Taro T
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Posts posted by Taro T
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16 minutes ago, Brawndo said:
That's fine. Glad they took a look at him in Ra-cha-cha before sending him down.
Gives him and the Sabres a better idea of what he has to work on to take his game to the next level.
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13 minutes ago, Eleven said:
If we're listing up to five streaming options, which is a good idea, can we also list gambling options? I never know where I can blow money betting on a hockey game. I know it's legal now, but it seems so secretive--whoever is taking the bets isn't doing a good job of publicizing it. I wish they'd run ads before/during/after games, or have entire segments dedicated to gambling on sports radio, but they just refuse!
So can we have something like "GDT: Leaves at Sabres, 10/24/25, 7pm, MSG, Wankr, Hulu, ESPN+, FukStik, DraftDuel, FanKings, MGM, ESPNBets, guy on corner of Grant & Ferry?
Just an idea.
Last day of vacation. Stayed in 2 different hotels just down the street from each other. A Ceasars is across the road from both. Pretty friggin' huge casino. Never bothered to go. Too bad wasn't aware of how desperate you were to place a bet. Might've been able to find a guy. ;)
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1 minute ago, darksabre said:
I think it might be tough for parents to juggle multi-sport athletes with how demanding the single sports are on their own.
Most of the youth hockey players I've encountered (from working at Pure Hockey for a while) were playing Lacrosse in the offseason.
The best multi-sport athletes I knew in college where the hockey players who also played soccer. They were monsters.
Yeah, all 3 sports are very complementary, but hockey and lax just scream proficiency at both sports.
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5 hours ago, LTS said:
Regression to the mean...
And Ellis, I'm not sure why people are high on him. He won but he didn't look all that good. He over committed on many plays and left a lot of rebounds. There is a lot more that needs to be seen.
The issue remains that the Sabres don't have a top goaltender. They also haven't fixed a lot of their defensive problems but it hasn't completely bitten them in the ass yet.
I wouldn't worry about 3 goaltenders on the roster right now. It's not like the players being scratched are all that valuable to the team.
There is more to be seen on Ellis. Hope he gets a game this weekend.
But, have little to no faith in UPL as a backup. He might be able to get his head around being a starter, but have no faith at all that he can be productive getting a game every 3 or so. Georgiev is NOT good. They are committed to Levi playing in Ra-cha-cha this full year. Which, with Lyon the current starter leaves Ellis as a realistic option at being the backup.
Most 2 game in 2 night stints aren't going to have teams with TO's firepower on both ends. They need someone to claim the starter's role. That appears to be Lyon, but the jury is still out. But they also need a backup; and for now, would like to see what Ellis can do there.
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19 hours ago, shrader said:
They’re in this spot because they got better than expected results. Now they need some time for things to sort themselves out. It’s not the situation of the last couple years.
Yep.
And they need to get this right. They don't NEED to have 2 spare D nor 2 spare F's right now (though that's what NHL teams run); run with the 3 headed monster for a month or 2 until it sorts itself out.
Not convinced UPL can mentally take a backups role, so unless he outplays Lyon would be the expected odd-man out. Lyon-Ellis is the expected pairing; but not convinced Lyon can do it more than a month or 2. Adams has been ridiculously patient in the past. No need to rush this call. And getting this right could literally be the difference between him getting an extension or not. (Though personally hope he's not getting an extension in any case.)
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2 hours ago, Big Guava said:
Good to see Zucker is OK...
Hopefully both Kesselring and Greenway will be next week sometime
Good. They can't get Metsa out of the lineup fast enough. MHO.
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On 10/23/2025 at 2:35 PM, darksabre said:
Oh, this is 100% correct.
Agree.
But USA Hockey, at least through the end of the 20-teens (haven't checked their stuff more recently) was pushing for youth and early teens to NOT specialize in just hockey year round.
Know a lot of families that ignored that advice and went hockey year round (and some others that did baseball, soccer, and lax that way too), but the guidance was to stay more rounded until well into post-puberty.
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On 10/23/2025 at 1:58 AM, PerreaultForever said:
This could be an entertaining thread. Everybody pick the player name they would pick if they got a free jersey. (I'm saying a free jersey to stop the cheapskates from saying they wouldn't buy a Sabres jersey)
Mine would be Benson. It's not even close.
