Taro T

No, 3 losses. 10-7 IF they can stay healthy is the most likely outcome. But 11-6, again, with getting some reasonable health isn't out of the question. But they might've lost Benford and Hyde yesterday with Bernard getting a concussion which could keep him out of a game too. Apparently Jackson was dinged as well. If they've lost those guys for any appreciable time, that 9-8 is looking accurate or maybe a game too optimistic.

You saw Milano, White, and Jones all going out with season ending injuries? Because minus those, this team is well above an 0.500 team. And still expect this team to finish with 10 or 11 W's even with those injuries. So, it might still be a little premature to pat yourself on the back. Or do you know of some additional injuries that should cost them another game or 2?

Best of Lists and Power Rankings; 2 items that the authors deserve to end up on their own plane of h-e-double-hockey sticks when they eventually meet their demise. But, but, WE'RE the experts. You know it because we told you so. So there.

RJ2 can be RJ too. The world's a big place and there can be room for another. 🤪

As long as you drink some before taping up the cord, you should be good.

If his nickname wasn't "Johnny Hockey" would ANYONE be interested in helping the BJs save themselves from themselves?

When Samuelsson comes back in a week or so, who do you sit for Johnson the Younger? Dahlin, Power, and Samuelsson are all written into the lineup in stone. Granato loves him some Jokiharju. Johnson the Elder is the calming influence on the PK and the conscience of the defense. Doubt they'd pull their $3.33MM new toy out of the lineup either. At some point this year, he'll be on the roster for good and in the lineup most nights. Just don't expect they're at that point yet.

THIS season, yes. In prior years, no, not even close. Seems keeping him well under 10 minutes per game (unless the team has a 3+ goal lead, in which case he gets regular rotation minutes) giving the good D-men additional ice time works. But it is likely very unsustainable as the good D-men will wear down. But, even though he only played a smidge under 15 minutes in his last 2 games combined he still managed to end up a minus one in one of them.

Don't know. Guess it depends upon where it is you're interacting with him. 😉

Take it up with the players. THEY'RE the ones using that nickname.

RJ (sorry, that's what the team calls him, it's likely going to stick) looked good in very limited ice time. (Not as limited as Bryson got, but limited. He played a little over 8 minutes,) He looked calm out there and had a beautiful looooong breakout pass to Skinner for his 1st NHL assist. @Doohickie was trying to make RyJo stick. Will be interesting to see if it does. It won't with the team; but maybe with the fans.

It was a fun game to watch. The stats say Levi had a bad game, but he made big saves early and gave them time to get their legs going before giving up a breakaway to Marner. On the Sabres 1st goal, a PP goal, loved that Power actually didn't do the drop back pass on the PP and he got the puck into the zone, Olofsson got a shot off that went wide but Peterka recovered the puck, got it back to Power who made a nice pass back to JJ who buried it through a screen by Okposo which tied it at one. It was a typical Sabres TO game IMHO. Both teams like to fly and they both did. Thompson's goal was a beautiful strip of Marner for a SH breakaway. Woll isn't stopping that. Gave the Sabres their 1st lead of the game. Porn Stache got a hattie, but after each of his goals the Sabres answered back within a couple of minutes so TO never really got momentum going from those goals. Johnson and Bryson each got very little ice time, but Johnson looked good including a great breakout pass on Skinner's goal. Bryson was fine in extremely limited time. Greenway was solid at both ends of the ice. A blocked shot of his set up Peterka on a breakaway. And a rush with Peterka, Mittelstadt, and Greenway resulted in Greenway burying a rebound of Mitts. Dahlin was back to being Dahlin. It was his shot that Tuch shouldered/elbowed in for the winner. The PK was effective, in no small part due to Levi. They blanked them on their 1st 3 PPs but gave up 12 shots. On their 4th PP, unfortunately they cleared the puck down ice. Say unfortunately, because TO rushed the puck back up ice and got through the box with Matthews getting the puck in the slot with speed and he scored 5 hole. You hate to see 5 hole goals, but it was arguably the best goal scorer in the league that netted it. Maybe had they not been able to clear the zone, Matthews wouldn't have been able to get through that cleanly because he wouldn't have had a head of steam. (Sometimes even though you make the good play, the other guys come back and make a better one.) Didn't see the 3rd TO goal. It came 17 seconds into the 3rd also off the stick of Matthews from a sharp angle. Expect Levi would like that one back, but again, didn't see it well so not sure if it was on him or the D. 4th goal against came after a lost faceoff after an icing and Porn Stache deflected it with his stick even with or just below the cross bar. No prayer for Levi on that one. The Sabres came to play. They only had 11 F's and 7 D and the mixing and matching of lines and pairings worked. They got a ton of shots and a ton of chances. They were IMHO the better team tonight. Like mentioned above, it was a fun game to watch.

You sure Woll is their backup. Samsonov is having another bad season; just like he did last year. Woll's played more, has a better SV%, and a better GAA. Not convinced he's the backup.

So, fears of a concussion? Hope not. That'd be his 2nd as a Sabre.

It probably is a big part of it. But, yeah, they can't sustain hiding Bryson and Olofsson and ... the entire year. Hate that the next game is Carolina because they are the good team that the Sabres match up worst against. Give Levi the start and hope he can stop enough to let them sneak out a victory down there.

Well, that's kind of the point. When Bryson is in, the good D get more ice time. And more good things happen. 😉

Yes, and no. It was a cluster of a game but a W. Still would like to have seen how that 2nd game would've played out had the 1st 6 minutes not seen them give up 2 goals on 2 shots and lose their best defensive D-man (no, not getting into an argument over whether Johnson is better in his own zone than Samuelsson because Muel plays 50% more than EJ does). That's one heck of a gut punch to start.

There are a lot of legit criticisms of Granato, but it can never be said that they carry a bad game into the next one nor that they're intimidated at the thought of facing a team that can be one of the top regular season teams.

Yep, and very nice to see Dahlin immediately go retrieve the puck for him.

You know what set that up? For the 1st time this entire ####ing season, Power DIDN'T DROP THE PASS BACK ####ing up the entry. They got into the zone clean, recovered the 1st missed opportunity and then Power made a nice pass to Peterka and Okposo had a great screen set up in front. Praise the Lord, Power didn't do that stupid mother ####ing drop pass. (Believe it was because he was over along the boards and it really wasn't an option; but don't care WHY he didn't drop it back. He DIDN'T drop it back and the unit scored!)

Welcome back!

7 days minimum.

Absolutely no way they brought him up just to watch an NHL game from the press box. Bryson may have FINALLY entered Olofsson territory in the grand scheme of things. So, maybe something good came out of this H&H set. Rhetorical, right?

Doubt it is. But it should definitely be considered if not actually enacted. Should they miss the playoffs, expect it'll be an assistant or 2 that take the fall with Granato on a very short leash and Adams suddenly not in position to have a job for life with this or-gan-i-zay-shun. (Still say at a minimum they should've brought somebody else in to run the PP this past off-season. Hoping the reason it wasn't done isn't because that would move up the timeline on the rest of these possibilities.)

Well, considering that now with Anderson retired, you ARE older than every single player on the team, can understand how that's just now sinking in for you. 😉 Belated welcome to the club. 😛 The next big "milestone" in that regard is your kids no longer being draft eligible. 😲