Taro T

Yes. True. But, sadly, hope is not a plan.

Is the reason he can't say Hell-ANE-ee-us, the same as why Barbara Walters called her cohost Haa-wee Weas-an-er? Eh, pwobabwy not.

Greenway being out at this point is a 'meh.' Was hoping at this point, UPL being out to be a 'meh,' but until somebody else actually steps up it isn't. And the key off-season addition being out is definitely not a 'meh.' Does anybody know when the last time the Sabres entered a season pretty much healthy? (And even if they were technically healthy last year, which they probably weren't; Dahlin was definitely at 80% or less in Europe. That counts as not healthy even if he didn't miss time.

Aren't 2 of those from the B-squad? Also, the 1st PP goal came about 20 seconds after the 1st shortie they gave up. So, essentially, they're net 3-17.

He KINDA says the right things, but from watching how the only significant difference so far between last year's PP and this year's is that Norris wins draws and Cozens and Tage didn't, it looks the same and it's pretty clear that though he kinda knows the right things to say, he doesn't really understand WHY they're the right things. He says he wants "predictability and structure" which on their surface are good things to have. It's good for guys to know that their teammates are going to do certain things or move to certain places when they get the puck in a certain place so that they can move the puck to them quickly. But the predictability is of them dropping the puck back and having Thompson stay glued to his face off dot. They aren't getting predictible (to themselves) on how a guy will break to the net if the play moves this way and might back away to the boards while somebody else sneaks down low so that when the guy with the puck sends it to the guy who's now at the boards, he can send it below the goalline and the original puck carrier who made that 1st pass breaks into the slot looking for a 1 or 2 touch pass for a 1 timer while the goalie is changing his view from below the goal line to back up high. And if the defender is cheating farther out that 1st guy will break towards the net looking for either a 1 timer or a give and go to the 1st guy who also is moving towards the net but on the opposite side forcing the goalie to move if they do run the give and go. THAT's the sort of predictability they need. Not, Power will skate the puck up ice as slow as he possibly can and then throw a 120' pass back to Benson or Quinn between the faceoff dots. But, but, Dahlin didn't drop pass the puck and he scored on an end-to-end play. Doesn't this mean they don't ALWAYS do the drop pass? Yes, yes it does mean they don't always use the 120' (and yes, that's SLIGHTLY hyperbolic, but not by much) drop pass; but Dahlin was foregoing it himself some last year as well when he saw the defenders cheating the drop pass. THAT being successful isn't on coaching, it's on having one of the 3 best D in the league on the roster and letting HIM be unpredictable. He also was excited about getting a PP with one of the 3 best D in the league, and one of the 5 best shooters in the league, along with a guy who's better than average at net front into the middle of the pack. Oh, goody, goody, gumdrops; with some of the best talent in the league on the PP WE'VE COACHED THEM UP TO MIDDLE OF THE PACK! That is so ridiculously pathetic it isn't even humorous. And the PP being awful IMHO goes a long way towards the PK being awful (which goes a long way towards the PP being awful; it's an amplifier) because the PP gets stationary and the PK is stationary (and the PK being stationary is to a large degree good; but they have to understand when and where to attack and they don't do that well at all) so neither figures out how to bring dynacism to the unit. Hey, we need to outwork the PK. No Schlitz, Sherlock. The day you actually let TWO PPers try to win a board battle rather than just watching 1 try to win it; will be a wonderful day in this city and they probably should have a parade for it; because it'll mean you've actually finally twigged onto how to do something rather than just give it lip service. The day they actually have 2 or 3 guys in motion while they control the puck; not just when they're entering the zone or right off the faceoff, will also be a banner day; because again, it'll mean you've actually finally twigged onto how to do something rather than just give it lip service. The fact that he's asking the analytics guys how to do this, though it should be encouraging, likely will backfire because he'll probably understand it about as well as Patrick Roy understood the analytics guys telling him that puck possession was a true key metric to winning games so he'd start having his players move the puck around the zone like it was a Sabres PP and then he wondered why they were at the bottom of the league standings (but we possess the puck); well possession without shots doesn't translate into wins. It't the teams actually shooting and then getting the puck back and winning the possession battles that are winning the games because they're getting rebound chances which are chaotic. We want structure says Appert. Yes, but that structure must be used to generate chaos that you can capitalize on. You've been bottom of the league on PP using your structure. Really not expecting much from the PP overall. Do expect them, simply because of how much talent they can deploy on it for it to get into a groove for a month or so. But don't expect it to last the full year (or even significant portions of it) and do expect overall it to be a problem again. Hoping that take is wrong and even an old RPI guy can learn new tricks; but won't have money on it.

