Lurker

Mittlestadt has been a liability at this point in his physical development, as has Thompson. Ullmark's 3.06 GAA is about the same as Lehner's 3.01 last year. Okposo is in and out and has half the points he had last year (24 vs 44). Risto is a hand grenade ready to blow at any time and his -31 +/- is already six points higher than the total for all of last year. Sobotka is the worst hockey player I've ever seen and Larsson has the worst hands in NHL history. McCabe isn't showing any progress and Pominville is another year slower. It's a marginal lineup and wishful thinking won't make it any better. The only real improvement has come from watching the core--Jack, Sam and Dahlin--get better and offer hope that Botts plan will work in 2020-21...

The Bills made the playoffs because of a fluke. Should McD get a pass for that?? It was a cosmic joke, not great coaching. The Sabres are in just as much of a rebuild, and how you can call this season a "regression" from 2017-18 (62 points, 0.378) is odd to me. Aside from Skinner and Dahlin, the talent level hasn't gone up much at all. They still have only 1-2 competent lines and 3-4 D-men. The goaltending is a hair better, but not a lot. Even assuming they went 0.500 during the ten game streak rather than win them all, they'd be at a 0.480 win % or 63 points--topping last year's entire season total with 17 games to go.

The Sabres season (0.523 so far) is no more--or less--acceptable / disappointing than than the Bills season (0.375). Is McD getting shown the door as well?

I've always considered it to be one of the rationales reporters use to justify being at the games. "Hey, Mr. Editor, I was there in case the players or coach said something newsworthy, so please sign my expense report for the hotel and bar bill I ran up...."

I'm not an Ivy grad but I have a great deal of familiarity with the programs (and the near Ivys like Chicago, which is the best of the bunch, IMO) through colleagues, recruiting and hiring.

What a silly article. The guy argues that since Ivy-plus undergrads make up only 13% of 1,000 "leaders," an Ivy degree is over-rated. What he should have considered is that while Ivy-plus undergrads make up 0.5% (roughly 80,000) of the 17.4 million U.S. undergrads at all institutions, they make up 13% of the "leaders". That's a 26-to-1 favorable ratio. Its an advantage and all the stats in the world won't change that...

As I said previously, "education" is what the student makes it. It's an active, not passive process. In addition to their faculties, facilities and off campus connections, the most (I repeat, most) imporant thing Ivys have to offer are the fellow students you meet and form life-long connections with. Not so much as in an "old boys" sense, but in the sense that being exposed to high achievers and seeing that close up is revelatory. The classes themselves are the least important reason to attend an Ivy or any university, IMO. I work with many Ivy and public university grads. The Ivy folks might not necessarily be more talented--but more often than not, are. Not necessarily because of the cirriculum or anything that came from their classes--but because of who they were before, during and after school. Many of them have experienced so much "more," have stronger interpersonal skills and an ease that comes from family backgrounds that have "done it before." It's not a golden ticket. But the opportunity to attend an Ivy is as the commercial says, priceless...

https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2017/1/25/harvard-income-percentile/ The median family income for Harvard undergraduates is $168,800—more than three times the national median, according to a recent study. The national median household income in 2015 was $55,775, according to Census data. ...The study ranks Harvard among the worst colleges nationwide at enrolling lower-income students. With 4.5 percent of students from the bottom 20 percent of the income distribution, Harvard ranks 2011th out of the 2395 schools for its proportion of low-income students.

That's a very poor stat to use if you're trying to judge how difficult each school is. Rutgers students come from very diverse backgrounds and often don't have either the financial or family support resources to finish school. That tells you nothing about how "hard" Rutgers is vs. an Ivy--where students usually come from upper and upper-middle class homes with plenty of resources and support systems. Getting a college degree is as hard or easy as the student wants to make it. Folks who sleep walk through the experience and wonder why it wasn't as life changing as they thought it would be need to look in a mirror more often...

The goaltending is fine, especially with Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen coming along nicely in juniors and with the Amerks next year. Ullmark is only 25 and this is his first full year in the NHL. He's a good developing prospect who needs time to hone his game. He's slowly taking the starter role from Hutton and will continue to emerge as he gains confidence and consistency...

Not a surprise, but also not a career killer, at least for a few years. Anyone with a serious knee injury is going to be a candidate for arthritis at some point. If every NFL player who ever had an arthritic knee were considered 'damaged goods', the league wouldn't have enough players to fill 32 rosters...

