Thorny

3rd in 4 for us, but Jets with the typical tired legs for 1st game back after a long trip. I knew we’d both be tired, but with the advantage of young legs, they’d wear out first. So we took it to ‘em in the second. Comrie was good enough, didn’t have to make many saves or even many spectacular ones. Wasn’t tested an average amount. Team was good overall defensively. The early season “can’t defend or win w/o Samuelsson” thing was overblown - it was as much an anomaly as the rest of that streak. Skinner got first star but I wouldn’t have had him in the top 3, he was ok but had a rough first. It was Dahlin, it’s always Dahlin. Honourable mention to Power tonight though he was excellent Tuch next for me. Great 2 way today

This is the best period of Sabres hockey I’ve ever seen in person

😊

Samuelsson who?

Great goal by Power. Dancing out there. Dahlin is, easily, the best player in this game. The entire play is flowing through him He’s a wonder to watch live

Not a bad period.

Super freak

What a sweet saved goal by Alex Tuch

Sabres were going to be in for a high scoring game anyways. W/o Samuelsson they’ll just need to push the pace even harder. Get hard

Oh ya, for sure. That’s what I assumed

Llllllllets get rrreeady to rumble! Comrie a tad shaky in warm ups. Hellebuyck..not so

Agree in full, very salient, especially the last sentence. It’s the glorious time where “winning” trades based on a pure talent perspective becomes, somehow, secondary, to what a trade accomplishes through the prism and context of achieving a goal. When overall talent level has reached such a degree (can’t even believe I’m typing that) that it allows for greater consideration, prioritization of things like timeline, and fit. When you know you have time to replenish the system because you don’t intend on needing key pieces from prospects any time soon due to a good young current core. The Blues probably (see: did) miraculously lose the ROR / Tage deal based on talent. But boy, did they ever win. Any no one can take that away. To your point, we won’t need to lament the loss of the prized prospect talent we’ve fallen in love with when in truth that aspect has always been only valuable as a means to an end - and to achieve that end there comes a time, if lucky, when some can, and should, and necessarily, becomes currency.

BPA (salary, term, age, inclusive within)

Yes my dude because you took the conversation down that road. I’m always willing to engage. Savoie is indeed the superior prospect imo who is putting up significantly better numbers with both less experience and doing so at half a year younger. But truly, making some sort of detailed Savoie/Bloom comparison wasn’t my original intention. Can you accept that in good faith? I truly assumed everyone just considered Savoie on another level to him. If you do, or don’t, have at it: the beauty of opinions. As for the second bold, are you doing some sort of bit, here? Can we get a neutral arbitrator in here, please? Haha (“haha”, but like, I’m not joking). You must be willfully ignoring what I’m writing because I’ve gone out of my way to state no fewer than 4 times now, that I wasn’t saying it’s a case of Bloom’s competition being weak relative to Savoie. It’s weak relative to Bloom’s status as a prospective NHLer. I’m glad to hear you see Bloom as much closer to the Savoie tier than I do. I see a lot of Savoie due to where I live but less of Bloom, just the stats. I could easily be way off base, a frequent occurrence, and Bloom turns out to be the superior NHL player down the road.

I’m not really like this with prospects or young players but.. I don’t think I’d move Quinn in this deal. Something special about that kid.

Savoie being in play surprises me a bit, and I love him as a prospect. But, good. I mean, your above statement means our probable 4 best prospects are in play. Very interesting. That KA feels he can even potentially use those pieces as trade chips is a very positive development imo

That “certain point” was exactly the moment he laid out Laine

Your are stuck on a point of contention I’m not contending - - - Savoie isn’t better than Bloom because he’s faced better competition. I’ve never argued that lol. He’s better cause he’s better. 1.38 points per game last 2 seasons in junior vs Bloom’s 0.97 points per game the last 2 season in junior.

My point, for the 3rd time while my patience remains in tact, is that *Josh Bloom* is facing competition he has risen beyond.

But I was correct on age, I was correct on experience, and my comp about lesser competitor was about Bloom’s competition being lesser relative to *Bloom’s abilities* not Savoie. So, smiley face emoji?

There’s a poster on here who comes at me every time I mention Bloom as a prospect, can’t remember if that’s you or not but I’ve always got the impression it was some sort of relation. Let me be clear: I like Bloom as a prospect. Every system needs guys like that - he’s done nothing since being drafted to make me question the pick, or think he hasn’t performed up to the level you’d want, in correspondence to where he was picked, to think he’s off the track he needs to be, to carve out the role in the NHL he could reasonably achieve. My point is merely that he isn’t the type of prospect, as he currently stands, that is elevating our pool beyond the other teams of the league. At least, he’s not one of our x-factors at this time - his good performance this year in junior keeps him on track for reasonable expectations, where many drafted around where he was have already fallen off by now. But his production hasn’t exceeded expectations to the tune of him taking up rank alongside the Savoies and the Kulich’s of the pool. Lots of teams have guys in the CHL ranks doing what Bloom is doing. If he represents a prospect elevating our pool beyond others, it’s in the sense that we have have a better depth guy than they have. Can he just smash expectations and become an all-star? Of course. That’s what I hope happens. It’s just not what the data is suggesting at this time. - - - For the record, Savoie has played 35 CHL games since being drafted. Bloom has played 111. Stuff like that matters.

It’s less about age (though 6 months is still notable) and more about experience. Historically speaking, players putting up merely point a game as 2 year overagers in the CHL isn’t very noteworthy. This is just a fact. By overagers I mean this is the second season, post draft, that Bloom is playing against a bunch of guys most of whom won’t sniff the NHL. He’s been there for a long time. Covid will have limited games but that’s relative and most players were affected. If he has any NHL shot at all, he SHOULD dominate. Im glad he is. It keeps him in the running for being a mainstay NHLer one day - - - Not really sure where Savoie comes into the discussion - there’s no comparison between him and Bloom as prospects. That’s not an argument I personally need to make, and I wasn’t looking to make a direct comparison. Only, Bloom as 2nd year in CHL post draft and how that’s translated historically. I also expect Savoie to dominate the CHL being a post-drafted player, Bloom is just another season on in that equation.

He’s clearly big mad, is thinking Beniers will get the puck there, so he, presumably owing to low-hockey IQ chooses to put himself out of position to get the retaliatory hit - the puck doesn’t come fast enough for either Myers’ or Beniers’ liking so Myers said “eff it” and delivered the contact anyways. Id argue it’s a defenseless player as he is in actuality nowhere close to possessing the puck at said time, and is looking the other way. However, doesn’t look like there is contact to the head. What’s Myers’ discipline history like? Did Beniers get hurt? If both of those are in the negatory it’s probably just a regular penalty by way of the League

Actually a ton of great history between the teams re: common players

Maybe a bit of both. But the culture has gotten more interesting/grown on me over the years, for sure. Lots of cool music/film/art festivals dominate the summer frame and the pub scene is honestly very good. Too hip for me nowadays even. The days of the long dearth of frigid winter have gone the way of myth, here. The average daily temperature of the December we just got through was -9 Celsius (15.8 Fahrenheit). Looks like it’s -2 Celsius in Buffalo right now. It’s really not THAT cold. July in Buffalo and Winnipeg both average 79 degrees Fahrenheit. I think both cities get great summers. I bet they are pretty akin, honestly, as cities.