Taro T

For a single game or 2, quite possibly. The rest of the D group (and the F's too) know that he won't be available and they'll have to be at the tops of their games to make up for him being out. That extra push is possible for short stints, but if he ends up out 10 or 20 games, they're forked. They aren't good enough to collectively play at a high enough level to make up for his absence when they don't have the adrenaline of the immediacy of his absence.

Personally expect this issue goes back to the hits he took on the FLA trip right around the ASG that Thompson bowed out of. But regardless of what hits caused the issue in the 1st place, not sure how much can be fixed in the off-season. It started this season literally within 5 minutes of being on the ice skating in a non-contact passing drill. Fearing that we're getting post-back issues Lemieux here. Can still be truly magical with the puck on a good day, but can't even put on his own skates on a bad day. (There were games where Lemieux literally had somebody else lace his skates because he couldn't bend over that far to do it himself.) And he'll end up missing anywhere from 10 - 30 games each year because of them. Hoping training and rehab methods have improved significantly in the last 30 years, but would be very pleasantly surprised if this isn't an issue going forward.

@Thorner already pointed it out, but Regier WAS fired for the team's performance (or lack thereof) on the ice. The owners wanted the worst team in hockey, which Regier gave them. But they also wanted the team to be watchable, which Regier did not give them.

It was said on WGR that night, that he left the game because of back spasms and that is the same injury that held him out of training camp/preseason games. It also would explain why his play was very limited the 1st 3 or so weeks of the season. And it also could very likely cause him to be very limited for the next 3 or so weeks when he does come back. We're friggin' cursed.

The 1 minute PP is when/where he went out. Hoping he's only out a couple of games, because am not convinced they can cover for his absence any longer than that. BUT if he's going to play like he did the 1st 3 weeks of the season coming back in 2 games would rather they hold him out longer to actually get him back at 90%+. Sucks that the issue is back spasms as that'll be something that could flare up at pretty much anytime.

Can't be the bolded. No cheerleaders on any of his teams to be "thinking" about during alone time in the badezimmer.

Had seats in a different location last night, so had a different view of the game. Between them, at the "shoot twice" end, Cozens and Quinn had at least 5 passes that missed their mark by a good 10' and ended up back (harmlessly, thankfully) by UPL. How much different would this season look if Adams had been able to land Kane or one other top 6 veteran so that even with Greenway and Lafferty out of the lineup they'd be able to bench Quinn &/or Cozens without force feeding ice time to Kulich, Kozak, & Rosen? Still believe they MAY be able to recover from that loss. But this is a true low point. Hoping it's THE low point but wouldn't have money on it, especially if Dahlin is either out or playing like he did the 1st 2 weeks of the season.

At 3-0 kept looking over at the Avs bench to see if Wedgewood was gearing up. Nope; good. At 4-0 saw Wedgewood getting ready. Said to the people around us, hope that 4 goals is enough. Wedgewood is usually kryptonite for the Sabres and they seem to rarely score after chasing a starter. Shades of the Pittsburgh game. Unfortunately, along with Dahlin's back spasms, they needed Giorgiev to stay between the pipes for at least 1 more. Maybe if they could've gotten more than a minute beyond the ineffective PP to start the 3rd before giving up goal 2 they could've withstood Dahlin being out. But boy did the mood in that building change wtih that 2nd goal. Sad that we're hoping for OT with only 18 minutes to go and a 2 goal lead.

Russ Brandon was Rex Ryan's biggest supporter. HE was the one that told Pegula to sign him before he left. Russ was 100% about the sizzle and not the steak and couldn't care less about anyone not named Russ Brandon.

Less than a week ago he predicted playoffs for them. If you saw that, you'd likely have found that a fun read.

Was wondering who would post that 1st. Knew this kid wasn't the only one who thought of that after that truly touching saga. 🍺

Yeah, am with @Pimlach on this one. Expect it isn't the injury because it really didn't manifest itself as an issue when he came back last year. Expect the issue started out him thinking way too much about what he was supposed to be doing in the new coach's system and now that he's starting to figure out where he's supposed to be he's gripping the stick too tight. He'd probably be a great choice to sit in the press box a couple of games with a coach sitting next to him, but with Greenway and Lafferty out they aren't likely to sit him as well to give Kozak some ice time. Heck, expect that Kulich could use a brief spell in the press box or back in Ra-cha-cha briefly but they can't do that move either right now.

