Taro T

Faaaack. Any word on how long Comrie will be out?

Don't believe it's complacency so much as they're gripping the sticks too tight leading to bad shots & bad passes which kills the offense and ends up becoming an amplified feedback loop. And at that point they now all try to do it themselves and nobody except the true 1st liners win those 1v1 battles cleanly consistently. Being forced to have Power on the 1st D pairing because they have no other remotely adequate options with Samuelsson out, Lyubushkin a shell of himself (hoping it's playing through that injury that has him playing so brutally; if it's mental, we're hosed, just sitting a couple of games won't make it better), and Bryson exposed for being the 6/7 he is. Getting Samuelsson back will help a lot as the top pairing should be able to pick back up as a true top pairing & Power can anchor the 2nd pairing. Should Buusch get his issues sorted out they can have an effective 2nd pair and still like Jokiharju & Bryson (or Pilut) as a true 3rd pairing but don't like any of them as a 1st or 2nd pairing guy. Anybody else notice the 2 games they've looked the most lost out there were 2 of the 3 games Okposo missed? Coincidence, correlation, or causation?

Agreed, they are too young. And there's a concern that with such reliance on youth they're set up to be Edmonton (pre-McJesus) East. That said, and definitely don't want to see this suffering going forward - next year they need to be playoff caliber & still believe they can be in the mix even w/ this annoyingly frustrating stretch this year. But (and they'd better be fun before then) the kids here now should be fun to watch when they start hitting their primes. And there should be kids stepping into the lower roles and because of their raw talent levels should be contributing as well.

Anybody else up for contributing to a Go Fund Me account to get Blue to become a Bruins fan? 😉

You said after Christmas. It appears the Yotes games are sold out this year. They are capped at 5,000 seats. So, they aren't selling any more tix after this Christmas. The Sabres have sold at least somewhere north of 6,500 seats to every game this season. They will sell more after Christmas (not necessarily many, but at least some) as they have available ticket inventory. So, the Sabres will sell more than the Yotes after Christmas. You going for some other time frame in the next 3 years while the Yotes are still the 2ndary tenants on a college campus? The result will be the same.

Well, that's just because you don't understand that those are the exact same thing. Heck, being 7-3-7 is probably worse because it gives the fans a false impression that the team is good. Just get back on that 82 point pace (providing they aren't so pathetic as to lose a game in OT rather than regulation, they'd then need an 83 point pace to be good) & all will be well. And remember, it would be better to be 10-10-0 from here than to go to 9-3-8 from your theoretical 17 game start. All hail the DeLuca 0.500!

Actually, it is an exaggeration. The Sabres have already sold more than 5,000 seats to every home game this season. The Yotes can't say the same.

No, no, no. We've been told for years that DeLuca 0.500 is some mythical wonderment that means a team is good. Surely, it must be.

Would have to look closer at some really bad teams from the past to say that for sure. Don't forget, for the vast majority of the NHL's history anywhere from 2/3's to nearly 4/5ths of all teams made the playoffs. Just because teams made the playoffs didn't mean they weren't awful. The Sabres fans have the misfortune of supporting a team who's owner decided a tank was a good idea when only 1/2 of the teams make the playoffs. But, yeah, this is a historically futile team. Hoping they find a way to shock the Loafs and get heading back in the right direction.

Not only 0.500. DELUCA 0.500!!! They were there 3 games ago. They can be back in no time & then all will be swell. (They'll be on pace to miss the playoffs by 14 points, but they'll have won as many as they lost.)

2 weeks ago? Heck, they were playing hockey against Boston 2 games ago. It was a loss, but it was a hockey game. Tonight wasn't. This could have been the worst game of the Granato era since Ullmark returned to action.

He was. Should've watched Moonshiners instead. Just as dumb as the last 2 Sabres games but nowhere near as annoying.

Well, maybe Moe-ray-all will be looking past them. Otherwise 90's night could easily become the 10th in a row.

Get that it's a development year again, but on a 6 game losing streak, in a 1 goal game, why isn't the bench shortened especially w/ Girgensons down. How difficult would it be to nail Krebs & Bjork to the bench while ut's a 1 goal game? You have to get A W before anybody is going to be doing ANY developing.

