Taro T

Agree with a lot of this, but the powerplay last year was NOT good for the majority of the season. Because they had a 6-7 week stretch that they were hitting at a completely unsustainable 34% from late October to mid-December people believed it was good all year. It wasn't; it stunk. Under 12% through the majority of October and under 15% after mid-December. And, IMHO, it stinking so bad is a significant portion of the PK having one major issue. They CAN'T stop an entry and are absolutely toast when the oponent enters with speed. The moronic entries that the Sabres use NEVER enter with pace. When a team like Boston or TO does enter with pace, they either have the puck behind the net quickly enough that the D panic and chase back there leaving the slot open for a quick uncontested shot or they simply let a guy like Matthews head right directly to the slot for an uncontested shot. Until the PP is coached differently, both units will suffer.

He actually had a regular shift the entire 1st period. And his "one bad play" came on the 2nd shift of that period. He did get limited shifts in the 2nd and 3rd, but that seemed to have more to do with keeping Jost on the bench after the 1st period than benching Benson. Benson lost PP time after the 1st, but that also seemed to be more about keeping the revamped 1st unit on the ice as much as possible than benching him.

Forgot about Robinson. Maybe they try to waive him instead of Jost to get back to 23.

The party line is that they won't sacrifice the future for winning today. But, at some point, if they do nothing and keep spinning their wheels, by unintentionally throwing away today, they will be sacrificing the future. This group does bounce back and doesn't dwell on losses, which is a positive for Granato. But at some point, the camel's back breaks.

Expect Jost getting waived is just about a given. He, or Comrie, is the odd man out with them being nearly healthy. And if Girgensons is going to be active this weekend as the reports seem to indjcate, the other one will be following soon after.

There's a massive excuse. The PP coaching is, and has been, trash for literally YEARS. There is zero non-remediable excuse.

Hurt is fine. Injured ... He was putting weight on the foot after blocking the shot. Here's to hoping it's just painfu.

Not the Christmas bourbon?

According to HockeyDB, Bob Woods is still unemployed. That should be remedied within the hour. (It won't be, but it should be.)

Coaching staff, or is it coming down from higher up? Provided Jokiharju is in fact fully healthy (or as fully healthy as anyone is ~40% into the season) is it necessarily the coaches that have him rated as the 7 or does management believe it will make an already difficult task of bringing in vets via FA or trade nearly impossible if when they actually DO bring in FA's they (more or less) immediately bench them? Definitely not enamored with some of the decision making of this coaching staff, but that decision could be coming from a different level.

So much for that love affair.

Kulich with an absolute snipe to give the Chechs a 1-0 lead over Norway in the 1st.

As long as a Mara owns the Jints, don't see that ever coming to fruition. But his stupid Cow Pokes weren't up north yesterday when they blew the Fishies game. Had they taken care of business, the Bills opportunity to get the 2nd seed would be completely in their own hands. Not sure if Cleveland winning was good for the Bills or not (it probably was), but with the Ravens game still pending (which may not matter to them) every other game this weekend except for the stupid Pokes game broke their way. A true Christmas miracle.

To all who celebrate it, Merry Christmas. To those that don't, happy holidays. Thanks to all for the community.

Pretty sure that Frasier admitted he refused to review the Caps 1st goal in game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals because he was pissed at Barnaby and Ray for having "embarrassed" Stephen Walkom in the Sabres Filly series when they were having tantrums over Walkom's horrible reffing. Not sure if that meets your criteria, but expect it does.

Looking like a good call. People just don't appreciate genius.

Doing the normal start of the pregame about when the broadcast of the game starts. Will watch the 1st period and then the 1st Q of the Bills game. Didn't buy the Primo Peacock Package so can't fast forward through commercials. So will watch the Intermission show during commercials and switch back to the Bills game when it's back. Will decide whether to watch 2nd Q or 2nd period 1st based upon how the games are going.

An FYI for people that aren't in the Buffalo nor LA TV market that don't have Peacock. The Bills game will be rebroadcast on NFLN at midnight Eastern time.

Not responding to this post in particular, but didn't feel like going back to find one of your posts about their lack of PP scoring being a big part of their reduced goal production from last year. Wanted to point out it was about now (actually about a week earlier) that the PP magic we saw last year from the end of October into December disappeared and they went back to what they are now - a slightly below 15% PP team. So, from here on out, it'll be ES scoring that isn't where it was last year if the gap in scoring between the 2 versions of this team continues to increase. Provided the PP doesn't go on a Penguins style 2 for 40 stretch or something else horrifically bad rather than simply bad. Btw, you've made some great observations on their in-zone play. Would add their neutral zone positioning is also bad and leads to far too many entries for the opponents and too many intercepted attempts at clears.

Cool, so the ice is going to be trash too. Merry ####ing Christmas.

Needs to miss 13 more games to get to cancel the payment to the BJs. So then Adams will have gotten him for FREE!!!!!!!

They're supposed to be learning the system, right? Well, they're learning the system.

And that learning curve is why it would be very helpful for him to either have a vet stay at home partner or get a chance to be on the 3rd pairing. But he keeps getting put in the position of being the alpha of the 2nd pairing. Which is a really tough spot to put a 2nd year D-man. (Even one with his raw skills.)

They HAVE been booed before. For a moment or 2 in game or as they skate off the ice at the end of a period. This SEEMED different. This was a significant portion of the fans joining in and this did not let up in the 3rd. A' t'all. Will it turn out to have been different/ resulted in a different effect? We shall see.

The team finally understands that underperforming (or overperforming too, though we haven't seen that this season) carrys consequences with it. Did that lightbulb FULLY click on? Don't know. We'll know by New Year's Day. They have 2 more games against top squads which will want to pay them back for beating them in their own barns the last time the Sabres played them and then they'll have 2 games against bottom feeders that they've been know to spit the bit against in a back to back situation. That's a set up that prior to the BJ's game calls out for a 1-2-1 -ish record the rest of the way. Go 4-0-0 over that stretch and watch out league, the Sabres are healthy and they're back. Maybe it's just too much adversity for them to deal with and they end up spitting the bit again losing their favoritest coach. Leaning towards expecting 2-1-1 or 3-1-0 over that stretch. Which would be an improvement as they'll almost have to at minimum have only their 2nd 2 game win streak of the season and might even have a 3 or 4 game streak to the good. Really hoping this'll be something to build on, but don't know that it is.