Taro T

March 4 was originally scheduled to be Filly, but when the Christmas storm was due the Bolts game got moved to that date to keep their players from getting stuck in Buffalo over the holiday.

1st Q - Out of the conversation for top 6 with everybody healthy? Absolutely. Off the roster? Comes down to whether the team trading the Sabres a legit 3rd pairing guy later this week needs a body coming back. 2nd Q - 50-50. Which is about double the chance would've given him coming into the season. His biggest issue is confidence and keeping a clear head after giving up a bad goal. That is completely correctable. (But as Lehner has shown, not necessarily for everybody.) He's for the most part stopped giving up the goals over his shoulder and through the 5 hole, so he is improving. Getting rebounds under control is the next big thing he needs to fix. That is something else that should be correctable. After that, be a little better at reading the play and he'd be a good starter if he can fix all of that. Hes only 23 which is very young for an NHLer, so he has time on his side to get it figured out. (WE would like him to figure it out today, but for being an NHLer he has time to figure it out. And if Comrie can become what they'd hoped he'd be, then even the Sabres have time as Comrie could be the starter and UPL the backup while waiting for Levi. Interestingly, or not, Comrie is very likely determining on whether UPL ends up in the full LT plans as their need to upgrade him might result in them needing to trade UPL to make the ST goaltending upgrades they need to take the next step next year.)

So, is this board his source? Pretty sure we've been saying that since the summer. ;)

Jost took his spot. Don't believe that Granato hates him, but this team is built to score goals. Asplund doesn't help there at all. And with Krebs improving and Jost being added, he isn't winning a bottom 6 C role. He'd probably be better than Peterka right now, but with JJ getting scoring chances lately, they're going to let him work through his rookie wall that he's hit. What other winger might he even be considered to be put in in front of? Everyone else, including Hinostroza does things either better than Rasmus or does things he can't do or both. And with the F's being so healthy, he's found himself in Comrie's boat. Can't play well enough in limited stretches to earn play in additional stretches where he'd possibly be able to get into a rhythm.

Rumors are Gibson already nixed a trade to the Sabres this past summer. Would be shocked if Adams were still interested in obtaining him. The rest ?????

One other item not mentioned is that the team's lack of defense includes more than a bit of a lack of shot blocking. With as little as they do, and with as few injuries as they have, two of their most significant injuries were due to blocking shots. And IIRC, Samuelsson also was affected by a shot block too. The defensive style this team plays is as you say in large part by design.

When the bench has been shortened the past month or so, Cozens has become the C for Mittelstadt and Olofsson. Other than that, and maybe some PP work last year on the 2nd unit, they really haven't been an item.

Thinking it isn't that bad a thing that the Sabres didn't land him if that was the cost.

Don't know anything about Zetterlund other than he's 23, will be an RFA this off-season, and has been about a 0.5 ppg winger.

One of those players is a big Russian D man that was drafted 20th overall in '20. The rest of them - well maybe @lgr4gm can give some info on.

Pretty sure it is just the '24 that is conditional. That 1st tweet is the only thing so far indicating that the '23 is conditional. Besides, there's no way the Devils miss the playoffs this year.

Really? That seems to be sort of out of the blue. ;)

Plus Hinostroza's goal turned out to be the game winner. (In his 1st game back in a couple of months.) The way the game went, wouldn't have expected anything else. And yes, a strong case could be made for Quinn to have been 1 of the 3. And minus 1 HUGE brain fart even Mitts might've had a case. Because of the brain fart he was lucky he played for Granato because a lot of guys would've stapled him to the bench after that.

That goal absolutely was on Olofsson. And MAYBE if he was on his weak side like he normally is, that turn towards his right actually helps limit the D-man's space. But he HAS to be more aware there. And, he's lucky he plays for Granato because Don is probably one of only a handful at most of coaches in the league that wouldn't bench him for a least a couple of shifts for that brain fart.

It was on Mittelstadt. The Caps penalty had already ended and he didn't want to just turn the puck over by dumping it in. He saw Power out of the corner of his eye but didn't realize Power was about to go to the bench. Considering Samuelsson was already coming off the bench, there wasn't really anything for Owen to do there. Mitts needed to understand that giving the Caps the puck behind their own net was the correct play there.

And it seems the Bolts had travel issues yesterday. They got out of Detroit a couple of hours late because the plane they were supposed to fly on had gotten struck by Lightning at it's previous stop to Detroit. Bummer.

Were he playing the past 2 weeks, maybe. No way are they putting on a show for a guy they've kept in bubble wrap for 1/2 a month.

Whoa. Meeee-ooooow.

At least the Pens have to go back down to Tampa on Thursday. The Bolts have 2 OT losses at home their last 14(?). So, they should be able to help the Sabres out later this week. And they host the Swamp Cats on Tuesday too. Kind of wierd in that they'll have a 6 game stretch against the same 3 teams with hosting 1 game and visiting the other and none of them were home and home games

Mittelstadt is their 5th F. Unless they're getting something really good, he isn't going anywhere this year.

Malkin got a breakaway coming out of the penalty box and then with about 5 minutes to go the Bolts collectively lost their minds. The puck just stayed in their end and everytime it seemed to be close to the net it was in the net. Look up at the TV, goal. Look up at the TV, goal. Lather rinse repeat. Stinks because Pittsburgh held the better of the play early in the 1st but the Bolts weathered the Storm and started to outplay them. The Malkin goal hurt but in and of itself, the game wasn't flipped.

Others watched more, but the biggest difference from last year to this is it seemed Peterka generated space for himself a lot last year. He's not doing that nearly as often this year. When the Kid Line got hot, all 3 guys were creating and finding space. That hasn't really happened for him since the calendar flipped. But until today, he'd had 3 games in a row where he got himself a truly excellent scoring chance. Almost think he's at the point where sitting a game or 2 and just watching would help a lot again. Now that Hinostroza is back, he might get that chance when Tuch comes back.

He was. Kind of nice to have had a chance to see what he can do when not carrying around 2 raw rookies or a rookie and Olofsson. (That said, still want to see him get one of those rookies back when Tuch comes back as Quinn is no longer a "raw" rookie. Expect those 2 plus Mittelstadt could make a darn fine 2nd line.)

Yes, this one.

Would have to think long and hard to make that deal for Makar. And still likely say no. No way does AZ get that for Chychrun.