Taro T

The reasonable position to take would be that the Iggles keep the ball and continue that 2nd possession of the OT. However, technically, it is the 4th possession of OT and because the Bolts had the lead, the game should be over. Would be quite surprised if the league thought that far through their new OT rules, and considering they've already ignored a clear rule in a playoff game and allowed the backup refs to overturn the actual refs in said playoff game; expect that the league would ask itself "what would Taylor Swift want done here" and then act accordingly.

He still (or back to being) on McDavid's line?

Sadly, at that point, the Sabres can bring up some of Ra-cha-cha's ECHL callups because it just won't matter in Buffalo at that point. But it might matter in Ra-cha-cha. Also, don't know if a player on an emergency callup isn't considered to still be on the AHL roster for purposes of the AHL playoff roster deadline. It's possible (unlikely, but possible) that they'd still be included on the AHL roster because though they'd be in the NHL they aren't quite fully in the NHL (even if they're playing).

Considering how horrible this team is at entries with an outmanned situation, it couldn't be any worse than what they've been doing. Personally, would still pull the goalie, but not until they have control of the puck in the other team's zone. And would have to figure out just what the logistics of it would be, but might get the goalie back in the net when the other team dumps the puck down the ice and repull him after they have control in the other end again. Would work it a bit like a lax line change, obviously you don't want the goalie being the one trying to retrieve the puck from coming off the bench, but have the 2nd or 3rd guy back into the zone go to the bench instead up near the F's door and as soon as he's off the ice have the goalie race out from the other door. Let him come up ice towards the bench as the puck goes back up ice, but he doesn't actually go to the bench until they have control. So, it'd be a hybrid goalie pull. They'd still give up a fair # of ENGs, but not as many; and maybe the extra mechanics would add to the sense of urgency of the guys on the ice. At this point am willing to watch them try almost anything provided Appert isn't drawing it up.

They are. But there is no reason for a full teardown before beginning this one. Turn the reins over to Kekaleinen prior to making any major moves. Trade Tuch, UPL, and Byram - 3 guys that you can get value for (or at least you could've this past off-season). Dump Quinn for what you can. Let Jarmo decide whether to keep Greenway or not. If you aren't going completely off the board putting him on the 1st line rather than the 4th line where he belongs, you might keep him as the team needs to be getting older, not younger and there'll be a case for having Rosen, Östlund, Helenius on occassion, and at least one of Novikov or Johnson and Levi on the roster. Dahlin is the one untouchable on this roster. Get a legit coach and some non-Apperts under him and see what the rest of the team can do the rest of this year realizing that if you wait until the Olympic break to make that move that the team is going to be playing free and loose as they'll have no realistic shot at the playoffs by then, so you'll be effectively viewing what their absolute ceiling together is. What a waste it's all been.

What do you mean they generated NO offense? They scored a goal. Wait, goes back, checks notes, Greenway was offside and the goal was negated. Eh, nevermind.

They are SOOOOOOO horrible at entries with an extra man, WHY do they insist on pulling the goalie as they're moving the puck up the ice? Lyon made a huge save on the 2 on 1; get the friggin' puck into the zone BEFORE pulling the goalie. So truly dislike Seth Appert. And @PromoTheRobot, you are right, in that UPL didn't get much help from his teammates. But the 2nd and 5th goals at minimum need to be stopped. The 2nd one getoneg tipped by Timmins had no effect on whether that one was going to go in or not. UPL was sooooooo far over to his left trying to see through the screen that he left 1/2 of the net open and never reacted. The puck was going to go just inside the post, it moved a bit closer to the goalie but still not close enough. Lyon didn't face much, but he faced 2 high danger chances and stopped both. Wolf didn't play particularly well, but he stopped Zucker (?) alone in front. And UPL on the road is now 0-4-1 and hasn't given up fewer than 3 in any of those games. For the love of all that is Holy, if the 3 headed goalie monster must continue, PLEASE only play UPL at home. He actually has been effective there. Ruff can control the matchups and keep from having his team give up too many high quality chances against, especially early as UPL is getting his head into the game. But the team isn't good enough / deep enough to keep from having horrible matchups on the road and UPL is NOT going to steal you a save or 2 (or however many you need) to pull a game off on the road. In a vacuum, he probably is the best of the 3, but they don't play in a vacuum. And he gives them 0 chance to win on the road. Personally would give Lyon most of the road starts with Ellis getting about 1/3 of them and give UPL most of the home starts with Ellis getting a 1/3 of those. And once Ellis starts to consistently outplay one of the other 2, well then you know which one is on his way out the door. And @PASabreFan, still say they SHOULD'VE won this one. But they also should've started Lyon. 😉

It's possible; likely actually. But, essentially not making any changes in the coaching staff before he started coaching them again nor again after coaching with them for a full year; seems to say something too.

