#d elias petterson

[ruinix]

YAY we got another locker room celly 🥹🥹🥹

[icecoledarnomalpalmer]

nobody asked but i have been referring the canuck eliases as pettersone and petterstwo

[tapedsleeves]

2 get 2 rec'd (get rec'd 2)

get rec'd week 2 is here!!!! I feel like I didn't read a lot of fic this week because. well. i was very tired and doing stuff, and also work was crazy. but i did read some new fics or reread some favorites, so it's not nothing!

if you read & like these fics, consider leaving a kudos or comment for the author.

i would stay forever (if you say don't go) by overturned goal

quinn hughes / elias petterson, E, 5110 words

the OTHER petey / quinn fake dating fic that i read and loved, but hannukah flavored this time. also they're fwb, and i just. this fic is just sooo full of the kind of angst that comes with FWB that i absolutely adore!

take it easy on me by @yamball (thepaperdolls on ao3)

vince dunn / adam larsson, E, 5655

a D/s AU where Vince needs a team-Dom, and Adam doesn't want to be just that. This fic is soo lovely. It balances the in the room stuff with the private subbing really well for my taste. I really had a good time reading it.

mountain sound by aliquis

jonas siegenthaler / nico hischier, E, 14,823

a mindscape au where Jonas creates mindscapes for Nico. this is such a unique au! I've never seen one like it, and it was sooo fun to read. the twist is too good to reveal in a summary, but it is just SO good, and well foreshadowed.

when you find out by @nymhciv (same username on ao3)

connor mcdavid / leon draisaitl, E, 10,779

a beer league connor has an only fans AU. I am NOT going to lie to you, this was a comfort re-read for me. Connor is just so into being perceived (unrelatable) and leon is just so into looking at him. Not to mention Matthew Tkachuk facilitating Connor & Leon getting together this fic is just. pacha meme.

[toplinetommy]

2 and 24 for the hockey asks!

2. build a starting lineup based on:

a) their looks

brock boeser, mat barzal, pierre luc debois, roman josi, phil meyers, braden holtby

b) for comedic effect

travis konecny, matthew tkachuk, tom wilson, nikita zadorov, zdeno chara, tukka rask (hopefully you see the trend i used)

c) players under 6’

johnny gaudreau, brayden point, tj oshie, quinn hughes, vince dunn, are any goalies under 6 ft???

d) players of different nationalities

elias petterson, nathan mackinnon, mikko rantanen, ivan provorov, john carlson, phillip grubauer

24. is there a player whom you used to hate but is now redeemed™️ in your eyes?

uhhhh idk probably sidney crosby just bc i think now i know so much more about hockey so i respect him. still not a fan tho bc i hate the pens :D

send me a number!!

[leondraisaitlsglove]

oh my god okay so on team Sweden you got:

Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Adam Larsson as a D-pairing

You got Elias (E-lee-ass) Petterson and Elias (e-LIE-ess) Lindholm (im watching the game they’ve been referring to these two as those pronunciations)

then you got Mattias Ekholm, Elias Lindholm and Oskar lindbolm ( the b isn’t a typo)

AND THEN you got the Kempe brothers Mario and Adrian playing together too.

[thosedaysthatwill]

Ducks, Panthers, Wild, Islanders, and Knights for the ask thing please. I always love your answers to these things.

anaheim ducks: who was the first player you loved? You’re going to make me show my age with this one. The first player that I remember aweing me was Adam Oates. I also remember loving Byron Dafoe. When Sergei Samsonov was drafted, I was crazy about him. The first jersey I owned was Brian Rolston. (Let me tell you how his son is going to be drafted next year.)

florida panthers: favourite goal from this season? Hmm... I supposed I shouldn’t say John’s OT winner from today, right? I mean that was pretty fantastic. But the goals I scream over are always the tic-tac-goal kind of things. Pass... pass... goal. There are lots of examples from this season, usually with Blake and Mark or Brad and Patrice. I just LOVE watching that kind of play, it’s how hockey is supposed to be done! Alternately, a defenseman scoring from the point. 

minnesota wild: favourite rookie this year? It’s really hard to watch Elias Petterson for any period of time and not be in awe of him being a rookie. But I have to talk about Miro Heiskanen because he’s had one hell of a season and watching him grow so much over the year was pretty awesome. I also have to mention Jack Roslovic because he doesn’t get enough attention and he really should because that kid is something special. And then I have to toss in Brady Tkachuk, because I do. 

