Everyone is so damn mad about everything surrounding the Sabres, and honestly, it rocks. Being able to legitimately care about all the minutiae of a season now that they have proven to be a real organization feels great, and I want to acknowledge that joy when I can. That said, it’s certainly not ideal that they currently sit last in the division (with a .500% points percentage), don’t have trustworthy goaltending, haven’t entered the 3rd period of any game with a lead, and remain mostly incompetent on the power play.

They clearly have a few kinks to work out as they bring young players up to speed and deal with the losses of players like Alex Tuch and Bowen Byram, but honestly, I’ve really liked how they’ve played in most of their games. They’ve shown the ability to dominate long stretches and have strong underlying numbers that suggest they’re doing the right things and are setting themselves up for success. The idea that the season is already a disaster is ridiculous, and I can only attribute it to the fanbase reacclimating to the ebbs and flows of the NHL season.

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It’s nearly impossible to take anything of real meaning from the first few games of an 84-game NHL season, but I’ve got a blog to write and some observations I wanted to think through from the Sabres season opener in Columbus, so here is the first edition of my Recency Bias series, which will feature some initial thoughts quickly following Sabres games throughout the year.

Active Sticks on the Forecheck

Arguably my favorite thing about this iteration of the Sabres, which shined through last season, is how tenacious they are in the offensive zone when their opponent has the puck. Buffalo’s forwards have such active sticks and pestered the heck out of the Blue Jackets as they attempted to exit the zone. Many players sort of faux-challenge the puck carrier in those situations to make it seem slightly harder to move the puck, but the Sabres take it to another level. Throughout last year and again tonight, they created a number of dangerous chances that wouldn’t be there otherwise. Benson and Doan lead the way, of course, but it’s encouraging to see guys like Helenius and Ostlund doing the same.

Mathieu Olivier

What a loser. Tapping the puck into an empty net after the whistle to start a scrap with the smallest guy on the ice is cowardly stuff for a supposed tough guy. I’m pretty indifferent to fighting, and the guy contributes at a pretty decent level apart from it, so he’s not a worthless goon, but that kind of cheap stuff isn’t worthwhile or endearing. Congrats on pulling an annoying baby brother stunt and then throwing haymakers at a guy half your size.

The Power Play

I seriously think they need to consider putting Tage in the bumper spot. They’re too fixated on the one-timer option, and they try to force it. His hands are so good in tight spaces, and his release is quick enough that he could thrive in the slot area on quick-shot opportunities. He spends way too much time hanging out on the wall waiting for the perfect chance to come to him instead of generating it. This isn’t even a criticism of Tage alone; you can tell the other guys have it in their minds as the primary option to look for, and it handcuffs them.

Buffalo is so good at moving around and causing commotion with their quickness and puck movement at 5v5, but they seem to completely abandon that effort on the power play when it should be the defining feature that propels them to being a top-10 unit in the league.

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen

It’s the first game of the year and all of that, but he was pretty uninspiring. You really want your number one guy to show a bit more life when the rest of the team comes out as quickly as they did. He’s earned some runway because of his performance last season, so I’m not going to panic, but he better be able to shake off a bad night and come back in top form like he often did last year.

Mattias Samuelsson

It came as a bit of a surprise to learn that he was good to go for this game when he was initially listed as week-to-week. It’s very cool that he seems to just be this guy now who can reliably give you some depth scoring from the back end along with his strong defensive play. He’s so good at finding his spots on what otherwise seems like a run-of-the-mill shot. It’s not really the best comp, but for some reason the way he scores makes me think of Greg Maddux and his ability to find the perfect pitch placement rather than simply blowing it by you.

Jack Quinn

You just know he’ll find a way to get 35-40 goals so he can command a $14M AAV contract next summer. If he can have a neutral impact defensively and be a plus-plus finisher, then sure, whatever, go for it. Per the charts posted by Chad DeDominicis, he was one of the best forwards in regards to shot quality, so more power to him. On his goal, I was initially pretty frustrated that he didn’t move the puck to a teammate for a better shot, but he picked his spot and scored a slick one. I really hope he can do that consistently.

Hockey is a marathon, and early games should be taken with the biggest grain of salt available, but it’ll be worth noting early trends and how they manage and adjust to them, both positively and negatively. Either way, it’s so great to have the Sabres back, and I’m thrilled to be following along closely with all of you.

Thanks for reading!

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The Buffalo Sabres entered the second week of training camp riding high on last season's success and a series of high-energy practices that had the team, reporters, and fans buzzing with excitement. The NHL preseason has been reduced to a maximum of 4 games now that the regular season has extended to an 84-game marathon, so gone are the days of 6-8 preseason games where season ticket holders are forced to shell out regular season prices for up to 4 additional games, as fans of all stripes hold their breath and pray no one gets injured.

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Winning in the National Hockey League occurs on the margins.

Jarmo Kekäläinen is on a mission to find opportunities on those margins and give his team the best chance to win at the highest level. In a league with only 32 teams and 736 roster spots, every team has world-class talent, top-tier coaching, elite training staff, excellent facilities, and a robust advanced data and analytics department to aid their decision-making. So when the baseline state across all organizations is, by its very nature, the top 1% in the field, the opportunities to create a meaningful advantage are extraordinarily limited.

One way the Sabres general manager and his staff are trying to find advantages on the margin is by signing their young talent to long-term extensions before they have a chance to build up a larger sample of what they're capable of and negotiate for a much higher salary. Earlier in 2026, they came to terms with Josh Doan and Zach Benson on long-term extensions, cementing their place as core pieces on the Sabres roster through 2033. On September 14, the Sabres announced that 2022 1st-round pick Noah Ostlund agreed to an 8-year contract extension that kicks in next season at a $6.6M AAV, confirming his status as another core player the organization believes will help lead them to a Stanley Cup at some point in the next 5-10 years.

Jarmo Kekäläinen and Lindy Ruff used their introductory press conferences to emphasize that the element of their game that needs to lead the way and help them win this season is their compete level. They know that they now have a target on their back as the defending Atlantic Division Champions and can’t count on a 10-game winning streak to save their season again if they want to be a consistent winner.

In a short video released by the Sabres, the GM and coach delivered opening remarks to the players and staff, making it clear that their biggest concern entering the season is complacency, and the only way to combat it is to raise their competitive level as a group. The team has earned the honor of high expectations heading into the season, but as Lindy Ruff said in his speech, “expectations don’t win games.” With such a young group that tasted NHL success for the first time, team leadership is intent on making it clear that “pretty good isn’t good enough” and that the only way to build on that success is to compete harder than everyone else.

