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ppjeterka · 6 months

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stealth-hot anon again

you are SO right not a single one of the Sabres is pulling off that Leon Draisaitl smirk, like I'm sorry that man smolders and the Sabres, while very cute, would look like they're just super excited to play a game! None of them are making Connor Bedard reconsider his career and whether it might not be better to just drop to his knees right there if you know what I'm saying.

ugh I feel you with the curse of liking a team that's not super fandom popular... the thing is, I think they will be eventually, but there's definitely ways to speed things up!! obvi reblogging all the videos. All the gifsets. All the gifts that Sabres social media has given us (I think they might be the best in the league at that, like the between 2 stalls series is hilarious, and they let this child-team show some personality which is hard to come by in the hockey world.) Fanart helps, obvs, though I say this as someone who cannot make it. and, unfortunately, fanfic... like sometimes it's a case of drumming up interest with the Narratives and letting the audience build from there which is obvi. V annoying. But also are there any compelling narratives now?? As a longtime Jonathan Drouin-Nathan MacKinnon shipper, the narratives were definitely there, they had all this history, and then it just fell into place this past summer and it took a little while (and some good on-ice performances), but people are getting into it again. Are there any guys like that? (I think Bo Byram and... Cozens, maybe? Is that right?) If there are videos or interviews of that, that is also vvvvv compelling, even if I'm not into the ship it does make me curious to know more about a relationship in general. Owen Power was on one of those very homoerotic college teams, right, does he have any teammates nearby? JJ Peterka and Jack Quinn have excellent chemistry and the Sabres social media know it, which I appreciate. And then there are the individual personalities. Dahlin's aquarium video was hilarious. Tage Thompson might not have a personality (he very well could I just haven't seen one yet) but he is an excellent artist. And Jeff Skinner. We cannot sleep on Jeff Skinner. He is an absolute fandom goldmine, from the figure skating past to the very real personality to the fact that he's def a cutie (appeal to the more mature folk! and everyone else!) to the fact that he's got the NHL record for most games played without a playoff appearance (poor dude), he's a compelling dude and how could you NOT root for him.

stealth-hot anon yay hello again!!!!!!

unfortunately the sabres are doomed by the narrative :(( I wasn't really a big fan of them last year, but I get the sense that they were actually a really fun team to watch (high scoring, promising young talent, admittedly questionable goaltending) and thus the vibes (and filmed content!!) popped off. Then this year started shit and decidedly unfun and killed the vibes that were cultivated last year :( Dylan Cozen's been kind of cold all year, Tage has been alternately injured and/or underperforming, and it doesn't help that Jack Quinn's been out of the lineup for the majority of the season (but it seems like he's coming back soon!), so there hasn't been nearly the same amount of fun off-ice content for fans to sink their teeth into this year...that said, I have faith for next year!!

as for interpersonal player narratives...dylan/bo definitely has good potential but i think the air of tragedy that still clings to the trade needs some time to clear LOL

"Owen Power was on one of those very homoerotic college teams, right," LMAOOOO I'm not really into NCAA fan/shipping culture, but I know Owen and Kent Johnson is/was a pretty big self-sustaining thing? Might need to look into the state that ship is in...

And JJ and Jack. Now that's a duo. Every video they're in together is simply incredible, I have no shame in admitting I've watched all of them more times than I can recall. I think I have 2? 3? WIPs going for them rn?

But yeah, shipping aside, they're just an extremely charming team with great group chemistry and individual personalities. I won't stop clocking into my shift at the sabres fandom mines to get more people to let the light into their lives🫡

#stealth-hot anon always a pleasure to speak with you!!!#asks #anonymous

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leafsbabe · 4 years

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how Tage Thompson is like in bed

what Tage Thompson is like in bed:

- he’s a big man and he knows how to use his body to his (and your) adventage

- like whenever you’re in the mood he just picks you up and carries you to bed

- or the nearest vaguely flat surface

- or wall

- and he can keep you up the entire time

- very much into oral

- especially when you tug on his hair during it

- because he likes that a lot

- he lets you take the lead

- has no problem laying back and letting you take your pleasure

- just really wants to please you

- look me in the eyes and tell me he’s not a titty sucker i dare you

- really loves boobs and isn’t ashamed of it

- leaves a lot of hickeys but in a good christian boy way

- is that even a thing

- i don’t know

- but he does

- he’s a big cuddler

- just loves to hold you and have lots of skin contact and overall closeness and warmth

his dick:

- proportional

the experience:

8.5/10

#hib series #tage thompson #hockey imagine #hockey imagines #nhl imagines #hockey player #hockey smut #thirst month

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andrewuttaro · 4 years

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Two GM’s, Two Trades

Sports history has no shortage of characters. Heroes and Fools and everything in between. Often times they exist in different times, set apart by eras and regimes. But we may have the best compare and contrast one could hope for on our hands in Buffalo. On May 9th, 2017, the Buffalo Bills hired a new general manager in Brandon Beane. Two days later the Buffalo Sabres hired a new general manger in Jason Botterill. Two days apart two men together took hold of the towns only two major pro sports franchises. Then they went in different directions.

To be fair both have had their ups and downs. NHL Hockey and NFL Football are vastly different games with different salary cap structures and different roster construction rules. We’re not comparing apples and apples here. But the comparison is just too tempting. Three years on most Sabres fans are calling for the ouster of Botterill while Bills fans hail Beane as the architect of a franchise renaissance. The Bills are being picked to win their division, twelve games, and be a contender for the AFC title. The Sabres are nine years out of the playoffs and inspiring little hope in anyone wearing blue and gold. How much was each GM responsible for their club’s current predicament?

I’m not smart enough for stats and only became a football fan when Josh Allen leaped that Viking. I won’t be making an analytical argument to you today. Instead let’s look at two trades. One made by each of the Buffalo GMs. Each trade represents more than a simple exchange of players and futures. Each trade is a roster-altering power move executed in the hope of changing the club’s fortunes. The results for one are not looking good. The results for the other are yet to be seen. Each trade is emblematic of the GM who pulled the trigger.

For Buffalo Sabres GM Jason Botterill it was the Ryan O’Reilly Trade. July 1st, 2018: Jason Botterill trades Center Ryan O’Reilly to the St. Louis Blues for forwards Vladimir Sobotka, Patrik Berglund, Tage Thompson, a 2019 First Round Draft pick and a 2021 second round Draft pick. Make no mistake: the player in this deal is Ryan O’Reilly. A center holding down the top line role in Buffalo as young superstar Jack Eichel came into his own. For St. Louis O’Reilly would be a middle six forward on a much deeper roster. Meanwhile both of Vladimir Sobotka and Patrik Berglund were already regressing but they were veteran roster players which were certainly a big demand for a Sabres franchise that had just added franchise defenseman Rasmus Dahlin. Everything else in the trade was sight-unseen futures, including Tage Thompson; the least of a three-headed monster of St. Louis prospects.

For the Buffalo Bills GM Brandon Beane it was the Stefon Diggs trade. March 16th, 2020: Brandon Beane acquires Stefon Diggs and a 2020 seventh round draft pick from the Minnesota Vikings for the Bills 2020 First Round Draft Pick, a 2020 fifth round pick, a 2020 sixth round pick, and a fourth round draft pick in 2021. Minnesota received a haul of draft picks including a first rounder they used to select a replacement receiver for the departed Diggs. They moved out a player management had become impatient with for a haul of futures. Meanwhile the Bills forfeited said haul for a bonafede number one receiver. A known quantity for young QB Josh Allen to gel with.

The Sabres were coming off of what was accidentally one of their worst seasons in franchise history. That desolation earned them a top draft pick and generational talent in Rasmus Dahlin. Centers are crucial pieces in NHL roster construction and even the barely decent ones command a high price. Ryan O’Reilly was an above average center who couldn’t single-handedly revive the Sabres in their endless struggles. No single player can but centers are critical pieces. Evidently Botterill was shopping O’Reilly as early as the 2018 Trade deadline. When the player caught wind of it the awful season was magnified. When O’Reilly claimed he’d lost his love for the game at locker room cleanout day he gave the GM the media cover to move him out, a relationship already ruined by prior devaluation. The July 1st trade apparently went down in some part because Sabres owner Terry Pegula (also the owner of the Buffalo Bills) was not interested in paying a contract bonus. After a rough first half for the Blues the following season they went on an incredible run that ended in a Stanley Cup and a Conn Smythe Trophy (Playoff MVP) for Ryan O’Reilly.

When the Bills acquired Stefon Diggs they were fresh off Josh Allen’s first full season as the starting quarterback. For many in the national media Buffalo came out of nowhere embarrassing the Dallas Cowboys on Thanksgiving, winning ten games, and reaching the playoffs for the second time in three years. For Brandon Beane it was the fruition of a rather quick turnaround that saw him move out the majority of the squad that snuck into the playoffs two years prior. Big gets of the prior regime like Sammy Watkins had been moved out for an even newer battery of Tre White, Tremaine Edmunds, and Ed Oliver among others. With that backdrop the move to get Stefon Diggs added a young high-end receiver to the top of a depth chart that already included Cole Beasley and John Brown. This was giving Allen the weapon he needed to push further on a young team’s potential for a collection of futures Beane already had. The on-field results are yet to be seen but Beane has been roundly praised for the move.

Both of these trade represented their respective Buffalo GMs making a considerably big roster move. Both trades were attempts to fill a need by moving out something in excess. For the two GMs these trades demonstrate how their respective models for organizational overhaul were fundamentally different. Both trades factor in the state of affairs their teams were in differently. While Botterill moved a core piece for futures, Beane moved futures for a core piece. Botterill made his move a year into his roster regime still struggling to build a consistent forward corp. Beane made his move in year three after a strong young base was already in place winning games. Differences there maybe many but it seems clear to see how these two trades show what kind of GM each man tries to be. Hired two days apart, these GM’s strategies are indeed worlds apart.

#buffalo sabres #Buffalo Bills

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puckyou-forpuckssake · 6 years

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Marshmallow Harmony—J. Skinner

Requested by anon. No warning. Check out my other imagines and master list on my blog with #hockeyimagines.

When you heard Jeff Skinner was coming to Buffalo, you freaked out. Originally from Raleigh, you remember when Jeff was drafted and watching him play for the Canes. He was your favorite player, and when you moved to Buffalo for a position as a Sabres Social Media Coordinator, they knew he would always be your favorite. And since you spent most of your time around the players, taking pictures and videos of them and along interviewing them and playing little games, you had became good friends with some of them and they could not help but to text you when they heard the news.

Eichs: How happy are you lover boy is coming to Buffalo?!

Sammy: Your husband is coming to town!

My Beau: Your wingman is here. Let’s get you some Skins

Bogo: Mila always told you wishes can come true

Risto: Smiley Short Shorts is coming for you

Z: Skins!!!! In!!!! Buffalo!!!!

Jo Swede: I bet your smile is a big as his right now

Evs: This is your chance. Get your man

The texts from the guys kept up until the first day of camp when they all started pitching in in person. You watched from a distance, taking videos and pictures for Snapchat and Instagram, as the guys practiced and got to know their new teammates. Occasionally you swore you saw Jack, Sam, Nathan, Zach, Rasmus, Zemgus, Johan, and Evan point in your direction. One of them always seemed to make sure Jeff was facing towards you.

“Y/N!” You turned to see Grace, the YouTube and live stream guru of the Your duo, came running up to you. “I need you to come with me. I got the green light to record a Q&A with the players. They want it to be the new ones so fans have an opportunity to get to know them better. You’ll be interviewing them.”

You almost dropped your phone. “You mean like Casey Mittelstadt, Rasmus Dahlin, Conor Sheary, Tage Thompson, Vladimir Sobotka, Matt Hunwick, and Carter Hutton? No problem.”

Grace giggled. “You forgot one. Jeff Skinner is a big one. Let’s go Sobotka is up first.”

————————

Jeff was the last one to be interviewed and by this time you had no idea what to expect. Grace changed it up each time, both questions and how the interview had to be done. Different players came in and out to watch the interviews. The largest crowd yet had been Dahlin’s where you asked him questions with a microphone that changed your voices each time. Hutton’s was fun as you asked questions while trying to save a balloon from touching the ground.

Before Jeff even came in, your self appointed wingmen entered the room. “What are you guys doing here?” You hissed.

“We’re here to watch you interview Jeff,” Johan answered.

“Yeah, guys have been in and out all day watching,” Evan added.

“Plus, what kind of wingmen would we be if we didn’t make sure you didn’t fuck up your first conversation with the love of your life,” Risto commented.

Sam punched him in the shoulder. “Shut up. We weren’t supposed to say that.”

You groaned as Grace walked back in. “Don’t you worry. Nothing is going to go wrong. Here’s the marshmallows.”

