Taro T

It didn't end up on camera, but Dahlin did actually give Meier a couple of cross checks after the play. Yes, that's all he did, but honestly don't see him EVER getting into a fight; he isn't that guy that'll drop the gloves. And, no, it wasn't enough of a response. Not in any shape or form. But it wasn't AS pathetic as people are making it out to be. MHO. YMMV.

But that's one more thing this crew watches but don't get right. Brind-Amour doesn't ride a goalie until he loses a game and then run with the other guy until he loses. He picks the guy he expects will get them the W in the harder games and then spells him in the easier ones; and if one starts playing particularly well or particularly poorly, the determination of which guy will get them the tougher win changes. They really don't seem to twig to the WHY of what successful teams do. They get the WHAT, but because they don't get the WHY, they can't replicate that success. One of my classmates a long time ago in a statistics class, who simply didn't get it, when seeing the grade they earned on a test complained "but I followed all the steps." No, you didn't, because you put it down to a recipe that needed to be followed exactly when it fact it was a set of guidelines that had a lot of if/thens in it. It isn't do 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and then profit; but rather if A then B, if C then if D then E and if not D then F and if not C then G and if not A but C then H. Personally expect Ruff understands that, but isn't going to do the X's and O's at this point in his journey and the guys he has working for him can't do the X's and O's at this level because they simply don't understand the WHY of what they're trying to do. Right now, in net, still believe UPL has the highest ceiling but he also has the lowest floor and too often he plays closer to his floor than the ceiling. Lyon is calm and can get in a groove, but giving him 1 game every 4 weeks will never see him in that groove again. Ellis is an unknown, but he's good at squaring up and then finding a way to get a body part in front of the puck but he still can resquare himself pretty quickly. Personally, would be treating Lyon and Ellis like the Canes treated Gerber and Ward back in '06, and throw UPL in every now and then (but sooner than 4 weeks later) and see if he can recapture that lightning in a bottle he had for a couple of months so long ago. It makes sense to trade one of them, but don't want Adams being the architect of that deal.

Especially on the road. The Wild is a team that plays really solid team D and has a sniper in Kaprisov and a couple of other offensive guys that can give you fits. Tough to keep the kids sheltered if they're altogether and you're only playing the 4th line about 10 minutes. And, letting Östlund play on the "top" line and giving him a look in the SO lets him know that should he be the guy going down when Norris gets activated, it ISN'T him, it's just numbers and until the 3 headed goalie monster gets one head lopped off they're going to have to have a couple/few guys in Ra-cha-cha that have earned time in Buffalo. Didn't ruin Pominville's development; won't ruin his either.

Both starting OTs being out could actually be a blessing in disguise. Brady and Kromer aren't going to expect the backups to be able to stop Watt and crew without help, so they'll actually be giving the line extra help. They have too much faith in Dawkins and Brown that they can be playing through injury against some of the top rushers in the league and still get the job done without any help.

They announced it was a sellout. Also, supposedly the game was shown on Channel 4. (Not in the Buffalo market, so have to take Gurtler's word for it.) So, people in the Buffalo market might want to check the listings for the 13th when the Bandits host the Thunderbirds. Btw, Benesch was the "new guy" who's name was drawing a blank on last night who had one of the goals.

No data.

Bandits raised their 3rd consective and 7th overall Championship Banner tonight before taking on the Georgia Swarm. Gave up a goal on the 1st shot less than a minute in, but then the Great Dhane scored on the Bandits' 1st shot to tie it back up. Georgia got the next one but then the Bandits got their act together. They led most of the rest of the 1st half, but Georgia got a couple of late goals to tie it at 8 through 2. Georgia got another quick goal at the start of the 3rd to take their last lead of the game. Bandits scored the next 4. Final was 15-11. Smith had 4. MacKay had a pair. Pretty sure Byrne had a pair. Nanticoke with one or 2. The Captain had a very uncharacteristic goal - it looked like one you'd expect Buchanon to score coming out of the corner and then driving to the net. Robinson had an empty netter to close out the scoring. Don't recall who got the others. One of them was by one of the guys that had been a Bandit a few years ago and his name is drawing a blank right now (it's late, this kid is heading to bed very soon). Frasier who's now playing for a team out west was on the floor for the banner raising ceremony, which was cool. He's been a big part of the 3 championships. Cloutier is also gone. Martin retired. They replaced him with DeSnoo. Brought in a couple other veterans. Spanger is still out from the injury he suffered down the stretch, but has been practicing, so he's close to being back. Next game is at home on the 13th vs Halifax. Nice start to the season. Let's go Ban-dits!!!

