#coming into the comments to argue with me results in a block btw. I do know what I am saying.

[manicpixiedreamedwins]

I am absolutely whispering right now shh

I know we think codependents are a bad on this webbedsite, but like. It is a thing that happens when you grow up trying to regulate someone's emotions, like a volatile parent. You know, like Charles did with his father (I know we all remember that heart breaking scene in the basement). He's a survivor.

I do not think it is a stretch to assume he's a little codependent still. He's clearly upset because he can't make Edwin feel better in the scene with the night nurse.

Usually, we can see he's taken on the role of trying to regulate both his and Edwin's emotions.

This is not me saying what he's doing is inherently bad, by the way- he's teaching Edwin valuable coping skills that he uses for his own emotions. The difference this and an actually dangerous dynamic that Edwin prioritizes Charles' well being as well, whereas his father or an actual, abusive enabler would not do so.

My point: moralizing that you only want "good" traits on your ship and ignoring experiences that Charles actually went through is like... weird? And also makes those of us who grew up like this and are recovering feel VERY strange about being called "bad" for the sake of your argument.

But you do you I guess.

[kittenlittle24]

Chokehold

Request: f!reader is part of the diagnostics team and one day, they realized that one of the cases they were handling involved a physically abusive parent, which started the patient’s condition. Reader went to confront the parent, which in turn made the parent attack her, and then Dr. House saw this and came in to save her. and then some fluff? and yes, house and f!reader is secretly in love with house @schnitzelbutterfingers

a/n: I based it on s2 e13 but also changed it to fit the request better, I apologize it’s short I had a real writing block.

Btw, gifs aren’t mine! Likes, comments and reblogs are greatly appreciated!

Masterlist

“A 15-year-old model was given by her father before taking the stage at a big fashion show. After walking out, she gets into a violent confrontation with another model, then collapses on the runway.” Cameron presents.

“The tox screen shows she has been taking heroin.”

House ordered a rapid detox procedure thinking the drugs are masking another disease and that we don't have time to wait four weeks to find out. Formen and Chase explained the risks to her father, who agreed to the procedure. They put the patient into an induced coma. She later went into cardiac arrest, of course, they revived her. They explained to the father that if they bring her out of the coma before the detox is over, she will be in extreme pain.

When the girl came out of the coma, she showed signs of short-term memory loss, which House diagnosed as PTSD as the result of sexual abuse from her father.

Cameron of course went straight to Cuddy who called child services, however, you were the lucky one to be cornered by the dad.

“You called child services on me?! I do everything for her! She’s my daughter!”

Slowly you tried to walk away as you denied till your back hit the wall, then you knew you were screwed. He was so close to you, that you smelled his breath and felt his spit splattered on your face as he continued to yell, you hoped one of the nurses would come by already and call security but the next thing you knew he had his hand around your throat, grasping his wrist you tried to move it away, the tears in your eyes blocked your sight, your chest starting to hurt.

He stopped as quickly as he started and fell to the floor. Falling to your knees as well you looked up to see House standing behind him, his cane raised.

“What did you do?” You rasped out.

“He was choking you!” He argued as he helped you up and the security guards lifted the assaulting man.

He took you to his office where he examined you.

He lifted your chin gently and looked at your neck where you already started to bruise.

“Might want to wear a turtleneck,”

You nodded, “Why did you come to check on me? You were supposed to be in the clinic and you never visit patients.”

“Teen model? The perfect excuse to avoid clinic.”

Grasping his arm, “House.”

“I had a bad feeling about the dad, I had to make sure you were safe,” he whispered.

Stepping closer to him, “You were worried about me.”

He nodded once.

Stand on your tip toes, you cupped his cheeks and leaned forward, slowly placing your soft lips on his, giving him plenty of time to stop you.

Instead of stopping you, he wrapped his arms around you and pulled you closer.

[lovewillthaw-j]

Elsa’s powers appreciation (part 2 of 3) - Freezing

To recap, I’d like to classify Elsa’s powers into 3 categories and 3 posts - making things out of ice/snow (part 1), freezing (and melting) and movement/kinetic energy.

