Taro T

Unless he's FULLY recovered from the injury, hope not. More likely, if they need to spread useful D onto other pairings that Jokiharju ends up back w/ Dahlin. Granato loves him some Henri.

Is that not what that great trade ended up? (Realizing Johnson or the 2nd round draft pick he turns into could still be something 7+ years after that great trade.) What a great trade. Sign us up for another just like it. Tuch can be Okposo; not sure who is Girgensons in that scenario, maybe Cozens? D-men hit their prime later than F's, so Dahlin will still be a stud provided he hasn't lost his "love of the game." Adams & Granato become the next Regier & Ruff as you have to wait for the current prospects to develop before evaluating them, right?

Wait, the Sabres can make a trade of a 1st liner today to get a guy that'll be a 1st liner 4 years from now? Where do we sign up?

Absolutely. And it's why having somehow had Jiricek fall to them would've been so sweet. In 2 years they'd have the best top 4 in the league. And if Jokiharju and Johnson were the 3rd pair, it'd be ridiculously solid. Plus that'd be the time the Russians might be ready to come over as well.

Jokiharju should ONLY see time in the top 4 while Lyubushkin is recovering is recovering. The sooner he is back to 3rd pairing legitimately, the sooner the D will be legit NHL quality.

But back then Perreault was a big man for the league. Pete Mahovlich was an anomaly. There weren't even all that many guys that were even 6'3" much less the "Little M's" 6'5". Not disputing anything you said about Bedard, but all of those guys you described were strong and a couple (Trottier & Gil) were never considered small. (Perreault was the biggest Sabres regular F in '76, Trottier the Aisles 4th biggest regular F, & though Clarke was average height, he was still strong enough to slash the #### out of an opponent for the Phlyers. LaFleur was 6' and Dionne was short but a fireplug.)

Not if he doesn't play better than he's been playing. And just don't trust that he'll be better until we see him actually play better.

Yes. Giving Anderson 3 starts out of 4 and 3-1/2 games out of 4 is a good start towards getting Subban or Hauser in the B&G before the calendar flips.

That stinks. Really have to hope UPL can continue the trend of looking better in the show than in the minors, because if he is what he was in the minors Anderson will be toast before Christmas, maybe before Advent.

Makes sense to drop him off the top pairing his 1st game or 2 back. But hoping he moves back up soon. Power has been playing pretty well, but expect he'll have fewer rookie mistakes (& might even snag a goal or 2) going against the other teams' 2nd & 3rd lines & 2nd pairing. Plus, didn't Dahlin's goal streak stop about the time Muel got injured?

Does this mean we're no longer worried about his "low" rate of point production? Asking for a friend.

For an extra hour drive, there's always Syracuse.

Have a buddy that's a huge Bills fan living there. Wonder if he'll go to both games.

Well, like Yogi used to say, when you come to a fork in the road, take it. 😉

Don't agree, which is fine. There are degrees to most plays and for an assisted crashing into a goalie it can go anywhere from a Pens 'ooh, we brushed shoulders, now watch the shoulder-first dive through your goalie's mask' to a 50-50 thing, to what we had here where the Sen was not going to even be in the crease had Dahlin not done something you teach your Squirts not to do - don't drive your opponent through your own goalie. If McAvoy does something that painfully stupid, though the expectation is that Jack Edwards would call for Krebs' immediate execution and praise St. McAvoy for defending his goalie from the intruding horde (huh? Wtf were you watching, Jack?). Unless one of their power tools like the Rat Faced Git were out there, Peyton probably survives the incident. And this is all the most hypothetical of hypotheticals as it is truly doubtful Krebs has the puck on Kincaid's doorstep w/ both McAvoy and the 1st line on the ice. 😉

98% sure Lyubushkin is injured (and not just hurt) which is why the consistent drumbeat to put him in the pressbox for a week after Samuelsson is back. He's of almost no use right now and is costing the team goals it can't afford to give up but he's still better than Fitzgerald even now. Wasn't editorializing on Okposo, just happened to think of it now and threw it in there for whatever it's worth. And to the 3rd paragraph - that's where the big fear of prioritizing development over wins fits in: nobody's losing their resolve over a few 2 game losing streaks when they have some victories over good clubs in the rear view mirror and they're seeing strides being made. But should a 7 game L streak wind its way up to, say, 12 games then even for a guy like Tuch that desperately wanted to be a part of this rebuild, it becomes a long drive into the office for a morning skate or practice.

And only 7 regulars that are 27 or older and 2 of them are the goalies. (Suppose Hinostroza could be added, but as he's the 13th F when all are healthy didn't include him.) As we all know, these guys are skewed crazily towards youth.

Even in a "it's the result of the play, not the intent nor even the reason for the play" league, it is really difficult to justify pounding on the Sen when Dahlin sent him full force over & through his goalie. Without Dahlin having a Risto moment UPL is still an Amerk.

YES! Good day sir; have you a few moments to learn of the gospel of the DeLuca 0.500 and how it can improve your life?

Faaaack. Any word on how long Comrie will be out?

Don't believe it's complacency so much as they're gripping the sticks too tight leading to bad shots & bad passes which kills the offense and ends up becoming an amplified feedback loop. And at that point they now all try to do it themselves and nobody except the true 1st liners win those 1v1 battles cleanly consistently. Being forced to have Power on the 1st D pairing because they have no other remotely adequate options with Samuelsson out, Lyubushkin a shell of himself (hoping it's playing through that injury that has him playing so brutally; if it's mental, we're hosed, just sitting a couple of games won't make it better), and Bryson exposed for being the 6/7 he is. Getting Samuelsson back will help a lot as the top pairing should be able to pick back up as a true top pairing & Power can anchor the 2nd pairing. Should Buusch get his issues sorted out they can have an effective 2nd pair and still like Jokiharju & Bryson (or Pilut) as a true 3rd pairing but don't like any of them as a 1st or 2nd pairing guy. Anybody else notice the 2 games they've looked the most lost out there were 2 of the 3 games Okposo missed? Coincidence, correlation, or causation?

Agreed, they are too young. And there's a concern that with such reliance on youth they're set up to be Edmonton (pre-McJesus) East. That said, and definitely don't want to see this suffering going forward - next year they need to be playoff caliber & still believe they can be in the mix even w/ this annoyingly frustrating stretch this year. But (and they'd better be fun before then) the kids here now should be fun to watch when they start hitting their primes. And there should be kids stepping into the lower roles and because of their raw talent levels should be contributing as well.

Anybody else up for contributing to a Go Fund Me account to get Blue to become a Bruins fan? 😉

You said after Christmas. It appears the Yotes games are sold out this year. They are capped at 5,000 seats. So, they aren't selling any more tix after this Christmas. The Sabres have sold at least somewhere north of 6,500 seats to every game this season. They will sell more after Christmas (not necessarily many, but at least some) as they have available ticket inventory. So, the Sabres will sell more than the Yotes after Christmas. You going for some other time frame in the next 3 years while the Yotes are still the 2ndary tenants on a college campus? The result will be the same.

Well, that's just because you don't understand that those are the exact same thing. Heck, being 7-3-7 is probably worse because it gives the fans a false impression that the team is good. Just get back on that 82 point pace (providing they aren't so pathetic as to lose a game in OT rather than regulation, they'd then need an 83 point pace to be good) & all will be well. And remember, it would be better to be 10-10-0 from here than to go to 9-3-8 from your theoretical 17 game start. All hail the DeLuca 0.500!