nfreeman

I'm kinda annoyed about Reino's injury, which I would guess was from the cheap shot he took after he scored his goal -- I think he raised his arms in the standard celebration and one of the Rangers hit him in the side. FTR, and in full appreciation of the Reino supporters here -- I think he's probably been the Sabres' best forward this year, and he's certainly making a strong case for a long-term deal. At this point, if you think the Sabres can give a long-term deal to only one of Reino or Hall, Reino's the one who's got the better argument so far.

As others have rightly noted, this is an excellent post. I too have been pretty sour today about them coming out flatfooted and with no urgency in 2 out of 8 games so far this year. That is what a loser team does, not a team that needs to be taken seriously. OTOH, that might've been Ullmark's best game as a Sabre. I thought he was kinda shaky in the 1st period but settled down and was just outstanding for the rest of the game. Yes indeed. KO was pretty lousy last night IMHO and looks like he's pretty close to out of gas. I'd much rather see TT or Mitts in his spot next game. Other game notes: - I though Irwin was pretty bad as well and would like to see Borgen next game if Joker can't go. - As others have noted, Eichel was lousy and Hall was worse. - I thought Reinhart and VO were pretty good, and Staal's line generally was good. It looked like Cozens got benched for the last 8 minutes or so -- RK probably wanted to keep the vets on the ice in a tight game. I did like Cozens though and thought he made a number of good plays. - Lazar's line was strong, but it seemed like Eakin's line got caved in quite a few times.

Good job Mr. and Mrs. Zemgus!

This is a bit of an oversimplification. Carolina has indeed improved since trading Skinner, but they've made a bunch of moves in that time frame, so their improvement can't really be attributed solely to them unloading Skinner.

Me too.

If the bolded were true they would've given him more than a 1-year deal that walks him to UFA. There is no reason in the world for any rational team to be invested in Ullmark and not to be interested in an upgrade, depending, of course, on price.

I think a combo of Fleury-Ullmark is substantially better than Ullmark-Hutton. There are 49 games left. With Ullmark-Hutton, it's hard to see them doing much better than 25-24 (with that combo they were 30-39 last year and 33-49 the previous year). With Fleury-Ullmark, I could see them going 31-18 or so, which would put them in the playoffs. As always, it depends on the price.

Well, if they trade for MAF, there is at least a 50/50 chance that MAF becomes the #1 goalie.

Cozens is in the process of cementing himself as the #2RW on Staal's line and as a fixture on PP2. He is also slowly but surely infecting the team with the blood of the wolf. Long live the King of the North.

I was mad at Ronnie Harmon for a good 15-20 years. When I think back on it now -- he was probably just an immature kid who made a mistake and then tried to blame someone else, like so many immature kids do. He's probably a perfectly good guy now, but his name is still mud for a generation of Bills fans.

McKee was one of my all-time favorite Sabres.

This, this, a thousand times this. There was NFW they were going to win this game without scoring at least 34 pts. Sorry gents I must disagree. That was a bad drop (one of at least 4 that I can recall), but it was only 1 play in a sea of offensive ineptitude. The biggest reason they lost was that JA and Daboll were both mediocre. They both needed to be at the top of their games for the Bills to have a chance.

I think for the last couple of games it's been Dahlin-Miller and Montour-Joker.

With Edmunds, like with most players, it comes down to the contract. He's a good player, but they probably won't, and shouldn't, pay him at a top-3 LB salary level because he just doesn't make enough plays to justify that type of cap hit.

My 2 cents: - I thought that was another entertaining and hard-fought hockey game. The Sabres are flawed, to be sure, but I think the complaints that have been voiced here recently about not playing hard are way off base. - I'm happy for Linus that he played great in OT and the SO and got the W, but the Sabres need an upgrade in net. They just do. - Mitts looked better yesterday than he did at any point last season. - Hall was with Staal and KO in the 3rd period, while VO was with Jack and Sam. Interesting. - Excellent bounceback game from Dahlin, who looked very poised, assertive and confident. - Miller is low-key coming on as a real contributor. - There was a point in the 1st period when the Caps were blasting the Sabres repeatedly with huge bodychecks -- Hall and Staal each caught a couple, and Montour got checked from behind hard into the boards. The Sabres didn't fight, but Staal went looking for payback and got a little and more importantly the Sabres didn't wilt under pressure. - Eichel is finding his stride. He's playing with more speed and intensity and looking more dominant. The goals will start to come soon.

They got outcoached and out-QB’d by a great team with a great coach and a great QB. JA will learn from this experience and do better next time. In the meantime it was a great season.

You are an excellent poster, but this sauce is very weak indeed. The alleged inconsistency between the Skinner and Cozens narratives doesn't exist unless you demonstrate that THE SAME POSTERS are saying one thing about Skinner and a different thing about Cozens. This "people are saying different things" pabulum doesn't mean anything.

My 2 cents: - a teardown and rebuild at this point would be insane IMHO. - the first priority needs to be ensuring that the Sabres have good to very good goaltending. If it’s Ullmark, fine, but we can’t keep just hoping for the best on this. - as others have noted, the Sabres need a couple of vets who can provide leadership, toughness and quality play. I’m thinking of guys like Grier and Teppo on the 2005-06 team. They may or may not be able to get some of that this year from Staal. - I think Cozens is going to become a guy they can count on for leadership and intensity pretty soon. - As others have noted, the lack of an immediate, punishing response to the Dahlin sucker punch was disappointing. Ideally they would have a guy like Tom Wilson to respond in those situations, but guys like that who can both play and intimidate are rare. - I like RK and the improvements in their defensive zone play are significant and to his credit IMHO, but the jury is still out. He needs to get more out of Skinner, he needs to deliver better PP and PK play and if Dahlin regresses on his watch that will be a major black mark. I also think there is too much dump and chase in their offensive system and not enough controlled entries. - just so everyone is clear: this is why you don’t tank — because this awful, endless period of living in the smelly, moldy, boring, lifeless NHL basement and being unable to get out is usually what happens.

It did kinda seem like Chad put out a splashy trade tweet and then backpedaled. NBD either way IMHO.

It is very rare in Buffalo sports situations like this one for the Buffalo teams to deliver 2 wins. Like Haley’s comet rare. And yet there is hope. I believe in McD, I believe in Diggs, I believe in Jerry Hughes, I believe in Rasmus Ristolainen, I believe in the Hall-Eichel-Skinner line, I kinda believe in Kruger and I absolutely believe that if a franchise keeps trying good things will happen and that the Sabres are trying. 2 and 0 today. Let’s go, Buffalo.

Pics of them not meeting or else it happened.

MAF could be exactly what the doctor ordered for the Sabres -- in terms of both filling a major need on the ice but also in demeanor, experience, etc. Certainly the cap part of it is tricky. Vegas would need to either keep part of the cap hit or take someone like KO in return. Let's get this done, KA.

If you don’t see the Sabres giving up Reino or better for PLD, then you don’t see them getting PLD. CBJ isn’t taking a bunch of spare parts for him, especially not if Laine is on the table as an option.

Dude.

Well, I thought that was a really good hockey game, that the Sabres played well and just couldn't bury their chances, and that Eichel's line, especially Jack, really brought it and created a lot of chances. It's true that they are digging themselves a hole that they won't be able to dig themselves out of unless they start accumulating Ws ASAP, but so far, IMHO the hustle and overall level of play has been good in every game since the opener. They need their top guys to start leading them to victories.