ska-T Chitown

I had a few black walnut trees at a former house ... the oil from the green stuff around the shells kills a lawn hard 😞

This kinda reminds me of pre-Allen Bills when you would hear that the D looked great in practice ... against Tyrod 🤣or that the O had a good day ... against the 30th ranked D. Remember all the stories about how Hasek hated to get scored on in practice? I doubt that intensity exists today in Sabreland.

Tonight, since 3 of the 4 goals were on the PP for Boston, the +/- stats for Le Sabres did not look too bad, but boy howdy did they get their arses handed to them. 🤷‍♀️(that's a shrug emoji, but like, super hard to see)

Do you think TNT might approach the league about not having the Sabres on any more? I mean, two REAL clunkers and national TV. Great.

I was at the Bills/Bears game last year for Christmas ... -5F with air temp -30F or worse. This year - upper 40's here in Chicago. What a swing!

I watched the 9 min recap video (after watching the Bills nearly scheisse the bed) - not sure if the NYR guys put the video together on NHL.com or not ... but it was like 3:1 of the Rangers almost scoring. At least Quinn can still score?

The J E T S went so far in the opposite direction with personnel choices, they ended back on the sport naughty list - lol. I'd say they are more worsely run!

This year has been do dizzyingly disappointing that last year feels like the faint memory of a fever dream. Does anyone recall where we may have given up lots of goals last year: (goalie performance removed for purposes of this discussion) due to turnovers in the neutral zone (or at our own blueline), resulting in odd man rushes due to turnovers in the offensive zone, forwards not necessarily hustling back, resulting is odd man rushes (think earlier this year when Cozens pinched too hard) terrible positioning in the D zone once the opponent gets established (ie - forwards and D chasing the puck too hard until the end up in a tangled cluster of 4 Sabres leaving 1 to deal with 3-4 open opponents) First one is going to come back if the Sabres move to a more aggressive breakout style just by percentage of bad passes, etc Second one - if certain players (and we have seen glimmers) remember there is a D zone to get back to, this might not be as bad as last year? Similar to the last 10 games or so last year. Third one seems to be the low-hanging fruit to the casual observer, but are we foolish to hope for miracles?

I think they knew the boos from before were for them. <insert many threads worth of back and forth over whether or not that is ok>, but hearing the fans' chanting for DG to get fired, probably struck a different chord. If it (for whatever reason) never occurred to the team that the fans would blame DG for their inability to consistently perform, perhaps his reaction is somewhat justified. It is still an odd thing if "GD guys, the fans think Donnie is the reason we are so unpredictable, I guess we better just pull our S together ..." is really all it would take.

LOL - I clicked on the thread title and was gonna make a joke about "where's the ska discussion group?" and there is a youtube to the Specials! I am actually not a "life is ska" type (I generally enjoy most music genres) - but I was fortunate enough to be able to appreciate the rise of the Mighty Mighty Bosstones after Clueless and through the mini-renaissance in the late 90's very early 2000's. Saw Dickie and the boys a dozen times or so in the Chicago/Milwaukee area - great freaking shows. Tons of smaller venues in Milwaukee had lots of the smaller acts, too! What a time to be alive! Probably mostly stems from playing the trumpet 4th grade through pep-band in college 🙂

After a pleasant evening with my wife since turning off the game at the end of the first period, I feel refreshed. Lighter. But then I remember it took what seemed like a 600 game losing streak to fire the fussball guy ... so I would not be shocked in the slightest if ol' Donny G gets to ride out the rest of the year.

Welp, tonight did it. The sweet release of IDGAF. I wonder how many novels I shall write with all this new found free time?

