Sabres like to punch above their height for some reason, or their opponents like to play down to competition

I’d say it’s the punching down early on. We haven’t done 82 games in a while so I think teams that believe they’re good enough haven’t had a fire in under them yet. Early risers from the basement teams will fizzle out. But hey I’m all for the Sabres in first for a month or so haha.

TB gets Barre-Boulet back

— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) October 22, 2021

LFG!

Well, that was expected, Francis, what are you doing, first those ED picks, and then everything else, Francis do you have a plan?

I wish I could play around with billions of dollars and be praised as smart while doing nothing.

Apparently he missed out on 12 picks, 5 in the draft alone.

Just to demonstrate some missed opportunities

Acquire Dillion via expansion over Vanacek then flip him to Winnipeg for an extra 2nd

Got Kakhonen over Soucy then flipped him back to the Wild for a 2nd (like Vanacek)

Took on Gostisbehere and Ladd's deals = lots of picks

Got Bean then flipped him to Columbus for a 2nd

Took Domi over a guy that ended up going back to Columbus. As by doing so they could trade him at the deadline

And finally take on Butcher's deal (basically Soucy replacement)

Healthy Eichels better than Bergeron, Marchand, Petterson, Aho, Kane, Panarin, ovi, Barkov, Stamkos, Kucherov, Point.... There is 11

Marchand is better than Eichel, so is Barkov, Point, Kuch, Ovi, Panarin

I don’t think healthy Eichel is close to Kucherov, Kuch is arguably the 3rd best forward in the league lmao. I also think Point and Barkov are better, and Panarin/Marchand are very close if he’s not just also better (advantage for Eichel is position there, Panarin/Marchand may be more impactful though

I think that alot of this is recency biased ... But yea I dont think Kucherov is better than Eichel

Recency biased, but back when Eichel was Healthy Barkov was the only person in the conversation, we don't know what Eichel would have been of he is healthy now. Should be better.

Kucherov has a Hart, Art Ross (most points ever by anyone in a year that starts with a 2), 4 seasons with 85+ points to Eichel’s 0, a President’s trophy, and two cups. He has 30 points in back to back playoffs, something only 3 players have ever done, and the other two are the two greatest players of all time. Honestly robbed of the Conn Smythe twice. Eichel has never even made the playoffs, even Taylor Hall was able to drag a bad team to the playoffs (and won the Hart for it) and he’s not close to Eichel, but Eichel is NOT close to Kucherov. Like, at all.

Cool, but he isn’t healthy so we can’t assume he would have developed because he literally didn’t. So we compare guys now to what Eichel was when he was healthy, and even then that’s debatable because he might be worse post-surgery, and it’s certainly not going to make him better, on top of the fact that he hasn’t played in 7 months, and won’t play until 3 months after he’s traded at the earliest. Also Eichel wasn’t very good at the start of last year, he only had 2 goals in 21 games lol

Do we know if anyone else put in a claim?

Yes...they couldn't have cause Tampa couldn't have won if they did.

Isn’t waivers by regular season standings? Tampa only finished 8th last year overall, so technically 7 teams could’ve made a claim. I think the only way to know is if they are allowed to assign him to the AHL directly, which is only allowed on a re-claimed guy if nobody put in a claim the 2nd time.

Pretty sure claims go off of standings in reverse. The best teams don’t get first dibs it’s the worst teams.

A couple of random observations from another crazy week:
1) Not to point out the obvious, but what the heck is going on in Montreal? Habs can't buy a goal (4 in 5 games!!!!), several players (Toffoli, Caufield, Suzuki) look like shells of their selves from last season, and it's led to an abysmal 0-5 start.
2) Lightning need to figure out how to run a PP without Kuch until he gets back in December/January. They were a miserable 0/6 against the Panthers, Palat looked completely lost in the right circle (Kuch's spot). What makes the Lightning's PP so electric is that they normally have not one, but two QB's-Hedman at the blue line, and Kuch at the right dot. Now they're down to one. Got to figure it out quickly, because the Avs (even with their sluggish start) come in to Amalie tomorrow night.
3) Elvis Merzlikins looks GOOD. Really good. Blue Jackets might just have a goalie of the future...
4) Blackhawks look dysfunctional. Granted, Seth Jones is the most overrated defenseman in the league, and the rest of the D core is below average, but that doesn't account for nothing clicking on offense, and Fleury looking like Curtis McElhinney in the early goings of the season.
5) It's amazing how many injuries there are to big-name players early on. Kucherov, Pacioretty, Stone, Crosby, Matthews (though he's now back), Jack Hughes, Varlamov, Mrazek, Devon Toews, et al, and that's not counting all the players in COVID protocol (Scheifele, Wheeler, and Nathan MacKinnon last week).

Tampa didn’t win the President’s trophy last year. Plus I’m pretty sure that any team that’s made a claim in the last few weeks would be below them as well.

Don’t forget about backstrom

Elite 💯

We are not yet safe from Michael Bunting's juiced WAR. One day... #LeafsForever https://t.co/oKowi3UdpH pic.twitter.com/q4eHDyJxbz

— JFresh (@JFreshHockey) October 22, 2021

As has been pointed out by many habs fans, our problems are a mix of chemistry issues, slumps, coaching, the offseason losses and a lack of motivation due to pretty much no leadership core

Yeah that’s what I mean, Tampa was 8th so we know nobody worse than them claimed ABB, but the 7 better teams may have (we won’t know unless he’s sent directly to the minors).

Yeah, losing Weber and Price has to hurt inside that locker room, they were pretty much the faces of the franchise

Are waivers a rolling order or not? Because that could change some things too