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ska-T Chitown

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Posts posted by ska-T Chitown

  4. Is Fubo the answer?

    in The Aud Club

    Posted

    1 hour ago, Pimlach said:

    ESPN+ and you can watch the games on demand.   You don't get the post game show, no Duffer and Marty, no interviews.  

    You get the intermission stuff and maybe a little bit of pregame? ESPN+ generally offers me (in Chicago) all the viewing options - even the 'Hawks, so I am not sure what the blackout rules are. I just picked up Proton VPN last week for the Bills game - so far so good.

  5. Is Fubo the answer?

    in The Aud Club

    Posted

    I use ESPN+ as I enjoy some their other content as well. I think it was $120 for the whole year? And you can get bundles with Disney and Spotify to further reduce your "per hour of usage" cost. For the national broadcasts, I have enough fake email accounts to pick up some trials here and there and also, missing a game or two this year is honestly a reprieve. 

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  6. Someone Tell Me What Owen Power Does Well?!?!

    in The Aud Club

    Posted

    34 minutes ago, pi2000 said:

    Agreed about Power and Cozens.

    I believe there's untapped potential with Krebs.   He's largely been pigeoned holed into a defensive role.     I'd like to see what he can do away from Okposo and Girgensons.    Seems like he's just running around trying to create chaos instead of relying on his instincts.

    I still think Krebs is a very good passer ... when there is someone to pass to. Wasn't that the prognosis when we got him? Excellent playmaker?

  7. Is There A Case For Being Patient? "Patience" is not a dirty word

    in The Aud Club

    Posted

    Not to bring up the "B" word, but the Sabres did trade for Briere at the trade deadline of a season in which they did not make the playoffs. It would be the third year in a row. I am too lazy to dig too deeply, but based on the final standings, I don't think they had a realistic shot at said playoffs that year at the trade deadline.

    Point: good hockey trades can happen at any point. If The Greatest Trade in Sabres History (as proclaimed by the Athletic) can happen in a non-playoff year ... maybe we (the fans) get lucky this year?

  9. Ryan Johnson recalled by Sabres

    in The Aud Club

    Posted

    12 hours ago, Doohickie said:

    Not for nothing, but I thought Lil J had a fine game tonight.

    I know this season has been maybe just north of a full disaster, and I have seen many straws at which I have grasped to try to save any shred of sanity ... but it sure seems those four years of NCAA hockey brought a healthy helping of maturity to his game. I think his overall trend has been up in terms of performance and learning.

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  13. When are things going to change?

    in The Aud Club

    Posted

    2 hours ago, Taro T said:

    That's just it though.  Don't honestly believe that just trying to emulate what others are doing will work.  Because honestly believe (and hate saying it because it implies so much else that's not good) that the folks running the PP don't understand WHY what works for others actually does work that they'll be capable of emulating what others do except for extremely brief moments.  If you don't understand WHY you're doing what you're doing, then when the opponent counters it, you won't know how to recounter.  And, now, the PP has been trash for more than a complete calendar year.  At best, it's stubbornness; at worst, well ...

    And, really am getting convinced that practacing against the Sabres PP is the reason the PK is so bad at preventing entries and why they give up monstrously good opportunities when dealing with well paced entries.  The 2 units feed off each other.  That stupid drop pass slow as molasses entry probably actually works in practice fairly often.  

    You can't keep doing what you're doing expecting different results.

    Am fairly well convinced that they expect that now that they're fully healthy they can start to get back into the race.  But, as last night demonstrated, even when you're fully healthy life can happen and you aren't.  And even being fully healthy, you can't continue to keep 1 hand tied behind your back (having arguably the worst PP in the league and mid-pack PK) and expect to make up significant ground.

    The Bills made a coaching change in one portion of the game and have looked like a completely different team since.  They went from having an OC that knew how to draw up plays but not WHY he was drawing up the plays to one that uses plays to set up others and it made a ton of difference.  For the love of all that's good and Holy, can they PLEASE bring Bob Woods back.  (Or if not him, somebody that actually understands a PP.)  That one little change would make so much difference.

    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.

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  14. Whipping Boy +/-

    in The Aud Club

    Posted

    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)

  16. OT: Weather (just weather)

    in The Aud Club

    Posted

    8 hours ago, Night Train said:

    2022 Chistma.s North of Buffalo - Blizzard. Shoveling and plowing all day. Canceled gathering and opening gifts for a couple days. Buried. 

     

    Chistmas Yesterday North of Buffalo - Sunny and 60 F. Walked dog without coat. Wife and daughter went on bike rides. I haven't moved snow yet this winter. Bizarre. 

    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!

  19. The Sabres Should Go Back to Run And Gun

    in The Aud Club

    Posted

    3 hours ago, That Aud Smell said:

    I see the wisdom in "just play hard everywhere" on the ice.

    OTOH, I have the sense - unconfirmed by hard data or compiled film study! - that the Sabres of this season have more conservative positioning in their own zone and are also slower to make the transition from their own zone into the neutral zone - and that last season the positioning was more aggressive and the zone departures were faster and more hopeful (?) - to the overall detriment of team defense. That there's a fairly clear distinction between playing defence and playing offence. The transition between the 2 happens fast, of course.

    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?

  20. GDT: Leafs @ Sabres - Thu. 7 pm ET, Dec 21, 2023, MSG-B 📺 WGR 📻

    in The Aud Club

    Posted

    9 minutes ago, Thorny said:

    It’s one of the stupidest sporting quotes I’ve ever seen, yes

    The reason the quote was bad wasn’t that he was blaming the fans it’s that they apparently will be working hard now “going forward”.

    Why did it take this long 

    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.

    • Agree 1

  21. The Music Thread

    in The Aud Club

    Posted

    On 11/22/2023 at 2:15 PM, Sabres Fan in NS said:

     

     

    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 🙂

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  24. Benson - Keep him here

    in The Aud Club

    Posted

    1 hour ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

    Sometimes you wonder if “systems” over complicate a pretty simple game.  

    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.

  25. Around the NHL 2023-24 Season

    in The Aud Club

    Posted

    4 minutes ago, PerreaultForever said:

    I think it's questionable and I do think he pulled up and didn't hit as hard as he could have but I can accept what you're saying as well. It's definitely on the line and maybe over it. He's not a repeat offender though and Lindgren was fine, just a little cut off the corner of his helmet. He played the rest of the game. So I think it looks worse than it was. No big deal. 

    I still remember a league where hits like that were not only legal, but encouraged. They put in the automatic icing only because too many D men were being crunched face first into the boards as they went back to touch the puck. 

    One of the things in today's game that leads to less and less hitting is now that anything on the numbers is considered illegal guys turn to the boards without fear and thus occasionally get crunched. Back in the day when I learned hockey we were coached to not fully turn to the boards to avoid that possibility. The game changes constantly and one thing always leads to another. Eventually it'll just be all non contact. 

    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.

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