repster

When Savoie is healthy, I wonder if he gets some games in place of VO if he starts the season again with his liabilities outweighing his goal scoring.

Any thoughts on the implications for Owen Power’s next contract?

For my fellow northern neighbours, here’s what going to be available to us this year (at least it’s what’s scheduled at this time as per the official Sabres website). Thursday Oct 14 NYR 7pm SN1 (my onscreen guide says SN1, website says SN360) Monday Oct 23 Montreal 7pm SN1 Friday Oct 27 @ NJ 7pm SN1 Sunday Oct 29 Colorado 1pm SN Friday Nov 3 Philadelphia 7pm SN1 Saturday Nov 4 Toronto 7pm HNIC Friday Nov 10 Minnesota 7pm SN1 Tuesday Nov 14 Boston 7pm SN Friday Nov 24 Pittsburgh 6pm SN Tuesday Dec 5 Detroit 7:30pm SN Thursday Dec 7 @ Boston 7pm SN Saturday Dec 9 Montreal 7pm HNIC Wednesday Dec 13 @ Colorado 10pm SN360 Friday Dec 15 @ Vegas 10pm SN Thursday Dec 21 Toronto 7pm SNO only (regional) Saturday Jan 13 Vancouver 4pm SN Wednesday Feb 21 @ Montreal 7pm SN Friday Feb 23 @ Columbus 7pm SN Tuesday Feb 27 @ Florida 7 pm SN Wednesday Mar 6 @Toronto 7pm SN Saturday Mar 9 Edmonton 12:30pm SN Tuesday Mar 12 Detroit 7pm SN Saturday Mar 16 @ Detroit 12:30pm SN1 Sunday Mar 24 @ Calgary 9pm SN Wednesday Mar 27 Ottawa 7pm SN Friday Mar 29 NJ 7pm SN1 Saturday Mar 30 Toronto 7pm HNIC Sunday Apr 7 @ Detroit 1pm SN1

Nice thing about SN+ is that they almost exclusively use the Sabres feed when it’s not a Canadian team they’re playing against. If you go monthly, and start the day of the first game, it’s $210 for the season minus the last two games. Depending on where the Sabres stand at that point, you might have the option to cancel before the Florida game and save the $40. Of course, all the playoff games would be on one Sportsnet channel or another.

There were several years in the mid 2010’s when the Sabres were available on TV here in the entire Niagara Peninsula (Fort Erie through to Stoney Creek) if you were a Bell satellite TV subscriber. They had a dedicated Sabres TV channel for non-national games that carried the MSG feed. Ted Black was the guy who put this into place. Unfortunately, this was when the Sabres were absolutely horrible. Because of their historically poor performance, there weren’t too many people watching and for that reason Bell and the Sabres mutually agreed to cancel the deal. Of course, this happened when I was able to get Bell Fibe in my neighborhood. If this deal materialized in the mid 2000’s, there would probably be a lot more new Sabres fans in Niagara after watching Briere and Drury. Pre-COVID, I was a mini-pack holder for more than two decades and went to about 10 games a year with either my work buddy, brother or my wife. Actually usually tried to avoid the Leafs games because of the higher priced ticket and also that fact that there were too many annoying Leafs fans in the building. Usually regretted it later as the Sabres owned the Leafs in Buffalo. Usually attended weekend games mostly. Back in the days when the Sabres were on Channel 2 or Channel 29, there was more exposure over here and the Leafs were historically bad, you had a really good fan base that came over to watch the games in the Aud. It’s different now, but there are still many people like me - probably the biggest proportion of fans would be over 50 - like me. Certainly in Niagara the number of Leaf fans would outnumber the Sabres fans, but restricting ticket sales by delaying availability should probably be based on if you are outside of NF, SC, FE, PC, Thorold and Welland. If you want to make an argument about Niagara restrictions, it should only apply to Leafs games or Habs games. (Welland has a ton of Habs fans). I understand people wanting to make a buck on Leafs games for those that need to budget their hockey discretionary income appropriately, and it does add to the competitive atmosphere when there are Leaf fans in there, but not 80%, not 50%, 33% is pushing it - maybe 25% would be acceptable and still make it a fun atmosphere. So maybe this idea has merit, but delay ticket sales for certain areas only, and only when it’s applied to the specific fans of the games against Leafs, Habs, Rangers, Penguins and maybe Bruins and Red Wings. I agree that if Sabres were scary good again (RIP RJ from my hometown) most visiting team issues would be minimized. The one last thing that I believe has resolved is the tons of tickets that used to be gobbled up by brokers and sold to the visiting teams fans when the bigger market franchises came in. Correct me if I’m wrong on that, but that used to contribute to the issue of visiting fans invading the arena as well. Anyway, go Sabres. Hopefully this is the year when they are back as a legit playoff team. Get well soon please Jack Quinn, and keep that confidence high, Devon Levi.

