Taro T

And Vinc wisely crawls out of the net on his butt making sure a Colorado shot following up a Zed Williams crossbar doesn't count. (Ball probably wasn't in the net, but Matt was taking no chances.) Just over 2 mintues left in the 1st, still 5-2.

Dhane Smith with his 4th. 5-2.

Bandits mauled in front of Colorado goal but no harm no foul per the refs. Zed Williams gets the ball and springs Downie on a fast break. Colorado on the board. Less than 5 minutes left in the 1st, 4-1. And Ryan Lee follows that one up. 4-2 Bandits. 202 seconds left in the 1st.

And the Great Dhane nets his 50th playoff goal and his 3rd of the game on the PP from Cloutier. 6:44 left in the 1st, 4-0.

And Fraser follows his own rebound and makes it 3-0 less than 5 minutes into the game.

The Great Dhane from Cloutier 40 seconds in. And then Dhane follows it up about a minute later from MacKay. 2-0. 2:02 into the game, Bandits have a 2 goal lead.

No Josh Byrne tonight. Upper body injury. Hadn't heard anything about a potential injury until just now. Bummer. Need Buchanan and Fraser to step up and fill in for his missing offense.

TV Network Scheduling Change. Don't know if the NLL website was wrong or if ESPN changed stuff up last minute, but TONIGHT's GAME IS ON ESPN2 AT 7PM NOT ESPNU. Monday's game is still set for ESPN2 at 4PM Eastern.

IMHO, it's a false dichotomy. There will be 4/5's like Graves that on paper would fit great with the Sabres situation that are UFA's. Can't see the Sabres adding 2 guys that truly fit into the top 4 (because 3 of the 4 spots are solid and they have kids that will be in the mix to fill that 4 role in the near future), but 1 and another 5/7 could be very possible. There also is the 800 # gorilla in the room which is Olofsson who is under contract for 1 more year but had lost his spot in the top 12 who should be quite valuable on the trade market. This year's 1st or next year's 1st along with Olofsson should be able to bring in a guy that either can compete for top 4 duty or is a young guy with potential that can be top 7 this year and legit 4/5 next year (right when they have to decide whether to re-up Lyubushkin or let him walk). Don't see where they need to give up on even Rosen to land a good RFA/younger D-man with the other assets they have. And Olofsson and one of this year's 2nds might be enough to bring that package should they add say a Weissbach type prospect to the offer. It'll be interesting to see if with getting Johnson signed (and still having Stillman, Clague, and Bryson) if they only bring in that 1 guy that fits into the top 4 and run with what they have to cover 3rd pairing and injury replacements. Want that extra guy brought in as well, but am now kind of leaning towards that part not happening.

It's possible it was an "ELC holdout" but considering he signed shortly after Minnesota finished its graduation week activities (like a day later) its alos possible that he was taking Adams advice and living in the moment of where he was at. Will be very interesting to see what his bonuses are. Puckpedia didn't have the contract as of ~30 minutes ago.

The extensions, just like bringing in a UFA (in any capacity), can't happen officially for ~5 more weeks. Until July 1 those 2 aren't in the last year of their current deals. Pretty sure item 2 on your list has already happened and because of that, we MIGHT see a Mittelstadt &/or Jokiharju re-sign shortly after the 1st 2 guys get new contracts. Still am not convinced there won't be a veteran goalie brought in. Will come down to how much he'll cost and how long the term would have to be. But am fairly confident that running back next year with what they have in net is plan B or plan C. But a plan B or plan C that they're reluctantly comfortable with, which means they won't be in desperation mode trying to lock down plan A.

And just like that, within a week, the Sabres D pipeline, while still having room for improvement, no longer looks like a disaster. Great job, Mr. Adams. Now bring in 2 more legit NHLers.

If he does sign w/ the Sabres, Maddy Glab or Marty Biron or whomever in Pegulaville interviews players really needs to sit down w/ him and have him explain in detail how THIS course was best for HIM. It works great for the Sabres or remains exactly the same for them if it actually happens as it either gets them 1 extra year on an ELC & as an RFA or it might because of his age leave them exactly where they would've been had he signed this spring. (Too tired to bother to look up his age at present.) But don't see what he gets out of it other than a relaxed end of his semester at Minn. Maybe that was enough.

