Thorny

Was the type of game the eBug could have been in and we’d have won anyways

These stories sportsnet does are a real easy way to watch highlights https://stories.sportsnet.ca/games/63857-20230224-Buffalo-Sabres-at-Tampa-Bay-Lightning.html

Seems about right. except for cake job draisaitl. Way too high.

Sabres back in 8th by points %

Jets game in Winnipeg and specifically the dominant second period.

Lyubushkin. Just for one day (we can be heroes)

Oh he can’t win it it’s McDavid’s. But I could see a nomination given the circumstances outlined

Not even that, no lol Hart

Nope. We’ve found our starter.

With that assist, Mittelstadt eclipses his assist total from the previous 2 seasons combined

Surprised this wasn’t mentioned really in thread. The hit he made to make that play

No

I’ve been reading the thread the last 2 minutes randomly and the goal updates upon every refresh have been fantastic (Can’t watch)

It’s interesting to note that today on Marek, Elliot indicated Ottawa is hard in the market for a d-man. They want to try for the playoffs, is what Friedman said

No game on tv means I’ll be tuning into thread for unbiased coverage yada yada

I’d prefer the goal to be perennial playoff team, personally, but what do I know I also think they’ve identified their core and that’s why the focus is changing into next season. part of the reason I’m so fully on board is I’m convinced we won’t see the intimation of “development year” next season. My stance will change if that’s the case, I just don’t expect to hear anything like what we heard coming into this season

I should have gone to school to become a Hockey Guy if that sort of crack logic is all that’s needed to assume the position haha. Considering we have a 109 point pace on the road, I’m thinking THE hockey guy is right

I ran the numbers on this a week or so ago and the records were almost identical. but it’s more so WHEN you play a team - the differential in home / away isn’t large enough over a large enough amount of games yet for me to rule out it simply being a product of randomness - happened to play wrong teams wrong time at home a bit more, to your point looks like GT also a notable difference as mentioned above. I don’t know if that means the goalies are putting up inferior numbers at home in combination with us playing worse defensively as a team ie more high danger chances but goalies certainly bare their share goalies / team D relatively lacking at home still doesn’t answer the question of why, though. That’s just the what. Why are aspects of our team worse at Home, specifically? Again, could be randomness/happen to be the games we are catching guys sniping

Somewhere along the way, I don’t know when, it did in fact meld into this for me. It’s about playoffs. It’s the symbol of, not our ineptitude, but that ineptitude’s historic nature. The fact it so defies science and reason proves its a symbol. The perspective of the atrocious results of the last decade were enough to illustrate to me that that “losing while actually in the playoffs” was/is plenty Green. I’ll need a new personality once we aren’t fighting for that goal, ya, probably.

This is good, but honestly it’s not even that level, for me. I don’t need to see a blockbuster trade, merely the fact he is open to any available opportunity is enough for me- he’s earned a ton of leeway re: thorny via: his demonstrably good personal decisions thus far. meaning as long as we know it’s not a stringent adherence to outside additions on principle (and it doesn’t seem to be, from what we’ve heard) I’m happy to toss up any specific “inaction” to “that’s his evaluation”. Part of this is because I don’t think the way the results have been tracking allow me to make a math-based argument for why we NEED that outside addition, when if the goal is playoffs next season, we seem to be tracking for it based on year over year improvement. We’ve had some factors work in our favour this year like notably health, career years from our unquestioned two best players (did I mention health), that next jump into the playoffs is probably a bit harder so including those factors in context, I think this offseason, though I mentioned our process simply continuing would have us on the right track, we need some stronger additions than the Lyubushkins. and Goalie...I don’t think we can do UPL/Comrie. But long story short, again, it’s their mindset: when *the* priority changes from “development” to making the playoffs next season, the likelihood of Adams weighing the idea of giving up a draft pick or two, or prospect, to bring in that DEPTH addition mid season a good idea, should (and I’d argue, must) go up. Playing with cash next year. To do that you need currency. Currency requires flow - which means less stringency to pieces beyond core, and especially pieces who’a value is primarily found in the future (draft picks), where, with an established core, said future is actually best maximized often by cashing those future-based picks in.

I love your spirit as it rings true in my soul, but I think it’s a matter of you just being one year too soon. They clearly clearly earmarked this for “development year” coming in - nothing we have seen from Kevyn Adams suggests he’s anything if not deliberate - I don’t think we see a shift in season. But next year is wildly different. Baseline expectation is playoffs - or we aren’t progressing enough. At that stage, when the results are priority, I’d side with you on needing to make the necessary supplementation moves

Agree. There’s the aspect of job security, too - obviously asking the current guys if they’d like an outsider skater addition who may take away their playing time represents a conflict of interest. So much so that I don’t really buy the concept. Don’t think deferring to your players works as any kind of long term strategy, and I don’t think Adams would be dim enough to think that. More likely he dutifully asks for input in all situations, and is smart enough to realize that when what he determines is the correct course of action lines up with what the players are saying, it makes a good quote

Son is a smart dude. Honestly, in a league where half the teams make it, I struggle to understand it, too 😆

Were they right?