Taro T

Funny how the team that was beating everyone doesn't know how to play w/ the goalie pulled. Good. Also, taking back any half hearted endorsement of giving Robson a callup if Dell & Houser are THE guys for an extended spell. He has definitely returned back to Earth.

Well, when nearly all your goalies are AHLers being asked to play against NHLers there would seem to be a possibility that some will need to try to make their bodies do things they simply aren't capable of doing. That they all have done that is rather excessive but not completely unexpected, especially after what we saw in a shortened season 1 year prior. Get actual NHL goalies & watch the injury bug fade.

Almost hope Jiricek doesn't play again this year & either Vegas or the Swamp Cats have a 1st round exit & somehow he slides all the way to the mid-teens and is sitting there when that pick comes up. The concept of Jiricek is intriguing.

So, this is the real reason teams go into the season only using ~44 of their 50 allowable contracts. So that when you have to find a 9th goalie, you still have an available slot to sign him.

UPL, IMHO though Granato publicly disagrees, still hasn't convinced himself he belongs in the NHL much less as a starter. And only playing once per week like they have the last 3 or so weeks gives him too much time between games to get into his own head. Expect he could be a reasonable backup next year & moving forward getting 1/3 - 40% of the starts, but really want a true starter brought in until Levi (or Portillo) is ready to take the reins or they both have shown they won't be able to be THAT guy.

IF Levi is in Ra-cha-cha along w/ someone at least as good as Tokarski, it might, possibly work. Would still rather have a guy that could max out at 50 games as the 2nd 1/2 of the pairing even if he's only a mid-tier goalie than one that will max out at 25 games & quite possibly only 12. They have the cap space & the owners have the cash. Find a real goalie for next year.

So, they're going to end up using 6 goalies minimum 2 years running with at least 9 different guys getting at least 1 game in that stretch. That has to be close to a record, if not one. Somebody suggested Dubnyk. If his heart isn't set on the Olympics, it makes sense as a stop gap. He can't be significantly worse than Dell. If Robson can recover from his last Amerk outing when he knew he was likely Cincy bound before the game started, could see giving him a game. His play is seriously a wildcard. He might give up 2 or he might give up 15.

It's been a very long time since Ra-cha-cha was both successful & a lot of the success was due to the kids. Yes, the Mersch line has been good, but Quinn & Peterka & now Krebs have been big contributors. Samuelsson & Fitzgerald have been the top pair & UPL was their best goalie (after Dell had his callup, before that he was a disaster). The past couple of times they were good it seemed more AHL vet driven. (Didn't really follow the Amerks THAT closely though until last season. So, will freely admit that perception may be off.)

It has. But what's the point of decrying once again the decision to re-re-reload this off-season in a GDT? The guys out there tonight would likely lose to the Habs & have a hard time beating the Yotes. Get through tonight & get some bodies back for the road trip.

They're playing the Stanley Cup champions w/ their full roster including their #1 while the Sabres play w/ their #4 goalie & no Tuch, Thompson, Okposo, Mittelstadt, nor even Krebs. And Olofsson is a shell of what he was back in October. This is about as bad a mismatch as you can get in this league.

Upon watching the Sabres fail on their 3rd breakaway attempt, turned to my son & said the Bolts don't respect the Sabres at all.

Place in the standings, no. But looking to maximize the value and cash coming back from their investment, absolutely. And if a group that owns a share of 2 or 5 teams can get a better return if the stud player on one of their rosters were on a different one, they'll be pushing for that. Hopefully the majority owner won't go along w/ it, but especially if the majority owner has immediate issues, that owner might be willing to sign off on the move that helps in the ST but kills in the LT. Don't have a good example, and maybe it's simply worry/distrust of the new for no particularly valid reason, but just keep seeing "Coyotes hosed again" as a nearly inevitable outcome of this. Who else? And, really don't see how further imbalancing the competitive landscape being a good thing.

Likewise.

Hannu Virta doesn't make up for the sheer chutzpah of selecting Dudacek in the 1st round. The dumbest draft pick EVER.

You mean he wasn't? He was the greatest LW South Africa ever produced. 😉

Or there could be 4 or 6 pucks (whatever looks "right") and when all the spaces are full, just toss the oldest pucks & replace them with blank ones. VERY NHLish. 😉

Tried. No takers.

Could maybe have the pucks painted either blue or gold & then have the "signature" done in the other color. Might look sharp & would be a nod towards it not just being a hockey focused football league but Sabres focused. Just a thought.

I've got 2 tix in the 300's (1st row) near CI. Was planning on attending but plans changed, so they'd bring in bupkis on the resale market. If you want them, send a PM. You & your guest will need to show proof of vaccination to enter the building. It's likely Quinn's 1st game. Merry Christmas belatedly.

Which, at this rate, should happen about a week from Thursday.

Are you referring to the play where McKenzie was engaged with the defender at the sideline near Diggs & then came back across towards the middle if the field & caught the ball? If so, pretty sure if he did go out of bounds it was considered to be due to the defender pushing him out & he CAN subsequently get both feet in bounds and be "reestablished" in bounds. So the catch would've been legal. If that's in fact the case, there was no "receiving the benefit of the doubt" involved in that play.

Yeah, never got the Grapes - Ron McLain vibe from those 2 at all.

Whomever they get, they get. That said, apparently the Cheats rookie run stuffer had what seems to be a pretty major injury today.

Pretty sure the wind was a major factor. Towards the end of the 3rd Q, Kevin Harlan couldn't stop gushing about "how could this be the 32nd ranked defense." As soon as Josh got the wind again, the irresistible object force was back. 4 drives w/ the wind: 3TD's & 1 FG and it wasn't 4 TD's only because Diggs got more concerned w/ the goalline than the sideline. And Trubitsky had them moving too had they actually needed to do anything other than run out the clock. And if the wind is as bad next week as it was this week & on Monday night, don't be surprised to see the team losing the toss ending up w/ the 1st possession of both halves as having the wind in the 4th will be critically important.

And, it's GOOD Haach actually punted this week. If he'd gone 3 weeks w/out punting into that wind for next week's game when he WILL have to punt, that might even been devastating to their chances of winning.