Before I dive into part 2 - I received some comments on the first post about Elsa’s ice decorations on Arendelle castle, which I missed out on. I would classify them as medium sized objects that she creates out of ice =)

What is the difference between part 1 and part 2? Well, I make a distinction between her creating something that was not there, versus her freezing (ie lowering the temperature of) something that is already there. Of course this is just my opinion and some are arguable, such as the snowstorms - you could say she created it or you could say she froze the weather.

1. Small-scale freezing

In the first row, she freezes window sills both as a child and as Queen: in between, she is freezing the scepter and orb before the coronation (and also during the coronation itself).

In the second row, she freezes water under her foot and discovers she can walk on water. To the right, are 2 contrasting examples of her freezing the water fountain. In the first, she physically touched the fountain; in the second, she has “levelled up” and can freeze the fountain without physical touch.

2. Freezing the room she is in + the floor of the Enchanted forest

In the first row, she freezes the floor of the great hall (and the whole hall too); next to it is the sad scene after her parents’ funeral, which she didn’t dare to attend for fear of hurting everyone in her grief; rightmost, she is freezing the room within the ice palace and causing a mini snowstorm. (for snowstorms, she also uses her kinetic powers which I will cover in the third post)

In the second row are the two times she froze the forest floor, first to stop the Northuldra and Mattias’ soldiers; second during her fight with Bruni.

3. Further lowering the temperature of an already cold place

I want to point this out cos she does it quite a lot. Her powers are just THAT awesome! In the first row, in her anguish from hurting Anna, she lowers the temperature of the already cold great hall, causing more ice to form on the already icy floor and to spread up the walls (2nd pic) Next to it, in the ice palace, as she despairs while talking to Anna, we hear the sound of ice forming and we see more ice fractals appearing in the castle walls (which are made of ice and are already cold).

In the second row, with the castle glowing red, again more ice fractals appear and icy spikes form on the walls. On the right is a screencap from the dungeon scene showing more ice forming on the walls as Elsa’s emotions cause the temperature to drop further.

4. Freezing an entire geographical area + weather

This hardly needs description. She freezes the entire fjord and causes it to snow in summer in Arendelle. 

Later on, after breaking out of the dungeon, her panic causes a massive snowstorm to form around her (again, snowstorms also involve her kinetic powers), engulfing the castle and lowering the temperature even further, such that huge spikes of ice block Olaf and Anna’s path inside the castle; also, so much snow blankets the castle that Anna is able to slide down the side of the castle safely to the ground. The storm also causes the fjord to freeze even colder; some of the ships move as a result of the warping ice and one of them topples and almost falls on Kristoff and Sven.

In the final image (post Great Thaw), Elsa has got it under control and is able to make it snow in a controlled manner and only in the castle courtyard.

Not shown is the epilogue of F2 where she has frozen the Dark Sea and gallops over it on Nokk.

5. Her hair

Haha, now for something light hearted. You can argue that this is a separate power, but I’d like to think that she froze parts of her hair in place to give her iconic hair do. Watch the progression of the screencaps - her long locks by the side of her face initially drape down, and with a sweep of her right and then left hand, they get plastered to the side of her head. Magic frozen hairspray...

6. Uniquely Olaf

Have you ever stopped to consider that the magical personal “flurry” that Elsa made for Olaf is pretty mindblowing? She literally made a mobile, perpetual freezer! ie, a localized zone of cold temperature that is cold enough to snow and keep Olaf from melting, AND follows him everywhere! To put it another way, in 1840s Arendelle, Elsa has invented a fridge! (that follows you) Wouldn’t every household want one of their own for those hot summer days?

Olaf’s permafrost is similar and a little bit frightening if you see it as Elsa “encasing” you in ice. She can permafrost all her sentient creations including Marshmallow and the snowgies now. 

