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Or send down Östlund. Or waive Dunne or Kozak. They do need a 7th defenseman for the road.

I'm going to add the 1st home game after the road trip because it's also against Philly. This is a Philly Cheesesteak Roadtrip Sandwich that will save or end the Sabres season. The Sabres are mostly healthy. They have a chance to right their road record and unite as a lineup against weak teams. They weren't "in it" at US Thanksgiving, but the road trip will either launch them into contention or effectively end the season. 12/3 @PHI -- they currently sit in the final WC spot. They have your spot, start taking it. W 5-3. 12/5 @WPG -- Just defeated them. Hellebuyck still won't be back, you're still faster than they are. Go win it. W 4-2. 12/8 @CGY -- They just embarrassed you, but you have their number in Calgary. They're still one of the worst teams in the league. Go win 5-2. 12/9 @EDM -- Just defeated them. They are still severely underperforming and are basically a two-player team with no goaltending. (2nd night of back-to-back, this is the toughest game on the slate). OTL! 2-3. 12/11 @VAN -- they're bad. Go win. Plus, I'll be there, so I demand to be entertained. W 6-3. 12/14 @SEA -- they're also bad. Two days of rest! Win here for the first time ever, you punks! W 5-0. 12/18 PHI -- three full days of rest to reacclimate to home. You've caught them on the hot streak, time to take their spot. W 4-3. Finish the sandwich 6-0-1. Yum, yum, yum. 33 GP and 39 points in the standings, probably good for 8th-9th in the conference. And then they're just getting started! (until a new rash of injuries and they back up the hot streak with 5 losses in a row -- because they like to Sabre with us.)

The Sabres are 9-5-2 at home, but only 2-6-2 on road. Philly is the next game. They are 14-8-3 (8-4-2 @ home) = 4 goals Wpg is next. 13-12 overall (6-5 @ home) = 5 goals Calg is the 3rd game. 9-14-4 (4-4-2 at home) = 5 goals Edm is 4th. 11-10-5 (5-2-2 at home) (This is the 2nd night of a back to back) = 4 goals and UPL in net to seal the trade Van is 5th. 10-13-3 (3-7-1 at home) = 4 goals Seattle is the 6th and final game of the road trip. Sea is 11-7-6 (6-3-3 at home). = 7 goals, because I really don’t like Seattle’s team name Thats the fare’s to be paid to make this a successful road trip.

He could be the next Pat LaFontaine. He could be the next Luke Adam. We need, like, 20 games straight before exploring this question with any substance. IMHO, of course.

League wide rankings since Nov 1st for goalies who have played at least 185 mins (66 goalies).... UPL (416 min) Sv% 21st GAA 18th HighDanger SV% 36th MediumDanger SV% 15th LowDanger SV% 13th Goals Saved Above Expected/60 21st Ellis (303 min) Sv% 39th GAA 52nd High Danger SV% 58th MediumDanger SV% 48th LowDanger SV% 31st Goals Saved Above Expected/60 39th Lyon (185 min) Sv% 59th GAA 64th High Danger SV% 50th MediumDanger SV% 28th LowDanger SV% 61st Goals Saved Above Expected/60 61st UPL has separated himself, he should be the clear #1 moving forward. A decision needs to be made on the backup.

Wins. Losses. A tie.

Östlund is a true centre whereas Kulich is not. Kulich is better suited as a goal scoring winger. It doesn’t sound like Kulich will be back anytime soon but they shouldn’t be competing for the same position when he does return.

UPL

Ruh Roh Lawrence looks facially very much like Cozens😁. Hopefully the hockey sense is much better.

rock star

IMO UPL has always shown he has the potential to be a good goaltender, but not more than an average starting NHL goalie, and certainly not the type of goalie who has shown that he could become the goalie who can make the BIG saves and make those types of saves consistently, at least not so far. Ellis to me has at least shown the potential to be the kind of goalie who will develop into a really elite goalie the way he battles to no end to make a save. Right now, whether or not he makes the save, he moves much more quickly in the crease than UPL and he's much quicker to recover from an initial save than UPL when getting into a position to make the second save on a shot. The more Ellis is played, the more I think he will refine his skills and use his quickness and vision to become the type of goalie this team has been wanting for a long time. There is only one way to find out.

I hadn't considered the possibility that Kesserling was close enough for them not to call someone up from Rochester, especially since he only started skating again yesterday. I still think they'll have to call someone up from Rochester for tomorrow night, even if they send him back sooner than later.

Östlund is a nice player. I tried to look for holes in his game last night, but couldn’t really find any. Me likely.

Not so sure about that. They definitely kept Greenway out longer than needed and they seem to have been able to get Norris back sooner too, but with both guys they wanted to err on the side of caution about possibly rushing them back too soon. And even now, Greenway is getting spelled games while he works back from the surgeries. So, expect there's a good chance that Kesselring could play now if the absolutely needed him. But they're happy with what Bryson has been doing. We'll know either way tomorrow as they aren't likely to travel to Filly without a 7th D-man available, whether he's on the 23 man roster or not.

After some thoughtful contemplation I must say that I am for him.

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.