LTS

My hope on this has to be that they expect Ryan Johnson to be pulled up because they are moving Jokiharju out.. or someone... I'm not deleting this, but acknowledging that wookie already called out my blatant ignorance and inability to read a post properly. 🙂 No need to pile on.

Good god, that's brutal. I think the NHL needs to pick another day and time of the year entirely.

I disagree, what happened in OT is very mental. Tage Thompson made the one play he's not good at. He tried to initiate a board battle. For all the size Tage Thompson has what he has not learned how to do is lower his mid-point when battling on the boards. As such, Toews is able to get lower and bump him causing the turnover. This is something Thompson does repeatedly. Thompson's mentality leads to better solutions, in the immediate situation of the game the prudent choice is to skate it back over the blue line like most players would do. All the Sabres players were covered, including Power coming into the zone. Thompson does get overwhelmed physically, but it's a mental situation. Do you think Toews should be able to out muscle and out work Thompson? It starts with a mentality that "I will not lose this puck." Thompson clearly didn't have that versus Toews mentality which was "I will take this puck." They didn't have them. That's just rationalization. What the Sabres had was a lead and then the Sabres forced Colorado to play a harder game. Colorado did and they won. Saying they had them is like saying you have a pool shark just before they take all your money. If they didn't come together after giving up a 4-0 lead versus Colorado earlier this year why would you think it would be different now? If it were "unimaginable" for them then they would not lose. Unimaginable is wanting to win as bad as you want to breathe. I am sure they are disappointed. I am sure they don't like the outcome but they've been doing this for over a season now. Nothing has changed. I don't think this one is the one that changes anything. I appreciate your optimism but at some point you have to recognize that they are who they are. Rationalizing their continued failures is only hurting yourself, much like someone facing an abuse issue saying "It will be different this time." I would agree here. The positive of this was the Sabres ability to score 5 goals against the Avs. They played well until they couldn't handle what the other team was putting up. Of course, if Colorado had played the whole game like they did the last 5 minutes then perhaps the score is different. We don't know. Overall this game was one team wanting it more and the Sabres failing to make the smart play in OT. I don't blame Power for driving the net in OT. In 3 on 3 the defense needs to flow into the forward spot. As Power comes in the zone, if the Avs player doesn't cover him well then Tage can give him the feed. However, Power is blanketed and Tage makes the decision to try and turn back against Toews. This was the mistake as I said earlier. Thompson cannot doesn't out leverage people and Toews bumped him. Tage also should have realized at that point, he's the last man back and can't make that play. He has to carry it out of the zone and retain possession, let the team regroup and attack again.

It's not a good look for the Sabres, certainly. It's probably not a good look for Pegula, but what is he going to do about it? He's not going to Fire McDermott. The Sabres deserve all the chiding they can get. They are a joke and we cover it that ad nauseum on this forum. The palm tree comment from Adams was never funny, no. It was a perfect demonstration of a person who is out of touch. But, chirping him for saying it? Full speed ahead. If Pegula doesn't want his GM of his professional hockey franchise being chirped he should probably deal with the problem, not the symptom. Get a real GM.

So, if he wanted to be traded you're suggestion is to ignore that and keep him for the whole season? IF I am interpreting that correctly, then what kind of player does Zucker become when he's told "To Bad, So Sad" and forcefully kept on the roster? I don't think he becomes the leader and vet presence the locker room needs. I think he becomes the poster child for how this organization treats players and it sows even more discontent into the locker room. He's certainly not going to re-sign after that. The absolute most likely solution is this that they ask Zucker his preference. If it's a trade then they will ask if he's open to re-signing next year if they move him. They will then review potential teams who are interested with him and let him choose from a list of trades the Sabres find acceptable. This puts the player where he wants to go (within a subset of trades that are beneficial for the Sabres) and then hopefully he'll come back next year.

No Georgiev so let in 4 quick goals tonight and that was not enough the last time. Sooooo... yeah. World Juniors.. I'll watch Czechia and Canada play.

I'm just going to assume the palm tree comment was a jab. It was great.

They moved it this year and yes, it was done specifically because of the NCAA football playoff changes. What likely did not help is that in the Sabres first TNT game this season they kept saying New Year's Eve for the game but the graphic they put up said it was on January 1. So imagine a bunch of people watching games on TNT and seeing Jan. 1. I did watch part of it, but at 5pm I am busy eating or planning food if I were going to a party. It's a serious miss and they'd be better off moving it to a weekend game. Also, it was raining during the first part of the game at least. The performances were cringe worthy. Find videos of Smashing Pumpkins and Chance the Rapper from that game... it's not good. The game itself was boring because Chicago sucks. Seriously 0-5 in outdoor games.. let's not have them in it any more.

