Taro T

That at least a case can be made for. (Not a particularly strong 1 but a case nonetheless.) No way can the decision to stick Anderson and Dahlin with the Krebs line and Bryson against McDavid's line be justified in a game they had to win. Get that he wanted to keep Power and Jokiharju together at that point, but if he's putting Bryson out there (heck, even if he isn't, he CAN'T put Krebs, Peterka, and Olofsson out against McDavid) he has to put either the Cozens line out there or the Thompson line. There was 1 line and 2 D-men that couldn't be called there. At least Clague wasn't the other D-man out against them. Hooray for microscopically small victories?

Never noticed Clague on the ice against McDavid. That is likely a big part of why nobody is talking about him.

If they weren't down 2 D-men they wouldn't have Bryson in there tonight.

Can somebody please explain 1 thing about tonight's game? Wtf did Granato when coming back from a "media timeout" watching the McDavid line come out along with Nurse's pairing decide it was a good time to put the originally constituted Krebs line along with Dahlin and neither Power nor Jokiharju but Bryson? The Girgensons line had been out before the TV timeout and Lyubushkin and Clague had been the D. He literally had every other forward & D combination available to him and he chose that. Really like Granato overall, but that was a painfully bad decision and it ended up being the difference in the game when all was said and done.

NONE of the other owners wanted Vegas to be anywhere close to that good. That you think they did is not surprising.

Of course the owner shelling out that kind of money wants it. That's why it happens, because that owner pays out that kind of money. And that is the ONLY reason it happens. But your claim was that the league wanted those teams to be good for presumably some magnaminous reason. Nothing could be further from the truth. There wasn't a single western conference owner (other than the ex soldier that now owns Vegas) that wanted Vegas in the finals in it's maiden season. You think the Pegulas were happy reading people complain about how much worse the team they own has been relative to the expansion team? No flippin' way. And they would've been much happier with the Knights being trash too. The only reason the owners let the Knights (and Krakers) have a fighting chance is because they paid boucoup $$$$$'s.

There's a very real possibility he makes the team next year. But it isn't a slam dunk unless at least 1 guy on the current roster moves on and likely unless 2 guys on the current roster move on.

Tuch was drafted by Minnesota before getting chosen in the expansion draft. EDIT: True, but it looks like he was gone by the time Greenway showed up. @dudacek had the call, once again.

That's down from 2nd in the league and it's been pretty poor since the calendar flipped. If the 2nd unit weren't chipping in here and there in limited minutes it probably would barely still be top 10. Even though it was clicking like crazy a couple of months ago.

Yes, he'll be able to do that. The rub is, will the coaches actually let him or will they force the current play with different bodies but the same results. They need to figure out how to get Bob Wood back. He's the last coach they've had that knew how to run a power play. With that shot Thompson has and the rest of the talent on that unit, it should be one of the top 3 in the league.

As long as he doesn't automatically defer to Thompson he will defintely help. But Cozens should be a lot better on that unit as his shot has come along very nicely this season. But he unflaggingly defers to Thompson. Totally get why they want to USUALLY get the puck to Tage; can't understand why they ALWAYS move the puck to Tage rather than shooting themselves.

No, it hasn't. Tage has 1 PP goal in his last 5 games and 2 in the last 8. They still stand around too much and try to force the one timers. A MUCH better strategy would be to keep the unit's skaters moving and passing the puck and actually shooting from places that weren't set up for 1 timers. They don't do that with Olofsson on that unit. And the 2nd unit generates better chances because they actually move and move the puck. That top PP unit has been ineffective for a very long time and it will continue to be ineffective as long as they are so dependent upon getting a 1 timer to actually seal the deal. Do you actually watch the PP? Because what you are describing only happens at zone entry and immediately off won faceoffs. Once they get to their spots, they don't move hardly at all.