“What are these for?”

“Part of the interview,” she explained. “You each are starting off with a marshmallow in your mouths. You ask a question and he answers. Then you add one more and the cycle repeats until you run out of questions or someone’s marshmallows come tumbling out.”

You could hear your “wingmen” giggling like little girls behind you. “Now Jeff can see how much she can fit in her mouth without swallowing,” Nathan whispered.

“That’s disgusting,” Zach gagged. “Disgusting.”

The door opened to Jack walking in with Jeff trailing him. “And this is where the fun interviews happen. Jeff, meet Grace and Y/N. They run the Sabres Instagram, Snapchat, and the fun portion of the YouTube channel. You’ll see them around a lot and sometimes one or both of them travels with us.”

Grace introduced herself first. “Hi Jeff, I’m Grace. I do a lot of the production aspects and filming. I’m the one behind the camera normally because Y/N has such a beautiful face that was made for it. Don’t you agree, Jeff?”

“Uh…”

You slapped Grace in the arm. “I’m sorry about her. She loves talking. I’m Y/N. It’s nice to meet you.”

Jeff smiled, making you want to melt in your spot. “Jeff. It’s nice to meet both of you. So shall we get this underway?”

Jeff took a seat in the chair opposite of yours. You began talking when you saw the red light. “Hello Sabre Nation. It’s Y/N here with another fun Q&A. Today’s player is another one of our new players, Jeff Skinner. Jeff played for the Carolina Hurricanes as left wing for 8 seasons. It’s great to have you here in Buffalo, Jeff.”

“It’s great to be in Buffalo, Y/N,” Jeff grinned.

“Alright, let’s begin,” You pointed to the bowl of marshmallows. “Grab one and put in your mouth, but don’t swallow. I’ll do the same. After each question we’ll add a marshmallow. Ready?”

Jeff nodded and plopped a marshmallow into his mouth. “Favorite food?”

“Sushi.”

“Favorite TV show?”

“Game of Thrones.”

Things started to get complicated around seven marshmallows. “Celebrigee ook ike?”

“Goseph Ord Evit.”

“Bavorite ort esides ockey?”

“Aseall.”

“Avit oosi argis?”

Jeff’s eyes went wide. “Uh, ick armoy.”

All the marshmallows fell out of your mouth as you began laughing. Jeff blushed. “I like them too, don’t worry.”

His cheeks got redder. “Ill oo o out it ee?” He asked.

Your eyes widened and it was your turn to blush. “I et if oo on’t one oo.”

“Yes,” you nodded. Jeff’s mouth dropped, causing all the marshmallows to fall out. “Yes, I will gladly go out with you.”

“I can hear the wedding bells,” Sam sighed happily.

“Mission accomplished, wingmen,” Jack grinned. Grace coughed and glared at him. “And wingwoman.”

#jeff skinner #jeff skinner imagine #buffalo sabres #buffalo sabres imagines #nhl #hockey #hockey imagines #nhl imagines

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andrebearakovsky · 6 years

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This Week in Caps: Week 11

Welcome to This Week in Caps, a weekly newsletter where I recap everything important that’s been going on in the world of the Washington Capitals this past week.

This Week’s Games

12/11/18 vs Detroit Red Wings, W 6-2

After a strong win in Columbus, the Caps got a huge lift, as T.J. Oshie returned to the lineup after missing 11 games due to a concussion. The Caps would be looking for another strong showing at home against the Red Wings.

And the Caps indeed got the party started early. Lars Eller got tripped just two minutes in, and the Caps converted on the ensuing power play. On the tail end, Brett Connolly tipped in a John Carlson shot to give the Caps an early 1-0 lead. Midway through the frame, the fourth line got to work. Dmitrij Jaskin skated all the way down the ice to beat the icing, passed it to Nic Dowd, who passed it to Travis Boyd, who finished off the passing play to make it 2-0. Just two minutes after that, Alex Ovechkin shot the puck way wide, but it banked in off a Red Wings player, and the Caps went up 3-0. Chandler Stephenson got a pretty breakaway, but did not end up scoring. The Caps ended the first period scoring three goals.

Ovechkin was at it again in the second period, and halfway through the frame he broke in on a two-on-one with Oshie, took the shot himself, and scored his second of the game. Thirty seconds later, Dowd got cross-checked, and the Caps got another power play. Oshie scored from his usual diamond position, and the Red Wings made a goalie change, replacing Jonathan Bernier with Jimmy Howard after the Caps went up 5-0.

The Wings got themselves on the board very early in the third; just a minute in, the Caps got a little lazy in front of their own net, and Dylan Larkin easily tucked in a rebound to make it 5-1. Then the Caps asserted themselves once more; about halfway through the period, Ovechkin took a shot from the left side that trickled through the goalie, and he scored his third of the game to make it 6-1, and the hats rained down for Ovi’s 21st career hat trick. The Red Wings scored once more with three minutes left, as Gus Nyquist capitalized on another Capitals turnover, but that was all she wrote on the scoresheet, and the Caps won 6-2.

The Caps were outshot 37-25 and had the faceoff disadvantage at 47.8%. The Caps capitalized on 2/2 power play chances and kept the Red Wings to 0/1 on theirs. Braden Holtby saved 35/37 shots.

Ovi had a dominant game, scoring his 21st career regular season hat trick. Nicklas Backstrom had a huge hand in that, collecting 4 assists on the night, assisting on every one of Ovechkin’s hat trick goals. Holtby also had an excellent game, and the fourth line (Jaskin-Dowd-Boyd) had excellent chemistry yet again.

12/14/18 @ Carolina Hurricanes, W 6-5 (SO)

The Caps got yet another welcome addition to the lineup, welcoming back Tom Wilson to the lineup after missing three games with a concussion. Strap yourselves in, this was a wild one.

And when I say wild, I mean lots of scoring. Jordan Martinook scored on a wraparound goal less than a minute in to give the Canes an early 1-0 lead. Just a few minutes later, Jonas Siegenthaler made a nifty pass to Alex Ovechkin, who bombed it home to tie the game 1-1. Later in the period, the Caps were on a power play, but they were not the ones to score. John Carlson fumbled the puck at the point, and the Canes got a two-on-nothing break, and Sebastian Aho scored on the backhand to give the Canes a 2-1 lead on a shorty.

Things got worse for the Caps before they got better. In the second period, the Canes scored two power play goals in quick succession: first Aho on a one-timer for his second, and Teuvo Teravainen in front on a wire to make it 4-1 Canes.

But then the Caps were the ones who came back. After a scramble in front, Wilson put home the rebound to make it 4-2. Then it was Ovechkin again, holding the puck in the zone, as Siegenthaler made a great play and then set a screen in front of him, then Ovi faked then scorched the puck home. Then Travis Boyd tipped in a Carlson shot, and the Caps left the second period tied, 4-4.

In the third, the Caps managed to take the lead. Ovechkin scored from his office on the power play, giving the Caps a 5-4 lead and netting his 22nd career hat trick, and his second in two games. But the lead would only last for a few minutes, as Braden Holtby hit the back of the net on a clearing attempt, and former Cap Justin Williams tucked the puck into the wide open net, and the game was tied 5-5.

This game would require overtime. There were chances both ways, though the best chance was when Matt Niskanen took a tripping penalty, and the Canes had a power play for the last ninety seconds of overtime. The Caps would survive, and the game would go to a shootout. It would go as thus: Janne Kuokkanen no goal, T.J. Oshie no goal, Jaccob Slavin no goal, Evgeny Kuznetsov no goal, Phillip Di Giuseppe no goal, Ovechkin no goal, Dougie Hamilton goal, Nicklas Backstrom goal, Justin Williams no goal, Lars Eller no goal, Brock McGinn no goal, Jakub Vrana goal. Caps win the shootout 2-1 in six rounds, and the game 6-5.

The Caps had the shots advantage 29-27, and had the faceoff disadvantage at 41.7%. The Caps converted on 1/2 power play chances, and the Canes converted on 3/6 of theirs. Holtby saved 22/27 shots.

Ovechkin had another great game, potting his 22nd career regular season hat trick, which gave him hat tricks in two straight games. Boyd also extended his goal streak to three games. Siegenthaler had a fantastic game, helping out directly on two out of three of Ovechkin’s hat trick goals, with a primary assist and some fantastic defensive work. The assist was also his first NHL point. Vrana’s game-winning shootout goal was also his first-ever shootout attempt, and his career percentage remains at 100%. On the flip side, the special teams really needs to pick it up a little.

12/15/18 vs Buffalo Sabres, W 4-3 (SO)

The Caps returned home on the second half of a back-to-back to take on one of the hottest teams in the league this season. Alex Ovechkin, the man of many hat tricks, was looking for a hat trick in a third consecutive game, something that’s never been done before.

It would be Buffalo that got on the board first; just as a Buffalo power play expired, Jack Eichel sent home the rebound on a tight angle to make it 1-0 Buffalo. But less than a minute later, the Caps took advantage of a misplay by goalie Carter Hutton; Devante Smith-Pelly ripped him off, and Brett Connolly tapped it into the empty net to tie the game 1-1. Halfway through the period, Jakub Vrana one-timed home a blistering slapshot off a pass from Evgeny Kuznetsov, and the Caps had the 2-1 lead.

The Sabres came back quickly in the second. On yet another power play, Eichel deked his way past every Cap and scored a beautiful goal to tie it 2-2. A few minutes later, again on the power play, Rasmus Dahlin came down from the point and ended up with the puck on his tape off a rebound, and he scored to restore the lead for the Sabres, 3-2.

But the Caps, specifically the Captain, would not be denied. While playing four-on-four, Ovechkin got the puck in the offensive zone and blasted home a shot to tie the game 3-3. Both goalies, Carter Hutton and Pheonix Copley, played excellently for the rest of the game. This game would go to overtime, and both teams had great chances to end it. Sam Reinhart had an empty net and hit the post in the last minute of regulation, and Kuznetsov had a breakaway in the last minute of overtime which was stopped by Hutton.

The game would go to overtime, and it proceeded as thus: T.J. Oshie no goal, Eichel no goal, Kuznetsov goal, Tage Thompson no goal, Nicklas Backstrom no goal, Casey Mittelstadt goal, Ovechkin goal, Jason Pominville no goal. The Caps win the shootout 2-1 in four rounds, and the game 4-3.

The Caps outshot the Sabres 38-29 and had the faceoff advantage at 53.4%. They were shutout on the power play 0/4, while the Sabres converted on 2/3 chances. Copley made 26/29 saves.

The game was incredibly tight and fun to watch; neither team ever got a lead larger than one goal. Ovechkin was hot yet again, and while he didn’t score a hat trick, he extended his points streak to a career-high 14 games. And yet again, the special teams needs to pick up their game. But overall, a fun game to watch. And if you want to watch Buffalo again, they’re back in town next weekend.

Current record: 20-9-3

What’s Going on in the World of the Caps

Injuries and Recalls

It was a week of good news and bad news. Two Caps made their return to the lineup this week: T.J. Oshie returned on December 11 vs Detroit, and Tom Wilson returned on December 14 in Carolina. On December 12, Brooks Orpik skated for the first time since undergoing knee surgery. No timetable yet on his return, but important progress for him. Now the bad news: after suffering an injury in the game against Detroit, it was announced that Christian Djoos will be out indefinitely after surgery on his left thigh, which he underwent successfully on Thursday. It will be a long time before he comes back. The Capitals made a corresponding move, and on December 15 they called up defenseman Tyler Lewington from the Hershey Bears. This is Lewington’s first time with an NHL club. He’ll likely spend the majority of his time sitting the bench as the extra defenseman, but there’s a chance he could get into a game or two and see NHL ice for the first time.

