Taro T

They're supposed to be learning the system, right? Well, they're learning the system.

And that learning curve is why it would be very helpful for him to either have a vet stay at home partner or get a chance to be on the 3rd pairing. But he keeps getting put in the position of being the alpha of the 2nd pairing. Which is a really tough spot to put a 2nd year D-man. (Even one with his raw skills.)

They HAVE been booed before. For a moment or 2 in game or as they skate off the ice at the end of a period. This SEEMED different. This was a significant portion of the fans joining in and this did not let up in the 3rd. A' t'all. Will it turn out to have been different/ resulted in a different effect? We shall see.

The team finally understands that underperforming (or overperforming too, though we haven't seen that this season) carrys consequences with it. Did that lightbulb FULLY click on? Don't know. We'll know by New Year's Day. They have 2 more games against top squads which will want to pay them back for beating them in their own barns the last time the Sabres played them and then they'll have 2 games against bottom feeders that they've been know to spit the bit against in a back to back situation. That's a set up that prior to the BJ's game calls out for a 1-2-1 -ish record the rest of the way. Go 4-0-0 over that stretch and watch out league, the Sabres are healthy and they're back. Maybe it's just too much adversity for them to deal with and they end up spitting the bit again losing their favoritest coach. Leaning towards expecting 2-1-1 or 3-1-0 over that stretch. Which would be an improvement as they'll almost have to at minimum have only their 2nd 2 game win streak of the season and might even have a 3 or 4 game streak to the good. Really hoping this'll be something to build on, but don't know that it is.

Personally, don't recall being in the building when the team literally was booed off the ice each period that vociferously and the final 5 minutes+ of the game had chants for the head of the coach when it was a coach the players WANT to play for and when the team was supposed to be winning (or at least trying to do so). It was surreal. And at play stoppages, the audio crew had music blasting to try drown out the chants there at the end.

Why does WGR run the Whiner Line? Find one answer, and you'll likely have the other as well.

It's part of growing up. Sometimes you need to get told your ***** does stink. Hopefully this causes a lightbulb to click with all of them. They CAN do it. And now they have zero excuses. A fourth line winger, who they brought in an outside replacement to man the fort while he's out injured, is the only player on the roster that isn't healthy enough to go every night. (Still believe that Thompson definitely and possibly Tuch and Samuelsson aren't close to 100% (maybe even Dahlin with the back issues from last year, he hasn't looked like pre-ASG Dahlin yet this year except in spurts), but we're getting close to the portion of the season that nobody IS 100%.) They have the players and the coaches that the GM told us are good enough to be contenders. We need him to be right because they'll need to play like contenders the majority of games the rest of the way to dig out of the hole they dug for themselves.

Will go back and relisten to what Granato actually said and not Koziol's interpretation of what he said, but IF this is an accurate representation of what was said, then these coaches have no friggin' clue what they're doing. We were told for a year and a half that they'd be implementing the offensive portion of their system initially and would then work defensive responsibility in after that and then the team would be ready to take off. This is going back to no defensive responsibility but with kids in the net backstopping it. Know who else did that? The Eulers. No, not the good version of them from the mid-late 80's. The version from the late 00's after Pronger bolted. How'd that work out? Really hoping that was misquoted or misinterpreted. This team needs to play fast because except for a very few they don't play physical and because they have the skill to play fast. But you can play fast and sound too. It isn't a one or the other situation. Am hoping that Granato was referring to playing with speed and aggression when saying they might go back to what they did last year and not that they'll just leave the goalies hung out to dry and hope to win a lot of 6-5 games.

Good to see Levi settle down after the 1st period. He absolutely wanted that 1st one back and should've wanted the 2nd one back too.

Good to see that they crush it in the blue and gold. Pretty sure we don't have to hear about how the only reason they win games at home is because they wear black and red there.

What are the chances that they figure out that they need to play this hard EVERY game to make sure he's back? If they would skate like this every game, the coach they clearly love to play for would be a lock to be back next year.

You missed the 1st minute of the BJ's game?

He did an absolutely brilliant job describing what we can expect the Sabres to be bringing this holiday season. But it still is truly sad that it is what we should expect.

It probably isn't. And it stinks because had Adams and Granato been willing to make those kind of changes this off-season when they should've been made, we very likely wouldn't be here watching them get to a point where the much more significant change needs to happen.

Imagine how bad it would've been had they not signed 😀😄😀 Kane. (Sorry, couldn't quite get that out fully without laughing.)

IF Brind'Amour would come to Buffalo, they need to keep Granato for however long it takes for Camelface to feel he's not hosing a fellow brother. Gallant has been high on the list for years. Can't see him ever getting brought in, but he'd be great to get them back fully into relevance. But, at this point, would be pleased with just punting Ellis off the bench and bringing in Woods. Would like more than that to happen, but at least that's a start in the right direction.

There's a bunch of guys that it would be sad to see go. But if the team improves, will get over it. But like @pi2000 says, the move to make 1st comes from the coaching ranks.

Then Mittelstadt must be pacing for 68 or 69.

Speaking of which, wtf is 11 w/ his annual Santy Claus routine?

Ding, ding, ding.

It definitely sounded like a different announcer last night. We missed the off-ice officials announcement in the pregame (we usually do miss that, and not sure if the PA announcer's name gets announced anyhow) so no idea who it was upstairs reading the announcements. Thought he misread the announcement for the 5th goal. (Didn't hear which goal he was announcing, but with missing that, listening casually the whole thing sounded identical, right down to the time.) But it turned out the announcement was correct. Everything was the same, just the times slightly different. 4th goal, 7:37; 5th goal 7:55.

Not completely opposed to it. (Right now, am not opposed to much.) But IF he is traded, then they are left with exactly E Johnson as a stay at home D man. (Stillman too should he ever be brought back up.) Not a huge fan of every single player being a photocopy (and some mighty fuzzy ones at that) of every other player. Would be much more agreeable to it if a legit vet stay at home D-man was the return. (Side pieces to balance out a trade one way or another not really being a concern IMHO.)

Agree that R Johnson and Dahlin COULD be good. Just really am getting tired of expecting rookies to play above where they should because the vets are either underperforming or outright bad. Dahlin-Jokiharju is far from ideal (and have railed against it for ages), but it seems the best they have right now. (For the simple reason, don't want to force R Johnson into top pairing in his 1st NHL season.) Put the rookie on the 2nd pairing with somebody else, Clifton is somebody else, maybe him but don't really want him on 2nd pairing either, and let them get slightly reduced ice time for a 2nd pairing with 2 of the others getting 3rd pairing usage but slightly above average 3rd pairing ice time. The F's not abandoning the zone at the instant control might be gained could help all of them look better too.

Forgot to mention it in the game recap, but last night the old we have control of the puck (or think we have control of the puck) near our own goal line so the F's can all wait for a pass with 1 guy at the red line and the other 2 at the other blue line was REALLY noticable because they did that more than 10 times throughout the game. Probably wasn't noticable on TV as once they're out of the zone the camera loses them, but it wasn't like one guy was waiting for the long bomb with the other 2 just outside the blue line. All 3 were in the next time zone. THAT has to end.

Wilford is the bench coach for the D. Girardi works in practices with them too. ( @Brawndo can clarify if that isn't completely accurate.)