Taro T

Just got tix for All Star weekend this morning. Was wondering if both Dahlin & Thompson would be there for certain. Pretty sure we know the answer to that. Hoe-lee chit. What a ####ing game for him.

Not true. The one puck that hit the post & harmlessly bounced away from the twine could've been an inch to the right & would've been in the net too. It was luck that he wasn't perfect, but Glenn Hall used to say he'd rather be lucky than good any day. 😉

Regarding Wood: He was born in Buffalo, because his dad was a Sabre, who happened to be the Sabres NHLPA Rep just coincidently during the only inseason players' strike in NHL history. The Knoxes, being old money, did not appreciate the fact that the players struck, and soon thereafter sent him packing. Randy has never gotten over it; doubt his kid is particularly fond of the organization that traded away his father out of spite, regardless of the Knoxes being gone for roughly a quarter century. As for Chychrun, alao wouldn't mind seeing him in B&G (wanted him to be the pick in that draft held in Buffalo) but believe he isn't an ideal partner for Power. Would like more of another Samuelsson for him. But it would give the Sabres an above average 1st pairing, and an above average 3rd pairing; the 2nd pairing only being average would still overall be an upgrade over where they're at.

A reasonable take. Can't see any situation Wood would ever play for the Sabres, but someone similar might.

We both agree that the team still needs improvements in net & on D among other things.

Like mentioned, it didn't make any sense for it to be vs last year. Vs '19, oh yeah, absolutely believe it. Danke.

Better D-men could help. But when they're healthy, they have 5 competent defenseman. Even w/ just 4 the bigger issue for giving up high danger chances is they are an offense 1st team right now. Even the good D-men are out for a lot of goals against. Fortunately they're also out for a #### ton of goals for too. Until defensively responsible play is emphasized, unless they have a true stud between the pipes they're going to give up a lot of goals. Better D-men would help w/ more W's (which is what really matters), counterintuitively not positive they'd really bring the GAA down nearly as much as you expect as long as the emphasis is still offense now & forever.

Is that drop vs last season or vs prepandemic #'s or some other baseline? Find it hard to believe it's vs last year as they only had really really good home attendance in 3 games plus the Heritage Claasic (which was a "home" game, wink, wink) and attendance was worse in October & November overall last year w/ the border still effectively closed. There is a bigger STH base this year than last. If it is vs last year, that's a pretty good indication that the "Bills effect" is real & attendance will pick up come February.

Very interesting stuff. Thanks for sharing. 🍻

After watching what happens to Lyubushkin every couple of games am just happy the rest of them don't flamingo. And after seeing how many pucks got deflected past him, Comrie would probably prefer a bunch of them to not even try to block shots. 😉 Agree w/ those who are saying better D-zone coverage would likely affect not only shots against but also shot blocks.

Really expect that at some point they'll get a 5-6 game winning streak. (Doubt it happens before Comrie comes back, but they're in a stretch of winnable games now, so who knows.) Expect in general, they'll play NHL 0.500 until Comrie is back & NHL 0.600 after he's back. With the youth they have expect them to continue to improve throughout the year which should make those predictions low should other teams still look at them as bottom feeders but expect by the end of the month teams will be playing their top net minder against them & they'll be ready to have a tough game (due to speed, not rough stuff) so so those changes will likely offset each other. They have a great chance to be in the mix for the playoffs. To get in, is obviously a very tall order w/ the current GTing. But likely comes down to can they find a 2nd 5-6 game W streak & can they avoid another 5+ game losing streak. If the answer to both is yes, will say they'll be in the playoffs. If no to either, then no. Really expect they've got a good chance of getting that 2nd W streak. But not convinced they can avoid another losing streak. As we saw last month, all it takes to go on 1 is have a tough stretch of schedule with a stinker game in the gimme sprinkled inside that stretch. If they could find a really good PKer that would help too. The PK is killing them. (GT is your best PKer.)

Not saying there's an expectation of a blockbuster deal. But right now, there are no deals (not entirely Adams fault, he made a trade for a goalie but was then rebuffed & supposedly might also have had 1 other trade worked out that got rebuffed by the player) at all. Expecting that will change this offseason. And we'll see 2-3 middle 6 players &/or prospects that project to that level traded for either GT, #4 D (though that piece will more likely come via FA, hoping he brings in a couple that way), or very good PK C that's a reasonable 2 way player. Granted, that could all be projection, but Adams realizes the team needs to be better & not all the holes will be filled w/ on house prospects.

Is it because they believe their fans are dumb and will watch anything? If that ISN'T the answer, no clue.

Had noticed that lack of younger guys upthread. Watch the WJCs every year but hadn't really paid attention to the ages of the players that much but always thought there were significantly more than just 3 D+1 players in most years. (1 - 3 draft eligible players seemed about right, but not the few D+1's.) Any thoughts on why the roster is skewing that old?

Your best PKer is your goalie. Just sayin'. Yeah, the defensive zone play leaves a bit to be desired fairly often. But 2 of the lines & 1 of the D pairings are "getting" the offensive ideas & really one of the other lines & both of the D pairings seem to get them as well, just not with the same kind of success (& when you look at the players in that mix really only Power & Okposo would be expected to be scoring at a level remotely like their teammates). Would hope that Granato isn't waiting for every skater to fully get the O under their command before focusing some on the D. Which would have that part of the game getting worked on sooner than later.