And yet every single day that passes brings them that much closer to their next playoff berth. (Glass halffull indeed.)

Good. Let them lose 3 of their last 4. 4 of 4 works too. 😉

IF the Cheats lose to Miami and Buffalo and both win all their other games, why? If the Cheats beat the Fish & or the Bills, yes, Buffalo will need more W's than the Cheats to get the division.

Stand corrected. Danke.

Pretty sure they didn't consider teams to officially be in the playoffs unless they made it to the round of 16. Could be misremembering as the Sabres were one of the unwashed and unloved that year so didn't follow the bubble tourney that much.

Post-Covid Sabres in Calgary 3-1-0 Post-Covid Flames in Buffalo 4-1-0 Last year was the only time they flipped the results. Don't know why the Flames tend to play well in Buffalo and the Sabres tend to play well in Calgary. They just do. Why did Buffalo go 12-2-1 over 11 seasons against the Snarks with the only drubbing against being the Thornton game? Sometimes stuff just seems to happen. Though really not happy UPL is getting the start. Maybe they SHOULDN'T win afterall. 😉

4. And he's a plus 3 somehow. So expecting it'll just be a matter of time before @Doohickie's telling us all how he should be playing every night. 😉

Since Josh Allen became JOSH ALLEN, the Bills very rarely lose in December. Hate that the Cheats got an extra week to prepare for next week's game, but am not conceding anything right now. Miami splits with the Cheats surprisingly often. Not sure who holds the tiebreak but IF Buffalo wins out and those are the Cheats other 2 losses, they'll have identical records against each other and in the division. So, it goes to common opponents. They both will have lost to each other and Buffalo beat the Stealers and the Cheats beat the Flakes. Buffalo didn't play the Raiders and the Cheats didn't play the Texasses. So, it looks like they'd be tied on common opponents too. So, it goes to conference record. Buffalo would have 3 in conference losses and the Cheats 4. So, don't break out those Cheats AFCE Championship T's just yet.

Good post. Wondering how much of his dropoff this year is because of age and how much of it is knowing in his heart that it probably doesn't make sense for him nor the Sabres to keep this marriage going and that has to be depressing for someone that's married their "dream girl" and it just doesn't work. Expecting it's a bit of both, but don't have a good feel for how much of either.

Would expect it to be a spare D, either Kesselring finally getting healthy or the marvelous (at the AHL level, not so much at the NHL level) Zach Metza. And Metsa it is.

Forton needs to go. (Obviously Adams and others need to go too, but Jerry needs to leave the building.)

Yeah, he did his normal trope about how everyone needs to be better and he needs to be better, but at this point, all that was and is is merely words. The actions don't match. Personally, expect this team is ready to rejoin the NHL because there are actual NHLers at every spot and there are kids in Ra-cha-cha that have demonstrated they can handle playing in the NHL without getting caved in should callups be necessary. But, that's where they were 13/14 years ago at the time they decided to blow everything up. Don't expect they actually WILL join the NHL until Adams is gone. Hoping Christmas comes by NYD this year but by no means am expecting it.

Maybe they slide Benson to the 1st line, Quinn to the 2nd, and Doan to the 3rd in that scenario. Don't want Quinn out there with the rookie. The rookie has good hockey sense and is decent in his own end. Quinn, um, does not. And didn't say that McLeod line would be a shutdown line. Intentionally said checking line. They'll try and do a reasonable job of it, but they'll face top lines sometimes and will get beat in those situations; but don't expect they'd get their brains pounded in. And not sure that I'd agree that the 4th line in your version was a true shut down line either.

