Taro T

Agree with that in large part, but really believe losing Samuelsson caused a bit of a "crisis of confidence" among them all and that was a big part of them deciding to go full on Alamo mode essentially the entire 3rd period. If the next time they're protecting a slim lead heading into the 3rd they just into a total shell, well then we have an issue. Not meaning to excuse the Alamo mode because really don't want to do that and also will fully acknowledge it allowed the Bolts to steal a point and keep the Sabres from gaining a better tiebreaker outcome than they ended up with. But, missing their best pure defensive D-man, they did manage to hold the Bolts to about 3 quality chances that whole period. Of course, it only took that 3rd chance to get TB to OT.

Still say about 9k of those actually showed up. Good that it was over 12k paid. If the Sabres are there the 2nd week of the season, they'll get a fair amount of sellouts when the Bills season finally ends around the 1st of February.

This past game, Bogosian got about as good a check as he's going to throw in on Benson and one of the other Bolts got him lined up as well. He saw each coming and let them bounce right off him. This kid learned the right way to receive a check. One less thing to worry about him and his small size/youthfulness. He's not likely going to get messed up by anything clean going on in the game. And he could just as easily deal with a headhunter in Junior doing a Michael Peca style check leaving his feet to put all 200 #'s into the kid's head as he could deal with it in the NHL. Probably more likely in Junior/ the AHL (were he allowed to go there, which he isn't yet) because the grinders there are trying to make a name for themselves and are hoping to keep the dream alive. Not too many NHLers need to blow up a 170 # kid to make a name for themselves.

Umm: Skinner - Thompson - Tuch Peterka - Cozens - Quinn Greenway - Mittelstadt - Benson Girgensons - Krebs - Okposo Spare - Jost Punted into the sun - Olofsson Where exactly is the roster spot Benson earned getting usurped?

He did. It happens about once every 4 games that he has one that everybody in the building expected him to catch. Considering the targets he gets and that it seems to happen weekly for the 2nd and 3rd targets on the squad, pretty sure Allen isn't picking a new favorite just yet. 😉

Why wouldn't they let Levi go 4 straight? They haven't had a back to back yet. He'll have had 4 days off in the 8 days of the Sabres season and have only had 2 days where they were travelling. He is SIGNIFICANTLY better than either guy battling to continue to wear a baseball cap night in and night out. If Comrie or UPL start before the Moe-ray-all game on Monday would be surprised.

Depends on the message. There are a LOT of ways to read that attendance mark last night and it would not be a bad thing to frame last night's attendance against home game 2 of definitely the past 2 seasons and more perspective could likely be garnered by looking at at least the last 5 years of game 2's and probably it should be viewed against the whole continuum from when the MMArena opened. The REAL short answer is, they ARE getting fans back. Might still be some work they need to do to get even more back.

As stated above, this question about culture is quite interesting. But having a great culture isn't necessarily sustaining - look at the Habs, Aisles, & Eulers. Three teams that at a time defined professionalism and success and look where they are now. Even the mighty "that's the team you need to emulate" B's were a complete joke before expansion began but after Orr, Esposito, and a handful of others showed up they were winning Stanley Cups within 4 years and have had sustained runs of really strong teams for literally decades with only very minor downturns sprinkled in. Detroit was known as the Dead Things for ~20 years after having been one of the 2 best in the Original Six Era and then followed being the Dead Things with nearly a 20 year run of being a model franchise. These things can ebb and flow. But the key to all the successful teams wasn't that the guys from the past showed up and taught the younguns how to be a _____. They all had brilliant GMs and very good to great coaching that not only assembled a very talented bunch of players but got the most out of those players. This team SEEMS to be building a culture of its own. Am hopeful that they'll get to where we all want to see it reach. But even if it doesn't and more corrections need to be made, it sure as heck does seem to be on the right track. The mid-late 20's could be the true "golden era of Buffalo sports" as all 3 of the teams competing at the top level of their sport should be at a minimum contending for being the best in their sport and hopefully more than just the Bandits actually manage to climb the mountain.

When a player subject to waivers clears them and is loaned to the AHL squad and then subsequently gets recalled to the team that waived him, he doesn't have to clear waivers again should they decide to send him back to the AH squad until he's been up for at least 30 days or IIRC 10 games (whichever he reaches 1st). Those totals are cumulative, they don't restart after subsequent recalls. So, if Stillman comes back for 3 days and 2 games and then goes back down, he'd be able to be up for another 26 days &/or 7 more games before hitting the threshold on a subsequent recall. But that isn't the issue in why Stillman or Johnson can't come back up now. The Sabres have 23 players on the active roster. Unless one is removed from that, there is no room for any other players until the trade deadline has passed.

