dudacek

I still don't know how good Casey Mittelstadt and Tage Thompson will be. They are both so raw. But they are also legitimately skilled. We're seeing each of them make plays. I absolutely love how Donnie has been throwing them out there in key situations, and it's been nice watching them respond. Dahlin has calmed and is also showing his skill, and Jokiharju is looking like himself again. I'm seeing the Rasmus Asplund I liked so much in Rochester. Granato seems to be making a difference with the players that matter most. And having a legitimate top-15 NHL starter makes everyone around him better. (Sign Linus!)

The games are worth watching again.

Sign him. He is 27. He has improved six years in a row. Give him 5 years and step out of this god-forsaken goalie purgatory. Sign him right now.

That was a goalscorer's goal.

The Amerks roster has a half-dozen ECHL players currently. If it was play-related, that would be...troubling.

It costs us nothing on the ice

They appear to attack better and the goaltending has been much better. Over the past week or two, they look more like a 70-point team than a 40-point team.

Very late to the party on this, but the phantom hold on Risto, the Strome "tripping" call, where he fell down at least a second after being whacked and the ref didn't put his arm up for another second later, the time the ref got in the way to set up a Rangers scoring chance, and the non-slashing-call on the Skinner soccer play were are all pretty egregious, and cost us big time.

I haven't watched a ton, but he did not look overmatched in what I saw. I haven't seen any commentary indicating that from our watchers either. He hasn't produced, but I don't think he's embarassed himself either. He plays a different game, but maybe analogous to Cozens's contribution up here?

I think the most notably improved player has been Brandon Montour. It's too bad he will be remembered most for the 70 games with Krueger, not the 30 with Housley and Granato. What might have been. I predict he will do well if he ends up in a place that allows him to play his game. Another asset squandered.

I'm not going to dump on, or defend Dahlin here, but your comment resonated with me when it comes to this play and the Sabres in general. And it reminded of Promo's automatic defence of a goalie. Whether Sam put Victor in a bad position or not, whether our defenceman put Hutton in a bad position or not, they aren't being put into impossible positions. Victor didn't have to cough up the puck. Carter doesn't have to wave at the puck. Just make the damn play.

As people dream about developing UPL, they ignore what Linus has already done. Ullmark is 27 and he literally has gotten better every year. This idea that he is a 1B is so 2019. He is 6/5/3 2.49 .920 on this team. That's 17th in GAA, and 12th in SP. On this team. His numbers are better than old pros like Price, Rask, Bobrovsky, Holtby, Varlamov and Anderson They are better than guys of his vintage like Hellebuyck, Kuemper, Jarry, Markstrom, Korpisalo, Merzlikens, Blackwood, Binnington, Murray and Gibson In some cases they are far better. On this team! You could make a case that the only goalies in the entire league who have been clearly better than him this year are Grubauer, Vasilievski and Fleury. There is no way that there are 20 goalies right now who are clearly outperforming him. And he has just entered his prime. He is the rare player (other than Olofsson, the only) that the Sabres have successfully developed. I read here all the time about how the Sabres have to do a better job of this. We finally get it right and people are content to let him walk. For god sake, sign this guy.

They are the type of hungry players I expect Adams to target.

The list of players who have scored as many or more goals than Taylor Hall for the worst team in the NHL: Reinhart Olofsson Rieder Lazar Cozens Montour Asplund Skinner Miller Sheahan Staal Ristolainen Jokiharju Thompson Eakin Mittelstadt Okposo Dahlin Eichel I think it's safe to say things didn't work out in Buffalo.

Button was a huge Quinn booster last year. He's played 16 games since — 7 in the WJC and 9 in the AHL. That's a drunken internet fan level "what-have-you-done-for-me-lately."

What was Victor doing where he was if not presenting himself as a passing option? The end zone camera showed Sam gaining the line, drawing the defender, and putting the puck to an uncovered teammate in space, and heading to open space himself expecting the return along the boards. It was tight, but it was also a pretty textbook entry play that NHL players use all the time. For whatever reason — good puck pressure by the Ranger defender, not thinking Sam had enough space — Olofsson didn't take the option Sam presented. At that point, he had three choices: move the puck back to Dahlin (the safest play), skate it out himself and regroup, or try to protect the puck himself. He took option three, failed, and then made the hope play up the boards well after that window had closed, resulting in a turnover. I think Sam's goal was to get a lane on the deep defender and had already done so by the time Victor coughed it up. Do you thihk he should have expected Victor to cough it up and stopped as soon as he give him the pass? I don't see it. He certainly wasn't standing there watching with eyes in the back of his head as the play took 8/10s of a second to unfold. It wasn't an easy play, but it was one Victor usually would have executed. Maybe he was tired?

Really glad to see Thompson and Mittelstadt to not only get significant minutes, but also get rewarded. Next time Carter Hutton allows four in 21 shots and somebody says 'but the team', I'd like to hold up career minor leaguer Dustin Tokarski as exhibit A.

I think that for some people, his play this year has erased his play last year. I don't think that's entirely fair, because I think he's been playing hurt. I still think we can have the player we had last year, and that player is better than five lottery tickets, even five good ones. That said, if we did trade him for futures, I doubt the return would be this good.

The counterpoint is I think we all want to follow the Bills' path of not only the right players, but the right people. If only we had a scouting department to do some intel!

Like the Kahun qualifier these are interesting ones. Certainly worth considering, hard to judge without the context of what cap balls are in the air and other options exist.

I can't imagine preferring living in Buffalo to living in Seattle. 😜

I'm starting to wonder if the Sabres will have to bring in a couple bodies at the deadline? I won't miss most of them, but Hall, Staal, Montour, McCabe, Lazar, Borgen, Cozens, Girgensons, Hutton, Johansson and Asplund is a ton of bodies. And we may be adding some of Risto, Miller, Rieder, Sheahan and Irwin to that list as well

Well, Eichel hurts of course, but at least Reinhart/Mittelstadt is a clear upgrade over Staal/Eakin in the 2/3 slots. Anyone see the Lazar injury? Dead quiet on the broadcast and the GDT.

Imagine someone being touchy about an insult to their personal appearance. Imagine thinking it's OK to insult someone about their personal appearance because of their job.

I think the plan for this season — pushed primarily by Ralph — was "this team isn't that far away, patch the holes and we'll compete." Everything that could go wrong did: The team was far away, your patches leaked, you neglected an important patch and we imploded. It will be interesting to see how Adams resets: firing Ralph doesn't count, that was obvious; the rumoured front-office revamp, the start of the sell-off and the decision to play the kids count, how well does he execute? But the big thing is the build: what kind of players does he go after; what kind of team will he put together? What did he learn?