Taro T

Well, yes, it would be good to not have Georgiev around. But why would you rather have Ratzlaff sitting on the bench in Ra-cha-cha rather than playing in Springfield or elsewhere? He's in Jacksonville so he can get the bulk of the starts. That is NOT going to happen if he's paired with Levi.

So glad Ruff didn't go with UPL though right after the Caps game thought that would be the right choice (see if his late game heroics could go to his head and get that January '23 juju back) but just don't see how UPL could've gotten this game to OT. Lyon was fabulous until he got hung out to dry in OT. Never like to see a 5 hole goal, but that was Keller and he was in clean. Expecting UPL next game and they probably need to give him that one to keep from getting into his own head, but would like to see Ellis get a shot against his old team.

Was kind of curious if he'd let the 2 kids out there in OT; they both played well tonight and Rosen has points in 2 straight now. Oh, well. Bring on the Blues.

Good.

His can't be any worse than Appert's.

Really curious as to why they (minus Lyon and 1 or 2 others) collectively looked so terrible out of the gate. Their 1st 3 games, they were REALLY bad. Since that Otter game when they got a few breaks but also made a lot of breaks, they've looked like an NHL team and haven't been out of any games. Yeah, they got Benson back in game 4, but he wasn't good his last game and he wasn't there this last one and they still played well (outside of OT that is 😉 ) in those 2.

Eh, maybe some other team will get into goalie purgatory and will be willing to bring him into their organization on a loan to get him 50% AHL starts and their farm team some W's. Could be win-win for both organizations.

Yes, and yes.

Can't send injured/ ill guys to the minors. Need to be healthy to be demoted.

You honestly consider what Snow was doing as having been "subtle?"

And of something that reads as AI generated at that. And of something that reads as AI generated at that.

Because much as Granato loved him some Jokiharju, Ruff loves him some Geersten.

Get it right. A 2x4 wouldn't even add 4 full inches of height to his shoulders.. Sheesh.

One of our neighbors has signs up every year for the local elections. Which works well, because if we don't know all of the candidates in the "little" races we can reliably vote for our neighbors' favorites' opponents and end up with someone that will get that particular job done. Hasn't failed us as a strategy yet. (Of course, should they someday twig to the fact that people see who they're voting for and do the opposite, they could fake us all out and put up signs for the people they hope to see lose, and end up seeing their folks get in when everybody votes against the candidates with their signs up in their yard. Doubt they'll ever get to that level of 3D chess. They seem to have issues with good ol' 2D checkers.)

Lesser competition, into his comfort zone on knowing what to expect from his teammates in any particular given situation, fully healthy; better goalie. 😉

2 things they've been better at this year than last on the PK. They aren't giving the pass through the crease to allow a clean tap in this year. Teams aren't trying it much, and the 1 or so time they try it during each game, the D-man has managed to get enough of his stick on it to disrupt it. Is that luck or a slight change of alignment, or simply being a year older and being more ready for that pass? No data. If it's luck, that'll bear out as the PK falters. But if it's one of the other 2 or something else, then it likely is sustainable. The other thing they've been better at is not letting themselves get out of position to the point that there is a wide open shooter dead square in the slot leaving the goalie to hope the shooter misfires as the goalie needs to move to even get into a spot where he MIGHT block the shot. That happened a LOT last year. Can't recall a single instance of it this year (neither from taking the puck below the goal line and sending it back to the slot nor from getting a 1v1 win at the boards with a man open in the slot) though it probably has happened a bit. Would really like to know how the people deciding what is high danger are making that evaluation. Expect that there really should be a further deliniation between a high danger chance and a high high danger chance. Am not seeing nearly as many high high danger shots against as there were in the past. And, clearly the GTing has been significantly better on the PK this year than in past years. Expect that isn't just that the goalies are playing better (though it's a huge part of it); expect it's also lesser quality high danger chances than there were in the past.