7. Freezing head and heart

This is one of the darkest sides of Elsa’s powers. She is able to send her freezing powers “into” a person and if it is the head - knock the person unconscious and turn some hair white; if it is the heart, the person freezes from within and their hair will turn all white like Elsa’s, prior to becoming an immobile statue of ice. Do you know what this reminds me of? I watched a nature documentary on certain parasites which infect insects and take over their mind before killing them from within. Could Elsa control your mind? I think Evil Elsa could...and would...(Hell, if Nattmara could...why not Elsa. -FoS)

I like to think that during the fight with Weaseltown’s men, she was falling to the dark side and if that had not been arrested, she could have easily unleashed her powers and frozen the hearts of all her assailants.

BTW, I did not realize before that when she hit Anna in the head, you can see a snowflake impact Anna’s head briefly. (captured in my screencap)

In the second row, I want to point out that frozen Anna’s body was SO COLD that Hans’ sword frosted up before the sword made contact and shattered. And this brings me to the next point...

8. Freeze metal and stone to ultra low temperature that they break

So I did some research and some metals can shatter once it is colder than a specific temperature called the “ductile to brittle transition temperature”. Cheap non-alloyed steel can shatter at about -30 degrees Celsius. Alloyed steel can withstand much colder temperatures. This is important when building metal structures eg ships and rigs for use in the Arctic or Antarctic. I’m no materials scientist so I’ll let people chip in on this if they wish. 

The point is, our Queen CAN FREEZE TO COLDER THAN -30 DEGREES!!! And she sure has superhuman invulnerability to cold! Human skin sticks to cold surfaces.

In the rightmost screencap, Elsa has broken out of a solid stone dungeon! Maybe she blasted it open (we don’t know) but this too is freaking amazing! I did some brief research and this is called frost weathering or frost shattering. Essentially she could break through stone by rapidly freezing all the water in it since water expands on freezing. (again, I’m no expert)

It is my belief that in F2, she could have destroyed the dam singlehandedly. Earth Giants pffft. And she would have stopped the water at the source too.

Elsa is definitely impervious to her own cold - she hugs frozen Anna (who is cold enough to break metal) cheek to cheek and is unscathed.

Interestingly, in F2 Anna holds the ice sword that Elsa made without being hurt by the cold - perhaps Anna gained some cold tolerance after coming back from being frozen herself. And she hugs Olaf all the time too.

9. The Nokk + Magic Freezing Thighs 

Elsa is pretty fearsome in combat - I will touch more on this in the third post. Here, she figures out pretty rapidly how to stop the Nokk by freezing him. In the epilogue of F2, one of the most beautiful FX scenes - she freezes the Nokk and he willingly obliges and becomes a beautiful ice horse that can travel on land.

Have you ever wondered how Elsa stays on the Nokk “bareback”??? (bareback referring to Nokk...although Elsa’s dark sea gown is pretty bare in the back too lol) I know @super-mam-te-moc and I have! 

Look at these 3 screencaps - on the left, the Nokk is bucking and thrashing around, trying to shake Elsa off; in the middle, she is riding the Nokk at a speed faster than the tsunami of water; and on the right, the Nokk is rearing up on hind legs while Elsa makes the huge ice wall with her hands in the air. In all these situations Elsa stays firmly on the Nokk and never falls off or slides off!

Our conclusion is - she has magic freezing thighs that help her stick to the Nokk...LOL

10. Melting

Lastly, Elsa is able to melt everything she made. With the help of Anna’s great love (lovethawmode) she melted the entire fjord and Arendelle. (kinetic powers are at play here too as she makes everything float into the sky and coalesce into a giant snowflake)

In F2, she also demonstrates melting the ice floor that she froze.

What we don’t know yet is whether she can melt “natural” snow that she didn’t make herself, or whether she can reverse a natural winter and turn it into summer. Let’s wait for more out of this world powers in future shorts, movies or series!

[everyendeavor]

Robert Hubbell, Daily Newsletter

The Sedition Caucus

January 5, 2021

Joe Biden will be inaugurated on January 20, 2021. The Constitution tells us so. Nothing that has happened in the last week will change that outcome. The rest is detail. Indeed, a handful of GOP Senators have made clear that they will not object to the Electoral votes from any state. It is over for Trump.

