Taro T

It's kind of hypocritical for Sabres fans to curse Carolina for limiting where tix can be purchased from and to then applaud when the Sabres do the same thing. If you want more Sabres fans in the building, win more games at home. They'll buy the tix before the marauders can. And agree, some of the most fun games to have been at were ones where a whole bunch of Loaf or Habs fans were leaving early to sounds of "Go away, away, away, away, go away, just go away."

Guy that was the OC at LSU running the offense of arguably the best college team that's played in this century. Unsuccessful as Carolina's OC. Expect he learned from that experience. (Plus, they were a bit of a train wreck overall that year IIRC.) Probably should've been the OC from the get go rather than the QB Coach.

Have speculated before that the Sabres new policy of only selling tickets to games that visiting fans tend to outnumber the Sabres fans to those from worthy zip codes might cause those tickets that would normally get sold via Ticketmaster on the 2ndary market place to be sold via other ticketing sites. This seems to be another game that will be lightly attended that had those ticket selling constraints. Will be very interesting to see if later this year or (more likely) next season that tix start showing up on other ticket selling platforms.

Will be interesting to see what the crowd looks like tonight. The Moe-ray-all crowd was last year small. If they're trying to goose ticket sales with gimmicks like this, expecting tonight's crowd will be similar. Maybe, just maybe, that brilliant plan to keep marauding visiting fans out of the building was a bit short sighted? Said earlier, and will say it again, believe it is better to have the building nearly full with Sabre fans outnumbered than to have a 60-40 edge in a less than 50% full building. And these are the 2 games so far this season that meet that limitation on sales by purchaser's location. The others that didn't have that constraint weren't that poorly attended and some games were actually very well attended.

And for those that want it directly from the source:

And a HORRIBLE GM.

Confirming what Porous said above.

Good call on Okposo having a great game tonight. If memory serves, Pominville had his best game of that last year of his on the night of his ceremony and then was a shell of himself afterwards. (Had been a bit of a shell before it as well.)

No, he didn't call a time out on the FG attempt. He called his last timeout after the 2nd down. But, they SHOULD'VE anticipated the kneeldown on 3rd and everybody that was coming off the field after 3rd should've known they were coming off and everybody that was supposed to go on should've known that as well. Absolutely inexcusable.

THAT really just happened. We are ####ing cursed.

Literally feel ill right now. That was just surreal. How do you possilbly have 12 guys on the field?

Ho-lee-fack! Cook dribbled the ball for a 40 yard run.

Skinner - Thompson - Tuch Greenway - Mittelstadt - Peterka Quinn - Cozens - Benson Girgensons - Krebs - Rousek Jost - Kulich spares. Doesn't include Kane sliding into the top end; doesn't include a vet 4C coming aboard. Rosen the 1st player called up if they need more offense. Jost the spare for the 4th line just because that will likely be more of a defensively responsible line. Might Cedarqvist or one of the other Amerks earn a look in that role? (Haven't watched the Amerks at all yet this year, so no idea on who, if anybody, might be ready for a 4th line role next year.) Leaves 7 D w/ either Jokiharju or Clifton being the 7th presuming either E Johnson comes back again or a Hannifan-esque player gets brought it. Maybe a Hannifan-esque guy is brought in for Jokiharju & Krebs/Savoie + a pick. Which could open up a space for Metsa or one of the Russians to be the spare/ 1st call up depending upon whether the Big Johnson is back. It could also open up a spot for the vet 4C that would've been nice to bring in this past year. They really are getting close to the point (if they aren't already there) where they need to start moving some of the forwards out of the system. They at least need to be cognizant of who starts aging into losing their waiver exemptions. (Haven't looked closely at ages / experience of these guys, but that will start cropping up in the next couple of years.) And that's total spitballing. Hadn't looked at next year's lineup too much.

Personally, at this point like the idea somebody had here ( @dudacek maybe?) of having a rotation of those bottom 3 or 4 with E Johnson getting fewer bumps out of the lineup than R Johnson, Clifton, & Jokiharju. Maybe have a 3 game rotation of RJ2, Clifton, EJ/Henri, lather rinse, repeat w/ the 3rd sit being Henri/EJ this next time through. And when an injury inevitably hits, then you've got your 6.

