Taro T

And with today's loss they are exactly 3 points behind the pace they need to be at an NHL 0.600 which effectively guarantees a playoff spot. They've averaged picking up 5 points every 5 games and they need to get 6 points every 5 games over the full season. They'll need either a really nice win streak or 3 - 5 game segments with 7 points in them (3-1-1, which they'd done the 5 games prior to tonight's game) and hitting that 6 points in 5 in the rest of them. Somebody else said upthread that missing Tuch is very big for this team. That sure seems to be the case. Get him back for Tuesday and get the W and life is moving back towards good again.

Yes, UPL made some nice saves in the game. But for cripe's sake, he CAN'T give up junk goals when the team is close to getting to the dressing room without having suffered more damage. Let them regroup and hopefully figure out a way to get something effective going.

Yes, it was on the D that UPL let a shot originating from near the boards below the goal into the net. Durn it, they should've found a way to keep that DANGEROUS shot from getting to UPL. He never had a chance. They were responsible for that 2nd goal as well. How DARE they give up a shot from well above the faceoff dots. Yes, Johnson had the puck deflect off his stick on the 3rd. On a goal that UPL didn't start to react to until it had hit his stick. 100% on Johnson. And UPL had NO CHANCE on the 4th (which is actually true) so let's blame the empty netter on the D as well. What, are you Savoie's grandpappy? His parent's dog groomer? There must be a reason you are so butt hurt about the decision to send him back.

Peterka hit the post or crossbar as well. Get those 2 to go in and let UPL find a way to stop the Malkin shot that went in off his melon and it's a different game entirely.

McCauley was one of the refs last night, McIsaac (who is beyond awful) was the other. Tonight it was McCauley and Furlatt.

Disagree. The 1st 2 goals against, in what had been a scoreless game were both bad. There was bad luck on that 1st goal against, but he can't flinch like that when the puck hit his mask. (If he has to flinch, flinch upwards. Puck doesn't end up in the net that way.) The 2nd goal is inexcusable in a 1 goal game. And realize that @PromoTheRobot will disagree vehemently, but put that 3rd goal as much on UPL as it was on Johnson. Watch the replay. He doesn't even begin to move to his right until the puck is already deflected (and he NEVER reacts to the deflection). Had that shot been on net without the deflection it was still beating him. He didn't get across to the post at any point on a shot that was originally going wider than the post. Had he reacted timely, he had a legit shot at stopping the puck because it was quite high in the slot where it was deflected from. If they get through the 1st tied 0-0, which they really should've been able to do, it's a brand new game in the 2nd. When your team is struggling, you can't give up bad goals. Give them an opportunity to win; don't make the slog even tougher.

Not only that, but they'd still have money available should Levi earn a similar contract. Especially considering Skinner's contract will be just about done by the time Levi (or another G) get paid. And, people say you build out from the middle: G, D, & C. With the 7 big contracts (and that 7th doesn't come into play yet) that would be 1 G, 2 D, 3 C's (that all can play W if necessary), and 1 W. Isn't THAT the way people say you're supposed to build a team?

None in this one. 😉

You're kind of right. Levi is way beyond just decent. 😉 No idea what you mean by getting ruined by "throwing him right into the NHL."

He was wearing it yesterday too.

Yup. And am really looking forward to this game. Hoping UPL brings his A game; if he does, expecting they do win it in regulation. Yes.

No Krebs, Olofsson? Huh? Trying to help PP2?

So now it isn't even his development we're concerned about, but how much his parents get to enjoy watching him play? 😄 Pretty sure they didn't EXPECT to only give him less than 4 minutes of game time, but that's how it went. If he wanted more ice time, maybe he shouldn't have kept trying to make passes through Wild defenders? Pretty sure Granato would've let him get more time had he earned any additional shifts. He did make a better upgrade on D than Clifton. Some guy named Erik Johnson, perhaps you saw him play? There's also some guy named Ryan Johnson playing who looks pretty good in limited action. Were they not "upgrades?" So far, Adams goaltending moves (or lack thereof) appear that they might just work out. Would've preferred they go a different course there, but really don't see how that nor the D moves affect whether Mr. & Mrs. Savoie's 1st trip to Buffalo was as dreamy as they'd hoped it would be.