But we cannot ignore the damage caused by the effort to overturn the election. In yesterday’s newsletter, I called the Republican Party a “cancer” on democracy. After reflecting on my choice of words for 24-hours, I believe I was too soft on Republicans. I failed to mention that the Sedition Caucus of GOP is composed of the same cowards who refused the constitutional command that the Senate shall “try all impeachments”—that is, to hold a trial on the articles of impeachment. Instead, in the face of overwhelming evidence that Trump attempted to bribe Ukraine to damage Biden, GOP Senators refused to allow testimony from witnesses. They refused to admit any documents not presented to the House Judiciary Committee. They refused to issue subpoenas so that House prosecutors could obtain evidence from witnesses who refused to testify unless compelled (like John Bolton). Against that shameful refusal, those same Senators now assert that Trump’s discredited allegations of fraud are sufficient to suspend the Constitution to convene a Soviet-style show trial to overturn the will of the people. Those are not the actions of a cancerous lesion on democracy. Those are the actions of enemies of democracy.

Several readers expressed surprise at my ire over the GOP’s effort to overturn the election by objecting to the Senate’s count of Electoral votes. They are right—I am angry. If you are not, you haven’t been paying attention to what is happening. The reason every American should be angry is not merely because the GOP has attempted to overturn the election; they should be angry because the damage from the failed effort cannot be undone. A sizable portion of the GOP caucus has adopted the view that the party holding a majority in the Senate has the unilateral right to choose the president—voters and the Constitution be damned! We are fortunate that their view will not win the day on January 6, 2021, but there is no guarantee that a different set of Republican Senators will restrain themselves in the future. They have revealed themselves as a party opposed to democratic rule. With a modicum of effort, Trump persuaded Republicans to exalt his desire to retain power over fealty to the Constitution. If that does not disturb you, nothing will.

The betrayal by the GOP Senators deepens with each passing hour. Their initial decision was seditious but became exponentially worse after they learned of Trump’s attempt to extort Georgia Secretary of State Raffensperger. Their objection to the Electoral votes on January 6th will make them accessories after the fact. As Jennifer Rubin wrote in the Washington Post,

The Dirty Dozen and reportedly 140 or so House members who also plan to challenge the results are attempting to obtain the same results Trump did by threatening Raffensperger . . . [T]he GOP has become an authoritarian, unprincipled party whose only purpose is to retain power by whatever means possible. It should permanently disqualify these Republicans from holding office.

Trump’s criminal conduct is getting worse by the hour. During Trump’s effort to extort Raffensperger, Trump insulted the U.S. Attorney in Atlanta as a “never-Trumper.” (BTW, the so-called “never-Trumper” was appointed by Trump.) It was an offhand comment but suggested that Trump viewed the Atlanta U.S. Attorney as an impediment to filing criminal charges against Raffensperger for failing to support Trump’s allegations of election fraud. In an ominous sign, the above-mentioned “never-Trumper” U.S. Attorney abruptly resigned on Monday, saying that “unforeseen circumstances” required him to quit his job two weeks early. See Talking Points Memo, “EXCLUSIVE: Atlanta-Based U.S. Attorney Abruptly Departs Office Sooner Than Expected.” A reasonable inference based on the above events is that Trump ordered the U.S. Attorney in Atlanta to file baseless criminal charges against Raffensperger. It appears the Trump-appointee declined to violate his oath and took the easy way out—heading for the exit.

It is true that some members of GOP leadership are speaking out. See Politico, “‘A new low’: Republicans chastise Trump over his Raffensperger call.” Despite the promising headline in the Politico article, the story cites only two sitting Republicans who have made negative comments about Trump’s call (Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger) but notes that several Republicans, including Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, defended Trump.

It is also true that a handful of GOP Senators have said they will not object to the Electoral votes of any state. See The Hill, “Senate Opposition Grows to Objecting to Electoral College Votes.” GOP Senator Tom Cotton issued a lengthy statement explaining that objecting to Electoral votes is at odds with the Constitution. Cotton wrote,

The Founders entrusted our elections chiefly to the states—not Congress. They entrusted the election of our president to the people, acting through the Electoral College—not Congress. And they entrusted the adjudication of election disputes to the courts—not Congress. Under the Constitution and federal law, Congress’s power is limited to counting electoral votes submitted by the states.