Siegenthaler’s First NHL Point

On December 14 in Carolina, Jonas Siegenthaler recorded his first NHL point, a primary assist on an Alex Ovechkin goal, his first of three hat trick goals that night. It is also the first NHL point for a player of Thai descent. Right after the goal, the Captain made sure to get the milestone puck for Siegenthaler. (x)

The Caps Drew Holiday Cards, and You Can Buy Them

The Capitals are now selling holiday cards. Even better: all the cards were drawn by some of the players. They are selling in packs of 12 for $20, and proceeds are going to charity. You yourself can own questionable art drawn by T.J. Oshie, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Travis Boyd, and more. Kuzy was especially proud of his. (Article, Video)

Max Scherzer at the Caps Game

Washington Nationals pitcher and three-time Cy Young award winner Max Scherzer attended the Capitals game on December 11 against the Red Wings. He and his wife Erica had great seats to a fantastic game, and when Alex Ovechkin netted a hat trick, Scherzer threw his hat onto the ice. (x) (x)

Capitals Players Host Holiday Party for DC Families

Brett Connolly, Nic Dowd, Chandler Stephenson, and Pheonix Copley hosted a holiday party at Medstar Capitals Iceplex for local families on December 12. Families were able to play hockey, get face painting, and participate in other holiday activities. Gifts, which were purchased by Caps’ and Wizards’ significant others, were distributed. (x)

Other Miscellaneous Happenings

Mini Trophies for Ovi

‘Not Going to be Suck’ Jeep

Kuzy hangs out with the Harlem Globetrotters - Video 1, Video 2, Video 3, Video 4

2018 KaBOOM! Playground Build

Oshie mailed a stick to young fan who raises money for anti-bullying

Capitals included in Google’s ‘Year in Search’ Video

Ref Night 2018 in DC

Travis Boyd took over the Caps twitter account - Video 1, Video 2

Kuzy encouraged the puck to roll down the ice during OT

Return of the butt slashes

Upcoming Events

On December 21 vs the Buffalo Sabres, the Caps will be hosting #CapsHolidayParty, a holiday theme night

December 23 is T.J. Oshie’s 32nd birthday

Player of the Week

Alex Ovechkin had a monster week. He tallied two consecutive hat tricks, and extended his career-long points streak to 14 games. Overall, this week he recorded seven goals.

Social Media Post of the Week

T.J. gets up on his high horse and tries his hand at some #math, but fails to remember that it is in fact very possible to start a game and not get a decision. (x)

Stars of the Night Season Leaderboard

Over the course of the season, I will be keeping track of the Caps stars of the night, translating them into points, and organizing them into a leaderboard.

1st star = 5 pts, 2nd star = 3 pts, 3rd star = 1 pt

1. Ovechkin — 38 2. Holtby — 26 3. Backstrom — 19 4. Kuznetsov — 17 5. Carlson — 13 6. Burakovsky — 11 7. Wilson — 9 T-8. Copley — 6 T-8. Kempny — 6 10. Orlov — 5 11. Oshie — 4 T-12. Connolly — 3 T-12. Niskanen — 3 T-12. Smith-Pelly — 3 T-15. Boyd — 2 T-15. Eller — 2 T-15. Vrana — 2

Achieved and Upcoming Milestones

Jonas Siegenthaler recorded his first NHL point with an assist in Carolina on 12/14/18

Devante Smith-Pelly recorded his 100th career NHL point vs Buffalo on 12/15/18

With his 237th career power play goal on 12/14/18 in Carolina, Alex Ovechkin became tied for 6th on the NHL all-time power play goals list, tying him with Brendan Shanahan

With a goal on 12/15/18 vs Buffalo, Alex Ovechkin extended his points streak to a career-high 14 games

Nicklas Backstrom is 1 power play goal away from taking sole possession of 5th in Caps history in power play goals

John Carlson is 2 power play goals away from being tied for 7th in Caps history in power play goals among defensemen (25)

Evgeny Kuznetsov is 4 points away from 300 career NHL points

Dmitry Orlov is 3 games away from 400 career games played

T.J. Oshie is 3 goals away from 200 career NHL goals

Madison Bowey is searching for his first NHL goal

Next Week’s Upcoming Games

12/19/18 vs Pittsburgh Penguins (8 PM) 12/21/18 vs Buffalo Sabres (7 PM) 12/22/18 @ Ottawa Senators (7 PM)

#washington capitals #this week in caps #caps newsletter #original post #my stuff #2018-19 season

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prisepopcorn · 4 years

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Last Christmas

Am 14. November 2019 startete der Film Last Christmas hier in den deutschen Kinos. Er verbindet die Musik von George Michael, rund um sein bekanntestes Lied „Last Christmas“ mit gemütlicher vorweihnachtlicher Kinoatmosphäre.

Die trübselige Kate (Emilia Clarke) findet sich nach einer schweren Krankheit in einem vorweihnachtlichen London wieder. Überrumpelt wird sie in ihren Alltag als Verkaufshilfe in einem Laden für Weihnachtskram reingeworfen. Und so stolpert sie von einer unangenehmen Situation in die nächste. Sie scheint das Chaos irgendwie magisch anzuziehen. Ob es jetzt ihre Freunde sind, oder ihre Familie, nirgendwo ist sie so richtig willkommen. Und nirgendwo ist sie auch richtig glücklich. Sie meldet sich nicht bei ihrer Mama (Emma Thompson), verbringt ihre Abende in Pubs und, da sie keine eigene Wohnung mehr hat, schläft sie regelmäßig bei ihren Freunden auf der Couch. Auch als Elfe im Weihnachtsgeschäft kann sie ihrer Chefin Santa (Michelle Yeoh) nichts recht machen, sodass sie einen Tag nach dem anderen irgendwie rumbekommt.

Doch dann eines Tages steht der charmante aber verrückte Tom (Henry Golding) vor der Tür. Mit Startschwierigkeiten kommen sich die beiden näher und so holt er sie aus ihrem Tief heraus.

Doch ist wirklich alles so einfach wie es scheint? Vielleicht hört man nochmal auf die Zeilen des Refrains von „Last Christmas“, da könnte ein verstecktes Geheimnis schlummern:

“Last Christmas I gave you my heart But the very next day you gave it away This year, to save me from tears I’ll give it to someone special”

Unsere Kritik

Paul Feig und Emma Thompson greifen hier beim Film ganz tief in die Plattenkiste von George Michael und holen sowohl alte Klassiker aber auch nicht veröffentlichte Songs dort heraus. Sie liefern einen soliden, weihnachtlichen und sehenswerten Film ab, der vor allem durch eine dramatische Wendung Charakter bekommt. Henry Golding als Tom und Emilia Clarke als Kate überzeugen durch ihre ausdrucksstarke Weise und liefern dem Film eine gute Grundlage. Die Geschichte ist sehr klischeehaft und zieht sich ein wenig, jedoch kommen immer kleine Wendungen, die dem Film ein wenig Spannung geben.

Insgesamt ist der Film gut für einen romantischen Abend zuhause, mit einer Tasse Kakao, Kerzen und Zimtduft in der Luft. Für die große Kinoleinwand reicht er jedoch nicht unbedingt.

Last Christmas bekommt von uns 5/10 Sternen.

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Offizieller Trailer zum Film.

Verfasst von: Tonks

Erstveröffentlichung: 03.12.2019

#reupload #Review #Dezember 2019 #Last Christmas #Romantik #Weihnachten #Komödie #Kino #Film #Romanze #Tonks #Prise Popcorn

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thrashermaxey · 6 years

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Top 200 Fantasy Hockey Forward Prospects – March 2019

Here are the Top 200 prospects to own in your points-only keeper league – February edition!

As always, players within +/-5.0 rating points of each other should be considered equal and at that point are a matter of team needs or personal bias. Players I graduated this month are listed at the bottom. If an obvious player isn't here, then he was graduated in a prior month. You can see all the archived rankings simply by clicking "Hockey Rankings" under the title.

o= offensive player, t=two-way, p=power forward and big man, os=offensive player, but small

Click any player name to be taken to his phenomenal prospect profile…

Mar 10 Prospect Team type Prospect Rating Jan 10 Dec 10 1 Brady Tkachuk OTT p 84.7 2 2 2 Andrei Svechnikov CAR o 82.6 3 1 3 Henrik Borgstrom FLA t 79.7 5 6 4 Eeli Tolvanen NSH o 79.4 4 5 5 Jesperi Kotkaniemi MON o 78.2 6 3 6 Ryan Donato MIN o 74.2 35 38 7 Martin Necas CAR o 73.7 10 9 8 Robert Thomas STL t 73.6 7 7 9 Drake Batherson OTT p 73.6 11 10 10 Jordan Kyrou STL o 73.5 8 13 11 Kailer Yamamoto EDM os 72.3 12 11 12 Troy Terry ANA o 72.1 15 15 13 Casey Mittelstadt BUF o 71.8 9 8 14 Filip Zadina DET o 71.6 14 14 15 Cody Glass VGK o 70.6 16 16 16 Sam Steel ANA o 70.4 17 17 17 Jordan Greenway MIN p 69.9 18 18 18 Morgan Frost PHI o 69.0 19 33 19 Vitali Kravtsov NYR o 68.5 20 19 20 Kristian Vesalainen WPG p 68.4 21 20 21 Filip Chytil NYR o 68.0 22 25 22 Jason Robertson DAL o 67.9 23 41 23 Gabriel Vilardi LAK o 67.8 24 22 24 Michael Rasmussen DET p 67.8 25 23 25 Brett Howden NYR t 67.3 26 24 26 Jaret Anderson-Dolan LAK o 66.9 27 26 27 Nick Suzuki MON t 66.8 28 27 28 Tage Thompson BUF o 66.5 29 29 29 Luke Kunin MIN o 66.5 30 30 30 Dylan Sikura CHI o 66.4 31 31 31 Aleksi Heponiemi FLA o 66.1 32 32 32 Kirill Kaprizov MIN os 66.0 33 28 33 Logan Brown OTT o 66.0 34 34 34 Alexander Nylander BUF o 65.6 36 35 35 Conor Garland ARI os 65.5 37 52 36 Alex Formenton OTT o 65.2 38 37 37 Dominik Kahun CHI o 64.9 51 75 38 Barrett Hayton ARI t 64.9 39 39 39 Lias Andersson NYR t 64.6 41 36 40 Owen Tippett FLA o 64.6 42 42 41 Martin Kaut COL t 64.4 40 40 42 Michael McLeod NJD t 63.9 43 43 43 Carl Grundstrom LAK o 63.9 70 80 44 Warren Foegele CAR o 63.7 44 44 45 Ty Dellandrea DAL o 63.6 45 45 46 Adam Gaudette VAN o 63.4 46 47 47 Dillon Dube CGY o 63.0 47 50 48 Joshua Ho-Sang NYI o 63.0 48 46 49 Mason Appleton WPG o 62.9 77 130 50 Jeremy Bracco TOR o 62.3 82 131 51 Maxime Comtois ANA p 62.2 49 48 52 Andrew Mangiapane CGY o 61.6 50 53 53 Vitali Abramov CBJ os 60.7 52 51 54 Jonathan Davidsson OTT o 60.4 85 87 55 Joel Farabee PHI t 60.1 53 58 56 Anders Bjork BOS t 60.0 54 49 57 Dylan Gambrell SJS o 59.6 90 94 58 Daniel Sprong ANA o 59.6 55 59 59 Cooper Marody EDM o 59.4 97 112 60 Nicolas Roy CAR t 59.4 57 55 61 Josh Norris OTT o 59.2 83 85 62 Ryan Poehling MON t 59.2 84 86 63 Taylor Raddysh TBL p 59.1 58 56 64 Oliver Wahlstrom NYI o 59.0 59 57 65 Jonathan Dahlen SJS o 58.6 60 60 66 Joe Veleno DET o 58.4 61 61 67 Denis Gurianov DAL o 58.2 62 63 68 Evgeny Svechnikov DET o 58.1 63 64 69 Zach Aston-Reese PIT o 58.1 75 82 70 Aleksi Saarela CAR o 57.7 64 71 71 Boris Katchouk TBL t 57.6 65 67 72 Antti Suomela SJS o 57.4 66 68 73 Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson BOS t 57.2 67 65 74 Rudolfs Balcers OTT o 57.1 101 102 75 Isac Lundestrom ANA o 56.9 68 72 76 Kieffer Bellows NYI p 56.9 69 73 77 Rasmus Kupari LAK o 56.3 71 74 78 Grigori Denisenko FLA o 56.1 72 76 79 Nick Merkley ARI o 55.9 73 62 80 Jayce Hawryluk FLA o 55.6 74 92 81 Jason Dickinson DAL t 55.3 76 79 82 Roope Hintz DAL o 55.0 78 81 83 German Rubtsov PHI t 54.6 79 69 84 Nic Petan TOR os 54.5 86 88 85 Sammy Blais STL o 54.2 80 83 86 Julien Gauthier CAR o 54.0 81 84 87 Vladislav Kamenev COL t 53.3 88 91 88 John Quenneville NJD t 52.8 89 93 89 Emil Bemstrom CBJ o 52.5 91 266 90 Mikhail Vorobyev PHI o 52.3 92 90 91 Riley Tufte DAL p 52.2 93 95 92 Sheldon Dries COL os 52.0 108 109 93 Tyler Benson EDM o 51.9 94 147 94 Matt Luff LAK o 51.7 107 125 95 Klim Kostin STL p 51.7 95 96 96 Liam Foudy CBJ t 51.7 96 97 97 Sasha Chmelevski SJS o 51.5 98 98 98 Valentin Zykov VGK o 51.2 87 89 99 Alex Barre-Boulet TBL os 51.0 99 122 100 Nikita Scherbak LAK o 50.6 56 54 101 Sonny Milano CBJ o 50.6 100 100 102 Rourke Chartier SJS o 50.4 102 103 103 Dominik Bokk STL o 50.4 103 104 104 Zach Senyshyn BOS o 50.3 104 105 105 Max Jones ANA p 50.1 105 106 106 Janne Kuokkanen CAR o 49.9 106 108 107 Kevin Stenlund CBJ p 49.4 109 110 108 Mitchell Stephens TBL t 49.4 110 111 109 Michael Dal Colle NYI o 49.3 133 129 110 Sheldon Rempal LAK os 48.9 111 113 111 Maxim Letunov SJS o 48.9 112 107 112 Brendan Lemieux NYR p 48.7 132 160 113 Victor Olofsson BUF o 48.7 113 126 114 Rasmus Asplund BUF o 48.6 114 99 115 Travis Boyd WAS o 48.6 115 114 116 Kevin Roy ANA o 48.6 116 115 117 Trent Frederic BOS p 48.5 117 116 118 Mason Shaw MIN os 48.5 118 117 119 Jake Evans MON o 48.4 119 118 120 Tanner Laczynski PHI o 48.4 120 163 121 Shane Bowers COL t 48.4 121 119 122 Ryan McLeod EDM o 48.3 122 121 123 Kole Lind VAN o 48.0 123 123 124 John Hayden CHI p 47.8 124 120 125 Kiefer Sherwood ANA t 47.7 125 127 126 Alexander Khovanov MIN o 47.5 126 NR 127 Filip Chlapik OTT o 47.5 137 136 128 C.J. Smith BUF o 47.3 127 172 129 Nikita Gusev VGK os 47.1 129 132 130 Adam Mascherin DAL os 46.9 130 133 131 Evan Barratt CHI o 46.9 131 NR 132 Peter Cehlarik BOS o 46.7 187 185 133 Dmitry Sokolov MIN o 46.6 134 134 134 Gabriel Fortier TBL o 46.6 135 177 135 Shane Gersich WAS o 46.5 136 135 136 AJ Greer COL p 46.4 138 138 137 Matthew Highmore CHI o 46.3 139 139 138 Alexandre Texier CBJ o 46.2 140 140 139 Joseph Blandisi PIT o 46.1 141 245 140 Spencer Foo CGY o 46.1 142 124 141 Erik Foley STL o 46.0 143 142 142 Adam Brooks TOR o 45.9 144 143 143 Dmytro Timashov TOR o 45.9 145 144 144 Wade Allison PHI o 45.8 146 145 145 Maxim Mamin FLA o 45.8 147 128 146 Cliff Pu FLA o 45.7 128 101 147 Francis Perron SJS o 45.6 148 137 148 Stelio Mattheos CAR o 45.5 149 146 149 Jonatan Berggren DET o 45.4 150 148 150 Patrick Harper NSH os 45.3 151 149 151 Teddy Blueger PIT o 45.3 152 276 152 Saku Maenalanen CAR o 45.2 153 164 153 Nikolay Prokhorkin LAK o 45.2 199 277 154 Juho Lammikko FLA o 45.2 154 152 155 Justin Almeida PIT o 45.2 232 291 156 Alexander Volkov TBL o 45.0 155 153 157 Akil Thomas LAK o 45.0 156 154 158 Kirill Maksimov EDM p 45.0 216 203 159 Joey Anderson NJD o 45.0 157 155 160 Otto Koivula NYI o 44.9 158 271 161 Marcus Davidsson BUF t 44.9 159 182 162 Jack Rodewald OTT o 44.8 261 NR 163 Tyler Steenbergen ARI o 44.7 160 156 164 Ville Meskanen NYR o 44.6 161 157 165 Pierre Engvall TOR o 44.6 162 158 166 Aarne Talvitie NJD o 44.4 163 221 167 Lukas Jasek VAN t 44.4 164 162 168 Noah Gregor SJS o 44.2 165 165 169 Philipp Kurashev CHI o 44.1 166 166 170 Mike Amadio LAK o 44.1 167 167 171 Benoit-Olivier Groulx ANA o 44.1 168 168 172 Victor Ejdsell CHI p 44.0 169 141 173 Tyler Lewis COL o 44.0 170 169 174 Rem Pitlick NSH p 44.0 171 170 175 Jesper Boqvist NJD o 44.0 172 171 176 Jonny Brodzinski LAK o 43.9 173 173 177 Tomas Hyka VGK o 43.9 174 174 178 Anatoly Golyshev NYI os 43.8 175 175 179 Brett Seney NJD os 43.7 176 176 180 Axel Holmstrom DET o 43.5 177 159 181 Nick Henry COL o 43.5 178 216 182 Kalle Kossila ANA o 43.4 179 178 183 Dryden Hunt FLA o 43.1 180 180 184 Austin Wagner LAK p 43.1 181 181 185 Michael Bunting ARI o 43.1 182 302 186 Remi Elie BUF p 42.9 183 151 187 Ivan Chekhovich SJS o 42.9 184 263 188 Daniel O'Regan BUF t 42.9 185 184 189 Matthew Phillips CGY os 42.8 186 217 190 Cameron Hebig EDM o 42.7 188 186 191 Michael Spacek WPG o 42.7 189 187 192 Anthony Richard NSH o 42.6 190 225 193 Martins Dzierkals TOR o 42.6 191 188 194 Riley Barber WAS t 42.6 192 220 195 Carsen Twarynski PHI o 42.5 193 189 196 Brandon Gignac NJD o 42.5 194 335 197 Jake Leschyshyn VGK o 42.5 195 373 198 Jonah Gadjovich VAN p 42.5 196 190 199 Jack Drury CAR t 42.5 197 191 200 Antoine Morand ANA o 42.5 198 192