Have seen Allen called for that exact play that Mahomes didn't get called for. Had Mahomes not gotten called for the grounding earlier expect there's a reasonable chance KC does get called there (say reasonable, not that it's likely, intentional or not KC gets calls other teams don't get; just like Filly gets calls on the tush push that others don't get) but not after the controversy of the earlier call. My 2 cents, YMMV.

That may be the official rationale, but the reality is it was the refs giving Kermit a "makeup call" for having had the audacity to call him for grounding the drive before when the Bills lineman's hand grazed the ball on the one Mahomes intentionally grounded. It also was VERY close to having been touched by a Bills lineman before hitting the lineman in the helmet so pretty sure that also went into giving him the benefit of the doubt. This is the crew that called the WR for illegal motion or offsided on the Home Run Throw Forward Kelce had the last time they played in the RS in KC to take away their TD so they were on their best behavior to try not to give the Swifties sads.

Thompson blocked that shot about 1-1/4 - 1-1/2 minutes into OT. That 1st unit wasn't passive the 1st minute of OT but looked to be getting tired pretty soon after that and after Thompson was hobbling around they were fortunate to even get Tuch off the ice.

Awful is a SLIGHT exaggeration, but not by much. He was very bad in the 1st 60 minutes, though he did improve slightly in the 3rd. He wasn't moving well, gave up huge rebounds, was playing small, slow to react. Would say he had 1 nice NHL caliber save that wasn't shot into his logo in the 2nd period and would give him about 3 of those in the 3rd. And, good for him, his teammates did a very good job of getting to those huge rebounds after the 1st few minutes of the game and did a good job of limiting the true high danger chances against. But, OT went about as well as he could've hoped for and with any luck at all that and the SO will get him the self-confidence he needs so much because it is so evident how much his game changes when he's playing with confidence vs when he has little to none. Surely there are other guys in the NHL that are hit or miss as much as he is but particularly like he is with large stretches of 1 or the other not really a true good today, bad next game, so so the next after that and so on and so forth; but don't watch enough non-Sabres games to indentify who they are.

Very well could be. Had never really paid that much attention to the opponents on the bench before; but it was REALLY noticable after having initially noticed it and it seemed odd that during each period (don't believe he did it in OT because he only had the 1 shift; was too busy watching the action to pay attention to where he was on the bench after his shift ended) he sat amongst his teammates between 1 single pair of shifts. He didn't not sit there in a period and he didn't sit there more than once coming back from a shift. Very well could be something he's always done, or has done for a very long time. And when he was sitting at the end of the bench in the 1st and 3rd, he was at least being a good teammate and opening the door for guys coming back to the bench.

Last night was HFC night, and one of the Sabres "Gold Ring Partners" is Roswell Park. That game will always be a good draw because Roswell makes sure of it. (There was one just before Covid (pretty sure the season Covid hit, maybe the year before) that only had about 13,000 fans at; my understanding is Roswell was quite upset about it and every HFC Night since has been very well attended.) As mentioned upthread, last night was a combo of HFC, Saturday night, a (nearly?) final chance to see Ovi, and them playing well at home.

Eh, maybe it's just rust, but he had 2 knee on knee hits his 1st game back and had the shoulder to the Caps head (which led to Wilson going after him taking Wilson off the ice for 17 minutes and Greenway off for 7). All 3 hits were dirty. Were they intentional or mistimed? Well, Greenway's never been a dirty player, so they very well could be mistimed, but regardless of the intent, the outcome was dirty.

And that was the best thing about THE lockout. By introducing a salary cap salaries wouldn't go crazy with an increase in offensive stats (unless it makes the sport more profitable, in which case the owners will also get more money and not just the goal scorers getting it all). The owners getting their lunches handed to them in the 90's CBA negotiations had a HUGE role in the onset of the dead puck era. And, in general, the owners wanted nothing to do with more offense because more offense resulted in more in salaries than it did in revenue increases.