This would be my special message to our visitors at Leaf games when the Sabres score. You gotta love the guitar solo about 3/4 of the way through too.

Pain

It’s a fun quiz that test’s your knowledge on the Sabres trade history. A lot more fun than watching them play hockey. It’s multiple choice. I got 20/25 for 80%. Won’t share any spoilers on the questions I got wrong, but most were from before my fandom started. https://theathletic.com/2469480/2021/03/22/the-ultimate-buffalo-sabres-trade-deadline-quiz-from-ryan-miller-to-daniel-briere-and-more/

If this keeps up, I could see the Sabres entering bankruptcy again. Seriously, when fans are able to buy tickets again, who would? Again, I was going to not buy a mini-pack for the first time in two decades. Hope sprung eternal on paper in the offseason. It was fool’s gold. Eichel is a shadow of himself from last year. Dahlin is so pitiful defensively, and Hall is totally lost. No wonder he isn’t still on NJ or Arizona anymore. No wonder Skinner was traded out of Carolina for a bag of pucks. Ralph is a good guy but there is no offensive system in play. His only answers come from defensive structure. No wonder chz rep was fired. Kim can see the writing on the wall. I will be canceling my NHL App subscription and go back to watching hockey in the Canadian division - anything outside the Leafs. Sadly, as an occasional poster and long time lurker, I think that’s it for me again, best of luck you regular posters.

Two players in COVID protocol per Harrington

Shut down through Monday per Vogl

I had actually decided at the end of last year to not buy my usual mini-pack of 10 games or so after over 20 years. Then they picked up Hall and Staal and made a few other small changes. I thought, well, maybe I would’ve changed my mind and picked one up again. The pandemic made the decision for me. There would have to be some unforeseen miracle of transformation for me to even slightly consider buying tickets when possible again. The Sabres are the definition of insanity.

Where was this effort when we needed it back in 2014, right Tim?

Tip hat

It should be about 7-1 But it could be 2-2

The crowd would be booing so loud right now...

Thank-you for delivering the front end of the four points on my weekend request. Why must the Sabres continue to do it in such an underwhelming to put it mildly and non-regulation fashion though? The narrative was that this team finally had the missing skaters to come together and make a bigger impact, but 5 on 5, they look disorganized. The biggest hole was supposed to be the goaltending. What Ullmark has done since getting back in net while still mourning his Dad is preserve those extra points after regulation for the most part. He’s been the strength of the team along with special teams. It’s still early and they still have lots of time to find that cohesion, but they are getting results. The wins are what count but we need more of them in regulation when it comes down the tiebreakers at the end of the season. We are already behind the eight ball being tied for the fewest ROW wins in the division.

Zajac and both goalies Blackwood and Dell in COVID protocol and will miss the weekend for the Devils. I know they still have Wedgewood who has played well for them, but this will be his 5th game in a row. This has to turn into 4 points for the Sabres. They have to take advantage of these absences to key players on opposing teams. They got 3 of 4 from the Caps, but they are better than the Devils. There has to be a strong response to the effort last night, like the Rangers and Flyers did to us after we won the first two games against those teams

He was the ONLY one that showed up tonight and the poor guy is going through more than any other player on this sorry excuse of a team tonight. He deserves a TON of credit. Every skater owes him an apology for that embarrassment. They all apparently love playing for Ralph Krueger. They are all so tight in the dressing room. It’s a bizarre way of showing it on the ice.

That was the biggest DISASTER of a game I’ve seen in a long time, and that’s saying a lot. They sure as **** didn’t deserve any points. Again... NO HEART!

Where is the intensity? Hello? Wake up! Show some grit. Get pucks to the net. Win some battles. Stop the lackadaisical effort. Battle in this third period and don’t regress further. Let’s go!

Two more regulation points Thursday please. Thank-you for tonight.

Two points. Not in regulation like I requested, but I’ll let it slide. Thanks for slightly taking the edge off the nightcap on the sports weekend. Two more on Tuesday please. Buffalo sports fans will need winning hockey therapy more than ever for the next little while.

Had to be 3pm start. NHL on NBC has exclusive window between 12:30 and 3 for Detroit and Chicago. Bottom line is the Sabres need to win today in regulation. Period. I don’t care about anything else except two points. Put me in a good mood before the Bills game.

Thank-you