Taro T

Will go back & double check, but thought that one was right after a penalty kill.

Because the league got tired of centers trying to win faceoffs by tying up their opponent's stick and then gloving the puck to a teammate behind him essentially making faceoffs look like rugby scrums. That rule was probably put in a year or 2 before covid.

What if Anderson only brought that energy he had vs Dallas because it was a milestone game for him? He lost his 3 previous starts against other also rans and only had 1 decent outing out of those 3. They can not rely on Anderson being back next year. They need to know what they have in Comrie before it becomes time to set next season's roster.

By flip, meant move Krebs to center Jost's line & vice versa. Agree management is comfortable with both on the roster. Can't see them moving on from either at this point. After 23-24 something has to give, but not now. And wouldn't speculate on what goes out as it really will depend to a certain degree on what anybody would bring back.

Arbitration eligible RFA.

And only 1 team will win with that view. Only ~3% of teams win by your standard. It's fine that you view it that way. But it's a tough slog if only the destination but not the journey matters.

How many teams have been in the playoffs 5 of the last 6 years? In the AFC, pretty sure it's just KC, the Cheats, & the Bills. Don't pay that much attention to the NFC, but it's likely just the 9ers & the Pack. Can a team be in a club that exclusive and NOT be "one of the best run?" Maybe the Ravens OR Stealers are thetr too?

Yep. And hopefully that team & Filly sink like stones so those 2 bonus 2nd rounders end up good enough to grab some more top round talent. This coming offseason will still be relatively easy for Adams as he isn't in a position where he absolutely HAS to make moves to keep from losing assets (though still want him to add a 2nd pairing D-man). The following offseason that will no longer be the case and hard decisions will become a semiannual thing at the trade deadline & the offseason.

Yep. If you can only consider a season successful with a championship then 31 teams are unsuccessful every year and at minimum there is 1 team in the league that needs to wait 31 more years & 3 weeks before they have a successful season. If you need to be in the championship game for it, then at least 2 teams will have a 15 year wait & change before they see success. Allen played most of the year w/ a screwed up elbow (which occurred on a play he stayed in the pocket rather than one of his mad scrambles) and even with all the everything going on, the team finished 14-4 and was one of the last 8 with an opportunity to move on. They beat, in that team's building, 1 of the 4 teams left standing. Stealing a hockey phrase, a bit of "puck luck" in either of 2 games would've given them the opportunity to only have to play 1 of the other 2 "Big 3" in the AFC to compete against the NFC rep & would've given them a bye week to rest up & strategize as well heading into a game vs the Jags. As long as Allen plays, their window will be open. Want to see changes, the reality of FA & the "cap" will force some, & would like to see some others like the departure of Frazier. Doubt it happens, but we can hope. And, between rules protecting QBs & medical advances to fix them up when they get hurt anyway, we really could have Allen playing at a high kevel for 10+ years.

Hoping somebody would see it as a trick question? Or, the intern in charge of putting the daily fact/trivia/whatever lost 1 earlier in the month & now everything is a day off?

What Jost did, as you mention, was allow Mittelstadt to move to the position both he and Granato expected him to play this year. Asplund was unable to force him to W as he's become a W himself and Krebs wasn't ready for middle 6 C duty either at the beginning of the year. So Mittelstadt ended up in a role above what he should've been out of necessity- the story of his career pre-December of this year & Olofsson couldn't di what he does best as there was typically nobody to get him the puck. Not sure what Jost's ceiling is. It very well could be 3C as he doesn't seem to have the passing nor shot of the rest of the players in the top 9 but he does have a reasonable 200' game. Have wondered if the plan for next year is to flip Krebs & Jost or if it is to keep the lines the way they are and let all 4 continue to jell. Really expect the answer to that will come down to whether Okposo comes back. If he's back, don't #### with a good thing. If not, expect we'll see them experiment w/ moving Krebs tenaciousness & playmaking between Mitts & Victor to see if they can be a true 2nd line to go along w/ what will hopefully be another true 2nd line in the Kid Line. Then Jost & Girgensons would make up 2/3's of the "checking line" likely w/ Asplund, Kulich, or a veteran FA. But would disagree w/ you about having 2 - 2nd lines. At present the Sabres have 2 GOOD 3rd lines. Neither has demonstrated an extended stretch of successfully playing as the 2nd line. Though expect Granato is close to using the Jost line as the 2nd line to get the Kids Line rolling again. And would put the Sabres 4th line up against the old Aisles 4th line or any other 4th line. They are near the top in the league in that role. So, would agree they could/should be considered more than just a 4th line.

Or, as Frank Drebbin would say "the foot's on the other hand now." 😉

Lydman wasn't the 6th best D. That was Campbell. He realistically was either the 4th or 5th but he put Tallinder into a comfort zone & Hank became the Sabres best D-man after getting paired w/ him. So, while he was in the lower 1/2 of their regular D corp, he was on the top pairing.