If you think that suit is too big, you'd hate his REALLY big suit. 😉

Because he's WAAAAY older than that. He's been 20 for almost 3 full weeks. 😉

There definitely will be. Hoping it comes this offseason. (Would be nice if it were sooner, but just not expecting it & won't go constantly shouting at the clouds hoping he will do something sooner when it isn't likely to happen.) The fear is we won't be there until the next offseason, but am pretty sure it'll start this offseason.

He & Allen both have the KC D's #. If the Bills are still healthy when Cincy is up. Like their chances. Especially as that could be Miller's 1st game back.

That line, for about the last 6 games has been scoring at a ridiculous rate. They have also been out for a fair # of goals against this season. Thing is, the ridiculous rate of scoring is greater than the # of goals they've been out for going the other way. It's a good thing. Both takes can be accurate. They do tilt the ice, which is awesome. But their aggressive style also results in goals against; both off the rush or pursuing the puck hard in the D-zone. They are a very high event line. And fortunately there is more good high event than bad high event. It's going to be interesting to see whether the high events start tilting in the other direction as other teams put their top line out against them more rather than treating them like the 3rd line like they had been for most of the season. But they're doing exactly what is being asked of them right now. They're being asked to look for more creative ways to attack & with that will not only come more highlight reel goals, but also some goals going the other way. And they could be the biggest winners when the goaltending does get good (maybe if WE'RE lucky w/ Comrie's return) as their firewagon attack will give up even fewer goals with an oopsie because the goalie will be able to stop high danger chances. As for their plus minuses being good, yeah, they've been out for a lot of points for and the vast majority of them have been at 5v5 or even SH. They're scoring a lot. They also give up a fair amount. But a lot is more than a fair amount. Thus a positive +/-.

Not only that, but he also said it is (relatively) easy to teach defensive concepts. (Which is accurate.) Because of the difficulty in teaching/ learning offense (& let's face it, this team needed to learn offense) it was his focus to the detriment of defense. It SEEMS this team is close to the point where stronger defensive play (team D, not strictly on just the D-men) is going to be added to what they're doing. Wouldn't be surprised if it begins to legitimately get incorporated after the calendar flips or after the AS break. Wondering if flipping that switch is dependent upon having Comrie back or Granato's & (presumably) Bales talking up UPL to the point he believes he can be an NHL goalie; as doubt they're going to be winning at a much higher rate playing lower event hockey than they currently do as a, still expecting UPL to give up more than he should in a defensively sound framework. They might be waiting until next year to flip that switch as it was Miller's ability to stop breakaways that really allowed the '05-'07 Sabres squads to play firebrand hockey. They were good w/ a D joining the rush & pinching in zone because they knew Miller would cover up the oopsies.

And, 1 other reason this kid isn't giving up on Mitts yet is, this team seems to have 1 of the best analytics departments in the game. Realize all the "conventional" fancy stats say he & Olofsson are hot garbage. But do the Sabres fancy stats say that? If they did, wouldn't the cord already have been cut? Or are they the trade bait for a Chychrun or other? Maybe am misreading it & they're only playing to facilitate a trade, but am suspecting the Sabres fancy stats aren't the same as the conventional ones.

Granato isn't dumb. That he continues to believe there's something there is a big part of why this kid hasn't given up on them. But agree that to get to where the Sabres need (want?) them to be they very possibly might need to spend time apart from each other & right now the only realistic way to do that is to either put Mitts between Okposo & Girgensons or more realistically to bench one of them. The other reason am not willing to throw in the towel yet is, IMHO, part of why the Cozterkinn line got as good as it did as quickly as it did was they were mainly treated as the 3rd line while they were gelling & weren't saddled w/ the 3rd D pair too often & didn't draw as tough of assignments as "that other line" was getting. Please note, before somebody accuses yours truly of saying Cozterkinn got good because of the deployment that that was NOT what was said. What was said is that the Ws got to work through getting to know Cozens (they already worked on chemistry in Ra-cha-cha most of last year) and developing chemistry with him which getting more favorable usage than they are now apparently (based on their results since getting bumped up to officially line 2) ready to face which made it easier to be successful. Having battled through the tougher usage until quite recently, they deserve, again IMHO (realize it's not widely popular here), an opportunity to get their act together against easier competition as well. Expect they might be getting some consideration for having played through more or less season long injuries last year & having played well last year when actually healthy, but don't know that for a fact. (And in a "what have you done for me lately' business like pro sports, don't know that it is a legit justification, if in fact it even is a justification.) The concerning matter is when Granato believes in someone, he seems to stubbornly stick w/ him even when everybody else gives up hope. Not positive that he knows when it finally is time to toss in the rope; but am hopeful he does which is another reason am not throwing in the towel. Still believe having Jokiharju as a partner is making life tougher than it needs to be for Power (though w/ Lyubushkin out, it is by far the best option currently available to him). All that said, am hoping that the Mitts line doesn't get deployed after the Sabres score a goal as that & icing the puck are where the 'oh ####' moments are primarily happening. For the love of all that's good & Holy, PLEASE don't send them out immediately after scoring a goal.

Considering Okposo & Girgensons are regularly in the 5v5 line rotation & Mittelstadt & Olofsson are getting spot duty, it would seem to be a promotion for Krebs &/or a demotion for Jost. And that Jost line will likely be deployed like most NHL teams deploy their 4th line. All 3 are there for STs. Jost as a 1st pairing PK F & Mitts & VO are key for the "kid" PP unit. They'll get the odd 5v5 shift to stay loose but won't get a ton of 5v5.

Wow. Only 5 - '04 or later B-days in there. That's more geared towards 20 yo's than expected. Bedard & Fantilli the only 2 in this year's draft (?). Edit - didn't notice 2 of the goalies are draft eligible as 20 yo's.