IMHO there is a big reason WHY the team is in what could end up year 14 of a playoff drought. (With the exception of the current GM's tenure) ever since Pegula has owned the team, he has changed directions within 3 seasons and hired guys that have a significantly different plan for how to build a team and none of them are complementary to what the previous guy was doing so each new GM ends up effectively starting from scratch vs what the previous guy was building. Pegula started out big on bringing in FA's to supplement what was already here but abandoned that almost immediately for a scorched earth multiyear tank and rebuild. Regier accumulated a ton of prospects and picks and also iced one of the worst teams in NHL history in doing so. Murray was brought in to complete the tank and then accelerate the rebuild. He wanted to follow the LA Kings model with a big hard forechecking squad. He was out after Bylsma's 2nd season was a step back. Botterill was brought in to change the direction (and winning the Dahlin lottery gave him the cover (or whatever you want to call it) to move on from O'Reilly) and he wanted more of a speed team. He fell out of favor and was replaced by Adams who started out trying (half-heartedly?) to build around the original tank fruit but when that season blew up in the revenue-restricted COVID season, he was given the go ahead to go back to more of Regier's vision for the original tank - rebuild with skilled youth. This team's issue, again IMHO, ISN'T Skill vs Grit, it is they're still the youngest team in the league; that will necessarily bring growing pains with it. Are the kids, who are still young but experienced for their youth having been brought up to the NHL a season or 2 (or 3) years earlier than most franchises would've brought them up, experienced enough to overcome their youth now that (except on the PP particularly and on entries in general) they have an experienced coach with actual NHL caliber plans directing them? The jury is still out as they continue to flirt with being just out, then just in, then just out, then just in a playoff position again and so on and so forth. They seem to be learning how to play the way Ruff wants them to play and also seem to be getting NHL goaltending reasonably consistently for the 1st time since Miller was traded. (Ullmark's brief flashes weren't nearly often enough as he was out of the lineup too often.) But they are also still very young and have issues getting the puck to the net against heavy teams. Desperately want to see them make the playoffs this year; in large part because do not want to see them blow it up AGAIN and move into a different direction right when (some of) the kids are actually getting close to not being kids anymore. Honestly suspect they won't blow the team up if they miss but are close; but even if that's the case, am REALLY sick of not getting to watch OUR team play beyond tax day. AND, if they miss and don't blow it up, there is NO guarantee that NEXT YEAR would finally be the charm. Either way, this perpetual Ground Hog's Day we've lived through for well over a dozen year needs to friggin' end. Still want to see a true top 4 defensive D-man brought in (the kind Samuelsson was SUPPOSED to be and Granato for no apparent reason believed Jokiharju was/is). IF they make that move, then 1 more F for the top 6 would be the next item on the list. The acquisition of McLeod shows that Adams doesn't have to destroy the pipeline to bring in a guy that can help today AND in the future. And their need to run Kulich at all of 20 (21?) yo as the 3C highlights that the team needs to make 1 more move up front, preferrably right after making that move for the 4th top 4 D-man.

Nobody at the end of the day cares. Nobody cared when White and Miller and a couple other key players were out in the playoffs 2 years ago. Nobody cared that Milano, Jones, White and a couple other key players were out in the playoffs last year. You play with who you have and you go up against whoever they've got. This Bills team is special. Hoping it can stay that way for 2 more months.

Oh, there's a chance. Will they actually do it? Don't know, but won't agree that they can't do it until they're actually eliminated. Won't move from believing they can do it to believing they have no chance whatsoever because they lost once again against a team they don't match up well against (frustratingly) that they always lose to. The loss in Columbus a month ago is the type that they can't let happen; the loss at home to Moe-ray-all is the type they can't let happen. This is one of the ones in the 40% of L's they can take and still make the dance that they're going to take because they are a middling team and not a true SC contender. When they start winning THIS game, they won't just be a playoff contender, they'll be a SC contender too. Take advantage of CO's GTing woes on Tuesday and the sting will dissipate.

Amazing how often through the years the Wild have ended up with players this kid would really have liked to see the Sabres in on.

As this is the BILLS thread, thought people could use some good news. Milano, Bernard, and Johnson on the field at the same time. So much for short to intermediate passes against.

He'd told Adams when Adams got hired that if he wanted to move in a different direction that he was open to getting traded. Instead, they tried to give him enough support in mercenaries such as Hall and Staal to make it happen. A better upgrade would've been looking at Hutton. Oh well. Rebuild 3.0 might actually be working. They really need to make the playoffs this year so we don't end up going through Rebuild 4.0.

Still expect when all is said and done the Sabres will finally find themselves in the dance. But this is one of those games they need to win to get more people onto the bandwagon.

Always suspected Peca liked him because he was the only guy the Sabres have drafted in forever that projected towards being a bottom 6er right from the get go and he was willing to play that way. There are guys like Rousek who have worked their way down to that and guys like Murray who have worked their way down below even that to career AHLer; but Kozak is one of the very few that they weren't bringing in with the expectation that they could fit into the top 6 given enough cooking time. Plus, considering how bizarre the sport was in '20-'21, there was the hope that maybe they'd lucked into a guy that should've been chosen much higher. And Peca's endorsement of the kid only fueled that hope.

And, perhaps it WAS a firing offense.

Nah. Eberflus said he knew they had a TO left but he wanted to save it to get the FG unit on the field. Thing is, when it got down to just 15 seconds left, he needed to call the timeout as the WRs were still moving which prevented Williams from snapping the ball with ~10 seconds left (it would've been illegal motion had he snapped the ball before both were set after both were moving together and would've resulted in a 10 second run off (or they'd've been forced to burn their TO to prevent the runoff; so why not just burn it with 15 seconds left if not even earlier and settle everything down) and they didn't get the snap off until only 7 seconds were left. And Eberflus STILL claims that their plan there was correct. (Now THAT is/ should be a firing offense.)

Gives people that are avoiding the shopping nightmare the ability to avoid the Chefs - Raiders nightmare happening at the same time?

Who is?

But Tua's dreamy. 😜