nfreeman

I guess Asplund is ahead of Mitts in the rotation, innit?

Skinner came very close a couple of times tonight. It feels like if he can break through they will come in bunches. I don't think they're getting nearly enough from Eichel, Hall, VO, Staal or Dahlin. Hopefully they'll find their scoring touch before it's too late. Hutton played very well before leaving the game. For that matter JJ looked OK too, but that's not a solution. I guess there is no info on Linus?

I wonder if the Sabres have an emergency goalie in the arena in case JJ gets banged up?

Dude.

Love the optimism but oh no he di'int.

Well, after the biggest regular-season butt-whoopin the Sabres have laid on the Flyers since 2006 -- a glorious 9-1 shellacking that got Ken Hitchcock fired -- they are right back at it with their original NHL nemesis. (For the youngsters -- the Sabres' first trip to the Finals was in 1975, when the French Connection were flying around, team captain and flaming ginger Schony was pummeling fools, King Kong Korab was glowering at everyone and no one wore a helmet. They lost to a Flyers team that gooned it up every game (inspiring the movie "Slap Shot") and beat the Sabres 4-2 with incredible goaltending from Bernie Parent, in a series in which Jim Lorentz killed a bat that was flying around the Aud and in which both teams from time to time had to skate laps to dissipate pockets of fog that had set in. I still remember the headline in TBN the morning after they lost game 6 -- "Bernie 'Freak Thing' Evaporate Sabres' Dreams of Glory.") Anyway, the Sabres looked great last night -- determined, aggressive and getting some of their fine motor skills back. If they can replicate that effort and get competent goaltending, they'll get back to .500, keep the fan base bought in and win plenty of games this year, and it will be an exciting season. OTOH, if they feel spent after getting the W, and deflated about losing Ullmark, they'll mail it in and the doubts will be prevalent and justified. LW C RW Forwards Claude Giroux Rating: 77.8#9 LW Kevin Hayes Rating: 75.4#31 C Joel Farabee Rating: 72.4#63 RW FL1 Rating Rating: 75.21#19 FL1 Oskar Lindblom Rating: 72.8#50 LW Morgan Frost Travis Konecny Rating: 76.5#20 RW FL2 Rating Rating: 73.83#15 FL2 James van Riemsdyk Rating: 74.9#28 LW Nolan Patrick Rating: 71.1#108 C Jakub Voracek Rating: 77.0#14 RW FL3 Rating Rating: 74.35#1 FL3 Michael Raffl Rating: 70.6#106 LW Scott Laughton Rating: 72.5#58 C Nicolas Aube-Kubel Rating: 72.6#67 RW FL4 Rating Rating: 71.92#5 FL4 Defensive Pairings Defense Ivan Provorov Rating: 76.3#8 LD Justin Braun Rating: 71.8#68 RD DL1 Rating Rating: 74.01#20 DL1 Travis Sanheim Rating: 74.8#20 LD Philippe Myers Rating: 73.1#3 RD DL2 Rating Rating: 73.94#8 DL2 Robert Hagg Rating: 71.3#79 LD Erik Gustafsson Rating: 72.9#43 RD I think they'll come out strong and even up their record. I also think Risto is going to have a few things to say to Aube-Kubel after that cheap shot on Dahlin at the end of last night's game. Go Sabres.

Especially since Philly will be PO'd and looking for payback.

Excellent team effort for a needed win. Good contributions from top to bottom of the lineup. Signs of life from Eichel and Dahlin. The top line is unquestionably better with Reino, who had another strong game. I expect Risto and/or McCabe to take a few shots tomorrow night at that CS who elbowed Dahlin. If they keep playing like that it will be a good season.

Let the record reflect that RK had them ready to go after a potentially demoralizing 0-2 start.

It was there in game 2 -- they just couldn't cash anything in.

Yes -- Skinner-Lazar-Sheahan is coming together nicely.

I like Schoop and the Bulldog. I find Howard and Hammy pretty meh.

Regarding the Lamar-JA comparison: I’m sure glad we had Diggs last night and the Ravens had no one comparable. Separately: one of the best things about the pick-6 was Tre swooping in like an F-15 for the escort down the field. Awesome. Go Browns!

Holy mackerel this is a tight one.

