Taro T

Got tix to the event for my kids, not sure if they went or not. We've been busy lately. Glad you had a good time.

Interesting. Whoever had 14-6-3 on their card when camp opened, please share whatever it is you're on. Guess if a D-man not named Dahlin gets hurt, until they can get an emergency callup of Jones, they'd run Dahlin for 30-32 minutes; Byram for 26-28; leaving the other 3 ~20 minutes each hoping for a LOT of PP time.

He's essentially the same age as Binnington was when he was loaned to San Antonio because he was so far down the depth chart they didn't even want him as their primary AHLer and ended up gettting recalled to the parent club and won the SC. Goalies are weird; this is a goalie in St. Louis' system and they are even weirder about goalies than goalies are. And w/ all that said, not expecting much of anything from him except ensuring Georgiev never sees a RS game in Sabre blue and gold (nor Sabre red and black, for that matter 😉 ).

For 30 days, yes, St. Louis could claim him from Buffalo and send him down without re-reclearing waivers (presuming Sabres were only team making claim; don't recall ottomh the exact mechanics if more than just Buffalo put in a claim). If he stays on the Sabres for a full month, then St. Louis would be in the same pack as everyone else should Buffalo try to send him to Ra-cha-cha.

Ooooorr, Jacksonville could have Ratzlaff, Leinonen, and Georgiev. 😉

When he's motivated, he can still be a world beater. Problem is, he wasn't motivated his last year at least (and arguably last 2 years) in Buffalo and he won't likely be motivated to this degree again often in Cheatland. When he isn't motivated, he's a huge distraction. Looking forward to Maye, McCown, or Vrabel looking at him crossways one time and him going back into pouty mode. (The sooner, the better. 😉 )

He's his dad's kid, for sure. Ed was a tool. Shawn is a tool on steroids. (Though it's likely dad did more of them than sonny boy.) They both are under the misguided impression that the people in the stands and watching on TV are there to watch THEM do their jobs. No, actually we prefer it when the refs are essentially invisible. But as bad as Hochuli and crew were; they didn't cause Knox to mistime his shift; they didn't cause Coleman to fumble the ball; they didn't cause Allen to Brett Favre that ball into a non-existant window; and they didn't decide Tre White could cover Diggs without any help as often as he was given that assignment. Stinks that they lost this one; but the Cheats will lose a couple more they shouldn't; the Crows and the Bungles are both essentially dead men walking; SD is still SD; and KC has a killer schedule. The Bills get the AFC North in the year that some teams are emerging in the South and West and they get the NFC South in a year that except for TB they all look like the Fishies. Injuries let them luck into a better PK and better P than they started the year with. Find a way to get past Atlanta next Monday. Get Hoecht and the other suspended guy back; get Oliver healthy; and get to it. They still control their own destiny.

Realize 3 of the 4 pairings aren't those they'll be running Thursday night. But holy cow is that a serious hound's breakfast back there.

Have admitted it likely won't work as Krebs probably doesn't have the chops to play on the top line even with 2 really good top line finishers. BUT, and again it was against lesser competition, he was in the right spots when he played with those 2 and he had important quality passes that led directly to 2 goals (he got assists on both, know 1 was primary, not sure if the other was 2ndary or not but it was crucial to the play); IF he can play within his limitations and just get pucks and feed them to spots those other 2 can work with it would free up a better player to play with McLeod and Tuch and it would also let whatever version of a Kid Line the 3rd scoring line is have Zucker on it, which should make THAT line significantly more effective. Krebs will be what he will be should he end up where we all expect centering the 4th line. But if he could be even a discount Rob Brown with Lemieux or Sheary with Crosby (guys who don't bring down significantly better players, but are themselves elevated by playing with the better player) then the middle 2 lines can both be improved. The idea is to maximize the total, not one of the parts. And, once again, it likely won't work. But it flashed it could. And this team has enough self-inflicted contraints already applied to it ($5MM under the cap; very bad X&O coaching; no proven goalie; just to name a few); they need a bit to break their way unexpectedly to overcome them. This could be one of those bits.

Good question. Understand why the media folks use it, because seeing who's working through the drills together (aka a rush up the ice) is how they figure out which groupings are actually lines on that particular day. But no idea when it went from simply "lines" to guys taking "reps" together to "line rushes." When did "physicality" become a thing? Heck, when did we go from "noodles" to "pasta?"

So, Johnson goes into the lineup and Bryson remains that guy that is there should someone's pregame meal start coming back on him.

Would really like to see them give Krebs another look with Thompson and Norris. IF he can be effective there (and he very well might not be able to do so) then Benson can become McLeod's winger, Zucker can become Kulich's winger, and Quinn becomes Danforth's problem (or Danforth gets Doan and there is the makings of a very good "energy" line; Quinn is still Kulich's problem in that situation, but Zucker is experienced and can help probably more than Doan would with all 3 still learning the NHL as is the current projection). Before TC, was expecting Quinn to bounce back to where he was prior to the injuries. But after the PS, no longer am expecting it. Still hope for it; it really adds a ton of flexibility to what they can do if he could be what his contract shows they expect he can do; but just don't see it.

Basically, it's a redux of Bertuzzi-Moore. Hagel got a 1 game suspension in the playoffs last year for a late hit on Barkov. Greer decided the suspension wasn't enough punishment for having injured Barkov, and attempted to mete out extra punishment on Hagel. The Bolts took exception to that, and came prepared to explain how that response would receive a response as well. Pretty sure this is how Hatfields-McCoys started, too.

Before the calendar flipped into October, thought the rumors that the Sabres would carry 3 goalies even should UPL be healthy could be true. But Georgiev has since shown that he simply isn't good enough to be in the NHL anymore except on an emergency basis. Expect that Bryson has been pencilled in as the pressbox D-man since he was re-signed and haven't seen anything to change that opinion. Expect that with Kesselring out, Johnson gets in the lineup on opening night. Won't even hazard a guess as to what's going to happen with the last 2-3 F's.

One thing that, IMHO, gets overlooked in Pegula's actions regarding the Sabres (or more accurately, non-actions, post-Covid) is the heart attack/stroke that Kim suffered. Personally, expect that affected his outlook tremendously. Covid showed him that his illiquid assests could lose tremendous value literally almost overnight given the wrong circumstances. And Kim's health showed him, in a bad way, that you never know what tomorrow's going to bring. I wonder just how much of his unwillingness to spend wastefully (for lack of a better word) on coaches and FO staff that are no longer working for him is due to holding out the hope that some medical team is going to have a breakthrough in brain recovery and the treatment they develop is going to cost way beyond what any of us here wasting time on a Sunday reading and posting to a message board dedicated to an irrelevant team in a semi-obscure sport when the weather is absolutely glorious in WNY could afford to come up with. It would make sense that he's concerned about cashflow when it's possible (not likely, but possible) that a ton of cash could bring back the version of his wife that he fell in love with and made so many plans with. Just throwing out a potential reason why his perspective on how he wants to run things might've changed. But IF that is the reason things have changed, don't know how we ever get past February 2 as it all seems to be a feedback loop. Maybe everything coaching-wise starts over next year as there are no contracts to buy out? Maybe Leone has such a special season in Ra-cha-cha he supplants Appert as heir-apparent? There must be a way to get to February 3; just not seeing that path right now.