At least when he's ogling the other teams' puck bunnies he isn't hyperventilating over a Sabre possibly being injured or dead from taking a hard but typical check.

Depends on if both Okposo & Girgensons are both back next year. Really expect as @tom webster says often that there's a very real possibility that Kyle retires or goes back to Minnesota next season. If that happens, Savoie likely gets his 9 games & either he or Kulich take that spot after the 9 game look. If he doesn't leave, there aren't any obvious holes where kids will be penciled in. They'll have to beat out actual NHLers to move up. Kulich, Rousek, & Rosen will all be available as injury callups but don't know if any stick this coming season. The next offseason is when we'll likely see another influx of young talent as the team gets close to the cap.

They'll definitely be stronger & acclimatized to the NHL. The question becomes will that overcome their ikely being 2nd line all season (in Quinn & Peterka's case) and the checking line C or possibly bumping up & supplanting Jost on the 3rd line in Krebs case. Normally kids slump in their 2nd season getting tougher usage and having the expectation they won't just get to play simple games anymore. But those 3, Power, & UPL have already been given the "tough" usage that they normally wouldn't see until their 2nd year so there is a very real possibility they won't have a sophomore slump. Though they all could run out of some gas at the end of this year & next as playing a full 82 plus playoffs (expected next year & possible this year) is even tougher than the full AHL year. Don't know that the team will have a runaway best O. But would be disappointed if they aren't top 5. Next year will be fun.

Not his rookie year. He slumped some at the end of the year as he ran out of gas but he was VERY solid in both ends. He was historically good offensively but was nowhere close to a disaster most of the season.

Expected that when they gave him the night completely off yesterday. Good. It's his crease at present.

Really expect it's a combo of 3 things plus luck. 1. Most of the players aren't being asked to consistently play above their talent level. And of the few that are, it's 1 slot up and playing w/ a guy that could be playing another level higher himself. Don't underrated the value of not being forced into maximum exertion at all moments. 2. The team is crazy young. Though a few guys still need to develop man strength, almost all but 3 guys should be at a very low risk of a soft tissue injury. And they're at the age where they recover from bumps & bruises quicker too. 3. It was reported that management was bringing in people to help them revamp their training, practice, & nutrition guidelines to minimize injuries & recovery times. Surprising it would be effective this quickly. But if there were major revisions, it's not out of the question. And, then there's plain old luck. Jokiharju, Samuelsson, & even Dahlin's injuries were in no small part bad luck. Only Lyubushkin's was a product of his style of play. That bad luck offsets good luck overall.

Nobody is arguing he should be starting ahead of UPL. The argument is he should be starting ahead of Anderson. And admittedly the calculus likely changed after last night's effort. But, the message out of Seymour H. Knox Place has been that they aren't going to prioritize a single win or even a couple over consistent winning LT. How is playing the goalie that has no future in Buffalo, who also was between the pipes for losses to the Otters, Phlyers, & Hawks in the last 3 weeks more beneficial to the LT well being of the franchise than finding out wtf they have in Comrie who IS under contract next year & could literally be anything from the goalie that played for Winnipeg last year to the goalie that was between the pipes for a significant portion of the 8 game losing streak to anything in between. Yes Anderson's #'s on the season are good but prior to last night he had 2 bad games in a row and wasn't exactly stellar against the Otters either though his #'s were good that game. Thing is, Granato seems to know the pulse of his team very well & he & Bales chose Anderson last night who from the outside didn't look too good but they were right in their decision in hindsight. But they need to get to a point where they give Comrie a start or 3 (to UPL's 6 or 7) to make sure the lofty expectations of next season & beyond can actually be met.

The problem w/ having 2 snipers out there, 1 on either side, is the PP becomes extremely static. And a good PK can take those passes away. The problem they had early in the year was the PP was very sstatic. They started adding movement & that pass to Thompson once the PK had shifted away from Tage. They need to start having other guys fake the pass to Thompson & either shoot or pass away from him and get that shot off. The PP is way too predictable now.

Yep. Granato is pretty good about giving guys opportunities in games they're personally vested in. And considering UPLs illness messed up the rotation for the last Jets game am expecting he gets that start. But if he doesn't get it and they go UPL like Biron suggested last night right to the AS break then we might not see Comrie start again until March.

That's sweet. It's not often visitors get greeted by the Mayor himself. We are honored.

Would've preferred they go the other way even into November of this year, but Granato has been playing the kids all along (w/ occasionally breaks here & there) and has gotten more out of them than almost anybody expected. If he's good w/ the kids so should we be. And how cool is it that there's only 1 week left in January and it's still a relevant question & not a complete hypothetical?

Start having Cozens shoot rather than reflexively passing away from the high slot to Thompson or Dahlin. If Tuch & Skinner know that's coming they can crash for rebounds. When defenses start trying to take that away Thompson's 1 timer will start working again. Would also bump Skinner to the 2nd unit bringing up Quinn, but after the Kreuger years that's a non-starter.