That stinks that you lost a friend that way. The possibility of crash into water or a possible fire used to be reasons for not wearing 1; remotely possible as either was. But had a couple of cars w/ automatic seat belts and it was more of a hassle to not wear it, plus wifey being strongly in favor of them just made it a less annoying choice to wear them rather than not.

Saturday's game is 7PM on ESPNU. ESPN2. Monday's game is at 4PM on the Deuce (ESPN2). Should game 3 be necessary, it'll be next Satuday at 7:30PM on ESPN+. Let's GO Ban- Dits!

To a large degree. And interestingly, the Sabres are their only truly subpar franchise. The Bills are a legit contender every year. Likewise for the Bandits. Their daughter is ranked in the top 10 (or at least she was) in tennis. The Amerks are having their 2nd consecutive good playoff run. And this version of the Kin-ig-hit Hawks made the playoffs in just their 3rd season.

The bolded is the "Eddie Olczyk rule." He came close to meeting the regular season threshold but didn't come close to earning his way in the playoffs to have his name on the trophy when the Rags won it but because all the muckety mucks love the guy, the exception was born.

2-0 loss. Gave up a PP goal late in the 2nd to break the seal and then one more goal before that stanza ended. The Kulich line had some really good pressure in the 1st, but overall Hershey wanted it more.

The Sabres definitely could keep Girgensons and kind of expect that to happen too. But the dream of the vet 4C PK specialist is pretty much gone at this point. Am expecting with at least 1 more (and ideally 2 more) actual USEFUL D brought in that the team will be running 8D for the most part which only puts 13 Fs on the roster. Even with Hinostroza walking and Olofsson traded if Z comes back there is room for 1 of Savoie or Rousek to make the roster if Jost is the regular 13th F. And if Z is gone, then there's room for both Savoie and Rousek (provided they both earn it) but very little room for any other changes.

Savoie didn't really seem to do much, but he did play some in the 3rd with Rousek and Kulich. Will be interesting to see if he stays with them on Saturday or if Weisback takes that slot back.

Well, the game was disappointing, but at least on MSG they fixed the picture issues they had Tuesday night. It was an actual HD broadcast unlike whatever that was during game 1.

IF Okposo were to truly get platooned, am much more on board with this move. Just don't expect to see that and expect him to play great out of the gate this year (expect this team is already ready for it to be October and will come out of the gate flying like they normally do; the difference being they won't have a November or December with so few W's an old time retired rail worker can count them on 1 hand) and those that are thrilled that Kyle is back will be crowing from every roof, but also expect his to run out of gas sometime in November and he'll be a liability after that. Hoping that's an overly pessimistic take. Really like Okposo as a person and like what he's brought to the team in terms of culture change the past 2 seasons. IF they keep him fresh all year, fine put him back in his role. But still would've preferred they bring back Girgensons and also bring in a vet 4C PK specialist. And Kyle didn't get much PK time at all last year; he got some, but not much. That 4C would be replacing his 5v5 play (Krebs or Jost could easily slide to wing at 5v5 should they be on the 4th line this coming season) but would definitely be upgrading the PK.

Like Krebs. Really like Peterka. But if one of them and UPL could bring Hellebucyk to Buffalo, pull the trigger Mr. Adams. UPL MIGHT become a good NHLer, but he has very little trade value and his leaving does little to deplete the team's assets. Losing Krebs hurts. He could become a Gilmour-lite player (expect he can bring the 200' game and edge that Doug brought, but will score only about 75% of what Doug did (even prorated for differences in eras). Peterka could really become a great goal scorer for this team but offense is what the Sabres have in Spades. Losing ONE piece of that to lock down the goaltending this season and POSSIBLY into the future is worth it. Especially when Adams team seems to be finally getting the draft right in a way the Sabres have not been able to do in 40 or so years, you can give up A piece that hurts to fill a hole that needs to be filled.

Really thought that when he signed Hall indicated that he would've been good with a longer term contract but that Adams only offered the 1 year deal. (Which fit in very well with the notion that the Pegulas didn't want to have any LT contracts handed out coming out of Covid due to so much uncertainty with revenues (not just with the Sabres but also the crowdless Bills and their other holdings). It also fit in well with the idea that Adams believed keeping the band together and taking 1 more kick at the can was the wrong way to proceed; but except for not upgrading the goaltending, he did make what seemed to be a very good faith effort to give that a chance to succeed if it were going to do so.)

We REALLY need to get that 'huh' reaction brought back. None of the others seems to fit for this one.