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The players appear to have received the message, as reports from the first few days of training camp echoed the speed at which the sessions are being run and how hard many of the guys are going in every drill. Before the first day of camp, Sabres.com ran an excellent article on Jiri Kulich’s blood clot issues from last season and the recovery process he’s undergone over the past year. It may just be that people are thrilled to see him back on the ice, but numerous reporters at the early sessions noted that Kulich was already standing out and looked ready to play at an NHL pace again.

Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin agrees with Kekäläinen and Ruff that the key to fending off their divisional opposition will be how hard they compete every day. It can be unsatisfying to rely on an aspect of the game that can’t be measured in a clear way, but when games are won on the margins, and most teams have similar measurable information available to them, it makes sense for a team to have to look to “old school” unquantifiable methods to create an edge. If everyone knows the right tactics and optimal methods to set a team up for success, then what ultimately decides who wins and who loses may just come down to who is willing to work a little bit harder for it.

Jack Quinn has an extremely mixed perception after coming on the scene strong early in his career, showing flashes of creative decision-making and a lethal shot. But after a series of unfortunate injuries, his return to form has taken a circuitous route that understandably leaves people concerned about whether he can ever get it back. Early returns from training camp and the Blue and Gold Scrimmage suggest he took the offseason seriously and came into camp ready to take his coaches’ direction and show he can impact the team's success this year by outworking everyone.

Per Carson Gates of the Crossing Swords podcast, “Jack Quinn genuinely has been the best player out here for Buffalo. I've never seen him move at the speed he's moving at, and his playmaking has taken a jump over the offseason, along with his shot.”

In the Blue and Gold Scrimmage on Saturday, he scored a goal and added an assist, along with several additional Grade A chances. In a season where the team is counting on a marked improvement from young players approaching what should be their prime years, the potential for Jack Quinn to take a major step forward could provide a massive boost to the Sabres objectives this year.

As mentioned in earlier pieces in this series, the upcoming season will likely come down to whether or not the Sabres young forwards can collectively step into impact roles and meaningfully contribute to their team’s success over an 84-game season. We haven’t talked much in the offseason about Jack Quinn's potential to provide marginal improvement, but if he proves capable, the Sabres will have an additional component that can help them compete at the highest level.

Away from the ice on Thursday night, Sabres players attended the Buffalo Bills’ first game in their new stadium and got to see what it looks like to shine when the lights are brightest and what it takes to outwork their opponent and find success. Of course, the best player in the NFL, Josh Allen, rose to the occasion and showed exactly why he has had so much success already and appears to be on a collision course with another MVP-caliber season. However, the most intriguing person the Sabres young players could look to from that game for inspiration is Deone Walker, who put on a show with his performance on the defensive line for a second straight game in only his second season in the NFL.

The Bills have their star players that the team depends on to provide a foundation that makes them an elite team, but it’s young players like Walker stepping up into a more impactful role that can provide the team with additional value on the margins to separate them from the pack and make them a stronger Super Bowl contender.

It’s one thing to show up for a short stretch and prove you can hang during the season, and it’s great to see players show up to camp with the right attitude and measurable gains from an offseason of intentional work to improve, but do they have what it takes to grind it out for six to eight months? Are they willing to out-compete the other team on every shift, night in and night out?

I suspect this will be the primary storyline we’ll follow this season to determine whether the Sabres are simply a decent team that should make the playoffs and maybe win a round, or a true Stanley Cup competitor.

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While the Gregorian Calendar officially marks January as the first month of the year, September has overtaken that miserable month as the spiritual new year for most people. Kids are back in school, college students are acclimating to the grind of a new semester, football is in full swing, and hockey players are back from the lakehouse for the start of training camp. While NFL training camp and MLB spring training function as marathons to whittle down a roster, NHL training camp operates as a sprint, much like the respective sports are played game to game.

The Buffalo Sabres will complete their core training sessions over three days, September 17-19, followed by a mad dash of four pre-season games in six nights. Within roughly ten days, the Sabres coaching staff will have to decide on their final roster and attempt to hit the ground running as the regular season arrives just two weeks after training camp opens.

Entering training camp, nearly all twenty-three roster slots are already claimed, and the few open spots are nearly sewn up as well, though they still have an outside shot at being competitive. Among forwards signed to the team, there are ten players who are without a doubt locked in to be on the Sabres roster for opening night, and three guys who almost certainly will be on the roster as well but have a very minor chance of being sent down to Rochester to start the year due to roster constraints.

The ten locked-in forwards are:

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Per a report from Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet on September 9, 2026, the Anaheim Ducks and Chris Kreider have come to a mutual agreement to terminate his contract and make him an unrestricted free agent once he clears waivers. Naturally, this makes fans of every other team want to consider whether this is a player that could help them out.

As mentioned in the prologue of the Sabres Storyline series I put out earlier this week, one of the more important things the Sabres need to figure out as soon as possible is how they intend to make up for the loss of Alex Tuch. As of this writing, the plan is to have a combination of young forwards, including Konsta Helenius, Noah Ostlund, and Jiri Kulich, step into bigger roles and backfill some of the impact lost with Alex Tuch.

But now that Chris Kreider is likely hitting free agency later this week and has indicated a desire to play for an Eastern Conference team, could he be an option the Sabres should pursue to help replace Alex Tuch?

Kreider as a Tuch replacement

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For the 2026/2027 Buffalo Sabres season, the main focus of my coverage will be a weekly article sent out on Mondays, which I’m calling “Sabres Storyline.” The objective is to narrativize the Sabres season via weekly “chapters” that capture the spirit of each week's events and, when bound together across 30-40 chapters, to encapsulate the season's broader story in a coherent package.

This week, I’m starting with a prologue that recounts the key moments of the offseason as Jarmo Kekäläinen and his hockey department looked to build on last season's success and put their stamp on the roster the previous GM, Kevyn Adams, built.

I’m really looking forward to the challenge of making this idea come to life. I hope you’ll join me in this endeavor as we experience the story of the 2026/2027 Sabres season together.

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There isn’t a blueprint for how to attack an offseason following a year where a General Manager firing seemed to be the catalyst for a dramatic turnaround.

When a GM fires a coach, and the team finally performs well, he can essentially pound the table and say, “Hey, look, I told you the roster I put together was good; they just needed a more competent coach to guide them.” But when it’s a GM firing that leads to a reversal of fortune, what should the new GM do when all evidence suggests that the roster the previous guy built was pretty good?

Jarmo Kekäläinen and his staff faced the challenge of determining how much of their success they could trust at a foundational level, and how much, if any, was smoke and mirrors. Who are the players who drove their success last season and can be counted on for the future? If they add or remove key guys from the group, do they risk messing with the team's aura?