Graduated this month:

1 Strome Dylan CHI 13 Johnsson Andreas TOR 212 Erne Adam TBL

from All About Sports https://dobberhockey.com/hockey-home/hockey-rankings/top-200-fantasy-hockey-forward-prospects-march-2019/

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goarticletec-blog · 6 years

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Last-place Penguins getting beat at their own game

New Post has been published on https://www.articletec.com/last-place-penguins-getting-beat-at-their-own-game/

Last-place Penguins getting beat at their own game

Mike Sullivan’s regular film sessions with the Pittsburgh Penguins don’t lack for clues on why one of the NHL’s marquee franchises is in the midst of its bumpiest stretch in more than a decade.

The defence can morph into a disjointed mess under sustained pressure, particularly right in front of the net. The crisp breakouts that used to trigger odd-man rushes featuring some of the league’s most skilled players moving at warp speed have largely vanished and been replaced by something significantly sloppier.

Oh, and the NHL at large has caught up to the frenetic tempo Sullivan introduced when he took over nearly three years ago, a hiring that — combined with a roster makeover authored by general manager Jim Rutherford — helped power the Penguins to consecutive Stanley Cups. In that way, Pittsburgh’s current struggles are a byproduct of its not-so-distant glory.

“For the most part it’s a copycat league and teams tend to try to emulate the teams that have success,” Sullivan said Tuesday. “When you look at our team over the last handful of seasons, we’ve had pretty good success with a certain style of play.”

Catching up to speed

A style Sullivan has no plans to abandon even with Pittsburgh mired in a 1-7-2 funk that has dropped his club into a tie for the fewest points in the wide-open Eastern Conference a quarter of the way through the season.

“You look at the core of our players, [Sidney] Crosby, [Evgeni] Malkin, [Phil] Kessel, [Kris] Letang, all those guys can skate,” Sullivan said. “They can still skate.”

The thing now is, so can everyone else.

The proof came to life over the last 30 minutes against Buffalo on Monday night, when the Sabres reeled off the final four goals, including Jake Eichel’s game-winner 45 seconds into overtime at the end of a sequence that began with a Malkin giveaway in the offensive zone.

It was the kind of miscue Pittsburgh used to pounce on with ruthless efficiency. Now it’s the Penguins who are making the crucial mistakes, ones that are ending up in the back of their own net with alarming regularity.

“I think we’ve been doing some really good things the last handful of games but we’ve been shooting ourselves in the foot a little bit with a few plays,” forward Bryan Rust said. “We’ve got to be a little bit more mindful of that and just dig down a little bit deeper and the bounces will eventually go our way.”

Lack of ‘puck luck’

There is a fair amount of “puck luck” that’s abandoned Pittsburgh at the moment. The Penguins were up two goals late in the second period against Buffalo when Pittsburgh defenceman Jack Johnson locked up Sabres forward Conor Sheary in front of the net. No matter. Casey Nelson’s shot from the point deflected off Johnson’s skate and by goaltender Casey DeSmith.

Watching from afar while sitting out a third straight game nursing an upper body injury, Crosby could only scratch his head.

“I think the thing for us that’s probably been a little more difficult is, it’s not necessarily the same thing,” said the two-time MVP, who hopes to play on Wednesday when Pittsburgh hosts Dallas. “We’ve found different ways to lose games and you know, we’ve probably corrected one thing and something else has been a factor in another game we lost.”

One thread, however, has been a constant: defence. The Penguins — particularly early in the season during the Crosby era — have occasionally been slow to tighten things up because they are so talented offensively that the finer points of playing responsibly in their own end can be lost.

In past years, Pittsburgh has been able to outscore opponents even on nights it didn’t particularly play well. That’s not happening at the moment. The loss to Buffalo marked the eighth time in 19 games the Penguins have allowed at least five goals, something they did 13 times all of last season.

Defence can improve

While Sullivan is quick to point to the number of quality chances Pittsburgh created against Buffalo, he’s well aware his team was far too generous in front of DeSmith. Pittsburgh dominated the first period but only had a 1-1 tie to show for it after forward Dominik Simon lost his footing while attempting to help clear a puck. Buffalo kept it in the zone and a cross-ice pass led to a one-timer that Tage Thompson buried to even the game.

“We’ve got to do a better job defending and making sure we stay on the right side of the puck and the right side of people in the critical areas of the rink,” Sullivan said. “That’s an area we can all improve as a team.”

Pittsburgh hasn’t missed the playoffs since Crosby’s rookie year in 2005-06 and Crosby stressed it is far too early to panic.

“It’s tight but we just have to make sure we eliminate our mistakes and give ourselves the best chance and I thought for the most part [against Buffalo] we were pretty in control of that game,” Crosby said. “I think if we keep trending that way, we’ll learn from that one and get a lot more wins.”

Three quarters of the season remains. Though the Penguins have been “meh” at best, the rest Metropolitan Division hasn’t exactly been lights out. Only eight points separate the Penguins from first-place Columbus. One good consistent stretch of hockey and things can change very quickly.

“You can’t control the ones you’ve let slip away,” Crosby said. “Ten games from now, you don’t know where you’re going to be.”

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gatewaycitygoals-blog · 6 years

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Patrick Maroon

Patrick Maroon LW Edmonton Oilers / New Jersey Devils

Rumors have begun to swirl that the Blues are interested in adding free agent left winger Patrick Maroon. Maroon is a St. Louis native who played last season with the Oilers before being traded to the Devils at the deadline.

The 30 year old St. Louisian has made a name for himself by being strong on the puck, and a physical beast on the ice. Let’s take a look at his numbers from last season.

GP: 74 G: 17 A: 26 P: 43 CF%: 53.3% HIT: 150 BLK: 14 S%: 12.1

There is enough here to jump off the page at you, but let’s break it down and compare it to current Blues. His 43 points would put him 6th on the Blues behind Alex Steen, and his 17 goals would have him tied at 4th with Patrik Berglund. His Corsi for percentage would be the 5th best among forwards, putting him within .3% of Alex Steen. Hits are a very relative stat, a hit means that your team doesn’t have the puck. They are also one of the hardest stats to accurately track. The Blue with the most hits was Dimitri Jaskin, but second behind him was Brayden Schenn. The divide between the perceptions of those two players is wide, so take this stat as you will. If Maroon was to be compared, he would come in 3rd just 4 hits behind Schenn and 23 more than the 4th place Vladi Sobotka. While he is physical, his block total is astonishingly low. To put it into perspective, Tarasenko, a player who is not known to go down to block shots, blocked 37, and the forward with the most, Steen, blocked 58.

Outside of the numbers, Maroon is a powerful skater but he lacks speed. He is very adept at playing below the goal line and in the corners. His 6′3 225 lb frame makes him roughly the same size as Chris Thorburn, but he scored 36 more points.

Maroon was obviously a commodity if he was moved at the deadline, and it was rumored for a short while he was on the Blues radar before their wheels fell off forcing them to be sellers at the deadline. So what makes Maroon desirable by teams who were looking to make the playoff push?

