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You all have pretty much covered it. IMHO, out of those items cited there are 2 main drivers towards that & 1 item that hasn't been mentioned. The 2 that have is 1, Thompson gets himself basically a tap in before he shoots if it isn't a 1 timer. That moving the puck around the goalie to an open net has a crazy high shooting percentage. The other is the puck movement they get before shooting. How many times has Peterka sent a rocket into an open side of a net before the goalie can get there. That was the way Cozens got the goal that got his goal scoring rolling & there have been several others who've scored those types of goals. The one that wasn't mentioned (or missed it if it was said earlier) is they're leading the league in EN goals. By definition, if they get a shot off on an empty net, it is a goal. It doesn't count as a shot if it goes wide or is blocked by a defender. So, on 11 (IIRC) shots they were guaranteed a goal as soon as it was officially on net. If they've had 900 shots (likely 30 shots/game over 30 games give or take), then 1.2% of them were automatic.

Had never heard that but maybe that was part of why they had to use snow throwers rather than plows. The big issue was the slow was so deep the plows couldn't plow through. Snow throwers didn't have any issue w/ the "concrete."

Nah, 6'. Those 2 people are midgets. 😉

Had a bad feeling about tonight's game. They'll be way more ready for the Bolts in March. And the Phlyers'll be trash all season long. January, March, whatever. Pfth. You're welcome. 😉

It wasn't "drifted" as per typical snow drifting. Those of us in the snow belt had an entire lake's worth of snow picked up & then dumped as individual flakes accumulating to several feet deep. Have a really cool picture from a few days later of the dog jumping from the driveway onto the 6'+ snow bank the driveway had been cut through. The snowbank was taller than my mother standing next to it.

The Nordiques have a team page? TIL. Good to see the Yotes are popular somewhere. Too bad it isn't where they play.

Such a tragic loss especially during the holidays. So very saddened at your loss. You & she will be in our prayers.

Really believe the Sabres have their eyes set on becoming a contender next season & primarily w/ the team they currently have. W/ that said, Comrie & UPL have the rest of this season to show they could backstop a contending team on a Stanley Cup run. If they can't, expect the Sabres will bring in another goalie this offseason after Levi & Portillo have made their intentions known. And that goalie will be brought in regardless of what Levi & Portillo decide IF Comrie & UPL both show they aren't #1's.

Dahlin & Samuelsson have played well together. Power & Jokiharju are OK as a pairing, but Power really needs his own Muel. The Joker is not that guy. If Lyubushkin is fully healthy would like to see him in that role though he's not ideal there either. Joker & any of the other 4 would be an acceptable 3rd pairing. Back to the thread topic. Expecting Clague is the new Gragnani. A tweener that everybody falls in love with because he plays a few good games while still on the "back in the NHL" adrenaline rush. If he stays up & is playing well come February, will pay attention. But until he has 20 or so good games, expect he's exactly what we expected - a Ra-cha-cha staple that we could hopefully get a handful of good games from in a callup. But do have him ahead of Pilut. Have him pretty much even w/ Fitzgerald now. He could be better than Bryson, but there's something the coaches see in Bryson that they're determined to bring to the surface. (Much to the fans chagrin.)

Perhaps. But would have money on the player having a better lawyer than the DA trying to convict him.

For anyone going to the Miller Banner Raising Night (1/19), that game has had a minor adjustment. It is now a 7:30 PM start. (Was 7PM originally.) But the banner raising ceremony will be held at 6PM. So, they're going to make everybody be there 1-1/2 hours before game time on a weeknight. Expect there will be a lot of disappointed people that can't adjust their work schedule / picking up kids from daycare in time to catch the full ceremony. At least they plan on giving everybody that attends a replica banner rather than just giving out 10 or 12k. That night might turn into a bit of a cluster.

And the Phlyers game originally scheduled for March 4 is now being played on Monday January 9. (So the Seattle game is now the back 1/2 of a btb pair.)

Could've sworn he was on Eichel's line most of that final game. Will try to find it.

Except that since the Joisey game, Granato has been treating that line as the #2 which in his version of lineup matching faces the other team's top line at home or on the road. Maybe they're facing the other team's top D more often (but if they wre Thompson's line should be even hotter l but don't notice which pairs they're out against as teadily/easily.

5 games over a DeLuca 0.500 for this team this year is 89-91 points. Will guar-an-dam-tee that 91 ponts WON'T be enough for the playoffs.

Not quite. At the very end of the season w/ the writing on the wall for Housley he bumped Skinner back onto Eichel's line & he found the last goals to get to 40 and that outrageous contract.

Hoping they do. But there's a lot of hockey left to be played.

You weren't apprehensive about somebody's sarcastic comment? Well, that's ... awesome, right? (Where's the unsure emotion when one really needs it?) 😉

Would give him more credit than Botterill gets for selecting Dahlin. Beniers was legitimately a good selection at 1 as well. Nice that it was pretty much a can't miss choice, but Adams made the selection for what the Sabres had less of & a greater need for IMHO. Dahlin was ALWAYS going to go 1 overall. PLUS, he signed Hall which pretty much guaranteed winning the lottery. That was the part of the Bjork trade people forget Buffalo got. They didn't just get Bjork & a 2nd, they also got Hall to agree to leave his "my team ALWAYS wins the lottery juju" in Buffalo for being allowed to go where he wanted to be. 😉 But @grinreaper nailed the answer.

Personally expect it's a combination of that, the possibilities of just how good the Cozens line could very if they were able to go back to being viewed by opponents & treated as the Sabres 3rd scoring line, a bit of an attaboy for taking on the 2nd line C role allowing the Cozens line to blossom in that 3rd line role when he & his linemates were overmatched, and Granato's own history of being the "ineffective player whisperer."

Haven't read the thread, but as said on a different thread about the possibility of bringing in another goalie from outside, keep Comrie & other goalie (in this case UPL) as a tandem & have 41 year old Anderson get a mysterious non-specific ache in practice that moves him to IR. If 1 of the other 2 break w/in the 1st week, call somebody else up until Anderson is available. After 1 week, if he's needed, bring him off IR. Lather, rinse, repeat as necessary. No cap ramifications, so no circumvention. And no way to prove the oldest player in the league DOESN'T have a non-specific injury. And if UPL turns back into UPL, back to Ra-cha-cha he goes.

The Sabres are relevant again. Time for you to give us all an awesome Christmas present and resurrect those charts! PS - Welcome back.

If the kids are going to continue to slump on that line, yes. But considering how well the line had been playing would be mildly surprised if it gets broken up vs TB. Could definitely see it getting broken up IN Beantown. Having a slumping line getting caught regularly against the Bergeron line is something Granato will likely look to avoid if they don't play better Friday. The plus side of breaking it up is it might get them individually going again & it gives options for keeping Mittelstadt & Olofsson apart.

Wonder if he grasps this last chance to keep his career going on this side of the pond?

Hmm, 3 D just outside the top 10 w/ the Sabres trending towards the 14th - 16th pick. Considering somebody always slips, grabbing 3 highly rated C's in the 1st last year looks even more prescient.