Doohicksie

Take a hit of Hopium.

Huh? I am not Joe Yerdon, if that's what you're implying. He better be. I bought his ticket. He doesn't know it's Standing Room Only.

I would also say this: If they manage to catch up to the second WC team by, say, the end of January, I don't think they'll be done: They will set their sites on Atlantic 3rd place and keep climbing.

Next month it'll be me and @Spoonman in Dallas.

But it wasn't ruled a scoring play. That's the weird thing about that rule is that it doesn't kick in until an official calls it a score.

I was never a fan. He sounded too much like a snake oil salesman to me.

Let's beat the heck out of his small sample size.

Skinner-Thompson-Tuch Peterka-Cozens-Quinn Jost-Mittelstadt-Olofsson Girgensons-Krebs-Okposo Samuelsson-Dahlin Pilut-Lyubushkin Clague-Fitzgerald UPL

I was referring more to quality than quantity. But you got me lookin'. Looks like Eurotrash for a Bruiser Denis Malgin: 4th round, 102nd overall, 2015 draft by the Florida Panthers 2022-23 season: 23 games played, 2 goals, 2 assists, 4 points NHL career: 215 games played, 30 goals, 34 assists, 64 points During the 2019–20 season, Malgin registered 12 points in 36 games with the Panthers before he was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs in exchange for forward Mason Marchment on 19 February 2020. On 2 October 2020, Toronto re-signed Malgin to a one-year contract extension worth $700,000. He began the 2020–21 NL season with Lausanne HC on loan from the Leafs while the start of the North American was delayed due to the ongoing pandemic. Malgin was placed on waivers by the Leafs on 5 January 2021 in order to continue with Lausanne for the remainder of the season. On 2 May, Malgin was re-assigned to the Toronto Marlies of the AHL. On 6 September 2021, Malgin returned to the ZSC Lions as a free agent, agreeing to a four-year deal. On 13 July 2022, Malgin returned to the NHL signing a one-year, $750,000 contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Dryden Hunt: Undrafted, Left Wing 2022-23 season: 3 games played, 1 goal, 0 assists, 1 point NHL career: 168 games played, 13 goals, 28 assists, 41 points Signed as a free agent to a three-year, entry-level contract with the Florida Panthers on 2 March 2016 and played for the AHL Springfield Thunderbirds. In the following 2017–18 season, Hunt was assigned to continue with the Thunderbirds. After 13 games on 9 November 2017, he received his first recall to the Panthers. He made his NHL debut with the Panthers in a 4-1 victory over the Buffalo Sabres on 10 November 2017. After his fourth season within the Panthers organization, Hunt as an impending restricted free agent was not tendered a qualifying offer by Florida, releasing him as a free agent. On 10 October 2020, Hunt was signed to a one-year, two-way contract with the Arizona Coyotes. Hunt posted 3 goals and 8 points through 26 games as the Coyotes missed the post-season. On 28 July 2021, Hunt signed as a free agent to a two-year deal with the New York Rangers. In the 2021–22 season. He finished the regular season finishing with career highs of 76 games for 6 goals, 11 assists and 17 points. He went scoreless in 3 playoff appearances as the Rangers reached the Eastern Conference finals. In his final season under contract with the Rangers, Hunt began the 2022–23 season by scoring 1 goal in 3 games before he was placed on waivers on October 19, 2022. He was claimed the following day by defending champions, the Colorado Avalanche, on October 20, 2022. He made his debut on the fourth-line with the Avalanche in a 3-2 defeat to the Seattle Kraken on October 21, 2022. He registered his first point and goal with the Avalanche, in his 15th appearance, helping Colorado to a 4-1 win over Dallas Stars on November 26, 2022.

But are they? Really?

All I want for Christmas is Deluca .500 😄

And there have been other instances where other lines covered for the Tage line when they were stymied by the opposition. When the Tuch trade (see what I did there?) was in the works there was discussion about whether it's better to have the very best top end talent or have the talent spread throughout the lineup. That trade represented a transition from the former to the latter (although most of the talent was already in the system prior to the trade). The team that gets more "very good" pieces may, over the long term, be the team that wins the trade, as opposed to the team who got the best player. The Lindros deal between Quebec (/Colorado) and Philadelphia is a case where the team getting the best player lost the trade, which was a strong contributing factor to the Avs Cup wins and overall success in the 1990s.

I really think it's the unified plan between Adams and Granato that makes the Sabres approach different. And specifically, Adams promoting an assistant coach focused on player development into the head coach role and giving him the charter to develop all the youth on the team to their NHL potential. It's actually a pretty bold vision and if it works (playoffs this year or next, contending for the Cup shortly after) you may see other teams jumping on that model. We as a fan base have been frustrated by the lack of progress, especially when it appears that better defensive depth and goaltending would put the Sabres into solid playoff position, but I think it's a fine balance they're trying to achieve and where they lean too far they've decided to lean toward the youth movement. We're not sure yet if that's the correct balance but like I said if it works it could be revolutionary in terms of how teams rebuild going forward.

I think the Sabres are taking the right approach, as painful as it is at times. But also... I think the Sabres "got lucky" with the emergence of Tage and how his line maximizes the talents of Tuch and Skinner. Maybe if Mitts wasn't injured he would have been "that guy" last year and had a 30 goal season but I'm not seeing it. The fact that Tage got 1C minutes with the most talented guys on the team, but really only due to the injury to Mitts, was a stroke of luck and an opportunity that Tage was ready to maximize. For the Sabres that was like winning a lottery- something you don't expect and can't bank on. The Sabres have a decent center spine for a young team: Cozens is having a break out year, Krebs seems to be improving, Jost was a nice find, and only Mitts seems to be stagnating. But as you say, a lot of this is the philosophy of letting the kids go through their growing pains together and grow together as a team. As a development coach Granato is perfect for that assignment. I think Yzerman doesn't have the same appreciation that Adams does for stocking the system and giving the youth a chance to grow. He wants to start winning and it almost seems like he's making the same mistakes as XGMTM in terms of trading assets for good, not great, players to accelerate the build.

I miss that bloke.

No argument, but in their last game, when it was a tense 2-2 draw in the third, who scored the game winner that loosened up the Yotes and made them pull their goalie? I will say though that I don't see this Sabres team as necessarily having a specific "go to" guy like Drury and Briere were. I could see anyone from the top two lines being "that guy", mostly because those two lines work so well as lines. They can all pass, they can all finish. You don't see it as much on the bottom two lines but the way Jost and Krebs are working out I think there may be a bump up on bottom six scoring as well.

Unless, of course, a team is playing the Sabres and then they target Lyubushkin's and Jokiharju's ankles.

But they won't be, not with an arena deal in place.

The modest 3-game win streak they are currently on has been with a hodge-podge defense. The team may be maturing to the point that as long as they have a couple Top D to work with, they're learning how to win even with some depth level replacements. That may be more important than getting everyone healthy.

I was going to post it but I thought there was an error in the start time. It really is a 10 PM ET start, eh? Yikes. I will still watch the whole thing tonight. It's a 9 PM start for me and I am working from home in the morning so I can sleep in a bit longer.

You misunderstand. You *were* on my naughty list but I'm used to your style and stuff now so you're off. I don't see you getting back on.