new york islanders: best goalie mask? Hmm... I honestly don’t know. I’m not really up on goalie masks. I mean Marty Brodeur’s was really simple, but man does that mask make me smile because oh he was the best goalie that has ever goalied and he wore the same mask pretty much the whole time. There have been some pretty ones over the years. Lyss showed me one that had Revolutionary War statues on it, but I forget whose it was. Mike Smith’s is pretty neat because it’s made to look 3-D and it has an ear! There are lots more artistic ones but I can’t think of any of them. 

vegas golden knights: best game you’ve been to? I haven’t been to many games, honestly. I have been to a few where I sat at the glass (this was before we won the Cup in 2011, and tickets were a lot cheaper). I remember seeing Jason Arnott up close and that was one of my favorite moments. He was both an extraordinary power forward and hot as all fuck. I saw a shootout the first year it was in the rules. I saw the Bruins beat the Habs. The Bruins won every game I went to. I don’t remember anything else. It’s been a long time since I’ve been to a game. 

THANK YOU FOR ASKING!! 

[holtbaest]

2019 All-Star Game Rosters 2.0

I didn’t like the 2019 ASG rosters so I made my own. I stuck with all of the rules so it still won’t make everyone happy but imo these are better than the originals (all of the changes are italicized):

METRO DIVISION F - Sebastian Aho (CAR) F (via last man in vote) - Nicklas Backstrom F - Mat Barzal (NYI) F - Sidney Crosby (PIT) F - Claude Giroux (PHI) (C) F - Taylor Hall (NJD) F - Cam Atkinson (CBJ) Artemi Panarin (CBJ)

D - John Carlson (WSH) D - Seth Jones (CBJ) Kris Letang (PIT)

G - Braden Holtby (WSH) G - Henrik Lundqvist (NYR)

ATLANTIC DIVISION F - John Tavares (TBL) Aleksander Barkov (FLA) F - Steven Stamkos (TBL) Max Domi (MTL) F - Nikita Kucherov (TBL) F - Auston Matthews (TOR) (C) F - David Pastrnak (BOS) F - Jack Eichel (BUF) Jeff Skinner (BUF)

D - Thomas Chabot (OTT) D - Keith Yandle (FLA) Morgan Rielly (TOR)

G - Jimmy Howard (DET) G - Carey Price (MTL) Andrei Vasilevksy (TBL)

Last man in vote, take your pick lol - Jack Eichel (BUF), Brad Marchand (BOS), Mitch Marner (TOR), Brayden Point (TBL), Steven Stamkos (TBL), John Tavares (TOR), Victor Hedman (TBL), Shea Weber (MTL), Frederick Anderson (TOR)

CENTRAL DIVISION F - Patrick Kane (CHI) F (via last man in vote) - Patrik Laine (WPG) F - Nathan MacKinnon (COL) (C) F - Ryan O-Reilly (STL) F - Blake Wheeler (WPG) Zach Parise (MIN) F - Mikko Rantanen (COL) F - Mark Scheifele (WPG)

D - Miro Heiskanen (DAL) D - Roman Josi (NSH)

G - Devan Dubnyk (MIN) Ben Bishop (DAL) G - Pekka Rinne (NSH)

PACIFIC DIVISION F - Leon Draisaitl (EDM) F - Johnny Gaudreau (CGY) F - Clayton Keller (ARI) F - Connor McDavid (EDM) (C) F - Joe Pavelski (SJS) Sean Monahan (CGY) F - Elias Petterson (VAN)

D - Brent Burns (SJS) D - Drew Doughty (LAK) D - Erik Karlsson (SJS) D (via last man in vote) - Erik Karlsson (SJS) or Mark Giordano (CGY)

G - Marc-Andre Fleury (VGK) G - John Gibson (ANA)

I’ve always had an issue with the way the NHL ASG rosters are chosen and this year really uhhhhh demonstrated the problems with that process. there is truly no way to make everyone happy BUT I thought I would try my hand at building my own rosters for each division while still following the rules and tbh I’m pleased with these results.

also plz note that you could build a whole other team with the last man in options for the Atlantic. damn that division is stacked.

