Taro T

Sorry about that. Yep, it was you. 🍻

That we shall. Would love to see him come in @$50/7 but just not expecting it.

Somebody ( @Brawndo?) said the rumor is the Sabres offered him the Thompson deal & his agent turned it down.

Plus he's closer to the players having repaid the owners for the covid years & the corresponding cap increase. Hoping he comes in at Skinner's deal.

That drive the Jags let Henne have ended up the difference in this one.

He definitely has 2 EN, maybe 4. Maybe there's an OT goal as well? That still leaves a lot of 5v5 goals.

The 1st goal, to give him 20, was his 16th ES goal. So, looks like he's got 17 ES.

Haven't noticed him playing afraid nor backing down, but have seen him getting knocked down a lot. Didn't get to see much of the 1st 2 periods as was in chats & calls resolving a phone issue; maybe he was shying away early in today's game?

Considering he got 10% of his career assists in this 1 game there might be something to that thought. 😉 As mentioned upthread, Granato said Lyubushkin is finally close to 100% for the 1st time since that 1st injury back on the 1st western road swing. Said he was playing through a lit of pain & put his health at his initial return at 70%. He also said he'd been intentionally limiting his ice time while he was injured, presumably to keep from making the injury worse. Have seen speculation he was playing w/ a broken foot. Would explain why he wasn't playing as physical as he did in the past & initially out of the gate & would also explain why he looked slow as molasses until the games this week. If he is finally healthy, that'll help a lot.

They SHOULD be available again, if not this season, next year as those B&R goatheads are 3rds & not a 1 season thing (like the reverse retros are).

Yes, he is. And what's best for the team in that case is treating Levi right & letting him get a year burned off his ELC while getting him into the fold.

When Levi signs this spring, expect he'll initially be assigned to the Sabres and will get to play in a game if the Sabres are either out of the playoff race or Comrie & UPL are both sucking raw eggs. If boh those conditions aren't met (the Sabres are in the race & at least 1 of the goalies in next year's plans are playing well) then he'll get to dress for a game as the backup. Either will burn the 1st year of his ELC. If he's actually getting into games, then he'll stay up. If he's not, they'll let him play in Ra-cha-cha after getting a taste of the NHL experience. And the Sabres absolutely will let him burn a year of his ELC. It's what teams do when college players leave school.

Got lucky, had thought this game wasn't happening for a couple more weeks otherwise would've got tix. Hartley played well and Fields has made a massive difference for the Kin-ig-hit Hawks this year. Don't get why the Bandits left him exposed to the expansion draft. Bandits looked good through 3 but couldn't finish them off. Not scoring on the free PP to start the 4th Q set the tone for the final frame. Finally watched the rematch between Georgia & Buffalo from last week before tonight's game. Took way too many penalties but got likely they were playing a very bad team. Georgia had problems scoring when not on the PP.

Had forgotten just how good his interviews were. Really miss having him between the pipes. He was no Hasek, nobody is, but he is very deserving of that honor.

Well, we agree they have different skill sets. (Explicitly stated that in the 1st sentence of the post you quoted & throughout that post.) They're comparable in that both were best served on a 3rd line but could play higher when necessary and both were viewed with disdain by large portions of the fanbase. Do not agree that Mittelstadt's skating is only average. He'll never be confused w/ Hinostroza, Skinner, Krebs, or even Tuch but he is a good skater. Also, he is playing w/ a bit of a chippy edge. Hecht wasn't overly physical but you consider him to have been tough. Would agree w/ that, but expect you're selling Mitts short.

He's been more of a 3rd (or at times a 4th) liner, but really believe he could very well be a 2W. Remember, in large degree this is his first full season under Granato because his skating wasn't right last year due to the injury. And he's only got ~20 games at W under Don as well. Both he & Granato expected him to play W this year. Not only didn't he start at W, he was forced into a 2C role much of the early part of the season as Cozens (the better 2C) was given rookie W's who weren't ready for 2nd line duty. Personally don't believe this team HAS a 2nd line right now. They have 2 3rd lines that both show potential to be very good 3rd lines. And w/ any luck, they'll have 2 2nd lines next year. For that to happen, at least 1 of the kids needs to step up his game (should happen) & Mitts needs to keep playing at this level & he needs to continue to gain synergy w/ Jost. (And, please note, didn't say 2 GOOD 2nd lines, said 2 2nd lines.) The Kid Line was scoring at a great clip as the 3rd line & the Jost line is scoring at a good clip as the 3rd line. IF the Jost line can improve a little bit more, they might try bumping them back to 2nd line usage getting the increased scoring of the Kids Line getting back into a zone. Will also be interesting how the D playing a more traditional D role in their own zone affects those dynamics if THAT continues. As to the annoyance of overpasses, believe that's a combination of who he is & coaching preaching for them to not just throw the puck on net but to get to a decent scoring position to shoot. He's a playmaker 1st & has a sniper on his line. If you want him to shoot more give him Asplund & Jost instead of Olofsson & Jost.

Quite similar, but different skill set. And much like Hecht was a 3rd line C/W who could play up a line or 2 (& face it, in the Golisano era he was the 1LW) & who was their best PKer but could also play on the PP; see Mittelstadt being a 3C/W (and honestly, if his play the last dozen plus games is legit & it seems to be, actually a 3C/2W) that can play up a line or 2 who can play on either PP & who could probably play PK if necessary. And the reason he's quite possibly a 2W whereas Hecht was only a 3W (who played up) is Hecht had very little offense to his game but Mitts is seemingly a good set up man & might be able to pot a few if he can ever stop hitting the iron. The other thing they have in common is people were upset at Hecht for the contract he got & people are upset w/ Mittelstadt because (as somebody said upthread) he isn't Cozens but was drafted in nearly the same slot. Every fanbase seems to need a whipping boy; pretty sure Casey is that guy and will remain so for the foreseeable future.