He is effective on the power play and helps drive possession for his team. Maroon isn’t going to score many goals while on the man advantage, but he is good at using his frame to screen the goalie. He is effective at playing a similar position to Wayne Simmons in Philadelphia. On the advantage, he plays just outside of the crease, where he can both catch and distribute the puck, as well as screen the goalie. Picture him playing just in front and off the goalie’s left shoulder. He can step in to screen or step out to receive a pass and distribute it when the defense collapses on him. His versatility in front of the net is a commodity not many players in the league have.

For his lack of speed he makes up for it in strength on the puck. Defenders often bounce off of him or lack the ability to separate the puck from his stick. This is no more obvious than when he is fighting to maintain possession of pucks in the corners. Keeping possession of the puck in the offensive zone is a good way to drive offense. It wears out the defenders and often leads to icing or an offensive zone face off even if a goal isn’t scored.

Maroon also isn’t afraid to drop the gloves. He did so 5 times last season, and that was down from 9 in the season before that. To put that into perspective, Chris Thorburn fought 8 times last season, with Schenn coming in behind him with only 2.

All of his attributes would contribute well to the Blues. Maroon isn’t a player who will show up often on the score card, but this is a team game. With the flashy big names passing again and again on St. Louis, it might be time to take a different route towards winning. Vegas did is last season with a crop of hard workers without many household names. Patrick Maroon is a powerful body who will give it his all night in and night out. He was brought to tears when he scored in front of his son in St. Louis against the Blues. I can only imagine how he would feel to suit up for the Note. He is an upgrade over Berglund and Sobotka, both middling players neither of whom have the same strength in the corners or the ability to screen the goalie with regularity on the power play.

One downside is Maroon is a left handed shot. The Blues are a team of almost exclusively left handed forwards. The only right handed shots currently under contract are: Oskar Sundqyuist, Chris Thorburn, and Tage Thompson. Of the three, Thompson is the only one with top 6 potential. The Blues desperately need a right handed shot in their top 6. Maroon is better suited as a 3rd liner, and shoots from the left side. While he does handle some very specific needs, like the powerplay, he is also more of the same. The Blues are loaded with left handed players best suited for the 3rd line.

So is he worth the investment? Maroon is coming off a back surgery this off season, but it is reported that he will be ready in time for camp. He is also 30 and could be looking to go for the biggest payday with the longest term, as this could be his last big contract. Could there be a hometown discount for St. Louis? It’s hard to tell. According to The Athletic, they expect Maroon to get somewhere between $8-$5 mil a season. Those prices are steep, but they seem to expect him to be much closer to $5 mil. The Blues have the cap space to spend, after being turned down John Tavares. They also may be looking to build a team without trading away their future prospects. Maroon isn’t going to be the type of player who turns the Blues into an automatic contender, but he is a player who would improve the Blues from where they are now. With much of the free agents beginning to circle their final landing spots, St. Louis appears to again be flyover country. Building a team piece by piece, rather than with one or two giant pieces could keep the Blues competitive and in the playoff race. Maroon is a piece, and one who likely won’t balk at the thought of simply living in St. Louis.

#stlblues #blues #nhl #stl #st louis #saint louis #patrick maroon #pat maroon

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andrewuttaro · 6 years

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New Look Sabres: GM 57 - NYR - Burn the Tape

We came into this seven-game homestand with some needs: capitalize on your home-ice advantage and get into this playoff race in a more consistent manor. That mission didn’t start well for sure but whether it felt like it or not the Sabres win percentage went up. It was the ugly win-loss pattern that is torture to endure during a playoff race this tight but it was better than the losing stretches that prevailed before the bye-week. As this homestand went on it became clearer some switch had been flipped even if not always to successful ends. From the end of the Carolina game onward, maybe even the end of the Minnesota game in places, the Sabres defense has stepped up and fought tough matchups. If the Sabres were going to end this homestand on a high note it would take all cylinders firing properly. That Winnipeg game was closer than that final score would indicate and one bounce different against the Hurricanes and the standings look quite a bit different right now. The past is the past though and so is the Rangers Cup window. Yes, let’s do some Playoff Trash talk: Rangers, during your supposed Cup window you never looked close. In fact, having watched most of those years during the Sabres tank years I could see the truly dominant performances were rare. That’s how the Rangers win in the playoffs: barely. This season its very unlikely you make it and a matchup like this seems to take on a different flavor when its locked in together for 4-7 games. Sabres in 5. So, remember those positive things I said about Buffalo before the trash talk? The Sabres did not do those things. This was probably the most disheartening loss of the season, if not its damn close to the Home Opener shutout. This game made me not want to do these for the rest of the season. Nonetheless, I am your Sabre Soldier and won’t ever give up. This mess ended 6-2 Rangers. You know how we all thought the Rangers would be the easier New York team to beat? Yeah, fuck us, right?

This game was so bad its in a category of games that don’t even earn a full goal-by-goal recap. Spoiler Alert: Jeff Skinner scored all the Sabres goals this game. To be specific, he scored two goals. That was all we got this game. Yes, there were other opportunities. Jack Eichel rang one off the bar. Sam Reinhart was stopped by this young Bulgarian sensation in Rangers goaltender Alexsandar Georgiev. Tage Thompson missed two wide open nets right in front when the score was 3-2. Apart from a section of the second period and the last ten or so minutes of the third period this game looked like no one knew how to play hockey. Everyone was watching the puck, everyone seemed to bump into each other like they were all playing their own game. The Sabres had opportunities on a night New York was not playing a sound defensive game. Remember how we’ve been talking about the Sabres cleaning up play in their own zone the past three or four games? They took that and threw it out the window. I feel so bad for Linus Ullmark who you kind of feel was in the wrong place at the wrong time starting in this game. What goals are we blaming on him? Right, I said I wasn’t doing a goal-by-goal recap. Well fuck it with this game. For Ullmark’s sake let’s dissect this train crash.

4:09 into the first a grown man named Boo Nieves scored the first goal. This was a scrambled play no matter which way you cut it and Ullmark was screened maybe two different ways. The second goal came about ten minutes later when Vlad Namestnikov launched a shot from the blue line that got redirected in front of Ullmark by Jesper Fast. Ignoring the fact that he was screened the Sabres were playing basketball-style zone defense this period and it was not working. The Linus Ullmark fault counter is still at 0 now as the Sabres find themselves down 2-0 going into the second period. The Rangers are getting penalized frequently now, once for putting the puck over the glass in a delay of game. This Rangers team is bad. THEY’RE BAD! Luckily in the middle period the Sabres did respond a little. Jeff Skinner got the puck out alone in front and put it far side around Georgiev. The visitors responded because good things can never last with this Sabres team and Jimmy Vesey of all the hated little Eminem-looking motherfuckers tucks one in like a blot of lightning on a blown coverage. Ullmark had locked down the post. I am not blaming this one on him. Jeff Skinner got another goal, this time on the powerplay later in the period. This got me feeling maybe the Sabres could salvage something from this horror show. I mean if they can score a powerplay goal then why not? Why not, because we must be tortured with no frigging back-to-back wins for eternity! The Sabres poured it on late in the third and could’ve tied it on several shots. None beat the Prince of New York and Buffalo blew a d-zone coverage in their own zone to allow Pavel Buchnevich to tap it in. That goal is the only one you can sort of blame on Ullmark. The air left the building and I turned the radio off full of disappointment and hopelessness. Okay, so the first of the two remaining goals could also be blamed on Ullmark if you feel the need. The net was wide open for Namestnikov, but the 6-2 goal is literally an empty net. 6-2 Sabres but 2-2 if we’re only counting the goals Ullmark gave up. That thing stung.

There was other stuff that happened in this game on top of defensive breakdown, horrible play in their own end and generally unacceptable performance. Uhh… Kyle Okposo fought. He probably shouldn’t be fighting, and it looks like he got hurt doing it. No updates on his condition as of the posting of this but a cursory look over his history tells you exactly why its so scary that this fight happened. You know what, there really isn’t anything redeemable about this game. Burn the tape! Burn the tape and well you’re at it Fire Housley. There is no way this team not being able to beat lesser opponents consistently, except for Detroit, is not a problem of coaching. Housley said they played soft after the game: You think, Phil? Something has got to change. I said I’m on this crazy rollercoaster until the end but boy did I want to get off after this game. After New Jersey tomorrow night, you have the Leafs, Caps, both Florida teams, and the Penguins in the following six games. There was no help on the out-of-town scoreboard last night and the Sabres now sit five points out of the last playoff spot and five points back of the first team out in Carolina. This was hot trash last night and I don’t know if I have any confidence this team won’t continue to be hot trash and fall out of the playoff race in the coming weeks. I guess we’ll have to find out! Like, share and comment: I feel bad asking after this mess. Enjoy your weekend maybe not thinking about the Sabres.

Thanks for reading.

P.S. Imagine if Jeff Skinner isn’t on this team. Yeah, its like last season all over again.

#buffalo sabres #hockey #blog #nhl

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andrewuttaro · 6 years

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New Look Sabres: GM 11 - CBJ

I was going to save Rob Ray using the term “Gloryhole” to describe Artemi Panarin’s second goal for the P.S. but I couldn’t help myself and that is just everything you need to know about Rob Ray the broadcaster in one hilarious live TV misspeak. Was he misspeaking? I feel like he used the word totally seriously just not fully realizing what it means… you know in sexual parlay. I actually missed that epic call, I had turned off the stream; not in rage, OT does make the heart race, but I was at my wife’s grandma’s house deep in the Finger Lakes. They aren’t the people to forego a game in the World Series for an October Sabres game. Rob Ray had a pretty classic gaff about that too but this isn’t a Rob Ray blog, this is New Look Sabres. I got to say, I don’t know if I would go through the effort to watch a stream on my phone on Saturday night for last year’s Sabres. This game is pretty indicative of the New Look Sabres I envisioned naming this blog. The Columbus Blue Jackets have proven themselves to be the frustration factory of hockey in the playoffs and if the Sabres ever want to get back to those they will need to beat some CBJs this season. The Buffalo Sabres did not look out of place against these guys and that says a lot.

Tage Thompson made himself useful and got an assist on Kyle Okposo’s first goal of the game crashing the net 98 seconds into the game. Two thoughts on that: Tage Thompson sat the last several games and several Smart Sabres folks pointed out the uselessness of not sending him down. He has taken his time to get comfortable in the system and didn’t look great but if he can start producing he ought to stay. I won’t be offended if he goes down at this point but hey, silver linings, right? Second Thought: Crashing that net. Look at most of the goals the Sabres have scored so far this season, thirty goals to be exact, and the majority will be crashing that net. If the Sabres score goals I’m not upset but is crashing the net the substitute for all our guys not shooting from the point? Just a thought, it’s more rhetorical, I had a lot of time to think about this game. Pierre-Luc Dubois shot from the point. After receiving a pass from Panarin he shot one high on Linus Ullmark. Five minutes later Jeff Skinner found a puck sent from McCabe and launched it two-hole. For the second time in two games a Sabres goal got challenged and stood. I could get used to this. The Sabres would enter the first intermission up 2-1 on the home team. Then the second period happened.

The Buffalo Sabres shut off. They got a single powerplay opportunity but it was the first period since maybe the San Jose game when we saw the Sabres just fall flat. Did they play their game? Perhaps they did: Jack Eichel screeched in on Joonas Korpisalo and got robbed. It wasn’t Sabres who scored this period. Artemi Panarin was a man on a mission scoring 94 seconds into the second in a goal that I will say was sick because I, like anyone with two eyes for hockey, want that guy on my team. He made Ristolainen look like he didn’t know ice is slippery. Those cannon blasts just kept coming and Cam Atkinson scored twice 32 seconds apart to put the Jackets up 4-2 through forty minutes of hockey. I am not even going to defend my boy Linus Ullmark in this period. The whole team sleep walked through this period. Then the New Look Sabres got back in the final frame. Jason Pominville scored on a behind-the-net setup from Jack Eichel to get the game within one two and a half minutes in. Two minutes later the Sabres highlight of this game happened. It took eleven games into his first full NHL season but Casey Mittelstadt scored one, a sausy one on the powerplay but it was his. That’s one monkey we all ought to be happy is off our favorite child’s back. The two teams traded chances for the rest of regulation; one shot by Columbus’ Anthony Duclair was taking a gentle stroll toward the line when Sam Reinhart fished it out. That may have been the play that secured the point in this game as this one went to a brief OT before Artemi Panarin out maneuvered three misaligned Sabres and won it. Sabres lost in OT 5-4 and altogether you probably love what you glean from the Blue and Gold team in this game.