That isn’t hedging your bet. It’s just betting.

He certainly was tonight. My 2 cents: - They were much improved tonight, especially Reino, and carried the play for most of the game. - In fact, that was a pretty good and entertaining hockey game that I enjoyed most of other than the power play. - Risto brought the thunder a few times, including IIRC one on the dude who laid out Staal. - Reino and Skinner were their best 2 forwards tonight. Reino transformed the top line once he joined it. - Skinner has been their best forward so far for the season. Woulda been nice if he had buried one tonight though. And I liked his post-game comments -- that's a solid pro move. - Ullmark was much better than Hutton but he made 19 saves and gave up 2 short-side goals and I thought the GWG wasn't great goaltending. - Another disappointing outing from Eichel, Dahlin, Staal and Olofsson. I think maybe the long layoff hits the high-end skill guys most, and the precision skills execution needed on the PP? Are there any elite players from any of the other non-bubble teams that are off to good starts? - In any case it just seems like it will take a number of games for Eichel and Dahlin to regain their sharpness. I am pretty confident they'll get there -- I just hope they aren't 2-8 by then. - For those doubting RK: he had them ready to play tonight on a quick turnaround after getting smacked around last night, and Skinner is playing much harder than he did last year. Their execution on D was much better than last year. Certainly their PP execution needs to improve, but I think it will. Now let's see if RK can summon this kind of effort out of them again vs Philly despite losing tonight. I think he'll be able to.

Cozens also IMHO showed an instinct for getting to the net and creating traffic and an uncomfortable situation for the goalie -- a needed component on this team.

I would love Barkov or PLD, but 'm not trading Cozens or Eichel for either of those guys. Cozens is going to be the fiery Jim Kelly who finally, by force of will, lifts this franchise out of its post-idiotic-tank loserdom. As I've said before, I would trade Reino plus sweeteners for PLD in a heartbeat.

My 2 cents: - I can understand rustiness and lack of precision given the layoff, but the listlessness and lack of energy and passion was deeply disappointing, especially from their alleged best players, Eichel and Dahlin. - Dahlin got caught flatfooted in the neutral zone and just grabbed his guy more than once. - That was bottom-5 NHL goaltending they got last night. Who could have seen that coming? - Skinner was their best forward. I also liked Cozens, TT, Rieder and Sheahan. - Reino and Staal might be too slow to play together. - Hall looked pretty decent but the top line was nowhere near what we have been expecting/hoping for. - They did look more spirited and generally better in the 3rd period, but the Caps may have taken their foot off the gas. - Classic loser team move giving up that goal 27 seconds after getting it to 4-3 at the beginning of the 3rd. - They didn't lose last night because of line combos. They lost because they played like losers and got bad goaltending.

Well, Hutton has started each season pretty well since he's been in Buffalo before cruelly finding his (much lower) level. Still -- yeeeeeessshhh.

Yeah, baby! Yeah!

Every dog has its day. Eichel and Hall will have huge seasons, Reino and Staal will anchor a strong #2 line and TT and VO will hold up their ends and blast awesome slappers past shellshocked goalies. Ullmark is going to justify @MODO Hockey's love. Skinner will come around through a combination of peer pressure from team leaders and RK's motivational mumbo jumbo. He, Eakin and Cozens will provide much better down-lineup scoring than we had last year. Speaking of Cozens, he will start more slowly than we'd like, and some here will panic, but by midseason he will be a force and in the Calder conversation. Risto is going to continue to improve the structural soundness of his D-zone coverage and continue to knock heads. Montour will have a big year as he approaches UFA. Joker and Miller will be a very good 3rd pair. Oh, and Dahlin? Lookout, mama, there's a white boat coming up the river. We are going to make the playoffs.

There is a very substantial chance that Mitts will never be a decent NHL player, and that R2 is far from being ready for the NHL at this point. This isn't a "sacrifice the season and sink or swim with the untested rookies" season. It's a "we need to make the GD playoffs already" season. I'm 100% confident that RK will play Mitts, R2 and each other rookie once he's shown he can handle it.

Unbelievable. RK must detest Skinner.

This is pretty good: https://www.theringer.com/nfl/2021/1/13/22227659/buffalo-bills-pain-suffering-deliverance