Senator Cotton’s statement is correct. But before we give a Presidential Medal of Freedom to Cotton, let’s remember that he voted to exclude evidence in the mockery of Trump’s impeachment proceedings in the Senate. If Cotton had honored his constitutional oath in January of 2020, we might not be dealing with a second call in which Trump resorted to bribery and extortion. While we should all be grateful that a handful of GOP Senators will foil the Sedition Caucus, we should remember that all GOP Senators are responsible for empowering, enabling, and excusing Trump up to this point. They are the reason Trump believes he can act without restraint

Concluding Thoughts.

I promise to return to my usual format tomorrow, with less outrage and more commentary. But we cannot let this moment pass. We must never forget those who have revealed themselves to be anti-democratic autocrats who see the Constitution as a trifle when it blocks their pursuit of power.

I received several thoughtful emails from readers who urged me not to condemn the entire Republican Party because of the actions of GOP members of Congress. One argued that there are responsible Republicans (citing Mitt Romney and Liz Cheney). Another reader said that we must be open to the possibility of healing the rifts between Republicans and Democrats. I previously agreed with those viewpoints. No more. The Republican Party is Trump’s party. Ninety-four percent of Republicans voted for him in 2020. They voted for him after he attempted to bribe Ukraine and his impeachment. They voted for him after he locked children in cages to punish their parents for coming to America. They voted for him after he encouraged white nationalists and neo-Nazis to resort to violence. They voted for him despite the fact that he is a misogynist and racist. They voted for him after he blamed unarmed black men who were shot in the back and slowly executed in public. Virtually all Republicans know exactly who Donald Trump is, and they are just fine with that fact. The leadership in the Republican Party is responding to the base. Let’s not pretend otherwise. GOP leadership is not the problem. The entire party is the problem.

Trump is the undisputed leader of the Republican Party and will be for four years, at least. If you are still a Republican, your presence in the Republican Party gives him a veneer of respectability. Get out before it is too late to save your honor, dignity, and reputation. (Italics, o.p.)

In 2020, Biden won the election because he convinced 20% of Independents to abandon Trump. While I won’t try to dissuade readers who want to devote time to healing the supposed “rift” with Republicans, I believe that Democrats have more useful things to do with their time. Like registering new voters, increasing turnout, and convincing Independents their future is with the Democratic Party. The Republican Party has crossed the Rubicon, declaring itself to be an opponent of democracy and an adversary of the Constitution. The only path forward for Democrats is to double-down on democracy and embrace the Constitution's promise more fully. If pursuing a path of greater justice, equality, and liberty means that we bruise the feelings of those who oppose those values, so be it. We have important work to do, and we must not tarry. The mid-terms of 2022 are hard upon us!

About this newsletter. I started this newsletter at the urging of my wife (a.k.a. “Managing Editor”) as a way of providing support and hope for my three daughters and close friends who were shocked and anxious about Trump’s election. This is a private communication among friends and like-minded people who opt-in. I try to be accurate, but I have a definite point of view and sometimes resort to satire (I hope that is obvious). The last thing I want to do is add to anyone’s stress, so read these newsletters only so long as they are helpful to you in making sense of these turbulent times. Otherwise, put down your smartphone and go for a walk. Be well!

Robert Hubbell

rhubbell@outlook.com

Los Angeles, CA 91436

[forevrdreamingofbetterthings]

Pay that person no mind. They clearly don't care about nonbinary people; they just want to use us enbies as tools for nihilism and radical feminism. Stay strong, friend ❤

Thank you, it’s very kind of you to send this. But I actually wrote that comment about the bullying flashbacks BEFORE I even knew I was getting hate for disagreeing with and blocking china/g/laze. But your kind message is well received bc I was clearly anticipating it as a result of my extremely long history of bullying and bc I had the audacity to criticize a popular blogger’s bigotry, and recommended my followers block them (bc if ppl are following me, they likely won’t wanna be following someone saying these things, just saying…). 