7 D, you say? And not one of them named Jacob? That works. 😉

It means it almost definitely will slide. Should his WHL team get upset early in the playoffs and circumstances dictate he gets an NHL callup rather than an AHL callup he could still play 9 games at the end of this year for the Sabres. But that would seem to be unlikely at this point. However, it does mean he definitely won't accrue an NHL season this year. And for long term cap management, IMHO, that is more important than the ELC sliding a year.

Yeah, because those 4 minutes he played against Minny were the only 4 moments of evaluation they had of him. They never saw him in practice nor anywhere else. 🤪 And they surely never spoke to him about what last night was going to go like nor that he wasn't long for the NHL in this particular stint. 🫨 Again, they aren't in DEVELOPMENT mode now. They are in WIN mode. And after sending Minny on their 2nd odd man rush, Granato decided to nail his butt to the bench. Am fine with the decision, though, again, did expect he'd get 1 more look before getting sent back. A big part of the reason that he didn't get a longer look but Benson did is that Benson controlled and drove play his 1st 3 NHL games and he'd done so in all the preseason games he got as well. He pretty much FORCED the Sabres to look at him longer. You can say the reason Savoie didn't do so is because of injuries or whatever; but at the end of the day, he DIDN'T force them to look at him longer. And in the season the goal is to not just end a 12 year drought but actually do something once it ends, when they need to drop the roster back to 23 men, they can't keep a kid that is far less likely to help in that effort than another player like Rousek is. (Jost is going to help them win more games at this point in time than Matt will as well.) It's a shame he can't play in the AHL this year until WA is knocked out of the running for the Memorial Cup; but it is what it is and it isn't going to ruin him to go back to the W. They still have the same development guys that they did before this season and they'll be working with him even though he is in the W.

Fun city. HATE driving there. (Nowhere near familiar enough with it to have a good feel for when there's going to be a need to slide over 3 lanes in the next quarter mile.)

Am primarily using the Sabres own players as comparables and also looking at where the cap is going now that they're in the last year of the players repaying the lockout money they were fronted. Mittelstadt isn't going to be a 0.52PPG player this year. If the contract hawks are lucky he'll only be a 0.75PPG player. It's below where he's been for going on close to a season now.

Expect it came down to Samuelsson being ready to come off IR and somebody had to leave the roster to make room for him. They weren't ready to send Johnson back down & for whatever reason they still don't want to send Bryson down. With Rousek getting raves from his head coach, don't see him going down. Actually expect him dressing again tonight and also Tuch rejoining the lineup giving them their 12 tonight. Though several here would be perfectly fine with Olofsson going down, doesn't seem to be Adams style and don't see it happening until there aren't any other moves he can make that doesn't expose a player to waivers. As said elsewhere, thought he'd get 1 more game, but the #'s seem to have worked against him. If Samuelsson is off IR (or any of the other 3 are instead, they still are at 23 minus Savoie) then they have 2-8-13 healthy players and no room for Savoie.

That's ok. The sky will have fallen after the next loss.

The GOAL this year is playoffs, NOT development. Wtf would they give him a few more games if they've seen all they need to see already about where he is at as a player? Personally, expected he'd get 1 more game against a lesser opponent, but thought there was a strong possibility he'd get sent back after that game. They obviously decided they've seen enough and didn't need to overwork the rest of the forwards by giving him 4 more minutes in another game.

4 years does do that for him. But, can't see him, who one has to assume presumes that he's part of this team's core, settling for a 4 year deal at below market when everybody else on the team that's part of the core that showed up after he did gets 7 or so year deals at / SLIGHTLY below market.

Can't see any way he takes that deal. He's going to get Cozens/Thompson money.

Would be extremely surprised if Granato goes against what he said a week ago was the plan. UPL gets tonight's game. Unless he gets a SO, Levi gets the Bruins game.

Slow news day.