When was given the opportunity for a free sweater, chose the only name that will never leave the Sabres family (have they TM'd Sabres Mafia yet?) - Jeanneret.
Have since enhanced it with an RJ to the rafters patch.
That one now only comes out on special occassions.
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2 hours ago, Pimlach said:
This guy obviously didn’t watch Cozens play, obviously didn’t read his fancy stats. But still, the trade had huge risks for Buffalo given Norris’ injury history and his salary.
Ottawa unloaded a good player with high cost and high available risks for the potential of Cozens
That rare trade that BOTH teams lost.
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43 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:
Samuelsson is expected to play tomorrow. They might run Metsa with him and keep a l/r pairing
Of course they had Metsa with Geersen today, so we can hope but not too much.
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1 minute ago, Weave said:
Is Dunne taller than Danforth?
Pretty sure Peter Dinklage is taller than Danforth. 😉
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5 minutes ago, xzy89c1 said:
Johnson is just an extra too. th type guy like Clague was.
Johnson's better than Clague.
Shame he's the one getting taken out of the lineup for Metsa to get his shot.
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2 hours ago, PromoTheRobot said:
Selective memory re: Reimer last year. Lindsey did play him and he lost more then he won before he got hot towards the end of the season. So it wasn't as obvious as you make it out to be. Also remember that folks here thought Lyon was going to be a dud when Adams signed him because stats. 🙄
Reimer is 5 years older than Lyon and is still a free agent.
Lyon was a 50-50 shot. They'd either get the Swamp Cats version or the Wings.
For once the coin landed heads. (At least for now.)
Seems all you have to do to get this version of him is keep the guy he's backing up out of the lineup for a month or 2. 😉
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4 minutes ago, inkman said:
I’m telling you it’s Adams thinking he’s being clever
Wonder just how hard Ron Francis is laughing every time he gets done having a conversation with his buddy Kevyn on the phone or facetime or zoom or whatever?
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36 minutes ago, Jorcus said:
I wonder if Johnson is hurt or sick and it was a better way of dealing with it vs IR. Lets see if he plays with the Amerks this weekend.
Union would have a problem with it if they sent him down with an injury or illness that he had aquired while on the big team.
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49 minutes ago, Pimlach said:
I know. I have referred to the Sabres as the Seals many times.
Someone in the NHL Front Office had the bright idea to move Seals into the Adams division, which essentially put them in the East Division and the East Conference. As if the travel wasn't hard enough for them, they loaded them up with more games against many of the better teams.
Looking back they had cool jerseys but their wacky owner (Charles Finley) made them wear white skates one season. The players hated it.
They hosed all 3 western teams (LA, California, and Vancouver). Vancouver played in the Smythe, LA in the Norris, and the Seals in the Adams. Guess they didn't want to hose Minny, KC, nor St. Louis by putting them in an all Pacific division.
And they did kind of split the footprint between the 2 conferences. The Adams (Buffalo, TO, Boston, and CA) was with the Norris (Moe-ray-all, Washington, Detroit, Pittsburgh, and LA) in the Wales Conference and the Patrick (NY, NY, Filly, and Atlanta) were with the Smythe (Chicago, St. Louis, Minny, KC, and Vancouver) in the Campbell Conference. So the Wales got the Eastern Great Lakes teams plus Washington, Moe-Ray-All, and Boston and the California teams; the Campbell got the Central TZ teams; teams near Joisey; Atlanta; and Vancouver.
Everybody except those 3 were either in the Eastern or Central Time Zones and there were only 4 in even the Central Time Zone. Everybody was East Coast or Great Lakes and NOBODY wanted 3 trips out west.
Back then, much like now, the owners really didn't care whether or if their rivals could compete. Heck, if Vegas didn't give $500MM to join and Seattle even more, they'd've been just as successful out of the gate as all the other expansion teams that came before them.
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It was a fun game to be at.
The people around us were pretty incredulous at the Sabres only having 3 shots through the entire 1st period. Yeah, but after Quinn's "shot" found the back of the net, though they did have chances, Tuch's shot hit the post, the one where Benson was setting a screen went off the side of the net, another really quality chance bounced off the D-man in front, etc., etc..