I mean, whether they’re trans or not, I’m intersex and also probably non-binary/intergender and I have argued tooth and nail with radfems making this very same hypocritical and ignorant argument over and over and over again, and not once have they even come close to convincing me of their crap. Search my blog for witwitch and you’ll see what I mean…. it’s so nauseating (actually here’s the link). 

And as someone that’s intersex, questioning intergender, chronically disabled (fibromyalgia, +, +, +), panromantic, asexual, and questioning autistic with a very VERY long history of bullying, I do NOT appreciate ppl sending me bullshit hate like the following, in that blogger’s name - apparently: 

china/g/laze is a black+indigenous trans woman who knows more about gender and its intersections with race than you ever could imagine knowing so sit down perhaps instead of demanding everyone block her because you didn’t understand a word she said because of course you didn’t, you don’t know shit and don’t care to know

????  I’m too foggy and sore to comment (I’m missing some major meds right now) so….. here are some more ?????? And ftr, this isn’t the oppression olympics here, this is about someone denying the validity of non-binary genders, and so we non-binaries have every right to call them out and block on sight, no discussion necessary.  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Btw, does this mean i’ve officially entered the nb discourse??? that was not really my intent here, I was just surprised, disappointed, and quite frankly, disgusted. 

ETA: I wish I wasn’t so sick and foggy today but I’m gonna try to be clear here that I am not and will not be commenting on race as an intersection with gender here because as a white woman with white privilege, my job is to listen with that. My only comment wrt cg’s post was about their invalidation of non-binary genders. That’s it. And I am also not agreeing with or disagreeing with anything OP has said re criticizing cg’s posts either. 

[andrewuttaro]

New Look Sabres: Preseason GM 3 - TOR

I was foolish to believe that the Ristolainen drama would ever end wasn’t I? Here I was being all cute coming up with Sabres Avengers after a boring preseason game thinking this countdown to disappointment wasn’t going to march on relentlessly in the city that never sleeps on sports disappointment. Three games into the preseason and we’re yet to see Rasmus Ristolainen play a second of competitive hockey. The rumors are the same, they haven’t really changed meaningfully in a couple months. But with every passing game the closer to Opening Night you got to think a Trade becomes more likely just because of the relationship falling apart. I don’t know. Ristolainen or not I was already angsty something fierce. It’s preseason hockey, yes; but in the words of my favorite Leafs blogger: IT’S PRESEASON HOCKEY! You look to see if players are bad because they suck or just rust. Everyone not named Ristolainen or otherwise injured has now gotten a whack at preseason ice time, so nobody is particularly rusty. The Leafs brought the majority of their A-Team while the Sabres didn’t quite bring the Amerks as much as they brought the Amerks plus the shit that doesn’t work on the Sabres. Vladimir Sobotka and Remi Elie were on the top line against… John Tavares. Ok, sure whatever. Preseason promise! Oh… it’s real hard for me to not care about the result of these games when the Bills were undefeated in the Preseason and are yet to be beaten in the games that matter. I was going to rage into this game one way or another and I got to say: I actually wasn’t that pissed off at what I saw from the team from Buffalo.

