Thorny

The Sabres will get a good player

It’s a good point - speaking from experience and anecdotally from listening around, the “hobbyist” nature of following the sabres/a team becomes one of the most significant sacrifices along the way when you don’t compete. the rumours ARE mostly made up and the draft scouting DOES mostly turn to ash and most prospect DON’T sniff the show but it’s super fun to indulge in all that when you actually feel a part of the league we have been taught those things don’t matter.

That’s one aspect that to me is almost shockingly underplayed- everyone was so enamoured with the negative aspects of Jack but that interview with friedman where he SO SO obviously throws Pegula under the bus and not KA is right there. No one cares, no one wants to talk about it. Jack was just a bad boy. Talk about a canary in the coal mine

Agent generated sure but dunno about “crap.” The agent is working on behalf of the will of his client

Adams response:

^thats a cup finalist btw

OKC looking good tonight

He also dealt a 5th in this year’s draft for a 5th in 2032

Dirty player, frequently employs the knee-on-knee wait…..I’m old

Good!

It would be honestly so ridiculously refreshing to see them deal this pick where it should be dealt, for now talent, rather than strut up to the podium with a smile while selecting the latest player who “fell right to them”

It’s funny how much support the strategy had in theory before the season started, too

BPA re: F/D/G in trade

Sabres won the division shortly after losing Briere and Drury for nothing

There’s a reason they weren’t on their game

Raptors finished second in the east the year after Kawhi left and they didn’t get back what they gave up to get him, either Build a team I’m saying where this player goes we won’t need ice

Forsling was a McDavid hack. McDonald’s played 70% of his shifts last night vs the Gustav

If McDavid doing what he does and looking the way he does as he does it isn’t enough to back people off the “see, he couldn’t carry his team through!” argument, literally nothing can. That’s it The proof is in the pudding: you can perform to a level of aptitude greater than all who came before and it still can, quite clearly, not be enough. It’s just not the nfl or nba Can we imagine for a second what it would be like if McDavid got to touch the puck on literally every offensive possession the oilers had?

That’s the biggest thing. People will talk about development until the cows come home and neglect to mention we traded Eichel at 24 - he wasn’t close to being in orbit in fact he was just launching his prime. People will ask “how didn’t you win with Jack Sam and ROR?” when non-ELC Jack and Sam never played with him Anyways, I’ll say C Should be noted: the leafs were the second best team this year. Only one team gave Florida a true test

There are countless times the guy winning the Smythe did far FAR less and it was well enough to win it all. If McDavid’s Smythe performance last year isn’t attached to a Cup win it’s other aspects of the team not bridging that gap, to a certainty - - - anecdotally I find people really tend to struggle with recency bias. People get McDavid was far, far more good/clutch than Reinhart this postseason, right? 10 of Reinhart’s 23 points came in the last 4 games. He had 13 in 17 before that. He’s good, great maybe even, but a short little streak at the end doesn’t make him McDavid. Reinhart wasn’t “clutch” and McDavid a “ghost”, McDavid performed all playoffs to a much higher and more consistent degree - all the playoff games count Do you think Bennett was better in the playoffs this year than McDavid?

It’s dumb how there was no penalties all game, like they didn’t stop taking them in the 6th game lol. NHL officiating is so weird. but, fun to see the Canadian drought continue. Florida is a wagon - - - Gotta be Bennett for Smythe