EZBills7

A great day for the Blue and Gold. I have to believe that Pat can bring in some strong GM candidates between his resume/reputation and Pegula's willingness to shell out money to try to build a winner. And with Nolan in as interim coach I may need to dust off the ole' "Hardest working team in hockey" plastic hard hat and satanic goathead jersey from the late 90s.

That's where I stayed for Game 5 of the 06 ECFs. Good times beforehand, not so much afterwards.

Yes, the higher seeded team advances which would have been me (that's how I advanced in the first round). Good game!

Barring any stat corrections coming soon, I just lost in the semifinals by one Faceoff win or one shot on goal. Either one would have done the trick. :wallbash:

That's a tough way to lose and a fortuitous way for me to win especially with both my regular goalies on IR last week. I am always afraid to make a 2nd move before Friday unless I am getting killed for that reason. It came down to me getting enough face-off wins on Sunday including from mid-week addition Marcel Goc in order to win that category. I hope this narrow escape from playoff death and the return of Mike Smith will spur the team on to greatness this week.

A tough race to the finish of the regular season but I was glad I was able to punch a ticket after dropping 13 games under .500 after the first three weeks. I thought I might "pull a Sabres" by going on a hot streak after a bad start but still miss out on the last spot by a few points. Should be a fun couple of weeks to decide the champ, and good luck to Touched by Boyes this week.

Agree one billion percent. Spot on.

I'm floored, relieved, excited, and a bit sad all at the same time. I have been a Lindy supporter over the years but moved to "on the fence" last year and to "this is *&^%ing ridiculous, he needs to go NOW" this year. I would not say that Ruff or the roster is bad, but rather that the marriage between him and this organization has been souring to the point of needing a trial separation and eventual divorce as of at least last season. Ruff and the Sabres will both be better off apart (knock on wood with the new coach decision pending). As for the rest of this season, I think the team gets their act together and heads in the right direction sooner rather than later, and we'll probably see more of Grigs and less of a McCormick or Ellis type forward in the lineup. And who would dare to take even one shift off the rest of the season after this firing?

Agree. Here's hoping.

Time to put up or shut up tonight and the following four games. I'm guessing they will play well enough at times to fuel the optimists and poor enough at times to fuel the pessimists, leaving us where we are now as of next weekend. Is it too much to ask to not have several Jets' offensive zone possessions per period extended by a Sabre failing to clear the zone when a clear is available? (I'm afraid the answer is Yes.) That alone would cut down the goals/shots against by a sizeable margin.

Some food for thought. Last Dec/Jan the Sabres were in a horrible stretch where they won just 3 times in 17 games. They picked up a win in a shootout against the Devils which helped to spark a 20-8-6 run to end the season. Right now they are one point out of a playoff spot, albeit with two extra games played, and have 37 games remaining. Realistically they would need to go something like 22-13-2 to likely make the playoffs. Just trying to lend a bit of perspective to the roller coaster of expectations. Before the first game a lot of fans were expecting a playoff appearance and to give a good run at a first round win, after starting 2-0 people were wondering whether a struggling Canes team would be able to steal one win or even one point out of two games vs. Buffalo, before the Boston game many figured they would lose by a ton of goals, etc. No one has the answer as to what will happen, but it's probably somewhere between the extremes.

I can't either, other than this glorius 7-3 game last year against some guy named Dustin Tokarski, who was pulled for Roloson after 4 goals. http://scores.espn.go.com/nhl/recap?gameId=400047744

Vanek and Miller were superheroes among mere mortals tonight. Strong games by several others, but I'm giving Erhoff some props. Lots of playing time against the top guys it seemed, some nice plays in the offensive zone. Way too many quality chances allowed as a team, which will need to get corrected ASAP. Maybe my ever-expanding hate for Boston sports is getting the best of me . . . but is it just me, or are the current Bruins the "douchbagiest" NHL team of at least the past decade, if not longer?

I'll probably get some low-ball offers... but I'm open to dealing Scott Hartnell (drafted 19th overall). Out for a month or so and is currently IR eligible. He'll pay nice dividends for someone once he's back.

I'm glad someone brought up going with a man short after Miller was pulled... I had completely forgotten about that. The faceoff was right in front of where I was sitting, and before the puck drop I wondered where our extra attacker was. Seemed like several seconds after the puck drop before a 6th guy came off the bench. Inexcusable for Hodgson or whichever player messed that one up.