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Nothing official has been announced, but all signs point to further NHL expansion in the coming years, with Atlanta and Houston as the likely homes for the 33rd and 34th franchises. The prospect of easy expansion money that owners don’t need to share with players is too tempting to ignore, and there’s no reason to think the league and its owners won’t continue to draw from that spigot a couple more times. As a result, it wouldn’t shock me to see the league reach 40 teams in relatively short order.

While I’m less concerned about diluting the talent pool than others, I’m wary of the declining likelihood that your team will win anything of consequence. A core element of being a fan is being able to reasonably convince yourself that your team has a chance to compete, and I’m afraid that a 40-team league will feel like an impossible mountain to climb for most teams most years, even for the most optimistic among us.

Under the current NHL structure, teams tend to fall into one of four categories:

• Contender - These are the top 6-8 teams in the league, with a fairly strong chance to seriously compete for the Stanley Cup. They are nearly guaranteed to make the playoffs, finish in the top half of their conference, and are teams others dread having to face in a 7-game series.

• Playoff Caliber - Between 8 and 12 organizations fall into this zone of solid teams that may not be surefire contenders, but they have fairly strong odds of making the playoffs and every reason to believe they could make a long playoff run, even if it’s technically unlikely.

• Rebuilders - Typically, 4-6 teams enter the season focused on the future. While they don’t want to stay in this zone for long, fans can find comfort in knowing there is a clear objective to follow and cheer for as the team trades away older players and restocks the prospect pipeline with young players and picks for a brighter future.

• Meaningless Middle - Roughly 4-6 teams find themselves in the worst possible position, with no clear path out. Short of a PDO bender launching them into a wild card spot, they have no real chance of getting in the playoffs, let alone contending for the Stanley Cup. They also aren’t near the bottom of the standings to add top young talent, and likely have a couple of bad contracts with aging players that they can’t move in a deal to acquire picks and prospects.

My concern with continued expansion under the current format is that the number of teams in that horrible middle ground, with little hope for today or the future, will grow, leaving more fans apathetic toward their team and less engaged in the league overall if they feel they have no chance of competing for anything anytime soon.

The Pitch

Should the NHL eventually expand to 40 teams, I think it would be time to seriously consider incorporating a European-style promotion and relegation system.

At the outset, I want to make an important distinction. I am not suggesting a world in which the ECHL Florida Everblades could be promoted to the NHL level over a couple of seasons, as teams do in the UK Football Pyramid. The plan outlined below is strictly limited to the 40 teams that would make up the NHL. This also wouldn’t change anything about the existing minor league system we’ve had in hockey for decades. NHL teams would continue to have minor league affiliates, as they always have. There would be no risk of the Rochester Americans somehow facing off against the Buffalo Sabres.

My plan for a 40-team league is as follows:

There would be 2 tiers of 20 teams, which we’ll call Tier 1 and Tier 2. In a more fun world, we’d name them after legends of the game like Howe and Orr, but for now we’ll keep it simple. Each team would play 4 games against the other 19 teams at their level. This would bring the total to 76 games, rather than the 84 we have now. If the league wanted to stick with 84 games, they could add some cross-tier games based on geography to preserve regional rivalries, but I don’t think it would be necessary.

I know that convincing owners to play fewer games and give up gate revenue is likely a non-starter, but given the amount of international play we will have every other year between the Olympics and the World Cup, it would be perfectly reasonable to stick to 76 games rather than force 8 extra games. One alternative I could support to make up the lost games would be to add an in-season tournament, like the FA Cup in soccer or the NBA Cup in basketball. An even grander vision would be to incorporate an international club tournament like the UEFA Champions League, with the NHL’s top teams facing off against champions from European leagues, but that idea is for another article.

Once the regular season is complete, here is how the standings would shake out. In Tier 1, the top 14 teams would make the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The teams that finish 15-17 would miss the playoffs but would be safe from relegation and remain in the top tier next season. The bottom 3 teams would be relegated to Tier 2.

In Tier 2, the top 2 teams would automatically be promoted to Tier 1 for next season and would also compete in the Stanley Cup Playoffs this season. Teams 3-10 would compete in their own 8-team playoffs, and the winning team would receive the 3rd and final promotion spot and play in Tier 1 next season. Teams that don’t win the Tier 2 Playoffs or finish 11-20 in Tier 2 would remain in the lower level next season.

The Stanley Cup Playoffs would use a 1-16 bracket, with the top 2 teams in Tier 2 taking the 15th and 16th spots, respectively. Otherwise, the playoffs would remain the same, with 4 rounds of best-of-7 series. The Tier 2 playoffs would follow a similar structure, but with an 8-team bracket, so there would be only 3 rounds to determine the winner of the final promotion spot.

Before you yell at me and tell me how dumb this is, let me make the case. In this system, there would be multiple ways for a team to achieve something of consequence and to keep fans engaged, regardless of its place in the standings.

1. Win the Stanley Cup, the ultimate prize that everyone would strive for above all else.

2. In Tier 1, teams may miss the playoffs but still win by avoiding the relegation zone.

3. In Tier 2, teams can win by finishing in the top 2, earning promotion and a spot in the Stanley Cup Playoffs this year.

4. Or if they finish 3-10, they can still have a successful season by winning the Tier 2 playoffs and securing the final promotion spot.

By introducing a two-tiered system, teams in the top tier would have better odds of winning the Stanley Cup, but they would also have to fight all season to avoid the relegation zone. As a result, nearly every game would carry major stakes, and the likelihood of teams taking a night off would decrease significantly. Even if you aren’t a fan of one of the top-tier contenders, you would have something to cheer for all season as you push for your team to stay up.

For lower-tier teams, although it is not ideal, there remains an opportunity to win the Stanley Cup if they finish in the top two or earn promotion through the Tier 2 playoffs. Even if a team is in a rebuilding phase at the bottom of the lower level, they can take solace in securing a top-10 draft pick and focusing on future development.

While it is certainly not a perfect plan, if the league continues to expand rapidly and reaches as many as 40 teams, a promotion and relegation system would provide a clear goal for more teams to pursue throughout the season, giving fans the opportunity to stay engaged with their team and leaving fewer franchises stuck in the meaningless middle.

Share The Storyline

Has this ever happened to you? You get home from work, make dinner, and then sit down in front of the TV only to feel a sudden sense of panic because you’re not sure what to watch. None of your teams are playing tonight, so there isn’t a game you’re actively choosing to watch. You know you’ve heard about a couple of great TV shows from your friends, but for some reason your mind goes blank, and you can’t remember any of them now.

