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I agree with most of this, I still have some differences though. The goals allowed. I think a lot actually IS on the goalies. The defense isn't perfect, they aren't one of the best in the league, but over the past 2 years I still maintain I am seeing the same things: Goalies allowing more 'weak' goals than they should. Yeah, I get forwards have 'nhl shots' and can pick corners, but when a goalie is set in position, facing the shooter, isn't screened, and the shot is coming from 10-15 feet out (or more), he should be making more saves than he does. And the D-men, they get blamed a LOT more than they should (at least on this forum). I'll give 2 examples/reasons: 1.) The forwards are SO bad in their own end that the D-men get hung out to dry. I have seen forwards just kinda roaming around leaving the trailer uncovered, chasing pucks they will not get to and leaving huge areas open in the D-zone for the oppents to walk into. How does that make the D-men look bad? The D-men are often in position, but because of zero defensive play by the Sabres forward in their own zone, the D-men have to choose, do I stay in MY assigned spot, or do I cover the WIDE OPEN area of the ice the forward on my team left open? When I watch replays I see the D-men often play it 'half way', trying to cover a little bit of their area, and a shade a little bit to cover for the Sabres forward who is 'out to lunch'. If a scoring chance came from the Defensemans are...the only reason they weren't there is they had to cover for a forward, but the fanbase IMMEDIATLEY points out its the D-mens fault because in the narrow view of the camer it looks like it. 2.) my 2nd point is related to my first. There are a few examples of this, but 2 weeks ago the Sabres allowed a goal and I swear there were 4-5 posts right away blaming Power. When I watched the replay, Power was the ONLY guy who played it correctly. The Sabres center was McLeod, he was right behind the puck carrier on the other team and that guy put a little move on McLeod and Mcleod fell for the move and lost him. The puck carrier went toward the corner, and the Sabres winger on the near side was trailing so far behind the play he was a non-factor. So Power, you can see, is watching all of this. As the puck carrier goes into the corner, Power actually looks up, sees he has no coverage in front of the net, but he also sees the guy put the move on Mcleod and leave him in the dust, so now he is all alone approacing the side of the net. Power looks up again, turns to look into the corner, and then shades toward the puck carrier because there is no support from the winger (and none coming). The puck ends up going to the front of the net, McLeod didn't get there in time, and a goal is scored. On the Camera, you can't see the winger WAY beind the play, and on one angle you don't see McLeod getting absolutly roasted by the other team, so while Power is hung out to dry, he LOOKS like he didn't know what he was doing when in fact he was covering for 2 forwards who either made a bad defensive play, or where lollygagging up the ice. Yeah, I know there are legit times Power (or other D-men) DO make bad plays, but I swear there are a lot of "obvious" bad plays they make that actually aren't bad plays, when you watch the entire play unfold and see the awful support they are getting from the forwards. Cozens was guilty of this and you got rid of him so thats good. Quinn might still be the biggest offender in the D-zone, he is awful, one of the worst forwards in the league in terms of supporting the D-men. McLeod has taken a huge step back in this regard this year vs last year. Tuch's strength is forchecking, not playing in his own zone, I get that, but Tuch also really isn't that good inside his own Blue line. I realize Zucker was playing hurt early in the year but he is guilty of this a lot this year too. Sometimes the forwards need to give more effort to get back. Other times when they get back they actually have to do 'nothing' but hold their position, clog up the shooting and passing lanes. This is where Tage is actually pretty good and doesn't get enough credit. He gets inside the blue line and holds his position, and now with his size and reach, that entire area of the ice is a 'no fly zone' for the opposition. He LOOKS like hes not doing anything. He's not chasing loose pucks, he's not forcing turnovers, but he is LETTING the D-men do the work down low instead of forcing them to have to constantly monitor the ice and recoginze where the forwards are messing up and then look bad when they try to figure out how to cover for them. I think more often than not, the best way a forward can help in their own end is to have your Center just patrol the center of the ice, the wingers ONLY engage the boards when there is legit chance to get a puck, and DO NOT CHASE the puck all around the ice. Again, hold your postion, play zone defense, and let the D-men engage the puck with the knowledge they aren't going to be hung out to dry by a forward who is wandering/chasing.

This is really exciting, he seems to be coming along nicely, I hope he dominates the WJC

UPL in net They did not call up a defenseman

They need to change the challenge system and make it more in line with the NFL model. You get two a game and don't get penalized if you're wrong. Give each team two timeouts a game and lose one if you're challenge fails. Also, please explain why the call on the ice stands or does not. My guess is they don't know why the hell either and just do what Toronto tells them

We were never going to beat Philly. It’s a mismatch. Winnipeg is a winnable game.

Tee Higgins playing. JA will have to put up 45 to win. Burrow will go up and down the field.

I’m strictly talking about a high profile NFL player choosing to not want to come to Buffalo. How many times have we seen it? I think he stinks and don’t really care about what players comprise CBs 6-9.

Ok so we bring in a new CB7 from a future opponent’s practice squad. My point was that this is not a “PR Nightmare.” Again, the guy has been inactive for weeks.

The problem is, you let go of a guy on your 53 roster for him, and then lose him, and the guy you released gets signed by another team.

As a big time Buffalo Bisons fan and lover of the Pepsi cap I must say no to thinking that losing the Sabres and having an AHL team is going to ever be good enough. Terry can own the team or someone else can but their job is to find people that know how to run a team and how to win. The reason for the Sabres existence ...

USHL is probably not the same league it used to be, but this is encouraging considering their draft position. 2nd and 4th in scoring coming out of their draft years.

Lindy’s speech….adapted for the Sabres. You're 5 foot nothin', 100 and nothin', and you have barely a speck of athletic ability. And you hung in there with the best NHL players in the land for 14 years. In this life, you don't have to prove nothin' to nobody but yourself. And after what you've gone through, if you haven't done that by now, it ain't gonna never happen. Now go on back.

I was expecting a Dahlin suspension, because we are the Sabres.

Poltapov doesn’t really seem to be progressing this season. Any idea what kind of tone on ice he’s getting?

Dahlin and Thompson can't possibly play as bad as their last game, so I expect them to at least give us an entertaining game.

All I can picture now is his dumb face shilling out for T-Mobile with Zoe Saldana

Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, etc. I don't discriminate

I just don’t understand why it is a PR nightmare. I forgot the Bills also have Dane Jackson again. None of these guys are any good today. Ingram could not get on the field this year and he will be 29 years old by opening day in 2026. It wasn’t and isn’t going to happen for him. He’s CB7 on the roster. I get what you’re saying, we lost something for nothing. I’m just saying it was like losing a crappy hard candy from grandma’s house you forgot was in your coat and now it’s even more stale. Old stale individually wrapped lemon drops. I don’t care what twitter or the heads think with their need to create content.

Nothing in here is incorrect but the solutions are complicated and that's an off season discussion really. A long one. Some guys don't play good D. Some are inconsistent. Some lack effort. Some just don't want to play that way. So ultimately for me it's about roster construction and lack of leadership. Habs for example have a better constructed roster and maybe the Ducks now do as well. The scoring talent has never been an issue here imo.

I think most of this is true. However I would say they need to swap out some of their young guys for a veteran top 6 winger. Tuch is a situation that is obviously unfortunate if it can't be resolved but it's not a wanted one. It would set them back if he's moved for prospects. Benson right now should be third line imo but I am also confident eventually he plays higher and effectively but it's too much too soon and he's not there and it does cost us.

I guess if you ignore the whole PR nightmare aspect of it then fine. My post had nothing to do with wanting Slay on the team.

No slay bells ringing in Buffalo this holiday season.