[andrewuttaro]

New Look Sabres: GM 66 - EDM - Numbers

Perhaps this game represents the Sabres season; at least from a standings point of view this game last night was what being a Sabres fan has felt like this season. Favorable numbers toward the start followed by an ugly decline that turns the math against you. The simplest stat in hockey is goals. In this game last night Buffalo had more of those up until the dying minutes of the second period. It ended 4-3 Edmonton. I went into this game giving some good thought to the Phil Housley criticism. I thought: You know what, this guy is in his first NHL coaching job and in spite of it being his job, you could say he still is wrapping his head around what he’s got. I was feeling very generous having those thoughts and if the game didn’t kill the good will I was trying to foster for Housley then his postgame comments did. He said his team played 55 minutes of great hockey. The other 5 were bad minutes. That would be a nice piece of analysis with a team that consistently plays well and beats the teams they should. This team does not, and that comment is stupid. The numbers that do not represent time are against those comments. Jack Eichel scored two goals in a loss. Linus Ullmark was hung out to dry as his defense let up the greater number of high danger shots. The Oilers outplayed the Sabres in every statistical category except the powerplay and shots on goal. You had me fooled, Phil! I was sitting happy halfway through this game looking at the next four to five games being winnable! Boy, am I fool! The numbers are clear. After having an 83% chance of making the playoffs at the start of December, the Sabres are now nine points out at the start of March having gone 34 games without back to back wins! The 2014-2015 Tank team that was designed to lose and drove me to watch the Rangers most of that season, that team only got as bad as 31 games in that category. This ain’t it, Phil. I don’t know who I want to replace him in any intelligent way but when he’s back behind the bench for the home opener in October I am will not be a happy camper about it. This game was the microcosm of this season and oh so appropriately that microcosm ends in a loss.

The game starts off with an unlucky shorthanded goal against when Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl teamed up for the latter’s 41st goal of the season. Edmonton maybe wasting Connor McDavid and will likely miss the playoffs this season but there are guys tearing it up there in spite of it all. I hate that Buffalo and Edmonton are still comparable in this way because on the very same powerplay Jack Eichel revives the home crowd with a tight net-front goal to draw the score even again at 1. If there is one big positive for the Sabres in this game it was a full display of Jack Eichel’s leadership. The rest of this first period is a vision of what we thought the Sabres would be in 2019 in 2015. Jack Eichel helping Montour get a great chance. Okposo getting a great chance. Sheary knocking at the door. Jeff Skinner was chopping at that net like a lumberjack because he wants to get Rocket Rickard trophy votes. Casey Mittelstadt broke through Mikko Koskinen with a point-blank blast at 13:19 into the first period. The primary assist on that was Scott Wilson who, only now gets his first NHL point of the season having missed the majority of it with a gruesome ankle injury sustained way back in Training Camp. The fun only continued when Jack Eichel made it 3-1 unassisted in a no-look smacker that earned his team a standing applause as they went to the locker room for the first intermission! The likes of Jeff Skinner, Rasmus Ristolainen and Evan Rodrigues all shined bright with beautiful chances in the second period too. While the pushback came in the second that lead remained into the second half of the middle frame and I began to foolishly let myself hope looking at the schedule. Oh what a fool I am.

Less than four minutes left in the second period the whole Sabres defense was caught puck watching when Zack Kassian got a McDavid assist on a one-timer snipe that made Ullmark look confused. It’s now 3-2 Oilers and the floodgates are opened. A puck squirted out of a battle on the wall to Darnell Nurse who wired it home for the equalizer. Credit where credit is due, Jeff Skinner starts taking shots from Ovi spots to try and get the lead back, but the Oiler kept pushing. Give me an intermission, PLEASE! The horn to end the period did not come soon enough and with a mere five seconds left in the second period Adam Larsson takes a shot on net from way out that trickles in past Ullmark. Evidently Kyle Brodziak tipped it in, and I have not seen Ullmark angrier than after that goal. Some folks I heard wanted a challenge for a kicking motion by Brodziak but gee, I just don’t have the energy to litigate shit like that when the Sabres are this bad. Boos came down and Carter Hutton replaced Ullmark in net for the third. A one goal deficit never looked so demoralizing for a team and the Sabres never looked like they were going to come back. Sure, like many times this season its been encouraging to just see the Sabres have legitimate rushes in on net; hell, Brandon Montour is worth the price just for his ability to pass the puck to the offense if nothing else. In spite of Jeff Skinner not getting the puck across the line behind the Edmonton netminder and Jason Pominville blocking his own tap in (?) the threat of a Sabres equalizer just never seemed real. It ended 4-3 Oil.

