Taro T

If you need 4 seats, that's $200 right out of the box. Throw on a couple of beers & pops & you're talking real money. Personally, go to a bunch of games, but that's the bulk of our discretionary spending. When the kids were young split down to just a handful of games: too expensive & too much time (with dropping the kids off & picking them back up plus driving to + from Buffalo, a game was easily a 7 hour event).

Losing Miller led to them losing 4 in a row & 5 of 6 before the team settled down & Biron went on his ridiculously improbable winning streak (which was helped by not getting charged the L vs SJ). It also didn't hurt that they could avoid the Otters for about 2 more months. Those guys were Buffalo's kryptonite early that year.

Thanks for the clarification. That makes a lot more sense.

Wait one darn minute here. Teppo friggin' Numinnen was a "leader who (had) been through the wars that know(s) how to win?" Really? The guy who had 16 years of NHL action and never saw the 2nd round before coming to Buffalo had been through the wars and knew how to win? No ####ing way. 15 years with what had been the poster child for a dysfunctional organization and, along w/ Doan, was a leader from that dysfunctional organization. He was a great player who knew how to be a pro and he was a leader, but he hadn't won #### on the NHL. And his not having won didn't mean he wasn't a leader. Contrary to what sure seems to be your assertion.

Sorry, Lindgren.

You appear to have more faith in UPL than many of the rest of us have. Really hoping for an early Christmas present with Comrie coming back after the homestand.

Or is that just what it wants you to think? 😉

The LT #4 is likely in the system (the broad 50 contract one, not necessarily in Buffalo or Ra-cha-cha), in 1 form or another. Whether it be Jokiharju improving as he hits his prime, Johnson, Sanheim Lindgren or 1 of the Russians, or some F players/prospects that go out the door for him. Don't see Adams going FA for the LT answer there, but very well might go that route for the ST answer. Still expect the ST answer to come via FA like Lyubushkin did.

No. The analog is having Samuelsson, Jokiharju, Pilut, Fitzgerald, Clague, & Prow (Davies, Pritchett, other). How often do teams win that one?

Carolina got the SC that year because their opponents suffered key injuries (the Sabres well documented injuries, Williams putting his stick in Koivu's eye, breaking the Eulers' starter) while they only suffered 1 injury of their own & that when they had a great replacement finally healthy and ready to step in. Until game 6 of the Finals they never had a single one of their 20 dressed players unable to go in the next game due to injury. That run of injury-free luck will NEVER be repeated.

This. So much this. Yep. Go out & win the next one. Do that often enough and they're back in the mix.

He stood out more yesterday than he had as he is a significant step down from the other 5 when all are healthy and he misplayed the big rebound Anderson gave up for the 2nd goal. Personally would prefer to see him replaced by Pilut as am interested in seeing how he would work with a healthy Lyubushkin as they had good moments but when Buusch had a bad giveaway due presumably to his injury he couldn't cover for it. Should Granato ever drop Jokiharju to 3rd pairing, would keep Bryson in as expect he'd work better w/ Henri than Larry. And, yes, an upgrade would be great, but just don't see Adams doing that prior to the trade deadline at the earliest unless somebody unexpected becomes available.

Granato spoke highly of Jost's PK play. Expecting that was one of the reasons they took a flyer on him. While the rest of his game can be problematic at times, Jokiharju is a very good PKer. Wonder how much of the aggression on the PK by the F's was knowing they had Samuelsson & Henri behind them for the bulk of it rather than Bryson & an injured Lyubushkin behind them. Speaking of Buusch, he was playing like he did before catching that puck off the foot/leg. They might actually have all 6 of their regulars healthy finally. Still want to see how a healthy Buusch would look like to Power, but even deployed as Granato keeps insisting they be deployed, the D is much improved. (And maybe it's more knowing how the 3rd pairing gets deployed that's keeping Buusch down there. Henri & Bryson could be very scary if put against a strong line.)

He definitely has helped. But he's been there before this game. Even with that PP scoring reasonably it hasn't "looked" right and when they've scored it has seemed to be due to individual effort, not a unit working cohesively. Both units looked different last night. They passed the puck up ice to bring it into the zone, rather than using the drop pass. The net front skater was switching up with either guy set up on the boards. The puck movement wasn't strictly from Dahlin/Power to the boards & back. At least 3 guys & often 4 were moving which forced the box to move & lanes opened. And Cozens (in all 3 phases) & his whole line had a great game last night.

Especially w/ 1 hand tied behind their backs. (UPL) Here's to those R&B Goatheads being EXTREMELY motivating.

Not for nothing, but when Samuelsson went down, so ended Dahlin's goal scoring streak. Notice where Ras was when he received that puck on his goal. Without Muel on the ice, Dahlin isn't the 4th skater below the top of the faceoff circle. Speculation, sure, but did anybody recall seeing him do that when paired w/ Bryson or Power? This kid doesn't recall it.

Tyson Jost did not cause the 1st PP to move the puck in the 2nd minute of the game. He played well when he was out there on both sides. Liked that when he failed to clear the puck on one PK that he kept aggressive and got the puck back low & made the tougher clear. That said ... There was a philosophical difference in how they operated tonight. And, with everybody being so fast leaguewide, you NEED to be aggressive to be effective. Hope they continue to play that way.

What a great job on the PK tonight. Amazing how much of a difference playing aggressively makes. PP was aggressive too. And actually scored AND looked legit. Would really like to hear what they did differently heading into tonight in preparation. (And the followup - wtf did you wait until game 19 to do that?)

Darn shame Comrie is broken. Would be nice to have him available tomorrow to get a 2 game streak going heading into the Joisey game. Expecting UPL to cost them some points. Hopefully he doesn't but haven't seen any reason to expect he won't.

Whatevs. Watch the games on delay typically to avoid commercials. Hadn't seen a response by the end of the page.

He's been jockeying back and forth between 2nd & 3rd all year. The 4 game point streak probably has him back at 2. Will be tough to overtake 1st.

Nope. Pretty sure that one's out west somewhere. This is his brother.

Very encouraging that Lyubushkin is both hitting and skating the puck. Dare we suggest his foot/ankle might finally be healed? 6 healthy D would be huge for getting back on track.

He just passed now? Would've guessed he died a long time ago. Orchestrated the Braves leaving town.

Lost money on the Yotes. Only one so far this year. And contrary to the board's expectation, people have still been buying seats even with the losing streak.