Taro T

Only read the 1st 3-4 pages of this thread. Sorry in advance for repeats of what was already posted. Didn't hear what the official attendance was (guessing ~12k), eyeballing it would say there were actually 7-8k in the building but would believe it if somebody said ~6,500. Very disappointing, but before the STH wait list started October games were a tough sell (though never this tough) so still expect to see attendance pick up mid-season. But they still need to lower the PA system from an 11. Waaaay too loud. Comrie kept them in it early but gave up a bad one on the 4th. No idea how that was credited w/ 2 assists because it was the Sabres D-man fumbling the drop back to Comrie that set up Montour. Grrr. No idea how Knight got across to (kind of) rob Skinner. Still believe that puck was in the net but haven't rewatched it yet. The review request must've come from TO, because the Sabres didn't take a penalty nor did they lose their timeout. That wasn't clear at the time in the building. That 3-4 minutes between that non-goal & Montour's goal was the difference in the game. What should've been 3-3 became 4-2 & just too much for the Sabres to come back from against this team. Skinner got robbed again in the 3rd but not as badly. Granato talks about playing w/ "no fear" and he walks that talk himself sending 3 rookies (not positive Krebs is still a rookie, but he essentially is one still whether it's official or not) out for the last 44 seconds of the 1st period. And having them out w/ the Bryson pairing in the 2nd a time or 2. Those of us wanting to see Power & Jokiharju broken up got our wish after Power turned the puck over in the 2nd setting up a 2 on 0 that Comrie played masterfully. But, be careful what you wish for as instead of bumping Henri down to the 3rd pairing, it caused Granato to go back to his favorite pairing ever - Dahlin-Jokiharju. (Long guttural Lurch moan.) Can't say Granato isn't loyal to guys he believes in - Jokiharju, Mittelstadt, & Krebs continue to get key opportunities much to fan dismay. His loyalty was getting rewarded by the end of the year last year. Can it happen again but much earlier in the year this year? Power looked much better when paired with Samuelsson. Expect that'll be a thing until Granato gets to the point of trusting Lyubushkin on that 2nd pairing. (Which unfortunately brings back Dahlin & Henri as a thing. Grr.) Can't say Granato wasn't trying to find something that would work as 3 of the 4 lines were shuffled a lot. Should everybody stay healthy wonder if Hinostroza gets into a game on the road trip. Expect the lines would be stronger if he were in for Krebs or Quinn at present. Liked that Quinn threw a hit or 2 as the game went on. Had a real nice one on Cousins & tried to hit a D-man behind the Cats net in the 3rd. He had been getting abused in game 1 & earlier in game 2. Comrie kept them in it early & gave them a chance. But only 3 shots through 18 minutes of the 3rd when down by a goal is indicative of where this team is relative to the Swamp Cats. Way too many penalties. Though some were questionable. Tkachuk is a piece of work. For a guy that plays with "an edge" he sure does lose an edge an awful lot. (Usually drawing a penalty in doing so.) He's what Gudas would be if Gudas could actually play hockey. In the "no Schlitz, Sherlock" department, Spencer Knight is good. Didn't expect South Florida to become a goalie factory, but fully get how they decided Levi was expendable. Especially because it got them their 1RW. Sabres did a good job against that line at even strength but they still got chances. That's a very strong line. (Again, NSS.) Dahlin had himself a game. His rush into Florida's trap set up the Girgensons goal and then his goal was a great shot. Thought Florida's plan of icing the puck HARD to set up a breakaway was, umm, interesting. It never worked & they abandoned it after the 1st. Wonder if that's something they'll normally be trying or if they saw something about the Sabres D & forecheck that they thought they could exploit. Good effort. But they have to be upset with it. They rarely generated great scoring chances and the Cats created a lot of them.

Actually, according to Wayne Coffey in his excellent book "the Boys of Winter" the Coneheads named themselves that because they never were involved in the PP drills so Pavelich would say they were as useful as the orange cones when those drills were going on and it eventually evolved into Coneheads & then it stuck. These things have to happen organically. Trying to force the Cozens line into being the new Coneheads will likely be as successful as the SI reporter was in coining a nickname "the blank Czech" for the Dominator in his feature profile in that mag from the late '90's.

Well, he should have at least 1 assist because he fed that beautiful pass to Skinner in the 2nd that almost definitely was in the net but the refs & bozos in TO couldn't see enough white between the puck in the twine & the crossbar to overturn the call on the ice. To the OP's Q, haven't noticed anything clearly suggesting he is playing through an injury, so doubt it, but who knows.

Expect that having them out of town for nearly 2 weeks while the locals are focused on the Bills doesn't hurt ownerships feelings any either.

Thought the rumor was this one was going to be blue? The white might be sharper.

