Taro T

Movember.

@GASabresIUFAN, saddened for your loss. Bobby Knight passed away today.

Don't believe the bolded is quite accurate. The team will spend close to the cap when the bulk of the roster is off their ELCs and they've demonstrated to be players management wants to keep long term. Expect that will coincide with playoffs as still expect they make playoffs this year and the spending on internal talent is already 4 key players deep. But how quickly they reach a point the cap constrains them will be dependent upon how much guys like Levi, Quinn, Peterka, Kulich, Rosen, Savoie, & Benson show they can come close to where their ceilings still are. Do believe that of your 3 bullets, the 1st 2 are the reason that Olofsson is still a Sabre. Really believe, based upon everything that has happened across the 3 primary franchises that ownership will let the GMs spend provided spending is justified as to make the teams better.

Had he been a top 3 pick, people would barely bat an eye at his still being in Buffalo. But, he fell to 13 and everybody "knows" that 13th overall picks pretty much never play in the NHL in their D+1 season and also that 18 yo's nearly as often don't play in the NHL in their D+1 season. Yes, he's small (for an NHLer) but he isn't tiny. He's listed at 5'9" 163# on the Sabres website, but seeing him in person really expect he's actually 5'10" and close to 170#, probably ~168. He's been on the small side his entire life and has gotten used to keeping himself in the mix of the play but not in a spot to get lined up for the monster hit. He's had a tendency to roll off the hits and not take the full brunt of shots since he's been in Buffalo. No idea what the injury is, but as Lysowski has said it's been bothering him for weeks would expect it's a groin. That might or might not be from a hit. But the team hasn't seemed overly concerned about it as he was playing through the injury for the most part. Really good Q as to whether he stays up or not after his 9th game has been played. Especially if Biro looks good, could see them leaving Benson on IR for 3-4 more weeks to let the injury get fully healed. And then see if he looks like he did the 1st 3 games he played for the Sabres and how he looked in the preseason. He was very good in those games. If he can get back to that form, would expect he stays beyond his 9th game. If he can't, he won't. Wouldn't bet against him if he gets back to fully healthy (or as fully healthy as he was when the season started).

Dumb, yes. Dumbest? Hardly. Heck, it probably isn't even the dumbest thing said on just this board today.

Interesting, going with Olofsson over Jost. Presumably UPL gets the start tonight, Levi the start on Friday, and then most likely UPL the start in TO. (Hoping if that's the case, UPL is WAY more dialed in than his last start against TO. That one was a disaster of epic proportions.)

Not a fan of them signing Patrick Kane; but there are a bunch of people in the organization, including Adams, that know him very well. If they get him, will trust their judgment on that. (Except for goaltending have been pretty pleased with the way they've added talent to this team since changing direction. They've earned the benefit of the doubt on skaters IMHO. Would be awesome to see them finally have gotten goaltending right, but that is still very much in question.)

Another successful Halloween in the books. For the 28th or so year in a row, no kids bothered walking the full length of our driveway and the single bag of candy we bought remains in the pantry closet only 1/3 eaten. The 1st couple of years living here we bought several bags of candy and ended up eating every single piece as we've never had a single trick or treater. After that it was 2 bags of candy for a long time and then 5-10 years ago dropped to a single bag. Haven't even bothered with carving pumpkins since the kids graduated HS. Lamented to the wife how it used to be a special day and now it's just another ho-hum one. Wonder if the bars are still full of women dressed like hookers. (Angels, fairies, bunnies, nurses, whatever; they all looked ready for business.) That's the thing about that night that's truly missed. 😉

Well, personally am hoping Adams ends up able to take a victory lap over his handling of the goalies. But 3 previous years of data say that it's still significantly premature for him to do so.

Peterka may become a good player in his own end, but both Quinn and Benson were known for that prior to getting to the NHL. JJ, not so much. And, yeah, until Frick and Frack aren't a thing, should probably expect them to continue to be joined at the hip when both are healthy. But expect Quinn-Cozens-Benson could be a very good line in its own end once they are all 'all growed up.'

Granato is on record as saying he doesn't consider it a Line 1, Line 2 situation. He actually said it's up to the other team to decide which is line 1 and which is line 2 and they'll make it known by who they play against the Sabres lines. And the one getting the easier matchups should be more effective that night (this sentence is paraphrased far more than the prior). Granato is on record as saying he doesn't consider it a Line 1, Line 2 situation. He actually said it's up to the other team to decide which is line 1 and which is line 2 and they'll make it known by who they play against the Sabres lines. And the one getting the easier matchups should be more effective that night (this sentence is paraphrased far more than the prior).