I brought up crashing the net earlier because I think it’s a really interesting point of study in Phil Housley’s system. I am no expert, that’s kind of one of this blog’s calling cards, but does a net-crashing team not play fundamentally differently than a shoot first team? This league is overwhelmingly going in a speed-first direction and that’s made defenses slimmer and agile. Not many teams beat the shit out of you in front of the net anymore. It’s a good strategy for now, but I am just not certain how sustainable it is. It could also be a fair analysis of this team’s strengths by the coaching staff. I looked at those thirty goals Buffalo has scored, aw yeah its cool having that many goals through only eleven games, and very few lead you to believe any skater on this team prefers to shoot from the point. Jack Eichel’s overly-selfless pass-first mentality is well documented but I couldn’t find anyone really who jumps out as an honest-to-God shooter on this team. Kyle Okposo, who has looked like a new acquisition as of late thank God, stands out as something of a shooter but who else? Conor Sheary scores slappers from close up, minus well just call him Lumberjack Conor at this point, Jeff Skinner has scored more of his goals rather tight in there and I’ll leave Sam Reinhart alone for now. Jason Pominville even shoots from a place he can hear the goalies breathe. Maybe I had too much time to think about this game.

This team looks capable of comebacks and that is as refreshing as it gets. More than one observer across the bloggers, beat reporters and newsmen said following this game that this matchup last year… or really any season since Obama’s first term, would’ve turned into a rout. Buffalo comes back now and that’s what good teams do. I will gladly take a few OT heartbreaks that result in a point than fighting the urge to turn off the game before it’s over. Speaking of things I don’t want to turn off: how do you like this blog? Yea, I am talking to you with the shirt. It’s nice to see feedback come in certain non-word ways but it would be cool to read it in text too. Share this, like it, heart it, all of the above, and just spread it around. Know someone stressing about that OT loss to a team that is probably better? Send this to them. Hey you, this ain’t the old Sabres, these guys are allowed to lose tough games if they’re going to fight that hard in them. Well anyway, Tuesday night Calgary comes to town on the back of a faceoff against those cardiac kids up in Toronto so maybe we can put out a fire with one of our own. A home and home with Ottawa awaits us later in the week and a win streak here benefits not only how the rest of the season goes but also divisional bragging rights! Let’s go Buffalo!

Thanks for reading.

P.S. I really hated Artemi Panarin in 2016. I thought he stole Jack Eichel’s Calder Trophy but as I have matured as a hockey fan I realize it wasn’t so much an injustice as an armed heist.

#buffalo sabres #hockey #nhl #blog #cbj

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andrewuttaro · 5 years

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New Look Sabres: 2019 Training Camp Closes

Hockey is back! For real this time! The next time you read one of these New Look Sabres articles it’s going to be preceded by a Sabres regular season game! All the players we’re about to celebrate and or lament aside, if you like hockey it’s just nice to have meaningful games again! I intentionally post this before the final cuts come out and we have a clear look at the Opening Night roster. I think that reveal is something obscenely special. Not that there’s a scenario you’d hear it here first. Either way this article this morning is going to come in two parts: a somewhat tortured look back on 2019 Training Camp followed by Regular Season Predictions. I am going to try to be unconventional with my forecasts for the new Sabres season. I went back and looked at what I said last year and it’s a bit of a trip. I made 4 predictions and got 2… and a half right. I said the Sabres would be over .500 in October. That was controversial at the time, but I was right! I predicted Rasmus Dahlin would score his first goal before Columbus Day, but I was wrong about that. I predicted Jack Eichel would get the C. I’m very happy I was right about that but not too much of a crazy prediction with O’Reilly getting shipped out I suppose. I predicted the Rochester Americans would dominate the North Division which they did but they didn’t win it. Stick around or skip ahead and see what you think about my predictions this go around.

I can’t imagine we’ll look back on this Training Camp all that fondly. Yeah, we got a nice look at Henri Jokiharju and Victor Olofsson, but those guys weren’t exactly surprises. My High School Senior quote was a little Maya Angelou maxim that struck a chord for me at the time: “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget the way you made them feel.” Unfortunately I think the feelings of anxiety will stick with us in retrospect. Jason Botterill gave anyone who has watched this team for more than a couple years anxiety. Hardly anyone was shipped out. Alex Nylander and… that’s it. Hopefully as you read these words Jason Botterill is finalizing a trade or putting in final cuts with Ralph Krueger or both, but this Training Camp will forever be remembered for how we just didn’t know what the hell was going on! I could write an essay on the Rasmus Ristolainen situation. If he isn’t in the lineup Thursday night I can’t imagine he wouldn’t have been shipped out. All the drama of asking for a trade (which he definitely did) aside, that broken relationship should have been sorted out in July. I look forward to reading Jason Botterill’s memoirs or listening to him getting a little tipsy on Spitting Chicklets in a couple years because there must be a whole different level of this story that we don’t get to hear under normal circumstances. I just can’t imagine that whole situation is as dumb as it looks. They built the roster this offseason to exist without him! I literally can’t even with that. How about something, anything else.

This training camp belonged to Dylan Cozens. Our first pick in the 2019 Draft impressed mightily and he almost secured a spot on the roster. At the end of the day though you got to be thankful for another year for him to develop. At his age another year figuring it out will be helpful. John Gilmour and Will Borgen fought their hardest to get a spot but don’t make the final cuts. Gilmour especially had some hop in his stride throughout Training Camp and every Preseason game he appeared in. I will be very interested to see where he goes and what he does, whether that be Rochester or Buffalo. Almost exactly that thinking comes to mind with Curtis Lazar as well. He was a guy drafted with a role in mind on the Ottawa Senators. Like a lot of things in the last few years with that organization it went bad. Lazar tried to pull a Lazarus this Preseason and got damn close to pulling it off. How do I complete this bible joke… hmm… but I suppose he can’t raise from the dead because he’s not Jesus? Hmm, yeah I went up the stream without a paddle there. I do look forward to what happens with Curtis Lazar. Even if he needs to bounce around the AHL lineup I think he’s still got a left to give. We’ll see if he makes me look like a fool. Last season ended and I was one of those guys calling for Casey Mittelstadt and Tage Thompson to get jacked. Both guys are too important to be pushed off the puck. Mittelstadt kinda showed by the last preseason game while Thompson came to camp having added a couple dozen pounds of pure Canadian prairie beef! He made me proud and I think his second shot at the Sabres roster will be interesting if not encouraging. Evan Rodrigues was a guy I, like many, had pinned for a bigger role on the Sabres this season. Unfortunately he didn’t blow my socks off at any point during Camp. Hopefully he turns on once the games matter. Finally, what did we learn about the coaching staff this Training Camp? Well other than Ralph Krueger being a pretty good media diplomat not very much. A few interesting things were sprinkled here or there about this assistant coach or that assistant coach, but nothing jumps out except a couple of comments appeasing bad players. Unlike Phil Housley I still kinda believe Ralph Krueger won’t actually go through with overplaying bad players but I am liable to be wrong on that prediction!

Alright, enough teasing: let’s make some decisions we’re going to regret in a short while! Let’s make some predictions! The whole .500 prediction from last year, even though I was right, was a little weird. All that means is winning more games than you lose. I suppose .500 is a sorter way of writing that out but for any team that is even kinda good .500 is not exactly what you’re thinking about. For us it was special because this team has sucked for so long. Whether or not the team on the ice is stat-for-stat ready for it we have to raise our expectations to nothing short of playoffs! This season the Sabres will never crack the top 2 of the Atlantic Division but they will be defending a wildcard spot from about early November onward. There are only two wildcards in the East, I know but the outside of Montreal, Florida and Carolina I think we’re overestimating what we’re going to be dealing with to get that spot. Second prediction: Not so brave but nonetheless necessary: both of Jack Eichel and Rasmus Dahlin get over 90 points. Extension on that: Dahlin gets nominated for the Norris Trophy but loses to some washed-up old shit. How about some more wishful predictions: the Rochester Americans won’t disappoint us in the first round of the Calder Cup playoffs again. That forecast I dropped like I DGAF because its hard to care about the Amerks for me after hardcore first round playoff disappointment the last two years. Anyway, one last oracle reading: the Sabres are going to be very good against their division this year only having a losing record against Boston. I just get the feeling Ralph Krueger is going to be one of those guys who makes them treat every divisional game like a massive rivalry. So there you go: predictions! You have 82 regular season games ahead to reference back to this and grill me! I am ready, baby! Give me your worst!

You’ll notice Sabres twitter’s greatest optimist did not actually say whether or not he believes Buffalo will qualify for the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Well, observant reader, you’re right. I didn’t because that result has moved out of the realm of fun prediction fodder and into the realm of angry last-minute rant. Look I know the predictions largely have the Sabres missing the playoffs for the ninth straight year. I don’t disagree with anyone’s methodology on that. Pending another roster move which may or may not come there is a lot of a 76-point team still here locked and loaded to disappoint us. All that doesn’t matter to me. This club has used up every last year they’re allowed not to be in the playoffs in this rebuild. Never mind rebuild 1.0, in the 2.0 version since Tim Murray was fired we have arrived in year three where it needs to be playoffs or bust. I don’t care about the implications for the jobs of Botterill and Krueger, we have all season to discuss that. Playoffs are not something you can go without as an organization at this point, never mind the hockey team. It’s past the time. Now is the time. Don’t tell me about why there isn’t a bonified 2C or enough good right wingers or how player x, y and z are anchors on both the salary cap and on the ice. Those are excuses next to the towering necessity of making the fucking playoffs! I said earlier, and I’ll repeat it here as I will on twitter dozens of times this season I’m sure: Whether or not the team on the ice is stat-for-stat ready for it we have to raise our expectations to nothing short of playoffs! After all, the NHL is shite league and we all know it. The St. Louis Blues won the Stanley Cup last season after the regular season they had. Anything is possible in this ridiculous, man-swing-stick game.

Ah, that rant felt good to get off my chest. Drop a like, share and comment. Grill me for those predictions or my summation of what Training Camp was like. Hell, tell me why expecting the playoffs this season is foolish. You’re wrong, but I welcome telling you all the reasons it needs to happen again. I can’t wait for Thursday night and I especially cannot wait for Saturday night where I’m going to the home opener! Oh yeah, Captains Night! Treat of my wife, I get to go alone! You may think that sounds sad but good hockey is something a guy like me hollers and grunts and groans watching, and my wife doesn’t like all those stray sounds. Either way Hockey is back, and I have a blog to talk about it on! Thanks for reading and I promise I’ll try to make this a fun experience for every Sabres fan who reads this. This is your blog. This blog doesn’t belong to the analytics or the man-alytics or even the bloggers. This blog belongs to the fans and I hope to be your voice even more this season. Don’t ever be afraid to reach out and tell me if I’m not getting it right at any point. We can be a team just like the one we enjoy watching against our better interest sometimes. So let’s go do that hockey! Let’s Go Sabres!

Thanks for reading.

P.S. Reminder: Go read Southtowns Tickets’ Sabres Season Preview this week, I wrote it! Also, the Third Annual Pod-a-thon is Saturday the 12th and I hope to see you there!

#buffalo sabres #hockey #blog #nhl

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andrewuttaro · 5 years

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New Look Sabres: Preseason GM 6 - PIT

Well the useless games are over now. I suppose as Sabres fans we can be sure there will be some of those in March if not February if you know what I mean. Gee, why am I so cynical already? We’re all kinda just enthused the regular season is just about here. Just barely enthused; that’s the common feeling here, eh? I do want to say though that we have to be careful getting a head start shitting on Ralph Krueger. He’s not going to publicly talk down to guys who we all know are ass just because he knows we think they’re ass. You do want a functional organization, right? One of the pieces of that is having a coaching staff and Front Office that acts professional and doesn’t burn bridges and discourage players they need to perform. For such a manly man sport we’re supposed to think Hockey is its very motivationally based. The Sabres weren’t as bad as two wins in the entire month of March last season. I mean obviously they weren’t. They lost the will to keep fighting in a playoff race they were close in until February, when their GM failed to instill confidence by way of sounding completely unaware of the Coach not knowing what he was doing. Now you may ask me: Andrew, doesn’t a professional organization act diplomatically like you said? Yes, good question you smart ass. With us hungry man-eating trolls circulating like vultures around every public statement you need to be diplomatic. Internally something was wrong last Spring and Botterill failed to address it in any meaningful way publicly or privately. It’s a motivation game and the B team we brought to Pittsburgh this afternoon was super motivated.