Oh yeah, it all feeds on itself. But even going back to that 91 point season that seems a lifetime ago even though it was only 3 years ago, they weren't good on the cycle. They scored on rushes and for about 6-7 weeks they also scored when Tage dropped bombs on the PP. But that got figured out by other teams and so down the stretch they were back to just scoring on the rush. They didn't do a good job on the cycle even in that season that Granato had them focusing primarily on offense figuring he'd teach them defense later. Well, when looking back on it, it wasn't just D he didn't teach them; he didn't teach them much offensively either, and the same guys that were here back then (except Ellis who's still a coach, just not on the bench) are still here trying to finally figure out how to teach them to play defense and how to work a functional cycle. Do realize that for whatever reason ownership doesn't want to punt the failed coaches (at least not unless a golden child is available to replace any of them; and how a golden child is defined is anyones guess) but how much money is getting thrown away in lost ticket sales, lost merchandise sales, lost concession sales, and lost playoff revenue. That has to dwarf whatever these guys still have left to earn this last year of their deals. And agree, they've been very bad against the rush in the past; and if the last non-ENG of last night is any indication, they're still going to be bad against it. EDIT: Sorry @dudacek, didn't mean to go negative in the Hopium thread.

For those that are gluttons for punishment, Friday's rematch game will be on MSG local, so it should be on ESPN+ for the out of towners.

Ftfy. 😉

Juuuuussssst like Appert drew it up. 🙄

Q not directed at you, BUT when it is so obvious he's bad at his job, WHY was there ONLY ONE choice to replace him? He (and not just he) should've been canned on locker clean out day and then they would've HAD to make moves. Another game where they're winning 5v5 but losing STs and losing the game overall because of it. Seen this movie before, it pretty much always ends with the hero losing the girl and having to put his dog down. But maybe this time it'll be different.

Soooo, based on the moves this off-season, the reason last year was dog doo doo was because of the S&C coach. Let's look at where we are with 1 PS game to play 8 days prior to the start of the RS. 1 broken goalie 4 broken D-men 1 (or is it 2, no data on why Benson didn't play today) broken F. CLEARLY last year was on the S&C coach. 😒 STs had absolutely nothing to do with it; very glad they kept Wilford and Appert; one of these years that'll work; just not sure any of us will still be alive when that does work.

Yeah, Bryson didn't play it overly well, but he had his man tied up. (After being in no man's land for the initial shot.) His guy gets his stick on it to keep it from going into the corner, but he couldn't do anything else with it. It was the other Pen getting there before a F could get back that finished it. And if Georgiev moves back across the crease at all, he might be able to keep it out of the net. A case could be made that after that 1st shot was taken, Bryson shouldn't have still been going for that man at the side of the net who took the initial shot; but once he started scrambling, that was likely his best option. The other D was caught on the other side of the net because the rebound could've gone that way and it would've been a tap in; but the F's didn't help much there either. And, no, Bryson shouldn't have been so high before that final shot sequence started (would have to watch it again to see why he was up there; MAYBE it made sense for him to have been higher in the diamond), but once that began he didn't play it horribly. No ####### clue. Ditto for Appert. @PromoTheRobot, still think the PP is looking good this preseason?

Makes sense. It's on MSG in the Sabres normal market. (Buf, Roc, Syr, and ???)