2nd period was one of the most fun to watch in a long time. Not sure what the total shots for the period were, but late in the period, the Sabres had taken 18 shots and the Otters 17 in that stanza after only getting 3 and 8 respectively in the 1st. Place was the loudest it'd been in a while too; that there were probably only 10k-11k people in the building made it that much more impressive. The lower bowl was close to full, but there were a fair number of empty seats in the 200's and the 300's had a lot of emply seats at both ends.
Thought except for pretty much just standing around trying to play the puck on the Otters PP goal that Power played well. He had a pretty big check in the 1st; and courtesy of the sharp Otter unis that you could barely pick out the #'s of from the nosebleeds much less the names, took a moment to realize it was Cozens he hit. Cozens seemed to take exception to Kulich, he was running him any time the 2 were on the ice together.
Timmons has been refreshing to see in the lineup - didn't know we were allowed to have stay at home D-men that don't go running around their own end looking for hits well away from the flow of the game.
Thompson and Tuch both seemed much more engaged this game. Maybe they're finally getting their heads out of their bippies.
Weird that people were unhappy with Kulich; he started out on the wing on the 4th line and ended up with Benson and Tage. Didn't really see anything noticable either way in his game other than how his linemates changed.
Saw Danforth take the puck to the leg on the 1st shiff of the 2nd and him struggle to get around; could've swore he had 1 more shift after that but apparently he didn't come back out for the 3rd.
Team was noticably faster than in their previous 2 home games. They need to find a way to still keep that up against the heavier game that the Swamp Cats will play.
As pretty much everybody else is, really liking Doan. He seems like he'll be in the mold of a Marcus Foligno; hoping he gets there.
McLeod's and Quinn's best games by far of the young season. Hope they can buid on this game.
Still not sure why there was no interference call right before the Otter's 3rd goal. Dahlin got knocked to the boards behind the net and his man ended up all by himself in front of Lyon to make it a 2 goal game.
That was probably Ruff's best timeout in a long time. Settled them down and before the 3rd was 3 minutes old, they had their 2 goal lead back and the 3 goal lead shortly after the 4 minute mark. Again, fun game to be at.
Not sure why nobody wanted to score the 8th goal. Glad the puck finally worked to Kulich. HE wanted it.
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1 hour ago, PerreaultForever said:
It's hilarious how fast Sabres twitter has gone over positive with one game. Sabres did this last year and before as well. Remember when they bombed Toronto. If you give them open ice they soar. Ottawa played open (as they seem to fall into every time we play them) and thus got bombed. Most teams won't play that way.
Best tweet I saw was "looks like Sabres are playing against the Sabres tonight" because yes, Ottawa played that style.
The Otters were literally playing like the Sabres, going so far as to add to their repertoire that stupid 80' dropback pass on the PP on about their 3rd PP.
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1 hour ago, msw2112 said:
Yes, the bar is "solid but unspectacular." With the Sabres' goal scoring last season, solid but unspectacular goaltending all season long would have resulted in a playoff berth. Terrible goaltending doomed the season. For the stretch near the end when Reimer played reasonably well, the team won a lot of games.
A young Dominick Hasek or Ryan Miller are not walking through that door. There were not any great goalies on the free agent market this summer and teams are not looking to deal top-flight goalies. Plus, with free agent choices and no-trade clauses, it's highly unlikely a top-flight veteran goalie is going to sign with the Sabres. As such, they have to rely on "solid" veteran goalies while drafting and developing younger ones, hoping to eventually groom one into a star. UPL was looking like that guy a couple of seasons ago, and was paid accordingly, but fell off a cliff last season. Can Levi be that guy? The jury is still out. They've drafted 5 others (Leinonen, Ratzlaff, Leenders, Meloche, Prokhorov) (yes, Google is my friend) and brought in Ellis, in hopes of one or more of them becoming that guy.
Lyon has played well. He has not "stood on his head" or made highlight-reel saves, but he's in the right place at the right time to make the necessary saves, and from what I've seen, he has not given up any soft goals that cost the team a game. Although he gave up 4 goals last night, the defensive play was horrific, and, fortunately, there was enough offense to overcome the 4 goals. I watched the TSN broadcast (nice relief and diversion from Dunleavy and Ray) and they commented several times on how Lyon's play kept the team in the game until they figured out they needed to put forth some effort (which they did).