It’s a little unfair to call it entirely a B team. The defensive group was essentially the opening night lineup excluding the injured. Yeah, unfortunately Marco Scandella looks like he’ll stick around. He strengthened what was already a pretty ironclad case today unfortunately. Risto didn’t play but he’s gotten games this preseason so I’m not going to speculate again about some trade I wish so bad was imminent. Even with the Laine signing I just don’t have it in me to venture a scenario on that one. The first period was kinda fun. All these hungry boys stacked up pretty well against the Penguins A team. Ullmark stood tall. There weren’t too many awful defensive breakdowns. Casey Mittelstadt looked rather ok compared to what the last few games would have you believe. There was a moment where John Gilmour almost dangled himself a goal and for a moment, just a moment, I thought maybe Botts and Krueger are justified in dragging out some of the more obvious cuts this long. Then I remembered how short my subtractions list was in the offseason retrospective and gave it a rest. The game was on MSG, but the live feed was the Penguins broadcast on AT&T Sportsnet. Now I’ve already said I enjoy watching other team’s broadcasts but this Pens one was really harshing my mello when they started playing games with Henri Jokiharju’s name after an embellishment call. That’s dumb shit. My last name is Uttaro. I know what it’s like for someone to mess around with your surname. Just get it right. I’ll take RJ and Rob Ray stumbling over Scandinavian pronunciation every day of the week over actively making jokes about other people’s names. Fuck off.

The second period started off with a couple very good Ullmark saves. I have a bold prediction about him you’ve probably heard if you put up with me on twitter, but I’ll save that for the last preseason post on Monday “Training Camp Closes”. However this middle period is when the scoring opened up. It seemed like the game was a shootout long before extra time. The styles both these teams play is very similar. Obviously Pittsburgh has had a lot more success with it but hear me out here. The first Penguins goal was a shot from the blueline. Ullmark never saw it. The second Penguins goal was a shot from a wrap around play from the circle. Both these teams box you out in front of the net but maybe I’m overthinking this preseason game too much. Yeah, I’ll save the strategy for the regular season. After all, Marco Scandella scoring a toe drag slapshot to cut the lead in half makes no logical sense. Even he was surprise by that goal. By the time the third period was underway my wife had gotten home from a party and I just said forget it, I’m going to order some Chinese. I didn’t expect any scoring in the last ten minutes of the game, and it didn’t matter anyway. Well I was surprised by this team… pleasantly for once.

Remember how I talked about hockey being a motivation game earlier? Yeah, well the hungry boys and the… uh… shouldn’t be here anymore guys got real motivated in the third period. Zemgus Girgensons, Captain of the unnecessary returning players squad, got a fantastic pass from the Captain of the Hungry Boys John Gilmour. Somehow Girgensons found himself on a breakaway, one-on-one with Matt Murray. He tucked in 3-hole and the game was tied. So obviously I know very little from here on out. I was busy watching the Season Premiere of A Million Little Things. At the moment I’m writing this not only is there not full video highlights of this game but NHL.com’s ticker seems to indicate the game never happened. I don’t believe in many conspiracy theories but if there is some French accent evil hockey overlord pulling the strings of the marionette that is Gary Bettman it would want to erase the history of Sidney Crosby’s team losing the day after his number was retired across the Quebec Major Junior League. I’m not saying it’s true I’m just saying you don’t have proof it’s not. Hell, how do we not know this whole preseason has been just a simulation. Ralph Krueger is Agent Smith from the matrix; he’s praising Sobotka and shit just to fuck with us. Well anyway this game went to a scoreless overtime and into the shootout. Does the matrix have a sense of humor? Because there is some humor to Evgeni Malkin missing the net entirely on his shootout attempt while Kyle Okposo shot his on-target right after. Yeah, this can’t be the matrix because Tage Thompson was the guy who kept Buffalo alive after Kris Letang scored. That’s three matrix glitches in one game if you add it to the Scandella and Girgensons goals. Computers don’t make that many mistakes. Casey Mittelstadt ended up capping off a revenge game with a bank-hander past Murray to win it. And so the Sabres ended the preseason how it began: beating the Penguins beyond regulation.

The part of this game I listened to on the radio featured Rob Ray dropping some wisdom. He said the end of the preseason is fun for the guys who have roster spots but it’s not so happy for the ones who don’t. Simply by virtue of math and the roster spot limit there are several players who do not have a roster spot waiting for them. Training Camp is just about over, and I can’t imagine there is much evaluating left to do. A Ristolainen trade probably doesn’t happen and the Bills have a decent shot to make it close against the Patriots tomorrow. Sorry, I added that last one on just to make me feel a little bit better. Monday morning you get Training Camp Closes here on the blog. That’s not just a preseason wrap up it’s also full of predictions about the season. I’ll tease you a little bit: I’m not going hardcore optimist like I did last year. I felt vindicated in the first half by those predictions but got burned real hard in the back half. Like this post, share it and give me a comment. What’s your opening night roster projection? I’m going to take a swing at one before Thursday as well. Before we wrap it up and call it a night I do want to say: the optimist in me is far from dead. Let’s Go Buffalo!

Thanks for Reading.

P.S. I guess that last game against Columbus could still be Risto’s last as a Sabre. *smh*

#buffalo sabres #hockey #blog #nhl

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andrewuttaro · 5 years

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New Look Sabres: Preseason GM 2 - CBJ - Sabres Avengers

So last night was fun. How about we do that again but this time without the most fun players from that game? Okay, that’s a little mean. For real though, if Rasmus Ristolainen isn’t on last night’s roster but also isn’t on tonight’s roster I am kinda confused about what kinda look he’s getting at Training Camp. Ralph Krueger did want any professional does when they get hired to a new job: work with the situation at hand whether he created it or not. The Charging Buffalo Podcast posited a very interesting alternative reality to this trade we all feel is imminent where Risto has a comeback year and learns how to hold possession and play the defensive side of the game. While I think that possibility is even slimmer now that this first week of Training Camp has gone this way, I still wouldn’t mind seeing him stick around… assuming the jury has their verdict on him before the Trade Deadline. Unless there is some breaking news on this front before the Toronto games this weekend I hope this is the last time I need to talk about this. Even if we do get this long awaited Risto trade look to @716sportspost. They’re a great follow if you like any Buffalo Sports so if and when the trade happens you can read my “Farewell Rasmus” there first. But enough speculation and self-promotion, let’s talk about the game in all its lethargic beauty!

The goalie tandem was Linus Ullmark and Andrew Hammond. Seeing Hammond on a Sabres roster was a fun reminder that time is a flat circle. Ullmark on the other hand I had an eagle eye on. Even after all the goals against this game I still think he’s the future starter. I am super bullish on my favorite Swedish goaltender and if he’s going to instill any confidence in fans who have less faith in him then me, which is most every other fan, then he’ll need to show consistency this season. The defense pairings were a bunch of likely AHLers or waiver candidates plus Brandon Montour and Jake McCabe. Will Borgen, the guy who would definitely be on the opening Night roster in a world without two Rasmus and a Jokiharju, had a lot to gun for tonight. He just didn’t pull the trigger. The forward ranks were feast or famine with Casey Mittelstadt centering a line of C.J. Smith and Sam Reinhart. That’s the feast, here comes the famine: Vlad Sobotka centered a line of Kyle Okposo and Matej Pekar. *Debbie Downer music* WAH WAH. Olofsson, Asplund and Ruotsalainen were the noteworthy guys of the bottom six but let me tell you, nothing was truly notable about this game. I guess Columbus iced a lineup rifer with NHL starters but most of the regular names on that team sound like nobodies anyway. This game was so boring I wish I had recorded it and put it on later in the night to help me get to sleep.

I joked about Vlad Sobotka showing off this rumored revival of skill, but he stuck to his brand and disappeared only to resurface like the Shark in the Meg to destroy a good play and thicken the plot. Kyle Okposo was so bad it triggered Sabres twitter. Again, we’re really just going to have to ride that one out folks. The best option on that front is hoping Seattle takes them in their expansion draft but them feel like long odds if you ask me. How about some good stuff: Montour looked good but if he didn’t that’d be a problem. Arttu Ruotsalainen looked smooth which was refreshing for this game. Jake McCabe deserves a mention if only for him scoring the only Sabres goal of this game. Just like this whole game it was a goal hardly worth mentioning. The score line ended up being 4-1 for the Blue Jackets. Perhaps the stuff we can take from this game is how it advances the plot of this preseason. @theboonarmies, Sabres Twitter’s only Australian as far as I can tell, called it the three acts in any good film: Ralph Krueger’s three phases of Training Camp.

In morning skate comments Krueger laid out three time-based phases for the evaluation of talent and what not for this Training Camp. I called this the MCU of Sabres Training Camp. Phase One was Training Camp opening until… well now. You might assume the end of Phase One means that now we can expect the first round of roster cuts. I sure hope so but let’s have some fun with this: who’s our Iron Man, Captain America, Thor and Hulk of Phase One? I point out those Avengers because they got origin films. Here’s my picks: Jimmy Vesey is Iron Man because I hate you but unfortunately you’re here to stay for the next few phases. Captain America is Henri Jokiharju because he’s back from the dead and here to win the day! Thor is Tage Thompson because his movie in this phase wasn’t that good but there is promise there still. Hulk is John Gilmour because that dude may not have a good chance of making the roster but he’s going to smash his way there! We’ll see what Phase Two holds, but we’ll probably see a slightly different roster by the end. Who knows what lineup we’ll have to face to cap off Phase Three and face the Regular Season, AKA Thanos! Oh yeah, I was supposed to be talking about the phases of Sabres Training Camp. Krueger, who I guess is Nick Fury in this bit, said Phase Two will run through the two Toronto games right up to before the last two matchups against Columbus and Pittsburgh. Maybe we’ll get more cuts then too. Finally Phase Three carries us right up to the end of Training Camp and finalizing the roster for the regular season. In this Sabres MCU of sorts Krueger gives us a clear plan to hold onto when things get rough like tonight. I don’t know what kinda plan Phil Housley had but I didn’t see this much of it.

Well that’s it for today. Turns out this blog relies a bit on the Sabres giving me some material to riff off. There wasn’t much here tonight. Drop a like, comment and let me know who your Avengers are for Phase One of Training Camp. The problem with that bit I guess is that the team-up film at the end of Phase One was good… not so much the Sabres’. I’ll have a lot to talk about with these two Leafs games this weekend. I always vomit words when we play the Leafs. I was really hoping to drag em for the Mitch Marner situation but like most things in their rebuild it has come together brilliantly before I had the chance to. Don’t worry, I won’t be complimenting our northern neighbors come Friday. Hopefully we get a proper broadcast for those games. Bring me the cuts!!

Thanks for Reading.

P.S. Casey Mittelstadt didn’t look fantastic tonight. I’m going to stay out of the fear bunker on that one over one measly preseason game but I’m definitely locating the door.

#buffalo sabres #hockey #blog #nhl

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andrewuttaro · 5 years

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New Look Sabres: 2018-2019 Season Retrospective

We have a lot to talk about, don’t we? Everything and nothing I guess. For some reason the word “Sparks” is sticking with me. No, not the crap backup goaltender for Toronto. Jason Botterill used that word to describe what he saw out of the Buffalo Sabres in the first half of this season. The word will/is/was probably used several times at Locker Room Cleanout. If you’ve read this blog over the second 41 games of the season you probably read along as I struggled with how to say this the right way. On one hand, the second half of the season was so bad it pretty much erases all the good of the first half. On the other hand, every member of the quote unquote core of this team had a career season on their respective lines of the stat sheet. That’s not worth nothing. Of course, the big news we’ve yet to discuss here on the blog is the firing of Phil Housley. It happened. Let’s get the obvious out of the way. Point One: That felt inevitable and anyone who thinks that was the wrong move is quite simply not tuned into the Buffalo Sabres. Point Two: His firing should not be something we mourn because of the number of coaches that have gone through since Lindy Ruff’s firing. That’s a loser’s attitude in the NHL. Point Three: There is no clear timetable on a replacement, but I like Chris Taylor and its an open question what Botterill is thinking. No one is inside his head. Those are the easy points to make and I streamline them there not just for the sake of discussion in the comments but because this is going to be the longest post in New Look Sabres history, and this matter has too many question marks to make a definitive statement. I think the only bottom line we’re going to put in the Housley Era for now is that he didn’t do the right things to get the sparks of this team to catch fire; at least not consistently. We can talk development, deployment and defense all day; but those three D’s and all the other complaints about this team right now are tiny against the big question mark of who will be the next Head Coach of the Buffalo Sabres. The bottom six and defense needs a fair bit of work by Botts in the offseason but the most important job for the next bench boss in Buffalo will be how can you turn the sparks of greatness on this team into a fire? We saw those sparks in dangerously flammable quantities in the first half of the season and sparingly in the back 41 games. This blog’s question to the coaching candidates are simple: Can you start the fire in Buffalo?

