Randall Flagg

The Sabres are being held afloat by goaltending and penalty killing, as we all expected.

The decade of bottom 5 goaltending has nothing to do with the goaltenders' abilities nor the GMs moves/lack thereof at the position. This is a Sabrespace commandment.

It was really gunky. There was a stretch from maybe 14:00 to maybe 8:00 where there was a whistle every 25 seconds and neither team had real possession, the ice was really bad and that contributed. But eventually Philly owned that period.

Gotta keep your 2C when the only other top 9 C below him on the roster is stinking to high heavens for some unknown reason

I think you have to play the hot hand in the next game. The most important 2 points are the next ones on the schedule. Levi has not earned that decision with his play. Who would have thought that by November, to borrow a concept from @That Aud Smell, starting Levi is a more sphincter-puckering idea than starting UPL? Besides Hank that is!

2019: 3-8-3 2020 (February 2021): 2-6-1 2021: 3-9-2 2022: 4-9-1 Since the November of our 10 game win streak, we have struggled with Novembers (or more generally, the second month of the season). It is time to show that we are a different Sabres team. Take control this month - what is that playoff-spot-by-Thanksgiving stat? Let's not try to be an exception to that.

Getting outplayed like that but winning probably bodes pretty well for Friday IMO. I'm hoping we have started our first official streak.

My fantasy team noticed it :)

We are 5-5-0 after 10. Last year, we were 7-3-0. But that's where the fun ended - we immediately began our 8 game losing streak at this point last year. So if we do better than 2-6-0 in our next 8, we will be in a better position than last year at Thanksgiving. Keep the train rolling fellas. UPL is still getting lucky once in a while the last two games, but his angles and movement and control seem noticeably improved.

Whipping boys UPL and Jokiharju kept us in it at different points (UPL all game, Joki with the hand save and some general steady play) Good teams can wring points out of games where they play like the Sabres did for the middle 40 minutes. They passed that test tonight. First time winning two in a row - extending solid play beyond the boundaries of a single game is also important to being a good team, let's hope they continue it into Friday (UPL should get Friday) I ask again, WTF is up with Dylan Cozens? When was the last time he meaningfully contributed to an offensive play that you can remember? His overtime goal 2 weeks ago? The presence Erik Johnson brings is plainly visible (as someone who originally hated the move). Just as in the summer, I would be thrilled with an add like that for the forwards any time. Mittelstud J.J. is playing flashy hockey but I"m not sure he's playing good hockey Tage looks off still but he's producing, I'm hoping he flips the switch like he did last November. .500 is a much better outcome than what could have happened from 1-3 or 3-5. Hopefully we pull 6 of the next 10, and at some point to make the playoffs you'll need to grab 7 or 8. Everything we want is there for us, especially if UPL isn't a mirage

I have seen own-player high sticks called a million times. I've never seen it reversed after discussion. Only the Sabres

These guys make me sick honestly. How can you be 4 years into a regime and have a second power play unit with Owen Power, Kyle okposo and Peyton Krebs?

Disgusting power play

Kyle is fried

Getting squarely outworked by a Torts team for the billionth time. And I don't even really like torts. Disappointing What happened to Dylan Cozens

The first two Philly games last year were inexplicable performances by the Sabres, and take your pick at which one cost them the playoffs because a win in one of those games would have put them in. If we remember that, the Sabres players certainly do, and I expect a great effort tonight.

Thankfully the clip I saw just had the immediate impact. I'm not gonna watch it again and didn't see any blood

I know that it's a next-level accusation, I'm not going to call this "evidence", but I guess the guy had been kicked out of 2 of his previous 4 games, led the league in penalties by far, and is known as dirty. This kind of context isnt going to help him

UPL looked like I would if I was thrown in the net against the Devils. You could see him shaking on live TV. Even the easy saves weren't easy. That absolutely impacted the Sabres, and so I would be comfortable saying goaltending cost us that game

Uhmmmm, I just watched a slowed down video. It looks like the guy intentionally swung his leg at him. Insane. Manslaughter??

This isn't the final copy of my homework, i'm not proud of it

(5/32)*(5/32)*(5/31)*(5/31) = .000635... If goaltending was a coinflip (this is not fair because it's harder to be good when you have bad goaltending the year before than when you have good goaltending the year before, but it's also not fair in the other direction because you can take actions to make your chances better than a coin flip) What the Sabres managed to do the last 4 years has a likelihood that could be estimated as something like ~.06%, which is why I keep pushing @thewookie1 on his 'luck' angle. There is almost no way that this stretch is luck, it is far more likely to be incompetence

It's not that we want a vezina winner - we just don't want to have bottom 5 goaltending for the 5th year in a row, or 12th even

This tweet tells me everything about how the league handles everything from big suspensions to "tripping" infractions

I mean, imagine being friends with doohickie