That Aud Smell

I took the discussion of "alpha dogs" to be substantially the same as a discussion of who's a leader, who'd be a natural captain. Anyway, Mittelstadt is a terrific player, imo. A leader, an alpha, a captain -- he ain't. Excellent point. There's a lotta different ways to get that job done.

and somehow they'll still notch 100 points. i'd written them off as dead or declining years ago. it never seems to happen.

Outside of high school, has Miitelstadt ever worn a letter?

I’d be hard pressed to think of a recent Sabre who is less of an alpha dog than Mittelstadt — and I like the player a lot.

Agreed: Tooth is solid.

we must study your brain.

Good take. Also nice work on the name tweak. Better choice than Thornsy.

the inevitable choice. the only choice, really. the allen-narrated video is cool. big stick taps for @dudacek

Pete ... that you?

I appreciate the response. To me, that's an awful lot of thought devoted to explaining away a cheap owner doing things on the cheap. Terry is not getting any benefit of the doubt from me. He's operating the Sabres as a poverty franchise. I don't see the relevance of this. Well-run, deeply-supported franchises do, anyway.

Cornell? Sounds very Cornell, anyway. This is very funny. A personal favourite: "IT SUCKS TO BU! IT SUCKS TO BU!"

I will reject the narcissism take. A more natural, and kinder view is that they players were being one with their fans. As for the singers in the stands (plenty of sober ones), everyone around me was delighted to see the players vibing and apparently singing along. But no players vibing?

I chuckled. It's a fair observation (or at least not unfair), and funny. Individualized goal songs? Jumbotron tributes to a returning hockey player? The administration, progress of NFL games and NHL games are very different, to be sure. I don't think there's a comparable moment in an NHL game when compared with that one lengthy media timeout that occurs in the NFL near the start of the 4th quarter -- typically with the teams standing on the field waiting for the game to resume.

The water's fine. Just dive in!

That's fair. I don't know any of their music other than that stadium anthem. I have no use for the song except in stadium or arena settings. It's just fun to sing along with a crowd. The experience of doing so can touch something in the soul.

The thistle patch is over that way, Eeyore. Ha. A joke. Mostly. I was there. I barely know the words to the song. But they display the lyrics. I sang along. It was a bit of fun. "It's not that deep," as my Gen Z 20-somethings are wont to say. Lots of things have replaced that essential human experience that most people used to have in/at a house of worship -- live sporting experiences among them. For my money, live music is a better replacement. The guy taking this video was in the row ahead of me for this show in Cleveland. Seemed like the whole damn amp was singing along - the 1:00 mark still gives me chills!

He was making light of my disappointment in Alan Pergament's journalistic failure (by sardonically suggesting that journalists have been sh1tty for a long, long time).

That’s a touch too cynical for my taste. It used to be the Fourth Estate, for heaven’s sake.

I care. The same owner who skimps on sending a contingent of employees to Europe is the same owner who skimps on overall team salary (e.g., the same owner who has a bottom 5 (or thereabouts) salary cap hit even though this team is absolutely not in a rebuild).

Sure. And perhaps he wishes that journalistic standards had eroded to a point where he could insert an -eye roll- emoji to show his incredulity. But he doesn't - or at least shouldn't - get off that easy. Why not do some gumshoeing to show that what he was told is BS? I noodled around for less than 10 minutes and found internet bread crumbs belying what the team had told him.

Good intell. So the Pegulas have been cheap about this since at least as far back as 2019. (Although, in 2019, RJ probably didn't want to go either.)

Sure. At this point, my gripe is more with Pergament who accepted at face value a representation that it's standard for NHL teams not to send their home broadcast crew for season opening games in Europe. And it looks like several NHL teams have sent their home broadcast crew to Europe. The Sabres won't -- at least not in 2024. Did the Sabres send their broadcast team when they went over and got waxed twice by the Lightning?

The Predators apparently sent their play by play guy in 2022. This is the ultra basic research that Alan Pergament could not be bothered to do -- he just went with what he was told.

Detroit sent a full contingent when they went to Sweden last season -- including their broadcast team. https://www.instagram.com/p/CzqaSwpOR9c/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==