Taro T

Rodgers & Lawrence are two REALLY ugly chick's. Hilarious that they have Murray barely in the frame. Why did they call Jones Dimes? That one went right overhead.

Bizarre injury situation for them. No forwards with any missed games but the D has just about literally been decimated. Wonder if when Jokiharju is back it'd make sense to sit Lyubushkin for a few days to get him healed up.

Would really give this rebuild a huge chance of being successful if he can do it. Having a 1C plus Cozens, Mittelstadt, Savoie, Krebs, Asplund, & Kulich available gives them a very good chance of having C's 2-4 all filled with guys that are at the top end of those slots. Also helps fill a W slot or 2 too.

@mjd1001 explained it pretty well ~ 1/2 a page up.

Yes he was. Again, team employee. He actually even practiced with them occassionally.

Very good post. Samuelsson absolutely is important and really believe his absence is what caused the 2nd period of the Vancouver game to go kerplewy and the entire Seattle game to be even worse. They didn't know how to TRY to cover for hs absence. But it's not just losing him. This team has lost all of their top 5 at times with the exception of a rookie. And though the 4/5 guy has been back, he's been playing through an injury. And, though that rookie will be a stud, he does his Garry Galley get the primary assist on a breakaway or 2 for the other team imitation on a nightly basis because he's still a rookie and his coach WANTS him doing that so he learns what works & what doesn't work at this level. (Which, while in theory it will make him a better player quicker than if he wasn't trying to make those passes, it doesn't give the paying customers the warm fuzzies.) When Dahlin was out, they were playing an injured 4/5, a rookie, a 6, a 6/7, a 6/7/8, and a 7/8/9. Along w/ at least 3 F's under the age of 21. Nobody is built to survive that.

Probably depends on whether the emergency backup is an employee of the team. That Zamboni driver a few years back likely was the Loafs full time emergency option. If the team doesn't have a staffer that can fill in, they'll likely run w/ somebody local that played high level junior or college but now has a "real" job. (That's how my friend was one of the Amerks fallback guys.)

The Mittelstadt line will be going against the B's 3rd & 4th lines & COULD be good Saturday. Like having Dahlin & Power practicing together because, as the past 3 or so games have shown, they WILL be paired up at times during the game. Might as well get used to how each other play when the pressure ISN'T on. Expecting we'll see a fair amount of Dahlin-Bryson & Power-Fitzgerald but those won't be combos against the Bergeron line. That will get a steady diet of Power-Dahlin & some Pilut-Lyubushkin.

Realize you were making a funny. But the Sabres wasted absolutely nothing in that draft. Teams could draft as many players as they wanted to grab that year to try to keep players from going to the WHA. The Sabres only drafted 1 more player and only 5 players selected after #183 made the NHL and only 3 of those played even a full season. Aggravating Clarence Campbell was well worth the pick.

Well, if that's what you saw, we werewatching different games.

You don't know that. The concern w/ the surgery that he chose is there isn't much data on whether there will be a failure of the artificial disk given the type of hits he'll receive and the the number of them. Should it fail, there is a serious risk of it being catastrophic. He wanted it because the recovery time was less than that of the fusion surgery plus he'd have better range of movement of the neck relative to the other procedure. But, if he ends up paralyzed, those other advantages won't really matter now will they.

Guess the game looks different when one is in the building. It wasn't like they were all doing their Miro Satan imitations. Nor were they staying to the far perimeter when controlling the puck like they did against the Yotes. They were getting to the slot & they were getting good shots. They (exception being Skinner, & he just seemed to be at the wrong spot) just weren't getting enough bodies to the net front. And when they did, the rebound squirted out the other side or it was one of thehandful of shots Montembeault stopped clean & didn't give up a rebound.

Thanks for the review of the 1st Eichel goal. Saw Eichel all alone & knew somebody f'ed up. (Didn't go back to watch the play develop.) Knew Lyubushkin was very far to the left side of the zone, but hadn't seen how he ended up there. Seems Power should've shifted more to his right.

Disagree. They had stretches where they flat out dominated the Habs. The difference in the game being a rebound going right off Power's ankle into the net. They did not get to the front of the net like they needed to as Montembeault was a rebound factory. But it is hyperbolic to say they were terrible. They weren't terrible against the Hawks either. They simply weren't scoring. They were terrible against Seattle & against the Yotes.

You sure about that? Home record 4-4. Road record 3-3. Their 3 game streak of 45+ shots / game were all at home. They've had 1 horrible road game - Seattle. And 1 horrible home game - Arizona. Seems they're pretty similar both home & away.

They did. The Sabres played one of only 2 truly bad games that night. (Seattle being the other that they stunk the house out.) Had they given the kind of effort they normally do, still believe they'd've beaten the Yotes. The Yotes got their 1st 2 game winning streak of the year against the Sabres. That was a game the Sabres needed to be better in. And, when the game was on the line in the 3rd, they got, what, 6 shots. They played a good game tonight. They just couldn't buy a break. (Maybe you make your own luck, but felt the game could easily have gone their way.) They did not against AZ, but had they played with their normal effort, that 1 was very winnable.

The bolded stinks for future games against these guys because Eichel was thinking he'd never get a point against the Sabres / wondering what he had to do to get one until that shot deflected off Bryson and past Comrie. Then he gets a net so open that the people on this board could've scored it. Now he figures he's got the Sabres #. Would've liked him still doubting himself going into the Sabres trip into Vegas.

Lyubushkin? That guy has a mug only a mother could love.

Honestly believe he thinks the playoffs are a reality next year. Expect he sees this year as too tough an ask which is why he & Granato don't mind still experimenting around w/ Krebs most every game and juking the lines completely in a very winnable Yotes game. Which is frustrating as sin, but do expect he expects to be on a playoff pace again down the stretch. (Which also makes the AZ game frustrating beyond belief. That's 2 points that might really matter down the stretch plus if today's game was an L streak of 1 people wouldn't be losing their minds as much as they are over Eichel getting the most recent laugh.)

The B's 'll be a tough out. But not impossible. But they very well could be on a 4 game winning streak by the time they come home to wear R&B for the 1st time since '06.

If they find a way to get it done on Saturday, they at least can say they haven't been below 0.500 this year. (Both NHL AND this boards favorite the DeLuca 0.500.) Isn't the DeLuca 0.500 what everybody cares about anyway?

Nope. It was the take off on the "Ref, you s*ck" chant.

Need at least 1 more of the 2 injured D back.

200 seconds enough to get 2 more?

Sooooo glad somebody overpaid for our seats tonight. Would've been a really long drive home.