As the teams were lining up for the opening faceoff, noticed that Ovi wasn't just not on the ice, but was sitting at the end of the bench right next to Rob Ray. He didn't take his 1st shift until the Kids Line finally was due to come on the ice and he took a shift, went up the ice and came back to the bench, right there next to Rob Ray again. He had 5 shifts that 1st period, 4 of which were against the Kids and 1 against Thompson's line. He rolled through with the other forwards on the bench only once that entire period (meaning he didn't sit next to Ray only that once). And he was out there for Rosen's goal. Oops, maybe only playing him against the kids wasn't the best of ideas. In the 2nd, he sat next to Thompson (Logan, not Tage) to start the period and then took a shift against the 4th line. He was out there against Thompson's line the next time and then on the PP (might have those 2 shifts inverted) then he seemed to go back to going against the kids. Only took 5 shifts that period, too. But he did stay out for all 2 minutes of the PP. Once again, he only sat in the middle of the bench 1 time all period. In the 3rd, wasn't paying that close of attention to his shifts, though when they got the back to back PP's he did end up taking a 3 minute shift. His last 2 of the period were VERY short and in OT he didn't take the ice until well after Dahlin and Thompson had been out there a full 2 minutes. As everyone saw he was technically their 4th SO shooter, but the puck just rolled off his stick. And in the 3rd, he repeated the only sitting with his teammates once and sittling at the end of the bench the rest of the time. Am not expecting him to play again next year. As for the game itself, thought Dahlin played better than he had the past 2 or 3 games. Thought Rosen was sharper prior to getting his goal than later, but he also wasn't getting to go against Ovie nearly every shift after he scored. Thought McLeod was better than he'd been the past few, missing the net on the shorty breakaway attempt not withstanding. Thought all 6 D had another strong game. The talent is the best they've had in a long time, but will give Wilford props, they've been playing well and the PK is out of their minds. They just aren't giving up many strong chances while short and didn't expect they'd get to that point with him directing the unit. UPL was awful through 60 minutes. So was the Caps goalie. BUT in OT UPL was that UPL we'd seen back in January '23. Not sure if it was getting banged up on that 1st rush when Tuch wouldn't let the Cap get to the front and the Cap ran into the net and the net hit UPL, or what the reason, but that was the best he's played in a long time. As he tends to get into and out of his head, would give him the start on Tuesday (and tell him and Lyon that Lyon will get Thursday's start regardless to keep them both fresh and to not see UPL reinjure whatever he's been injuring lately) and see if he can't get into his own head in a good way. Quinn continues to be playing the right way in the offensive zone and isn't being bad in his own end. Will take that for now and will hope he continues to improve in his own end. Surprisingly, Power did NOT drop the puck back on the PP in the 2nd when there was a Cap on the ice right behind him. Baby steps. Of course, in the 1st he'd been part of the rare Triple Drop Pass combo and was the star of that making 2 of the 3 drop passes. Truly dislike Seth Appert. Greenway is playing a bit dirty since coming back. Mildly surprised at that; if he can stop taking penalties doing so or if the PK unit can continue to be stellar, it isn't the worst development of the season. Still liking the 4th line's effort level. Too bad Krebs hit the pipe in the 2nd shortly after the Caps had done so at the other end. Fun game to be at. Don't recall ever seeing an OT where all 3 guys got caught on the ice for 2 full minutes and 2 of them got caught on the ice for another minute. And shockingly, they didn't end up getting scored on through all that. They hadn't played their shift poorly, they just went back and forth the 1st minute and then at what presumably was the end of their shift they simply couldn't get to the puck ahead of the Caps with fresh legs. And whoever had Byram scoring the winner in OT with Ovie and Leonard shooting wide (giving Ovie the benefit of calling the puck rolling off his stick a "shot"), go blank yourself, absolutely nobody, not even Bo's mother, had that on their parlay. Bring on Peterka and the Woolies / UTI's and get a 2 game winning streak underway.