Taro T

Two of the best teammates ever to play. No way either would ever say anything negative publicly about Fuhr or any of their other key teammates. That's not how great leaders operate. So, regardless of how true or not the statement may be, it really isn't as impressive nor as decisive as you imply. They have a horse in that race. To the bolded, we are in agreement. And it is obvious what Muckler's view on it was, but understanding his perspective doesn't absolve him from being an idiot. And his idiocy very possibly cost the Sabres a Stanley Cup.

Hopefully this means that they've already decided Comrie won the backup role and are going to refrain from giving him the opportunity to puke all over himself resucitating the 3 headed monster.

Because in his quest to be this generation's Rico, 7's not available any more. Duh! 😛

Partial season age 22 Rico versus in his prime & full career Benson.

Maybe Filly will put in a claim. Cut down on just how much they gave up for Ristolainen.

Would say that 92.5 is a no brainer very easy money and the 100 point line is pretty tempting too. Personally am expecting 103 but expect there's a lot better chance of them hitting 111 than only 97.

Maybe it's just as insurance should Rousseau not be ready to go, but Miller made the trip over with the team.

Yes, it's preseason, but Benson has excelled at every stop along the way to here, and has been a bright spot in all 5 games he's played to date in the preseason. Yes, he hasn't shown what he can do in the regular season, but that's not exactly his fault. Personally am willing to wait to see him actually not succeed in the regular season before expecting it. Because by everything he's done to date, there is no reason to expect him not to continue to look like he belongs. Will he stay a PPG player? Probably not, but if he's still playing wing with Thompson and Skinner wouldn't put staying really close to that or there completely out of the range of possibilities.

Yeah. If that happens @sweetlou you need to pay 10x what you do now to post here. 😜

No idea how much over 10k they're at, but it was around 4k 2 years ago and around 8k last year. Pretty sure 12-14k is historically typical post 70's and pre-President's Trophy years. So, they're close to normal. Making the playoffs this year will put them there. People are going to want to get their tix now; they'll be hard to get next year and moving forward.

Yep. Rousek signed at 22 and is entering his 3rd pro season, so he's still waiver exempt this year. 🍻

Umm, maybe he should've been back on his flippin' goal line. The play is absolutely on Smith. But if Fuhr is paying attention to details, that doesn't happen. And, really, 2 guys that were teammates of a player for years say he was the best. That's pretty shocking. Never, ever do we see such testimonials in pro sports.

Cool. Also, guess it was in the Snooze sometime this past week or 2, but Sabres themselves say there are over 10k ST. (Presumably that's equivalents when 1/2 & 1/4 ST packages are included, but not positive of that.)

Can't see any way at all they don't have 23 healthy players on the roster. They aren't going to put UPL through waivers only to also waive all of Biro, Rousek, Clague, and Bryson anyhow. And if they're only keeping 6 D on the active roster, they're setting themselves up for a night where they only dress 5 D.

UPL showed in this presesaon exactly what he'll give in the RS. It's the same he gave down the stretch last regular season. There was a reason Comrie was usually the guy sitting on the bench when Levi was in there. Hopefully, Adams, Granato, and Bales have seen enough to remember why that was. And, if Comrie absolutely pukes all over himself against the Pens, could see them going with the 3 headed monster. But if he doesn't, just can't see a reason to expose all 3 of Comrie, Biro, and Rousek to waivers to avoid having to do so with UPL.

Pretty much. Though he may improve down the road, right now he is what he is. And, with him only getting into every 3rd game or so, they can't be getting good UPL 40% of the time and Regular UPL the other 60% (and with being out of rhythm, expect that's about the best they can hope for) and be calling that good enough. The backup typically plays the weaker teams. Plan on not going balls to the wall offense against them and put Comrie in behind the "defensively responsible 2023-24 Buffalo Sabres." They'll still outscore the bad teams and keep Levi ready for the games they need him to bail out the "high flying 2023-24 Buffalo Sabres." Comrie typically won't give up the horrible goal that blows up that lower octane approach. UPL very well could and when he does they'll have to swap back to the high octane approach and hope UPL doesn't face any odd man rushes at that point.