I legitimately had a moment last night where I sat down to write this reaction and for the first time this season doing that I just couldn’t. My wife and I were having a good night and I just said no for my own mental health. With 16 games left in this season the Sabres need to go 14-2 to legitimately have a chance to make the playoffs. Pardon my French: What the Fuck? I had to talk myself out of buying a Skinner jersey that probably wouldn’t fit me at this time in December we were all so into this team. They were gold at that point, the best team we’d seen since before the Harbor Center was built! Now I would rather watch MLS Review videos and blog about a soccer team that isn’t even playing this calendar year than watch this team take on clubs they should be beating by multiple goals! WHAT THE FUCK! So, let’s turn away from the frustrating team stats for the far less frustrating individual stats.  Jeff Skinner sits at 36 goals 9 back of goal leader Alex Ovechkin. He probably doesn’t have the most goals by the end of this season but if he can get north of 40 and push near 50 in these last several games its going to do a lot for how we feel going into next season when he’s inevitable signs. He should get some MVP votes. Jack Eichel sits at 25 goals. He needs to reach 30. I say that because this season has been such an encouraging step forward for him that hitting the 30-goal mark needs to happen as a bookmark if nothing else. Casey Mittelstadt just hit 10 goals and sits at 21 points with his 11 assists. He’s probably not quite the Calder Trophy contender we thought he could be but that’s ok because he’ll be a great C2 real soon. His fellow rookie Rasmus Dahlin on the other hand should get the majority of the Calder Trophy votes in my bias opinion. Dahlin has more points than all but one rookie forward has. The lone guy ahead of him in that category, Elias Petterson, has cooled off a fair bit from the first part of the season in which he was destroying worlds with his goals. What Dahlin has done puts him in an elite company among rookie D-Men in this league already and that’s more special than anything Petterson has done. Rasmus Dahlin for Calder!

I hate pushing hard for individual awards because it feels so dirty against not making the playoffs. Then again, I still feel cheated that Artemi Panarin came in out of nowhere and stole it from Jack Eichel in 2016. Those however are the things I’ll cheer for to avoid the crushing gloom of what a missed opportunity season this has become. That and I eagerly await exit interviews to see how Jason Botterill and Phil Housley envision next season. There is an outside chance that changes Botts’ opinion of Housley prompting a coaching change, but the more likely and interesting outcome is the two of them hammering out a plan of Playoffs or bust. Their comments have grown a little bit conflicting in these late phases of the season in spite of that vote of confidence a couple weeks back. All this and the Amerks will go on a run. How many times have I mentioned that? Not enough, one more time: the Rochester Americans are going to probably win the division and make a deep playoff run. Like, comment and share this blog with your friends. The end of this Sabres season, for how disappointing the lack of a playoff berth will be, will be very interesting in terms of Front Office Palace intrigue. There will be a new Will for the playoffs in 2020 at that point and how this organization fixes to get there will be fun to watch. For now, we eagerly anticipate Jeff boy. Come on, Skin man, sign on the line!

Thanks for reading.

P.S. Columbus is my favorite non-Sabres Eastern Conference team to watch going into these last 15 games. They pushed all the chips in on a run this post-season and its not even for sure they make the playoffs right now.

[thrashermaxey]

Wild West Summer Series 2018: Vancouver

  So big news out of Ottawa. I took a look at my notes from the San Jose  Column. Timing didn’t work out great on the release of that one, but isn’t that just the way it goes. Erik Karlsson certainly changes the outlook for the power play in San Jose. Evander Kane and Tomas Hertl, who I was reasonably positive about could stand to lose out on power play time depending how Karlsson is deployed. Both could get a small bump if they get to overlap on even strength though. Dobber has updated his projections so go buy the Guide. Show Cam some love too and keep up with the Eastern Edge Series.

  The idea for these columns to compare end of 2017-18 Fantasy Hockey Geek rankings for individual players with an expected ranking based on their average draft positions from the start of the year. This process does not necessarily identify who was the most important player to each team but gives us not only an idea of who was a steal/bust on draft day, but where each player was valued going into this season. I will also be adding some thoughts on whether or not that is the new normal for the player in question and if we should be adjusting our draft positions. For a deeper dive on each team plus full projections make sure to get your copy of Dobber’s Fantasy Guide, out now!

  And now for the technical details. We will be using the Fantasy Hockey Geek tool to get a ranking that combines all of a player’s stats for the searched categories. Like for the previous series, the ranks are based on a 12 team, head-to-head league, using the categories of goals, assists, power play points, shots, hits and blocks for forwards/defensemen and wins, saves, save percentage and goals against average for goalies. Player eligibility for this series is based on Yahoo, and draft ranks are based on average draft positions compiled from Yahoo, ESPN and CBS by FantasyPros.

  Vancouver

  Recap:

Vancouver finished 2017-18 7th in the Pacific with 73 points. They had a significant problem with goal scoring, which is likely not going to be helped along by the retirement of Henrik and Daniel Sedin. For 2018-19 Vancouver is certainly relying on the progression of their young guns to make up the difference.

