Marvin

His tale is an object lesson in the usefulness of analytics over bromides like "but he gets points" and "but he hits people." Points and hits are not useless, but the can be overwhelmed by other factors in evaluating a player. I have always wondered how much Ristolainen, Zadorov, and Girgensons were hurt by The Tank. They were better than guys on the Sabres at the time, so Nolan felt he needed them on the big club, but they really belonged in Rochester.

As if the failures of the 2015 draft aside from Eichel needed to be piled on...

Is it possible to put lines 2-4 in a blender to spread out the youth, skill, experience, and player type and come up with something coherent? The best I can do is: Mittelstadt-Jost-Quinn Peterka-Krebs-Okposo Girgensons-Cozens-Olofsson With Hinostroza and Asplund moving in from time to time. Maybe they should go in from the kids for a couple of games.

He still hasn't tried that Jai Alai shootout play from another thread.

I would like some guys who do all the boring things right like Samuelsson. I don't need yet another PMD.

Welcome back!

Krueger potentially the best coach for the Oilers in that era has to be the greatest condemnation of a GM's tenure in a long, lloonngg, lllllllllloooooooooonnnnnnnnnngggggggggg time.

Welcome back!

Writing as someone whose concept of Batman starts with Adam West, this should be, "Holy hindsight, Batman!" I am someone who wanted Necas, so I look at Casey as needing to get to something like that level. I think he can -- with the right linemates.

Good point. We have seen more ensemble defence the last few games.

Thank you. You put this together better than I would have.

One would hope.

John Tortotella is exactly the WRONG coach for young players, let alone a young team. He is notorious for ignoring the development of young players in lieu of far less talented veterans who make fewer mistakes. You bring him in when you have under-achieving veterans who need to be pushed a bit and you are in "win now" mode. Barry Trotz is a defence-first coach. I imagine that Tage Thompson would not be allowed to score at his current rate if it meant missing a defencive assignment. The Peterka-Cozens-Quinn line would probably still be effective, albeit a lot less dynamic. You would get a team which would cover most of its goaltending deficiencies and eventually win with tight defence. But those goaltending deficiencies get exposed in the playoffs.

"How many coincidences add up to a fact?" -- from an episode of _The Twilight Zone_

And Halifax has a team in the NLL.

Um. Wow. That's all I can muster. I can't believe what he did is even possible.

With Skinner and Okposo coming back, does Granato keep Mittlestadt and Olofsson on different lines?

This is why I think a trade for depth defencemen is more likely than any big splashes. It fits the timeline, the mindset, and the long-term plan. No Demko, Chychrun, etc.

If there is one place where we clearly need better coaching, it is PK.

Is that wood? Have we found the bottom of this barrel?

Just curious: who is on from Murray's tenure?

Instead of a one-time subject, why not make this an ongoing thread about the Sabres' goal differential throughout the season?

Yup. On radio-only games, it was Ted, Rick, and I think Paul Wieland.

Welcome back!

Welcome back!