Marvin

Let's turn this around: assuming that the don't write off the season, what do they need to do which makes the playoffs more likely this year but does not require spending prime assets? Are there teams in a similar situation where we can make a mutually beneficial trade? Nashville, Dallas, Anaheim, and San Jose leap to mind. Have we ever put them away?

My mother. I could never tell her that I loved her. (This is what lets Kirk know that Spock is affected by that thing that Lt. Tormolen brought back from the surface.)

Egad. Yikes. Ick. Yeesh.

Don't give them any ideas. I will stay off my anti-tank hobby-horse to point out that all of the excuses hold some water -- just not enough for me. They should have figured out a way to get out of goalie gaol before the season began.

Me too. But given how this board is reading, maybe the Sabres should pass.

We can put him on the same line as Skinner and Okposo then...

This adds up.

For a player your coach doesn't want at a gigantic contract? Start with Skinner at 50%, Eichel at 50%, a couple of unprotected firsts, and a couple of top young players for every cap dump which I can lay my hands on.

Get well, Jake.

If the goal is to make Jeff Skinner a more responsible defencive player, maybe RK should learn from how the Sabres trained Gil Perreault to be better in his own end: put him out on the penalty kill. First, it was in lop-sided games where, if they go scored on, it wouldn't matter. Then, as he got more experienced, he got better in our end of the ice. By the time Scotty Bowman, Roger Neilson, and Jimmy Roberts got here, he was a passable two-way player. Maybe no one else remembers, but he was the "defencive conscience" of the "dream line" in Canada Cup 1981 (Perreault-Gretzky-Lafleur). Even after being injured in Canada's 4th game, he led the team in scoring until their 2nd last game and still got votes for tournament MVP.

My head hurts. What the hell is going on?

I hope you are right. I am not hopeful.

Housley was like that. When 2018-9 went south, the players did not react well to him. RK was brought in because he is a players' coach.

Psychological. They need to win a few in a row and not go on prolonged losing streaks before they can believe in themselves again. IMHO, this goes back to GMJB bad-mouthing their winning streak after the 2017-8 TDL. Some part of their subconsciously believes if that wasn't good enough, then nothing will be, so who cares?

Joker needs a Borgen type as his partner as well. If they can find him the right partner, we may have three solid pairs. When was the last time we could even think about that?

They seem to have great chemistry. I hope this is a trend.

Is it just me, or does the presence of Cozens matter more than I ought to expect?

Yay? I actually think that once the Sabres get some time in lines and pairings which work, then they will actually be decent to watch. Let us hope I am right and that this is soon.

I am putting at least some of this on the coaching philosophy. I also think some of this is are the long layoffs. First, we have coaching. Remember that Ralph Krueger wants players to play "above the puck"; i.e., be between the puck and their own goal. https://www.radio.com/wgr550/articles/news/its-about-playing-within-our-principles-and-structure He benched Skinner for weeks because his instincts are to play sometimes below the puck. If they are playing entirely above the puck, then you miss out on chances down low. That is often more passive mindset, so I think they are missing out on some chances down low. And this is bad for Skinner in particular because he tends to be more aggressive in the offencive zone, which means he would get caught below the puck on a break-out. Second, we have the long layoffs. After two weeks, this team was not in game shape -- they faded badly as the time went on. Moreover, because they could not even practise, they were often disorganised, unaware, or panicky. The layoffs also exacerbated the problems that they still have little chemistry in the offencive lines and their defence pairings are largely ineffective and unstable. The goaltending sometimes being awful does not help. And then all of these problems on the back end mean that they can't effectively move up ice, can't get possession, have to be extra conservative, and are just playing, to quote Foghorn Leghorn, as sharp as a bowling ball. I am sure there are other things, but these are my big complaints.

Maybe she should explain to the team what the playoffs are like.

No. They have not been Strachan with Messy Balls.

I presume you mean the 14 on the Anti-Defamation League site?

The big joke in Slap Shot is lost on modern audiences, though. I remember everyone in the theatre laughing out loud because Dickie Dunn was so credulous about the ridiculously absurd notion of the team moving to St. Petersburg. Now there is an NHL team near St. Petersburg. I so envy you being able to go to that game. I remember that the fans only started to lose the nervousness at 3-0. We only really started to believe we could win when we made it 5-2.

IMHO, Tyson Strachan was worse than both of them.

Titanic is well-crafted, but with a trite plot and a story which was emotionally dishonest to the females who were so drawn to it, I can safely say that it was far from perfect. My criteria include emotional honesty, strength of characters, strength of plot, unpredictability, and quality of the payoff. After that, I look at the sets, wardrobe, incidental music, and all the production-oriented stuff. For instance, I did say that Casablanca is my favourite film, but it has some glaring problems. (How the hell did the police miss the Letters of Transit? For that matter, Letters of Transit were complete bupkes. Someone with Louis Renault's occasional slips on his loyalties would have been replaced by someone with clearer loyalty to the Vichy government. And Sam needing to say, "Mr. Richard" and "Miss Ilsa" really grates on me.) But everything else about it is just stupendous with one of the best payoffs in the history of American film. Conversely, everyone I know who is experienced in film making, even as an amateur, puts Citizen Kane head-and-shoulders above everything else; many deride people like me who point out its flaws as "stressing the unimportant". I get it, to some extent -- film-making can clearly be divided into pre-CK and post-CK pretty readily. But a glaring plot hole is still a glaring plot hole. Also, movies eventually become dated. Let me put it in hockey terms. At the time, in 1976, it was more important for many fans that the Buffalo Sabres beat the Soviets than it was to win the Stanley Cup. I don't care what other people think. For me, even when the Sabres win the Stanley Cup, this was more important. Only Paul Henderson's goal in Game 8 of the Summit Series carried more weight. How could I say that? Let me put you into the mindset of the Cold War and the American Psyche. Italics indicate the subconscious baggage we were carrying at the time. NYC required a bailout from the Feds just before the Soviets came. The strongest teams in the league so far had only managed 1 tie and, frankly, most had been embarrassed by the Soviet teams. The Soviet hockey people claimed that our top teams weren't of the same class as their top teams and the NHL didn't have a good rejoinder. Nixon was a crook and Ford pardoned him -- and he had THREE assassination attempts against him. We were afraid if the refs called the games fairly, the Flyers were going to spend the entire game shorthanded. Besides, Tretiak could steal the game all by himself. Stagflation was horrible for the country. The worry on the NHL on NBC broadcast with Tim Ryan, Ted Lindsay, and Brian MacFarlane was palpable in the pre-game. The Soviets were making hay internationally, particularly in the UN, that our bailing out of South Vietnam, Bobby Fischer's antics, and the NHL's failures proved that capitalists were weak mentally. Damn it, it was the Bicentennial. Freedom matters. Kill the Commies. Even non-hockey fans across the US and Canada were desperate -- the Sabres were potentially the last chance for a win by the West. All of Western Civilisation might ride on this game. There was that much pressure on the team. They had to win. Watch the game again. Look how sloppy the Sabres were trying too hard on a lot of shifts. Listen to the nervousness of the fans before the Sabres broke through in the first period. Listen to the positive energy, relief, and triumphalism at the end of the game. If you weren't alive at the time, you just won't get it. My belief is very dated. Several talk show hosts across the nation have made fun of me for saying exactly that on the air. I don't care -- it really was that important. The National newscasts in both the US and Canada said so. Hockey Night in Canada said so. President Ford said so. Movies are the same way.