  Undervalued:

  Alex Edler:

  Alex Edler provided exceptional value in the 2017-18 season. He was drafted 260th overall, but finished the season as the 47th most valuable player, and 16th most valuable defensemen. The defensemen around him had an average draft position of 177th.

  Ivan Provorov

PHI

D

41

John Klingberg

DAL

D

45

Alexander Edler

VAN

D

47

Matt Dumba

MIN

D

55

Tyson Barrie

COL

D

58

  Expectations were clearly not high for Edler, and it is not exactly surprising. Managers were not all that excited about the offense that Vancouver had to offer in 2017-18 and Edler himself has only two seasons of his 11 seasons where he managed more than 40 points.

  Games Played

Goals

Assists

Points

Points/ Game

Shots

Sht%

Hits

PPlay Points

Blocks

70

6

28

34

0.49

172

3.5

157

15

203

  While his 34 points doesn’t scream ‘great season’, 2017-18 saw Edler post his best assist, power play point numbers, and point pace since 2011-12, his best hit and block numbers of his career, and his best shot pace since 2013-14. Edler provided incredible value for leagues that count hits and blocks, and he was even able to score at a decent pace.

  What is a little less clear is exactly what changed. His point pace was the highest of his career, but his personal shooting percentage was a touch low if anything. The team’s 5-on-5 shooting percentage was almost exactly in line with previous years, and while his IPP was a little high, it wasn’t high enough to account for the change. The biggest change (and the cause of the point increase) was his career high power play totals. Unfortunately that career high did not come with an increase in time on ice on the power play, or with a new role, as he was the lone defenseman on the first power play in multiple recent seasons. The biggest difference between 2016-17 and 2017-18 was the effectiveness of the power play. In 2016-17 Vancouver managed 32 goals for a 14.1% success rate. In 2017-18 they scored 53 goals for a 21.26% success rate.

  The career highs in hits and blocks are also another big question mark as Edler’s average time on ice, and short handed time on ice (usual culprits for changes in these types of stats) were almost exactly the same in 2017-18 as his recent career numbers. To further highlight the change, his average hit per game numbers from 2015-2017 was 1.6, in 2017-18 it was 2.2 per game. For blocks, he was averaging 2.04 per game over that time period, but in 2017-18 it was 2.9. Those are large changes for with no additional time on ice. My tenuous theory is that Vancouver was a more porous defensive team in 2017-18 (as illustrated by higher corsi, fenwick, and shot against numbers, more defensive zone starts, and higher teamwide hits – by almost 300 – and blocks) and so more of Edler’s responsibilities (outside of power play time) were defensive.

  So for this all to be sustainable we are banking on Vancouver to maintain an above average power play without the Sedins, while at the same time spending enough time in their own zone to allow Edler to keep up his peripheral stats. It feels like something has to give here. A full season from Bo Horvat, Brock Boeser and new arrival Elias Pettersson certainly can give some optimism on the power play. Few other changes though do leave open the possibility that defense will be an issue again in 2018-19, which means that Edler may be relied on in a similar way in 2017-18. My conservative pick is to knock off a few power play points, and maybe regress the peripherals just a touch. So maybe he won’t be the 16th most valuable defenseman, but he should still be much more valuable than his 260th overall draft pick from 2017-18.

  Overvalued:

  Sam Gagner:

So it might not be fair to say that expectations were high for Sam Gagner going into 2017-18 as he was drafted 160th overall. He was fresh of a 50 point season with Columbus propped up by his 18 points as a power play specialist. It is safe to say his season with Vancouver was not a reprise of that success. He ended up as the 383rd most valuable player in the league, and no one around him was drafted at all in most leagues.

  Adrian Kempe

LAK

C/LW

370

Brian Boyle

NJD

C/LW

382

Sam Gagner

VAN

C/RW

383

J.T. Compher

COL

C/LW

393

Tommy Wingels

BOS

C/RW

396

  Gagner saw decreases across in goals, assists, power play points, and shots in 2017-18. He did see increases in hits and blocks (likely due to some of the same issues as Edler above)

  Games Played

Goals

Assists

Points

Points/ Game

Shots

Sht%

Hits

PPlay Points

Blocks

74

10

21

31

0.42

164

6.1

54

11

28

  In positive news, Gagner saw an increase in average time on ice, he was able to maintain his shot rate from Columbus and still saw a decent amount of time on the first power play with the Sedins.