He played very well tonight. Only gave up 1 goal he had a chance on and he never should've been in the spot to have to make that save. Personally would play him on Monday and expect Ruff will do so. But, with 3 goalies, unless he gets a shutout Monday, would come back with 1 of the other 2 in the one after that. Had Lyon not gone nearly 4 weeks between getting any action, he probably would've been better. And if he steals 1 of the 1st 2 goals against or doesn't give up the 3rd one, maybe that horseshoe lodged firmly up Allen's arse gets dislodged.

Why not get both?

Well, in fairness, how often are they going to turn it over while Minny's worst players are on the ice? 😉 Mind numbing brain fart by Tuch on that 2nd goal, and it's 100% on Tuch; but Ellis should've had that one.

They call Dahlin often for his reverse check when he's got the puck. It'd be just like that.

As an FYI, the Bandits will be raising the banner tonight at 7:30PM also. Expecting that'll be on ESPN+.

True. BUT you are supposed to be in control of yourself and your equipment. Meier decided to go into that engagement backwards which is why his elbow was up at Samuelsson's head level. There was nothing malicious there, but you can't elbow guys in the head intentionally or unintentionally. And he didn't just catch his head, he was coming in with a full head of steam and Muel was unable to return. It should've at least been a 2 minute penalty and because of the exploding nose and the potential concussion issues, personally expect it should've been a major.

Right after hydro, nuclear is what SHOULD be the go to source for power. MHO.

It certainly seems that he's already found his next GM. Just need to pull the cord.

Yeah, it sure seems that Kekalainen is the GM in waiting. Would really like them to just tear off the band-aid now, so he can start putting his imprint on this team now rather than waiting until July 1. Not the ideal GM but on paper should be significantly better than what they've had post-Regier. And, would really like to see them give Leone and his crew a shot at running the Sabres on an interim basis too. Bump the Sabres coaches, minus Ruff, down to Ra-cha-cha and see if they can keep what Leone has been doing going. And if Appert and crew don't want to move 60 minutes down the Thruway, so be it. Just expect it'd be hard to find an entire AHL coaching staff if they can everyone in Buffalo and don't really want to torpedo that team. IF Appert and the rest are as good as Adams believes they are, they should be able to continue the success there, right? Know none of that'll happen, but we're into the Christmas season (just ask anyone working retail 😉 ) so why not let Sabres fans get an early Christmas present.

But, that's the issue. Neither ref called anything on the play.

Don't worry @PASabreFan, we've got your back.

Which is why Gates no longer considers anthropologically induced global climate change to be the most pressing issue facing the world. He needs more power to run the AI he (and others) are trying to build and windmills and solar farms ain't gonna "git 'er dun." It's ALWAYS about the Benjamins.

$27; no STH discount. They seem to hold 24 oz. The line about 5 minutes into the 1st period still stretched to the main concourse (nearly 1/4 of the rink long). So at least 200 people still in the line, maybe even 3-400.

Tone and Volume.

Passes the eye test. There are times that Byram and Timmons play well together, and it's even a significant portion of the time they're out there; but when they go bad they're Messy-Balls bad and unfortunately those times are significant portions of time too. For the most part, am ok (not good, but ok) with those 2 together when they're at home and they can more or less control which lines they're deployed against. But really don't like them on the road. Still would rather they had a more defensive defenseman up as an option, especially on the road, so they could break up Timmins and Byram, keep from putting Byram and Power together (who are even worse overall than Byram-Timmins via the eye test) and still give Byram somebody defensively responsible to help him out when they can't control matchups.

Ironically, the same reasons that the PK is working well - guys that are outnumbered getting into passing lanes and using active sticks to intercept or at least deflect passes rather than manning up on someone and trying to take the body are likely the same reasons that overall they seem to be giving up more goals 5v5 to date. When you're outmanned, taking the body on someone gives the other team an even more substantial edge. 5v4 becomes 4v3 or 3v2 when guys play an individual man. Getting in the passing lanes, especially when you have really big bodies (most of the PKers) or reeally high hockey IQ guys (like Benson), tends to limit scoring chances when you're down a man or 2. Throw in better goaltending than you've gotten in the past, and the PK ends up fairly effective. But at 5v5, taking space away from a guy or actually manhandling him will be more disruptive than simply trying to take away a passing lane. Still would prefer Wilford gone, but if they could limit his duties to ONLY running the PK, might not hate him sticking around. And, that he doesn't seem to understand, or at minimum he can't convince his troops (aka coaching them), that different situations require different tactics to be successful is a fairly damning reason to get rid of him. And personally expect having Wilford as a coach limits how much physical play Power will add to his game. He plays the way Wilford seems to want him to play. Tough to learn to add other tools to your toolbox when those aren't taught/emphasized.

Saw an article that said that's always been his middle name. Expect that in Namibia it's about as big a deal as having a last name of Satan in the republics making up the former Czechoslovakia.

Bowman didn't care unless it was the night before a game and they were out past curfew. That's a big part of why McKegney became a Nordique.