How about a movie? You log in to Letterboxd, click over to your watchlist, and realize you have 438 movies to watch. You sort by highest average rating and make sure it only shows movies that are currently streaming on a service you have access to. After it sorts itself, you look over the cover images and consider your options. Is tonight really the night to finally watch “Seven Samurai” or “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly”? You’re sure they’re great and worthwhile, but are you in the right headspace for this? Can you really commit to locking into a long film right now?

Maybe you should browse the home page of one of the streaming services. They have endless content for everyone, and there’s bound to be something there for you. Then you scroll and scroll, add a show to your watchlist that you definitely want to see at some point but feels like too much of a commitment tonight, so you scroll and scroll some more. Before you know it, your dinner is cold and 45 minutes have flown by. Now it’s too late to commit to a movie. You’re feeling stressed about the decision, so you go back to your tried-and-true comfort watch and throw on something like Parks & Rec, Gilmore Girls, 30 Rock, or The West Wing, and let it wash over you as you fade away into another night of the same thing you did last night, once again succumbing to streaming TV choice paralysis.

Then, just as you’re ready to go to bed, you remember the movie or show that was recommended to you and you’d really like to watch it right now. You glance at the clock to see if you can start it, but it’s too late, so you add it to your watchlist and forget all about it.

Or how about this: it’s a Saturday in the fall, and there are a bunch of college football and NHL games happening at the same time that you’d like to catch. You have the ESPN app with your Unlimited subscription, so you have access to most of the games (but not all, of course). You’ve got the Tennessee/Ole Miss game on, and it goes to commercial, so you decide to check out what’s happening in the Toronto/Boston NHL game. You click back out of the current screen, and it takes you to the home page, where it shows a couple of live game tiles, but they’re not the games you’re interested in. You click down a couple of rows to the list of sports, then scroll to the right a bit and find hockey. A new page opens, showing the list of leagues, so you click into the NHL and finally find the Leafs/Bruins game. After what feels like 50 clicks and a couple of frustrating minutes, you get the hockey game up only to see the period just ended, and it’s heading to intermission, so you click back another 50 times to the football game.

The Pitch

Streaming platforms like Roku, Apple TV, Google TV, and your standard Smart TV providers like LG and Samsung, to name a few, all have their own streaming guide that lets you download whatever streaming service you would like to subscribe to, like Netflix, HBO Max, Disney+, ESPN, and so on. I propose taking this one step further: rather than only having siloed streaming apps for each service, the home platform (Roku, for example) should provide a channel guide option that connects your existing streaming subscriptions into one app, with a 24/7 channel guide that mimics the classic channel-surfing experience.

How would this work for inherently on-demand services?

I’m glad you asked. In this scenario, each streaming service would be granted a mutually agreed-upon number of channels to program with its content and use to drive viewers to its service. Viewers would have access only if they are subscribed to the service. If they aren’t subscribed, it would show a button to click so they can easily subscribe and watch whatever show or event has caught their eye.

For example, Netflix could have several channels, such as “Netflix Original Movies,” “Netflix Original Shows,” “Netflix Reality,” and “Netflix Live” as part of its recent push into live programming. I also imagine they would have channels for programming that they are currently licensing that isn’t original to the service. HBO Max would have their classic HBO channel to show the movies they’ve got running, along with the premieres of their big Sunday night shows to make an event out of it again.

Beyond the standard entertainment streamers, the real value-add to me would be sports programming. ESPN, for example, could take their traditional channel lineup and drop it on this platform for anyone with an ESPN Unlimited account to utilize. I think this would help increase viewership for their talking-head shows because I currently find that the idea of clicking into the ESPN app and actively choosing to watch a live discussion show is something I’m very unlikely to do, but if I were scrolling through a channel guide and PTI is on, I’m way more likely to stop there for a bit and see what they're talking about.

In addition to the traditional linear channels, they could include their ESPN Select (formerly ESPN+) programming, such as NHL out-of-market broadcasts and the various college sports they host. They would have to be selective about which events get broadcast on the guide since they have so many options, but it could be a good way to boost viewership for lesser-seen events. For example, if they have the NHL out-of-market package and a big game between two top teams is only being broadcast by the regional networks, they could put that on one of the ESPN Select channels and drive an audience toward the game that may not have otherwise sought it out.

One of the best parts of cable is flipping through and seeing a random college basketball game on, taking a quick look at the scoreboard, and seeing that it’s a 2-point game with 1:45 left. When you see a game like that, you’re obviously going to stick it out to see what happens. Instead, that game is likely buried on a tile in an app you probably don’t have open. Since we can’t really flip through games anymore, we’re missing out on these opportunities for unexpected enjoyment.

Why this would be good for viewers

• Provides some gentle guidance to help you find something to watch when you aren’t sure what to put on and helps you discover shows and movies you may not have otherwise chosen to check out.

• Brings back that moment of joy when flipping through channels and you land on a movie just as that great scene you love begins.

• Makes it easy to flip between live sporting events rather than having to click in and out of multiple apps.

• More opportunities to check in on sporting events you may not otherwise actively follow.

Why this would be good for streamers

• Would be a strong promotional vehicle to showcase the content they have and help get a viewer hooked on a show by watching a few minutes of it without them having to make the active choice to click play based on a vague trailer or written descriptions of the show or movie.

• Programmers can eventize their content by premiering big shows at a specific time, like the classic HBO Sunday night lineup experience. It would make the experience feel more communal if you knew people were watching at the same time.

• Streamers could have the option to sell ad space on their channels if they’d like, bringing in additional revenue.

• Easily allow viewers to click through to the main app to continue watching a show or movie there.

• Would make it a bit easier to take a chance on programming that might be a tougher sell, but you're confident people would enjoy if they tried it.

• For sports programmers like ESPN, it could make it more feasible to bring back shows like Baseball Tonight that are less hot-takey and don’t rely on short clips for social media to draw in an audience, and allows you to develop on-air talent with more airtime to fill and a lower barrier to entry for a viewer to try it out while flipping through the guide.

• Can drive a wider audience to sporting events that may not otherwise draw viewers to choose it actively.

It seems counterintuitive, but the volume of film, TV, and sports we have access to is overwhelming at times, and having to intentionally click in and out of a bunch of different apps to find something to watch can feel cumbersome. You may know exactly what you want to watch a lot of the time, but often you’re not entirely sure, and if you’re anything like me, you end up going down a choice paralysis spiral.

I think developing a new version of the channel guide for the modern age is an easy way to help alleviate some of these issues and would be a clear value-add for all parties involved.