  So what for 2018-19? So if everything to were repeat 2017-18 and his low shooting percentage regress to his average he would add three goals. That certainly doesn’t increase his value much. Since the Sedins won’t be in the picture we can speculate that Gagner might get more ice time, and could round out the top power play with Horvat, Boeser, Petterson and Edler. Does that translate to a higher point pace? I am not anticipating much beyond a half point per game (which incidentally is pretty much what his pace would be if his goals rebound).

  The moral of this story is that Gagner is valuable if a half point per game player with a slightly higher percentage of his points on the power play is valuable. His value seems to be closer to his end of season rank than his draft position.

  Sven Baertschi:

  Sven Baertschi was grabbed in leagues as a late round flyer with hopes of upside. That did not exactly materialize in 2017-18. There were weeks where he was worth owning, but certainly did not provide teams value enough to roster him all season in standard sized leagues.

  Connor Brown

TOR

RW

530

Zack Kassian

EDM

RW

532

Sven Baertschi

VAN

LW

535

Drew Stafford

NJD

LW/RW

537

Matt Hendricks

WPG

LW

541

  Baertschi was the 535rd most valuable player and the 154th most valuable winger.

  Games Played

Goals

Assists

Points

Points/ Game

Shots

Sht%

Hits

PPlay Points

Blocks

53

14

15

29

0.55

82

17.1

19

9

29

  Baertschi actually had the highest point pace of his career, which incidentally has reached six seasons now (we won’t count the five games of 2011-12). He is 25 so still seems to have some room to grow, but at some point we have to start thinking that maybe the upside just won’t be there.

  First the bad news. Baertschi’s most productive season (2017-18) really wasn't that much more productive than his other seasons. He only played 53 games, still has not broken the two shot per game barrier, and had a sky high shooting percentage. His PDO, and 5-on-5 shooting percentage while he was on the ice were also high.

  The good news? There is room for improvement. His time on ice still isn’t high (just over 15.5 minutes a game), and his power play time is low. The Sedin’s have retired and he may be relied on for more in 2018-19. He spent some time with Horvat and Boesor and did have some success (though not consistently). If he gets that spot again (potentially unlikely with Petterson joining the team) and/or sees an increase in power play time there is a chance he sees an uptick in productivity.

  Based on his history, and some his underlying numbers it seems like he will need that increased time on ice just to avoid negative regression. So yes, he has a potential opportunity here, but even a modest improvement puts him maybe in Sam Gagner territory, which for most leagues is undraftable. He is definitely on my wait and see list for 2018-19. 

  Thanks for reading.

  Next week: Las Vegas

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  from All About Sports https://dobberhockey.com/hockey-home/the-wild-west/wild-west-summer-series-2018-vancouver/

[ruinix]

Hard working canucks 💙

Just Quinn then him with Miller and Garland.

Petey and D Petey. Yes.

AGAIN, these two cuties, Nils and Max.

From x (1, 2,) and ig (3)- Practice/Pre-game prep. Jan 25, 2025

[ruinix]

Petey and D-petey / petey²

[ruinix]

W D-Petey content. A cutie fr!

[ruinix]

I fear I am ENDEARED. What a cutie D-Petey

[ruinix]

peteys!!

[andrewuttaro]

New Look Sabres: GM 62 - TOR - For Nathan

There is something deeply satisfying about the Sabres getting a guy rumored to be connected to the Leafs, particularly the day before you play them. It also feels like a trade like this with Anaheim has been in the making forever… like since before Jason Botterill. I’ve read speculation on a big trade for a Ducks defenseman since Eichel’s rookie year. There is no way all those talks built up to this right? Whole new GM yatta yatta yatta. At the very least this move shows Jason Botterill is up to stuff, we have something that is entirely his to point at now beyond the Skinner trade. This move proves JB isn’t asleep at the wheel which was a developing criticism that now gets tabled for at least four months. Getting a cost-controlled young defenseman with some term of Brandon Montour’s stature upgrades the D-core immediately and although past comments lead you to think otherwise it means JB is giving these guys another tool to make the playoffs. That goal has become pretty distant but it’s possible and a two-way puck moving defenseman can’t possibly hurt. That is a vote of confidence in the room. Use it, boys. In Botts We Trust! Early returns on this trade are good and can only get better when he plays against the Flyers tomorrow night. And yes, I will get to Nathan Beaulieu because his departure is somewhat serendipitous. The deadline is done and now it’s the final push for the playoffs no matter who you ask. There is no playoff trash talk I have relished as much as this: We know what the word is in Toronto. A first round exit would be unacceptable: the only thing to truly make this season a failed one for the Maple Leafs. I think I speak for every man; woman and child in Buffalo when I say the Sabres relish the opportunity of serving you a piping hot failed season for dinner in April! It’s only a fighter’s chance but oh that chance alone is worth going to war. Give me Ristolainen and Kadri fucking murdering each other game after game. Give me Eichel and Matthews yucking it up off the ice before putting on the great American gun show on the ice. Give me hordes of the Southern Ontario middle class flooding across the Peace Bridge in their Leafs uniforms only to be sworn at in Tim Hortons! This series is the sleeping giant of the NHL and a playoff series would be the kind of war NORAD worried about in the 80s! The Blue and Gold versus the Blue and White! Let’s do this! Sabres in 7!

