dudacek

Friedman tells Peters and Rivet that he's heard the sale rumour but that he would be surprised if anything gets done prior to the stadium deal being done. He thinks selling the Sabres would give fuel to stadium deal opponents.

After the Whistle podcast Peters says he's hearing the Sabre have a 1st on the table for a defenceman. Friedman responded he hasn't heard that, but he wouldn't be surprised. Peters then asked if it was true Chychrun is available. Friedman says he is and his age and contract status fit exactly what the Sabres are trying to do.

I'm not against Peterka going if that's what he wants. But I'm not sure how the WJC would help his development. He has already played at the WJC twice and dominated his 2nd trip. And he is flirting with being a top 10 scorer in the AHL on a team that would suffer without him. I'd rather him continue playing against better competition in Rochester instead of toying with other kids and losing in the process.

Think I recall reading on here that Steve Smith was a "Krueger" hire and Granato was a "Botterill" hire. And that is often the case when it comes to rounding out a coaching staff. Not that the coach and the GM work separately, just that there are various degrees of compromise in where the buck stops.

Not sure which thread we were having the intense debate on the relevance of UPL's numbers in Rochester over the past two years, but Seth Appert had a great response to that in his INstigators podcast. Essentially, he said it was about sample size. He's played 12 games in Rochester this year, 2 or 3 of them early were absolutely stinkers, and to Appert's mind outliers. His play since is more indicative of his typical game. But the outliers are too much to overcome statistically in a 12-game sample. Similarly, he said that last year UPL was very good until he got COVID (which I don't think I knew about) and it took him a while to get back up to full speed after COVID. Again, the COVID recovery period represents an unusually large portion of a 14-game sample size. Over 100 games in a typical 2-year stretch these 2 "blips" wouldn't have had significant impact on his numbers. But he only played 26, so they do.

'Lousy' is a pretty relative term. But many people seem to define it simply as "he lost"

Where did you see this?

There is a growing sentiment among players seeing their vaccinated peers on the sidelines without many of them actually being sick that the asymptomatic should be allowed to play.

A team loaded with cheap young talent at the cap floor with a streamlined front office and saddled with very few big, long-term contracts in a good hockey market? For sale you say?

Amerks can certainly use him. He’s apparently CoVID free, leaving an environment that is apparently CoVId-free to go to another that is COVId free. He’s been travelling with the Amerks all season. He can be recalled when the Sabres start again. What am I missing here?

JJ had a nice bounce back game after a few were he looked like he hit a bit of a wall. Wonder if he was one of the Amerks affected by the flu bug?

Since Casey, Murray and UPL aren't doing anything until next week, love to see them join the Amerks for the Willkes-Barre game Wednesday.

Jackets only have 3 guys in protocol themselves, but have played 3 straight against teams with issues. If this had happened last year against New Jersey it might have changed the course of the Sabtes' season. Then again, Ralph Krueger might still be our coach.

Waitaminnit, there's a prospect named Frank Nazar III? Can he play with Count Van Barkenow?

I'm expecting that a year from now Sabrespace will be treating Alex like Drew Stafford, just because he doesn't match a false picture they've created in their heads. Never mind that he never did. It'll be Dahlin all over again.

He was a force tonight regardless of the goals. Gilmour is a good comparable. He plays faster, but the competitive streak, the two-way commitment and the pass-first mentality are similar. Dont think he will reach the offensive heights, but you never know. 19 points in 18 games as an AHL rookie is nothing to scoff at. Rossi has 18 in 18. Newhook and Boldy are also at around a point per game. Caufield a little less. Villardi has 7 in 9, Turcotte just 10 in 18. Byfield 0 in 4. Zegras had 21 in 17 last year.

That’s scary if Tage has an issue, intriguing if it’s a maintenance day. IMO Tage/VO/Asplund is the best line the Sabres have iced this year, Tuch into Kyles spot beside Cozens makes sense and I'm very interested in Skinner with LOGgers

Quinn is the Amerks game breaker, but within the AHL, Malone is it’s heartbeat.

It didn’t catch up to them initially, but the Amerks missing Murray Jankowski Quinn Fitzgerald Davidson Weissbach is starting to show. Lotta fringe guys filling out the roster right now.

2nd replay showed it was a helluva shot. Your point stands. I agree that Peterka has faded the last week or two. He’s certainly missing the chemistry with Quinn, but he just isn’t showing the burst he was earlier in the year. Disagree on Krebs. He was very noticeable to me - mostly in a good way, although he continues to force some passes and I just don’t see 1C skill. I do see 2C reads and effort. Did better on battle tonight, and he’s very good in rotating back to where the puck is going after a battle concludes. Appert was leaning on him like he was Bergeron: PP, PK, double-shifting, 4-on-3, 3-on-3. Played centre pretty much exclusively, which hasn’t been the case for most of his time in Rochester.

Wonder when Stevens is going to notice Epson isn’t playing goal any more.

Last year we lost our cat of 12 years. She is extraordinarily friendly, a mostly outdoor cat who had been known to wander from time to time over the years. But only for a day or two. We thought she must have died. After 5 months, she surprisingly showed up at our doorstep, grossly overweight. Clearly she had been “adopted” by someone. This week, she disappeared again. We have been told she has been taken in by a neighbour - a crotchety senior who has apparently been telling people we are ***** owners who don’t take good care of her, so she needs to step in for our cat’s own good. There is enough circumstantial evidence that we believe this to be true. I need to go knock on her door but am very concerned it will go sideways. I am angry that she has taken our cat. I am angry that she probably created our unnecessary worry and grief last winter. I am angry that her “care” made our cat obese. I don’t want this to continue. I also know the woman well enough to expect blame and dishonesty rather than shame and contrition. She has had an ongoing dispute with another neighbour that has involved police and bylaw enforcement calls. We have been neighbours for 20 years and have survived her through polite avoidance. I want that to continue. I’m not sure the best way to handle this.

My thoughts about Casey every time I’ve watched him is: This kid gets hockey. He knows what to do and when to do it. He’s all team, and he’s absolutely fearless. Does he have enough size and skill to play his game in the NHL? Last night, the answer was mostly “yes”. Hope he can stick around. He’s got something we need.

It got plenty of attention in the GDT, but this needs more. If Malcolm Subban becomes nothing more than another Mikael Tellqvist in the Sabres archives, we need to remember him for this. As someone said in the moment, it defies the laws of physics. https://www.nhl.com/video/subbans-glove-keeps-puck-out/t-326244582/c-9938791

Wasn’t really talking about Dahlin’s personal feelings, more my own.