Taro T

Dayum. Don't go trying to dive into the hot tub tonight after all that and what's surely to come. Makes it too easy on your headstone maker when he only has to chisel in the day once surrounded by the 2 years. Happy B'day, Doc. Seems you've had fun so far; hope it continues all day.

Not asking about the guy in the meme. Totally not getting the (presumably sarcastic) remark about Kulich not earning the callup. Just the "tone" of the remark caused it to not ring as sarcastic. (And this is where the written medium falls short. Tone can easily get lost.)

They really need to bring back the quizzicle looking reaction emoji. That one sailed way overhead.

Shh, don't bring facts into the discussion.

Yeah, it'll be a good problem to have trying to figure out where best to play Thompson, Mittelstadt, and Cozens. Was hoping this year would be Cozens coming out party, maybe it still will be.

Possible lines: Skinner - Mittelstadt - Thompson Benson - Cozens - Peterka Rosen - Kulich - Olofsson Jost - Krebs - Okposo Not loving the bottom 6. Edit: They'll probably move Olofsson to the Okposo line and move Jost up to the kid's line sliding Kulich to a W.

Girgensons to IR. Greenway out "due to a personal matter." So, either they are both up on regular recall and a move besides Girgensons to IR is required, or one is up on emergency recall until Greenway's "personal matter" is resolved. Yesterday, they were saying Greenway was dealing with an injury. Wonder what the real deal is with him. He did practice in the AM yesterday per reports.

Good call on Grigorenko. (And the mishandling of Grigorenko - they didn't realize because of the lockout that his window for not burning the ELC was only 5 games was one of the 1st straws on that camel's back that broke oh so long ago.) They very well could end up sending Benson back to WA after Thompson &/or Quinn are back. Wouldn't be able to bring him back at all though unless they make a very deep playoff run as the Memorial Cup doesn't end until June this year and that team should Benson go back should be a favorite this year. Personally, expect he's here all year but wouldn't have any money on it either way. But using him on the PK shows that the coaching staff has a lot of faith in him. (And is a big part of why the expectation is he'll be here all year.)

And, watching the recap, there were 4 goals that he'd've liked to have back (importantly including the 1st), but there were 4 he had absolutely no prayer on. The Canes PK and defensive zone coverage in general were getting beat on those passes through from side to side. The danger of the highly aggressive D. IF the other team gets those passes through, they are REALLY high danger opportunities. And, of the 4 he'd like to have back, 2 of them were not exactly "easy" saves.

Ristolainen - strong as an ox and almost as smart. 😉

Play 0.600 hockey for the next 10-20 games until reinforcements are back and they can do what they need to do to make the playoffs. Leaves 42-52 games to find the 4 points they should've had at this point but don't have.

Granato didn't say last night. Considering he was playing well in the earlier game before going out injured and he has a history with them (and Granato loves to let guys play against their old teams) that is a good assumption.

Comrie played very well against them until he went out injured. Would give him tonight's game, UPL the Rags game, and Levi the Blues game. C'mon boys, get back above 0.500 again tonight. Play like you did in the 3rd yesterday and it's extremely doable.

That is a very valid concern. The good thing this year is the good games have been significantly better than they've been in the past. The other good thing is, when he only has to move across 1/2 the crease he's been moving far better than he has in the past and he's making those saves. That has improved within this season. Hoping and expect they give him the Rags game. Will be a very good test to see if last night's UPL is the real one.

Actually, whichever D-man made the play on the Pen with the puck behind UPL and about 3-1/2 minutes to go saved the game. That puck ends up in the net almost any other night this year. But UPL's excellent play yesterday kept them in the game long enough for that play to matter and was a major part of why the team won the game. He was named the 3rd star, and personally would've had him 1 or 2.

That, or it might be an emergency recall because there are fewer than 12 healthy F's on the roster prior to the recall.

To the bolded, the PA system was as loud as usual. Those of us that have the speakers directly facing us could barely hear each other when they were playing music or having somebody speak over the PA system. Just like every other game. Were you sitting in the 200's? A lot of people in those seats claim that they can barely hear the sound. Have been told that there are plans to upgrade the system for next season. Hoping that's the case. Only remember to bring ear plugs to about 1/2 the games we go to.