There is a former Sabre, former as of about 3:42 this afternoon, who once said: “I have hated them my whole life.” That former Sabre was Nathan Beaulieu and those were the words he shared with the press last season after getting into a wicked scrap with then-Leaf Matt Martin. Yes, he was talking about these Toronto Maple Leafs. He hated them as a Habs fan in his childhood and for a year and a half our boy Nate, lived them as a Buffalo Sabre. I’m not eulogizing a guy who wasn’t good enough to consistently make the bottom defensive pairing but him being dealt the same day as a game against the Leafs felt right. It felt like this game was to be for Nathan! I doubt anyone on the ice was thinking that but nonetheless: FOR NATHAN! The first period of this game, like Sabres first periods often are, was an encouraging display of what this team can do when it plays its game. Buffalo played the kind of defense we can hope gets better with Brandon Montour: frustration. For the entire first frame the Sabres fought a neutral zone battle with the Leafs. The Leafs are good when their goal scorers are given space to be creative. The first period saw very little space for creativity as Dahlin, Bogo, McCabe and Ristolainen broke up passes and stopped the majority of scoring chances before they got into Carter Hutton’s business. Fredrick Anderson on the Leafs end was great as well staying on his game as the Sabres got the most of the period’s shots. He was until very late in the period that is. You could see John Tavares’ frustration when he got called for tripping sending the Sabres to the powerplay. Jack Eichel got the puck alone in the slot and one timed it past a heavily screened Anderson with 53 seconds left in the first. It was a great start for the visitors and you got the feeling we could see the kind of wins we’ve come to expect when the Sabres visit Ontario’s Capital. Then the wheels came off… or someone’s did.

Over the course of 2:04 early in the second period the Leafs scored three goals! Tavares, Matthews and the guy they call goat. All of the sudden it was 3-1 and you could totally see why. The puck watching of the Sabres when they’re NOT doing their thing. When they don’t fight for the puck on the wall and when they don’t breakup passes this team looks gross. We see this periodically roughly ever fifth game and I’ve gotten really tired of it. Against the Leafs its about the worst thing you can do not just because we all hate the Leafs, because, once again, Toronto lives and dies on their offense and when you let that offense breathe, they take up all the air in the room. I will say the goal song is great. I wish it wasn’t the LEAFS goal song but here we are. Good job on that one, Toronto. Now, instead of JT going to the box, it was Carter Hutton getting pulled and flipping shit on the bench. It was Robin Lehner last season and Carter Hutton this season. The Leafs piss off our goalies and I’m sure its not just us. The hard part for Hutton is that he was really beginning to look better and although we may have the patience to keep giving him starts we have a very unforgiving coach behind the bench so Ullmark coming in for the rest of this game may signal Ullmark returning to the level of starts he was getting not too long ago. The middle frame got worse before it got better and old pal Tyler Ennis, a fourth liner on their roster, scored a breakaway goal that may give you flashbacks to the golden era of… 2011? Ok, whatever. There was hope before the next intermission and a couple of compounding penalties gave Buffalo a 5-on-3 opportunity. I openly laughed in my unfaithful pompousness that they could capitalize on the powerplay but lo, it was our bridge beauty Sam Reinhart who took a Skinner pass in front and snuck it past Anderson. It would be 4-2 Leafs going into the third. Sam Reinhart gave us faith.

