Taro T

Well, those that are going to the game might like to see the very deserving Rasmus Dahlin there too.

Imagine seeing him standing next to Krebs fiancee.

Nah, that was Kessel. Wheeler gave up his right one. 😉

He very well might not, & said he likely wouldn't be back upthread. But if the hole they want/need to fill is say Girgensons, then Asplund steps into the lineup. Doubt they'd bring Rousek up to sit in the pressbox. Maybe they would, but expect they'd rather have Vinny sitting while Rousek continues to get solid minutes on the A.

When it rains it pours. Get better, Murphy. Prayers going out. Kim Pegula pethaps?

Depends on whether they need to plug an offensive or defensive F into the lineup. Defensive, Asplund plays & Vinny is 13th. Offensive, Rousek gets a shot & Asplund stays 13. Either way, Vinny doesn't play but he might be back up. They aren't benching the kids, and they aren't taking a 4 for Asplund. A 5 for Hinostroza, maybe. (Probably?)

Really doubt they trade anyone that has been dressing regularly for a prospect or a pick at this point. They still say & act like they believe in them as part of the future (or at least potentially part of the future). They don't send that away in the 1st year they've been good in the last 12. That isn't how these guys operate.

Yep. They have 13 games in 22 days coming up. Could see Anderson getting 1 game in that stretch, 2 tops. UPL gets 7, maybe 8 and Comrie the rest. The schedule gets back to that same compactness after the AS break through close to the end of March. Having a 3rd goalie up to take 1 every 8-10 games could be the smart play. Vinny, we hardly knew ye.

Which is why they're limiting the fan voting to ~10 days and have several other hurdles for allowing a vote to count. The NHL ALWAYS does the expedient thing rather than the right one & could screw up a 1 car parade.

The only 2 D on the Sabres that don't have to clear waivers to be sent down are logging close to 30 minutes per game. Whomever goes down will need to clear waivers. Just don't see that being too difficult for the D-man that eventually goes down nor the F who's demotion is imminent. And if either or both do get claimed, like you said, it's nice to finally be the sort of team again where that's an issue.

Doubt it, but maybe. Could more likely see (as stated above) him preferring to get traded to a team that would let him play than getting waived. They traded Hagg for, what, a 6th rounder. Could see that or a "future considerations" trade as well. He's been a good soldier for them and he is very well liked in the room. Would hope he'd be OK w/ the demotion. (He'd at least be playing.) But could see how he might not be.

Yep. Jost pushed Asplund, Hinostroza, & Sheahan all 1 block down the food chain. Considering Rousek has earned a look, Sheahan's departure isn't a huge loss & could see them trying get a trade for Vinny (similar to how they traded Hagg) to allow him to not have to go through waivers. Because once he goes down, between Rousek & Kulich getting a chance at some point if there are injuries, he may not get back up again.

We normally park at Mike's Lot @Swan & Oak. (Across the street from the pool & 1 block from the ballpark.) You've walked the distance from the rink to UP before. It's right around the corner from Washington Square. Looking forward to seeing everybody there.

Have been saying for a long time (well since UPL started to earn his spot) that the best move is to have Anderson "suffer" a soft tissue injury in practice and be put on IR. (The team isn't anywhere close to the cap, so BF-LTIR isn't in play & possible cap circumvention isn't a league concern.) That way, all 3 goalies remain Sabres & no skater is at risk of a waiver claim. And there's no way a 41 year old professional athlete playing a contact sport like hockey DOESN'T already have aches he daily works through, so it wouldn't even be fibbing. But also believe that Adams & Anderson are too honorable & straight up to go for that solution. So, the next best choice is waiving Hinostroza & hoping he clears. Considering how little he's played, & the cap situation of most of the teams at the top of the standings, & the tacit desire of teams at the bottom to continue losing, there's not much likelihood of him getting claimed. Better players than him have cleared. And, no hand wringing over Jokiharju coming back. The 8th D-man goes down. At present, that's clearly Fitzgerald. Same rationale for why he'll likely clear too. They can't send a guy who's playing as well as UPL is back down when he's come so far in a relatively short time frame. They talk about giving players the ability to earn their spot in the lineup. And also how much doing things the right way matters. Well, this is one where the rubber meets the road.