But what I said before holds true. Zucker has to want to stay here, even just this season. If he wants to be traded and Adams retains him then this organization loses the last respectable thing it has going for it. If there is one thing that is true, Buffalo has moved players to playoff teams or those who don't want to be part of the organization. At the very least this allows some lower in demand vets to sign UFA deals on a 1 year basis with the mindset of "If this is their year, I am in and if not, I'm going to a playoff team." You take that away and no vet except the most desperate to stay in the NHL will sign with Buffalo.

My assumption is that Adams will do whatever Zucker wants. While Adams could refuse to move Zucker it would only add to the stigma of players not wanting to be in Buffalo. It seems like it can't get worse, but it can. Buffalo at least is known to move the veterans for playoff opportunities. This at least helps some vets sign a 1 year deal here. This game went the way I would expect. This continues to be a poorly coached team and their inexperience needs much better coaching to improve. They continue to be let down by every player who was given an "A" in the leadership group. I'm glad USA vs. Canada was on. That was far more entertaining and about midway through the Sabres game I was predominantly watching USA and then flipping back to the Sabres during breaks.

Bummer. I think one year I did a 7 day trial of Sling just so I could get it and watch the WJC.

This must be what celebrities feel like when their statements are quoted out of context. 🙂

NHL network? At least in the US all the games are on there.

I kinda look like Brad Pitt. It never helped me Also, I don't even kinda look like him. 8pm start.. same time as USA vs. Canada. Decisions...

Kept flipping between games so I missed quite a bit. They got a win, so that's good. They didn't collapse, that's good. Binnington still sucks as a goaltender, so that's good. They still have lots of issues to fix, so that's bad. But.. a dub is a dub. Now to start a truly terrifying stretch of games.

That collision was terrible. Not a surprise that he broke the collarbone. A really strange play that I think could have been so much worse. No one can doubt how hard he was going to the net, including the net itself.

Bills at 1, Sabres at 3, and Team USA vs. Finland at 2:30. Need more screens I guess.

I love wading through a GDT after the fact. This is true... but then if you look at the results tonight you might be inclined to think it's not true. Hah. it was a great comment. Bucci actually loves Buffalo and Callahan is from Rochester and lives there at present. He's the Sabres personal analyst for ESPN games. Yes. But Bucci is not as good as Gord Miller which is painfully obvious when switching between the Sabres and the Canada/Latvia game tonight. They COULD do it. It's a possibility, not a probability. That said, what's the point in crapping on everyone's parade? Let people be happy during the game. The team played well and they won. That's the point of every game. Dissect it after the fact sure. I didn't read the GDT as people thinking the Sabres were suddenly the best team in the NHL. I did however see a lot of people who thought the Sabres would collapse in this game be pleasantly surprised that they were not collapsing and indeed were beating a team they should beat. Tuch the enigma. He has a game like tonight and people love him. However, you could look at his game tonight and find a lot mistakes, including the penalty he took just before he scored the last two goals. He tends to pass to no one. He and Thompson do not appear to be on the same page. He doesn't (usually) hit people with his 6'4 frame. He often misses the net with his shots. Then.. he has a game like tonight. Dahlin is still prone to some boneheaded mistakes too as we saw very early in the game. Tuch and Dahlin are very different people. So I think what people expect from leadership might be influenced by what kind of leader would appeal more to them. What none of us see is the day to day, locker room level stuff. --------- Bottom line tonight: They won. They did not collapse even though it looked dicey at certain points. I think we saw some of what a confident Sabres team can do and while it was against Chicago I think it still translates. This team needs to believe in itself first and foremost. On to the next game.

Yeah.. they need to just stop talking about playoffs before the seasons starts. It's two years in a row where they set the expectations, not the fans. The fans have wanted the playoffs for a lot longer. Meh. I'll likely be watching.. because I'll be stuck at home having to keep an eye on a dog who had surgery recently. (all going well there).

Yes, I am watching the games. I didn't necessarily specify "passing plays". What i see is players missing tackles and opponents repeatedly getting into the second level of the defense. On the outside I see a lot of DBs not wrapping up players. I'd love to see the stats you are looking at on tackling. But most yardage related stats put them in the bottom 10 of defenses. They are good at preventing long plays and forcing turnovers.

Pretty sure we established earlier that the top 6 losing streaks in Sabres history are all under Pegula. This streak managed to make to #3 on America's Top 40 before stalling. But it's over, and that's that. Now the next conversation may sound like the Rangers which is "X wins in their last Y games".

no matter who is coaching, interference penalties and bad tackling won't change.

whatever it is.. I hope it's nothing too serious and in fact.. being on vacation would be a really good thing.

The RJ pic comes through. I'm taking this into the Christmas break. No analysis. Hooray!

I am aware of their defensive style right now. As you say, in the past playoffs, when they had a higher ranked defense they got torched. Okay, so should that make me feel MORE at ease about the current defense which relies on luck and hope? It doesn't.