Jauronimo

With all the excitement this year around career highs and the development of Power, now Levi, the guy who hasn't gotten a ton of attention is Dylan Cozens. His growth has been remarkable. He put up over 30 goals this year despite constant line juggling, mainly playing with 2 rookies who were overmatched for much of the season, and he wasn't a PP fixture until the second half of the year. He has yet to fill out his frame. I am not guaranteeing he his going to be a perennial 30 goal scorer but I don't think he has reached his ceiling yet.

Sens and Wings were busy in free agency last summer and were supposed to be in the playoff mix. Florida has been dealing like crazy to be a borderline wild card. Gotta feel good about being where we are today mostly through drafting and developing. Youngest team in the league despite rostering a goalie who knows how to program a VCR, decent cap room going into next year, and a solid prospect pool. Kulich just set an AHL goal record for 18 year olds, Savoie had another strong season and playoffs, Ostlund is still alive last I checked, Rousek looked more than capable of playing bottom 6 minutes in his opportunity, and Rosen has a funny looking face. With the best goalie prospect we've had since Miller, the future looks bright.

There were 2 goals against where Levi had absolutely no chance. The Lyubushkin turnover and the PP goal where Dahlin failed to get the puck or tie up a man and a Wing had a tap in on the backdoor. The last goal against was a perfect shot but Levi was in position in time to possibly make a highlight reel save. The other three against were tipped, deflected, or bounced in off of a Sabre. I don't think Levi has allowed a softy yet in any of his starts. Razor made an interesting point the other day, possibly after talking with Matty Ellis, that college goalies face a ton of shots but they're often perimeter shots and theres significantly less traffic in front of the net. Bigger bodies in the NHL, intentional screens on the goalie would be an adjustment for Levi was the point. I haven't seen anything which suggests he's playing these weird bounces poorer than any other goalie but it is an interesting point considering all the strange bounce goals we are seeing. Power is so much improved. What a difference a season makes. His confidence and skills were obvious from the start but now he has adapted to NHL game speed. I have not heard the cracked rib rumor about Tage. Thought he had an oblique pull earlier in the season. I know that one timer has been grounded for weeks. He looks hesitant to wind up and let it fly. He was better last night but he was clearly laboring up and down the ice vs FLA. Credit to him for lacing up with the season on the line.

The success of Josh Allen is going to inspire dozens of horrible draft picks and I love it.

Ween has been added to the calendar which I am looking forward to. Matchbox 20 with The Wallflowers is also on the calendar which I am far less enthusiastic about. This will be the summer of mega tours as my wife bought Taylor Swift and Beyonce tickets. I am actually really interested to see the scale of production and the spectacle that will be T Swift and queen B playing in her home town of Houston for the first time in a long time.

I would have loved for these guys to get a taste of the intensity and physicality of playoff hockey this year even if they got shelled in 4 straight losses rather than have the shock come next year when they just might be able to compete. Breaking the drought and putting that narrative to bed is as important for the Sabres as it was for the Bills. I still believe this year was more about assessing the roster and developing the kids rather than the organization's best attempt to win which I have no issue with. All year I felt that roster decisions were based evaluating Olofsson and Mitts before their contracts were up and more importantly letting Quinn and Peterka learn on the job and develop some chemistry with Cozens. We would have seen more of Hinostroza and Asplund if Granato was coaching in must win mode. Letting the kids learn and deciding on new contracts for Mitts or Olofsson is far more important to the future of this team than getting blasted in the playoffs with Hino and Asplund in the lineup.

By holding players accountable do you mean posting senile rants on an anonymous message board?

No one wants this for you more than me. I'm rooting for you!

I'm equal parts excited to watch the kid play and terrified that our team defense will leave him hanging out to dry. I think you're forgetting Mikhail Grigorenko and Alex Nylander but yes, I am excited too.

I didn't even know he was gone!!

You have loads on the brain. Take a walk. Touch grass.

True Lies and Last Action Hero are 90s. Home Alone is 1990, and Uncle Buck is 1989. All but 2 of the Lethal Weapon movies are 90s but the first is by far the best of the series.

I would never have guessed that hitting a loose tire could cause a car to propel into the air and flip.

Peter Pan guy was not created for clicks, but man does that guy drive a lot of traffic for some reason.

I imagine that in cities with NHL and NFL franchises, interest in minor league teams (particularly within the same sport) is less in general.

Rousek looked good. Losing to bottom feeders and having to beat the strength of the schedule to make the playoff is an admirable strategy but it won't be easy.

I imagine they play some variation of night crawlers and tag but probably not grab ass or anything that requires opposable thumbs. Hooves are a limiting factor. Mostly, I imagine they're fairly serious creatures with little time for games but they do travel in herds so there is certainly an opportunity for fun.

I knew it before the time period you're describing.

If Buffalo can't support a national Pickleball franchise how will the Bills and Sabres ever remain viable here? Losing two franchises with no local interest in irrelevant semi-pro leagues really was the final nail in the coffin for WNY, IMO.

The 5 minute major was a back breaker.

OP, in the future you would be wise to assume that anyone contacting you and offering to help is likely running a scam. The only people who would know if your PC was hacked without you taking your machine to a professional to be scanned, is the group doing the hacking. I had an interesting hack where all of the sudden I get an email from my bank about changes to my profile and for the next 30 minutes in the email connected to my banking profile I receive a barrage of hundreds of emails to spam my inbox and bury the messages from my bank. Someone made it into my account and burned all of my credit card reward points. No money was moved, no transactions. Just reward points used or transferred. I had 2FA with password and cell notifications. No one should have been able to access the account even if my gmail was compromised. No passwords were changed in the process and I was never locked out of email or bank. I am 99% sure this was a Chase weakness that was exploited that they did not cop to. All points were returned and I lost nothing in the process but I occasionally still get emails from Polish self help gurus.

Dahlin is improving defensively and has gotten considerably better in his own zone. He has vastly reduced the number of WTF plays he used to make and now hes often the guy who gets hung out to dry on odd man rushes rather than the reason for 2 on 1s. He still gets caught puck watching, near a guy but not on a guy. Honestly, its hard for me to even critique defensive play in this era since long gone are the days where you could actually mug a guy just for standing in front of your net. So take my assessment with a shaker of salt. I dont know how they coach them to play in the open ice era. I know I see a lot more strange positioning, like two Dmen behind the net for puck support when a winger is standing in front of the net alone. That was a cardinal sin years ago. Dahlin is an elite puck moving defenseman and offensive threat. His skating ability and puck handling really shine when hes working the point. The time and space he buys with subtle movements is really amazing. He added some scoring touch this year when healthy but its clear hes been dealing with injuries down the stretch. With Power and Dahlin in the lineup we really need a few more stay at home, reliable defenseman who are tough to play against. Team defense is a major priority next year. I believe scoring was a major emphasis this year as Granato has pointed out many times this team was last in scoring when he took over and you cant win or entertain anyone without filling the net. To get the fans back, offense was a priority.

A little statistical backup.

I hope you got screen shots. I really didn't picture him as an orange juice guy. Free agency is wild.

They Bengals offense did go on a quarter long swoon and then some. Our offense had nothing all day. It looked like a bunch of guys who did not believe in the game plan.