K-9

We will just agree to disagree where Scandella is concerned. Pilut should be be in the lineup, period. And it’s hard to stomach Housley’s bull crap coach speak about him needing to learn and play through his mistakes. How the F is he supposed to do that up in the press box? He’s our best Dman from a metrics standpoint and he needs to play and develop at this level. I have ZERO faith that Housley is a good coach. None. On another note, Dallas beat us by a combined 12-2 score (5-1 in Dallas, 7-1 at home) in the two games last year. We could not deal with their speed. What’s it gonna be tonight?

Yeah, he gets his opportunities it seems. It’s a good news/bad news thing I think. Good that he’s getting the chances and bad that he’s not capitalizing. He plays too fast it seems. When he slows it down a bit and let’s the play develop an extra nano-second (also known as poise), I think some pucks will start going in for him.

John, you are an intelligent man. But if you’ve watched every game this season and can’t understand why Scandella gets bashed, I don’t know what to say. He’s been our biggest liability on the back end all year and the analytics bear that out. But he’s a veteran and Housley is too chicken s**t to hold him accountable while, conversely, he sits our best analytics-based defenseman at the drop of a hat. He is decent on the PK. But that’s it. Decent. He’s been a train wreck everywhere else this season.

Aside from one or two shifts, Eichel’s line pretty much dominated every time out. It contributed two goals on the night but it was nice to see the continuance of the secondary scoring we’ve seen the last few games. It was Sheary’s best game of the year. Let’s hope he doesn’t disappear for the next 30 games. I’m happy for the win, but from an analytics standpoint, it wasn’t that pretty. Our warts were on display but we were able to overcome them tonight for a change. Going into tonight, I figured we needed to get to 96 points to make the playoffs, meaning we needed to capture 42 of the remaining 68 points on our schedule; a .617 clip. I’m skeptical we have what it takes to get there given what I’ve seen the last seasons and a half, but we got off to a good start. And I’ll take it.

That means he owns one more shirt than clues.

Well, this game proves it: the key to our success is keeping Scandella and Hunwick together as a D pair.

Hutton, like Scandella, brings that calm, steady, veteran presence that Housley values so highly.

F-ing rclueless.

I suspect Mike Babcock would be coaching the Sabres if his wife hadn’t objected. She could still live the downtown Toronto condo lifestyle, anyway. And Pegs would have paid him more to boot. All those years in Detroit must have done it.

Better brace yourself. For Pilut not being in the lineup. Can’t see JBotts canning Housley until after the season.

Well, if morning skate pairings mean anything, it will be Scandella/Hunwick on the third D pair. Scandella and Hunwick. Let that sink in. There is a reason we finished with the worst record last year. There is a reason we have the worst record over the last 23 games. I fully expect Scandella and Hunwick to play lights out tonight, thus convincing coach clueless to keep them in the lineup as he fancies it is that pairing that holds the magic key to playoff contention.

I like Wade’s chances come Sunday.

Yep. And speaking of media darlings, Bilas loves him. And tickets here are selling nicely. Would be nice if they ever get a game or two at KBC. Would be awesome to see a true rebirth of college Bball in Buffalo. Man, when I think of all the greats I went to see when I was a kid. And most of them played pick up games at the Delaware courts, too! An added bonus.

Witten is just “no” period. Literally the worst I’ve ever heard at color commentary.

A sign of a bit more respect for the MAC as a whole, I'd say.

Rest assured, with Housley as HC, there is zero chance I will get my hopes too high. NOTHING about him screams great head coach.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Housley benched Pilut. After all, he had the temerity to make a mistake last game. Never mind that Pilut is our best Dman from a Corsi perspective, he must be made to atone for his on ice transgressions! Scandella needs patience and understanding because, you know, he’s only 28 and has been in the league eight years.

Best advice in the thread. I hadn’t read all of his offerings before I engaged him. Had I done that first, I never would have wasted my time.

This is the second time I’ve seen where you list a couple QB busts as examples of Palmers’s inability. Please provide a list of the greatest QB coaches of all time. I’ll bet I can find examples of QBs they coached that didn’t turn out well.

Buffalo schools actually closed last Tuesday due to the frigid temps rather than snow.

I agree. But does that mean our contribution is so insignificant that it is simply not worth trying to mitigate our contributions? Why exacerbate the problem if we have a choice? I ask this rhetorically as I’m not seeking to discuss the politics involved. I’ll just leave by saying we have a custodial responsibility to this planet and the future generations yet to arrive to inhabit it. We either care about protecting it for them or not.

Climate change works for me. I’m just alluding to the Arctic effect of the warmer temps that climate change is bringing. Arguing about whether it’s natural or that humans are contributing is a political distraction largely brought by industries that depend on contributing gases that add to the impact, whether largely, inconsequentially, or anywhere in between. I don’t think there were any people around when those arid areas became deserts. The Sahara was an ocean over 7 million years ago. But that’s another discussion entirely. I appreciate the point about the naturally occurring geological changes the earth has gone through and continues to go through. It’s a young planet still evolving either slowly or through cataclysmic events. But we can’t act like humans and other carbon based life forms aren’t a part of that evolution, no matter how small or large a role we actively play or not. We are not on the sidelines simply observing nature, we are part of it. We have a tendency to think we’re separate somehow. A distinctly human ego trip.

I see no reason to engage on this subject any further. I don’t care what people do or don’t do with data. Like you said, adapt and overcome. Really no other decent choice to make. Although I love some of the geo-engineering theories and solutions being put forth.

Global warming heats up the Arctic circle. Warmer Arctic air rises, pushing the icy jet stream south. The icy jet stream brings to the US, Europe, and Asia much colder air than we used to get. Temperatures go down, making our winters longer and colder. I appreciate the clarification. It’s just uncanny how short a time it takes for someone to mention global warming when discussing cold temps.