Randall Flagg

Not only was the ramp high, but the horizontal distance to the table was a ludicrous distance to cover for anyone that isn't a track and field star.

Considering that I have held something close to all of those views, allow me to explain how they can all be held in concert with each other: - The Sabres relied on untalented players in too many critical roles last year to be successful - Too many of those players came back for us to be happy at the start of the season, because as I and others have explicitly stated, the list of things needing to go right for the team to be good was too long to be reasonable, and we'd like to go into any given season with a "these things need to be good for us to be good" checklist that is short and probable to be filled - Through two games, all of those things have gone right, which if extrapolated over 82 games, would earn a "well that was pretty damn fortunate, or Botts is a genius, but let's hope our laundry list is never that long again either way" response - I guess I haven't explicitly said the last bullet, because I'm not really super focused on Krueger's two games when he will ultimately have no less than 162 to judge him on, but either way, IF the laundry list has all been checked off, then the roster was indeed better, even if on a surface level it was problematic to rely on so many dart throws to start the season

Olofsson only played in six games last year. By itself that's not enough to lean on, much less given the fact that in just about all of those games, either the Sabres (@NYI) or their opponents (vs OTT, @DET) were in full-on run for the bus mode.

Just time. It's pretty apparent what your team is by January I'd say. In the meantime, it's more than fun enough to enjoy the games, and talk about what looks good and what doesn't. There hasn't been much that doesn't look good in the first two games. If I haaaaaaaaad to pick one thing, it'd probably be the two quick goals coming out of both intermissions Saturday. But the responses to those goals were so good that you don't really worry about it until it becomes a trend that doesn't always get responded to

Bylsma is a better coach than Phil, but I'd take EITHER of 16/17 or 15/16's rosters over 17-18 and it's not particularly close. Tennyson, Beaulieu, Gorges, and Falk all got significant playing time together behind Nolan, Josefson, Griffith, Moulson, and Pouliot all existing throughout the forwards at once, all in front of a melted-down Lehner rather than a .920 Lehner. Post-injury Kyle was a trainwreck, and Larry and Zemgus did not have the confidence and established roles they were given for the 18-19 season that allowed them to excel as shot suppressors. 2016-17 in partuclar, the top six forwards were actually really good, in ROR, Eichel, Reinhart, Kane, pre-injury Kyle, and whoever else you wanted to put in there. That team was flying high into early February, we were hoping for a playoff run before the final ~20 games were played at a 55 point pace, which culminated in Dan's firing.

Two games are less than three percent of the season, so I would go as far as saying the "sustainability" of the play in them is not even a well-posed topic. If they were to continue playing the way they have in these games, there's nothing "unsustainable" about that. Beating teams into the dirt by ramming the puck down their throats over and over again, and winning while doing so, is the type of winning that lends confidence in future winning, statistically and otherwise, and that's what we did for two games. I understand your question in the sense that the rosters are fairly similar, but Dahlin growth, Olofsson being a player, steps up from Jack and Sam, a best-case-scenario Johansson, and Miller/Joki being what we'd hoped and Scandella/Risto bouncing back are all things that collectively could have made last year's team into a good one, and they have all happened in our brief two games. If they were all to continue such that we carry the play in most of the games we play, it's sustainable. But we won't know if that is going to happen until it happens!

This isn't exactly the first time that's happened to that team with either of their top 2 C's though and it typically hasn't affected their regular season all that much.

Lewan responded to the comments on Twitter. Bills players, foolishly in my opinion, responded. Yeah, it's time to enjoy the bye week and move on to Miami.

The Blue Jackets may technically be smaller than Buffalo but it would be accurate to describe them as a team that plays incredibly heavy, like the Blues. We always have some amount of trouble with them, but have 3 of the last 4 points from games in Columbus. They've been pushovers because of their goalie situation this year. Hope that continues!

1st/2nd/3rd/4th will still always be a handy way to talk about them, especially in a message board format where line construction always takes place in the following form: xxx - xxx - xxx xxx - xxx - xxx xxx - xxx - xxx xxx - xxx - xxx It's an easy way for everyone to be on the same page. I don't think Ralph is doing anything here that other coaches don't also do in reality

He was probably a bad overall head coach, but I also don't think our final record last year was out of line with our talent level.

Do they play in Europe next weekend? Just a guess. Same thing happens to us in November for that reason

Based on the highlight video, it appears that Tampa finished the first period against Carolina with 10 shots on goal, and finished the game with 13 shots on goal total. What. I guess Carolina still likes to hog that puck this year

New England is going to run KC over and win another super bowl.

Morrissey out tonight with an injury. Poor Jets.

I believe that Darryl Johnson got credit for the FG block. He also had a sack. Beane and staff know how to get production out of later round picks.

Do we think Zay's time as a Bill is over, if Foster is healthy? I think it might be. Did anyone see him sitting at the end of the bench by himself?

Duke Williams may have been a CFL find by Beane, or the scouts, or whatever. He didn't look too slow to be one of those possession receivers today, which was the big knock on him. And his hands seem rock solid.

Edmunds has been a lot more fundamentally sound this season to my eye, as he learns the game. A few less highlight plays to this point, but he's not getting burned. I can only think of a couple plays where we have been gashed due to a bad decision by him in 5 weeks. With his physical abilities, it's only a matter of time (over the next couple years) before he breaks out in a big way.

Allen bounced back pretty nicely. Matt Ryan and Baker Mayfield also couldn't really move on this defense, only I think they threw a lot more picks. You don't like to see another INT, but that was way more of a normal NFL QB interception (also had Yeldon not inexplicably stopped it would not have been picked) than the three he threw against NE. We really need Singletary ready for Miami (well maybe not for Miami, but while I like Gore, the RB stable is missing a key piece and it shows in games)

Hot take: Bates is a better OL than Cody Ford right now. He had an excellent preseason

Victory formation! That was ugly - they always are, against the Titans. At this point, aside from playoff implications, my secondary rooting interest is so we don't finish in the same division slot they do so we don't have to ***** play them again next season. Take this bye week to get healthy, fix the special teams/offensive issues, and come out in two weeks ready to stomp the Dolphins! AFC road victory against a good defense that will probably be hovering around 9-7 in December. There exist things to complain about, but today is a good day.

I'm confused, the next Sabres game is more than 26 hours after this post was made ?