Taro T

A big part of the D issue is Lyubushkin slid a little after blocking that shot & then has looked noticeably even worse since that extended board battle against Pittsburgh (?). He's been slow & getting knocked off the puck since then & has been as bad as, if not worse than, the little 3. Throw in the F's not really knowing where to be in the D-zone far too often & the D isn't going to be good. And STILL hope they shutdown Buusch for about a week when Samuelsson is back. Having 4 good D plus Jokiharju would be so much better than just having 2-3 + Henri.

Definitely wanted 1 more NHL caliber goalie brought in (and 1 more Lyubushkinesque guy brought in on D) because wanted somebody better & more likely to make it through the season than Anderson. But believed there was a very real chance that Comrie would play the entire year. He doesn't seem to make really large difficult movements and he routinely covers the bottom of the net w/out seemingly straining so there weren't any injuries waiting to happen w/in his game. You can't expect your best D-man to do something you'd expect from a Ristolainen or Zadorov to knock him out for weeks. Am looking forward to Levi's brief stint in a Sabres ini this season and hoping for the minor miracle where he demonstrates he belongs in the NHL. And the next few weeks might show Portillo he has a window to the NHL in this organization as well. Comrie is only under contract 1 more year.

Being one of the ones that was saying THIS one seemed different, will answer. 1. When healthy (& realize nobody stays healthy) they actually have NHLers not dressing at F and arguably at D. (Though w/ absolutely no depth in G). That hasn't been the case since Regier uttered the word suffering. 2. They have NHL caliber goaltending. Again, with the caveat when healthy. Realize the analytics crew says Comrie is hot death but really doubt they include account for all the goals Power & others have scored on him. While it is a different style - he's pretty much Ullmark. (But Ullmark's great this year & Comrie sucks. On paper, yes, but Ullmark is in his 2nd year w/ a defensively sound squad in front of him & Comrie is in his 1st year w/ a team that STILL doesn't appear to work on defensive play in practice. Those make huge differences.) Comrie doesn't give up ANYTHING on the ice. That's how we knew he was injured and not just hurt, he never gives up goals along the ice. His glove is merely average, but it isn't bad IMHO. Anderson looked good before playing in 3 straight. Not great, good. And he likely could last the full year if he could stay at 1 out of 4 games. 3. They haven't stopped playing after going down a goal or 2. Unlike when they were coached by Krueger, they weren't giving up. 4. Dahlin was playing up to the hype with Samuelsson. He's still playing well but having a very good partner lets him just play. And Samuelsson is close to coming back which means Norris finalist Dahlin is close to being back. 5. These guys are a team. They aren't a collection of cliques wearing the same thing 82 times/ year. That matters when you're learning to win. Not so much when you've figured it out. 6. The young mid-level guys that are expected to be counted on are better this year than they were. Cozens, Mittelstadt, Asplund, Samuelsson all are better than last year. 7. Prior to Okposo getting injured, they'd only played 2 bad games out of 12. And 1 of those was the last game of a road trip the 1st game without their best defensive D-man. That was way better than in recent years prior to last year's finish. Even when they were winning in October's past, they were getting outplayed. That wasn't the case this year. But in these past 4 or so games, there have been 2 major injury situations which could let this be just the same as usual. 1. The loss of Okposo & Girgensons hurts. The team has looked frailer since Kyle has been out. He's too old to lead by on-ice production but he does seem to have a calming influence when things could start going sideways. Girgensons seems to help there too, but Kyle seems to be the key on the leadership side. And 2. The big one - losing Comrie sucks. UPL isn't a good NHL goalie. They can't ride him like Eric which means Andy will be called on too often. Am very concerned that he'll be injured soon too playing too often. Still expect them to get back to playing around an NHL playoff pace once Comrie & Muel are back, but not expecting it until they both are back.

They SHOULD beat Moe-ray-all, especially if Samuelsson & Anderson are in. Muel will give a huge boost to the morale & Andy will find a way to bring his A+ game because they need it desperately. If somehow Okposo is back too, it should be a given that one's a W.

