Taro T

Plus, it's very possible that Granato told the guys that are the "bubble" players that early in the year he'd be rotating who the odd man out is.

Tuch started at the end of December when the Sabres were holding fan raffles to see who would get to be between the pipes that night. He didn't affect the end result but he was involved in pretty much ALL of the scoring in the next 2 months. Which is likely why people think that's when the turnaround started. But they were bad from November-February. In that stretch, they had something like 15 points before he got in the lineup and 16 after prior to March. When healthy in October, Anderson, & Tokarski too to a lesser extent, willed them to a good record. When healthy the last 2 months they were good pretty much regardless of the goaltending. The other reason IMHO Tuch coming back seemed to correlate to winning is they weren't having those painful, oh, crud, are they about to fall off the map again losses after he came back like they'd had in November & December. Or at least not as many of them.

'Cuse was driving. Got to ~ the 30 with 0:26 left, but got picked. Final 27-24. Boo.

Clemson took the lead. 50 yard run & a 2 pt conversion. Cuse opting away from the FGA on their 1st drive is the difference at present. Clemson 24 - Cuse 21. 10 minutes to go.

@Thorny looks like Fitzgerald stays in the lineup. Good call. The silver lining/good that may come from the Jokiharju injury is we finally get to see Power Lyubushkin. And, if all F's stay healthy through the next 2 games will be interesting to see who sits against the Habs. (Presuming Krebs will sit 2 of they win tonight.)

If you're right about the fracture & it's very possible, would expect him back in either a fishbowl or full cage while the healing completes. Doubt he misses the Yotes game & probably has the Pens game targeted as a return date. Maybe the Chicago game.

21-16 with 14 minutes to play. Clemson went for 2 but got intercepted.

21-10 at the 1/2. Clemson will get the ball 1st in the 3rd.

Who didn't?

And they did. But Clemson is driving (again).

He's 23. That's still a few years from when D peak. He's also improved quite a bit from just 2 years ago. Pinching below the goal line on the 4v4 for the 1st goal against not withstanding, He's gotten MUCH better at not leaving his partner on an island vs 2 on 1's & even 3 on 1's. He also is actually a good PKer now. He doesn't need "massive" improvement to go from a 5 to a 4.

Pretty sure 'Cuse had it 1st.

They DO need another top 4 defender TODAY. But as early as next year, Jokiharju MIGHT be that guy. (Expect there's a better chance of it being Lyubushkin if they don't go outside, but Henri could continue his development & surprise.) And, as stated, would prefer it NOT be Jokiharju. Would rather he anchor the 3rd pairing. And, as the kids start to get paid (say 3 years out), having a TRUE 3/4 as the 4 might be a luxury they can't afford.

And Cuse just held them on downs. 2nd 1/2 'll likely be a ####show, but at least for now it's fun.

He's not. But, he could become one. And playing w/ one of the other 3 once they aren't kids themselves, he SHOULD be good enough to be effective on the 2nd pairing. (Kind of like how Dahlin let's Samuelsson effectively be a 2 though he's actually a 3/4.l Still would prefer he end up anchoring the 3rd pairing, but in a couple of years, his being joined to Power at the hip won't be affecting Owen's performance should that seem to be the best deployment of the top 6.

Mods: If a 22 CFB thread already exists, please merge this. Still nearly 40 minutes to go, but 'Cuse just returned a fumble 90 yards to go up 14-7 on Clemson in the 2nd. Clemson has moved the ball at will, but 2 turnovers cost them points & the most recent one gave the Orange 7. Syracuse got inside the 40 on the 1st drive, but turned it over on downs. Syracuse's 3rd drive was the only one of 6 drives total for the 2 teams that didn't get into opponent's territory.

The Don Lever guy's avatar is catching. So, checked out a few of his posts. Funny guy w/ his "Bad Miller" Godzilla parody.

They effectively announced it yesterday when they put Pilut on the plane & didn't say anybody else was flying the other way. ;)

Well, at your age, can you blame them for thinking that? ;)

Could be. But, should the F's all be healthy when that point is reached, expect there is a better chance Sheahan is the player they risk sending down or they go off the board and send 1 of the 3 kids down. There are logistical reasons for why most teams carry 8 D-men rather than 7 in most situations. And agree w/ @Thorny that Granato and Adams likely see what we see, that Pilut is better than the official 6 & 7; but that he didn't outplay them convincingly enough to keep from being sent down when keeping him up could've meant they headed out west w/ only 12 healthy F's or would've meant a real possibility of losing their 8th best D-man to waivers when the top 8 are all head & shoulders better than #9. Believe they don't want to give Fitzgerald away for free and expect waiving him would make that the very likely result. With Bryson's contract being slightly expensive for a 6 and him being on a 1 way deal would not be shocked to see him to get waived before Fitzgerald; though really don't see either getting waived should they find themselves at 24 healthy players as both have a real risk of getting claimed.

Ahh, just think what might have been had TM grabbed Draisaitl and Marner or Barzal with the 2nd overall draft picks. ;) At the time Comrie was put on waivers and reclaimed by the Jets who actually knew who he was having been in their system 2 previous times, the Sabres had both Ullmark (who was clearly claiming the starting role) and Hutton (who was good 50% of the time and dog meat the other 50%) healthy. Were you really going to waive Hutton to the taxi squad to activate the Devils 4th goalie? The Jets left him on the taxi squad for most of the rest of that season & only a handful of games for the Moose. Comrie had not been good at the NHL level to that point, a single game giving up 3 goals to a (mildly at the time, soon to be majorly) dysfunctional Sabres team not withstanding. There were other goalies that had been on waivers that appeared better on paper that they'd also passed on; at least 1 of which (the guy Carolina grabbed) that would've been clearly better than Hutton. But Comrie wasn't a given then and the Jets were going to grab him as soon as the Sabres would've tried to put him on the taxi squad or in Ra-cha-cha. Yeah, in hindsight would've been cool to grab him. But, in that extremely dysfunctional season, passing on him wouldn't even make the top 10 list of things they should've done differently.

And not just by Savoie still being available at 8. And not just because the Loafs seem to have foolishly believed Murray could be a savior. Really, the only way it MIGHT not be is if the Sabres were planning on going after Comrie even w/ landing Murray and were pencilling in Murray as the 3/4 as it's possible he's better than Subban. Having to go to their fallback plan, IF in fact Comrie was the fallback plan, just makes Murray's hubris a huge homerun for Adams. (Even should Comrie falter back onto Hutton's track, the rest still makes it a solo dinger.)

Wow, all sorts of ghosts resurfacing. Welcome back, gents. :beer:

What pro hockey team that doesn't sell out every/ nearly every game plays the starter on the road and his backup at home on b-t-b nights?

When's the last time it was THAT good? Most all of the past decade those 3 are in the lineup when all are healthy rather than on the outside looking in. Baby steps.