dilfer (who was an average QB) when the Ravens won that one Super Bowl.

Precisely. If Mitts goes to arbitration, the list @dudacek provided is exactly what his rep is going to present. And the Sabres will have to come back with "not as many points!". And all Mitts has to say is, "look at my 3rd line usage and no PP time vs. when I was on the top line and getting PP minutes." The low end is Boeser (6.6, but he's a volume shooter) and the high end is Fiala (7.8). But if you go arbitration, he's going to UFA soon after and you might as well trade him because that's what he'll command on the open market for a long-term deal.

Ottawa still has 5 games in hand at the moment. But even if they win all of them, they're still 2 points back. They've squandered their game in hand, same as Buffalo did at the end of last season.

Too old! To begin the training. That said, I hope he's able to get back to live out his dreams if he still has the love for the game (even if it only caps at the AHL level).

Jackikin Eichwalker gets lower-body surgery after a failed attempt to take the high ground.

Casey's high for PP min is last season's 171 and Backstrom only had fewer than that in seasons he skated fewer than 60 games. Most season, Backstrom was over 220 PP minutes (more than 3x what Casey had) feeding guys named Ovechkin and Mike Green. Fiala will be the very top-end of the cap range ($7.875) because he's got a 33-goal season. But nearly everyone with comparable points to Mitts gets a boatload more PP time than he has received. If he were to be a UFA instead of RFA this next season, a team could easily sign him as a 2C, give him top PP time, and he'd be a bargain who could be a point per game player every season for the next 4 seasons. Boston would put him between Pasta and Marchand and Mitts would a become a legend.

Casey is also the best forward on the team at throwing a reverse check to protect himself, while continuing to stickhandle and maintain possession of the puck and remain a threat to make a pass. Others might learn, and Tuch is OK, but Casey's good at it.

The Hasek trade was an indictment of the ownership's refusal to pay their best players (just pay them, you're thieves anyways!), which led to no leverage in trade negotiations. Either move him the same day you move Peca, or sign the 1-year tender extension (which they did) and let him retire or keep awaiting new offers as the season gets underway. Hasek turns almost any playoff team into a Cup contender. Peca (a good 2C) netted a 5th overall 20 year-old and an 8th overall 20 year-old. Potential cornerstone pieces that you can feature in a reset. Hasek (the most decorated goalie of his era and arguably the best goalie of all-time) netted a 29 year-old 2W (a good player, but with no future upside), a guaranteed end of 1st round pick, and future considerations (that went unmet). It needed to start with a 1st, a top prospect ready to join the team like Connolly/Pyatt, probably another pick/prospect, and only then do you throw in the cap dump veteran. Any one of their top prospects at the time would have been a key contributor to the '05-07 run: Jiri Fischer, Pavel Datsyuk, Niklas Kronwall, Henrik Zetterberg....

There's only one star on that list. The others are very good players with a few great seasons spread between them.

Great closing shift. UPL!

It's how you win scoring titles. (and set league records in EA NHL campaigns) Wait... now TNT and Tuch decide to press the attack?

Good feed by Krebs to Greenway. And... either an excellent save or just missed the empty net? Let's see the replay: missed it? Missed picking the gaping short side at any rate. But Greenway doesn't miss the ENG.

Good kill and another great save by UPL.

UPL!

JJ! Go the net!

It is the future @Brawndo sees. Cities in the clouds, friends in pain Sabres goals... the usual. They always do a good job. Not sure if Curtis Brown is still on the desk job this season (admittedly, haven't seen many Sharks games this year). After the first period, they did put a pretty good spin on it being a good period -- coming off a heartbreaking loss, etc., as though they hadn't lost 13 of 14. It was pretty Rayzory.

Better period. Gave up some grade A opportunities at the end, though. UPL had the deflectors on double front for a few very good saves to close out the period.

UPL playing soundly today. Team finally woke up and started skating a bit.

Tuched in!

I don't think Joker has the shot to beat the goalie with that one sans screen....

Mittsy! Down-town!

That was the weakest cross-ice pass I've ever seen from Benson. Way too easily intercepted.