Taro T

Perception is popular sentiment. Have rarely given a rat's bippy about popular sentiment. But in this instance we are left doubling down on the hope that Adams' assessment of whether/how much Kane could help the Sabres was wrong.

If he's any good anymore, yes, that stinks. If he's a shell of what he was before, don't we WANT him playing for a rival?

Interesting. The team that's been within 2 games of 0.500 the entire season is the team that is closest to the dead center of that chart. Shocking. 😀 But, yeah, this would seem to be the night they definitely don't want to give up that early 1:35 into the game goal that they seem so fond of giving up. Get the big saves early from UPL, let the Mittelstadt line get the Blues back on their heels, and then let Peterka from the other line or Tuch from that line get the dagger 1st goal.

Don't believe as much of the fanbase will/does hate your opinion as you expect. Those of us that saw positives in Mittelstadt's game when things weren't going great for him were significantly in the minority and he was a whipping boy for many going back years. And that still carries through to this day to a degree. The line Mittelstadt has been on has seen more 5v5 ice time and has been listed by the Sabres as the 2nd or 1st line for the majority of the season, with Cozens' line 1 below that (there were a couple of weeks when that's been flipped, but for the most part that's been the case) but people still refer to him as the 3C. LT he might be the 3C, but not seeing much of that this year to date. It's like the old adage, get labeled as an early riser and you can show up at noon whenever you want with no one noticing. The player Casey Mittelstadt was coming out of college is not the same player he is today. And, it is somewhat frustrating that people don't want to lock up his peak years because of their own frustration at watching him get to this point. Really do believe that your position that the Sabres are better off without him at what he's likely to cost by trying to get that production replaced by kids still quite a way from their peaks is more popular than you realize. And also believe if the Sabres get rid of players prematurely right when they're about to enter their primes that they'll be doing exactly what the Bills did for 17 years. Nope, we can't afford Winfield; draft his replacement. Nope, we can't afford Peters; try to draft his replacement. Nope, we can't afford xxx; ... Lather, rinse, repeat, never win more than 9 games. Realizing that the NHL cap is significantly different from the NFL cap; but teams find ways to live for years with strong teams while skirting the cap, don't see a reason the Sabres won't be able to do so keeping a guy like Mittelstadt in the plans until somebody is actually ready to replace him.

Provided the contract doesn't have a NMC (or at minimum not a full NMC) am perfectly fine with them giving Mittelstadt a LT deal for what he's showing to be worth. (And hoped they'd get a deal worked out this past off-season after they got the 2 D signed.) This team has hemorrhaged high end talent for years. Am very tired of watching it move off the team to be replaced by guys on ELCs, prospects, draft picks, and Sobotkas. Adams has stated loudly and for a long time that the reason the team hasn't spent money on UFAs and has stayed far from the cap was to be able to sign their own good players and keep them in the fold. Well, this guy was home grown, the team went through a lot of growing pains with him and should now be looking to keep him in the fold now that he's approaching his prime. My 2 cents, YMMV.

It means he has a contract with the Sabres but he will no longer be playing for the Sabres currently. His services are getting loaned to the Rochester Americans currently.

Krebs is only 22 (turns 23 in January). Way too young to call him a bust, but depending upon how other youngsters progress, he might end up turning into a quality player (should that happen) with a different organization. He likely won't get as much runway to takeoff as Thompson, Mittelstadt, and the rest of the kids that are up on the big club got because there are more guys ahead of him than they had "blocking" them and more guys likely pushing credibly than they had to fight off too. And if he does end up good for somebody else, good for him, just hope the Sabres get a reasonable value for him should they reach a point they have to move on from him.

Pretty sure you lucked into a Jack Quinn 22. Nice.

Interesting thought. And it's been looking pretty good since Tuch came back having them on separate lines. Will be very interesting to see what happens when Thompson comes back. Depending on how close to 100% he is, could see him ending up on the 3rd line briefly with Greenway and somebody else - right now would expect that would be Olofsson but if VO has turned back into a pumpkin by then it could be any of the other bottom 6ers that are up or have been up recently.

Sabres were 3 points out on Thanksgiving with 2 teams between them and a playoff spot (3, if you count the Pens who were tied with the Sabres but with a game in hand; and the Sabres beat them in regulation the next night).

It's very possible. But, it is just so incredibly rare for this management group to bring a player up and then not dress him that still expect it is more likely that either Jost or Rosen (or maybe both) sit and Biro gets time primarily with Krebs and Okposo while Greenway and Olofsson get rotating F's playing with them at ES.

If Comrie plays like he did prior to getting injured, this move will work out fine. But, if he doesn't, still would rather have Levi around taking that 1 game per week in Buffalo than Comrie playing like he did in the 2 games post-reactivation. As said earlier, don't see either him having stayed up in Buffalo nor getting sent down to Ra-cha-cha messing up his career trajectory at-toll (or however it is that Ray says that phrase). But want the Sabres to make the playoffs THIS YEAR. Hoping Comrie is up to the task on Sunday. If he is, cool.

Though he's 35, he wasn't 35 at the end of the last league year, so he didn't qualify for a 1 year incentivized deal for this contract because of age and he played 73 games last year so he didn't come close to missing 100 days on IR last year and he didn't qualify for a 1 year incentivized deal of this contract because of injury status either. He should be eligible for a bonus laden 1 year deal next year, should he and a team decide they want to sign/offer one.