A savvier writer looking to draw in an audience for their work would’ve written their Sabres season retrospective within a week of their Game 7 defeat to the Montreal Canadiens, while it was still fresh in everyone’s mind. Still, following the heartbreaking loss, I needed to do what I often do when my team’s season ends and take a break from the sport and the surrounding discourse.

I can’t explain why this is my standard move once the season is over, but if my team makes the playoffs, I typically can’t watch the round after their defeat. If they don’t make the playoffs at all, I usually tune out long before the regular season ends, then get back in when the playoffs begin for everyone else. Even after listening to every episode of the Morning and Afternoon shows on WGR in Buffalo for the weeks leading up to and through the Sabres’ playoff run, I didn’t have any desire to tune in the day after Game 7. I’m not entirely sure whether it’s simply the heartbreak of the loss, an unwillingness to fully accept that the season ended, or pure exhaustion and feeling too tired to endure the immediate take cycle.

Regardless of the reasons, now that some time has passed, I feel I’m in a better place to look back and properly reflect on the season.

Despite the historic playoff drought providing all the evidence to the contrary, I entered last season, as I do nearly every season, with a sense of optimism. It’s almost certainly a defense mechanism, but what’s the point of caring about a sports team if you can’t feel some hope before Game 1? In all likelihood, the team will disappoint, and we’ll have a strong sense of where we’re headed within the first month. At that point, I can re-evaluate and either check out or lean into doomerism to cope.

Hockey, as a sport, is closer to a coin flip than most other competitions, as Vox explains so well in this video from nearly 10 years ago. Due to hockey’s randomness, even a mediocre-to-low-skill team can reasonably feel like they have a chance to win most nights due to these razor-thin margins. Because of this randomness and the incremental improvements the Sabres made to the roster during the offseason, I thought it was reasonable to think they could take a stab at the playoffs, especially since every year there are typically 2-3 teams that luck their way into the playoffs. It’s frankly insane that the Sabres hadn’t managed to luck their way in for 14 years.

I even placed a hopeless $10 bet on them to win the division before the start of the season, an act of reckless optimism. As so many seasons before, the team had a lackluster start before quickly falling to the bottom of the league standings. At this point, it was easy for me to tune them out, not only because it felt like the same old Sabres, but also because I was getting married in October, which made it easy to ignore them as I settled into a new stage of life and had more important things to focus on.

After returning from our honeymoon and settling into our routine, I checked the Sabres’ road schedule for potential road trips. My wife had a work trip in the second week of December, and I noticed the Sabres were going on their annual Western Canada trip at the same time. I put together a spreadsheet to figure out flights and hotels for a potential trip and worked out a plan that was feasible from a time and financial perspective, but I couldn’t stop looking at the standings and wondering if this was really worth it. Despite it technically being doable, I just couldn’t justify the cost and time commitment for a last-place team again, and I basically said to the Sabres in my mind, “Call me when you get good.”

Then they got good.

After losing 3 straight to Philadelphia, Winnipeg, and Calgary, which essentially justified my decision to forgo the trip, the Sabres beat the Oilers in overtime, started a 10-game win streak, fired GM Kevyn Adams, brought the franchise back to life, and made me regret my previously wise decision in just 3 weeks.

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Hockey in Buffalo: It Just Means More

Inside every sports fan, there are 2 wolves. The Cynic and the Optimist. Anyone who cares about sports knows how easy, safe, and warm it is to be the cynical wolf. As the cynic, you’re not vulnerable to disappointment. Odds are something is going to go wrong, so you sit back in the comfort of knowing it probably will. The optimistic wolf is needy and anxious, constantly seeking reassurance that it’s okay. This is especially true for Sabres fans. We’ve seen them go on long winning streaks numerous times during the drought, including a 10-game streak in the otherwise disastrous 2018-2019 season. So even as they won games 7, 8, and 9, it was hard for me to get as excited as I wanted to be.

It wasn’t until they won that 10th game against Dallas that I finally allowed the optimist in me to see the light of day, not only because it was a nice, round double-digit number, but also because they controlled the game from start to finish against one of the league’s best teams and a Stanley Cup favorite, on the road. From that point on, I had no choice but to buy in and embrace it all.

The thing is, the Sabres have been such an important part of my life. Like most people, I consider myself a fan of several teams across multiple sports, but none of them come close to my passion for the Sabres for a couple of reasons.

1. They’re the team I’ve bonded with my Dad over the most.

2. Hockey is objectively the best sport in the world, and I’ve been fortunate to play it my entire life.

3. As a result of our shared passion for the team and the sport, I’ve made several in-real-life friendships.

4. Being a Sabres fan feels like a unique identifier compared to the other teams I care about. I’ve never lived in Buffalo, so most social or professional circles I’ve found myself in rarely included other Sabres fans. Even while playing hockey in Binghamton, NY as a kid, the vast majority of the people I played with were Rangers fans. If it turned out there was someone else who also liked the Sabres, we bonded over it, and I remain in contact with some of those guys to this day because of it.

It all comes back to the connections we make. Whether with people, players, or the city, the best thing about sports is how it can bring a disparate collection of individuals together and make you feel part of something greater, even if it’s just coming together to mock Jeremy Swayman, despite him not having done anything to deserve it yet. Having a collective experience is what we’re all chasing, and the Sabres were finally showing they may be capable of providing that opportunity for the first time in 20 years.

The Tampa Game

I’ll never forget the Tampa game, in part because I was in Buffalo that weekend for a wedding. Despite my best efforts, I couldn’t make the travel logistics work to get my wife and me to the game on Sunday. Fortunately, we got back home to Nashville in time to watch the game on TV and share the pure joy of that night together.

By the first week of March, we were all fairly confident the Sabres would make the playoffs, but it never seemed like they could challenge for 1st in the Atlantic Division. Despite being the best team in hockey from early December onward, they were in last place at one point, so the idea of making up that kind of deficit, especially in their gauntlet of a division, was unthinkable. But then the Lightning continued to stumble, and it felt like we were all looking at each other like, “There’s no way, right? Look, the Sabres are having a great season, and hey, they have a real shot at home ice in the first round, but winning the division can’t happen, right?”

Then on March 5, the Sabres beat the Penguins 5-1, and the Lightning lost to the Jets 4-1, leaving the Sabres with 80 points and, more importantly, tied for 1st place with Tampa. Both teams won on March 7, setting up a clash for sole possession of 1st place.

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One of my favorite things about being a sports fan is using a road game for a team I cheer for as an excuse to visit a place I might not otherwise have at the top of my vacation destinations list. There’s nothing quite like the feeling of catching a game in enemy territory and forming a bond with your fellow fans who have also made the choice to annoy the locals with your presence, especially when your team scores a goal and you’re one of only a handful of people in the building jumping out of your seat and cheering. It’s truly the best.

