Evolving Hockey Podcast · Evolving Hockey Staff

Episode 158: Technical Difficulties

·1 hr 5 min·4 clips

Buffalo has scored two goals in three games and Josh Norris is out for about eight weeks.

1. Evolving Hockey Podcast Episode 158, “Technical Difficulties,” centers on fantasy hockey, the Buffalo Sabres, and early-season NHL noise. 2. Sean hosts with Josh Youngren and Luke Youngren, the Evolving Wild Twins who bring the fantasy updates and the Sabres argument. 3. The episode asks what three games, a few injuries, and early projections can really tell fans about Buffalo. 4. The opening minutes cover fantasy week one, including Luke’s strong matchup, Sean’s win, and Josh’s complaints about being called winless. 5. Sean says his fantasy team was helped by injuries and a waiver move that brought in Scott Wedgwood and Evgeni Malkin. 6. The hosts also talk about team names, including “New Power Generation,” which references Prince and the New Power Generation. 7. The conversation turns to how long the three hosts have known Sean, including HockeyGraphs in March 2017 and earlier Twitter interactions. 8. Sean mentions Stephen Burch, old hockey-stats Twitter accounts, and the way those early conversations predate the podcast. 9. The group also discusses Paul Thomas Anderson and One Battle After Another after a friend says coworkers did not know the movie or the director. 10. Sean records remotely from Florida, where a hockey tournament is happening at his hotel and the audio setup becomes part of the episode. 11. The Sabres segment begins with Buffalo at 0-3, two goals scored, and losses to the Rangers, the Bruins, and the Avalanche. 12. Josh and Luke point to injuries, including Josh Norris being out about eight weeks, UPL, Michael Kesselring, Zach Benson, Matthias Samuelsson, and Jordan Greenway. 13. Sean notes that several models were relatively high on Buffalo before the season, which makes the early start more noticeable. 14. The hosts compare Buffalo’s shot quality, saying the team has looked like it fires from poor spots and lacks a strong forecheck. 15. Sean says the third period against Colorado looked like Buffalo “just kind of gave up,” based on their charts. 16. The injury discussion becomes a modeling discussion, with Sean saying systems should not simply label a team “injury-prone” and subtract performance by instinct. 17. Josh adds that trying to model every “what if” around injuries can lead to a rabbit hole with limited predictive gain. 18. The tone stays conversational and argumentative, with the trio moving between statistics, fandom, and joking interruptions. 19. Listeners who follow NHL models, Buffalo, and fantasy hockey will get the most out of it. 20. Listeners looking for a tightly structured interview or a team-agnostic episode may skip it.

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