Taro T

If he's one of the top 9 or 10 (not sure they'll give him a roster spot if he's only the 11th or 12th guy because they wouldn't be seeing that much of a team improvement between that and #13) then it would certainly seem his development would be best served playing against NHLers. The cool thing is, they have more than a single keep/cut decision deadline for him and as he evolves the decision could change. (And realize you know these milestones. This spot is just a good spot to put them.) Obviously the 1st one is on the 1st day of the season when they have to be cap compliant. Unless something major changes in these next several days am expecting him to make the keep threshold there because as soon as he's sent back to WA he's gone until their season is done barring a ST emergency callup that might never be possible unless there are serious injury issues, so hopefully that's not a possible option. After that, there's when he's played 9 games. If they give him 1 more game, he burns a year off his ELC. Less obvious he'll clear that hurdle, but wouldn't bet against it. After that, there'd be when he's been active roster for 39 games (and active roster includes games he misses due to injury while on the official roster). Because the 40th game gets him an accrued season towards FA and most all the rest. That's the tricky one. If he's still here by then is he still getting regular ice time or is he seeming to burn out a bit. Am really interested to see how it plays out for him. Guys drafted outside the top 2 or 3 slots rarely play their D+1 year in the NHL. Would be cool if he's good enough to earn that. He just might be. And probably is.

They likely will send 2/3's of the Amerks down sometime after Saturday's game and then leave 8 or so guys that they are still considering for roster spots and 1st callups with the team until after the last preseason game. The 1st RS game isn't until the 11th so there'll be plenty of time for practicing with the "real" lines after exhibition season is done for the guys that actually are Sabres. Will be interesting to see how they deploy the goalies these last 4 games. Could see them giving Levi the start tonight and in the last game and giving Comrie and UPL the others to see if either will claim the backup role. And should Cooley (sp?) or Tokarski get a start, expect Eric and Ukka need to be on the phone to their agents saying "tell them to trade me right ####ing now." (But doubt that's the plan. Though we shall see.)

Am convinced that the move to C was a huge part of Thompson breaking out like he did. (Much like moving Mittelstadt to W when he 1st came to the Sabres, 1st came back up from Ra-cha-cha, and after the difficult start last year tended to get him back into the games so to speak.) But after watching him play W last year recovering from injury, don't believe he absolutely has to stay at C. (A big change of opinion as had been adamant he needed to stay at C to be effective.) He isn't overly effective in his own end at C; the reach helps, but he's still figuring out what to do in his own end. The way W's play defense now, that big reach of his could still help him be effective. Once he hits center ice, he can head towards more open space and still play like the F2 or F3 most of the time which is essentially what the C does nowadays. Am in no way advocating for him to move to W and do still agree he's better at C than at W but it isn't as significant as we'd believed. And, if Granato can get a matchup he likes by moving Tage to the W, am now open to it. (Like he gives a rat's rear end if any of us approve of his player usage or not. 😄)

