That Aud Smell

And let’s keep in mind: They have way fancier stats than we do. Plus, they good ol’ fashioned pro personnel scouts. (At least I think they do?)

It is an inescapable inference. No idea what that signifies. And I told you to close out those nerd tabs for a bit.

The overpayment talk is starting to strike me as spreadsheet fandom. I therefore suggest you stay off the analytic sites for a couple days. (Lol.) As for this piece: I don’t think this move is intended to dress the wound you have in mind.

This is such a good point. It feels a bit like there’s a camp of people saying “another 1st round forward prospect? where can he even fit?” and also a camp of “Adams overpaid.” Maybe those are different people? I don’t care a bit if this is an overpayment (within reason). Mangiapane was clearly not coming here. All I care about: Is this guy a useful NHLer? I sure hope so.

If we’re talking about Skinner in the bottom 6, I tend to agree. His role as a top-6 LW had been taken by players who were rostered last season (principally Peterka, I think?).

Glad to confirm that you’re not sad to see Skinny go.

I'd take a Derek Roy on this team in a heartbeat. The problem the Sabres encountered with Roy - towards the end - is that he was being expected to do too much. Still a very nice player, when he was in the correct role.

Team Storm Cloud? Team … Rainbows and Kittens, was it?

And look at how that turned out

Those are distortions of my post. I'm not calling anyone names. And I'm not stumping for some sort of hockey dystopia. If you're legitimately sad to see Skinner go, then there's probably no point in our discussing the matter. Dude's got edge work for days, can be tenacious in the o-zone, and has a knack for getting open and finding the back of the net. He's also a freelancing floater who doesn't know how to effectively be part of something bigger than himself. One thousand regular season games is a sufficient sample size.

The who now?

Appreciate that. I'm also here to say: Nothing is guaranteed! A Sabres team without Skinner next season might be worse. But there was/is no sense carrying on with things substantially as they have been. Sheeyit - I'd even embrace a trade of one on their top young players. Why the funk not?

Just be assured that I will keep my shirt on. #flabby

I see Skinner as emblematic, symptomatic of this team's failures. And I am mystified by fans who follow the team closely but fail to see that. As I've posted elsewhere, it's like a form of Stockholm Syndrome for sports fans. "Don't take away a leading goal scorer from my favourite hockey team that fails to succeed each and every year, for years on end. He's among the best pieces of that failing enterprise. What would the Sabres possibly do without him?" Meanwhile, the Panthers were a playoff team that traded one of their top players in order to re-tool and take another shot at a Cup. A plan that didn't have to work, but it sure enough did. And yet there are Sabre fans that, in the past, would wring their hands over calls to move on from Skinner and now worry about how the team will score goals without him.

AI can't currently have Howard Cosell (sp?) call a MNF game. But give it a year or two. It will happen. As for the neat stringing of audio clips together, that's just a more primitive version of what AI audio is doing. If you wanted to start out with original audio clips and string them together, I'm sure AI could be applied at some point in order to smooth out the finished product.

I'd much rather just debate our favourite era of Rick's calls and listen to actual recordings of the same. They should never, ever AI RJ (or Darling, for that matter). And CBC shouldn't AI Bob Cole. And so on. But they probably will. They almost certainly will. There was some headline I saw this week -- some famous artist commenting that the AI-ification of a deceased artist was shameful (or words to that effect). The artists were from two totally different genres. Like maybe it was Sheryl Crowe bemoaning a Tupac AI? Some of who gets AI'd will depend on what kinds of rights deals each individual had signed off on.

I agreed with both posts 😂

This is an exemplary post. The best of what this board can offer. Layers, here.

Never. Never ever.

fair deuce