PASabreFan

It had nothing to do with control. (But Coli didn't say that, so I have no beef with him.)

The answer is right in the rule SDS copied and pasted. "Skate contact with blue line."

This is the gist of it (gist is the word of the day). Rasmus Dahlin, a #1 pick four years into his career, is here to make the roster robust, to be the player who is so good he makes lesser players better, the player who directly contributes to winning. This argument is backwards, and we heard of it with Eichel, too. When you pay someone 10 million dollars a year, he better make the roster robust. If Dahlin isn't that player, he's not robust — he's a bust.

It's poorly written, but the gist of it is there. With Dahlin still not tagged up, there's no offside until Oloffson touches the puck or attempts to touch the puck. He did neither. What I want to know is what happened to letting the call on the ice stand unless there's obvious visual evidence it was wrong? The judgment call of the linesmen apparently was that Olofsson didn't touch the puck or try to touch it. What did Toronto see? Is it as simple as the replay officials thought they saw Olofsson touch the puck, even with their massive high-def monitors? I wonder what the linesmen told told Toronto during the review? Maybe they said they didn't see what happened?

I feel a little Elevenish. Might be the sausage and gravy for breakfast. Are you declaring that they're handling it behind the scenes, and you endorse this approach?

I've had it. I realize the Sabres are not a winning franchise and are barely an NHL franchise at this point. I THOUGHT this year was about creating a template for changing all that, which was to begin with adopting at least the posture of a winner. ACT like a winner. ACT like a team off to a good start, in a heated Presidents' Trophy race, that just got totally jobbed, robbed and disrespected in consecutive games. (In the tradition of Lindy, make a stink and maybe you buy a call somewhere down the line.) Where are the alternate captains? Where is the coach? Where is the GM? Where is the owner (sorry, the owners)? And please don't tell me they're handling it quietly behind the scenes. The fans need to know there was a response. They need to know there's still a pulse in Sabres hockey. Nothing changes until this changes.

If he had been attempting to touch or control the puck, he would have easily done so. I think he let it go to allow Dahlin time to tag up.

Glass half full: it was brilliant awareness by Olofsson there. Not sure of glass status: Granato's laissez-faire, stoic, them's the breaks attitude in his presser is both admirable (and closely aligned to how I've always felt about officiating) and absolutely infuriating given the state of the franchise, the depression of the fan base and the stated goal of developing a winning culture.

Possession and control get conflated too easily, and you can blame the language of the rulebook. Olofsson possessed the puck once it went over the line, but only because he was the last player to touch it. He no longer controlled it. Now I want to join a scantily clad inkman in the woods. The league allows a goal that shouldn't have counted the other night, and tonight disallows a goal that should have counted either because the offside review is asinine or the call was blown. You can't make this stuff up.

There didn't seem to be any attempt to gain control of the puck while Dahlin was offside.

Well?

Methinks something to do with ESPN+.

When are names being changed back? Just sayin.

It's a Rick Night. To use a rare Jeanneretism, they're going to be scarcer than hen's teeth from now on.

They did finish the season in 15th place. They went 16-4-4 after that fateful day, on which Elly May was not introduced as co-owner, sat quietly in the front row, made sandwiches after the presser and dutifully accepted her assignment to redecorate the lockerroom.

What's with having to fight traffic merging onto the 33 from I-90 while trying to exit the 33 to go west on I-90? (If it's "the 90," I apologize.) It's Clover Madness.

They were 27-25-6 and five points out of eighth on that fateful day — the day Buddy Ebsen couldn't pick Perreault out of police lineup, said Lindy wasn't going anywhere, challenged the press to tell him what Darcy had done wrong, said of Regier that he could "work with him," urged the Buffalo News to be more positive in its coverage to help the players perform better, and said he liked "hard-working, gritty players."

The run seemed to coincide with rumours of Pegula buying the team. They definitely weren't in last place (defined how?) on 2/22/11.

Did you even read the story?

Barring something viral, I'm guessing he was typing too fast and was already thinking of the #s in Sabres.

A bit strong. They were good. We went to the one in Larkinville.

All I saw was a decal of Cuomo on a mirror. Andrew, to be clear.

Gabriel's Gate has good wings. Paula makes a nice donut.

Dahlin's expression after the goal reminded me of my infamous thread. Derp.

Is there no common sense left? The crossbar is four feet off the ice. Look where the puck contacts the stick and tell me it's not over four feet off the ice. Optical illusions are fun, and for once I'll pull a SwampD. Bucci tipped the league's hand. It had to count.