Excellent point. He'll definitely finish the year w/ the Sabres if he signs and will have an excellent chance to make the squad even with another vet brought in. One more chit in the Sabres column.

When they outscore that night's opponent again.

Per Elite Prospects, yes, they have the youngest team.

Definitely need Samuelsson back. Hopefully it's against the Habs. That would seem to be the most winnable game on the horizon.

2 years older. He'll be 31 very soon. (Didn't realize he was that old. Would've been far less pleased w/ the signing knowing that.) Jags don't usually fare well in their 30s.

Mittelstadt. PotG. Drew the penalty that got the PP they scored the 1st goal on and then potted this one.

On the bright side, no post-game show tonight.

Precisely.

Looked like Ukka Pukka Dooka thought about coming out of the net to beat Steamboat Willie to the puck but saw Jokiharju going full speed and figured he'd be hanging out w/ Comrie if he did.

It REALLY looks like the typical beer league PP. Have a bitch of a time getting it in the zone, then when it finally gets there take a shot off the rush, let it rim out of the zone. Repeat.

Sheesh, Jost just got here. Shouldn't be blaming this on the pressbox guys. 😉

Won't help. TO would score another PP goal and kill any momentum the hit might've generated.

Or, lack thereof.

Well, had his successor not decided winning the Dahlin sweepstakes gave him the opportunity to retool and get rid of the crown jewel of Murray's trades for a return that actually wasn't complete crud 4 years later and also not hired 2 bad coaches there is a non-negligible chance that the team would have eclipsed that total sometime in the last 5 years.

Why exempt Thompson & Dahlin? If Dahlin plays the rush better he doesn't end up giving the Otter the lane he decided to take away right when he was in front of Comrie or failing that if he plays smarter he doesn't drive the Otter through Comrie. Thompson could still stand to improve in his own end. EVERY one of these guys has played a role in the losing streak. They all need to be better, & it could be as simple as not overthinking what they're doing & simply skating their arses off into the spots they need to be and making crisp passes so the rushes they score on when they're going good actually result in high danger chances.

Unless he's FULLY recovered from the injury, hope not. More likely, if they need to spread useful D onto other pairings that Jokiharju ends up back w/ Dahlin. Granato loves him some Henri.

Is that not what that great trade ended up? (Realizing Johnson or the 2nd round draft pick he turns into could still be something 7+ years after that great trade.) What a great trade. Sign us up for another just like it. Tuch can be Okposo; not sure who is Girgensons in that scenario, maybe Cozens? D-men hit their prime later than F's, so Dahlin will still be a stud provided he hasn't lost his "love of the game." Adams & Granato become the next Regier & Ruff as you have to wait for the current prospects to develop before evaluating them, right?

Wait, the Sabres can make a trade of a 1st liner today to get a guy that'll be a 1st liner 4 years from now? Where do we sign up?

Absolutely. And it's why having somehow had Jiricek fall to them would've been so sweet. In 2 years they'd have the best top 4 in the league. And if Jokiharju and Johnson were the 3rd pair, it'd be ridiculously solid. Plus that'd be the time the Russians might be ready to come over as well.

Jokiharju should ONLY see time in the top 4 while Lyubushkin is recovering is recovering. The sooner he is back to 3rd pairing legitimately, the sooner the D will be legit NHL quality.

But back then Perreault was a big man for the league. Pete Mahovlich was an anomaly. There weren't even all that many guys that were even 6'3" much less the "Little M's" 6'5". Not disputing anything you said about Bedard, but all of those guys you described were strong and a couple (Trottier & Gil) were never considered small. (Perreault was the biggest Sabres regular F in '76, Trottier the Aisles 4th biggest regular F, & though Clarke was average height, he was still strong enough to slash the #### out of an opponent for the Phlyers. LaFleur was 6' and Dionne was short but a fireplug.)