Thorner

Because of the *replacement* thats exactly my point or rather, THE point

dear lord lol this simulation is crazy

I was referencing the Avatar film by Canadian legend James Cameron, you said avatar was a kids show which I assumed was a reference to an animated show I haven’t seen which I THINK was subtitled : the last airbender, thus me highlighting/capitalizing “last” and “bend” in my post. i did not actually google the show so maybe I was wrong lol Civil War remains a top 5 mcu outing and a big part of that for me was Nemo

I was being nice. In truth I have you ranked second last. - - - Pi like McDavid is unmovable from the 1st position due to his strength of avatar

This is the Last time I’ll let you Bend the meaning of my post.

Him and McDavid are power play fiends together, go peep the PP scoring list. The Draisaitl we see sans McDavid is going to fall back into the pack of “other great players” rather than being separate from the rest on his island with Connor. So while he’s better than Reinhart, with the way we were constructing the team around Jack and Sam I doubt things would have been drastically different. He’s not really the NHL’s second best player. That’s Tage Thompson, apparently.

It’s kinda fun having a guy sit at the highest reaches possible of the Scoring list, in 1st on that list, at this point of the season. Can’t remember the last time this happened. No, McDavid-and-his-Draisaitl don’t count. Don’t care. McDavid isn’t really human.

Finally, your real photo is up.

the movie, Avatar

I can’t wait to see what your avatar is later this afternoon

Not a crime to want to engage with one of the board’s best / most influential posters

Just an injury graphic follow up Sabres have suffered a below-average amount of injuries, yet have also a below average amount of wins Sabres sitting among the less-hard-done-by teams, here, mostly surrounded by playoff teams. In addition, the metric they use to determine how bad the injuries are specifically re: points lost has the Sabres among the teams with the least severe impacts. We aren’t all the way left so can see our injuries haven’t been “negligible”, but relative to the league, they kind of are. Par for the course. That is to say, if someone offered us this injury outlook in advance, heading into any season, we should be jumping on it. That injuries have had a run at sliding our record again comes down to the fact our regular amount of injuries have affected us unrelatively strongly due to being a building team lacking depth

Come on, now

There’s mental toughness - unquestionably needed, haven’t seen anything to discount that in this group of players There’s physical toughness - unquestionably needed, the ability to endure the physical trauma attempting to be inflicted upon you from the other team. I don’t think the Sabres are a small, weak team so I’d imagine, provided the mental component from point 1, we’ll be ok on this front - but I hesitate to make any kind of judgment without seeing these guys go through the grind of a playoff series where the game literally changes physically. I worry about Krebs getting demolished because he’s tiny out there on his skates but he’s got a tattoo of himself, so, I’d imagine he pulls himself off the mat pretty willingly. Then there’s the other type of toughness people talk about, that I find is most analogously used under the term - the ability to physically intimidate your opponent / inflict physical stress upon them. Considering you can wear a team down with your speed and tenacity, I find this aspect if toughness to be the least important. But I’m biased. But, come playoffs, again: the game changes. I’m open to the idea we may need a guy or two who can bruise the other team over the course of a playoff series. A Lyubushkin type player, except good at hockey A Tom Wilson can get you over that edge. But I saw enough of the Penguins back to back cups to see you can also run your opponent into the ground with 4 skating lines

When you eventually get to a stage like Colorado, your depth allows you to play at a 97 point pace this season, in spite of injuries, rather than 79 point pace That’s not a hex haha

I’ve been fairly pleased with what I’ve seen / interpreted with their communications on the injury front this season: still early but seemingly less of the “its day to day. JUST KIDDING! He’s actually dead” type stuff

How does it look re: offseason?

What’s more likely, back up or starter? I think I come down here, as well. I wouldn’t mind betting on a guy with actual sample size though maybe that just isn’t in the cards with this money ball crew All these numbers look pretty par for the course for how you’d expect a team’s record to move via commonplace injuries, especially when lack of depth to withstand has been a talking point for the organization. Nothing unexpected or unusual. Sabres remain as one of the league best-off re: man games lost this year

Would you look to make a move at G too or is that market too dried up in your estimation?

I’m always curious with the “what could even have been done?” argument. If it immediately declines any deal perceived as an “overpay”? ie if it never allows for the scenario where you simply pay the price needed to be paid because, sure you are “overpaying” but the situation that arises by not doing so is in fact worse. Ie - eventually you just need to go ahead and pay what it takes to acquire said player, right, when you are damned if ya don’t, anyways? I suppose my question for the “what could even have been done in 3 years?” crowd, who will only defend away one singular move at a time but never tackle the odds of not one solution being found, in the *entire* body of work, and this is a legitimate question: could this situation potentially be indefinite? If no situation to improve the goalie arises that wouldn’t be construed as an overpay, in say, the next 10 years, are you still sitting here saying, “well, what move?” Legitimately asking. At what point does the time period grow so large that it would, to you, defy logic to suggest one sustainable move couldn’t have been completed in that time? Again, actually asking.

It’s an open thread. Make your posts about Tage Thompson. See if they gain traction. “I love Democracy” I’ll continue to respond to posts that quote me or engage in the discussions currently taking place Or a moderator can come in and separate it. But maybe they don’t cause there was a 10 hour gap where the thread would have been dead space anyways if not for a few folks following the natural line of convo within a thread

Nice. On a random note re: the above - Has Cozens ever actually played LW?

Ya. I think the book on whether Jack truly amounts to being a “franchise C” or instead just a really good-to-great player is an open one, with plenty to be written. Anyone who reads my posts on the matter over time can see it’s the more extreme natured stances I take issue with. I’m not really interested in proving that Jack is Him. I don’t care. My point has always been more along the lines of the idea that all the talk that Jack was an “untenable cancer unconducive to winning” was always bogus. How players are going to look in the playoffs is always an open mystery until we see it: for now it’s fair to say he’s playing just fine in Vegas and they are experiencing regular season winning, just fine. Best player right now, top 2, doesn’t really matter substantively to what I’m saying. He’s a very good player for them, right now. Miscast in Buffalo. Not uncastable.

It doesn’t seem like Eichel could have a chance at proving anything you list in the first paragraph until he plays in the playoffs so I guess we’ll have to wait and see. Considering the “variables listed above” are all, subjective, intangible, undefinable variables, yes, I do admit that my determination as to whether Eichel is “the best” player on his team is based on provable, identifiable statistics, and the underlying metrics that have proven to largely be reflective of good players. Of course, people WILL rely on the subjective, often, that’s only natural. Plenty say Messier was the more valuable player in Edmomton’s Dynasty than Gretzky. People will ALWAYS debate who a team’s best player is. Fir years and years people beaked Crosby by saying he “wasn’t even the best player on his own team”. That is to say, I’m pretty sure the “capable of” wording protects the argument - it’s pretty clear, let’s say regular season wise, to allow for the wait-and-see-on-playoffs valid take you had, that he has as strong, or strong an argument, as anyone on that team right now. 2-way.