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Every game forward is a battle for this team, even the Jets game. I recognized this season as a retool year, so I wasn’t overly concerned, but the amount of positions that need to be addressed because Beane whiffed in multiple drafts with first and second rd picks is definitely a grave concern. I’m questioning Beane’s ability to GM, it’s not a good track record.

Seeing that I'm banned from 2BD for two months...GO BILLS!

Johnson has also reliably played on the right side in college and thus far in the NHL. Earlier this season he had a shaky game, and took a penalty for being too physical (Ruff basically benched him as a result), but I have no doubt he'll give a better game-in/game-out performance defensively than Bryson.

I still dont' understand why Ryan Johnson isn't used. He doesn't have much time, but to my eyes, he certainly has performed better than a typical 3rd pair D-man in the time he has here His analytics, again VERY limited time this season, support that. When he has been on the ice, the team has only allowed 1 goal every 26 minutes. (its one goal every 15 minutes for Dahlin and Power, every 14.7 minutes for Byram). He is the only D-man on the team with a positive number in expected goals for vs allowed. I know, he has very limited time, but I never really thought he was bad out there.

This Quinnway player, with their combined salaries, would make $7.375M for the next two seasons. Just caught the highlights. Yup -- the Sabres D did what they could to blindly centering to the opposition (Timmons), only lightly pressured (Byram), lost battle (Dahlin), and unable to take the pass (Samuelsson) to give away the game. Ellis even made a very good initial save on the Byram turnover. The goalie was hung out to dry the first half of the game. TNT was able to take advantage of DeBrincat on the rush goal and again in OT. We need to see him use his size and strength more against actual defensemen who are not the size of Bryson. With Dahlin back they're allowed to win again -- it just took them a little while to remember that and get warmed up. Glad they even got the extra point. Now, go win some games in regulation.

Interference I believe

I guess i am not sure why 95 points has to be the number. It has been 91 the past 2 years and 92 the year before that. The East is more balanced than ever. The number this year could be 89. Still they are not in a good place and getting to that number is going to be difficult.

Frankly if im Lindy I’m doing everything I can to invoke Tage Rage. He’s a completely (ok his hockey sense still blows) player when properly motivated. He has to learn how to capture that and use it when he can. Let’s face it, he’s a tall handsome son of a former player. It’s not like he’s Brad Marchand who is a huge beaked midget that everyone hates.

There are a variety of leadership styles that can be successful in all fields of endeavor. You don't necessarily have to be an outwardly forceful or loud leader to lead a franchise. A good leader surrounds himself/herself with quality people and empowers them to do their jobs. I have been a harsh critic of TP. I really don't know what the freak he is doing and where his head is at right now. As a new owner I was willing to give him more time to learn how to navigate in new waters. My patience has been exhausted. I'm tired of him and his incompetency. I'm not demoralized to the point of giving up on the team. I strongly believe that with the right person at the helm who is capable of making some judicious moves that this floundering franchise can get back on course. Is Jarma that type of person? I don't know. What I do know is that he would be better than what we got. The owner's stubbornness is not only self-sabotaging but as a fan is tough to take.

Good on her that she wasn’t giving the finger.

I wish they kept Bernard-Docker instead. It’s ridiculous they let him walk and chose to overpay Bryson as their first signing objective.

Someone needs to misspell the opponents' names from now on until the power burst expires.

Nope. I'm saying the goal was to get to 95 points. They needed about 16 points in an 'average' month to get there. Because of how they played so far, now they need about 17 points per month to get to 95 (with a month based on 14 games per month.)

So you're saying they need to play at a 95 point pace going forward plus the 16 they already have to equal 111 points or play at a 79 point pace going forward plus 16 they already have to equal 95 points? No matter how its disected they are going to need about 43 wins and about 10 extra time points to get around 95 points

Keon Coleman benched. He was called out by McD several times for lack of effort. He missed a team meeting. He sits.

I think of a leader with the knowledge, swagger, and confidence of Bill Polian, plus the mentorship, teaching ability, patience, and class of Marv Levy. It would be great ti have long term leader that is the positive face of a franchise committed to winning and to excellence. Or they can just find a real hockey guy that has won before, like Knox did with Imlach and Bowman, and they let them figure it out. Terry almost found Zito before Florida did. But would Terry have let Zito be Zito? Two decent guys out there right now. Shanahan - he can lead Hockey Ops DeBoer - he is fine coach, still no cup, but his teams improve and contend.