Jack Eichel gave us hot flashes. A minute had not passed in the third period and he enters the zone riding the circle around the Leafs defenders before roofing it 4-3 Sabres! Eichel was coming in on Anderson like a train locomotive. Anderson dodged Captain Jack, but Jeff Skinner did not and ate ice well Eichel looped back on the celly. The comeback was in motion now and while the shots on goal don’t show it the Sabres were pushing hard for the equalizer. With the Leafs fourth line scoring two of their goals in the second I was really pulling for one of those hard-working fourth line goals from Zemgus Girgensons or Johan Larsson but as close as they got there was no Sabres goal to come. There was one point in this final period when the puck was in play well above the ice and was coming down right over Rasmus Dahlin. Dahlin, who mind you is closing the gap with Elias Petterson in some metric I am too lazy and upset to look up right now, looked like an absolute competitor in this game. He saw the puck coming down and gave it a header to try to maintain possession. He may have the same first name as Ristolainen, but he is really the opposite, at least in possession and defensive zone play. Dahlin’s great play made the final goal of the game all the more heartbreaking when he couldn’t hold the puck in the zone on the Sabres late powerplay. Kasperi Kapanen took advantage of the opportunity and scored the breakaway goal to notch the final score line at 5-3 Leafs. A shorthanded goal with less than three minutes left in a one goal game deflates you like a Patriots Superbowl and this one ended in disappointing fashion. We’ll have to wait for those back-to-back wins we’ve been dying for. One Leafs fan I had an exchange with earlier in the day on twitter came back with that nifty timing after the final horn sounded to tell me the overall series is 18-16 Leafs since 2012. Thanks for that one, bud. My last thought on the Leafs in this will be that all my negative experiences with fans of the blue and white happen online. Literally every Leafs fan I’ve met in person is the sweetest shit ever. Just positive vibes going up the QEW from me after this game but that may not be true again on Saturday when we meet again.

Apologies, this is my longest New Look Sabres yet and I’m not done yet. That said, if you’ve read this far you probably enjoy this so please: like, share and leave a comment. Even if you’re a Leafs fan leave me comment. This blog is a lot more fun when it’s a conversation not a treatise. Some people pointed out with annoyance that Marco Scandella, fresh off the IR, got the third pairing start over Casey Nelson. I understand the frustration; hell, former Leaf Matt Hunwick was the other guy on that pairing! However, we should probably accept who we got for a Coach right now. Barring a shocking locker room cleanout and exit interviews day in April (and yes, start getting used to that probably coming in April) Phil Housley is likely the Coach into next season. The GM made a public vote of confidence in him and this is the bed we’re sleeping in. The Trade Deadline is past. This is the bed we’re sleeping in. Did we miss Scott Wilson? He’s back! This team with all it’s faults and late game collapses is what we got now. In the outside chance they make the playoffs: this is the team that will go. This is the team now… well except for our new friend and first Sabre in #62 Brandon Montour. With the Trade Deadline in the past it forces us to smell our stank and deal with the roster that is; but the other side of that coin is its fun to talk about what a great time that was!

The Trade deadline, hell the build up to it, can really mess with you. You know the endless updating twitter and the rampant speculation from all sectors. On Sunday night I bit on rumors linking Ristolainen to Callahan in Tampa and spent about 90 minutes trying to do the money gymnastics to make that work. The Montour trade put an end to all that in the same way it has reinvigorated all the Ristolainen talk. We all wanted to say that all these abrasive stats nerds were full of shit but we’re smarter than that. We told ourselves: Risto is just poorly utilized! Those arguments muddied the waters enough to cling to our abrasive Finnish sandpaper in back. Rasmus Dahlin changed that conversation and now Brandon Montour changes it again making it even harder to say Risto is bad because he’s been given too much in the way of minutes and workload. As a second pairing guy consistently, he shouldn’t be as statistically poor as he has been but the addition of Dahlin didn’t change that and if the addition of Montour doesn’t change that either we better prepare for a Risto trade by July 1st this summer. I’m not saying it needs to happen but it’s looking that way. That’s not the happiest outcome obviously, we’re all dying to see him in a playoff series but its probably what Botterill does: the last easily movable guy on this team who can actually get some decent assets in return. I feel bad about saying this too, I named my car after our first Rasmus, but if Botts can sell high on him it probably won’t be a move we’ll regret. Don’t factor out a playoff berth yet but focus your angriest passions elsewhere from now on. Get behind these Amerks! This AAF Football League is something! The Bachelor looks like it had a wild episode tonight. Cushion the blow but don’t hop off the roller-coaster just yet. There are still some fun hills and loops left even if its likely it doesn’t end in another, way cooler roller-coaster afterward. They’re back at it with the hot new face tomorrow night in Philadelphia: Let’s Go Buffalo!

Thanks for reading.

P.S. My wife told me to calm down shortly before the final goal so naturally I was mad. I have proceeded to call her Kasperi for the rest of the night. Steve, should she be happy about that?