Taro T

Good for him. Some things are more important than hockey. This is one of them. Thought he started the season well, even though his teammates (other than Lyon and 1 or 2 others) didn't, but he hasn't been "right" on the ice for at least the last 2 weeks. Let him be with his fiance and help her deal with what she's dealing with and then when his head is back where for his job it needs to be then come back and lead this team to a miraculous playoff run. Expect people will keep them in their prayers and thoughts and hopefully that spiritual or psychic energy help them. Does this mean the team learned from Ullmark's problems dealing with his dad's death and from Lehner's personal demons he ended up dealing with pretty much on his own while he was here? Here's to hoping.

Right now, he ISN'T locked in. But personally don't believe that's due to him not considering it to be a part of his job. Believe it's because he NEEDS those around him to believe in him and talk him up and if they don't, well he doesn't seem to have that internally. Shortly after he got the starters job the very 1st time, he mentioned in an interview that he plays his best when he knows the net is his and his teammates know it's his as well. That seemed like such an odd thing to say, but then you watch him play and it seems to track with his best play. But, also, right now they aren't in a position where they're going to, even if they wanted to, tell him he's the man and give him the bulk of the starts over Lyon. It's why this kid would've given him the start against the Mammoth; he'd just had a great OT and though he only faced 3 shots in the SO (and there were only 4 attempted shots out of the 5 chances) he got credit for 5 saves and EVERYBODY was talking about how great he'd played. (Even though he hadn't played great until 60 minutes had passed.) So, he MIGHT've had that external support that he needs to get into his head in a good way. But then, watched the Utes jump up and take it to the Sabres out of the gate and expect now that it would've blown up in their faces had they let him get that start. But, still, expect that was their best chance to get him back to the January '23 UPL we saw back then. Maybe he can get back to that level on another team. But really doubt he can do it here with where things currently stand. Lyon is the starter and Ellis and Levi are bearing down on him for the backup job. Nothing is going to get handed to him anytime soon and doubt he has the ability to simply go out and take it either.

Realistic is bump him to #3 for this season, looking for a trade partner, particularly when some gets an injury and loses their starter for an extended timeframe. Should he be here at the end of the year, give him an opportunity to make the parent club, but expect him to be the Amerks goalie while either Levi or Ellis get traded with the other one acting as Lyon's backup next year. Especially with the cap going up, there's a better chance than people expect that they can send him somewhere. Pretty sure both parties are at the point they need a fresh start. And, no, don't expect that to happen as long as Adams is calling the shots.

Will agree with two pieces of this. Benson, due to his current strength level, has little faith in his shot. When he gets stronger, he'll shoot more, and the shot will likely be effective. (And he is a very smart player with great stick work in the corners too.) But, his size didn't cause a shot block to mess up his foot. His size didn't cause a puck to the face to cause internal bleeding. Yes, he'll be a better player when he's stronger, but he's already ahead of decent.

Giving him Rosen and Östlund to start the game so the McLeod line could stay together wasn't the fail. (Not at home when you have the last line change.) The fail was watching the 1st 10 minutes of the game (2+ shifts of all the lines) and watching Thompson looking totally discombobulated and then not putting him out with McLeod and Tuch. Rosen has looked much better than expected in this stint and Östlund has played well the past couple of games. IF you are trying to keep the 1 line that seems to be working together, when you have the last line change, there are much worse choices on paper to play with Tage. But, it was NOT working, so it needs to change and the change needs to happen while there's still a lot of game left to make SOMETHING work. The fail was also having the 4th line be the line you start every period with and having Krebs and not Kozak centering it. If you're going to treat the 3rd line like the 4th line by ice time; then go with the younger guy who's shaping up to be pretty good in his own end while also bringing energy at the other end as the C for that line. The fail was bumping Quinn onto the top PP unit rather than putting Byram or even Tuch onto that unit. The ONLY times that unit has looked even competent is when there are at least 2 guys willing to go to the net; Doan is the only guy on that unit last night that will do that regularly. Byram will give you another solid playmaker that doesn't mind going to the net; Tuch gives you a guy that will go to the net and can forecheck. Quinn is redundant to Rosen and Thompson on that unit.

They ARE NHL 0.500. But NHL 0.500 is where bad, though not horrible, teams find themselves. They need to get to an NHL 0.600. Finding some way to at minimum get themselves to an NHL 0.450 on the road (they really need to be NHL 0.500 on the road, but considering they're at NHL 0.250 on the road currently, baby steps) would go a long way towards being able to get there. And they are NHL 0.500 in their (VERY small sample size) last 2 road games. Win tomorrow night in Carolina and then worry about game 2 of the road trip. Shoot, the Blues are horrible and just won in the 2 time defending Campbell Conference champions' barn and shut out another team in 2 of their last 3 road games. Find a friggin' way to get it done. And if you can't, for the love of all that's Good and Holy, make some ####ing changes!!!

