Mustache of God

I'll probably go to this, why not? It also looks like this will count as a "home" game for the Sabres due to the MSG - Rangers agreement. This means the Sabres will be playing in Barclays twice next year, MSG twice and Citifield once. Please, please, please, please have a new coach so I'm tempted to see the Sabres 5 times next season.

At this point is there anybody on this board in the "Don't Fire Bylsma" camp, anyone who thinks he's good for this team? Nolan had a strategy he was able to employ that no other coach could during his first rodeo here: Play Hasek. Win games.

There are two games on the remaining schedule that I absolutely want the Sabres to win. Other than that I agree with this. I don't see the Sabres current position in the standings changing much (maybe drop down 2 spots if we keep our losing pace) but the closer we get to the bottom, the better chance we have hitting the lottery for a top-3 pick, which I can see Murray trading to get real help on the blue-line. I'm not rooting for the Sabres to lose, but I am rooting for them to lose Bylsma.

Yeah, I also forgot to put the date in the title. I'm literally the Drew Hogdson of starting game day threads. Thanks for fixing that, Mods. Go Sabres.

"Robin, toss me the shark repellent".

Oooh, I'd forgotten about Grumpy Larry, I'll put him on my keepsies list as well but not Foligno and definitely not Moulson.

"I would rather have Drew Stafford on the Sabres than ____________" My answer would be almost anyone in our bottom 6 not named Gionta and maybe Girgensons (or at least on the games he shows up).

Wasn't he benching something like 225 prior to being drafted? Jack is a strong mofo.

I'm much more concerned with when will Eichel have his first hat trick?

Too soon.

Meh. I didn't watch the game so I can't comment on Peters but my only input here is that every time I hear Brad May speak on TV I can only think of all of the aspiring broadcasters out there and the job that he is taking away from someone who is actually competent in that field. I get it, you're a Sabre alumnus and you have a cup under your belt, great. You probably don't actually need this job to survive. Brad May is incapable of stringing together a handful of sentences, much less a continuing analysis of a hockey game.

I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere but the Rochester Americans are sitting in the basement of the AHL and I've heard it stated before that they play Dan's system down there so the call-ups know what's expected when they get a sniff of the show. Does it resonate with anyone that if the system sucks in the AHL and if the system sucks in the NHL that maybe there's a problem along the line? Is is really so bad that the captain of your team completely quits on you and gets loaned to your rival? What kind of message does that send to our younger prospects? What about the winning culture they want to instill from the bottom up? I also agree with whoever posted above about Dan's fate with the team being tied in with Rex Ryan saga. I'm 100% positive that if the Bills had a successful season and Rex was still on board that Dan would not be behind the bench right now. But instead Rex was a disaster, the organization has been heralded as a joke with no punchline. Firing the coach of your other sports team mid-season will only exasperate that notion.

Suffering leads to EIchel.

Meh. Hoping Eichel does something with the puck that makes it go in the net.

100 career points for Jack.

No love for Eichel of the National broadcast re: his 11 game point streak

That was embarrassing.

To be fair, if Matthews missed the first ~20 games a la Eichel, they wouldn't be where they are now in the standings.

Woof, the only thing more disappointing than the refs non calls were the sabres. Sell the assets and drop the coach.

My impressions so far is that Kulikov is looking terrible along with the rest of our defense. The forwards look good and I hope they can keep at it and pull out a win.

I'm not a fan of them having their bye week this late into the season. Does anyone know how this compares to other teams bye? When all is said and done we're going to come back 7-8 points back of a playoff spot, needing to leap-frog 5 teams....which seems like a pretty tall order. The COL and AZ games are going to be must wins.

I wouldn't be surprised to see a combination of Foligno, Girgensons, Moulson, Ennis, one of our recent AHL callups, and a draft pick put together in return for help on the blue-line. I'm hoping Franson and Kuli get moved as I don't see us bringing back Franson and I think Kulkov would do better for himself financially as a UFA rather than resigning here and I'd rather not lose them for nothing. If we come out of the deadline with a somewhat established defensive prospect, somebody with a high(er) than average ceiling, I'll be happy. I'm not expecting any big moves.

If Kane gets traded, it'll be after the season is over. There's no way Murray trades our most prolific scorer while we still have a faint sniff at the playoffs. I'm in the camp that would not like to see Kane traded. Rivet also made an interesting point on the Instigators today, in between telling a story of how a "smokeshow" once let out her "bazammers" on the jumbotron, that Gionta saying he wants to stay publicly doesn't mean much, rather than it's the right thing to hear from the captain. Gionta saying he'd entertain a trade would have trade rumors fly-off the handle. If there is a trade with him, it'll be a behind the scenes thing. Talk comes in at the 14:50 mark here : http://media.wgr550.com/a/118486769/02-21-the-instigators-hr-1.htm The "bazammers" story comes in at the 43:00 minute mark: http://media.wgr550.com/a/118486769/02-21-the-instigators-hr-1.htm

We haven't beaten Chicago since 2010 or 2011...which means we're due.