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Thanks to all who responded to my original post. It helped me confirm that the reason I couldn't get yesterday's game on ESPN+ was that it was definitely a NHL Network game and not offered on ESPN+. It still doesn't answer why others on this board have gotten some ESPN+ games that have been missing from my feed, but at least it answered the question from yesterday. I was considering removing the thread (if I can even do that), but I see that there's a lot of good dialogue about what different people are doing to access Sabres hockey this season, so I'll let the dialogue continue....And yesterday aside, I'd still be interested if others have experienced what I have - certain games missing from the ESPN+ feed when others are able to see it. As I mentioned above, there are blacked out games, but those usually appear as a tile on the screen with the words "Blacked Out" printed on the tile. I wonder if the engineers at ESPN+ are just lazy and/or inconsistent and post some blacked out games with the words "Blacked Out" just don't bother to show others. I did not see ANYTHING on ESPN+ for the Utah or Colorado games (marked "Blacked Out" or not). Where I live, the Utah games are blacked out, and the Colorado games might be blacked out too, but again the icon with the words "Blacked Out" was not even showing. TV broadcasts aside, I'm happy to see the Sabres playing good hockey in 3 out of 4 games and staying alive in the race. They need to figure out a way to avoid the inexplicable stinkers against the likes of St. Louis and Calgary. If they play hard and lose to a top team, I can accept that, but to let lesser teams roll on, over, and through them is unacceptable. I guess another perspective is that teams just can't be on every night. Maybe Carolina fans are, today, saying that it's inexplicable that their Hurricanes could get thrashed by a lowly team like Buffalo....

Everyone would be wise to keep this in mind at the trade deadline.

When I first came here I asked you if you were one of the original Phantom Sign Makers. If you were then there would be funny stories.

It is not impossible. Win enough in a row to improve the current .500 to .600. This can be done in a few chunks with winning streaks, they are about to win 3 in a row if they can get a road win in Pittsburgh - that is a real MW. Then maintain .600. This means they average winning 6 of 10 (3 of 5) like a real hockey team. It means no more big losing streaks. No more losing 3 in a row. No more OTL's unless they are come from behind. It is time for this team to grow up.

Sean Payton should be banned from the NFL.

I always think about football. In College you might be playing against 5 or 6 NFL players at a time, in the NFL, everyone is that all the time. There's thousands of college football players, a few hundred get drafted, and only a select few of them make NFL teams. We often talk about depth of NHL drafts. The draft produces between 50 and 60 NHL players for every 224 players selected. Now think about how many CHL, USHL, NCAA. J20, and MHL players are draft eligible each year. Only 224 get taken, and only 50ish will play 100 NHL games. I know UB athletes that treat college like a joke because they are going to be big in the NFL. It is great to have that dream, but you making it is slim, you being good enough to retire and live off what you earned is even slimmer. Pro-athletes in 2025 are truly elite.

Didn't say HOW we got them. Have to subscribe to get the story. 😉 (Where's the D'oh! smiley when you really need it.)

I think the three headed monster is here to stay unfortunately. All three have been inconsistent this year. The trick is going to be playing the goalie each game that is not going to crap the bed.

To the bolded, 100%. Shockingly, the 800 or so players that actually get to the highest level of the sport are all (with maybe 1 or 2 exceptions and even they are in an elite, just not quite as elite, company) within the top 1,000 or so players in the world.

I thought this year was butter dishes?

Math! Boo! Such a perfect science. Maybe too perfect. That sure makes it look impossible

The NBA active roster for a game is only 12 to 15 players. NBA backups would absolutely destroy non NBA players. Dahlin laughed and said he knew Malenstyn had some really good skills. Many NHL 4th liners were once high skill players. I knew a guy that played youth hockey against Adam Mair and said he would score double digit goals pretty much every game and just dominate everybody.

Rasmus Dahlin is a way better player all around but I think Power is bit better in that one aspect. The zone entries on the power play smooth and more decisive. Any open ice Power is going to roll. His last few games have been especially good in using his feet to exit the zone and carry on through the neutral zone. If he has open ice he is going to take it.

FWIW, I was paying for ESPN+ sometimes with and sometimes without Disney/Hulu bundled in, but now I have ESPN Unlimited as part of my Verizon FIOS package. It was a bit a pain to do, but I had to enable it, but since I was already paying for ESPN I now get unlimited too, so I'm suddenly saving on hockey (and lacrosse) this season. But if you don't already pay for ESPN it's moot and you're probably better doing select or unlimited on the side depending on your preference. For hockey specifically I get TNT, NHLN and Monument Sports, to cover all the national/blackouts for games here in Maryland from my cable package, and it's been one of the main reasons I still pay for cable. Because TNT would require HBO, I don't think there is a way to stream just NHLN. You basically have to get streaming "cable" and then I think Monument Sports has a streaming app that isn't worth it for the 2-3 Caps games we play each year

What? 🤦‍♂️

The end pieces were sooo tender despite their charredness.

But still no playoffs? 😢

Follow-up - everyone got gravy boats. (Butter dishes, too.) For what they did with them, you'll have to subscribe to the Only Fans page.

Figured it was common knowledge. But I played a floor hockey game about 15-20 years ago at the facility in Rochester in East Ridge Rd. I was young then, and so were my teammates. We all played competitive travel hockey, but weren't good enough to play over division 3 hockey. Anyway, out comes a team with guys like Scott Metcalfe, Jody Gage, Randy Cunneyworth, Scott Nichol etc. Nichol may have still been playing but everyone else was retired. The way they dismantled us was comical. We were younger and faster but the precision they had with the puck really drove home just how good pros are, even guys who don't make it past the AHL.

Or he has a couple of multi assists games.

One might say a fool's gold (and blue).

Yes follow up, like funny stories.

The fact that this point has to be made is a sad state of affairs!

I agree. The thing about Zucker is that he is not all rah-rah words, he leads by example and he makes a lot of smart decisions on the ice. He seems to fit into any of the top 3 lines.

It kind of reminds me of the discussion that comes up... Could the best college football team beat the worst NFL team? Could the best Alabama team of the decade beat the Detroit Lions when they were owing 16? There are people who argue. Yes, the college team could win and I think that's crazy. I think those games would probably be 70 to nothing... Depending on how hard the NFL team wanted to try. Oftentimes the very best college teams of all time will have 10% or less of their roster that is drafted into the NFL, and many of those players may or may not even make an impact. Not to mention they practice less, they have less complicated schemes, it all matters. I agree with your original point, and it just made me think of that argument I just listed above.