Taro T

Because the players all have very sharp knives on the bottoms of their feet and if they start kicking at the puck, players WILL get sliced by those knives. The rule serves 2 purposes. 1, it keeps to the spirit of the game which requires players to use their stick to propel the puck. And 2, it is a MAJOR player safety issue. The Sabres have been involved in 2 separate games where a player had his jugular sliced by a skate. Was at 1 of those 2 games. It was VERY sobering wondering if we'd just seen a player die before our eyes. Really not looking forward to seeing them end up in a 3rd such game. That doesn't even get into the players that have had other injures caused by cuts from skates.

In.

That stupid 10 goals against game and the handful of extra goals against the Bruins the previous week pretty much doomed the dream of having a positive GF/GA differential.

Really don't want to see 3 goalies in Buffalo full time next year. It puts too much of a constraint on what the team can do once injuries hit either the F's or D.

Locked into the 13th seed pre-lottery. Go out and get the W and finish a mere point out of the playoffs and a mere 8 points out of what is necessary to guarantee a spot in any year but 1970. (NHL 0.600) Would prefer Comrie start tonight, but expecting UPL. (Actually would prefer Levi but just don't see that happening.)

Will be sad to see Dubas leave the Loafs. Would be fine with him moving to Pittsburgh. THAT's the guy that needs to stay in conference.

Disagree. Hextall is actually pretty decent at this GMing thing IMHO. Filly's been flat out horrible since he left. And, it's tough to argue against trying to keep the window with Crosby, Malkin, and Letang open as long as he could do so. Can't see any of them in other uniforms and the cupboard has been barren since long before Hextall showed up.

Which is nuts. Thought they were hanging their hats on the very slight possibility that Giroux's stick might have nicked the puck. Didn't believe it did, but it was close (at least from seeing it on the Jumbotron). They also showed the angle the ref saw it from and how he could even for an instant say it wasn't a distinct kicking motion defied credulity. We've had that ref before and he flat out is very bad at his job.

Glad Hextall is out. Sad Burke is out. Hopefully Hextall ends up out west somewhere.

Minir point. 63rd pick. 3rd last of the 2nd round as the original 31st and 32nd picks of that round will be bumped back 1 slot. (Yes, he was originally taken w/ the last pick of the 1st round but since then another team joined and each round now has 32 selections rather than 31.)

They were over near the escalators to the 300 level. Certainly they're still giving them away. Even Pilut and Davies made the shirt. Everybody but Levi, Asplund, and if he played this year Sheahan.

Looked like Krebs was centering the kids and Olofsson was with Okposo and Girgensons. Stillman and Bryson a pair. Levi the backup.

Personally don't want Willford canned at this point as a big part of the woes on D and on the PK can be attributed to the goaltending (primarily) and the focus on generating offense at nearly all times (secondarily). Am also good with bringing Bales back if he wants to come back. But, would need to hear a clear plan for how to improve the PP in '23-'24 before renewing the contract of either Ellis or the other guy that was an ECHL coach forever (whichever one was responsible for it). Because that's been hot trash ever since Bob Wood left and the only reason it statistically didn't look horrible this year is the talent on the PP simply willed the 2 units to success for about 6 weeks towards the end of '22. The entry is beyond horrible. The structure is bad. The movement is lacking. etc, etc. There is too much talent for the PP to be this bad again next year.

Even Ristolainen could play D reasonably well if he weren't constantly playing on a higher pairing than he should be and playing with other guys that don't quite know exactly where to be either when the other team gets cycling. Even the smart guys will have issues when they are being asked to go up against competition that is better than they are. The guys that are strong as ox and nearly as bright as one don't have a monopoly on that front. ;)

And that's what he's been avoiding which resulted in them leaving the race 2 games too early. This next season will be a failure without making the playoffs and my expectation is that he makes 3 to 4 moves this summer to cement that reality. But if they're teetering at the next trade deadline, still don't expect to see a futures for present move made unless it is of the Greenway, Chychrun, Stillman variety - meant to help today and moving forward.

Levi was coming to the Sabres this spring as soon as his season ended. He knew it, Adams knew it, we knew it, the peanut vendors knew it. Maybe if he's here a few days earlier they get the 2 points against the Habs. He's had months to figure out how he was going to get his classes finished this semester. He didn't need the extra time to figure that out. But, he did need that time to get to just enjoy the moment. And Johnson has classes to finish up this semester just like Levi does. He even had an extra year to figure out how he was going to deal with that too. He's taking in the moment. As long as he signs with the Sabres, don't really have an issue with him doing so. And, LT, should he sign an AHL ATO with the Amerks this might work out better for the Sabres than had he shown up in Buffalo 2 days ago.

Even sometimes if they do score at the AHL level they won't score in the NHL. Varada is the posterboy example of that. And agree with you. ALL players can be taught to play D (they may flat out refuse to do so, but that's on stubbornness not an inability to do so). Not everybody can create and score at the NHL level and it is way easier to get a guy to stop believing in his offensive talents (especially if he's young when he's brought up and just doesn't have the strength to keep the puck going through traffic and to get a hard enough shot off to beat a goalie from only a good, not a great, scoring chance) than to cause that creativity to blossom at the NHL level. It's going to be real interesting to see how this team plays in it's own end and in transition back towards it's own end this coming season. They'll finally have a goalie that can bail them out when they make a mistake by being overly aggressive. Expecting they'll try to stay aggressive and actually become more aggressive. They seem to let teams have the blue line a lot; expect they will cut down on that and will simply live with the occasional breakaway / 2 on 1 that creates when the defender loses that battle.

Doubt Adams would do that.

Expect most all Sabres fans would take that trade. Which makes it extremely unlikely Nashville would make it. Can't see Nashville trading him for anything less than one of Savoie or Kulich and an unprotected 1st. And can't see Adams offering that after having watched Levi in his 6 games to date.

Essensa was a worse signing. Leino might be 2nd on the list.

With Calgary's win yesterday, the only way the Sabres will be drafting 16th is if they win out, Pittsburgh stays at 90 or 91, Nashville stays at 90 or 91, and Calgary wins the lottery. (Technically, they could also get there by only passing 1 of the Pens or Preds and both 15 and 16 win the lottery. That last one is NOT happening.) So, its down to 12-15 for their place prelottery.

Could be Clague's turn.

Unless that is what the Sabres have suggested he do. Adams is big on the players being in the moment they are in. Levi took 5 days longer than he needed to to sign his deal. Wouldn't be surprised if he's been told by the team to absorb where he's at and don't miss it.

And somebody had posted that Minnesota listed him as 6'0" 190#. Which seems more likely.

No, they will technically call the 65th pick the last pick of the 2nd round that year. Provided no other 1st round picks from either 4 years ago nor 2 years ago walk on their teams that is. Don't have issue with you calling the pick a 3rd rounder as it is pretty close to the beginning of the 3rd and prior to Seattle joining the league somebody picking there would be using a 3rd rounder to make that selection.