Doohickie

I'm just glad Santa has Rudolph.

The Panthers' problems are bigger than Reino.

This, perhaps, is the weak underbelly of Kevyn's plan to build through draft and development. If that's how he plans to build the team you're going to have a conveyor belt of rookies pushing the second year guys into increasingly responsible assignments. But for the next several years, plan on having to assimilate three rookies. It's just the way the team is being built. This is where the intangibles comes in: If each of these guys has a leader/proactive mindset, it could work. I look at JJ and Quinn and I see that (despite the last game or two). If you have guys champing on the bit to be here (JJ, Quin) instead of just worrying about whether they're going to ***** up or not (Mitts, Krebs), it can work. Then again, maybe that's what the conveyor belt is: This year you have JJ, Quinn and Power, and to an extent UPL as rookies finding their way. Samuelsson, Cozens, Krebs, Mitts, Comrie as young players consolidating their experience to establish themselves on the team. The rest of the team. Next year it will be Savoie, Kulich, and whoever else as rookies finding their way. JJ, Quinn and Power and UPL as young players consolidating their experience to establish themselves on the team. The rest of the team. You have to acknowledge and play around the fact that you've got guys that are still learning playing regular shifts and need to account for their mistakes. Shortening you bench in the late stages of a tight game isn't a rejection of the rookies/younger players, it's just managing risk to maximize your outcomes. The advantage of having 2-3-4 rookies on the team is they are assimilating the "tribal knowledge" of the big club and its system so that down the road they are the guys playing the late minutes while next year's rookies are benched late in games. Team building is always going to be a conveyor belt. It's never complete. As you bring in younger players, older players will essentially age out, and other players will be weeded out. Learning how to continually develop and build is how dynasties are born.

Silly goose. JJP and Quinn won't be rookies next year.

Yes. We know.

30 NHL games (3 of which were for Buffalo): 1 goal, 5 assists, none of which were for Buffalo, and only one NHL assist in the last 5 seasons. AHL fodder.

That's the thing with goalie development: There is no set schedule. Even at the beginning of the season he wasn't ready. Now.... maybe he is? Or maybe he's just had a couple of good games? Comrie started out strong too then looked mediocre. Until a goalie "arrives" or shows that he'll never arrive, you just don't know. I hope that this is the beginning of getting stable goaltending for the team. We'll see.

We would get so frustrated when another team's rookie/backup goalie looked like Hasek. I'm just enjoying the shoe being on the other foot.

Oh but wait: THAT STICK TWIRL. Kind of sad that that's the only thing I remember about him at this point. Not even the goal that led to it, just the twirl.

The Hockey Guy was watching the Buffalo coverage; cites a comment by Rob Ray. He then did a full 20 minute video about why VGK sucks at home.

We're not supposed to get precipitation but they're saying we're gonna go down to about 10 degrees with 20-30 mph winds here in north Texas. Hoping it's not a repeat of the deep freeze we had a coupla years ago.

I think that's part of the point: The Sabres tend to take more high quality shots while the Knights take a below average number of quality shots. Fewer shots for the Sabres but more are likely to go in.

When you're leading the league at a 12.3% shooting percentage you can play like that. The Sabres got a couple of great looks and buried them, plus a seeing eye puck from the point. The Knights are in the bottom half of the league in shooting percentage at 9.9%. Vegas had too many great looks last night, granted, but UPL was up to the challenge.

There are some issues that even technology cannot solve.

So basically he's what we hoped Eichel would be?

4 points out with a game in hand? Bubble territory.

Oh @pi2000 you have the attention span of a gnat hockey player. 😉

There's a key concept buried in there: building this team. This team isn't a finished product, nor is it as good as it likely will be in a month, or two, or three. This is readily apparent to me in how the team looks with half our regular Dmen out. A month a go it was a disaster. Now it's a winning streak. If you don't think Pilut, Clague and Fitzy haven't grown as part of this team since November you're not paying attention. Are they studs? No. Can they hold down the fort? A month ago, no. Now? Eh.... almost, with good goaltending. By the end of January, will they know what Granato wants out of them and come closer to giving it to him? I would say yes. Can the forward ranks grow to produce more consistently while being more responsible defensively? Again, I say yes. Some teams are all they'll ever be already. They're constituted similarly to the way they were last year and the year before. They have the same coach and are playing the same system. The Sabres are still developing and growing and will be a better team by the end of the season than they are now. They will be playing a system closer to Granato's vision, and more consistently. Cup contenders? Doubtful. But will they manage to win a series? I wouldn't count them out.

He's on a pace for 67 right now. I'm not saying he'll get 70, just that it's possible.

What if they're in playoff position at the end of Comrie's conditioning stint? Can you sit UPL if he's the hot hand?

I've heard that's the plan, yeah.

One thing I noticed on several shots is that when he was down in the butterfly he was shifting his shoulders upward toward high shots (and made a few saves doing so). I don't remember him doing that previously. It's like Tage in a way.... finally figuring out how to use the height advantage.

It would take a pretty good slump for him to miss 50 this season. 70 is not out of the question. 40 in my mind is his absolute minimum. I feel like he's not as streaky as some scorers. He maybe be slow to start the season but once he gets up to speed he's been pretty consistent last year and so far this year.

If he ever figures that out they'll just step aside and give him the goal. I bet that puck was 120+ mph.