He can get back on track offensively hopefully, as he's still ridiculously young, but yes, he's been trending that way. Fast, good at 1v1 battles, aggressive, & hands that just aren't working like they should. He can still get the offense going, but thought he'd start doing so this year. (Really surprised to see your comment. Thought this kid was the only one thinking that way.)

Lyubushkin HAS to get shut down when Samuelsson comes back. He's better than the 6, 7, & 8 that have played a lot of hockey but not at 70-80% which is what he's been playing at since taking that shot off the leg. Play the big 3 25+ each & Jokiharju 19-20 while Buusch is out but they can get through 3 games that way then bump Henri back to the 3rd pair & either Bryson or Pilut out of the lineup.

They are gripping their sticks waaaaaay too tight. That stupid AZ loss put them into a 5 game losing streak by the time they played Vancouver and they looked like dog #### last night. Now they are setting themselves up to fail again tonight even though they are working (IMHO YMMV). Lather, rinse, repeat.

We are watching him slowly turn into Zemgus Girgensons w/ every shift.

Was going with beer, but ...

Uhh, aren't you forgetting something?

There likely are 8,000 STHers, but expect that includes 1/2 season packages too. (Doubt they count 1/4 season packages & definitely don't count mini-pack holders as 5-9 games don't come close to holding seasons.) So, there's probably 6,500-7,000 full STHers (maybe only 6k which implies Canadians didn't come back nearly as fully as expected) & then a lot more tix (1-4k more) are only sold in packages for certain seats. Which is how they can end up w/ ~5k people in the building for Detroit or AZ. Only 7k seats at most sold in total & really only 4k of those holding those seats actually want to be there. With a handful of single tix sales at box office prices. So, either the STHers sell their tix at a loss (ended up doing that for the Yotes game), show up to a game they weren't real excited to go to, or give the tix away (not always an option even w/ good seats), or just let the seats go to waste. (Did that last one twice last year.) Interestingly, it seems more seats are typically sold in 105 than in 117. Not sure if that's just random chance or people wanting to have a better chance of being on TV, the Sabres pushing it, people selecting seats at the bottom of the map rather than the top, or something else.

No, no, Mr. Titanic Captain, THIS chair needs to be HERE and THAT one should go THERE.

Did not seem like a full 60 minute effort. That's 3 times in only 16 games and twice in 4 games. Both are unacceptable. And can understand to large degree Granato's not railing on guys for mistakes. But would be perfectly fine with him ripping them new one's for lack of effort. And, he really needs to start bringing that on occassion. Honestly, him throwing a tantrum and bag skating them for good cause (or making them all hit the bikes before hopping on their charter last night - a bag skate is a bad idea on the morning of a btb) likely would get a better reaction than a Tortorella doing the same. Everybody expects Torts to go psycho every so often. But the nice science teacher losing his #### could get a reaction.

Sticking w/ Comrie. 😉 Though it is rather surprising that we are essentially 20% of the way through the season and there still hasn't been a single major called against them. This is not your grand daddy's NHL.

It's really frustrating that another D wasn't scooped up either around the time Lyubushkin was signed or just before the season started to alleviate somebody else's cap pinch. But agree w/ you that it is very doubtful that gets addressed until the offseason. So, basically, we need to see Samuelsson come back which'll be huge, Lyubushkin get healthy, and a commitment to starting to focus on the defensive aspects of the game. Granato claims teaching O is hard & teaching D is easy. Would be nice to see him actually demonstrate/prove that. He's got the O going pretty well off the rush, still would like to see 5v5 be better off the cycle. Liked that the PPs were actually moving the puck last night even though they didn't have much to show for that movement. So, he's still working on improving the O and there is additional room for more improvement. But for the love of all that is good & Holy, PLEASE spend some time on disrupting a cycle without losing track of a forward and work on the PK. Wonder if part of the problem w/ the PK is that they practice against the non-dynamic PP unit so when other teams actually WORK a PP they aren't ready for it. The other part of the problem IMHO is except for Asplund none of the regular PK Fs were in that role before either this season or sometime middle of last year. They just don't have enough experience w/ that yet. (Actually am OK w/ that aspect of the development of the players - Girgensons & Okposo probably each have at most 2 more years on this team. Somebody needs to know how to kill a penalty besides them.)