With the release of the NHL schedule last week, I’ve put together a list of the best road trips on the Sabres schedule with a basic itinerary for you to consider. I haven’t been to all of the cities on this list yet, so some trips are going to have significantly more detail and recommendations than others, but in general I think my go-to recommendation in most places is to find a good bar, a renowned local restaurant, and a cultural activity that’s unique to the city in some way and go from there.

Buffalo Expat Special

For my fellow Buffalo sports fans that have moved away from Western New York, start the season off with the season opener on the road and then a trip to Buffalo for the home opener and a bonus Bills Game.

• October 1: Sabres at Columbus

  • I love walking around a big college campus in the fall, so this feels like a perfect opportunity to take a stroll around Ohio State if you haven’t before

  • Grab a pre-game dinner at any of the good bars and restaurants in the Arena district. I enjoyed Moran’s when I was there and have heard good things about R Bar as well

  • Nationwide Arena is one of my favorite buildings in the NHL, so if you haven’t been before I’d recommend getting there a little early so you can walk around a bit before the game

• October 2: Travel Day

  • Make the 4-5 hour drive up to Buffalo. I was hoping there would be an Erie Otters game on the 2nd, but they are on the road unfortunately, so best to get settled into Buffalo by mid-to-late afternoon

  • Head to your favorite neighborhood and grab dinner. I tend to prefer Elmwood or Hertel

• October 3: Sabres home opener vs Chicago

  • Grab breakfast at Swan Street Diner

  • Head up toward Delaware Park and spend some time at the Albright-Knox Museum, truly one of the great art museums in the country

  • The weather should be fairly mild at this time of year still, so take advantage with a walk around Delaware Park before you begin pre-gaming in earnest

  • Once you've finished enjoying the fine arts and spending time in nature, it’s finally time to lock in for the Sabres game. A Saturday home opener is a perfect opportunity for a bar crawl down to the arena. Here is the rough order I would recommend

    • Get wings and a Molson at Gabriel's Gate to lay a foundation for the day

    • Head over to Colter Bay for a pint or two

    • Take a short walk down to Founding Fathers, or if you need a bit of a longer break between stops, walk a few extra blocks to Banshee. If you skipped the Wings at Gabe’s Gate, get the Fish & Chips at Banshee

    • Finally, I’d grab the train down toward the arena and pick 1 of 2 places before heading into the arena

      • If the weather is iffy, stop off at Pearl Street Grill like you’re heading to a game in 05/06

      • But if it’s nice out, don’t sleep on the patio at Liberty Hound at Naval Park

  • Now that you’re well lubricated from a wonderful day in Buffalo, it’s time to head into the arena to gaze fondly upon the new Atlantic Division Champions banner and take in the home opener against Chicago

• October 4: Bills vs. Patriots

  • Hopefully you’ve taken precautions regarding potential hangover complications and are able to get up for a hearty breakfast before getting yourself to Orchard Park for the Bills / Patriots Game at 1:00PM

Toronto to Montreal Via Rail

The most essential NHL game every hockey fan needs to experience once in their life is a Saturday night at Bell Centre, and we have an opportunity to do that to start the season, but first we’ll catch a game in Toronto. If you wanted to extend the experience, you could catch the game in Montreal on Tuesday, October 13, but if it’s your first time, I think you should stick with just the Saturday game for this trip.

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It really is remarkable how quickly NHL business shuts down after July 1. Those dudes really love a cottage, and honestly, who can blame them? It makes days like July 13 when the Sabres made some pretty minor moves feel like big time news in the vast wasteland that is the NHL offseason

Anyway, I wanted to share some thoughts on the various Sabres news items below including Preyton Krebs re-signing, John Davidson joining the front office, a minor league trade, and the continued Connor Hellebuyck rumors.

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It makes me so happy when an established actor uses their accrued reputational capital to work on a project that goes against type and lifts a film that might not otherwise get made. Tom Cruise has long been at the top of my list of actors I’ve hoped to see take a big creative swing again. That his first swing in well over a decade is with Alejandro G. Iñárritu for this upcoming film “Digger” is fascinating and exciting. While many people are mixed on his films, the director is clearly skilled at getting triumphant performances out of his actors as Leonardo DiCaprio and Michael Keaton can attest, so it makes a lot of sense for Tom Cruise to see this project as an opportunity to remind us of his bonafides as one of our great actors in a performance that I imagine will be positioned for a Best Actor Oscar campaign.

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Thanks for coming back for part 2 of my 2026 reading journey so far. I feel like I really hit my stride with the collection of books below, all of which I would certainly recommend giving a shot as I very much enjoyed each of them. As I continue to do more writing here I intend to do some deeper examining of individual books and may even circle back to a few mentioned in the list below.

In the meantime here are some of my high level thoughts on the next 6 books I’ve had the chance to read to start the year.

11/22/63 by Stephen King

Genre: Historical Fiction

Reading Format: Paperback

Would I Recommend It?: Must Read

This is my first Stephen King Novel and I’m almost concerned that as I work to read more of his classic works that none of them will be as good as this but regardless I’m still excited to finally dig in to his worlds. It’s incredible to me how grounded this felt despite the breadth of it and the fact that it’s ultimately a story about time travel. I found it captivating and I was so excited everyday when I had a window to read a couple of pages and follow along with Jake Epping’s latest endeavors.

London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe

Genre: Non-Fiction, True Crime

Reading Format: Audiobook

Would I Recommend It?: Yes, but read some of his previous work first if you haven’t yet.

I am an unabashed Patrick Radden Keefe shill. “Say Nothing” and “The Snakehead” are 5 star masterpieces of reporting and non-fiction narrative writing, so anytime he puts out a book I will be there no matter what. That said, I don’t think “London Calling” is quite at the same level of those previous books but I was still captured by his telling of this story and would say it’s well worth your time.

Everybody Knows by Jordan Harper

Genre: Crime Thriller

Reading Format: Hardcover

Would I Recommend It?: Yes!

I have a new favorite author. I believe this was another recommendation courtesy of Chris Ryan from The Ringer and I’m so glad I was able to pick up a copy on ThriftBooks and give this one a read a few months ago. It follows a Crisis PR specialist who looks after the reputations of famous people in the wake of the various scandals they manage to get themselves into. A tragedy occurs and as a result she finds herself digging deeper and deeper into the dark underbelly of the wealth and power that control the world around her. I loved this book. The content can get a bit dark so be mindful of that before diving into it, but if you’re into crime thrillers and the people in the shadows of a glitzy industry, I can’t recommend “Everybody Knows” enough.