I am guessing there is a certain level of tongue-in-cheek in this, so I am not picking on it per se. But, it just presents an opportunity to say that sometimes systems are put in place to keep the simplicity of the game from getting out of hand. A decent example, I hope, is a forward in the D zone and there is a scrum for the puck in the corner. The two D are doing their jobs with support from the C and the strong-side winger. Puck pops loose, near the scrum, but definitely free. Simple hockey might compel the weak side winger (or net-front D) to try to get the puck leaving huge gaps in their coverage. The weak side winger needs to understand their role in that defense and hold position trusting the other teammates to do their job, etc etc. Obviously there are 1000 different tiny variations for that scenario which probably include several in which the weak side player should get involved, but generally - no. Why this example? Because it seems like 5 or more times a game a Sabre ends up out of position in our D zone because they are chasing the puck. Tying this back to the actual thread - I have generally seen Bennie in decent position for strong and weak side winger and he has fully intercepted many passes as a result, not to mention being in position tip to harass the puck if it comes near him.

I remember the days of the mad dash to the puck! I am generally opposed to adding any more replay review to any sport, but I do feel for the refs who have to make that hit from behind call in real time. I think you are right that players turn their backs with impunity - and I would suspect some wait until the last second to do so in actual hopes of drawing a penalty. I think there is also something to be said for it maybe being "safer" for the hitting player to continue to make contact instead of tearing up their knee avoiding contact. I was always drawn to intensity of the continuous physical play of hockey vs starty-stoppy football, but watching Patty LaFontaine talk about missing days out of his life due to hitting his head too often really pushes me towards player safety.

See Reinhart, Sam.

Asking for a friend ... do the Sabres have better options when UPL or Levi inevitably get hurt? Like, not being facetious at all - do they?

He is way too good of a skater to a) not know that was how the hit would go down - the guy had his numbers to him since behind the net and b) to avoid it if he wanted to. He sure seems to turn on a dime when the puck is on his stick. That said, suspension seems a tad high, if that is really in the conversation.

I dunno - I think (and we disagree and you are right, this IS actually cool ... if only more people remembered how to disagree and have a civil discourse on points upon which they disagree, but I digress) ...I think Benson is nearly immeasurably better off for having spent a productive year in the NHL - assuming it winds up that way when all is said and done. Being around NHL players and coaches and learning how to be an NHL player is so much better than trying to put up stupid numbers against a bunch of kids. Where I think we might converge is that it is truly a sad state of affairs that the Sabres did not have the NHL roster talent to force Benson back to Juniors. Be it injuries, poor FA acquisitions, or lack of meaningful trades - it is the reality of current Sabres team. By extension, with all things being what they are right now - I would argue it is also better for the team the Sabres have that Benson is in the NHL, both from a) he fits an open role within the top 12 Fs and b) well placed NHL experience >> return to Jrs experience.

I couldn't agree more. Push as hard as you can until math says you cannot make it. Push like hell, fight and scrap. Anything else is embracing the "losing culture" so many seem to think we have. Ice your best 12 Fs, 6 best D, and your best goalie as often as possible.

If one were to have tea leaves and knew how to compel them to reveal their secrets, Benson being able to play as well as he has in the NHL as an 18yr old bodes quite well for future seasons. And if they are a worse team without him, I agree with the Thorned One - sending him away looks like quitting.

@Pimlach who are you calling out tonight for a big game!? 🤣

His skill and drive was evident early on - but it seems like lately he is figuring out where the soft spots on the ice in an NHL defense are. He is either around the puck, hounding the other team, or settling into those little open areas and waiting to pounce. Last night's goal, he squeezes behind the defender and gives him just a little shove to create space, rebound shows up, sick stickhandle - goal. And I would not be surprised if someone told me he had more direct intercepts of passes than the rest of the team combined, like on the Tuch goal. This kid might have been a steal at 9th overall, lol.

I think one of the problems with the youngsters, and others have said similar things - most of them were high draft picks, which means they got by in their respective junior leagues on their abundance of skill. They were quick enough to get to the play before it ended up in the net because they were that much better than most of the competition. Add in the very large point of contention that most of the Sabres youngins "didn't come up the right way through the AHL" - which I generally think is hooey ... but might pause to consider that being in a league with more comparable skills sets might force them to watch a Youtube video or two on where the forwards should be in the O-zone.

With his speech about how much he loved the Sabres throughout the years and the potential backlash from the community against the Darling Bills? No way Terry sells the Sabres unless there is an iron clad agreement in place to keep them in Buffalo.

SOMEONE in the Sabres org somewhere has to have it on DVR ...