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I know. I have referred to the Sabres as the Seals many times. Someone in the NHL Front Office had the bright idea to move Seals into the Adams division, which essentially put them in the East Division and the East Conference. As if the travel wasn't hard enough for them, they loaded them up with more games against many of the better teams. Looking back they had cool jerseys but their wacky owner (Charles Finley) made them wear white skates one season. The players hated it.

Wins. Always wins.

Most aren’t. I’m not talking about discussing his strengths and weaknesses - that would obviously fit under discussing based on result. Context is always important here and you can look to the post I specifically quoted as someone who doesn’t leave room for that if the equation is simply “he wasn’t committed to getting better.” Any player “not committed to improving in any way” isn’t someone we would want which renders the discussion on result moot the post I quoted said “hard to say much different” with regard to my statement that it’s unfair to label JJ as a player with no interest in improving the inclination is often to “found money trade acquisition, dude we traded was a stalled-out lost cause anyways”. Defence mechanism. Labelling JJ as weak defensively is fair. Suggesting he had no desire to improve isn’t.

It was a fun game to be at. The people around us were pretty incredulous at the Sabres only having 3 shots through the entire 1st period. Yeah, but after Quinn's "shot" found the back of the net, though they did have chances, Tuch's shot hit the post, the one where Benson was setting a screen went off the side of the net, another really quality chance bounced off the D-man in front, etc., etc.. 2nd period was one of the most fun to watch in a long time. Not sure what the total shots for the period were, but late in the period, the Sabres had taken 18 shots and the Otters 17 in that stanza after only getting 3 and 8 respectively in the 1st. Place was the loudest it'd been in a while too; that there were probably only 10k-11k people in the building made it that much more impressive. The lower bowl was close to full, but there were a fair number of empty seats in the 200's and the 300's had a lot of emply seats at both ends. Thought except for pretty much just standing around trying to play the puck on the Otters PP goal that Power played well. He had a pretty big check in the 1st; and courtesy of the sharp Otter unis that you could barely pick out the #'s of from the nosebleeds much less the names, took a moment to realize it was Cozens he hit. Cozens seemed to take exception to Kulich, he was running him any time the 2 were on the ice together. Timmons has been refreshing to see in the lineup - didn't know we were allowed to have stay at home D-men that don't go running around their own end looking for hits well away from the flow of the game. Thompson and Tuch both seemed much more engaged this game. Maybe they're finally getting their heads out of their bippies. Weird that people were unhappy with Kulich; he started out on the wing on the 4th line and ended up with Benson and Tage. Didn't really see anything noticable either way in his game other than how his linemates changed. Saw Danforth take the puck to the leg on the 1st shiff of the 2nd and him struggle to get around; could've swore he had 1 more shift after that but apparently he didn't come back out for the 3rd. Team was noticably faster than in their previous 2 home games. They need to find a way to still keep that up against the heavier game that the Swamp Cats will play. As pretty much everybody else is, really liking Doan. He seems like he'll be in the mold of a Marcus Foligno; hoping he gets there. McLeod's and Quinn's best games by far of the young season. Hope they can buid on this game. Still not sure why there was no interference call right before the Otter's 3rd goal. Dahlin got knocked to the boards behind the net and his man ended up all by himself in front of Lyon to make it a 2 goal game. That was probably Ruff's best timeout in a long time. Settled them down and before the 3rd was 3 minutes old, they had their 2 goal lead back and the 3 goal lead shortly after the 4 minute mark. Again, fun game to be at. Not sure why nobody wanted to score the 8th goal. Glad the puck finally worked to Kulich. HE wanted it.

And they ripped this guy off the Banana Splits.

Im not sure ik anyone who was like "we didn't want Peterka anyway" and discussing his strengths and weaknesses isn't not wanting him.

Thought RJ played a physical game in the minutes he got last night. Mixed messaging going on.

Detroit is 3-1 and tied for first. Wish we were that crappy. Montreal also 3-1. Ottawa 1-3 last place.