And THAT is UPL's issue. He is going to give up an early weak goal way more often than he should that puts the team back on their heels. Yes, other than that and his penchant to do his Lehner imitation anytime he's 1v1 against anybody he looked OK. Not great, OK. He had at least one stretch where he was doing his old roll around on the ice trying to figure out where he left the rebound; but fortunately his D kept the Loafs from getting a shot off while he was lost. But it's those moments of getting lost in the crease and the bad goals he gives up that are the killers. Those are the goals that get highly offensive teams like the Loafs into feeding frenzy mode and the ones that give bad teams that extra little pep in their step thinking that though they should be getting killed, they're still in this and have a shot if they just keep working and sticking with it. While his ceiling likely is higher than Comrie's, am still of the opinion that Comrie is the better choice as the backup because his floor is higher and he's less likely to give up that killer stinker goal. (Though he isn't exactly imune from it, especially high glove side.) Comrie gives up goals. He's a backup at best. But he is IMHO less likely to give up the momentum changing goal than UPL is. And considering the backup's 30 games are going to primarily be against weaker teams &/or road games, that's what they need. The guy that isn't going to get the other team's crowd into it and catcalling and the guy that isn't going to cause the other team to "just get it on net, it has a real chance." UPL makes his own life more difficult because he's going to get other teams to shoot from anywhere on him and not just from the high danger spots. He has to be more alert than say Levi will (though expect he won't be more alert than Devon) because teams aren't going to take low percentage shots against Devon. Because those are nearly no percentage shots. Against UPL, they're a little more dangerous. And there have been moments when UPL has been good. But they've been few and far between and unfortunately have no expectation on any given night that we'll see one of those. As long as he's a Sabre/Amerk will hope he figures it out. He HAS gotten better through the years. But better still isn't good. And the Sabres need good. (It's all you ask of your backup, but you still have to get it. Leave great to Levi. The backup has to be good or at a bare minimum adequate. And they really should expect from a backup to get good. Don't honestly believe they get good consistently from either guy; but IF Comrie stays healthy, expect he's closer to good than UPL is. Curious to see in a week or so if the coaches and Adams agree.)

In fairness, the league seems to be looking into an experimentation with one SH goal ending a PP, so that 2nd goal right after Domi got out of the box wouldn't have happened. Unfortunately they're a bit ahead of their own time.

He also said that they're really excited about Comrie and UPL too. If you're going to sell high (or at all) you need to pump up the tires. No, the article said that each of the 7 preseason games would be available on either MSG OR Sabres.com. This one is an MSG game.

We're on the same page. And personally would love to see the Sabres and other teams around the league stop gouging STHers for preseason games by either going to local youth hockey leagues and offer up cheap ($10?) tix for players and their familiies OR by taking the preseason games on the road. They used to do that. Used to be a preseason game each year in Houston. Pens played at least twice; once against Gretzky and the Kings, once against the Whale. Took a bunch of friends to those games and then had a bunch of people who were willing to go to one of the local bars to watch the Sabres play every so often. Another way to build up the national fan base.

And 18 yo's being officially "adults" (except when it comes to being allowed to buy an alcholic beverage and a few other items) is also a fact of life. And is THE reason that when Ken Linesman brought suit the NHL dropped the entry draft from drafting 20 yo's to drafting 18 yo's. They aren't going to be able to get that genie back in the bottle. Again, we are on the same page, IF he is good enough to beat out the rest of the challengers for that 9th spot in the top 9 he stays up. If he isn't, he doesn't. But the more we watch of him, the less likely it seems he won't win that competition.

Which is why the plan definitely WAS to send him back to Juniors, but really not as certain that it still is the plan. And another game or 2 like the ones we've seen so far and the plan has to change.

Expect it isn't so much that as ESPN+ has contracts with most all the major regional sports networks to show NHL out of market games that they air. The Caps game wasn't on MSG (don't know whether it was on the Caps broadcaster or just their website; expecting it was just their website because it was showing the Jumbotron feed) and likely not on the Caps broadcast partner either. So, no RSN broadcast -> no ESPN+ broadcast. Whereas the Bruins game was on NESN and MSG.

Didn't say he didn't wear a maple leaf. Said he didn't wear blue and white.

Well, wasn't that how she got her start in the music business, writing songs about teenagers that ignored her? Just getting back to her roots. 😉

Should be some interesting conversations those kids have with their friends 20 years from now: "of course the Workhorse from Whitehorse started out as one of our beloved Loafs; he's a sweater he signed proviing it." "Stop sniffing glue you hoser, look it up, he never wore blue and white, just blue and gold (and the occasional red and black)."

Cozens and Olofsson definitely. Likely Krebs and then one of Rousek, Weissbach, Murray, or Kisakov. (Doubt Jost gets PP1 duty as there is no permutation of the roster where he'd ever get that usage in season.)