Considering it's the Athletic rather than THN or TSN/SN wtf knows? But figure Hasek, Perreault, & Hawerchuk are locks. LaFontaine should make it, but his career was pretty short due to injuries. Expect the short career will do in Martin's chances the same as it doomed his HoF chance. Expect Gilmour & Fuhr have a legit chance. Doubt they make it, but Mogilny, Andreychuk, Crozier, Horton, & Clark Gillies all could make a case. Barrasso & Housley could get mentions but doubt either makes it. (And Phil absolutely should not.) Could Briere or Miller sneak in? Doubt it. Only 100 slots.

Fun game to be at. Really impressed w/ UPLs game last night. Pretty sure he wants that 1st one back, but he had no chance on the 2nd & in between played one of his best games at this level. The main parts of his game that have brought so many doubters were, for the most part, under control. His rebound control was very good & he limited the times he didn't get himself square. And the handful of times he was out of position either his D covered or the Marlies couldn't hit the net. Speaking of his D, even Laakksonen wasn't a raging tire fire in his own end and Prow was downright good there. Pilut was clearly better than the competition. Davies was solid paired with Shoulda-been-Farrance and Clague & Priske played well too w/ Priske chipping in a shortie. They did a very good job of limiting the Marlies chances & shots overall. The forwards were trying to be too cute early on, but seemed to simplify as the game went on. All 4 Amerks goals were non-5v5. 3 PPs & the previously mentioned shortie. The Marlies 2nd goal came on the PP as well. The refs were not afraid to call penalties as the Amerks had ~6 PPs & the Marlies ~4. Kyle Clifford the Big Dumb Dog went to the box 2 or 3 times but could've been called at least 2 more times. The Marlies were hitting everything in sight to start the game but settled down midway through the 1st. Kozak is going to be fun to watch. Mersch still has dropping to his knee to take a 1 timer as his go to move. He got checked trying it on the Amerks 1st PP but fortunately Weisbeck was behind him and managed to get it past the D-man who was tending net for Kallgren who was waaaay out of the net. The other 3 goals were all snipes from the right side off very nice feeds. With the final 2 coming on the 1st 2 Amerk shots of the 3rd. Prow crashed into Kallgren in the 2nd & Erik must've injured his back & ankle as the Marlie trainer helped him wobbly get off the ice. The ankle must've swollen up in the intermission as he, not surprisingly, did not return. Pretty good sized crowd with the 200's behind the Amerks net being the only area where fans en masse disguised themselves as empty seats. Hopefully the Sabres can make it 3 for 3 this weekend shortly.

Not even 86.2%? Sheesh.

Ummm, how does exposing F Bjork protect D Borgen?

Because Dahlin & Samuelsson played a ton of minutes & Mule would've had more had his stick not broken. And Jokiharju & Power still got regular Granato-level 2nd pairing usage. Actually expected that Bryson had even less ice time than he ended up getting. Bryson was only out for 1 PK IIRC and din't get any PP time. That's ~16 minutes of actual game time taking overlaps into account.

Thus the "slightly odd choice" comment. 😉

One other thing about the in game presentation. The ads & spiels from the PA announcer, RJ & the rink girl (can't think of her name at present) are now being closed captioned on the upper ribbon board in the corners of the rink. Guess they figure after they deafen everyone then they'll still be able to communicate w/ their patrons. 😉

Don't know if it was a 1 off or if it'll be a thing this year. Slightly odd choice, but it's a decent song. The Rick James tune was a good choice IMHO. Considering the tribute prior to the game found it slightly strange that Rick James was replaced by the Goos last night.

Thought the tribute was fine. Personally, really liked that they had the Otters & the refs too skate out to CI with the Sabres.

