Taro T

No love for CAPTAIN Steve Ott? For shame.😛

Interesting idea. But am expecting that Benson is going to be an everyday player. (We'll see if that actually plays out that way, but don't see him being a guy you want to sit every other night.)

Well, of course 97 is more attainable than 111. You have to go past there to get to there. And wherever you go, there you are. 😉 But 97 points says that the team was only 6 points better than last year's squad over 82 games. 103 is 12 points better. With Levi added; everybody but Clifton, Johnson, and Benson experienced in the current system; Cozens, Peterka, Power, Dahlin, and Mittelstadt and others all a year closer to their peak just have a hard time believing this team turning (on average) a single loss each 10 game segment into 4 W's and 4 trips to OT (or popping 4 OT trips from last year into W's) is outside their capability. They won't be as good on the road as they were last year, but their home record will be where last year's road record was. They were flat out horrible at home in general and that won't be the case this year. Granato will likely still be reluctant to match lines, but he'll do it when he needs to do so. That alone will help a bunch. Expect Levi alone is good for at least 8 points in the standings. Unless this team has huge injury issues, which with a young team will be a bit unexpected; or the STs are absolutely attrocious, this team is a triple digit team. The PP will likely be bad, but your best PKer is your goalie and the goalie is significantly upgraded. (The starter is at least.) And, should Comrie be the backup, not expecting him to have the Anderson vs lousy team mental issues that Craig had last year. They lost 5 or so games against bad/horrible teams after the calendar flipped with Andy either giving up a really bad goal early keeping that team mentally in the game or giving up that UPL special killer goal later in the game. Not going to relook it up (there are posts about it here that can easily be searched) but they threw away at least 8 and maybe 12 points in those games. Comrie won't win them many games, but he's not going to lose them a lot against bad teams either. And that will be the bulk of the games he plays. 20 points better than last year seems a lot more realistic than only 6 points better does. (And again, still am expecting 103 - a 12 point improvement.)

And if somebody really wants him on their AHL squad, could see Pittsburgh saying sure, he's yours. Nylander is on a 1 way deal. $775k is a lot of money to pay an AHLer. And after IIRC 30 days or being on the NHL roster for 10 games, the Pens would lose their right of 1st refusal should the claiming club realize what he is.

Two of the best teammates ever to play. No way either would ever say anything negative publicly about Fuhr or any of their other key teammates. That's not how great leaders operate. So, regardless of how true or not the statement may be, it really isn't as impressive nor as decisive as you imply. They have a horse in that race. To the bolded, we are in agreement. And it is obvious what Muckler's view on it was, but understanding his perspective doesn't absolve him from being an idiot. And his idiocy very possibly cost the Sabres a Stanley Cup.

Hopefully this means that they've already decided Comrie won the backup role and are going to refrain from giving him the opportunity to puke all over himself resucitating the 3 headed monster.

Because in his quest to be this generation's Rico, 7's not available any more. Duh! 😛

Partial season age 22 Rico versus in his prime & full career Benson.

Maybe Filly will put in a claim. Cut down on just how much they gave up for Ristolainen.

Would say that 92.5 is a no brainer very easy money and the 100 point line is pretty tempting too. Personally am expecting 103 but expect there's a lot better chance of them hitting 111 than only 97.

Maybe it's just as insurance should Rousseau not be ready to go, but Miller made the trip over with the team.

Yes, it's preseason, but Benson has excelled at every stop along the way to here, and has been a bright spot in all 5 games he's played to date in the preseason. Yes, he hasn't shown what he can do in the regular season, but that's not exactly his fault. Personally am willing to wait to see him actually not succeed in the regular season before expecting it. Because by everything he's done to date, there is no reason to expect him not to continue to look like he belongs. Will he stay a PPG player? Probably not, but if he's still playing wing with Thompson and Skinner wouldn't put staying really close to that or there completely out of the range of possibilities.

Yeah. If that happens @sweetlou you need to pay 10x what you do now to post here. 😜

No idea how much over 10k they're at, but it was around 4k 2 years ago and around 8k last year. Pretty sure 12-14k is historically typical post 70's and pre-President's Trophy years. So, they're close to normal. Making the playoffs this year will put them there. People are going to want to get their tix now; they'll be hard to get next year and moving forward.