So first things first: the goals against Linus Ullmark were not on him. Linus played his 40 minutes in this game like a dynamo: seeing pucks through traffic, sprawling out to make second and third rebounds (Rebounds he shouldn’t have to stop btw). He made a wicked toe save at one point! While this defensive group had Jake McCabe, Henri Jokiharju and dark horse John Gilmour, there wasn’t a lot of great defensive play from the Sabres. When there was there was too much diving around for my taste in a preseason game. Seeing Andrew Hammond in a Sabres jersey is still something to behold for me. This game was fun in spite of the lopsided result. The credit for that goes to our three stars of the game: Dylan Cozens, Casey Mittelstadt and Henri Jokiharju. All of them played very well in the O-Zone, particularly in the middle frame where I really think they tested Fredrik Anderson at times. Those three plus Conor Sheary, Arttu Ruotsalainen and… dare I say it: Vladimir Sobotka, were all good on the attack. I mean Sobotka occasionally transforms into a giant cement median but when he was in human form he looked somewhat serviceable. Cozens was fast and transitioned zones with possession like he’s been in the NHL a while. That kid is likely going back to Junior, but he looked NHL-ready in this game. I’m not saying he’s actually NHL-ready, but he looked the part in this game. Casey Mittelstadt on the other hand did a lot of the things we need him to do to eventually shore up that 2C role. He was winning puck battles and forcing guys off him. Noted numbernerd Chad DeDominicis had some fancy corsi for and against stats in the second intermission that showed Mittelstadt not only holding his own but doing pretty good creating chances 5 on 5 against the Matthews line! He kept the puck in the zone on several occasions and I thought I was seeing Jack Eichel out there. Of course, Jean-Sebastian Dea has Eichel’s old 15, so I was confused about that in general. Jokiharju NEEDS to make this roster. He looks like such an upgrade in terms of possession and passing; those categories have been painfully lacking for the Sabres in recent years, particularly from defenseman. And while we’re talking about guys that probably get sent down but are making a strong case they shouldn’t: Arttu Ruotsalainen was getting more scoring chances than not and was a +4 in scoring chances. This is not to mention he was dragging Kyle Okposo and the bad version of CJ Smith down the ice. This is all to say once again that this game was more enjoyable than I excepted.

I’ll repeat my unpopular opinion: I didn’t mind the Sportsnet broadcast. I like seeing things from someone else’s perspective. It may require us to listen to Leafs stuff that isn’t particularly relevant to us, but I prefer it to the College Hockey quality streams we got from Sabres.com earlier in the week. As the third period touched off with the home team up 2-0 you wouldn’t be wrong to think maybe a goal or some more fun was in order from the visitors. Unfortunately a lot of the good stuff I just described more or less evaporated in the third period. This one ended 3-0 Leafs. I mentioned I felt compelled to rage going into this game preseason or not, but it turns out the rage I was expecting to have was…opposite. I’ve been struggling to stay optimistic. I like to think of this blog as Buffalo’s premier optimist outlet. I wrote a page of angry dribble before this game started and ended up putting it all on the chopping block. This game had enough good stuff going on that I found myself upset at the folks seeing nothing good in it. Look: if you’re seeing an A on Sobotka’s chest and thinking nothing has changed with this club it’s hard to argue when the biggest offseason acquisition was Colin Miller. But if preseason means anything than in this case it means encouragement: the Sabres B Team just played to the Leafs A Team level for at least forty minutes out there. Who knows what happens tomorrow! Add a Jeff Skinner here and a Rasmus Dahlin here and I think this matchup will be fun again this year and maybe, just maybe, we can see some progress toward a sweet, sweet spring clinch next year. Just let yourself be happy with them for a minute. I did and it completely turned around my evening.

While cuts were fully expected after the Columbus game and only came in the form of Matej Pekar getting sent to the Barrie Colts, the Rochester Americans Training Camp starts on Monday so if there aren’t cuts tomorrow morning there will definitely be cuts on Sunday. You may have also noticed through three preseason games New Look Sabres postgame has seen some cuts. I’m writing a little bit slimmer and not just because it’s preseason. Perhaps meandering around for two beefy paragraphs isn’t as good as quicker topical ones. That’s what I’m trying; and it would be helpful to get your input while you’re liking, sharing and yes, commenting on this blog. I know you’re reading; I can tell by the other engagement metrics. I just don’t know why it would kill you so much to let me know what you think. I know there are some reply guys lurking out there. Let me hear that opinion burning a hole in your head. Look for New Look Sabres on tomorrow’s game on Sunday. I got a busy weekend ahead and decided it would be a good time to let one of these games breathe a little bit before I write. In the meantime, a hardy and heartfelt Let’s Go Buffalo!  

Thanks for Reading.

P.S. I sincerely do like Auston Matthew’s mustache. If you know my look you know I have an unhealthy appreciation for facial hair so this opinion may not be surprising.