Excellent question. Win every game they can. PA will argue against this, but this team SHOULD win in Calgary. Additionally, they might win in Vancouver; they should be able to win in Seattle, but until they ever finally beat them will always expect that to be an L. Maybe we'll get lucky and they'll make that one a moral victory by only losing that one in OT. Know it won't happen, but would really like to see a bloodletting in the hockey department on Boxing Day (or whenever the roster / personnel freeze ends; and realize the FO and coaches don't get holiday job protection; but waiting 3 extra days to can them won't make any difference on this hockey season and if it lets folks have a good holiday with their families, why not). Find out what you have should Leone be the interim coach. (Or heck, let Appert be the interim coach to prove just how friggin' bad he is and keep him from getting the promotion to the job full time. Nah, on second thought, he might have a Rolston dead cat bounce and we'd be stuck with him for the next 5 years. Better to not risk it.) Let Kekelainen take the reins. And whomever Terry's advisor is (he's bouncing ideas off somebody's noggin or getting input lo these many years) make sure he's the 1st one sent packing (Forton perhaps?).

The same guy that is instructing them in HOW to play D is the same guy that was doing so when Granato was the coach. Granted, that guy's system when he gets adequate goaltending is actually GOOD on the PK (at least it has been through the 1st 1/3 of the season) which is something that wasn't apparent when he was getting below average goaltending. But it is, has been, and likely always will be horrible at 5v5. With Ruff only making 2 moves altering the coaching staff in 2 years (1 being demoting Ellis and elevating Appert, and the other being the canning of a S&C coach), totally get being disappointed in how they play in their own end, but when they're getting told by the same people what to do, it really is a bit on the Sabre fan side of things to expect anything different. Sure, hope for something different, but to expect it, so, so, very Sabrey. (And, yeah, had hoped things would change under Ruff and even expected them at the time he was hired, but since he didn't make any changes other than using line matchups when available at home, not much has changed. He does have them playing better to start games than his predecessor did, but even that's not a huge change this year as they're tied for giving up the most 1st goals of the game w/ the Phlyers. 18 times in 28 games.)

So, we now have nearly 4 games of Norris and all of them have been with Thompson on his wing. They were great in the 1 adrenaline game and have been bad in the other 3. When things were going well prior to Norris getting back in the lineup, Ruff had said he saw Thompson as his 1C and Norris as the 2C. Realize the sample size of them together has been very small, but this team has played its way into not having the luxury of letting the 1st line have 10 or so games to find itself and gel. So, IMHO (and likely most people's here) the time has come for Ruff to break those 2 up. Thompson and Tuch show a lot of chemistry with each other. Doan has played with Tuch a lot and has reasonable chemistry with him. IMHO there's your 1st line. Norris and Benson should have chemistry together. And, in the adrenaline game they did. (But pretty sure Norris would've had chemistry with people from here that day.) What winger to give them? Options are Zucker, Quinn, Östlund (yeah he's a C, he can slide), and Greenway. Personally am giving them Zucker as he's the best of the bunch. Now, who to play on McLeod's line? For now, would give him Östlund and Greenway or maybe see what Kozak gives you at W. Actually would like to see what Kozak gives at W. Don't want Quinn on this line as am planning on using it predominantly as a checking line and Quinn doesn't fit that bill. That McLeod and Östlund can contribute some O would be enough in that department, at least on an initial looksee at what we have. Which would leave Krebs and Malenstyn wtih either Greenway, Quinn, or Dunne. Give it to Greenway when he's available and Dunne when he isn't. Quinn hasn't really played his way out of a job, but last few games he hasn't exactly played his way into one either. Doan - Thompson - Tuch Benson - Norris - Zucker Östlund - McLeod - Kozak Greenway/Dunne - Krebs - Malenstyn

And have said it before, and at this point it really isn't a knock on Bryson, who is who he is and when not asked to do too much is actually playing well in that 7thD pressed into duty play, but want either Johnson or Novikov (or some other 7th guy that has a D-1st focus) in the lineup which does 2 things - 1 it gives Power a defensive partner to let him freewheel as much as he wants and more importantly, if Byram and Timmins aren't working, you can break Byram and Timmins up without having to take Samuelsson Dahlin apart and without giving Byram a partner he won't be able to be effective with. (If it isn't working with defensive 1st D-man Timmins, give him the other one, and let Timmins go bcak to playing with Power who did look good together earlier this year.)