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So Old, So Young by Grant Ginder

Genre: Dramatic Comedy

Reading Format: Libby E-Book and Audiobook

Would I Recommend It?: Yes

So Old, So Young is the millennial answer to The Big Chill as it follows a group of college friends across six different parties over twenty years. I love a good character study with relatively low stakes. I found its perspective of the elder millennial experience rang true and gets to the heart of the ways in which we change and stay the same because of and in spite of life’s various milestones. If you’re into compelling ensemble stories then I think So Old, So Young is worthy of your attention.

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

Genre: Literary Fiction, Epistolary

Reading Format: Libby E-Book and Audiobook

Would I Recommend It?: Very Much, Yes!

If you’ve spent anytime in bookstores or on the book related internet over the last year, then you’ve certainly seen The Correspondent front and center and endlessly raved about. Well add me to the chorus of people singing its praises. This is my first foray into epistolary storytelling wherein each chapter of this book is made up of handwritten letters (and occasional emails) mostly from and sometimes to our protagonist Sybil Van Antwerp. I had such a wonderful time getting inside Sybil’s mind as she wrote to various friends, family, and authors she admires. If you aren’t a regular reader of this sort of storytelling it may take a few chapters to really latch onto it, but I promise it is worth the effort as the story unfolds and connects. I flew through this in a weekend and wish I had the opportunity to spent more time with it. I expect to revisit The Correspondent multiple times over the coming years.

Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak

Genre: Thriller, Paranormal-Horror

Reading Format: Libby E-Book and Audiobook

Would I Recommend It?: Yes

It happened to work out that my wife and I had both placed separate holds on Hidden Pictures in the Libby app, unbeknownst to each other, and it became available to us at the same time, so we decided to read this one together which created a fun opportunity to discuss the book as we went along. Hidden Pictures follows the story Mallory Quinn after she lands a job as a live in nanny for a wealthy family in the Philadelphia suburbs. As she gets settled into the job the child she is caring for begins sharing disconcerting drawings related to an imaginary friend, leading Mallory down a rabbit hole of secrets and paranormal happenings. This was an entirely new reading experience for me and I really liked it a lot and would recommend it if you’re looking to dip your toe into horror story telling.

If you’d like to order a physical or digital copy of any of these books, I’ve put together a list on Bookshop.org at the link below1

Order on Bookshop

Please let me know if there are any books you think I should add to my To Be Read list this year.

Thanks for reading!

-Ben

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Books are so good.

One of my biggest regrets in life is waiting until my 30s to carve out time to read regularly. I’ve purchased many books over the years (shout out Thirftbooks.com and McKays Books in Nashville), convincing myself that I’m finally going to focus my attention on reading the literature I’ve collected. But inevitably I’d half-heartedly start a book and get about 15-20 pages in before setting it on the side table for it to collect dust for the next six months.

I’ve had fits and starts where I gathered some momentum and did a fair bit of reading primarily during the core COVID years but once life got back to normal I failed to continue the trend. Finally over the last 12-18 months I’ve flipped a switch and have been able to spend a lot of time reading across a number of different genres.

The main thing I attribute this recent shift to is the fact that I finally grew up and started reading fiction.

Like many men I had this nonsense aversion to fiction, claiming that it didn’t capture my attention when I attempted to read it. So I stopped trying and just figured my brain preferred to read about real life in various forms of non-fiction. Ultimately I think the reason for this was a mix of viewing novels as frivolous (insane take) compared to reading about things “that mattered” in non-fiction works, and not truly giving myself over to a novel and allowing it to wash over me the way great literature always does.

My wife almost exclusively reads novels so last year with her encouragement I decided to genuinely try some fictional storytelling again and I’m so grateful I did because my experience with reading has completely changed for the better, to the point where I’m frustrated it took me so long to do so and embarrassed that such a basic thing is a revelation to me at all.

There are 3 books in particular that changed my perspective on this and made me a more voracious reader. “Project Hail Mary” by Andy Weir, “No Country For Old Men” by Cormac McCarthy, and “Hell Is A World Without You” by Jason Kirk.

I tried Project Hail Mary, despite on it’s surface not being the kind of story I am typically interested in, because every search I did for best audiobooks almost always mentioned Andy Weir’s blockbuster, so I gave it a try and can confirm the audiobook experience was wonderful.

I then gave No Country For Old Men a try for of a few reasons.

1. The movie is a masterpiece so I wanted to experience the source material.

2. Chris Ryan and Andy Greenwald on The Watch podcast constantly reference their love of Cormac McCarthy so I wanted to take their recommendations to heart.

3. It’s quite short so it seemed like a good choice as I got my fictional sea legs under me.

And finally I picked up a physical copy of “Hell Is A World Without You” because my Buffalo sports online acquaintance, New York Times Best Selling Author, and Stonewall Book Award winner Victoria Zeller recommended it, and the premise spoke very directly to me since the world in which it takes place is nearly identical to my upbringing in evangelical churches.

If I were forced to do the briefest possible summary of my life and interests as a teenager via a couple of bullet points, I would describe it as follows:

• I grew up in the American Evangelical Church having attended not only regular Sunday services and youth group gatherings, but was also enrolled in a small Baptist school Kindergarten through 12th Grade.

• The cultural entities I cared most about as a teenager (and as an adult, frankly) are the band Relient K and the Buffalo Sabres of the National Hockey League”

So a book that follows a teenage boy experiencing adolescence with other awkward teens in his church youth group with passages such as the following really spoke to me very directly in a way that is honestly surreal and almost felt like self-parody even though I didn’t write it.

It’s not that I need a book to mirror my personal experiences and interests either. I actually find it more exciting now when I’m able to dive into a world that is unfamiliar to me, but the reason “Hell Is A World Without You” was such an important discovery for me in this moment was because it felt like if you could be engrossed in a story about a couple of youth group teens that basically lived a similarly boring on the surface life as me, then imagine the other stories out there to be experienced and enjoyed.

I want to stop here to acknowledge how obviously basic this breakthrough I’ve experienced is. People tend to have their mind opened to the wonders of great written storytelling as a child or maybe as a college student. As I write this I can’t help but feel like a dense social media influencer bro discovering the most basic thing that everyone else already knows to be good and posting videos like, “You’re not going to believe this, but earlier today I got a little thirsty and I decided to pour myself a glass of water and drink it. Yooo that what so good. Can you believe this water stuff? How is no-one talking about this? That stuff is so refreshing dude. Let me know what you think in the comments. Don’t forget to hit the follow button!”