Thoughts on the game & in rink experience in no particular order. (Well, rink experience 1st.) PITA connecting up to the WiFi entering the building. Probably took 5 minutes to finally get on it. (Wouldn't be a big deal except tix are on the device that uses the WiFi. Grrr.) Others were also having the issue. Remember to take your game day program coupon to Moe's for 50% off an entree thanks to Dahlin's goal. Minor problem. They didn't give out programs for the game. D'oh. They really didn't need to ramp up the PA system's volume to an 11. With makeshift earplugs in, it was still louder than the Nick Mason concert last Su day. Not sure why, but the shot clocks apparently used gray #'s on a gray background. Had no idea how many shots were taken until they told us Anderson had made 35 saves when he came out as the 1st star. They finally had most of the garbage cans in the 300 level not sticking out into the aisle ways. When they stick out, they make passage almost impossible. Especially in the 1st intermission. Not sure why, but EVERYBODY leaves the seating bowl at the 1st intermission. Instead of Rick James "Give It To Me Baby," the song played after the W as the crowd cleared out was the Goo Goo Dolls' "Broadway." Hopefully we find out Saturday if that is this year's thing. As for the game ... It was obvious this was the 1st game for both teams. LOTS of missed passes. Wonder if there was an event in the rink the night before because the ice seemed bad. Lots of guys falling down & lots of bouncing pucks. Anderson came to play. Counting partial breakaways, believe he faced 7 and stopped them all. Definitely deserved the 1st star. Granato seemed to not care about line matching at least in the 1st & the 3rd. The Otters coach was rolling his lines out late & seemed to be doing what he could to have Tkachuk's line against Cozens in the 1st. He got that matchup at least 3 times in the 1st & got a goal from it & nearly a 2nd but Power & Krebs combined to get a rebound out of harms way. Never saw Tkachuk's line vs Cozens in the 2nd (might've been a function of all the Otter PPs) but it happened a few times in the 3rd again. Seemed the Norris line was usually against Thompson's line. Power had his weakest game as a Sabre but wasn't bad & seemed to settle down as the game went on. Overall thought the Sabres outplayed the Otters, but the Otters didn't give up 97 breakaways unlike their opponents, so let's call it a draw. Dahlin seemed just a tad off most all game. His passes were just missing the mark & guys were missing him by 1/2 a mile. The shift he scored on, he's been involved in at least 4 errant passes before that incredible effort & it seemed he'd simply decided enough of this ####, let's make something happen & he did. Simply incredible. Krebs was a turnover machine most of the game, but he got the puck back to Dahlin on the goal & that was a glimpse of what he can be once he finally figures out what can get by an NHL D-man & what can't. Quinn looked like he did in the AHL playoffs, but expect he'll come around. Just needs to get used to these guys being a bit bigger & faster than what he's used to. Expect he'll figure it out sooner than later. Mitts & Tuch we're working hard. Liked the Asplund line. Solid effort. The PK was great. Samuelsson & Lyubushkin are definitely the 1st pair & Cozens & Asplund the 1st F pair w/ Mitts & Tuch the 2nd. Hopefully they can continue using those young legs to let Okposo & Girgensons stay fresh for 5v5. [Edit: Girgensons took the 1st 1/2 of the 5v3 & Thompson & his long reach finished it out.] Lyubushkin brings a mean this D hasn't had in quite some time but he'll take himself out of the play a bit & will end up w/ dumb penalties like his interference call. Bryson looked better than remembered, but he did get out muscled on 2-3 occassions. Granato didn't mess w/ the lines much except to get guys on the ice after PKs/PPs. But Quinn was bumped from the Mitts line to get VO his goals at the end. Both PPs were bad (PP1 was beyond bad). The stupid drop pass to the trailer forcing EVERYBODY else to be standing still at the blue line doesn't work w/out an Eichel. Once they started dumping it in they actually started to gain in zone possession. (And that isn't an ideal entry either.) Cozens & Peterka worked well together. Liked Cozens' game in the 1st & after the beautiful set up got JJ his 1st NHL goal really liked the confidence JJ played with. Though had he actually shot the puck the next time he was in front of the net might've had another one. Didn't think the Thompson line played bad, but Norris - DeBrincat - & Stutzle is a very good line & they were normally out against them. And late in the 1st we saw why Skinner chose the goal song he did as his dancing had the D-man tied I knots & should've drawn a penalty at minimum. Seemed everybody was working hard, but as said earlier, REALLY sloppy game. They have to clean stuff up or tomorrow's game could be ugly. Fun game to be at. Seemed to go quickly once they finally got through all the pregame ceremonies.

Interesting you mention that. Granato said post-game specifically that they hadn't shown the guys any post-game video in the preseason because there was no point to it when it wasn't against NHLers. But that they would be reviewing a lot of stuff from this game with everybody. Also, at least to me Interestingly, each player post-game gets a video customized to his own game to review. There is a staffer that keeps track of when everybody hits the ice comes off it & the events & that log gets correlated to the game film so they can pretty much give those to the players almost as the game is ending. They've had that in place since at least the mid-00's. Would be interesting to know how much additional details they get now that the league does some degree of bio-monitoring.

Nowhere near that few in the building. The place holds close to 19,000 (the exact # seems to change every couple of years depending on whether/how many seats they need to block off to be ADA compliant; thanks Larry) & there was absolutely no way the building was 1/3 empty. Expect there were at least 14,000 in the building, likely 14,500.

There were ~14,500 in the building. (15,360 tickets distributed) Except for the 2 RJ games & maybe the Eichel that's the best attendance since prior to the pandemic.

@steveoath posted a tweet w/ it back on page 4 of this thread.

Neither really. Haven't pulled it out of the bag but a few people had pulled theirs out and it looked like it was 42-48" wide & ~30" tall. It'd be a nice item to throw on the wall.

Would be great, but that's highly doubtful. And Anderson did play like this in October last year. The Bolts game being the most obvious example. He couldn't keep it up at that level, though he did play well late in the year, too.

Pekar has earned falling out of the top 4 lines. Back in Europe next year?

Disappointed that neither he nor Comrie has one. Was in the building when Noronnen "scored a goal." So, it isn't impossible.

???

Hope UPL is up to facing a lot of shots. That D will help the offense generate shots but will also likely give up a ton of shots too & unfortunately a lot will likely be high danger.