Normally don't care much, but considering ended w/ tix for this year's festivities fulfilling a bucket list item dating back to '78, am REALLY ticked that Dahlin isn't there. Will be fun watching Thompson & the rest, but really fail to see how Dahlin didn't also earn a trip. Had they used last season's selection format pretty sure they both were near locks.

When they've run out of trade options, seems they'll ask him do that. Then it'll be up to Vinny to decide to report & continue to receive the rest of his $1.7MM or to not report, have his contract voided, & try to sign a deal elsewhere. The reports make it seem that he hasn't been asked to report there yet.

They could quite possibly have 8 or even 9 in the top 100. Somebody else has 10 points in the last 12 games along w/ at least 2 posts in the last 3 games too.

Well, no worries about you not buying into the theories as the guy that proposed them isn't fully bought in either. 😀 But the crease clearing was truly an on/off switch flipping. They flat out weren't even looking over their shoulders at the guy standing on UPL's doorstep in the 2nd much less thinking about even getting w/in a sticks length of distance from him. In the 3rd, they weren't even letting guys getting the crease then clearing them; they were engaging as soon as an Aisle got towards the low crease. A couple of times the Aisle trying to go to the crease found himself in the far side faceoff circle by the time the Sabre D-man broke off contact. It was awesome to see. Really looking forward to tomorrow's game as the expectation is they'll be doing it all game. (Now really wish the tix to that game get bought. Thought there was a high enough price that there'd be no takers. Guess again bright eyes.) Will be trying to watch for it.

ZERO Atlantic division D-men in this thing. This stinks. Dahlin should be there.

Just got home, expect a lot of this was covered earlier but ... The Sabres are getting better at these ceremonies. This one was well done. But, the concourses were CRAZY crowded after the ceremony prior to the teams finally starting warm-ups. Liked RJ getting the only chair w/ arms. The speeches were good. But, not sure if it was shown on TV, it was on the jumbotron, there was a bittersweet moment when Miller mentioned the Pegulas including Kim & the kids and the camera switched to Terry's face. You could see how much it pained him that she couldn't be there. It was only on screen for a moment, but it there. To the game. What a crazy 1st period. The Sabres outshot them 19-5, Mittelstadt hit the post on his 1st or 2nd shift and the goal judge turned the light on about 5 seconds after the shot, so it was close w/ the bouncing & all; but after all they they ended up down 1-0, should've been down 2-0 but for an incredible toe save, & could've been down 3-0 on an Aisles bouncer. 5 shots on goal against & 3 were true grade A bona-fide scoring chances. After tying it in the 2nd the Sabres let another uncovered player bury a puck into an open net. But then in the 3rd period, a thing of beauty occurred. No, not the Olofsson goal, though the feed & snipe were sweet. (Not even talking the prettier pass by Dahlin & great finish by Cozens.) Talking about the defensemen clearing the crease ALL the 3rd period long. They couldn't have cared less that Aisles were setting up on the edge of UPL's crease on the 1st 2 periods, but in the 3rd there were exactly 2 times (not counting rushes off turnovers) where an Aisle got to the front of the net w/out a Sabre draped on him & both of those were due to a failed breakout where Dahlin started to step up to join the non-existant rush. They were pushing Aisles out of the lanes & UPL could see everything & there was nobody to get a rebound shot on him. For those saying the Sabres can't play D, they're wrong. They CAN (who knew?), it's just for some reason they usually don't. And interesting IMHO that the Sabres decided to do so against one of the very few teams the 80's Eulers actually played defense against. Most everybody tried to outscore them & it couldn't really be done effectively, they were too fast, deep, & skilled. But the Aisles were one of the few that could skate w/ them and win battles. The Eulers lost badly to them in '83. After that, they bore down against them or whatever Eastern opponent they met in the Finals. Because they weren't beat up like the team surviving the east was, it worked all 5 times they reached the finals over 7 years. Been wondering for a while if that was part of Granato's & Adams' plan. Beat most everybody by outscoring them. But against the teams that can take it away from Buffalo, play that same hard nosed game and beat then at their own game. Keep yourselves healthy by playing loose goosey against the teams you can beat that way & bear down against the ones you must. (I.e., don't beat yourselves up any more than you have to. And also don't block every shot possible - don't break your foot, ankle, or hand if you don't need to do so. The Eulers stayed healthy that way. The '06 Canes didn't play that way but won a Stanley Cup by staying healthy when none of their opponents could. (Except maybe Joisey, can't recall if they had major injuries or not,)

FYI, MSG is starting the pregame show at 6, so you should be able to watch the whole thing if you get MSG.

Because having the ceremony at 6:45 doesn't sell enough concessions before the game. Having people in the building for a full extra hour could. Actually, while that's part of it, expect that by having the ceremony that early that both teams can have their normal warm-ups before the game w/out then having to sit an extra 15 minutes on the bench or the dressing room waiting for the ceremony to finally finish. It'll also let the ice get Zambonied after having the black mats & red carpets rolled out for 20-30 minutes. Makes sense on several levels, but it does force those wanting to go to the game & ceremony to leave work early. Not everybody will be able to do so.