It does kind of have that 2001 "Patriots" inevitability in hindsight vibe, doesn't it?

So basically, if playing the Bills Cincy game might've altered who had the #1 seed or won the north & the teams that might've been effected by that decision meet, then if the game is 2 of Buffalo, Cincy, & KC it would be played at a neutral site and if the game is Concy- Ravens a coin flip would decide who hosts the game. That's the proposal they'll be voting on tomorrow. If it carries (expect it will), then Buffalo will need to beat the Pats & have KC lose to get the bye. (Not sure if one team tying & the other doing what else needed to happen would give the Bills the bye. Didn't feel like doing the calcs.) So, at least this 1 week, we're all Raider fans because Buffalo needs a better winning percentage than KC to get 1st. That would also give them the home game vs KC as KC couldn't have taken the 1 seed from Buffalo even w/ a Buffalo loss in Cincy. An AFC Championship game between Buffalo & Cincy in that case would be in Buffalo w/ a Raven win Sunday & at a neutral site w/ a Cincy win Sunday.

Also saw where the league said Cincy has clinched the North division regardless of the result Sunday. NFL Announcement

Went to NHL.com to see how the fan vote for the rest of the team works. Fans only choose 2 skaters & 1 goalie per team and you vote by either going here NHL Gamezone or via twitter. To vote by tweet, "(e)ach fan tweet must include the complete hashtag "#NHLAllStarVote" followed by a player's full name or a player's Twitter handle. Only referencing a last name will not count. All Twitter votes will be combined with online vote totals." Not happy about this, because not sure Dahlin will be able to beat out both Pastrnak & Matthews. Much less McAvoy & others. The Adams division might have 0 defensemen playing.

Billy says they do.

We were all set w/ you. (Have reservations) But TW and my crew will be there early, so as long as we know how many are coming we should be able to accommodate everyone.

How ####ing short is she? (Get camera angles & all but she looks like she's a good foot shorter than him.) And congrats to them both. He seems like a good kid. Hope she's a keeper.

So, the NHL chose 1/2 the AS team BEFORE seeing who the fans want in the game? That is Soooooooo NHL-y. People - vote for Dahlin, Cozens, & Tuch. Let's see if we can get at least 3 Sabres in this foolishness.

A few of us are going to get together for dinner at Union Pub before the game. They have fairly limited seating, but we can see if we could get a larger table or maybe a 2nd one if anybody would like to join us. Send me or @tom webster a PM & we'll see if we can increase the reservation.

Good point, and to further it. Granato seems to be the line whisperer. Even moves that seemed reasonably obvious given the alternatives (like putting Skinner back on the 1st line) have worked out better than anybody expected. Sure, everybody thought Skinner would score goals there, but also expected him to cause some pretty egregious goals against (which actually happened twice early in the season last year ) and didn't expect him to be much, if any sort, of a playmaker. But Skinner has become way more of a complete player under Granato than he ever was. He makes really nice passes to the twin towers on his line & while he'll never be confused w/ Mike Peca his play in his own zone is better & doesn't cost them games. Obviously, he believed in Thompson & was literally the only person that thought moving him to C was a good idea. It wasn't just good, it was inspired. He had Cozens go up against McDavid shift after shift when he was barely more than a rookie. Quinn was playing reasonably well, but Granato set him down 2 games. He then moved him to Cozens & Peterka's like & they played very well even catching fire for about 10 games. The line has cooled down, but Quinn & to a lesser extent Peterka are getting PK duty & they're really doing well there. People wanted Krebs sent to the AHL rather than sit in the pressbox for seemingly a month after watching him get muscled around and make really poor passing decisions. Granato didn't do that. Now he looks like he really belongs here. Granted, it was out of necessity, but he started playing UPL against tough competition even though he looked really overmatched his 1st couple of games. He's now giving the Sabres a chance to win every night. None of these were the obvious homeruns they seem to be at the time the decision was made. And some took time to really cook (Skinner, UPL, Krebs). If Granato believes Mittelstadt has more to show & expects he can bring it out of him, will not expect he'll be wrong. (And even though Power Jokiharju isn't this kid's favorite pairing, expect it'll work out too.)