They should've known Ruuttu and a couple of scrubs wasn't worth arguably the best F in history. He and a draft pick was the going rate for the best GOALIE in history. Sheesh, they were SOOOOOOOOOOOO far off. 🤣

Must finally be healthy again. Expecting they send RJ2 back to the Amerks when either Comrie or Benson are ready to come off IR. Any possibility they finally bite the bullet and waive Bryson?

But, even at that metric, don't see how bringing Kane into the fold moves that "we desperately want to be Sabres" in any other players if the winning doesn't follow. Getting to the playoffs and doing damage there will make a lot of guys say that Buffalo is a place to be. Could also see where playing with Dahlin or Thompson could be an enticement (much like since Allen became Josh Allen, a lot of players have come knocking on the door at One Bills Drive); doubt that the opportunity to play with a (soon enough to be) 35 yo Patrick Kane would move that same needle.

Don't know the answer to that. Personally, expect it's the former. If it's the latter, then Adams is far more Machiavellian than he's received credit for.

Had a longer post typed out, but decided to bag it. Will simply say that, wilth all due respect (and that is meant sincerely), we disagree on this one and will leave it at that.

Not sure if you are being serious or sarcastic, but yes, the next 5 - 15 games will tell us a lot more about the team than the 1st 15 told us. MHO, YMMV.

Expect the frustration should be, not that it's the best answer that management can come up with, but that it's appearing to be the best answer management can enact.

Said management has stated that the goal is to contend. Personally have said 103 and have stuck to it. And from there, they'll be in the playoffs and we'll get to see how well management meets that goal of being a contender. And if they don't meet the goals, they should be held accountable (even if they do meet the goals, they should be held accountable). Stinks that they aren't at the NHL 0.600 they need to be at this point in time but if anybody expected it to be a linear trek to at least 99, well that never was realistic. Just see it as being way too early to panic over not being where they need to be. REALLY wanted them to win that game in Pittsburgh for at least 2 reasons. 1, it means they only need to make up 1 point over the entire rest of the season to be at 0.600 like they need to be; and 2, it gives a competitor for a playoff spot 2 fewer points. But, it didn't happen. The silver lining is, if Sabres twitter is to be believed, the Sabres are actually possibly going to make a move or 2. Will believe it when we see it, but the chatter is up. They should be able to pick up at least 6, if not 7 or even 8, points this next 5 game stretch. If they do so, well, they've either moved closer to where they need to be or at least treaded water while getting closer to getting Tuch and Quinn back and getting Cozens closer to back to full health.

And it was right about now that the team was about halfway through the 0-8-0 stretch. Comparing individual points in a season when one was so wildly inconsistent doesn't seem to make much sense. Last year, like several others during the drought, the Sabres burst out of the gate guns blazing and then fell off hard. This year, they started out a bit below where they need to be, but have picked it up a little since that start. That is a far more common way for teams to come out of the gate than in years past and is likely a reflection of how other teams see them as actually being part of the NHL once again. They weren't totally overlooked by other teams. They also didn't go completely into the toilet when their top 2 goalies coming out of camp (based upon who they were playing out of the gate) and several of their top F's suffered injuries. They couldn't overcome injuries to the D last year early in the year.

You know what will make the Sabres attractive to FA's and veterans w/ NMC's? Icing a competitive team that does some damage in the playoffs. Tuch and Kane (should he sign) being ecstatic about coming home isn't going to move the needle much. Kane getting the PP into relevance MIGHT help move that needle. (Say might, because there are structural issues with the PP that a single additional good PP player won't necessarily fix. And if he can't come back from the hip injury he definitely won't help there.)

That's with having 3 good offensive players out injured: Tuch, Quinn, & Benson. With Cozens battling an inability to find the puck in his skates. Isn't being injury-resistant supposed to be one of the plusses of having a young team? IF Tuch's injury is a groin/sport hernia would REALLY like them to revisit their off-season training regimens. Losing quality time from 2 guys pencilled into the top 6 to training injuries is at least 1, if not 2, too many. IF Ryan Johnson isn't going to be getting time in the top 6, please send him down until they suffer the next injury or are ready to give Erik Johnson a breather.