This kid still sees that the same way as when Granato started going to it. View it as a gimmick like having a huge defenseman play low in front of the goalie to try to create a screen. It works occasionally, but mainly when other teams aren't expecting the formation and don't have a plan on how to neutralize it. If the otehr team expects it, it's really ineffective because 2 of the 5 skaters (40%) are essentially stationary looking to get the pass to convert into a 1 timer. Much better to be keeping your skaters and the puck in motion getting the defenders out of position.

Was planning on going to this one but the wifey wasn't sure she'd get out of work early today until 30 minutes after somebody bought the tix. Oh, well, the Dallas game should be fun too. Sabres usually play well against the Eulers. Let's hope that trend continues.

If Tampa can't pick up the pace over where they've been since hosting the Sabres 2 weeks ago, they'll get 11 points in their last 19 games and finish the year at 90 points. They need to significantly pick up their play to get to an NHL 0.400 which would give them 95. If the Sabres play NHL 0.600 down the stretch they'll end with 93 points. Find a way to get 1 extra win over these final 21 games and things get really interesting. And if they could find a way to get to a full season NHL 0.600 they're locks.

They always are. It's just now the team feels the urgency of that truth.

Which is why when Tuch comes back, Quinn should be added to that line. That could be a treat to watch and actually help open some space for the Thompson line as teams aren't going to want that Cozens line just build up momentum every shift.

Like you say, it comes down to timing. And don't follow Juniors closely, but would be surprised if they don't end up in the Memorial Cup.

Would be very interested to hear his take on this, but expect part of why Dunleavy sounded so blah before but actually seems decent if not actually good for a TV announcer is he might just not have been able to fake it. (He knew the team was dreck and it was hard to elicit enthusiasm for dreck. But this team is fun. It's easy to get into the flow of the game.) My take. Would really be interested in hearing his take on it.

Like @dudacek said, Johnson having been a 1st round pick was in a different situatio than Portillo was in. If a team is unable to sign a 1st rounder before their exclusive window to negotiate with that player expires, the team gets a 2nd round pick in the next draft after the team no longer controls his rights in the same slot as the player was originally drafted in the 1st round. Johnson was selected 31st overall, so if he bolts the Sabres get the 31st pick of the 2nd round of the '24 draft and all other picks in that draft will slide back 1 slot. So, for somebody to get Johnson from the Sabres they'd have to offer something better than that 63rd overall pick next year. But it does seem that he will sign in Buffalo. And the Sabres only picking up 1 D-man at the deadline instead of 2 like they really kind of need could be another indication that Johnson will sign. They'll get his service this year down the stretch while he's on that post-NCAA initial foray into the NHL sugar high and they can get that extra D-man they'll still need in the summer.

In the past, teams ended up losing 2 players but at least 1 had to be an F and a team could only lose either 1 D-man or 1 goalie, not both. So teamsworked side deals with 1 of the teams coming in to select a G or D-man they didn't really want to protect all their other goalies and D-men. Doubt the league would do that again because if an owner is dropping $1B to enter the league that new owner is going to want to have access to any players that aren't protected. Either the league would stagger the entries like the last time or teams will lose 2 guys with no 2ndary protections to keep from losing whatever 2 guys the new teams want that weren't protected. REALLY hope the league doesn't do this. Fully expect they will do it and would expect Hank's plan is probably closer to reality than any of us would like to see. And that MIGHT be a precursor to an eventual inclusion of a European division that primarily plays amongst itself but that every team makes a trip or 2 over the pond to go on an 8 game or so road trip.

Nope. That's not the reason. The reason is $500MM and $750MM. Expect the reason the league expands again and also doesn't completely hose the expansion teams will be $1B and $1B.

That video wasn't in the locker room, it was in the corridor between the dressing room and the bench. And, while YMMV, it didn't seem the girl was running free.

Theoretically, he might at the end of the year after his junior season is over if he doens't look adequate in his initial early season stint wiht the Sabres. But that is fairly unlikely. (It also has the added benefit of not just getting him to play against men, but also ensures he doesn't exceed his 9 game threshold.

Pretty sure that video is the one Timmah Graham was talking about indicating that Harrington has a history of not playing nicely with the kids showing the world that anyone can do his job.