I always enjoyed her work. RIP....

How do we know the lettuce isn't here illegally? Maybe Mexican kids tossed those lettuce heads over the wall to their farmer accomplices...

What about the lettuce then? https://www.politifact.com/facebook-fact-checks/statements/2019/jan/15/viral-image/did-lettuce-kill-more-americans-undocumented-immig/

You realize the economy is growing at roughly the same rate as before he was elected, don't you. Right now, the consensus estimate for GDP growth in Q4 is around 2%--slightly less than the average since 2010... Table 1.1.1. Percent Change From Preceding Period in Real Gross Domestic Product [Percent] Last Revised on: December 21, 2018 - Next Release Date January 30, 2019 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Line 1 Gross domestic product 2.6 1.6 2.2 1.8 2.5 2.9 1.6 2.2 2018 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4est 1 Gross domestic product 2.2 4.2 3.4 2.1

They'll very likely get to 80 points, which is exactly what pre-season prognostications had them doing. Just need 14 out of 38 available points (0.368)...

Who said they weren't supposed to be "that bad?" The Vegas line on their 2018-19 points total was 80.5--which is just about what they'll do, even discounting the 10-game streak... Other predictions all had them around/under 80 points as well: http://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/24806917/nhl-buffalo-sabres-2018-19-season-preview-rankings-projections-bold-predictions-playoff-chances https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nhl/columnist/allen/2018/09/26/nhl-2018-19-season-point-record-projections/1369823002/ https://thehockeynews.com/news/article/nhl-team-by-team-over-under-point-projections-for-2018-19

Just think of the wall he would have built around Josh Allen. Zero sacks, baby!

Yeah. They need to put saltpetre in the coffee machine over there...

Not to split hairs, but his Auburn stats aren't that great. He wasn't even the #1 WR on the Tigers in 2014... Receiving & Rushing Receiving Rushing Scrimmage Year School Conf Class Pos G Rec Yds Avg TD Att Yds Avg TD Plays Yds Avg TD Career Auburn 57 877 15.4 6 0 0 0 57 877 15.4 6 *2014 Auburn SEC JR WR 10 45 730 16.2 5 0 0 0 45 730 16.2 5 *2015 Auburn SEC SR WR 5 12 147 12.3 1 0 0 0 12 147 12.3 1

How about becoming "average" then? That's a long way from rock bottom.... Team Statistics Team AvAge GP W L OL PTS PTS% GF GA SRS SOS TG/G PP PPO PP% PPA PPOA PK% SH SHA S S% SA SV% PDO SO Buffalo Sabres 26.5 63 29 26 8 66 .524 177 197 -0.24 0.05 5.94 36 192 18.75 29 165 82.42 2 8 2057 8.6 2064 .905 99.7 2 League Average 27.8 63 32 25 7 70 .554 190 190 6.02 38 191 20.02 38 191 79.98 6 6 1984 9.6 1984 .904 4 Team Analytics (at 5-on-5) Team S% SV% PDO CF CA CF% xGF xGA aGF aGA axDiff SCF SCA SCF% HDF HDA HDF% HDGF HDC% HDGA HDCO% Buffalo Sabres 7.1 .925 99.7 2820 2899 49.3 130.8 145.5 123 135 3 1207 1297 48.2 240 262 47.8 48 16.7 43 14.1 League Average 7.5 .925 2894 2894 138.1 138.1 127 127 1282 1282 283 283 46 14.0 46 14.0

Physical maturation of guys like Mittelstadt, Thompson, Dahlin, Olofsson, Asplund, Borgen, Nylander would have a big impact on the Sabres 2019-20 point total... http://forum.canucks.com/topic/383394-top-10-largest-team-improvements-long-read/ Honourable Mention: Buffalo Sabres – 1973-74 to 1974-75 The Sabres went from 32-34-12 up to an extremely dominant 49-16-15 record team in this stretch, finishing as part of a three-way tie with 113 points for first place. This improvement was largely due to the improvement of many players already in the Sabres’ system.

They've already topped last year's 62-point total and are on pace for 86 points at the current rate. That won't be enough to make the playoffs, but a 24-point year-over-year gain would be progress...

The world can only hope...