Not likely, unless they suddenly have a change of heart about waiving UPL. If Samuelsson is day to day, they aren't going to put him on IR as that puts him out of the lineup for at least 7 days which would cost him 3 games minimum. They can't bring a D up from Ra-cha-cha (nor a F for that matter) without making a corresponding move on the big club. Somebody needs to go to IR, get traded, or get loaned elsewhere (Ra-cha-cha, WA, Jacksonville, other AHL locale, etc) in order to bring another player up.

Unless it's a sellout, or close to one, they've been very reluctant in recent years to give the attendance figure while people are at the game. Box scores used to give the paid attendance, maybe they still do. (Haven't looked that closely at one in a long time.) So, answers to your Q's would be: 1. a win in OT; 2. No; 3. No data but the 10-11k sold is a reasonable guess as a lot of seats that are probably held by STHers were empty. Personally, estimated the actual attendance at somewhere between 8-9k. (Just a smidge below 50% full.)

One thing to keep in mind is that the 2 coaching staffs and front offices bounce a lot of ideas off each other. Wonder how much the NFL playing starters an absolute minimum in the preseason due to injury concerns was a factor in the roster setups through the 7 exhibition games?

Which works great, until he trips up the other team's shooter who then barrels into his goalie knocking him out for the next 4 months with a torn ACL. Have to look at the full picture and all the cascading consequences.

Make the mascots battle it out.

Hopefully, one of the internal team goals this year is to never go 3 games without a point. Seems like a small goal, and for this team it may not prove to be attainable. But had they pulled that off last year, they would've at least been in 7th in the conference. Do the little stuff right, and the big stuff will take care of itself. Punting Olofsson into the sun is a starting point. 😉

Doug Gilmour at 5'10" still would've been Doug Gilmour even without that extra inch. This kid just has 'it.' And would love to see the Sabres having lucked into our own version of him. (Much like St. Louis lucked into him so many years ago.)

Where and when? 😜

Good question. Do know that there are a LOT of alumni still in the area and the Sabres Alumni Association is quite active with local charitable events. Don't know how much, if any, they get involved with formalized interactions with the current players.

Yep. Didn't get to watch the Aisles game closely (watched it at a bar) but that seems to be pretty much the jist of it. Hoping that they keep Levi between the pipes tonight, he's had 2 days to rest up so he should be good to go. One of the downsides to playing such a spread out schedule in October is when you do lose a game you've got a while to stew over it. The upside is, you can play whatever goalie you want and he'll be ready to go. Bringing my boy.

Because SOAP, tame as it may seem today, was extremely controversial when it aired. ABC just simply got tired of the protests. "SOAP, did we go too far." Benson was a much more standard sit com. Not controversial and as a result, not nearly as funny. But it had a much longer run because of it. Thing is, just about everything that SOAP lampooned (amnesia, cheating spouses, murder, embezzlement, insane characters, mob related construction projects, kidnappping, etc.) while airing in the evening TV lineup was a regular storyline in the the lame afternoon soap operas that all 3 networks aired religiously 5 days a week. But nobody gave a rat's rear end about anything said or done in them. Probably because they weren't intentionally hilarious. Robert Guillaume's other series Sports Night only had a 2 year run. Which is a shame, that was a great show too.

Another casualty of the 3 headed goalie monster. They aren't going to go below 7 rostered D nor 13 rostered healthy F's. Leaves Jost as the only option to put into the lineup without making a roster move that sends somebody down or somebody else to IR. Guess they could move Krebs into Olofsson's role and Jost into Krebs' but they don't seem inclined to want to make that move.

One other item in favor of lining up in shot gun rather than under center is that Allen seems to roll out more effectively from shot gun. If he rolls out from the 1, the D needs to be working about perfectly to stop it because if they try to bring him down, he hits the now open receiver somewhere in the end zone (might be on the other side of the field, but it's there and he'll find that guy) and if they cover properly, Allen either has to break one tackle or simply walks into the endzone. It's good to have a unicorn under center (or out of the shot gun as the case may be).

Again, said that were the show based in England, he would likely have had the title of "butler" on the show that Robert Guillaume's character was the title character. But he WASN'T the butler on THAT show. He was the butler on SOAP. But either way, it is a really stupid idea for a nickname for an 18 year old hockey player.

How is that any different that what was written in the post you responded to: "He was the Tait's butler on SOAP, but he never was the butler on Benson." So, yes, as stated above, he was the butler on SOAP. HE WAS NOT THE BUTLER ON BENSON. He was the Lt. Governor.

Or perhaps it's because he never was a butler on the show you keep showing clips of. He was the Head of the Household or Head of the Governor's Mansion or some other such title when that show started and he was at least the Lt. Governor when it ended. Perhaps, had it been a British show he still would've been referred to as the butler in the spinoff, but on this side of the pond, even in Connecticut, that role he held was not that of the "butler." He was the Tait's butler on SOAP, but he never was the butler on Benson. Maybe you should be pushing for Benson to get referred to as the Lt. Governor?