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Are inflatable palm trees still a thing at game? Asking for a friend. 🤣

I was just adding context.

Okay. Any way you slice it the stats say Lyon is above average. Now look at the teams those better goalies play on. Colorado? Winnipeg? Las Vegas?

You are far more knowledgeable about the players in Rochester. So, I will defer in Rochester player rankings. But what I can say is that when he has played in Buffalo I didn't see him as a liability. I thought he was a good lower pairing puck moving defenseman who played within his talents.

He's 19th if you do 3gp or more. He's 17th if you do 5gp or more.

I think you are expecting too much offensive production from Johnson. As you correctly describe, he is a good skater and can carry the puck out of the zone. But offensively he is not going to match Byram and Power from a point production standpoint. Johnson is who he is as a player. Expecting more beyond his boundary of talents is a recipe for having a negative view of his play. In my mind, I see him as a solid third or fourth pairing blueliner who is smart enough to play within his limitations. I like him.

Right now Alex Lyon is 23rd in the league in save percentage. .907. And that includes goalies who've played just one game. He's 5th among goalies with 12 or more starts.

We don't have elite goaltending. That's a fanciful aspiration that likely won't be met any time soon. That's not a surprise because 90% of the teams also don't have elite goaltending. What we need to get is consistently solid net play. Do any of our goaltenders on the team or in the system meet the elite standard? I would say no. But that doesn't mean that we can't get the caliber of goaltending that will allow this team to be competitive. Another way of getting more effective net play is improving the play around the goalie, as @PromoTheRobot noted.

I saw Michael Kesselring drinkin' a piña colada at Trader Vic's And his hair was perfect

As far as style of play it's like many of the others on the team. His best asset is that he is a pretty good skater and can carry the puck out of the zone. It's similar to Byram and Power but not as good. His biggest weakness is scoring. For the type of player he is he should have way more points than he does in the AHL. He is supposed to be Rochester's number 1 D man yet only has 31 points in 106 games. It's not like he is a stay at home defenseman. So that is the problem, you can play like Byram and Power but you have to be able to produce like Byram and Power. He is doing better this year so maybe there is still hope that part of his game will improve but it's no where near the standard it needs to be for the NHL.

You are saying is the Sabres goaltending is within 3-thousandths of league average.

RJ isn’t the best defenseman on the Amerks squad so it makes sense that Metsa is first in the pecking order.

We clearly aren’t watching the same team. The Sabres, as a team, have a .888 save % despite having the best PK in the NHL. League average is .891. They have the 4th worst record in the NHL (worst in the East), 4th worst differential at -13. They are 6 games below actual 500 with only 18 games played. While the defense still isn’t great, the goaltending has been the problem. The Sabres are in middle of the NHL in high danger chances against at 164, but lead the NHL in HDGA at 25. The same for general scoring chances. They are middle of pack in SCA, but 4th worst in scoring chances goals against at 38. As I said before, Lyon has been decent and his numbers are nearly identical to his numbers two years ago when he played 44 games for Detroit. However, Ellis and UPL haven’t been good. I understand blaming the D. They deserve it for their terrible play for the last 5 years (thx Adams), but Timmins has helped as has an improved Samuelsson. They still aren’t good. Power is awful defensively and Kesselring, when healthy, hasn’t been good. Dahlin’s situation also hasn’t helped. Despite this, the defense is actually slightly better and stats bear this out. Not good, just better. We all want the team to be good and would be happy with better, but to get good we need real goaltenders and we don’t have any. As I said before, I still have some hope for Ellis and Levi, who both had vastly superior to UPL AHL numbers. The only way to find this out is to play them. IMHO this season is already toast from a playoff perspective. As much as I appreciate Lyon’s effort so far, we need to evaluate Ellis and Levi in the NHL to see if there is something there. Time to trade/waive/dump/catapult UPL and see what Ellis can do over a bigger sample size. I’d then trade Lyon at the deadline and bring up Levi. If they both stink, oh well! The next GM will have to find a real goalie for the 26/27 season, and he’d also get a better draft pick in 2026.

Interesting. This makes sense to me. Was Johnson in the opening night lineup? I went to that game. I have a memory of him blowing 2 or 3 tires in his own zone. That might have set the coach against him.

Yeah, but who still star in the cellino law commercials if we lose Knox? Josh Allen can't do it all!

My sense is that Lindy isn't enamored with Ryan Johnson. Why? I don't know. Maybe it is a style of play that doesn't fit with his concept how a defenseman should play. When I watch him play it seems that he's comfortable playing against NHL players and is more of a blend in player than a thumper at the position. (As you described.) It just seems to me that Ruff has an opinion of him and isn't receptive to changing it. Sometimes old-style coaches are not as adaptable as they need to be. It won't be surprising that there will soon be murmurs that he wants to be dealt to another organization.

Matching 5 year extensions for Adams and Bryson incoming😝

I don't really think Ryan Johnson is much of a difference maker over Metsa or Bryson. It should be noted though he has been playing with a full face shield so so there could be a limiting factor on the call up. He had every chance to stick around the Sabres for awhile early this season. He just never seems to be able to take that next step.

matter teed me up... This is the first Sabres home game the day after a Bills game this season. Last year they went 1-3, allowing six goals in the three losses. Take the under +175 3.5 goals and a prop bet of a Sabre leaving the game carrying an appendage (5:2 his own).

The answer, as always, is found in M*A*S*H. Terry reenacts a scene from Season 4 and has his answer.

Heard he ordered a large sheet from Bocce Club for the Bills game yesterday and devoured it all himself from nerves watching the game transpire...

Pray and tune up your sarcasm meter. It's a horrible spot for a fan. We're already hearing, "Yeah, there's no way they can make up x points in 64 games" snark. There's not no way, but it'll be very tough. Just don't see a point in a heroic run to 84 points.

Under Pegula, the team changes coaches every 2 years, so this is Ruff's last year. Until Adams came along, he seemed to change GMs every 3 years. Not sure why he gave Adams a double, but this is year 6 for him, so this (hopefully) is Adams' last year too.

Is Zucker known for susceptibility to viruses? Maybe the team needs an immunologist on the staff. Even if injuries ends up being in some sense a 'valid' excuse I am really hoping it's ignored and Pegula finally moves on from Adams & Co. We'll see.

Any updates on Benson? Last I saw I thought Lindy said he could play during the road trip (which didn't happen). Did he have a setback? I didn't have Norris returnin before Benson on my bingo card.. Good to see Zucker is at least over whatever made him so sick.