SabresBaltimore

I can't say I know much about Johnson as I don't follow a lot of college, but I see little value in signing him to play anywhere but the AHL right now and probably next year. I'm all for giving him a chance to make the team next year, but as it stands for this year, I think we roll with what we have. What I really want is a veteran defensive player to pair with Powers and move Joki down with Labushkin. So I don't see Johnson factoring in just yet. It's always good to have more depth, especially from a more defensive defenseman that Johnson sounds to be. It'd be nice to get him signed soon, but I won't lose sleep over him walking away. Honestly I think it'd be his loss if he does.

We're still in it. Hopefully Levi can go tonight and has enough gas to have another big showing. I'd LOVE the Hawks to do a huge favor and beat Pittsburgh tonight too, but I'm not holding my breath. Then again I didn't think the Caps would beat the Aisles, so you never know! Let's get after it!

The Rangers will be motivated too, it's not likely but if they win out and Carolina loses out they would have the 1 seed in the Met. Or if they get 3 more points in their last 2 than the Devils, they could move to the 2 seed. Neither is likely, but that won't matter. We're going to need to play another complete game and find a way to get the win in regulation.

I believe at this point if we lose a game, we're eliminated. Also if both the Islanders and the Panthers win tonight, we're eliminated regardless of the outcome. They both have 91 points. That would put them at 93, which is our max. However both have more regulation wins (Panthers: 36, Islanders: 35) than we can earn at this point even if we win out in regulation. Panthers are at home against Toronto tonight, so we at least have a shot of living another day, but it's razor thin. They play their final game at home against Carolina on Thursday, so it's possible they could lose out. If that happens then we have to worry about Pittsburgh getting to 94 points (currently at 90). If they get 3 or less, we have a shot. Islanders play at a Caps team that is likely still without Ovi, has already been eliminated and is on a 4 game losing streak. They finish up at home against Montreal on Wednesday. Pittsburgh is at home against Chicago on Tuesday and on the road against Columbus on Thursday. Not likely they'll drop a point, but if they do, they'd only have 31 or 32 regulation wins. We are at 29 regulation wins so we can max out at 33, which would have us ahead of them. Either way must win. Let's go boys.

Can't say I'm totally surprised. He's definitely still hurt. He could still go tonight, but we should also be able to beat Detroit without him too.

Levi Agreed. Until we're officially eliminated I'd play Levi. If we're eliminated then we need to work on building the confidence with UPL or Comrie (or both) depending on the team's plans for next year. Next week we have 2 back to backs, so one or both of them can play next week. Or maybe Anderson if he's healthy by Ottawa. It's not enough to have 1 goalie anymore. We need 2. Ideally that would be UPL since he's younger, but I don't care which. This also assumes Levi can keep up his high level of play and makes the team next year, but it sure looks that way right now.

Another penalty. Jost again right after a power play..wtf

another penalty. it's in our favor this time..but seriously..the refs need to back off

penalties like crazy.. So much for Razor's "stay out of the box"

Goal for real this time!

Levi already looking good.

What kills me with some of those is the offsides had no impact on the goal. Skinner took the puck from Ekblad behind the net, it wasn't like Tuch scored off the rush..

I think this is going be called offsides..

Let's go! Big save by Levi off a bad giveaway and a nice response by our top line.

I haven't been this excited/nervous about a Sabres game in so long that I can't quantify it. I'd love to win tonight and go on to win enough to overtake the Pens and Panthers (overtaking the Isles at this point seems very unlikely). However if we don't win tonight, I just hope we play our ***** off. We likely squandered our best chances at the playoffs earlier in the season, but our glimmer of hope depends more on this game than any of the others. These kids need experience in playing in high pressure games like this one if they have any hopes of contending for a cup. The only thing that will really make me mad is if we play terrible.

I can't speak for other teams, but living in Maryland I paid more attention to the Capitals than any other team besides the Sabres. When Ovi first got drafted there was a vet named Chris Clark (I remember mostly since he went to my college) who was the Captain (might have been that same year, I forget exactly). He was playing on their 4th line his last season there before being traded. When that happened they made Ovi captain, and in my opinion he wasn't ready for it. It seemed like a reaction to the Pens making Crosby captain more than a deserved/good decision. It took him a very long time for him to grow into a good captain on the ice. I can't speak to how the locker room felt about him. He's always seemed to be more of a go out and play hard kind of leader to me. I don't really remember who the various assistants were though, or when they gave Backstrom the A. Those teams struggled for a long time with playing great in the regular season, but falling flat in the post season. I think one of the keys was more depth. For years it was the Ovi and Backstrom show. I feel like having a solid #2 center in Evgeny Kuznetsov was a big difference maker. But in terms of leadership, it was basically Ovi and Backstrom. It may have been too much pressure on them to not only lead, but having to carry the team on their backs. The year they finally won the cup Ovi had fully seemed to embrace being a captain, but I always feel like he was more of the lead cheerleader (he always seems to celebrate just as hard when a teammate scores then when he scores himself) than a leader of men. Long story short I feel like the Caps tried to develop their own leaders out of their top point producers. I kind of feel like if Ovi could have just focused on scoring goals and let someone else do the leading they might have won a cup sooner, but at this point no one else could lead that team. I think team already has more (offensive) depth than those early Caps teams, and there are good in-house candidates to take over leadership from Okposo and Girgenson. However I still want some vets who have been there. Right now the only real vet on the team with a lot of playoff experience is Tuch. He has 66 games in 4 seasons with Vegas. Okposo might be the next highest with the 24 in 3 seasons. I love Girgensons and I'd like to see him back on a cheap deal next season, but the poor guy has known nothing but losing his whole career here. I'd like to see someone else with his letter. I'd personally pick Dahlin or Tuch as Captain, the other gets an A. I think Tuch is the better choice because he's older, has the playoff experience, and has really embraced the team since being traded. However Dahlin may be a more natural leader to the younger guys. For the other A I'd either add Cousins (who I think could be our best option for captain later on) or in the short term another vet we hopefully bring in this offseason (like a middle pair defenseman with some playoff experience?) until Cousins grows into the role. I wouldn't want Thompson to feel slighted about not having a letter, but I want him to just focus on his game. I don't think making your top point player the captain is great idea. But really it comes down to locker room more than on the ice stuff.