Didn't read the rest of the thread, so apologies if any of this is redundant. Missed prior to the 1st TV timeout because the electronic ticket wouldn't load right and it took them from before the anthems until just before the TV timeout to get me an actual paper ticket. - Ain't technology grand. 🤪 Though they weren't scoring in the 1st 40, they seemed overall to be playing the Pens pretty evenly. It seemed every D-man wanted to hit Nylander. Good. F' that guy. UPL had by far his best game. He looked the calmest and most in control that he has. With 2 horribly horrific exceptions, that the D were actually helping him see to the puck and to keep Pens from being able to get backdoor chances was no doubt a part of him being so settled in, but he played really well and deserved another SO. No idea what Dahlin was thinking getting out of the way of the Crosby shot. (It was very reminiscent of Power getting out of the way of the shot the other night in Winnipeg.) Sure, try to get out of the goalie's way BEFORE the shot is taken, so he can see it leave the shooter's stick and track it way better; but if you're setting a screen DON'T then jump out of the way. Have even less of an idea what he was thinking on the 2nd goal against. (THAT was very reminiscent of the 4th Bruin goal when Power sent the puck out front to the B's.) Nothing the goalie can do when his D are setting the opponents up in the slot. After that though, Dahlin settled down in the 3rd and played very well the last 20. (After having some other iffy moments in the 1st 40.) But the biggest difference in the end of this game and many others they've played this year is when with ~3-1/2 minutes left to play and the puck got behind UPL after they'd battled back to tie it, his D both kept the Pen that would've had an open net tap in away from the puck and they cleared it too. Which gave Skinner and Tuch the opportunity to get the go ahead goal. And then after that, they NEVER let the Pens control the puck in their own end the rest of the way. Hoping they all pay attention to the way they played the last 200-230 seconds, because they played the sort of hockey that even @PerreaultForever can get behind. It was awesome to be there for that. Speaking of which, it was IIRC the 2nd sellout of the season (maybe it was the 1st; not positive if the opener vs the Rags was sold out or just close) and the team left those in attenance leaving with a good taste in their mouths. And, it seems that for the 1st time, the Sabres policy of not selling tix to those from unsavory Zip Codes finally worked. The crowd was probably 3/4 Sabres fans AND the building was full. And, except for Ryan Johnson and possibly Tyson Jost, every player that was still healthy at game's end took part in those final 3+ minutes. Benson just missed a shot wide. Cozens with the hustle to get the icing waived off and get Karlsson to give his best Pittsburgh Stealer imitation. Glad they decided to call Peterka for a 4 minute HS rather than just a 2 minute one because they couldn't have reviewed the call. Also glad they actually did the right thing and took that penalty off the board. If he hadn't been checked in the head by Letang (the name of which means 'the Tang' in French 😉 ) his stick never would've come up. And were it anyone other than Letang making that hit, he probably would've been called and would be looking forward to a call from the head of player discipline; but it's Letang so the league will look the other way. Something still seems to be wrong with Samuelsson. Pretty sure he had the turnover that led to Crosby's goal and something just seems "off" with him. Can't really put a finger on it. And maybe that had Dahlin off slightly in the 1st 1/2 of the game. Ras definitely picked his play up in the 3rd. Clifton was hitting everything in sight (especially when it had an 11 on its back) and only had a couple of oopsies. Both Johnsons are very settled. Not at all surprising Erik is; kind of surprising how settled Ryan is. But Granato does seem to be giving him opportunities to succeed. Jokiharju wasn't noticed much on the ice tonight which is a good thing. Power still is having rougher stretches than would like to see; but he might've been the D-man that had UPL's back to save the night. Still not a fan of Skinner on the top PP unit (his passing kills so many chances) but that goal of his on the PP was massive. (And he'll never get moved from the top unit, so guess it is what it is.) Really bad penalty by Geno set that one up. He had a couple of other huge gaffes in the 3rd that helped the Sabres have the opportunity for the comeback and to actually comeback. Probably should've been one of the 3 stars as he was instrumental in the Sabres victory. As was whichever D-man tipped Okposo's pass to Krebs into the net. Nice to see that the Sabres opponent can do that occassionally too. Thought that line had its best game of the year prior to Girgensons getting hurt. Have no idea what happened to Z; just knew he wasn't there in the 3rd. Maybe Cozens relates well to players that are younger than him. He was playing well between Peterka and Benson. And that line was working pretty well. Wouldn't mind seeing them stay together for a few games to see if the 3 can generate some serious chemistry. The Mittelstadt line, in the 1st 2 periods got a ton of scoring chances but it seemed they could never get the puck actually on net. And then Tuch got robbed early in the 3rd. Couldn't figure out why Skinner didn't go hard to the net on that play watching it live, but then saw that he needed to pretty much come to a stop to keep from having the D-man crossing end up taking his head off. Jost was solid. Olofsson was OK too, though still not sure how he didn't connect w/ a puck that got past him at the side of the net in the 2nd. Thought that one was going to be buried. Granato was saying they almost called a F up from Ra-cha-cha today when Greenway was questionable and now with no update on Girgensons until tomorrow, they likely will bring somebody up. Expecting they'll use an emergency recall for that as they will only have 10 or 11 healthy F's on the roster. Will be interesting if they send a D or a G down or if they do use the emergency callup. Will also be interesting to see who gets the callup. Expecting it'll be Kulich, but we shall see. Also will be interesting to see which of the 3 goalies get the nod tomorrow in Joisey. IF they play in front of that one the way they played in front of UPL tonight, would be a great thing to see. 20 games - 20 points. 5-5-0 at home; 4-4-2 on the road. Need to find a way to make up the 4 missing points somehow over these next 62 games and also a way to start generally going at least 6-4-0 over the next 10. Points in 3 straight games. Let's keep it up, boys!