Yep. Rousek signed at 22 and is entering his 3rd pro season, so he's still waiver exempt this year. 🍻

Umm, maybe he should've been back on his flippin' goal line. The play is absolutely on Smith. But if Fuhr is paying attention to details, that doesn't happen. And, really, 2 guys that were teammates of a player for years say he was the best. That's pretty shocking. Never, ever do we see such testimonials in pro sports.

Cool. Also, guess it was in the Snooze sometime this past week or 2, but Sabres themselves say there are over 10k ST. (Presumably that's equivalents when 1/2 & 1/4 ST packages are included, but not positive of that.)

Can't see any way at all they don't have 23 healthy players on the roster. They aren't going to put UPL through waivers only to also waive all of Biro, Rousek, Clague, and Bryson anyhow. And if they're only keeping 6 D on the active roster, they're setting themselves up for a night where they only dress 5 D.

UPL showed in this presesaon exactly what he'll give in the RS. It's the same he gave down the stretch last regular season. There was a reason Comrie was usually the guy sitting on the bench when Levi was in there. Hopefully, Adams, Granato, and Bales have seen enough to remember why that was. And, if Comrie absolutely pukes all over himself against the Pens, could see them going with the 3 headed monster. But if he doesn't, just can't see a reason to expose all 3 of Comrie, Biro, and Rousek to waivers to avoid having to do so with UPL.

Pretty much. Though he may improve down the road, right now he is what he is. And, with him only getting into every 3rd game or so, they can't be getting good UPL 40% of the time and Regular UPL the other 60% (and with being out of rhythm, expect that's about the best they can hope for) and be calling that good enough. The backup typically plays the weaker teams. Plan on not going balls to the wall offense against them and put Comrie in behind the "defensively responsible 2023-24 Buffalo Sabres." They'll still outscore the bad teams and keep Levi ready for the games they need him to bail out the "high flying 2023-24 Buffalo Sabres." Comrie typically won't give up the horrible goal that blows up that lower octane approach. UPL very well could and when he does they'll have to swap back to the high octane approach and hope UPL doesn't face any odd man rushes at that point.

He said based on yesterday's practice they'll make the decision. But coming off the field yesterday, he said he felt great. Doubt he'd get many reps if he goes, but am expecting to see him go Sunday. Especially with losing White, gives them something to rally around (should they need it). They're playing very well right now and might not need it.

Von Miller's debut. Can't see the D-line laying a stinker on the field when VM is finally back. He won't let them. And if the D-line gets after Lawrence the back 7 will take care of business as well.

Yup. He'll fit in fine in a 2ndary role on the 2nd pairing or could be a really strong 3rd pairing guy.

Personally, expect the lines Fairburn expects is what we'll see on the 11th. But expect the spares to be Jost, Stillman, and Clague with UPL getting waived. And, like others, expect the lines to be significantly shuffled by the 3rd or 4th game. At that point: Skinner - Thompson - Tuch Peterka - Cozens - Benson Greenway - Mittelstadt - Olofsson Girgensons - Krebs - Okposo And about 2 games later the D also gets shuffled: Samuelsson - Dahlin Power - Clifton E Johnson - Jokiharju And if those F lines don't work, (and they very well might not) we see Jost moving to Krebs spot, VO taking Jost's spot in the Press Box and not sure how the other 6 get mixed and matched. Tuch could get mixed and matched off Thompson's line again at that point. Not sure.

Which says IMHO that Bryson is going to be an Amerk and they still could run 8D. Cannot see them keeping Johnson as the 7 simply to sit in the press box most nights. One of Biro, Jost, or Rousek (likely Jost) ends up the 13. And will still say that they're keeping 2 goalies until the 10th gets here and it gets proven wrong. Per Okposo, the team was going to send UPL down last year when Comrie came back but the players lobbied for UPL to stay up. After the finish he had last year and the way he played in the preseason, simply don't see any player lobbying for him again. (And maybe UPL's ahead of Comrie, hope not, but maybe he is. If so, it is what it is, but they should send Comrie down in that case.)