In MD I do a combination of cable (TNT, NHLN or Caps games) and ESPN+ for the rest. I used to do the Center Ice package for years, but it costs more than ESPN+ (even with the price increase) and you get fewer games and don't always get the MSG feed. It also helps for me that ESPN+ has NLL (Bandits) and a lot of college hockey that includes games from my alma mater (Clarkson). I still haven't been able to bring myself to cancel cable outright. For the stuff I watch/record I don't really think it saves me money because I'd end up with YouTubeTV or HuluTV or something like that most likely. If that weren't the case I'd probably just forgo the TNT/NHLN/Caps games.

Indeed

For a while the sabres and this forum were my main sports thing, but I grew up a Bills fan and came to the Sabres later. My Dad didn't watch hockey, but my step dad did. And my college had division 1 hockey only. The other sports were division 3, and they wasn't a football team. A lot of that coincided with when the team was really good (late 90s through mid 00s). As the Bills have gotten good again, and the Sabres were still pretty bad, I drifted more back to them. I still skim/lurk on the forums, but stopped participating in most of the threads. I've been a bit more active now that they are on the rise. I've never stopped following/watching them, but I didn't feel like there was much I wanted to discuss while they were bad. My Bills podcast has a slack server, and they have a channel for the Sabres that I chat in a bit, but it's not as active as this forum.

I don't expect Anderson to request a trade. I think the only reason he's playing hockey this year is because he wants to help these kids develop. I remember reading a quote from him wishing he was "10 5 years younger". I feel like If he really wanted to win a cup this year, he probably could have signed as a backup somewhere else.

So I'm torn. On one hand I want the team to break the post season drought and let our kids get some playoff experience. On the other hand we're still rebuilding and I feel Comrie is an unknown quantity at this point. But given where we are in the standings, we have a very tight margin for even making the playoffs as it is. Can we afford to risk a few games on Comrie? Then again, even if we do make the playoffs, it's not very realistic that we'll win it all this year. I'd expect to lose in the first round, although anything is possible if the team/goalie is hot. So if you're KA/Granato do you still want to see what you have in Comrie ahead of next season when (I have to assume) Anderson will be gone/retired? Or do you worry about next season later and just go with your best chance to get your young team some playoff experience now? I think I'm for making the push now. It not only shows you have confidence in your young talent, but will help bond them for future seasons. But it could result in a setback next year if they go with UPL/Comrie next year and Comrie is a total bust. Also I doubt he's happy about being 3rd on the depth chart. This was supposed to be his chance to be an NHL starter and now he's not even a backup anymore...

Ah yeah, I was looking at last week and this week. Not this week and next week. It'd make sense they'd have him start against his old team.

I don't really post here that much, so forgive me if I'm re-treading some stuff from the first several pages of this thread. With Anderson getting the start last night, it has me wondering when will Comrie start again? He's had 1 start since coming back from injury, and that was due to UPL being sick. I was assuming they'd put him into one of these back-to-back games, though Anderson saved our ass in the 1st period and has the best stats of the 3 goalies, so he seems like the best option at backup. I do agree with the Sabres that if they are winning in front of UPL, to keep playing him. However Comrie has barely had any playtime this season. He had a hot start, then cooled way off and then got hurt and basically hasn't been back since. Both Comrie and UPL have 1 year left on their contracts, and in theory Levi (and maybe Portillo but it sounds like that will be unlikely) in the minors next year. I'd love to bring Anderson back as like a goalie coach or something if he's willing, but we can't expect him to play again next year, can we? Either way I feel like we need to figure out what we have in Comrie, but I also don't want to jeopardize our chances of finally breaking the playoff drought. So I'd probably stick to UPL/Anderson until there is an apparent need to shake things up. Comrie had to expect to be the starter here and it's not as if his play was that much worse than UPL. It's not this is some Brady/Bledsoe situation here. So will we see Comrie again anytime soon? Last week had another back to back and both weeks we have 3 games in 4 nights (and 4 games in 6 nights), so maybe Comrie will play on Thursday? I find it a bit strange Anderson played last night instead of tonight.

I turned on the Nashville feed hoping to at least catch something, but as soon as they started things, they cut away from the announcers. I still have center ice, and it also doesn't have the pregame, so I agree this is probably MSG's fault. But overall I thought NHL.tv was far better than ESPN+. ESPN+ doesn't seem to have a hide scores option or a start from beginning option. I may stick with center ice next year.

Really annoyed the pregame stuff isn't on ESPN+. Terrible