I agree with you that technically the too many on the ice call was correct. But from a discretionary judgment call I thought it was a bad call. And as you point out, with the Tompson/DeBrincat engagement both of them were battling, so the judgment of a no-call was the right call. Although, if that type of throw down happened in the middle of the game, a penalty would likely be called. As you note, the calls evened out.

The announcer said the players/bench were looking for a call for interference but the announcers said no it was a battle

They also might've been unhappy about Dahlin getting into the play well before the guy he was replacing got off the ice to start the play. But after the way the Sabres were going nuts over the too many men that was called, that one had to be ticky tack at best, so expect the non-call in OT was a makeup call. And, Thompson and DeBrincat were fighting for a loose puck, have seen plays like that called, but rarely if ever when the game is on the line. That's a "let 'em play" call. They battled back well and Ellis managed to never give up the 5th goal that would've buried them. Bring on the Eulers.

You don't have to be an organizational analyst to recognize organizational instability. Never ending turmoil from constant changing of staff shouldn't be a surprise. The leadership standard in any organization is set by the top of the pyramid. In this case, from the owner and the lackeys he has hired. When you are in a competitive endeavor it isn't a surprise that long-term failure creates a stress filled environment. It is evident with the players and even with the fans. The Sabres have been an unstable franchise since Terry P bought it. Lurching from one approach to another. What's the solution? It's not something magical. It's a basic concept that is evident to anyone who has a flicker of intelligence: hire the right people and empower them to do the job. If it doesn't work, then you hold them accountable for their performance and replace them with people who might be better options. There are no guarantees that the next option will work. However, you are guaranteed to fail when you continue on with failures. Common sense 101.

The issue isn't that one of the six dmen are hurt. I'd imagine most teams are down 1 dman this time of the season. The issue is the 7th guy is Bryson. You'd think a GM who is in the final year of his job would be a little more desperate to make an upgrade

Benson sure but Norris is off injured more than he’s ever played. Not sure how that makes him the heart of the team.

I had to do a double check on the Lehner history. His career in Buffalo went bad right from the start. In the first game of 2015 Lehner was injured. He eventually became very upset about the medical treatment he received from the Sabres medical staff for a high ankle sprain. Then there were his periods of depression and mental illness that he hid from the team. In March 2018 he had a panic attack during a game. After that game all his mental health issues came out and the Sabres rightfully put him in rehab treatment. He became a free agent that summer and ended up with NYI where he had a major comeback season, only to be shipped to both the Hawks and then to Vegas on the following season. Something tells me these teams were more in tuned to Lehner's mental health issues and they moved him out quickly, even though he was playing well. Later he became publicly supportive of Eichel's neck surgery position, and was publicly critical of he Sabre medical staff, the team, even the fan base - He found the constant negativity and intense pressure from the Buffalo fanbase challenging, stating that the energy in the rink was often negative due to years of losing. So while Lehner hid his demons for a long time, he was not ever happy with the Sabres, especially with the medical staff. He talked about the use of sedatives, pain bills and anxiety pills. His time in Buffalo was largely negative and he pointed to the locker room issues, he stated that players did not respect game plans and not respecting coaches. He is not the only former Sabre from this era to report on the bad locker room - this is knock directed at the core at the time (Eichel, Reinhart, Kane, Bogo, ) whether this is deserved or not is open to debate. The Sabres were known to have locker room factions. So when you think of all the disfunction from LaFontaine quitting abruptly and the team tanking, and then all of this crap that Lehner revealed from 2015 to 2018. Then the ROR trade in summer of 2018. Then Krueger soccer hockey, then the Adams spy trip and his magical accension to GM, the EEE policies, the long list of players that left and found great success, the "extensive coach search" - it is not hard to understand why so many players do not want to play in Buffalo. It is going to take a special person, a special leader, to stop the bleeding and turn this franchise around.

Forgot to say interference was what the bench was looking or hoping for.

For fvck's sake. Can we just play a game where someone doesn't get seriously injured??