...

Who was that, ERod who left that puck?

That 53, 23, 9 line might get pretty effective after they get a few more games in.

Whenever I drive the 33, the answer I get is a solid "no".

I'm not sure if newspapers are capable of reliably "watching" the government or businesses without unwanted bias. There's a reason corporate news outlets in any media are losing market share.

In your specific example here, I think it's too early to say we can reasonably predict what they will do. I do not agree with this statement at all: "And my worry is well-founded, as this regime has a history of making these decisions." This regime hasn't had enough time to build up a history worth using to predict future behavior, especially with the variables being so...variable. I do agree with your concerns over guiding the team to a stronger place mentally, but I personally am a little more confident in at least JBott to recognize where they are and advocate for certain things to happen for the benefit of the team.

I feel the need to expand. I don't know about Phil yet, although I have to admit there hasn't been a coaching decision I've seen yet this preseason that made me scratch my head. I think Phil needs to be given the benefit of the doubt until we can sample his coaching with a better roster during a real season. I see no reason to get down on him, yet. There's no way I can agree with the concerns over JBott's abilities and vision. So far he's done as good as any GM could have with the resources he's had. If his trend continues, I think we're in good hands. I don't see a team that's bordering on being too slow. Between this squad and the B squad last night, there is plenty of speed there now. As for passing, decision making, general clumsiness. I don't agree that it's worthwhile to assess this part of the team's game, yet. It's still pre-season, the roster is not set, this is still "pretty new" to "new" for many of these guys. Yeah, we're cross-posting. I wrote a more detailed post while you were writing a response.

You've been a downer all game. I thought, for a pre-season game, it was fun to watch or at least not boring and I see a different team out there than last season. I think the score would have been pretty lopsided were they as bad as you've been saying all game, and it wasn't. It's not like Toronto sat back. This is only about your first paragraph, mainly, BTW, and I'm definitely not trying to pick a fight...just trading thoughts.

So... Hutton is our number 1. Eichel can take face offs. Dahlin will need to catch up. Good to have Reinhart back. I don't know about that. He's never seen competition like this before in a rink this size. He made some mistakes, but he also made some decent defensive and offensive plays.

Nice tan, Bogo.

I thought the pass was about waist high.

Just saw someone with a Boyes jersey on in the first row.

Skinner, Reinhart, Eichel. Nice.

I think Larsson just worked his way onto the regular roster.

No mutton for Hutton.

Hutton as sixth passer opens up some possibilities I guess.

13/14 FOs won so far. Amazing.

Good times!

Just do that every game, KO, every game.

This is dependent on whether JBott recognizes the same thing and whether he decides to do something about it if an opportunity arises.

I like Tage because he has the balls to take the shots. If, in a season or two, he still hasn't figured out how to make it work, okay, move on from him. But the bottom line is the Sabres were awful that past couple of seasons and Tage is among the collage representing a different approach to trying to win.

Right now I'd rather have an over-confident Tage who has the time, the mentality and the skill to grow into his confidence than a player who is a stat monster but literally did nothing to help the team win. The last several seasons sucked.

Ullmark! Making up for our flaccid PP.

Maybe 37 needs to take a couple of shifts off and rest.

I'm a Thompson fan.

He and Nelson. The future looks bright.