Taro T

7-3 tonight. They flat out dominated Springfield and Malcolm Subban. They outshot them more than 2-1. Especially in the 3rd, they played much tighter D than they had in the couple of games I'd had a chance to watch this season.

For once the 10 minute long anthems worked in our favor. Managed to get to our seats before the puck dropped, though it was tight. Nothing UPL could do on the 1st one. Frustrating that Cozens hit the crossbar ~1 minute before. Was expecting UPL to stop the breakaway as he's been making that save for the last month or so. It was a well placed shot. The 1 passer, 1 shooter, 1 forechecker lines from the Chicago game only lasted 1 period. Theoretically, it should work, but at this point in the year chemistry matters. So frustrated watching them get the puck into the zone with some speed behind them and an opportunity to either drive the puck below the goal line to generate some net front chaos or to drive right past the D towards the net and instead of doing either just curl back towards the blue line to set up a slow developing play that typically results in an intercepted pass taking the puck out of the offensive zone. All the lines do it. That HAS to be the strategy. And whomever came up with it needs to be on the next bus out of town sitting right next to Matt Ellis. The bloody PP cost them another game. -1 through 2 opportunities. In a game they were only down by 1 goal until they pulled the goalie. People wonder why they can never get a loser point. Pretty sure it has something to do with the same idiot drawing up 6v5 plans that draws up 5v4 plans. Again, for the love of all that's good and Holy, PLEASE relieve Ellis of his coaching duties by the AS break at the latest. Now that they're finally getting goaltending, they're competitive. Need to stop playing with 1 hand tied behind their backs. (The horrible PP schemes and execution.) Good to see Cozens get another goal. Maybe he's on the verge of getting out of his slump. On to CA. As good a place as any to finally get a 3 game winning streak going.

Makes sense, now that UPL is actually playing like an NHL starter. But that was not the case prior to this homestand. When Levi will go a long time without NHL action as he's now experiencing, slide him down and let him get extra games in. But for any games that UPL won't be starting, they need Levi back in the fold. This afternoon's loss REALLY hurts. 5 points out seems doable. 9 is a huge gap. They can't throw away more points on Comrie starts.

And those rumors were discussed here quite a bit. With most of us expecting those rumors were complete BS. (So much for that belief.)

You SURE about the bolded? Botterill famously said that if the Sabres were to win the Dahlin lottery it would make retooling (not positive of the exact word he used and too tired to bother looking it up at this point in time) much easier to do. That seemed cryptic to yours truly when it was said, but when O'Reilly was dealt, it sure seemed a lot clearer what he'd meant by that.

@Hank, your boy is REALLY playing well lately. He's moving better than he ever has professionally. Hoped that he'd eventually get to a point that he trusts the hips, but based on the way he was playing in preseason flat out didn't expect it to happen this season. Thought it MIGHT happen a couple of seasons from now but wouldn't have wanted to have to depend upon it. Would be really interested to know what changed to get him to this point. Know his training and diet changed in the off-season, but they didn't have a positive effect on his play in the preseason. Expecting it was more than just those. And with his movement improved, both his anticipation of where the play is going is noticably improved too and his rebound control is better too. Don't know that it's sustainable. But, if it was a uncomfortableness (for lack of a better word) in the way the hips felt when he moved which he's pushed through both physically and mentally, it very well could be sustainable. Really looking forward to watching him in the Tampa game because it will be a much better test than the last 2 games. He only gave up 1 goal to a very offensively sound Canucks squad, so he can get it done and he looked very good in that one too. Expecting he'll be strong again, hoping that's the case. He noticably is not the same goalie he was in camp. Of course, he's mentioned in the past that knowing his team trusts him and considers him THE one helps his mentality and it also seemed Levi was the annointed one and he was to a degree an afterthought. Wonder how much of the camp struggles were due to feeling he wasn't getting a fair shake if any of it was?

Said that in the back and forth with Brawndo. IF UPL is going to get 4-5 in a row, bump Levi down to Ra-cha-cha on Amerk game nights and bring Comrie up to back up UPL and flip them back after Levi got his work in. Just have to realize eventually Comrie will have to pass through waivers again if it becomes a regular occurance.

Would argue trading away Hasek was worse. But this should be hands down the bridesmaid of bad trades. That trade also included a 1st that became Kenny Jonsson. All for a goalie that wasn't as good as what was already on the roster.

Not saying that's my preferred outcome. But honestly expect that they like the roster they've assembled especially when looking at it with everyone nine months older.

Yep. Unless something really astounding happens (like Nashville deciding they don't want Saros any more for some completely non-apparent reason), these are the goalies for at least the next 2 seasons. Expecting at least 9 if not 10 or 11 of the forwards next year are on this roster right now, too. And 5, if not all 6 of next year's D are here too. Kulich and 3 or so guys not currently in the system will be the only newcomers. (Hoping that continuity doesn't carry through to the entire coaching staff too. Some major upgrades should be made there.)

Dominik Hasek was still a Sabre more recently than the Dolphins last playoff win.

Someone has probably already helped you with this, and this answer is WAY too late to be of any assistance today but hopefully it helps for the future, whenever the Bills and Sabres games conflict the Sabres get bounced to WKBW. Listened to the postgame there driving back home to watch the Bills on TV.

