Randall Flagg

Nice backcheck by Casey

Sometimes you just know beforehand. For whatever reason it's usually against Ottawa these days too

First post in the Sens' GDT was a bit of a dunk on Mittelstadt. Hope he has a good night

My man Andre

19 points in 11 games against Ottawa for Jack. Doubt he does better against any other team. A lot of those points are memorable too

Love Pageau too wish we coulda found a way to pry him out of there while he was hurt

Love me some Skinner

If you pool those 18 skaters together, Colin Miller is probably the ~7th best one of them. And he has to sit on the bench. So it goes with our questionable roster construction.

My entire point was that we can trade potential that isn't helping us NOW, for players that WILL, and in doing so we wouldn't create any roster holes because those players weren't helping us now. I think you thought I was saying we could trade for potential. Ah, just got to the next page. We good.

One way to not make a roster hole is to trade assets whose value is primarily in the form of potential.

Agreed, and I think it would have come out right now had he said something - Garrett and his teammates have already been interviewed.

We play some bad teams in the next three games. Really need to get 5 or 6 of those points to get the train back on the tracks

The thirst for Rudolph punishment is strange to me. Had Myles Garrett not committed assault, in a football setting, Myles' late finishing of the tackle and Rudolph's subsequent yanking of the helmet would have earned each of them offsetting unsportsmanlike penalties, and neither of those plays deserves any more scrutiny than that. Then, Garrett committed assault that would get any of us thrown in jail if we did it on the street. I wouldn't care if they also fined Rudolph, but they should do no more than that. People on TBD are asking for 3/4 game suspensions of Rudolph as well - they want what Rudolph did to be the third-longest suspension for an on-field action ever handed out by the NFL. What in the world?

Allen threw that ball to Knox and Knox would have had to make a play roughly 1/10th as tough as the one the Browns TE made on his first catch of the year tonight, for it to be a touchdown. The throw didn't come right that second because, as you can see to his left, the pocket got blown up and he had to get out. FWIW. And I've seen about 14 years of sports, and I've never seen anything as bad as what Myles Garrett just did in that time frame

They really did buy themselves the ability to absorb this swoon with that October. When they get their heads back straight, they'll be encouraged to see that they're far from out of it, and it'll hopefully turn into some positive psychology quickly. Or something. idk anything about psychology

We're only two weeks earlier than that point last year! I just like searching for symmetries. Speaking of symmetries, man, the last Canes-Sabres game in Buffalo was juuuuuuuuuuuust like this one. Eerily so

I wonder if, for the second season in a row, the highest we get is on a thrilling OT game at home with the Sharks

Why on earth was that like that

Buffalo specializes in roller coasters. Last year, the Bills and Sabres combined gave us 12 straight wins and followed it up with 7 straight losses. This year they began their seasons winning a combined 13 of 16, and have since lost 9 of 11.

What is shocking about suggesting that Dahlin has been worse this year than McCabe? I'd bet at least half of the fan base agrees with me. And McCabe hasn't been very good. But Dahlin has been horrifying for most of it I obviously don't think that'll always be true, but it's pretty clear to me that through 18 games it's been how it is

To me it's way more infuriating heading full bore into an 82 game schedule with a roster I don't believe capable of doing interesting things past February, than it is watching guys I genuinely like and respect as hockey players/humans play a hard-fought game that they narrowly lose. Like it's not Jimmy Vesey's fault that we are where we are, and it's not Rodrigues or Dahlin or Eichel or Reinhart or Hutton's fault either, I don't see any skater not doing their best given the nature of an NHL season and the ebbs and flows of results/effort/luck that come with such a long and grueling battle. ONE injury, of a guy who probably isn't a top 3 forward on the team, stuck Rodrigues at 2C. That shouldn't be acceptable, but its necessity was cemented a long time ago, not tonight But it's usually depressing/frowned upon to get too upset about it when there's actually time to do something about it and while those decisions are being made

It is the nature of humans debating each other innit? Edit: I think I used "innit" improperly but I'm going to leave it, I don't think it's supposed to go where "isn't it" would properly finish a sentence

Well, I'd need to see the conversation you were having. An example of one I've been involved with is as follows: "We need to acquire player x, because he's good at faceoffs and I always feel like we lose important faceoffs." "Well, I don't think that player is very good at hockey, and so I don't think his faceoff winning ability has much value, especially when you consider that the best faceoff Sabres teams I've ever seen include one of the worst Sabres teams I've ever seen, and time and time again the bottom 10 NHL teams in faceoffs have as much standings and playoff success as the top teams in that regard, so I'd rather focus on acquiring good hockey players, and if they make us better at faceoffs that's cool, and if they don't, I don't really care because I'm gonna sit down for some playoff hockey" In that regard, I don't think any forests or trees are being missed. Having a player you can put out there and rely on to be one of the best in the league, to win maybe 5 more faceoffs than average over the course of about 3 games, is nice, but it gets talked up more than what it actually brings. ROR lost a ***** ton of important faceoffs in the playoffs, it was actually kinda funny to watch, and that's just how it goes sometimes I just think that as much as you say "but that's how it always is in these stats arugments with you guys," you/your side are equally guilty of shoddy framing I mean, we're still so early in the season that at some point in the near future tonight will be lumped in with those games as "the early part of this season"

You've done such a sterling job representing my stance that I don't have to add another word

Games against mediocre teams the Sabres have shown up for this year include Pittsburgh, New Jersey, Dallas, and both Sharks games