That Aud Smell

4:44 mark. I'm surprised to read LTS defend what 15 did there. For crissakes, if he had given it just a little oomf, he could have contested the shot. I understand that he'd been out there a while on the powerplay. On. The. Powerplay. I love and want to love the guy, but that's a terrible look.

Does a losing culture maybe look a bit like this? I think it might. (That's the face of the franchise with his stick across his legs, watching as Justin Williams toys with his goalie. Maybe he's also got issues in re my "category #1" above?) Also, against doctor's orders, I read Harrington today (and learned there of Eichel's floating (missed it when I was there live)). I was reminded that Harrington writes stuff like this: Eichel has five goals in 20 games and is minus-9 for the season. He has one goal in his last 11 games and floated back into his zone to ghastly proportions on the opening goal here Saturday by Carolina's Justin Williams.

I think there's something to it, for sure. We may also recall his infamous turning off of the stereo/radio in the locker room -- his imposition of a business-like atmosphere. It doesn't sound like a lot of fun, but, damn it, if it wasn't effective. There's more than one way to skin a cat, of course.

Well, there's another thing you and Terry have in common.

Fair enough. We'll see what the usage looks like.

Good stuff. (Btw, I place little stock in what the LV GM said about why his team succeeded -- I don't think it's just (or even mostly) the absence of pressure that led to results.) This piece quoted here was especially good, imo. The Sabres just do not resemble a team. Fits and starts of it (being a team) are there, but no more than that.

The one thing that I have heard -- in re winning culture -- is that you have a team that, from top to bottom, takes care of the dozens of "little things" (and not so little things) that ensure each player and the team is ready to do its absolute best. I think a lot of that sort of stuff is behavioral -- routines, habits, etc. The one concrete example I once heard was how Drury got Campbell to ease off on the greasy burgers on game day and go with a simple chicken/pasta dish. I know that probably sounds inane now, but it was a specific example. But there's also the extra work that good players on good teams are apparently putting in. The assistant quality coach (or whomever) loaded this iPad with footage of next week's opponents (including goalies). Have a look, and see what you can learn about how to deal with them. And then there's the on-ice stuff. Is your self-imposed "limit" -- what you can honestly call your 100% -- something that is, in fact, limited by your not really wanting to push past the point of comfort? I get really uncomfortable chirping about this because I know for a feckin' FACT that, in terms of physical exertion, I am in that camp. I watch my one kid (who's inexplicably a really good athlete) push and push and push herself to higher levels of achievement and fitness -- I watched her lay her body OUT this past fall in the high school playoffs (and winced) -- and I knew, I know that, when I was her age, I would essentially reach a point where I was all "yep. nope. okay - you get to win this battle right here." And more on-ice stuff: Are you truly grabbing an oar and pulling in the direction the coach is calling for? Or are you mixing in a fair dose of your own thing, your own agenda? My thoughts on the two on-ice aspects: I think Reinhart is probably an issue re the first category, and I would imagine that Kane (and perhaps Eichel) is an issue re the second category. And I think ROR is an issue re neither such category, but I also think he is probably two steps too slow right now.

Whether or not you were trying, you did just that.

In other news, Larsson centering the second line. I know he looked useful against Carolina, but the idea of him centering a second line is ... discouraging.

Eichel on the third line. Welp.

The idea that Peterman should get a pass for sucking as bad as he did or that he's some sort of asset worth preserving seems pretty preposterous.

This stuff is like trying to grab and hold water. I was unaware that Housley was saying the same thing. It does call to mind: Las Vegas won a whole bunch of games with cast-offs. I am sure everyone there was following the game plan.

What ... even. What. I've been underwhelmed by what I have seen of him.

His social media features screen cap images of the scripture passage he's reading that day.

It gets to Fox from the Bills PR department, presumably. I was more equanimous about the move when it was made. I saw the Tweet to the effect that the Jags run D was not good prior to bringing on Dareus, and it's been quite good since he joined the team. Could it be correlation and not causation? Whatever that means.

A guy in our section screamed “GET OUTTA HIS WAY!” 2 or 3 times at Kane. So often, his instinct is to drift toward/onto the puck. He’s gotta let Eichel create, and fimd some space. But he can’t.

I was at the game. Sorry if this was addressed upthread: That crowd had *plenty* of liveliness to it (yes, on a Saturday night). The home team was just god awful. I’m about forever done on this chicken-egg debate of crowd noise and team’s quality. I couldn’t believe how bad the team looked. Then again, that squad is almost at tank level of AHL quality players. The winning goal was such a sad thing.

I'd thought Botterill was, more than anything, a smart game-theory-ish asset-manager. I'm sure he can do some talent evaluation, but I think he's more an exec who's going to figure out how various pieces fit together, this season and beyond. Nice.

Hear, hear. Hell yeah he could have had. Something is deeply wrong with that guy.

Benching Tyrod is tantamount to benching or trading Lehner or *Eichel*? Sheesh, for different reasons. I’m more on board with the trading Reinhart scenario.

It's the 2017 AFC. There ain't much cream. A deeply flawed AFC team will probably make the playoffs. Query whether that's what the fans really want. Maybe they do. We do disagree then. I had thought this was pretty widely agreed on. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmrPrqqTiHw Agreed.

I hear you. That's exactly what the conclusion must be: They think the rookie gives them a better shot at getting into the playoffs. I hope they're right. I tend to doubt they are.

^ Thanks for stopping in @shotgunner!

He certainly had enough games to show what he had. The hanging chad, imo, is that the Dennison scheme was NEVER going to enable Taylor to succeed. I'm not even saying Taylor was/is capable of meaningful success in the NFL, but I think he might have been (be) given the right situation. I almost didn't get past #1 since his long ball is a demonstrated strength. Not that it means too terribly much in the overall scheme of a successful QB, but he can mos def put air under it and hit a guy in stride. I agree that his inaccuracy on normal throws and his inability to facilitate YAC are things that most likely doom him as a QB1 in the league. I agree with the take that Beane and McDermott are gutsy for doing this now. Whether they are stupid for having done so remains to be seen (and isn't necessarily tied to what happens this season).

I’ve been a pretty casual watcher so far this season. The happened with McCabe?! It was entertaining, I’ll grant. FGMTM was selling a bill of goods, yeah. I don’t find myself needing much comfort re the -bres (say it burz), but I do appreciate the sentiment.