He said based on yesterday's practice they'll make the decision. But coming off the field yesterday, he said he felt great. Doubt he'd get many reps if he goes, but am expecting to see him go Sunday. Especially with losing White, gives them something to rally around (should they need it). They're playing very well right now and might not need it.

Von Miller's debut. Can't see the D-line laying a stinker on the field when VM is finally back. He won't let them. And if the D-line gets after Lawrence the back 7 will take care of business as well.

Yup. He'll fit in fine in a 2ndary role on the 2nd pairing or could be a really strong 3rd pairing guy.

Personally, expect the lines Fairburn expects is what we'll see on the 11th. But expect the spares to be Jost, Stillman, and Clague with UPL getting waived. And, like others, expect the lines to be significantly shuffled by the 3rd or 4th game. At that point: Skinner - Thompson - Tuch Peterka - Cozens - Benson Greenway - Mittelstadt - Olofsson Girgensons - Krebs - Okposo And about 2 games later the D also gets shuffled: Samuelsson - Dahlin Power - Clifton E Johnson - Jokiharju And if those F lines don't work, (and they very well might not) we see Jost moving to Krebs spot, VO taking Jost's spot in the Press Box and not sure how the other 6 get mixed and matched. Tuch could get mixed and matched off Thompson's line again at that point. Not sure.

Which says IMHO that Bryson is going to be an Amerk and they still could run 8D. Cannot see them keeping Johnson as the 7 simply to sit in the press box most nights. One of Biro, Jost, or Rousek (likely Jost) ends up the 13. And will still say that they're keeping 2 goalies until the 10th gets here and it gets proven wrong. Per Okposo, the team was going to send UPL down last year when Comrie came back but the players lobbied for UPL to stay up. After the finish he had last year and the way he played in the preseason, simply don't see any player lobbying for him again. (And maybe UPL's ahead of Comrie, hope not, but maybe he is. If so, it is what it is, but they should send Comrie down in that case.)

Definitely. And realize many here are expecting the 3 headed monster back, really believe that they're going to run with 2 in Buffalo and if that means they lose #3, well there's a reason they brought Tokarski back and Cooley in rather than running with Subban and Houser for Ra-cha-cha. They have 2 better goalies in Ra-cha-cha than they had before and 1 of them has been servicable in spot duty in the NHL.

They had a plan - play the kids and find out to as great an extent as is possible just what they have in them. Pretty sure they're pretty comfortable in their evaluations on them. But the downside of the plan is a couple of new D that haven't played in this system have almost or actually no experience in it in game situations and some other vets seem to have rust to shake off. Hopefully they go with the NHL roster minus the 4th line and Levi so they can get 1 last look at the kids they're making a final decision on, they look at Comrie 1 last time, and they let the rest of the lines and pairings get a full game of action in. Losing Okposo, Girgensons, and probably Krebs won't affect the PP at all and it won't hurt to have the 5-6 and 7-8 PK F's get a little extra action in on the PK. Won't panic until and if they look this bad on the 11th. But last night was ugly throughout.

Agree that Johnson is the actual 7 (maybe Granato has a soft spot for Stillman and he's the 7 w/ Johnson the 8); but he will be Ra-cha-cha's #1 when the bullets start flying unless somebody in the back 6 gets IR'd. Still expect them to keep 8 D up with the 8th probably being Clague but maybe Bryson. Doubt we see the 8 play at all unless there are 3 injured D. The fill in's are Stillman and Johnson and not necessarily in that order.

They play terrible D in front of all 3 goalies (all 4 if you want to include Anderson from last year). That isn't something that UPL gets to feel special about. UPL's issue is he isn't going to make that big save when they need it. He's going to let the back breaking weak goal go in that starts a brief talispin that neither the team nor he are going to work out of before it's a massive struggle to get back into the game. He may someday become a decent #1. He's very young in goalie years. But wouldn't have money on it. And don't expect him to ever get the mentality that a good backup needs. UPL has said himself he needs to know the team believes in him and feel that it's his team to be at his best. Well, as long as #27 is a Sabre, this won't be his team. If the choice is between the 2; keep Comrie as the backup. His ceiling is lower, but his floor is a lot higher, and he doesn't need it to be "his" team to play his best.