He would also be at 3 games left (but for the Amerks). He can play in 9 more Sabres games before burning his 1st ELC year.

Yep. No Bills trades yet. Though they are still rumored to be one of up to 4 teams still kicking the tires on Jackson from Chicago. The Levi Wallace rumors haven't subsided yet either. Would guess it's about a 25% chance the Bills make a move and 1 of those 2 would be the guy they bring in. Surtain would be EX-PEN-SIVE in draft capital and can't see Beane being willing to part with as much as it would take. EDIT: or it's a 100% chance the Bills make a move and it's Douglas from GB. (That post didn't age well.)

Time on a conditioning stint when the player isn't coming off BF-LTIR counts as active roster for accrued seasons for pension and FA. It is also supposed to count against the 23 man active roster. Don't believe it counts against the burning of a year of the ELC for having played in 10 games because the player isn't actually playing any NHL games. Only time in actual NHL games counts towards that 10 game threshold to prevent the ELC from sliding a year. Time on a conditioning stint coming off BF-LTIR doesn't count against the team's 23 man active roster. But, in order to bring him onto the active roster, the team will need to have an open slot for him. Time on IR doesn't count as active roster for the 23 man roster, but it does count as active roster in terms of accrued seasons for pension & FA matters provided the injury was hockey related and from the current season. Benson has played in 6 of the Sabres 1st 9 games. He can play in 3 more wthout "burning" the 1st year of his ELC. But if he plays in that 4th game that would get him to 10, his 1st ELC year can no longer slide.

Overall, not really, but he's still only 22. In 2-3 years, with Quinn and Benson as his W's, that could be a very good 2 way line. And he has shown it in spurts. His 1st game against McDavid standing out as the prime example of it. It's hard to say how much of his getting a bit lost in his own end and over chasing the puck was due to him not being able to play a defensive game and how much of it was his coach wanting him to be agressive at both ends of the ice.

IF he was put on IR, it's at least 1 week he's out from Sunday. So, they might consider him only out through Saturday's game which from this point is a few days. But he'll technically not play in a game until at least next Friday (which is the Sabres 1st game after the Loafs game) which is nearly 2 weeks from his previous game. So, depending upon how you're looking at it, they both could be correct. (And, on a different note, they'd better win the TO game because stewing on a loss in that one for nearly a week will leave this place almost unbearable.)

1.5 is "a few?"

The bolded would seem to be the case. They'll have another morning skate tomorrow where Granato will have his lines set. If he liked the way Biro looked there today, he'll be back tomorrow but could find himself planted on the bench for much of the 3rd if the game is tight.

If Adams wasn't willing to put him on waivers after his looking like hot death at the end of last season and in the preseason, there is no way he's going to risk losing him to waivers after pitching a shutout against one of the best teams in the league. @Weave was right. The 3 headed monster is here to stay. 😟

Stand corrected. 🍺

Either way, the Lysowski tweet states that the injury was from "a few weeks ago."

He did miss games earlier this season. But it wasn't stated that was due to injury. Presumed they simply wanted to give him a chance to watch a game or 2 with a coach right next to him discussing the play.

Yes, he does when he's ready to come off IR. Hoping that however this plays out that if he and/or Savoie aren't going to get regular action down the stretch this season in Buffalo that they both get sent back before they reach 40 games on the Sabres roster (not necessarily playing but being on the roster). Because that is when they get credit for a year of service in the NHL and that does bring them each 1 year closer to RFA and UFA statuses. Considering how Adams has handled other young players, doubt either would stay up past that limit if they are just going to be up for training purposes and not to help win games.

Hadn't realized Benson had sustained an injury a few weeks ago. Any word on when he was 1st injured (was it from training, the prospects camp, TC, other)? Hoping it isn't groin. That could linger all season whether he's in Buffalo or Washington.

Actually, when Jost 1st showed up, he tended to get the C shifts on that line and that really gave Mittelstadt an opportunity to not have to try to do everything for his line (which, while the 2nd winger changed a fair amount over the 1st weeks of the season was primarily him, Olofsson, and Asplund). Mitts was winning puck battles when those 2 were his linemates, but he then had nowhere to go with the puck and lost it along the boards fairly consistently. When Jost got onto that line, Mitts started to pick up significantly as he now had someone to pass to. Mitts was playing well before Thompson got injured and Granato swapped the 2 to give Thompson the chance to have less responsibility on the 2nd line's W. Which is why Granato was comfortable with making that move.