To the bolded, 100% all day long. If he is good enough to be one of the skaters on the top 3 lines, meaning he's beaten out all the other kids they're looking at right now AND he's beaten out Olofsson and Jost just can't see a compelling reason to not keep him up. And right now, it looks like he's beating all those other guys out. Victor and Tyson need to bring their A games tonight because if they don't one could be on his way out the door to another franchise and the other's hold on the 13th spot (12th if you believe he'd play ahead of Rousek keeping Benson out of the picture; personally don't believe he would, but it's possible) becomes extremely tenuous. This is fun. And we're actually watching battles for positions that will leave an NHL quality F or 2 or 4 on the outside looking in. One more similarity between this team and the '05-'06 version. (Thorburn got claimed by Atlanta IIRC (might've been Pittsburgh) and Pominville somehow cleared waivers fortunately.)

Yep. You put your best 12 F's on the ice along with the 6 best D and Levi as often as you can without burning him out by NYE. This too. Didn't vote because really not sure if the answer to the 1st question is Y or N. (The other 2 are clear yeses should he stay injury free and there's no reason to expect him not to do so.) But with every game / scrimmage watched that he plays am expecting that 1st answer to become a Y. This kid just has 'it.' Much like Levi does. And if he makes the team better than Olofsson, Rousek, Kulich, Rosen, Biron, or Jost does then how does a management that said competing for and winning the Stanley Cup is the goal justify sending him back to Juniors? And there being cap repercussions 8 years from now rather than 9 to go with the possibility he might walk for nothing then isn't justification enough to keep him in WA. Especially with that team's coach's status in doubt at present. Don't see Savoie's injury being a factor in the Benson decision either. It isn't "fair" that Matt got injured, but life isn't fair, and whether that added another opportunity for Zach or not it really can't / shouldn't get factored into the discussion of what's best for the team and the player. And IF they keep Benson up and then he seems to be wearing down from the grind of playing against men every other day; well, send him back to WA. It burns a year of his ELC but it doesn't do anything to his earning a year of service towards FA which is what matters more. If he can show that he isn't a Lawrence Pilut who is an all star against tweeners and a no show against NHLers (and very highly doubt that he is a Larry), then there is no compelling reason to send him back.

Expect you're right that doing so would untimately result in more revenues than their current preseason ticket selling plan. But it could be a tough sell to the NHL, because to make it work (getting bodies into the rink) they'd have to either not stick STHers w/ tix to the preseason or at a minimum let them opt out. Because most STHers don't want the preseason game tix and don't want to go to them. They're already going to 41 games plus the home playoff games. 3 extra trips to the barn for games that don't matter is a tough sell. And doubt the league would be happy with them not forcing the tix on the STHers because expect there are few if any rinks that are packed for the preseason. And if nobody's going, at least having the 2/3 regular ticket prices in their pockets beats zilch. Maybe they'll experiment with a Bills style preseason kids game, but doubt it for the reasons above. Expect it would work if they tried it. (Of course, they also likely are concerned that it'd cut into demand for the RS Kids Day and Youth Hockey game promotions.

Liking that they're using TC & the exhibition games to get the best look possible at the kids looking to step up. Interesting that they're likely giving Olofsson a shot with Cozens. Not a combination that has been used much at all in the past. Benson's play should have lit a fire under his butt, so hopefully he's fully engaged tonight.

Yeah, that response came across harsher than it should've been.

You really going to compare Cooley to Levi? (And Cooley played well; but they aren't even close to each other skillwise.)

Very unselfish play by Kozak there. Nice to see Cedarqvist get rewarded.

Devon would've had that. 😉

He looked good with Greenway and Jost too. Just sayin'.

So close, had you shouted Devon!! you'd've been set. 😉 (They'd've cut you slack on the o vs the i in Devon/Devin.)

And absolutely nothing that looked scary. This kid is going to be SUCH a keeper. Totally understand Adams unwillingness to use real assets to get him a legit battery mate. Don't like it and don't agree with it; but understand it.