Peterka's backchecking was adequate. Nothing to write home about but it wasn't exactly costing the team multiples of games either. They'll definitely miss him. But IF they can now cycle like an actual NHL team with other guys; they might net out better off. Though have said it before and will continue to say it; really hate that they didn't replace the spending they'd've had to have had he still been a Sabre. Another $4MM F would help solidify this lineup and depending on who it was might be able to solidify the 2nd line allowing Zucker to be the gristled vet that still can score on an otherwise kid-centric 3rd scoring line. Doan, Kesselring, AND a $4MM guy would make Peterka's departure much more palatable.

It's really one of the major questions about this team. Last year, with Peterka, they were one of the best teams in the league at scoring off the rush but much worse at scoring off sustained pressure. Now that they don't have Peterka, who's bread and butter was scoring off the rush (either directly or setting a teammate up) but have guys like Doan and guys like Benson in an elevated role, how much will the rush scoring diminish and can they offset it with scoring off the cycle and being better at cycling overall. If they can be better at cycling, it could take a lot of pressure off the D as if the puck is in the other team's end they don't have to bust their arses defending. Between that and goaltending, it might spell the difference between making the playoffs or not even if the PP and the defensive zone coverage isn't significantly improved.

Darth nailed it. If Crosby is only going to play 1/2 of the preseason games, they aren't going to waste him on the road only to have people that actually showed up to the game a day or 2 later in the 'Burgh to be griping about not seeing their star. Same with the Sabres and Thompson and Dahlin. They aren't playing in C-Bus. Right or wrong, it's reality. And teams do tend to have their better checking line going on the road, so the home team's top guys aren't primarily skating against AHLers usually.

If he doesn't play in at least 10 NHL games, the contract can slide in his 18 yo and 19 yo seasons regardless of where else he plays. In a player's 20 yo season, the contract no longer slides.

Well, it's your fault the argument started. You said explicitly and clearly that every single prospect the Sabres have ever had in the Pegula era has been rushed to the big team. Wait, that's NOT what you said? Well, gosh durn it, we'll still have to run with that being what you said because otherwise this might get silly. 😜

It's kinda hilarious that the "Mrtka must go to Seattle" crowd is the same as "Novikov is gonna get the sads and run back to Russia if he isn't in the lineup against the Rags" crowd. 😉 See how silly hyperbolizing peoples positions come off? "(y)ou all think we rush EVERYBODY." (emphasis added) No, nobody has said that. And it's disingenuous to make that claim. To the bolded, the people that aren't overly concerned that Novikov isn't getting his chance NOW have the EXACT SAME POSITION you have on this issue. He should get a look this year. And, he WILL get a look this year. Likely an extended look as his game is exactly what the guy that seemingly is always broken for ~40 games per year is supposed to be. When he's in his prime, he slots perfectly into the concept of Samuelsson or what Muel is supposed to be.

14 years in the desert and 4 or so "non-blocking" years have skewed our perspectives. (The Peterka kerfuffle doesn't help matters either.) He'll be fine starting in Ra-cha-cha and will get a legit look before this season is over. His playing the same side and role Samuelsson is supposed to play will almost guarantee it. We're really close to seeing only 1-2 rookies starting the year in Buffalo As they finally have a full lineup of NHL caliber players with only 1-2 teens on the roster, they don't have to rush players up. Though w/ 3 D injured, Mrtka might still end up being rushed up. Hopefully he's the last of the guys rushed up.

Yes. They wore silver & blue that 1st season. But, IMHO, that ice jersey evokes Dallas' threads more than Detroit's. (Thus calling them Lions/Cowboys.)

1 thing to remember is, if they send him back to Ra-cha-cha rather than Juniors before his 9 games is up, he can still get brought up again and also if he cumulatively doesn't get a 10th game this year won't burn a year of his ELC. This is unlike loaning him back to Seattle which if they do that, he could only be brought back on an emergency basis or after their season is done. So, if he's Ra-cha-cha bound, he might be the 1st guy sent down when somebody gets healthy enough to play after the season starts to save some of those 9 games for later in the year. If he's Seattle bound, expect him to get all 9 games before going back.

Jones over Bryson. Heck, there's people that would prefer Metsa over Bryson. 😉

That's not a ####ing goat, you hoser. 😉

FTFY. 😉