thewookie1

2 bad bounces and they get two goals

His issues always pop up. 1. Lack of creativity 2. Unnecessary difficulties added to plays (3rd&1 running out of shotgun) 3. Lack of adjustments in real time.

At this point, yes

I see him as a guy who gives an effort but rarely does more than the minimum in regards to helping the offense or defense. Too often he’ll dump it in and just stop or try to make an ill advised pass through four guys. Why he’s an anchor is not due to purely effort or skill but that he is equivalent to a cherry picker. He goes to places he can one time the puck and then just effectively waits for his line mates to do the rest. Essentially his play allows defenders to ignore him somewhat and double team Cozens/Mitts last year.

I wouldn’t go as far as say he is without any blame but this idea he’s not even trying anything feels ridiculous to believe.

Can anyone explain how a puck that was deflected down hitting the crossbar isn't a high stick?

Hmm, would anyone trade Olofsson for Garland (3x4.95) the issue is he's another small guy

Again, yelling about it is all well and good but there's evidence he has attempted to acquire pieces like Chychrun and potentially Pesce. Matt Murray was also targeted and declined; Gibson and Swayman were targets before in previous trades. There is a major difference between sitting on your hands and doing nothing versus trying but failing. They don't amount to much in differing results but it does matter in terms of arguments. He isn't blissfully ignoring issues; he's just conservative with his assets and is likely getting skewered by teams in trade offers since they would know what we need as much as we fans do. Well there's a major difference between trading A tier prospects and/or picks for high end players and teams asking for top tier returns on marginal players. Top 4 RDs aren't exactly easy to acquire from other teams. They either are old, often injured, or covered in warts if not all of the above. Goalies are literally a roulette table outside the few elites that aren't for sale anyway. Our best hope would be for Nashville to fall apart and be open to moving Saros whom would give a legitimate target worth higher level assets as he under contract for an additional year. As for forward, the only interesting name floating around on the trade market is Garland from Vancouver but he's a bit overpaid and would be yet another small speedy guy. Good for him? He's scored on Jake Allen and an old Fleury. We've played two Vezina candidates/winners.

2 apples for Benson and he's the 2nd youngest Sabre to ever get a point. Off by 5 days from being 1st

It is on the depth chart, but on paper it hasn’t. That is correct

I’m guessing no one wanted to take Olofsson for anything and it would be hard to justify to the players trading a friend who scored 28 last year for pucks.

It aggravates me to no end losing games where we had better chances and yet a questionable goal and the refs lack of calls seems to help bury us. Skinner needs to get going. Tage looked better by the end. Tuch was spotty. Olofsson must hold an idiot ball for whomever centers him. Mitts last year and Cozens this year looks inept. 3rd line played great, Benson certainly showing why he’s here. 4th line was Krebs and old guys. Clifton looks shaky and Jokiharju is just unpredictable. The rest played fine. Levi let in the 1st which wasn’t great but played great the rest of the game.

BS from the NHL

Sabres have definitely been the better team this period

Clifton has disappointed so far but Johnson has been very much the bottom pair vet savvy we were hoping for

I’m just tired of hearing it everyday, everywhere any circumstance.

It’s not that I don’t want it fixed but I just don’t see reasonable options to fix it. Not to mention the likelihood of finding a good one at fair value is almost impossible. Plus if we took Campbell for instance, all we’d hear here is we overpaid for garbage. Greenway!

They have two forwards who have led the league in points the past 5 years.

The Oilers have more or less had the same issue while doing the opposite. They have signed, traded and acquired at least 9 goalies and are exactly where we are but with a 6mil anchor goalie.

Is there any more common occurrence than Buffalo teams getting ***** by refs? I do wish half of you guys would stop it with the endless complaints. Guess what, goalies that are considered good don’t get traded. Your three options are draft and develop, trade mass assets for a question mark or sign a question mark for way more than he’ll likely be worth.

We get chances, they are either blocked or miraculously stopped. They get a goal on a non called trip and a own goal.

I certainly understand but I can't actively ridicule them if there wasn't an option this year

I'm so sick of the endless complaint about vet goalies; there are none available worth the price. I refuse to trade multiple top assets for some mediocre goaltender who may or may not actually be better than our present group. I had never any interest in paying Hellebuyck 7x8.5mil and Saros wasn't exactly available for any degree of a fair offer.

Was at the game, great opening with Cupcake and good feelings. Then the game started and things began to unravel. What seemed to originally break the team was the terrible call by the ref to penalize Greenway after he came to Joki’s relief after a blatant board. Frankly it should have been reviewed as a major as it was a full on dirty hit. While the Rangers controlled much of the 1st, the dagger of the period was the miscall by the refs on Benson in which they scored a deflection on. From there we had to deal with a 1-3-1 and get bored to tears. The second was much like the first but we did have some chances but yet again the refs seemed content to let the Rangers do what they wanted to our players like Benson. Bounces didn’t go our way whatsoever besides Peterka’s goal. The 3rd reminded me of the 90’s Devils or most Torts coached teams with players sprawling out like bearskin rugs to block shots and we just could not find a way to get it past them. Kreider’s 2nd goal was a combo of Dahlin having been on the ice almost 2 minutes and a puck hitting Benson just right to go to Kreider. That seemed to end it Top line wasn’t crisp at all, everyone’s timing was off by a half second and Tage’s targeting computer was broken. Cozens line was a hot mess and I’m starting to think Olofsson curses his line mates. Cozens couldn’t puck handle out of a paper bag half the time and Olofsson was his usual perimeter player. JJ played well though. Mitts and his duo were arguably the best line and seemed to generate some offense. Benson probably needs to go back to the WHL to bulk up but his IQ and talent is definitely ready. (Give him 20lbs and 2 inches and he’d be perfect already) Greenway playing with grit and determination is a fun and different type of hockey than usual. I like it Krebs and Girgensons brought energy and Okposo was an old guy. They weren’t bad but also weren’t good. The defensive players were individually ok besides Jokiharju and Power’s sporadic mishaps. Levi let in a bad rebound goal but can be excused on the rest for the most part. The team physicality was certainly more robust with a number of hits but I want a bit more than even that. However that was a step in the right direction. Sorely disappointed but was more aggravated by the idiot Rangers fan behind me being an ass than anything else. It’s one game, an arguably bad matchup for our style and I’ll expect better from them Saturday and next time we see the Rangers.

I honestly remember plenty of Crosby being a crybaby in his early years. Guy would complain to refs constantly about everything he perceived as a penalty. Sometime between his 1st Cup and 2013 he seemed to mature and behave less whiny. He’d look angry about non-calls instead of that more whiny “attitude” face kids make when having a tantrum.