Bills spitting the bit at the same time the Sabres are treading water just outside of where they need to be and slowly losing runway to get there doesn't help to lighten the mood around here.

Makes sense. If Greenway is going to play tomorrow, somebody had to go down. Rosen has been playing on the 3rd line and they brought Biro up presumably to play on the 4th line. Wonder who sits tomorrow, Jost, Rosen, or Olofsson? Would expect Rosen, but who knows. Also, wonder which D sits? Or do 2 of the F's sit and Jost joins Rosen in the press box?

To fill in for Girgensons spot on the 4th line (which is actually 3rd in ice time). And makes for a very interesting 3rd line Greenway - Kid/Jost - Olofsson/Kid.

Expect you're close on the reasoning for going 11-7, but it's more nuanced than that IMHO. He wants Clifton to play on the PK. He wants R Johnson to play 5v5 during the 1st 2 periods, but not so much in the 3rd. So, he essentially has them combine for a 5th D's normal ice time. He's very comfortable with the other 5 D in their current roles (though many here would like to see some variations on how those other 5 get used; and since he's the coach, he gets to call the shots). So, he likes not having to bench any of the 7 he trusts (at least for certain aspects of the game). That by going 11-7, he can avoid having 3 or possibly even 4 rookie F's in the lineup, only 1 of which (Benson) he trusts in crunch time only makes it that much easier for him to go 11-7. And, all that said, am really looking forward to them getting some F's healthy again so they can get back to 12-6. And, looking at what you wrote again, believe we're on the same page about the F's.

IF they actually are completely healthy (doubt we see that the entire year, but maybe), yeah, the 3 Amerk F's go back, unless somebody's knocking it out of the park by then and then one of Benson getting set to WA, Johnson going back to the Amerks, or Bryson finally getting waived happens.

Not that it means anything (had never noticed the site had projected return dates for players on IR), but Puckpedia is forecasting Thompson's and Girgenson's return dates as December 2, Quinn December 27, and Greenway tomorrow. It seems they're citing Lysowski's articles about the injuries, so would take those projections with a HUGE grain of salt. So, take them for whatever they're worth; but if those are even close to accurate, the Sabres may be close to full strength much sooner than this kid expected.

And his is a very unusual situation. He was playing great in Juniors and then the Sabres convinced him to preemptively get double hip surgery. He never was the same goalie because the hips didn't feel right. Last year he corrected one of the major issues he had in hunching down some in the butterfly leaving the top of the net wide open. But his movement was still very slow. He's said he really worked on nutrition and conditioning this past summer, but he did not look good in the preseason and was 3rd on the depth chart. His movement was still subpar. But in the past few games, his movement within the crease has been significantly better, and in the last game against the Rags he had that paddle save where he dove across the crease but before that, he had one where he did the splits and got completely across the crease in position and made a huge save. Maybe he has finally gotten to a point that even though that movement still feels weird/wrong (or even better, maybe it finally doesn't feel weird), he trusts his doctors, trainers, and coaches that it really isn't going to #### up his hips/knees to push that hard across the crease. IF he has, this elevated play could be sustainable. Don't know that it is, but it could be. Will also be interesting to see if teams alter their tactics now that they'll actually be trying to get a book on him since he's the Sabres starter. And if they do, will he and the rest of the team be able to counteract those changing tactics. If he keeps playing like he did the last 2 games, Adams insisting that he trusts all 3 goalies and that he didn't see anyone available that was as significantly better than them for what the price would be be, might for the 1st time in 4 years have actually been a good call. (Way too early to say that is is, but it might actually work out.)

Yeah, what he asked. (Presuming it's the personal matter, but am really confused by this one. Hoping he's not dealing with a family member in a very precarious situation.)

As long as they don't ice the puck when those 3 are out there, they could probably get away with using that line in very sheltered usage. (Give them Dahlin and the Blues 4th line and see what happens.) But am not expecting to see that. Heck, they might play Jost instead of either Rosen or Kulich tomorrow night.

With Levi having been sent down and Girgensons on IR and Greenway on IR-NR, they were at 22 players on the active roster. So, Biro is the 23rd player on the roster. When Greenway (who will presumably be the 1st one back, but who knows) is ready to go again, some other move will have to be made. Had thought that either Rosen or Kulich had been up on an emergency recall; but Greenway isn't counting against the 23 man limit, so they both could have been up on regular recall.

Sorry, thought the St. Louis game was tonight, not tomorrow. Was going off Puckpedia's projections for Greenway's return. But had heard/read that he would miss the St. Louis game (which is why Biro got called up). So, based on all that, thought Greenway was rejoining the team when they got back from St. Louis. NR is Non-Rostered. So he's on the team's reserve list, but he doesn't count against the 23 man roster limit. With the additional IR designation, it would appear he's on the Injured Reserve list as well. He took part in the morning skate of the 1st game he missed (Pens at home, right?) but Granato said after that he was waiting on injury news on one player before committing to 12-6 that night. They ran 11-7 and added that Greenway was out for a personnal matter.

Greenway is not listed on the roster (he's on some version of IR through today's game), so prior to bringing Biro up, the team only had 22 active healthy players. They now, with Biro up have 13-8-2. If Greenway is reactivated tomorrow (as expected) then somebody else will have to get sent down (presuming no injuries tonight in St. Louis).