...

Looking good. Speed, COMPETE, skill. The stew is simmering. How long before Girgensons gets a cut across his nose?

FWIW, this is sloppy play from both teams. The Sabres are, so far, forcing a good team to not play the game the way they want to.

They haven't allowed any quality chances yet, at least.

I would like to see Bylsma break up his pairs.

Didn't Miller come back from a high ankle sprain sooner than expected?

They hung in for two periods based on talent alone against a very good team. If Bylsma was looking for wins for wins' sake, he'd juggle the lines more. I think we're seeing the coaches being patient and concerned a lot more with team and system development.

A good stew takes time to cook.

Ugh.

Are they playing less music at the arena as it seems they are (or aren't) over the TV?

Moulson is having a pretty good game. If he could stay on his feet it'd be even better.

Interesting puck possession stat for the second. It sure looked better than the numbers say. Better than last season for sure.

FWIW, Samson is having a far better game than I expected from him. Good things.

Dirty goal!

Solid first with a big Johnson.

Agreed.

That's the kind of exciting transition we've been waiting for right there. Good, gritty stuff.

ROR looks like he's watching the game, rather than being in it.

I wouldn't be surprised if they were giving Peters a chance at doing color for a regulation game. I thought he did an excellent job during the preseason.

Pull the goalie!

The more important question, as far as I'm concerned, is whether Byslma and Murray are on the same page regarding Samson's development. We don't need his career ruined by passive-aggressive hockey ops politics. If they are on the same page, then I believe Samson will get the development program that suits him best.

And the dump-and-chase system would explain why it became more difficult to get it going as the pre-season went on: they were facing better opponents who were able to counter the retrieval more effectively. That would explain, partially, the tentative-ness of the first two periods last night thanks to Ottawa stymying the entries and the Sabres unable to figure out how to counter or work around what Ottawa was doing. Only when the Sabres turned on their motors were they able to sustain pressure in the o-zone. So, Bylsma has to figure out and implement strategies to counter the countering of his system. Which, being so early, is excusable not having seen what would happen to it at a true NHL level.

Agreed. I heard him say that and a dump-and-chase scheme popped into my mind. It might be that for his first two lines he feels he has the speed and skill to collect the puck, and for the bottom two, the muscle and tenacity to collect the puck. Exactly.

Maybe the Canucks are willing to give up Miller.

nfreeman, your observation about them seeming somber made it all clear to me. They all did play tentatively for the first two. I think what we saw actually started with the last two preseason games where it looked as though they went from having fun prior to that, to getting serious. So, I think those first two periods were nerves. Not having played professional sports, but having plenty of experience "in the spotlight" in front of audiences, the team's collective response seems very familiar to that of performers under pressure. And they're young, so can be difficult to shake until you have a lot of miles under your belt. What I saw in the third I expect to see more of pretty quickly as they acclimate to their situation. Brad May keeps suggesting it will take about 20 games for the team to really start coming together and I think he's correct. As for Lehner, that's some pretty crappy luck. I still haven't been able to identify the moment in the game where he sustained an injury, only the results after it happened. Anyone have anything on that?

WTF. What a way to ruin a game's momentum right there.