shrader

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The thing that scares the crap out of me each time Nilsson starts is his rebound control. If he got a heavier work load, I could see that becoming an issue very quickly.

I'm pretty strict about separating work and my home life. Forget about emails, once my work day is done, I don't even want to talk about the place. I have never connected a work email to the email app in my phone. That way I can't be distracted by it. If I want to read a work email on my phone, I have to login through the website. When the workload gets a bit more demanding, I may stay a little longer each day, but I will not take that home with me. I say I never take it home with me, but I do on occasion work from home so I can avoid the long drive, get a little extra sleep, or if someone is coming with a delivery or working on the house. Anything between 8-5 is work time in my mind, so that much I can do from home, especially when no one else is there. edit: Strangely enough, my boss just approached me and asked if I'd be willing to share a desk with someone and work from home 50% of the time. Apparently they're running out of space here.

That was an incredibly odd episode last night.

I wish I had access to junior games because I'd love to see how he looks out there. He was solid here, but I feel like you see that so many times with young guys getting their initial callup. Once they spend more time, many tend to fall off. I know things have changed a bit in the NHL, but I'd like to see more of these mid-level prospects going back to the days of a more gradual development process, especially a defenseman. I don't think he's going to make or break this team next year, so I'd much rather seem him get some serious development time. Even if he's that 7th guy who winds up frequently riding the shuttle between Buffalo and Rochester, I think it'll be much better for him long term. As for the comparison to Nylander, it actually sounds like they would be on similar schedules. Guhle is a year older, so he should be a bit further advanced at this point. On another note, has anyone been watching the World Juniors at all? I haven't had the chance but it's nice to see USA BU back in the finals after a few years off. The very heavy BU representation in the final does make me miss those season tickets I had for years. They've got 6 guys going for the US and 1 for Canada, the most ever from one college. Strangely enough, the actual BU team also has a game tonight and can dress only 17 skaters since so many are gone. They also had to add a new goalie to the team just so they could have a backup tonight.

I think I'd take it a step further and say that I'd like to see him spend most of next year in Rochester.

How do they go about adding more talent around him? At this point, they're one skater away from a legit top 6. They can't sit back and hope that Nylander winds up being that guy. He's too far away. They're at a point where they probably need to be adding blue liners instead of forwards in the offseason. But at the same time, there's no one in the organization at this moment who is ready to be that guy. Short of a sudden emergence of a guy like Bailey or Baptiste, I have no idea where forward #6 is going to come from.

You pretty much hit on what I was thinking about as I made my post and that is which center would fit best with them (Kane/Bailey). Right now it's that high quality passer in Reinhart. I'm really not sure who I'd like to see there, possibly O'Reilly when he is back. Whoever it is, Larsson has opened up a slot for Bailey to stick around long term. I hope he makes the best of it.

I wish a few more celebrities would handle it that way. That's hilarious in a "dumbass" sort of way.

I'd like to see a little bit more of him paired up with Bailey. There's some real energy in that combination.

Home and home series are supposed to be on back to back days. I hate that they've changed that

I don't think three point wins will change anything for the vast majority of the season. 2 or 1 point are better than nothing. They will still play things tight so that they at least get something by making it to OT. It's only at the end of the season when they need to make up ground that some teams will start to push.

I'd be very happy with that rule change, John.

Pure stupidity right there. That's the stuff that gets him benched.

I've been preaching it for years now. Even back with the 4-on-4, the OT needed to be longer. Honestly, I would leave in the loser point and go to a true sudden death OT like in the playoffs (probably 3-on-3 though). I know their concern would a never ending game where someone has to play the following day. But that right there is all the incentive you need to push a little harder for a goal to end the game. You would have the fluke marathon game every so often, but it would be very rare. Honestly, I'd also rather have ties instead of the shoot out. edit: And speaking of 3-on-3, it is amazing to see it in person. On tv you really don't get a good feel for just how much space is suddenly out there, especially from up in the nose bleeds. I do wish they'd use the red line for offside call during those 5 minutes though. That would really open things up. I bet they'd be scare of teams sitting back and burning out the clock though.

I'm the one who coined it over there, so maybe I said it here too. It's nice having one contribution to mankind.

There was one play in particular with Eichel that stuck out to me. He crossed center ice with the puck then dumped it in. The defender's stick came up and hit him in the visor. We could hear the contact all the way up in the nose bleed seats (amazing what you can hear when the building is empty). No call. I have no idea how refs can miss that. I know it's not really related to the interference stuff, but it's just as frustrating. In a game like that snorefest, a powerplay or two can make all the difference. And I hate shootout almost as much as I hate Boston fans, but something came to mind today. Wasn't Okposo the one who took every shootout attempt in the world juniors or olympics? If that's the case, why isn't he shooting first? You need to get that immediate edge in the fake hockey session.

You can't sedate a crowd that doesn't exist. I was shocked at how few people were there on a Saturday night near Christmas. I think even last years Tuesday night game had more people

That joke has carried over to here?

That was probably the most boring game I've ever been to

Good, I'm not the only one who thought the face was too small for her head. And am I missing something or does that story never mention how old the kid was?

Dude, slow down. I'm still waiting to find out who Vader is. Maybe Buffalo Joe can tell me.

I'm going on Saturday. At the start of the year I was very worried that Eichel wouldn't be back yet. Without him, it's pretty much just the Ristolainen show

Finally something that everyone can get behind

It's amazing how much changes when you get that franchise player. Perreault was before my time, so I have no idea what it's like to watch that player from day one of his career (even before that since I'm a BU guy).