Will also be attending. Thought the kids were going to take the tix, but the one that had to work today bailed. Hope we get the team that showed up against the Avs rather than the one that showed up against the B's. (or the Pens for that matter.)

Don't want to see Levi sent down (defintiely not yet) because his ceiling is higher than either of the other 2. All 3 are playing like quality backups right now. They'll give the team a chance to win. But with Thompson and Quinn out, Tuch and Cozens playing through/ recovering from injury, Clifton learning the system, and Power in a sophomore slump; don't know that the team will step up and seize that opportunity to win often enough. Of the 3, IMHO Levi has the highest ceiling, and also the greatest likelihood of picking up his play. For that reason, do not want to see him sent down. And, his playing 1 game a week currently and watching alternatively from the press box and from the bench will get him to that next level more than playing on average 2 games per week against weaker competition. (Amerks only have 6 games over the next 3 weeks at this point in time.) (Plus, was told by many here that playing 4 games over 8 days is why he broke heading into the Calgary game. Won't he have that same issue or worse when the Amerks start getting to their regular 3 game/ week schedule?) Not for nothing, but for all the talk around here of how horrible Levi's been, since he came back from injury he's 2-1-1 with wins over TO and Minny, an OT loss to the 9-1-1 Caps, and a loss to the B's. Who expected a better record than that? Any of you raising your hands, did you have it better than 3-1-0? And, right now, want absolutely nothing to do with Bryson in the lineup unless there are injuries or other consideration. My 2 cents. YMMV.

Dahlin had the mean in him at the WJCs that were in Buffalo. He liked playing physical in his own end. Has Power ever demonstrated a physicality to his game? (Honestly asking.) If he has, there's a decent chance he'll develop that. If not, wouldn't expect that tool to get added to the box. But, he can use his size better than he currently does even if he doesn't draw on an inner Jay McKee/Rhett Warrener. And expect he will do so as he seemed to use his size well to take away lanes and take away pucks at Michigan.

And to further that thought, didn't Shane Wright stay in Seattle until the WJC's and then go back to Juniors after they were over? It's not like keeping a kid past the ELC year burning game automatically means he must be up the entire year. Benson being in the lineup now with Thompson and Quinn out does not guarantee he'll be in the lineup when they come back.

Doubtful. More likely this one will be about 70-30 Sabres fans (maybe even 80-20). This one could actually be a success for the "enemy zip codes can't buy tix until the last minute" policy. Looking at the website, there's only ~1000 seats available. Could be a lot of Sabres fans wanted to go with family as they're back for the holidays. IF this one is majority Pens fans, then that ticketing policy is an even bigger failure than it was expected to be.

They run the PP they are coached to run. Even lacking Thompson and Quinn (who didn't get PP1 usage last year) they could run a PP1 with Dahlin, Peterka, Tuch, Mittelstadt, & Cozens or Benson. With a 2nd unit with Power, Benson or Cozens, Skinner, Olofsson, & Greenway in front of the net. If they didn't want to use Greenway there, they could use 2 D adding RJ2 to that mix. It's not the talent, it's the scheme (or lack thereof).

Honestly don't know if it will or won't. But him not going back today doesn't mean it won't happen come January.