I scared my wife. We were still sitting in a Tim Hortons in Detroit when I broke out with a ghoulish cackle at seeing the news Housley was fired. It may be the most welcome news in Sabres Hockey fandom since the win streak, but we shouldn’t celebrate anyone losing their job. Right…. I’m gentleman, I’ll stop with it now. It’s also bittersweet because the season is over. Here we are, it’s over, all 82 games. After having one of the wilder off seasons in recent memory, the Buffalo Sabres entered with minimum expectations of better hockey than the prior season, one of the worst in the history of the organization. The new season got off to an encouraging start getting to above .500 for the first time in a long time before going on a record-tying run of ten straight wins! After that we pretended things were okay in December, or at least I did, and it wasn’t too long into the New Year it became clear things were not exactly going the way that first half had made us hope. After artificially inflating playoff expectations, Buffalo went on an America’s Funniest Home Videos tumble montage that had only been achieved one time before in NHL history. The team that won ten straight missed the playoffs by a sizable margin and was, after all, out of it by the end of February. Eight Straight seasons without a post-season berth and this one stings a bit worse than we’ve seen in recent years. That’s the story of this season. Here we are today to close the chapter on our Buffalo Sabres’ 49th season and we might wonder how to sum it up. In midseason thoughts I summed it up as the Reclamation Season. At that point I was in denial of the historic collapse that was taking place, but I have since woken up. And I’m still calling this season the Reclamation Season. Perhaps the new runner-up title is the Season of Missed Opportunities, but the header remains the same for me: Reclamation. The collapse was embarrassing, particularly for those of us who have non-hockey-watching friends and family who got turned onto the Sabres in the win streak and now ask us what happened. That collapse however doesn’t take away what the win streak meant outside the standings. I don’t say this to be a sappy cop-out: this season has meant more than a collapse and another missed postseason. This season was a reclamation. It was a reclamation of the Buffalo Sabres name. After a half a decade lingering in the basement to the point of perpetuity the proud name of an organization was brought to the top again, for however brief a time, and excited a new generation that scarcely understands the history. We’ve all gotten a taste of grandeur now, some of us for the first time, and there is no going back. Stop rattling off stats about losses in March and shit Rob Ray said before Hurricane Katrina: TAKE PRIDE IN THE GOOD STUFF FOR ONE DAMN MINUTE!

The immediate road ahead is riddled with question marks: the biggest has the first name Jeff. But the future is now. Easter Sunday 2011 was the last time Buffalo saw playoffs at the building now known as Key Bank Center, but November 2018 was the last time Buffalo wore the Sabres close to their hearts. When we say “remember when” with these guys now, there’s a decent chance we’re talking about last year not last decade. It’s progress, even if it was followed by historic failure. Don’t be sad it’s over, be happy it happened. The name of the Sabres has been reclaimed and I think we’re only going up from here and if we aren’t than that is too great a problem to make myself miserable over. Let’s have some joy for a brief, fleeting moment in our harrowing Sabres lives! It’s time for the First Annual New Look Sabres Awards! We saw the team itself give some of these awards away and we’ll see the league pass some of these out in June. Here I am going to attempt to pass out some fan-first awards if you will. What are some awards that Sabres Fans yearn to give to their team? Category One: The Crow-Server. The Crow-Server goes to the player who made certain fans eat crow. They made some of our takes colder than Hamburg on the water. This player was maligned by fans and proved them all wrong. The 2018-2019 New Look Sabres Crow-Server Award goes to… Tage Thompson! You may have thought Alex Nylander’s late season arrival was the biggest bust-turned-darling story of the season but think back to October where we were bemoaning Thompson’s presence on the NHL roster. Shocker, he was pretty decent actually. He’s not all there yet but he is a find that will probably play out this same story again next season! Category Two: The Robin Lehner. The Robin Lehner Award goes to the player who was scape-goated for all the team’s problems fairly or not. This player was in a tight race with another player for this award. The 2018-2019 New Look Sabres Robin Lehner Award goes to… Marco Scandella! Vladimir Sobotka almost took this one and indeed voting was really close but Scandezzy came out on top! Finally, Category Three: The Fan MVP. The Fan MVP Award goes to the player who was not only most valuable to the team but made fans pompous online. This player was a big get and won over the hearts of Sabres fans with his skating style and goal scoring. The 2018-2019 New Look Sabres Fan MVP is… Jeff Skinner! No surprise there, he was a fantastic pick up in every way… PLEASE resign him… like yesterday. OH, PLEASE JEFF, DEAR GOD WHAT DO I NEED TO DO! I CAN’T HANDLE THIS TEAM WITHOUT YOU, DON’T GO! IT’S JUST SNOW! YOU’RE FROM FICKING MARKHAM, ONTARIO YOU BEAUTIFUL ICE MAN!

Let’s talk offseason. To have this talk we have to spend a little more time on the season we just endured. The second half collapse, specifically the way it progressed from February 15th onward is straight up unacceptable. It was that game followed by a four-game losing streak that saw the Sabres crash out of playoff contention. The team, as in the players on the ice, gave up at that point and the last six to seven weeks that followed were the most unwatchable games of the season. It was painfully obvious. It’s kind of a chicken-before-the-egg kind of thing: did the players give up on the coach or did they realize their playoff hopes had died? This connects to the offseason because the collapse can really be split into two parts that each have something to say about how we should approach the summer. Collapse Part One was more on GM Jason Botterill for not tweeking the roster through trades or waiver claims much at all in the months between the end of the win streak and the trade deadline. The Montour trade is the only thin layer of protection from criticism he gets with Skinner still unsigned. There is a solid argument to be made he let the ship sink and did nothing. Collapse Part Two was entirely on Coach Phil Housley and assistant Davis Payne’s non-existent powerplay. While they couldn’t get the team to play .500 after the win streak, they allowed a total unmitigated tank following February 15th. Housley is gone now, like ASAP the day immediately after Game 82. Kudos to Botterill for getting that done quick. We already went over Housley’s exit so let’s talk that Collapse Part One and Jason Botterill’s future, the offseason is all in hands and now he’s got a mandate to give the next guy some better supporting pieces past that top line. This next coaching hire needs to start fires and blast the doors off of Botterill’s office because the clock is ticking, Jason. This season was a failure and the offseason needs to see some stuff fixed. This season was a failure that tasted good at first bite and was nearly poisonous by the end. That will not fly next season. When I said next season needs to see a Playoff berth I’m not saying that as an aspirational statement: if they miss the playoffs next season then clear house. If the Botterill Presser announcing Housley’s firing taught us anything it’s that Botterill isn’t stupid and he’s done feeling anything but winning. That’s technically two things but what I’m saying is he knows what the problems are: they’re the same ones we’ve been complaining about. The defense is an incomplete whole and there is maybe one and a half lines of NHL players in the forward group. Forward depth and defense are the problems. Also goals: less against and more for, please. This club wasn’t as good as ten straight wins, but they aren’t bad enough to not consistently be in the mix by now. Don’t lower the expectations because of the impending coaching change: This team should be in the 90-point range at the end of the season from now on until Jack Eichel and Rasmus Dahlin retires. There are enough good pieces for that and the supporting cast is coming; and we really ought not to settle for less.

That was a long meandering road to talk offseason. Let’s talk offseason. For one, signing Skinner is the number one priority. It looks likely he’ll test free agency now even though Botterill insists they’ve never stopped hammering out a deal. If Skinner walks then Jason Botterill has just about nothing going for him. Whether or not Skinner signs, Botts needs to get busier than a Mighty Taco on 4/20. Trading away Rasmus Ristolainen is probably a 50/50 chance at this point, and we can talk about how the defense needs more help not less right now but Risto isn’t getting any better. I tend to agree you have to sell an asset high while you can still sell high. Trade out our tough boy for a second line center and hopefully some other pieces that help now. And if you get spare parts you better be certain they aren’t Patrik Berglund reruns (God speed to Berglund for a healthy future). Second line center is a smart move not just to give Casey Mittelstadt some more time to grow but also to solidify center depth given a couple decent fourth line options coming down the pipeline. If you can ship out any three of Johan Larsson, Zemgus Girgensons, Vladimir Sabotka, and Marco Scandella it would be a massive victory. There is enough talent to fill those roles, especially if you get a second line center via trade or free agency. Assuming Skinner signs and Alex Nylander has actually finally arrived I think you need to have a rock-solid top six by the start of Training Camp. Defenseman, oh yeah and some down-pairing defenseman would be great. Next season simply cannot be another development year if that’s even what you want to call this year given Phil Housley’s awful deployment choices and a simply atrocious goal differential. Did I mention the Fail Army style second half tumble down the standings? Oh yeah, I got that.

Draft strategy this year is interesting: two first round picks this year and one is likely to be top five or damn close. We learned in the 2016 Draft that you always have to take the best available unless you are really dying for something. It’s funny that I just praised Alex Nylander only to say that but look at those other picks. HOT DAMN. Anyway, there maybe only three or four players this Draft who jump right into the NHL. If you get into the top five, assuming Jack Hughes and Kaapo Kakko are off the board, you can’t go wrong with one of the centers (Dylan Cozens and Trevor Zegras) or right wing Vasily Podkolzin. Immediate help isn’t coming from any of those guys, but beggars can’t be choosers. The highest projected defenseman, Bowen Byram of WHL Vancouver, may end up being the highest ranked guy available if the Sabres pick fifth like they’re set up to right now. Byram would be a fantastic pickup (assuming Botterill can get over his distrust of WHL prospects) but he’s not the partner for Rasmus Dahlin we’re looking for. Sidebar: let’s not depend on a lottery ball bouncing the right way for any hope going into next season. This is a sports team not a casino. The other Sabres first round pick is truly a wildcard as there is a weird drop off in this Draft. However, if Cam York or Cole Caufield drop to that pick you better take one of them. Those guys are my 2019 Draft crushes. Free Agency on the other hand is a dangerous game the Sabres have been burned on a couple times in recent memory. Kevin Hayes in Winnipeg jumps out as that second line center we need; while I dream of Mats Zuccarello and Ryan Dzingel for other roles, but those options seem far-fetched. There are more than a couple guys worth pursuing who currently wear Lightning jerseys but barring sending Ristolainen to Tampa I don’t see those moves happening without an offer sheet and that’s a discussion I don’t want to have until the cat is out of the bag. You may have heard there is a scenario where Jonathan Huberdeau comes to Buffalo, maybe in a Ristolainen trade. That goes a long way in solidifying the top six like I mentioned earlier. While we’re talking kind of distant possibilities, if Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is a piece coming to Buffalo that also solidifies a top six that makes the playoffs in 2020. It feels weird expecting a crazy trade out of Edmonton now that Peter Chiarelli isn’t there anymore, but I don’t know if much in that Front Office is very different in my most honest opinion. It’s hard to imagine a big offseason compared to 2018 but we may need one to finally go to the postseason in 2020.

I said this would be the end-of-season bonanza and with the way this season ended it feels difficult to wrap up. For one last time this season I will say like, comment and share this with your friends. You guys are what makes this blog feel worth it. If you were with me from the start you’ve watched this thing change and grow since June of last year when I started a blog with a funny name and a faint hope the Sabres wouldn’t be total trash. My hope was satisfied for a little while. Unless some real profound garbage unfolds in the offseason or God forbid my life circumstances change unexpectedly I will be back at it again next season, starting later this week with 2019 Playoffs according to the Sabres. Yeah, it sounds weird to have Sabres and playoffs in the same sentence but bear with me and it will be fun. That’s probably up Wednesday, we’ll see. That post will officially kick off the 2019-2020 New Look Sabres season and feature a slightly new look. That is what I want to show you next. Below this paragraph, assuming this post went up properly, you will see the New Look Sabres 2019-2020 thumbnail image. It’s a little sleeker and more fun because when you get right down to it this past season’s logo was really just a color swapped normal logo. This one obviously takes the name of the blog a little more literally. I hope you enjoy it. I always end these posts with thanks for reading. I will do that again but let me just add some more thanks: thank you for reading. Thank you for reading along on this journey through better or worst with the Buffalo Sabres and Rochester Americans. Thank you for reading through all the typos and weird metaphors. Thank you for bearing with me on the most intensive blog I’ve ever written. 82 games are a lot but when you think about back-to-back nights and road trips you can imagine how chaotic writing these could get. I’ve written up some of these games at my in-laws, while in hotels, in the wee hours of the morning and so on. It’s been fun. I don’t regret a minute of it and in spite of how tough the team has been to us; I still can’t wait for a New Look Squad next season. In case you missed it, I am a relentless optimist. No matter what happens if you got anything that made your Sabres fandom more enjoyable in this blog than it’s all the victory I need as a blogger. I hope we can keep sharing this crazy life of being Sabres fans for seasons to come. In the meantime, Let’s Go Buffalo! Let’s Go Rochester! Especially Rochester, they got a Cup to win!

Thanks for reading.

P.S. I know it’s weird that I’m ending the season only to put up another post in a few days and then take a couple months off. Blame the Sabres: if they make the playoffs I don’t write “Playoffs according to the Sabres”. But here we are again; hopefully that helps a little bit… well that and the Rochester Americans hopping on the postseason warpath!

#buffalo sabres #hockey #blog #nhl

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