So with that I’d like to do an overview of the books I’ve been able to read so far in 2026 and share some thoughts on each of them.

In part 1 today I will share a little bit about the first 5 books I read this year and then I will follow it up with Part 2 later this week discussing the next 6 books I’ve completed.

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Buckeye by Patrick Ryan

Genre: Literary Fiction

Reading Format: Libby E-Book & Audiobook

Would I Recommend It?: Yes

A beautiful character study across multiple decades about the choices we make and are made for us. I found this to be an enthralling read. If you primarily care about plot then it may take you some time to lock in on the story as it does take a bit before we get a sense of what the overarching direction of the book is, but I promise the time spent with the characters is worth the investment.

So Far Gone by Jess Walter

Genre: Mystery, Thriller

Reading Format: Libby E-Book

Would I Recommend It?: Yes

A propulsive thriller that follows an old journalist who has cut himself off from society for the last seven years but now has to reemerge and face off with a Christian Nationalist militia as he tries to find and save his daughter and her children. I flew through So Far Gone. It’s exciting and frightening and frustrating and moving all at the same time.

These Summer Storms by Sarah MacLean

Genre: Mystery, Romance

Reading Format: Libby E-Book

Would I Recommend It?: I think so.

A story about a family of spoiled kids on a quest to acquire their inheritance following the death of their father isn’t necessarily a synopsis I expected to be interested in, but I needed something a bit lighter after “So Far Gone,” so I picked this up after seeing it everywhere for months, and I found “These Summer Storms” to be quite fun and a pretty creative take on the apparently popular genre of books dedicated to people fighting for inheritances.

White Noise by Don DeLillo

Genre: Literary Fiction

Reading Format: Paperback

Would I Recommend It?: Absolutely!

After having this on my To Be Read list for years I made sure to bring White Noise with me when we went to the beach for a week earlier in the year and I’m so glad I did. I couldn’t put this down the entire trip and finished well before the week was over. I loved spending time with this family of over-educated, flighty, and neurotic weirdos coming up against an “airborne toxic event” in their small college town. I’ve had DeLillo circled on my list of authors that I need to read for a long time, so I’ll report back here once I’ve had a chance to dig into more of his work.

A Marriage At Sea by Sophie Elmhurst

Genre: Non-Fiction, Adventure, Biography

Reading Format: Libby E-Book

Would I Recommend It?: I don’t know. It was fine but probably not

“A Marriage at Sea” tells the story of Maurice and Maralyn who decide to sell their possessions, build a boat, and sail the world. After years of preparing, they finally hit the water and begin their journey from the UK to New Zealand until they are struck by a whale in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and are forced abandon ship and float adrift on their tiny raft. The story is fascinating and the telling of the encounter with the whale is harrowing and is probably worth the read on it’s own, but in the end I felt that the book overall was lacking. It’s tough when you are recounting a real story so you don’t have the ability to veer off into imagination of course, but I found it to be a bit meandering as we reached the back half of the book. Maybe that was the point though?

Have you had a chance to read any of these? If so, share your thoughts in the comments and let me know if you have any good book recommendations for me.

If you’d like to order a physical or digital copy of any of these books, I’ve put together a list on Bookshop.org at the link below1

Order on Bookshop

Keep an eye out for part 2 later this week.

Thanks for reading,

-Ben

As a 33 year old person in the world who enjoys many different things, one activity I’ve long claimed to enjoy, but have done very little of, is writing. Like my general interest in hockey, movies, books, and music, this lack of action doesn’t make me particularly unique, but I’d like to change this about myself and be someone who actually tries things and takes action toward the activities I want to pursue.

For a myriad of reasons and excuses I’ve lacked the discipline required to sit down on a regular basis and write despite claiming it’s something I want to do. I could blame work, home responsibilities, or social media distraction, but it’s clear to me that the primary reason I haven’t tried is because I’m scared. Not because I’m afraid I’ll say something controversial, in fact it’s almost certainly the opposite. I’m concerned I don’t have an interesting enough perspective or strong enough positions that are worth sharing in a public space. I’m not a hot take artist when it comes to sports and regarding things of culture I often struggle to articulate what I think of or feel about a movie, book, TV show, or album, but I’d like to change this.

I don’t have some brilliant perspective that the world needs, but I want to challenge myself to think more deeply and critically about the things I care about and try to put words to them while scrutinizing my own view rather than simply internalizing everything and accepting the first thought I have on a topic without ever thinking critically about it again. The act of writing has always been clarifying for me. I’ve often gone into the process thinking one way but by the time I finish putting it together my view of whatever the topic is tends to shift a bit as I give myself time to think more deeply about it and consider a fuller picture.

I have also found that in previous attempts to write publicly I’ve assumed I needed to focus on a niche topic, but I tend to lose interest in that pretty quickly because I don’t feel equipped to provide the expertise necessary to dive deep into a singular focus in a way that will serve any hypothetical audience. Rather as I’ve thought more about it, the most interesting thing I think I can do for myself and anyone else that might read anything I put out is to be anti-niche in a way and focus on my broader interests. None of us have a singular focus or interest and I’d like to explore that from my perspective for whatever it may be worth to anyone else.

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All this preamble to say that with this newsletter I intend to write regularly about the things that interest me as a challenge to myself to write more and develop a discipline that can hopefully make me a better writer and turn me into someone that actually interrogates ideas and considers them more deeply. The areas I imagine I’ll focus on most are hockey with an emphasis on my passion for the Buffalo Sabres along with the movies, books, and music I’m consuming as well as occasionally opining on the business of entertainment and media which I find endlessly fascinating. I also hope to dig into others topics I don’t anticipate right now as I challenge myself further.

A final thing to note here is that I have a broader goal of writing a novel. To be honest I feel silly sharing that publicly. I don’t have any reason to believe this is something I’m capable of achieving, and in all likelihood I won’t, but I need to try. So one of the primary objectives I have for this newsletter is to become a more disciplined and consistent writer as I attempt to accomplish this ridiculous goal I’ve created for myself. As a means to this end I’m going to keep the first few posts free to get into the habit and showcase what I’m hoping to accomplish here, but I intend to move to mostly paid posts fairly quickly as a way to provide myself a little extra motivation to do good work and account for the time I’ll need to dedicate to this.

I haven’t worked out the posting cadence for this yet but the general idea I have is to do at least 1 general post and 1 hockey post a week with the caveat that hockey posts may be a bit more limited during the offseason. I hope to write even more than that on a weekly basis, but that feels like a good goal to start. I hope you’ll join me in this endeavor and provide any feedback you may have for me along the way.

Thanks for reading,

-Ben Mathewson