I know very little about Ellis, except that he was very good in the AHL last season, but I'd like to see, at some point, what he can do. I assume he'll get a start the next time they play a lower-tier team. Last night would have been such an opportunity, but given the 0-3 start, they HAD TO go with Lyon, who has been playing well. To risk a loss on an unproven rookie and falling to 0-4 would not have been a wise decision.
It didn't cost them the game, but that 4th goal last night was entirely on Lyon. Felt the 1st MacKinnon goal the other night was on him too, but hard to fault a goalie too much when he has to move across the net and the shooter is MacKinnon.
Other than those 2, not much he could've done on any of the others. He got the 2nd one covered last night and the ref's hands went up as if he'd blown his whistle and then they decided on replay that he didn't have it covered long enough. Not faulting him on that one.
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6 minutes ago, thewookie1 said:
Effectively both sides would be happy to make a deal but will wait for now.
Shades of Chris Drury. Though doubt the problem with this one was Pegula leaving an agreed to contract sitting on his desk for a few weeks before getting around to ok-ing it.
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11 minutes ago, PerreaultForever said:
You know with all their injuries Florida might be an on the bubble team this year too (and then might still win the cup). They are beatable without their stars and other injuries.
I'd say the California Golden Seals were the stupidest franchise ever. How many times they dealt their picks to Montreal and made Montreal into a dynasty. Pollock would trade for those first rounders down the line and then they'd finish dead last. Hard to believe, but the Seals were actually worse managed than the current Sabres.
Charlie Finley and the Gund brothers were the owners; both sets were horrible hockey owners. (Their 1st owner was bad too. His name escapes at the moment.)
There was a bumper sticker in Minnesota in the 90's. People don't kill hockey, Gunds kill hockey. They failed in Oakland, Cleveland, AND Minneapolis of all places, before going back to the bay area and eventually selling. (Htf do you get run out of Minnesota when running a hockey team? Well, they figured out a way.)
And, yeah, this is about the best time to have to play the Swamp Cats. Hopefully they can pull it off.
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2 hours ago, PromoTheRobot said:
Believe it or not, as of now, the Sabres have the 13th power play in the league. 21.4%. Penalty kill is #3 at 93.8%. Keep in mind a 25% PP% would put you at 7th best last season. Scoring on 1 out 4 is all it takes.
Net PK, they're tied for 2nd at 100%. 1 PPG against and 1 SHG for. Only the Rags, who have 0 PPG's against and 1 SHG for are better.
The PK has looked good. Having a goalie that can make a save tends to help there. 😉
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42 minutes ago, inkman said:
All the players interviewed as well as Lindy mentioned how they fed off the crowd’s energy. Just need them to harness it, recall it and use it at their will in the future. The in arena experience should also be focused on getting the crowd amped at home games. If Lindy isn’t feeling it, dress Geertsen to eat a few fists and get the crowd amped. This isn’t that hard.
The ironic thing is, after Tuch hit the post and they were carrying play that next shift, the crowd really got loud for the 1st time that game and then the Otters immediately went down the ice, controlled play for all of about 10 seconds and evened it up at 1 apiece.
So, the team got us into it, and the building was loud for the 1st time in 3 games, and then it got very quiet for a bit. Building got loud again in the 2nd.
It was a fun one to be at.
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21 minutes ago, matter2003 said:
Exactly my point...hard to say it's him not being a good PP coach when his other teams have done pretty well.
That "best in the league" PP had Peterka and Quinn blowing through the AHL with nearly unprecedented for teens stats.
When those 2 moved up, the PP regressed SIGNIFICANTLY. And that's even with adding Kulich to the mix.
And, btw, until that last year in Ra-cha-cha, he had this guy, you might've heard of, named Peca who was helping him. He MIGHT've made a bit of a difference there.
Josh Norris has an Upper Body Injury; Zach Benson is hospitalized
in The Aud Club
Posted
Back in the day, pretty sure LaFontaine had to be out 40 games before insurance would start paying out. And for someone injury prone, the policies aren't cheap. (If you want to know how likely an event is, price out an insurance policy on it and figure the insurance company plans to net out across all its policies about 12% profit. So, look at the policy value, the policy cost, and that profit factor and you get a rough likelihood of what a pro considers the likelihood of that event happening.) Any policy on Norris would have at least 30 games missed as being the expectation. So, he must be EXPENSIVE to insure. Don't know if they'd have him insured against single season injury or not.