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Ellis is getting the start tomorrow most likely. He had the starters net today at practice.

Philly - W Wpg - L Calg - W Edm - L Van - W Seattle - W 4-2 - Playoffs here we come!

Norris is gonna pass Cozens for points by New Year's.

Sounds like Ellis is getting the next start after UPL did well the last couple. I bring this up because here are their starts: UPL: .818, .912, .875, .900, .870, .967, .833, .958 Ellis: .935, .889, .857, .970, .829, .917 These guys are running at very similar rates as each has 50% of their games with bad sv%. Should be interesting to see what Ellis puts up tomorrow in Philly.

I think we make a move now to let us call up a 7th defender, then Kesserling becomes easy. Defender goes back to Rochester, Kesserling goes in and Byrson is now the 7th defender instead of a callup. I just don't think it's practical to only carry 6 defenders for very long, especially with all the injuries we've already had this year.

Another coaching staff is seeing some of the things that the Sabres saw.

To answer my own question, I just read an article on WGR where Ruff said that they played UPL because the team got back from Minnesota at 4:30 AM and that UPL was the "freshest" of the 3 goalies given the travel-weariness of the team; PLUS, Ellis has the ongoing back stiffness issue and they want to do some "maintenance" on it.

After last night, no. If he plays 50 games for the Sabres this season and 65+ next season, very possibly. There was never question as to whether Norris is a good player. He has been and is. The question has always been, can you get more than 50 games out of him and more importantly, could you get 70-ish games out of him consistently. They've now had him in the lineup for 5 games and on IR IIRC 47 games. There's still a long way to go to make that trade a W for the Sabres. That IF is the $8MM question.

Personally i want to evaluate Östlund on a long road trip more than i want to keep dunne assuming he doesn't clear. I also don't think you can operate with kozak/krebs as the 3/4 centers and expect to score enough goals.

And if Norris can stick around, that slight drop in goal scoring is going to disappear fast.

Unfortunately, I don't see any of the 3 goalies seizing the crease anytime soon, so they may be stuck there. Östlund is deserving to stay, but may need to go down for now so that they don't lose a contributing player. If it's not Östlund, it's probably Dunne. All of the early season injuries aside, which has been abnormal and crazy, it's normal for teams to have injuries here and there during the course of the season and it's likely that a Sabre player will be injured sometime soon, clearing the way for Östlund's return. I do agree with the post above saying that Dunne is the most replaceable and would likely clear, so I wouldn't be shocked if he were the one sent down. I don't have time to get into a Greenway discussion/debate right now, but I do believe that Dunne is adding more value than a less than 100% Greenway at this point. Greenway to IR might not be a terrible decision, as he clearly can't play every night, so he's wasting a roster spot on nights he can't play (and others may argue that he's wasting a roster spot on nights that he DOES play, but, again, not looking to get into that debate here). I assume it's going to be quite some time before Kulich comes back, but things could get a lot more challenging/interesting then. I assume that Kesserling takes the spot on the ice from Bryson, but I don't know what that does in terms of a roster spot. I'm not as down on Bryson as some here, but I do believe he's the most expendable of the defense corps.

This thought about Östlund came to mind this weekend. After that draft, I said I’d be thrilled if we could get 2 NHL centers out of those 3 first round picks. It’s starting to look like we got 3. If they ever turn it around, that draft is a huge part of it.

Has your feelings about the Cozens/Norris trade change after last night?

Connolly's hands were the best I've ever seen The True, "sick mitts" Too bad some d!ckbag cheap shot ended his healthy days

You assume a GM can just trade for anyone he wants, when he wants, and offer whatever. It's pretty clear Utah wanted JJP, enough to package Doan with Kesselring. What would you have offered the Mammoth for Doan straight up? And why would Utah take that deal?

Was Norris taking faceoffs last night? From what I've gathered, he's sustained at least 2 serious injuries (one on opening night this season) as a result of taking a faceoff.

There are no should wins. This is a recording.

I really want a win at Seattle to get that money off their back.

When Norris 1st started skating, thought Östlund's play dipped a bit realizing that he was now in Rosen's boat when Greenway came back into the lineup. But Östlund has picked his play back up the last couple of games. Kozak gives the team more flexibility for the games that Ruff wants to give Greenway a game off. Dunne fits better into the role on the 4th line that Greenway fills than Kozak does. But again, Kozak gives more flexibility to roster construction and is a better player. So, expect Dunne gets exposed to waivers, unless somebody decides they REALLY want one part of the 3 headed monster and meet Adams price.

AND, it saves Terry a bunch of money in hotels and in meals (per diem).

It sure seems like Östlund has taken a job from Kulich right now. Until they figure out the 3 goalie situation they will have to release either Dunne or Kozak. Dunne might be the one waived and is the most likely to survive and make it back to Rochester. I think Kozak would be picked up by another team if waived.

Dunne has been a nice surprise, but he's very clearly the choice. He's not getting claimed, but if by some chance he does, you move on. That's a piece that is much easier to replace than anyone else.

Can hope for W's in all of them, but can't realistically expect a W in Edmonton or Seattle. Edmonton, because they're rested, at home, and a tough matchup without the last line change, and the Sabres rarely win out there. Seattle, because until the Sabres actually beat them, they haven't done so and there's little reason to be expecting that 1st W. Calgary should be an almost automatic W, because they're really bad and for some reason the Sabres play really well in that barn. Could see them getting the W in Winnipeg, but after playing so horribly last night, they'll be looking to make up for getting embarrassed. That'll be a tougher game to steal than it should be. Could see them winning in Vancity or Filly, but can also see them laying an egg in either or both. Won't be what they need, but am expecting 2-2-2; maybe 3-2-1 with the 2nd OT loss turning into a SO win. And if Winnipeg is determined to make up for yesterday, 2-3-1. (And combined with the Minny game last week, would give them a 7 game stretch at or above 0.500 on the road. Which could give them a huge boost of confidence to at least do close to that on the road moving forward.) The wildcard is how much of a bounce do they get should Norris stay healthy through the whole trip and play like he did yesterday.

Offensive acumen doesn’t run strongly in the Mathilda bloodline. His dad was a solid defensive centre with strong leadership skills but his offensive game wasn’t strong even at the junior level. I’m sure his son is stronger offensively but doesn’t sound strong enough for a top 10 pick