Taro T

No doubt. But he can wait until the off-season to get him.

But, they were in the Finals last season. It was nothing like the fluke of FLA getting there to hand the Avs their 1st SC victory. This Habs team strode confidently into the playoffs in the best division in hockey, defeated a playoff juggernaut in TO, pounded arguably the best team in the entire NHL that clearly isn't a product of its goaltending in the Jets, and then won another round after Price was in the groove. They NEARLY beat the Bolts too; missed it by THAT much. 😒

Were the answers Hasek, Drury, or Sauve? (If not, got nothing. 😉 )

Makes sense. It's HIS fault Price & Weber have been injured and that Kokateniemi & Danault are gone. 😕

Durn it. Was really hoping this kid could sprout up. 😉

How big is their postman? 😉

Without delving deeply, would expect a fair amount of the results can be attributed to 2 things: 1. Granato, for the most part rolls his lines far more than other teams do & has said repeatedly that he's more interested in working on the offensive aspects of the game which necessarily comes at the expense, to a degree, of the defense. And we've seen that bite them for a few huge goals against late in games when a certain small forward has been out at the end of games when leading or when tied. Those aren't the only time it's happened, just the most glaring. They've not adjusted their play as much due to the score as their opponents have - and presumably when they actually care whether they win or not, we'll see some of the effects due to that philosophy lessen as there is a reason teams adjust their play in game as situations dictate - it improves their chances of winning and the Sabres will rejoin the league in that regard. And 2. Other teams DO adjust their game & intensity based upon the score of the game & most all of the teams the Sabres are playing this season have more talent than they have. When a better team focuses on accomplishing a task, they tend to be more successful at that task than the lesser talented team. And being down a goal or up by one causes most teams to focus on rectifying or continuing that situation. And the better teams are more effective at doing that. Expecting this will remain an issue until the kids have actually grown into their roles. Expecting that the Sabres goalies have been giving up more than the analytics say they should give up too, which wouldn't help either. But haven't seen those stats, so that guess could be way off. (Guesses oftentimes are. 😉 )

Yep.

Anybody know what triggered the little rat faced git to go postal? Not that it matters, just curious. Will be very interested in finding out how long his suspension is.

Don't play it. Apparently there's a #'s based equivalent called Nerdle. Not planning on playing that either, but if you like Wordle you'll likely like the other one as well.

EVERYBODY reports tickets sold (or even tickets distributed) rather than turnstile.

Awesome, now we know who'll replace Jeanneret when looking back and narrating the Sabres version of the Wonder Years. (Maybe the Blunder Years?")

Either that or also flipping Thompson & Mittelstadt from there. But expecting it'd be what you suggest.

We're IN 2022 and the time frame in the post you quoted that you think you disagree with stated that it was from the perspective LITERALLY of today. Obviously, the picture changes next season (& the following seasons as well). You are also, obviously, free to agree or disagree w/ whatever you'd like, but it seems like a really strange statement to say (paraphrasing) "no, can't agree that 9 or so F's on the roster today wouldn't be good enough to have substantial roles on a contender because next season there will be better players on the roster." 🤔

Maybe they do, maybe they don't. They won't publicly acknowledge any deficiencies. But they had some very poor games & not sure that "bend don't break" D that gets gashed badly by good running teams is the best complement to a high octane offense. Would really like to see a more aggressive scheme that wins more often than not but either way hands the keys back to Allen in a more timely manner. And have that 3 man rush w/ man coverage + 2 deep to use against KC that other teams used so effectively against them. A couple of changes to personnel would absolutely allow them to get more of a Carolina D working than the Minnesota D we see every week.

Completely depends on the timeline. If the Q is: how many players away are they TODAY. The answer may very well be 15+. 2 goalies, at least 4 D, & ~9 forwards all aren't good enough to be given solid roles on a contender. But those kids can grow & most of them will. If the Q is: how many players are the Sabres away from being a legit contender in '25 (or, more pessimistically '26) the answer very well might be 2-3. (Our luck, that's not the case, but it could be.) They absolutely have gaps at RD. But most all the rest of the spots might be filled well enough if 1 of the goalies is a true stud AND they have 3 (or even 4) high end 2C's on the roster.

Maybe because that line wasn't together all that long? Anderson was the 3rd guy on that line earlier in their heyday.

Wasn't he the coach that threw a beach chair at a teenager trespassing on his lawn at his winter home? IIRC, he's got a very good reputation for getting strong results from an OL. Good pickup. They seem to be building a very strong staff on the O-side of the ball. Wouldn't mind some upgrades on the other side as well. [Edit: apparently he punched the kid for doing something to the beach chair. The above scenario seems funnier, he should've thrown the beach chair at him. 😉 ]

Are they advertising that there are Bandits games to people that AREN'T already STHers to their other teams?

Well, you were the one that wanted to see them salt the earth. You just might get your wish. 😉

What a great movie.

This was a throwaway year, and it didn't have to be, because the goaltending on the whole was trash and didn't need to be. Could they have been competitive (an NHL 0.500) with reasonable GTing? Turns out the answer likely was 'yes.' Unless Levi is a unicorn, heading into next year w/ only him and UPL will be another one in a long line.

Considering nobody is going to throw a check in the ASG & no contact 5v5 was beyond ridiculously bad & the ASG really is for the sponsors to be able to schmooze w/ the stars, actually find the 3v3 format a good choice for the ASG. It's NOT real hockey. Taking away the pretense that it IS real hockey is a good thing. And the 3v3 IS entertaining in this single instance (YMMV). But, the skills competition used to be fun. They just keep making it dumber every year & flat out didn't watch any of it other than a couple of tweeted clips. Not sure how to fix it, but it currently is awful.

Agree 100%. That said, after the past 2 off-seasons could very easily see Adams running w/ Levi & UPL next year. Can't win the lottery if you don't hold a ticket. Really don't have a good feel for whether next year is another throwaway year, but keep coming back to cynically believing there's a strong likelihood it is - those 3 plums at the top of the draft pool just seem like they could be too dang enticing to get these kids the quality of goaltending they've earned & deserve for next year. Hoping that's just being too darn cynical or that Levi really is a unicorn, because otherwise, next year'll be another long one.

Has there been much (any?) advertising of the Bandits games? With last year's skipped season & Canadian/ US border restrictions, can believe a lot of people just don't have the Bandits on their radar. Which is a shame as they are playing very well right now.