Randall Flagg

That's not what proof is.

Who's underperforming? The "performance" hasn't happened long enough yet. I need to see another handful of games from these guys to even set my full expectations before seeing where they fall relative to them. But the preseason expectations I built from what I think about the players on our team, well, this game was the least surprising thing in the world quite frankly, and also not the end of the world. This is before even bringing coaching into the picture, which I'd be happy to do in a different thread

Well, Pominville being there makes me disinterested in reading the rest of them. Sometimes I wonder if I watch the same players that other people do. Especially when, after being the "negative guy" all offseason and last April, it's everyone else thrashing about angrily

I might be wrong, But it took me just a little bit of work to come to the conclusion that Sobotka is not a late-game net-pulled player, and yet we're seeing him out there with the dominant lines. Eichel, Risto, Dahlin, Sam, Skinner(Ithink), Sobotka? Since my biggest problem with Phil is that I don't think he knows what he has in his players, that is bothersome to me.

Once again, I'm not going to go out of my way to defend Housley, but the same thing is going to happen to this team until it has as many good players, or more, as the good NHL teams do, and it's really as simple as that.

Not sure where you're going with that and how it applies to Casey's improvement from the preseason to now

If pi has the secret that can be simply applied in one practice and can change the result of the games, I have no idea why he's posting here and isn't rolling in the millions given to him by NHL teams for that secret.

Well generally we don't judge a player's offensive production by about 13 minutes of ice time. I'm talking about the hockey that happens 99% of the hockey plays that aren't sick snipes and beauty cellies

Mittelstadt has looked way better tonight than he did in preseason.

Hopefully it doesn't take Phil too long to take Sobotka off of the lines with the offensive players.

Sheary can't drive play, he just has nice speed and finish. Sheary isn't going to do all that much with Berglund and Thompson. We have 3 players that will score their points no matter what we do with them this season is all I mean.

I was on this team too. But I'm not going to get too emotional about a cup contender whose players have played together for years, coming off of a spanking, picking on our new team. I don't have the energy to, really.

I meant to post this before the game, but went mini golfing instead. There's a very real chance our season is pretty bad again. And it's because our team isn't good at hockey yet, and wasn't close last year, and didn't really add much in the way of immediate hockey ability. The problem with going all-in on culture and trading our best overall player was that we still weren't going to be better right away, and now at the first sign of continuing to be a weak NHL roster, everyone will jump down the throats of the only guys left. I'd encourage the board not to do this. These guys work hard and play hard. They aren't very good, and they aren't "different mindsets" and "different leaders" away from on-ice success. They are time, practice, and talent away from success, and it's still going to take some time and moves to get there. We have three established good offensive players on our entire team. It's going to be a struggle for a while.

Jesus that crowd is booing loud.

I didn't see anything that resembled significant improvement via offseason acquisitions, just a lot of growth potential and about a dozen new names.

His team is playing in line with its talent level. I'd be interested to hear specific parts of his "system" that are failing the players. They're ready to play. They aren't very good yet and have a lot of glaring roster weaknesses. What's really happening is that all the players that aren't actually very good but feel like they're good in the offseason are still showing they're the same players.

Specifically, how?

This thread is a mess, including by posters that have called me out for still not liking much about the roster all summer. It's so early, against a team that's played together for years.

I would guess not, but I haven't read much of anything on RJ ever, so I can't tell.

Wasn't it the PK coach that they changed or something? I didn't like how they were positioning themselves out there. That'll be interesting to watch going forward.

I get being upset at the two goal deficit, but it felt to me like the Sabres controlled the puck more than the Bruins did. Sometimes that happens. We don't have nearly enough hockey to be making broad-swath conclusions about the fate of this season 20 minutes into it.

Rodrigues is the best fourth liner the team has had in years

We just need to get that first peeper before Boston scores again. Game's far from over.

Dahlin was the least-nervous Sabre on the ice that whole time.

Lol quit booing fans.