Quite the call. Did you also have Snarks 0, Bills 31?

Trading away Hasek hands down. A couple of honorable mentions: trading for Jacques Richard and trading for Buddy Cloutier.

Have only checked the full online edition a couple of times (basically setting it up for the 'Rents from their print subscription so they can get the "extras" from the paper) but the main section of the online edition those couple of times was identical to the print edition. Have they changed how the online edition is set up?

PF, in the Buffalo area we have what is known as the "Snow Belt." That map that Weave put up gives a pretty good approximation of where the Snow Belt lies. It doesn't always extend out to Batavia but it usually does extend a smidge to the east of Erie County. As you can see, Orchard Park is right smack dab inside the Snow Belt. And while Orchard Park isn't right on Lake Erie, the Stadium is nearly as far to the west (aka near to Lake Erie) as you can be and still say you're in Orchard Park. (There's a town to the west of it, Hamburg, but the stadium is almost in Hamburg.) While Buffalo has the reputation for snow, it USUALLY can't hold a candle to the "South Towns" located in the heart of the Snow Belt. And, so far this weekend the Snow Belt has gotten hit much harder than Buffalo proper. So, as others have stated, yes, it really IS that bad.

Well, for starters Jackie, if this group of Eulers played under the same rules as the 80's Eulers played, they would either have not played ANY OT and that record setting game would've ended in a tie or they would've had 5 minutes of 5v5 play with neither team wanting to lose a point and LIKELY would've ended in a tie. There's other reasons as well, such as them not giving a rat's arse about playing D unless it was post their getting swept by the Aisles in the playoffs and it was also against either a Wales Conference team in the SCF or against the Flames.

The Snooze is printed in Cleveland. In order to make the print edition, the deadline for events is stupidly early. With the (at the time) impending travel deadline, it was likely even a few hours earlier than normal. (It seems in general to be even earlier than the old Courier Express' deadline used to be. And that complete lack of scores from the west coast and news from overnight is why the (former) Buffalo Evening News is the one (kind of) remaining newspaper in Buffalo.

Removing and replacing Ellis (and maybe one or 2 other assistants) very well may not be enough. But making those changes now will lend some data towards whether your contention is in fact correct.

Don't know that they expected a linear progression of improvement. They sold that concept, but not sure that they actually believe it. Their definitely trying to land Chychrun and likely trying to add Pesce indicate that they did (and one has to believe they still do) believe the team can still use reinforcements. But do believe that they expect that this team is still going to be overall on an upward trajectory via more of a random walk. Which IMHO is why Adams hasn't been willing to "overpay" for those reinforcements. And it's why it's so friggin' frustrating that the team missed the playoffs by 2 points last year and essentially stood pat this offseason. Had they made the playoffs last year, this season wouldn't be so exasperating. Had they made additional moves in the off-season or even during the season fans would at least have those to show, in GA's words, that Adams is DOING SOMETHING. For this kid, the most exasperating part is bringing the coaching staff back intact. The PP was, with a 6-7 week exception when they were by far the best in the league, hot trash all last year. The fact they WERE the best in the league for that 6-7 week window proved that there was too much talent on the roster for it to be hot trash. If it ain't the talent, it has to be the coaching. (It's not simply bad luck when it's BAD for 3/4 of the season.) Additional changes should've been made as well; but that one was an absolute no brainer even with all the kumbaya they were selling last year. It's a business and the hockey department's job is to win. The PP was flat out not just not helping that effort for the majority of the season it was actively detracting from it. A change needed to be made and it wasn't. Bob Wood is available. Bring him in over the AS break and have that right for the end of this year and moving forward next year.

Lots of kids in the building because of all the MLK weekend tournaments in the area. The guy trying very hard to get the wave going was with one of those groups. (His kids team was one of the ones that was down in the 100's and taking their shirts off after some kids in the 300's got onto the Jumbotron for taking theirs off.) Just trying to keep the kids into the game. And they all seemed to be even though the result wasn't the one the majority of the fans wanted to see. But there were more 'Nucks fans in the crowd than expected. At least 5%, maybe even 10% were wearing some variant of the 'Nucks sweaters through the years. (There was one really sweet green and black one that a bunch of people were wearing. No idea when they wore that nor what special occasion it was for, but that one was really sharp.)

Because the mf'n 6v5 is very likely the absolute worst in the entire league. Fix that and steal some loser points. They have exactly ONE 6v5 goal so far this year. They've lost more than 1/2 of their games so they've had at least 20 chances at it to date. PLEASE get a PP coach with a f'n clue.

How many people's tix you going to buy to keep the building empty?

Those of us in the building thought it was a good non challenge. While UPL did get bumped, it was before the guy set up for the shot and didn't seem to affect his attempt at the save. Can't see the league ruling in Buffalo's favor 2 times within a week on goaltender interference immediately after an overturned goal due to off-sides. Fully expect that the call would've stood and the Sabres would not have withstood the immediately ensuing PP.

At this point, no. Ask again in about 2 years and there's a great chance that answer changes. (Though the year after that, Benson might have something to say about it as well.)