Taro T

Expecting them to win. Except for that horrible evening Thornton joined the Snarks, only in the serious depths of this recent run have they been able to lose to these guys at home. Krueger has them rolling 4-1.

Yepper.

No need to send Gilmour down when Montour is ready unless somehow Bogosian's recovery beats his or unless they've decided to carry 2 extra forwards rather than just Rodrigues. They're only carrying 22 healthy bodies and both Bogosian's and Montour's contracts count against the cap already and they are cap compliant. I'm expecting Gilmour stays up until they're forced to make him the 24th healthy body.

Why wouldn't they? They were very loud the 2 I was at (even though 1 only had about 15k in the barn), and they sounded loud on the TV the other 2. As long as the Sabres give something to cheer for; the fans will back them. We've waited a long time to have a team that consistently deserved cheers; the fans will hold up their end. Actually, during games he changes stuff up fairly often situationally up front. Skinner usually takes the last Eichel line shift of the period and Okposo, Olofsson, and the 3rd scoring line tend to lose a lot of ice time with a lead in the 3rd. Sobotka finds himself on the ice when a critical face off comes up. (The D pairings have been more consistent.) But, to start the game and for the majority of each game, the lines & pairings have only been altered to account for Sheary's injury. Which is an amazing level of consistency and apparently how he handled lines in his short stint in Edmonton.

Assuming he were able to play after the trade deadline, there are no longer limits to how many players can be up provided they are under the cap, so that would at least temper the question of who has to be sent down should he ever be healthy enough to play. But if he's got a stall in the dressing room, how long does he skate on his own before he's back? 1 month? 2?

The guy getting bumped for Montour will be Miller, Scandella, or Jokiharju (Assuming all 7 are healthy.). A case can be made that each doesn't deserve to sit, but somebody has to. I'd asked in another thread (maybe up thread?) if Montour had been killing penalties in the preseason; if he has, could see him coming in for Scandy and taking his PK duty and Ristolainen's PP duty. Would expect Miller to shift to the left side in that case. If Montour isn't viewed by RK as a PKer, doubt that Scandy comes out and it's down to Miller or Henri. But Scandy being an UFA at the end of the year works against him as he's not likely in the LT plans.

Time in Ra-cha-cha counts as service the same as time in the NHL as far as the Seattle draft is concerned. Everybody that was full time in the AHL or NHL last year needs to be on the protected list or Seattle can grab them. (So Luukkonnen won't have to be protected to stay unselectable but just about everybody else in Ra-cha-cha will need to be protected.)

Not exactly true. After Berglund's last game (December 8 vs Filly) Mittelstadt was the 2C 8 out of 10 games in December and 5 out of 10 in both January and February. Housley didn't figure out that Rodrigues should consistently be the 2C until March 1 vs the Pens. After that, the only times Mitts played 2C was when Eichel was out. Absolutely, Botterill should've given Phil a better option at 2C, but Phil probably would've played Johansson on the 4th line in Girgensons slot. He didn't even start bringing E-Rod into the mix (not counting a game Eichel missed in January) until mid-February. Housley consistently threw Casey into the fire until after the season was officially toast. That's on him, not J Bott. (And there are about 3 games I don't have lines for, but even w / out those; the picture is clear.)

To the bolded, no data. Botterill has shown a huge reluctance to give assets away for nothing (Murray's big 3 trade targets not withstanding). I'd be very surprised if both concerns weren't considered when developing the plan.

Not really. He could've had guys like Asplund and Olofsson over in Ra-cha-cha a year earlier than they were and now he would've had to protect them this off-season. Neither of those 2, nor Mittelstadt, nor Dahlin, nor Pilut would've been exposed. Because Seattle delayed 1-1/2 years before the original schedule, all those guys have to be protected or exposed after plans were already in motion.

And, in fairness to him, the Seattle entry getting pushed back a year cuts back significantly on his getting credit for having brilliantly set the team up to not lose anyone of value (excepting possibly Hutton) had that draft been this off-season. Literally, prior to the moves made this off-season (which all happened with the knowledge that Seattle delayed) the Sabres would've been at risk of losing ~ their 11th best F or their 7th best D-man. (The mention of Scandella who'd likely be an UFA this off-season and thus not exposable though he could have had a deal worked out with him to sign after the expansion draft was the trigger for this comment.) Now, the gears have been changed to accept that they'll lose a useful player but have enough depth that that player should be expendable. IMHO, that is one thing he's navigated very well to date.

The Housley hire had the Stench of Brandon all over it. Not saying that Botterill wasn't on board, but that had ALL the features of a Brandon special.

In a NY minute.

As long as Ristolainen and McCabe are the guys getting the heavy minutes, can't see Krueger taking either from 24+ and 22+ to 0. Was Montour getting PK duty that 1st preseason game he played? If so, could see Scandella being the guy that sits when Montour comes back with one of the righty's not named Risto switching sides. If not, either Miller or Jokiharju sit. And, don't see a point to sitting a 20 yo rather than sending him down, so best guess is Miller would then sit with Montour taking entirely his role. (Partnered with Dahlin; time on PP 2, 5th PK D-man.) If Scandella sits, having Montour back could knock 2 minutes of ice time off Risto 's plate as he and Miller would run that 2nd PP.

It could be as simple as not wanting to have to reexpose Lazar to waivers when Montour is healthy and they have 23 healthy players on the roster not including Curtis. (He'd have to repeat waivers after being on the roster a cumulative 10 games (or close to a month of time regardless of games the Sabres would have played).) So, by sending him down today, they still could have him up for 6 more games before needing to expose him again to make him an Amerk yet again.