I actually think its the right handed piece. Ryjo and Bryson were both lefties. Ruff said Sammy will be likley playing on Saturday, my guess is he wants a right handed player to compliment that pair. Ruff is very big about right/left on a d pair. Im sure it kills him to have Byram/Dahlin out there together, but this truly is what my guess is the case.

Can’t wait for that Bryson Metsa pairing. What could possibly go wrong?

Not exactly tearing up the AHL. You’ve had this take on him for a bit. I’m glad he has a fan but I don’t see the allure.

Wow. Ruff really didn't like that interference call. Whatever. The kid played the body. Why is this Metsa -- the captain of the Amerks -- instead of Novikov? If you just need a body to sit in the press box, let Geertsen practice as a defenseman (like he did in NJ).

I’m assuming it’s Adams and his high level roster mgmt style

You’d think the fact we only ever trade guys who are fatally flawed and only bring in guys who “play the right way” would eventually result in a better team. Anecdotally, I always seem to hear, after the fact, that guys we trade away are folks we “didn’t want around anyways.” consensus in thread seems to be that Adams “wanted” to sign him but JJ wanted out. Are we thinking Adams felt JJ was reluctant to improvement if he was wanting to sign him? I’m trying to keep the argument straight, so forgive me. From reports we only dealt JJ because he had had enough - why wouldn’t Adams have been exploring a deal previous to that if JJ was someone selfishly only interested in himself and for some reason also not interested in improving himself? we can argue he’s bad for culture because he wanted out (if we ignore the why being of our own doing) but a young player struggling to round out their defensive game doesn’t torpedo their offensive worth and it certainly fits much more snuggly within the common development curve narrative that it does the idea he “wasn’t interested in being a better player” Maybe he’ll never have the aptitude and skill to completely round out him game? I could see that. But I’d deem the tarring and feathering of character we never miss the opportunity to engage in rather egregious.

I'm interested to see how Metsa does. He's undersized, but seems to have the makeup of a very good hockey player. He lead his college team to a National Championship, and I believe he was the captain of that team. I have not seen him play as an Amerk, but would like to hear what people who have seen him play there think. I fully agree that I'd rather have Johnson on the team than Bryson and I highly doubt Bryson would have been claimed on waivers, and I wouldn't be that upset if another team did claim him.

From undrafted to the NHL.

Saw a Peterka highlight from the other night and learned the Utah Mammoth have ripped off the Sabres goal horn.

I did not see the Boston game, but I don't doubt what you are saying. I thought he played very well last night and was always in the right position and stopped a lot of shots through traffic, which was impressive. I didn't see any saves that were going to make the highlight reel, but I suppose that by being in the right position, he didn't have to. My main point was that while nobody would be unhappy with "spectacular" goaltending, the Sabres can get by with "solid" goaltending if their offense performs to its capability. Prior to last night, the offense hadn't. But if you took last season's offense and added the kind of goaltending provided by Lyon the last few games, they would have made the playoffs. I like UPL and always want to see guys the Sabres have drafted and developed (and paid) succeed, but UPL was really bad for most of last season. If UPL plays like he did from January - April 2024, the team would be in great shape. In my opinion, UPL's play during that stretch was even better than what Lyon had done so far this season. Everyone thought that UPL had arrived, and the team paid him accordingly, only to see him stumble last season and now start this season on the injured list. Let's hope he returns to that form, and Lyon continues his strong play, in which case the Sabres will have a great goalie tandem.

Zach Metsa called up from Amerks

When the world ends the only things left will be cockroaches and Jacob Bryson wearing a Sabres jersey.😁

We're also hanging him out to dry. It's barely sustainable for great goaltenders.

You don't need to wonder. That's what happened. Jerry Forton is the brother in law of his business manager on the natural gas side. That's 100% the case and Forton is 100% a nepo hire. They've known each other decades before Terry bought the team.

Entire coaching staff needs to go.