Taro T

At least 2 of the 3 bats we have flying around our backyard survived the winter. There's a 4th one that comes around on occasion, but haven't seen that one tonight either. Still in the 70's* at nearly 9PM. Hanging out listening to Soul Asylum & Del Amitri out on the deck w/ the puppy sitting by my side. Awesome. * It's supposed to be 52 Tuesday w/ possible snow overnight. Welcome to Spring in WNY.

So, a couple of Sabres supporting the Bisons. Nice. Will take one of her please.

Anderson & Hinostroza might have brought back reasonable returns (meaning better than a 5th round pick each). Would rather have them contributing to "meaningless" wins down the back stretch. Hard pressed to seeing any other UFA bringing back a return worth mentioning. Doubt even Pysyk would've brought much back.

Just playing Devil's Advocate here. What if they already know what they have with him, public votes of confidence not withstanding?

But where would Pekar & others be in a Taylor centric alternative universe? Some, like him looked very promising. Not so much anymore.

Maybe. But right now, there are only 3-4 legit prospects in Ra-cha-cha. (Forgot about Biro. Maybe if he pronounced it Beer-o. 😉 ) And only one possible prospect, Fitzgerald, is in the NHL. Expect they'd all have developed under Tails as well. Expect he might have kept a couple others growing as well. No way to know on that front. It's saying something that Appert & crew didn't mess up those guys. But except for Biro & maybe Casey, they all were/are expected to be NHLers.

Definitely 100% should've kept Taylor. But who are "all" these prospects you speak of? There are 2 Amerks that'll be on the Buffalo roster on day 1 - Quinn & very likely UPL. Peterka will be up before Christmas, but not sold on him making the Sabres out of camp. There are others like Murray, Ruotsalainen, & Laaksonen that will get looks when the Sabres have injury issues. Maybe Rousek rises up? But Pekar, Weisback, & the rest might not even get injury callup duty. Quinn looked very ordinary the games yours truly was at. And Peterka didn't standout as he had on TV either. A lot of legit prospects - at least 2 goalies, 1 D, and 4 F's were either in college or Europe. The Amerks used their best (they're finally healthy again) but it wasn't good enough. Guess we miss out on our annual rite of spring - getting thrashed in the 1st round by the Marlies.

Neither Anderson nor Tokarski was coming down. Neither Sanderson nor Fitzgerald was going to score any goals to help them outscore the lowly Monsters. Krebs might have helped as maybe his springing 2 more breakaways last night might have gotten them 1 decent shot off a breakaway. But they needed finishers or a goalie. Neither of those are Krebs.

NO goalies that small in the NHL? Your friend doesn't watch many Preds games does he? Levi's ceiling is Jussi Saros, whom he's actually 1 inch taller than. PS - didn't say he'll reach thatceiling, just that it's a lot higher than that scout says it is.

Bummer. Misunderstood your earlier post about winning by 2 goals to move on. D'oh! Must've been a wild 3rd if there were 9 goals scored in that frame.

The the 1st 2 sentences, that must be it. To the Panthers, wouldn't be at all surprised to see them tripped up by the Caps or the Pens should they get a great game from their goalie in Game 1. The Cats are riding so high right now & have such a penchant for falling behind big early in games. Could definitely see a Bolts BJs 3 years ago vibe working there.

Speaking to an agent about a player he represents that doesn't play for your team would be. Speaking to that same agent about a player he represents that plays for you wouldn't be. There's a lot of gray involved.

Getting slightly off-topic, the SIGNIFICANT downside (IMHO, YMMV) to having important information "stored" electronically is the ephemerality of it. It is very easy to edit items after the fact without it being readily apparent that the items have in fact been edited.

Q1. The Sabres. Q2. Somebody other than them. Serious answer. Have no idea who this kid'll be pulling for. Will watch some games and will find out by watching who it is. Know it won't be the Loafs or Bruins. Would be very surprised it it's the Canes, Stars, Rags, or Eulers. Don't really have a team left that stands out as one to cheer for, but only the 2 already mentioned to definitely cheer against.

The ONLY problem w/ that line is Girgensons is much better at W and Asplund hasn't shown he can play C at the NHL level yet either. Which is a big part of why my expectation is they go outside for a 4C. They can bounce Okposo &/or Asplund up a line or 2 when necessary due to injuries or matchups & when 1 of the 4 are out w/ injury they still have a serviceable/good 4th line. They can even make one of those 4 not named Okposo the odd man out should everyone be healthy & Peterka has finally earned his spot on the roster. Such a nice & very different position to be in. Having more than 12 guys that can actually play NHL quality hockey up front.

