Taro T

Has anybody seen Chz lately? 😉

This is actually a good take. Would take it 1 step further. The video review guys in TO (& in each rink) should have a checklist/ matrix that they fill out completely any time there is an off-sides review. (For @SDS, while an individual player is off-side or on-side, the rule is titled off-sides.) The official should note who possessed the puck immediately prior to the puck crossing the blue line & whether there was control or not. Also where all 12 players on the ice are located (in zone or out of zone). This same info should be determined immediately after the puck has crossed the blue line. IF a player has preceded the puck into the zone, there would be 2 more items to determine. Where are all players & the puck at the instant control is effected. Where are all players & the puck at the instant the player (or players) that were over the blue line has (or have) tagged up & is the puck under control or not immediately prior to the tagging up. After the game, both teams will receive a copy of the completed checklists. Take as much discretion/arbitrariness as possible out of the reviews. And, yes, the Sabres owners & GM should make this request of the league either privately or publicly. They could have similar checklists of info to obtain prior to making a determination for puck hit with a high stick, goaltender interference, & the like.

Pretty sparse crowd. ~1,500 - 2,000 would be my guess. About 40% of us in the crowd were Bandit fans. Building was filled comparably to how the MMArena was against Calgary but the Kin-ig-hit Hawks are essentially still an expansion franchise. Styres took the real ones to Halifax a few seasons ago. So, not all that surprising they haven't rebuilt a following. What's our excuse for last weekend's crowd?

So, what, they chose that name because they play like they imbibed too much of it? 😉

Amazing goaltending in last night's Bandits - Knighthawks game. Over 100 shots in total & only 20 goals scored w/ 1 of those coming with the Kin-ig-hits goalie out for an extra attacker. Bandits won 12-8, but it was really tight through the 1st 3. 3-0 Bandits after 1. 4-3 bad guys after 2. 6-6 through 3. Nanticoke is a beast. Was battling through 2 checkers all game. (And it was a friggin' battle.) 1st 2-0 start for the Bandits in 9 years.

This was rhetorical, right? On the slim chance it wasn't, @Weave was on the right track. The reason is $$$$$$$$$$$$ (¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥).

Olofsson was still in the neutral zone when Dahlin had finally tagged up. That's why he didn't need to "tag up." Thompson also was still on the blue line, though just barely.

AFAIK, because the rule states that a player is off-side when both skates are over the blue line prior to the puck entering the zone, no, players have never had to completely clear the entirely of the defensive zone. (Once the player's skate is on the blue line, & the puck is inside the zone, then the puck has preceded him into the zone.) But ALL the players have to have the puck precede them into the zone at the same time. BTW, that rule about players not being able to precede the puck into the zone dates back to the '30-'31 season. Prior to that, it didn't matter but there were no forward passes in the offensive zone.

Yes. The zones do change size effectively, which is quite cool.

Wtf doesn't every team have a player at each position on the ballot? It's not like these are paper ballots anymore & that w/ 16 teams per conference the type face would be too small to read?

Yep. The blue line is part of both zones so by having a skate (and not another body part or a stick rather than the skate) on (& IIRC starting this year above) the blue line the player is considered to be in the neutral zone (because he is as the neutral zone stretches to the inner edge of the blue line (the edge closer to the opponent's goal)). As the purpose of the rule is to keep players from goal hanging when the puck isn't in the offensive zone, really don't have a problem w/ it.

The cynic would say to give the league an opportunity to put its thumb on the scale in favor of MFTs much like the garbage officiating in the NFL seems to do.

Those 2 & the Bondra goal ALL resulted in the NHL changing their rules & procedures because the results were so egregious. Doubt this one rises to that level. But it IS 2 games in a row where replay didn't get the call right in what at the time had been 1 goal games.

On a fluke bounce off a defenseman's leg. Not exactly his typical PP snipe. He's definitely still affected by the injury. But in the last 2-3 games he has actually started shooting rather than always passing. Which hopefully is a sign he's getting close to 100%.

Since Dell got called up, except for a couple of games where he reverted back, UPL has played well in Ra-cha-cha. Have no idea what clicked for him, but he is actually playing large rather than getting too low which was causing him to give up a ton of shots over the shoulder which also was then causing him to over open down low resulting in even more goals. Maybe he's worked through whatever mental hangup he's had since the hip surgeries. Way too early to say that for sure. But at least he's showing they don't need to give him a bus ticket to Cincy & they might be able to get by on a single real goaltender this offseason rather than needing to find 2.

To the bolded: no. That is not control. That is possession. They are distinct. To the sentence after the bolded: yes. That player is both in possession of the puck AND control.

There were a lot of pundits throwing that term around.

UPL made a pretty good case tonight to get to stay up. He actually looked like a big goalie, which he should, because he is. Presuming Dell gets tomorrow's start. Will be interesting to see if they go back to trying to win a shootout without UPL in net. If they do, could be a real long (or more accurately, a real short) night for him.

Apparently TO reviews all goals in the last minute of regulation. (Kind of like no coaches challenges in the NFL after the 2 minute warning.)

Expect they'll cite COVID concerns. Don't expect any mention of human rights on it. But, their shirts are made in Indonisia, so maybe.

Let's see how this weekend goes before making that decision.

Nice review. Expect Samuelsson would be an upgrade today but really should get an opportunity to be 3rd pairing were he to come in this year but would likely be bumped to 2nd or even 1st pairing were he in Buffalo real quickly. Am OK whichever way management wants to go w/ bringing him up or keeping him on the farm as there are arguments both ways. Also expect Peterka would be fine in 2 of the 3 zones and an upgrade on the typical bottom 6 wingers they've used. But would like to see him improve in his own end before calling him up. He creates a ton of breakaways at the AHL level. Will be interesting to see how much that falls off at the next level. Those 2 likely come up right after the "Olympic break," if injuries don't force them up sooner. No rush bringing up either of the other 2 this year; would like to see more strength before sending them in. But expect both to move up last 2-3 weeks of the season for a taste when the college kids show up, too. Really expect that except for the possibility of a Wright lucking into the organization and onto next season's lineup that all of next year's F's are in house already and that FA will focus on 2 quality D & a quality G.

If it comes to fruition, will take a bit of self-imposed pressure off Eichel's rehabilitation. So, there's that. in general, agree w/ @Marvin, Sabres Fan. Standing on principle would have been nice but was too much to ask for.

Not really. IMHO, there was a very high likelihood that Adams was under constraints tighter than those the rest of the league needed to operate within due to COVID impacts on the owners' cash flow. If that assumption is incorrect, am very willing to say both those guys should have been given LT deals at that point. (Well, technically, they should've regardless, but if they couldn't be given deals commensurate w/ their worth, it amounts to the same thing effectively.) Completely put the goaltending mess on Adams' shoulders. And absolutely agree that Reinhart should've been a Sabre LT. But, don't pin that on him at that point in time. Am very willing to revise that opinion if we get evidence that the final bridge was Adams preferred way forward.

But, not sure that he was given the green light from ownership to sign LT deals for real money during the shutdown. @Brawndo & a couple others here would likely have more insight into that. While the owners were still ridiculously wealthy, with the crash of hydrocarbon prices & the shutdown of their pro sports teams & most of their other service/entertainment related businesses, they were cash poor with a lot of uncertainty as to when their revenue streams would reopen. Not getting the LT contracts for Reinhart & Ullmark before last season is one IMHO that Adams gets a mulligan on as there was a lot beyond his control seemingly going into that decision. Botterill should absolutely have gotten Reinhart under contract LT.