Yes and no. Yes, you aren't going to win any games when you don't score any goals. BUT, how much of their offensive play (not the idiotic "plan" put together by Appert, but their actual play) was affected by knowing that UPL starting would almost definitely guarantee they'd need to score at least 4 goals to win the game? They hit 4 posts; do they perhaps shoot a little closer to the goalie if they aren't gripping the sticks tight knowing they have to get to 4 to win? Tuch is definitely gripping it tight. HE's their shorty goal scorer and when he was in the slot with a teammate coming up the ice with him on a nearly 2-on-1 which forced the goalie to keep from coming out high on him decides to try to pass it to the guy that is NOT a goal scorer to keep from either shooting wide again or getting robbed again for IIRC what would've been the 6th time in just over 2 games. If Lyon, or even Ellis, gets the start, does the team play a little looser expecting that a brain fart WON'T absolutely be in their net? When you have no faith in your goalie, you play differently than you do when you expect a save. And, right down, does ANYBODY here EXPECT UPL to make a big save? If nobody here (or at a minimum nobody posting here that doesn't live in NH 😉 ) expects a big save, why would UPL's teammates EXPECT the big save? (Especially after having seen the 1st 2 goals he gave up.) They finally went for it in the 3rd when they had no time left to try to sit back but by then the Blues goalie was on his game and even when they could get one past him, they couldn't get it heading inside the iron.

UPL ONLY gets going when there is no one in his way to the starter's role and everyone is pumping him up. He tends to run out of gas after 2-3 months, but he seems to be the Sally Fields of goalies - he gets into his grove when he feels the love of those around him. When he doesn't have it, he plays without confidence; and when you play without confidence you are slow moving across the crease on a breakaway where the shooter has limited options because he does have a chaser close by and when you play without confidence you flat out miss unscreened pucks from 40' away that should be easy glove saves and when you play without confidence you can't keep a leg along the ice when having to track a puck from behind the net to the front of it and can't get the leg back down onto the ice regardless of how slow the puck has been kicked at the net. He isn't moving ahead of Lyon unless Lyon really falls on hard times and he SHOULD be behind Ellis right now. This team needs wins to stay in the chase. They don't have the luxury of letting UPL play his way out of his own head.

They aren't wrong.

When the PP was on (for all of 1-1/2 games) but also when they were generating chances but not finishing, they had at least 2 of the 3 of Doan, Benson, and Zucker on the ice and at least 2 of them were near the net. They need guys with that mentality to be on the PP because they are never going to have close to 2 minutes of zone time because of the idiotic entry and the way they tend to let themselves get outmanned at the boards. Seth Appert is sliding soooooooo far up the list of most disliked people associated with the Sabres.

After UPL's 3 games, Ellis HAS to be the #2.

Hmm, granny on a trampoline. Woody considering a career switch to show runner for geriatric porn?

So, come out with their own hair on fire and wear the Blues out. No excuses for a loss tonight.

You mean besides Roloson (who completely changed his game) and Thomas (who was simply a unicorn)? None come immediately to mind.

Well, should he hit 1,000, they can clear the bench again. There's no true significant difference between 899, 900, and 901; but humans in general like round numbers, especially those with more than one 0 at the end. And nobody else in history has ever scored 900 goals in professional hockey at its highest levels prior to last night. It was a significant feat; and was treated as such.

The biggest thing working against them at this point is they're about to play their 10th home game with having only played 4 on the road. Their record at home this year is good (5-2-2), not great, but good and should they win tonight good enough. But they've been horrible on the road. Personally feel they've played better on the road after that 1st debacle in Beantown than the record indicates but they have to be 0.500 on the road to be on a playoff pace overall and they aren't anywhere close to that (0-2-2) and they'll have 6 more roadies than home games the rest of the way. They HAVE to figure out how to get W's on the road, or it'll be another doomed season.

Any word on what move was/ will be made to accomodate him on the 23 man roster?

Better the Blues than us. Would've stunk to have been there to see 2 record breaking goals against the Sabres. Gretzky's 77-79 was enough to see in person.

No data. Haven't looked that closely at that as it's only relevant for about 1 week out of the year.

Heck, winning 20% of them gives you the NHL 0.600 pace you need to essentially guarantee a playoff spot. So, yeah, getting to OT helps.

Not sure if the 30 day clock starts at the day he was claimed or the day the season starts for claims made before they start playing. So they MIGHT not quite be there yet.

Is it in the NFL? Serious question. And the reason for asking is that teams routinely change salary to bonuses during the season to free up additional cap space and it SEEMS to be pretty close to a $1 in vs a $1 out (minus the prorating of a hit that would fully hit this season now getting spread over 4 (or however long the contract is for) seasons giving $0.75 worth of relief for $1 worth of converted money. Don't recall seeing a team convert salary to bonus just before the deadline and becoming able to bring in a significanlty more expensive player with that newly freed cap space. Though don't pay nearly as much attention to the details of NFL cap transactions, so maybe that's just having missed some like that which have actually happened.

Agreed. No data on if he's been practicing since then, but he has not dressed for a game since then. Ruff does continue to say he's willing to play all 3 and will play whichever one on any given night he thinks will give them the best chance of winning. (And with that said, we haven't seen Ellis dress in about 2 weeks.)

Samuelsson and Greenway have both been significantly more physical than they've been in past seasons. Don't know if it's due to Ruff harping on physicality ordue to guys like Doan, Dunne, Timmons, and Benson setting the example and shaming the others into playing more physical. Probably a bit of both.

Well, when you actually send pressure, there almost always is SOMEBODY open. The key is, to have that breakdown happen to the side of the field you're chasing the QB away from or at a minimum far down his progressions so that you get to him before he can look to that receiver. Would MUCH prefer they step up the pressure on Mahomes than play like they did on 4th and 17. 2 guys actually getting pressure and a 3rd doing jack gave Mahomes a week and a half back there and enough time for Rice to finally get open. They usually don't pressure Mahomes in the playoffs and they usually get 2 stops the entire game whether they needed those stops or not. They have Josh Allen. Pressure Mahomes and the couple of times that he makes you pay for not getting there, let Josh Allen go clean up the mess and get the score differential back to where it had just been.