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I knew this guy once who was like, "Ya know, I think I'm just going to go down and play for the Bills, I'll just be a back up and enjoy the fun of being there, the back ups are just regular guys." And when I was trying to tell him that was impossible he friends agreed with him! He thought us playing tackle football at St Joe's for fun was about the same as NFLers. Like whatever. He also thought this one girl in Playboy was just the girl he was looking for...🤷‍♀️

One hell of a play from all who helped move that puck up ice…….and, of course……..one hell of a high hockey IQ play from Beck. it was glorious to see, it was shivers creating to see it in slow motion. So thank you Beck, Malynsten, thank you so very much.

The 2022 Kentucky Derby winner wasn't even supposed to be in the race- Number 21 in a 20 horse field. He's circled in yellow If Rich Strike can do it, so can the Sabres.

Speaking for myself, we still heat our home with wood and all of it is split by hand. Despite being in my 60’s I can still swing my driver (golf) at more than 100 mph.

They'd feel like love taps compared to NHL slashes.

This trade was lambasted by the national media similarly to how the Savoie trade was. "What is Buffalo doing? This is bad asset management. Savoie is a top line winger, he was a top 10 pick. Peterka is gonna be a 40g guy." etc... and what most can see from all of this is how little the Sabres matter to the national media and how little research or understanding the big names at TSN or ESPN or whatever put into understanding the overall league they comment on. It is just a hot take based on their feels with almost no research or effort. "Oh the Sabres traded Peterka, that was stupid, therefore the return must have been bad. Oh the Sabres trade a former top 10 pick for a 3rd line center, that was stupid. What a bad return." Yet, as we can see, Savoie is struggling to score, Doan is basically equaling Peterka's production, and Kesselring hasn't even made his impact yet. This board was closer to the truth than anything. The consensus was McLeod was better than Savoie is now so we need the now and maybe Savoie won't hit. Kesselring is a big RHD so that might equal Peterka (in terms of team value) plus we got a guy in Doan who quite a few liked his play style and thought he could get more scoring with more TOI. We will have to see how it goes still but neither trade was as bad as the national media claimed.

Winning three in a row has been a real big hurdle for this team in what seems like forever. I agree that there is a sliver of hope, they just need to have more of a sense of urgency than the plenty of runway attitude.

Doan has some Mark Stone in him, strong on the puck, good forechecker and able to steal pucks. I like his work thus far and he should improve as he gains experience.

Reminds me of the time when, several years after he retired, Max Afinogenov was invited to play in a beer league game and he scored something like 15 goals.

He wouldn’t get one lap in due to the hacks and whacks from the forum members.

Totally love your optimism but I'll only believe it when I see it.

I have ESPN+ HULU DISNEY Bundle for $16.99/mo with Ads. I live in Las Vegas. I get every Sabres game unless its on NHLN or the National Game). I also have YouTubeTV for $82/mo but neither of my streaming services allow for NHLNetwork. I can get the TNT NHL games and National games though with YoutubeTV. But overall, its ridiculous the NHL makes it so difficult to get the NHLNetwork. Like, do you want to grow the game or not? It's idiotic.

Not me. I’d just sit on the wall. Can’t skate circles around what you can’t encircle.

Not at all. I look at his advanced stats and it supports the what I'm seeing on the ice. He'll throw hits and skate hard into the other team's corner. But inevitably the puck comes back and the other team out chances us every time he's on the ice.

I remember hearing a story on the radio about a guy playing goal in the local hockey league. The other team brought in 2 Sabres as ringers in a game. Both were 3rd or 4th line types I just can't remember the names right now. The goalie thought oh this will be great to see how he would do against NHL players. After a few shoots he said it totally sucked. He never had faced shoots so hard that it hurt to try and stop them if he could.

It feels like you are taking out what Adams gave up for Beck on him. He’s an NHL talent. Just not n elite one.

No one is skating around inkman’s calves.

I played hockey as a kid in the Buffalo area and played in some adult rec leagues over the years. On occasion, NCAA and/or former NHL players would come out and skate with us. Their talent level (even for NCAA women players) was MILES above any one of us, even the best of our group. At that, they were likely going at half-speed. Basketball is an even more interesting reflection of this concept. I've played pickup basketball with guys that can hit shots from anywhere. Inside, 3-pointers, mid-range, driving the lane, etc. They are SO good, and it's so effortless for them, yet the very best of these pickup guys had only a brief sniff of Division 3 hoops. D-2, D-1, and the NBA were not even remotely realistic for him, or for others like him. Malenstyn is who he is. He's a 4th line NHL player with great speed and tenacity and also some offensive skill, but he lacks the ability to put it all together on a regular basis at NHL speeds. There are some AHL players that are better overall hockey players, but based on the rosters of their parent clubs, they're not getting a shot at the league right now. For a moment yesterday, he was able to put it all together and score a highlight reel goal. If he had the ability to do it on a regular basis, he'd be a star, but he can't an he isn't. He is still a solid 4th line contributor for the Sabres and will have a nice goal every now and then. Adams may have given up too much draft capital to acquire him (a 2nd round pick, while maybe his value was more of a 4th round pick), but he's a solid role player for the Sabres. At the time he was acquired, the Sabres lacked in speed and guys willing to execute a body check against an opposing player. He has speed and is very willing to hit.

If you’re saying that Beck is better than beer league players then obviously but I think you could find AHLers that equal or better his play which is a way better comparison than older, most likely out of shape skaters on a forum like this 1 makes more sense.

I'm one of the biggest Malenstyn detractors here, but I would never suggest myself or anyone less than maybe a high end AHL player could compete against Malenstyn. I'm not sure if anyone else is saying that either. All I'm saying is despite his NHL level skill (especially his speed), he doesn't process the game at an NHL level. Using a chess analogy... the good players are thinking two moves ahead and the average players are thinking one move ahead. Malenstyn is a guy who can only think move by move. He lacks all foresight to be able to get himself or the puck into dangerous areas. You see this at all the time at all levels of hockey, where high relative skill does not translate to success. In my opinion, as long as you can have an average level of skill for the league you're in, high hockey IQ will take a player further than any other skillset they can have.

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.