It'll be interesting to see how he does next season. Whether he has more ooopsies in his own end. College kids coming in at the end of the year almost invariably look better in those handful of games at the end of the year than they do the next year when the "it's really the NHL adrenaline" is no longer kicking in. But w/ his pedigree and already having played against NHLers & Pros in the WCs and Olympics, maybe he won't take that small 1/2 step back. Would be nice. Here's to hoping.

The Sabres could realistically enter the draft lottery w/ no better than the 11th best odds of winning it. And if they win their last 2, difficult but doable, they'll end up with no better than the 9th best odds. Bye David Jiricek. We hardly knew ye. 😪 Wonder if the Sabres would take him at 2?

This. Big difference between getting under other guys skins by chirping and outworking them than getting under other guys skins by hacking them and outworking them. Nobody fears a career ending injury from an insult.

Considering Dell still needs to serve a 3 game suspension but dressed, expect that is correct.

Disagree that not trading away vets for late picks is a failure. The ones like Hinostroza and Anderson that might have brought back something higher than a 5th have been key contributors in this late season "surge." If they're gone, so very likely is any momentum they've gained. Adams traded 1 guy. The one that wouldn't have a role in 2 weeks as soon as Michigan's season ended. Don't really take issue w/ not trading the others. Obviously we differ in that opinion. 🍺

Was at it. What he said. Had Cleveland been able to get shots actually on net at a little higher clip, they could've easily put 6 up against UPL. That said, Amerks had 4 partial/full breakaways in the 2nd and came away w/ 1 weak, easily saved, shot on net to show for it. They managed to blow a 2 goal lead against the only team in division that's already been eliminated. Don't know why they have so much trouble w/ the Monsters. That team'll have been the one that cost them a playoff berth.

Yep. Strictly done to make sure somebody healthy was available should Tokarski get injured/sick. Wonder if that counts as one of his 3 suspension serving games or if he still has to sit 3 more should anyone be desperate enough to sign him next year. Thanks for that. Missed warm-ups, so had no idea who was on the bench yesterday. Just knew it wasn't Dell.

Ab-so-friggin'-lute-ly. He'll never be worth the contract he signed. But he's actually useful in enough facets that we can say "close enough" without cringing. Doubted he'd ever get back to a 30+ goal player, but thought it possible. NEVER would've suspected he had the rest of this season's game in him. He's an actual hockey player & not a 1-1/2 trick pony now. And that joy he plays with is infectious. He's a leader on this team. Though there is a room full of leaders, which is a testament to Adams, NEVER thought that Skinner had leadership as a quality just waiting to be expressed. Mia culpa.

Interesting discussion. Seems to this kid that there's a lot of reading into a single 8 second snippet. A more than fair amount of which seems astute. An interesting thing about this IMHO is that in-game for hockey, as opposed to other sports where players that are out of the game are typically out significantly longer than they are in hockey, while the players have time to see the "what" of a particular situation before they have to get back on the ice, they don't necessarily have time to see the "why." That's for intermission possibly and the plane ride or next morning definitely. Seems Ruff is lashing out about one item he sees as an annoyance in a miserable season, that in a season gone awry the players are preferring their own observations & interpretations than his in the heat of the moment. It also seems, that he &/or his coaches are trying to communicate w/ the players after the play, & again, the players may be focusing on figuring out what happened on their own rather than w/ the help of the coaches. Which would imply Ruff has lost the team, though the record itself implies that. Back when the league was coming out of THE lockout, the Sabres put on a brief coaching clinic w/ Ruff, several of the assistants, & some local college coaches. They not only covered some drills & why they'd run them and explanations of some of the things the Sabres did on the ice, Ruff and the assistant that actually tracked in game data and events talked about what data they collected and how they used it. It was surprisingly extensive what they collected and shared w/ the players. Ruff definitely didn't come across as anti-technology, but that clinic was held over 15 years ago. Not really much to add, just find the discussion interesting. 🍺

Possibly. But the most watched and talked about game was the RJ game. That night couldn't have gone more perfectly. The Eichel game was one w/ more eyeballs than others this year. Krebs & Tuch scoring. Eichel w/ the turnover leading to the game sealing goal. Storybook. The last couple of games official attendance has been over 13k though actual was likely ~9k (MAYBE 10k). So, people that haven't been are watching and, unlike in the past couple of seasons and unlike for the Bills during the drought years when they'd get a national game, the Sabres are entertaining and, for the most part, winning WHILE those fans are watching. The best way to flip the narrative is to have people see it for themselves. The conversations that this kid is having w/ casual fans are actually indicating that there's some enthusiasm for the team that hasn't been there since at least drafting Dahlin & more realistically since the summer heading into Bylsma's 2nd year. That all this is happening while they've long since been eliminated tempers things slightly, and that is why it is so important for them to play well next season out of the gate & beyond October. But, look just at this board, and how many "faces" that we haven't seen in a long time are rejoining the discussion. People are willing & want to come back. The Sabres just have to do their part & people will come back.