SabresBaltimore

I haven't seen one. With Berglund returning Friday night, they scratched Elie. I image both will play tonight. Maybe they'll call up someone for depth for the home game against Toronto?

I didn't see a thread for this, so I figured I'd make one. Sabres are on a 2 game skid, while the Predators are coming off a 5-2 win over Chicago on Saturday making them 5-5-0 and their last 10. Both teams have 37 points, but Nashville has the current tie-breakers without a head-to-head record. This is the first of two big games back to back. Will Hutton start tonight or tomorrow? Or will Housely play him back to back? Let's Go Buf-fa-lo! I get up at 4am for work, so an 8pm start is rough for me. I'll probably try to stay up for the whole game, but I'll likely be taking a nap before tomorrow night's game against the Leafs.

Yeah, and we're still ahead of them in the standings, so they were going to have a similar motivation as the Bolts did last night. They are playing Chicago on Saturday before our Monday meetup. Hopefully we stay focused on tonight's game and not the big games coming up next week..

With our upcoming schedule (@Nashville, Toronto) this is a game we need to take advantage of. Florida is coming off a loss as well, and are 4-5-1 in their last 10. They last played on Wednesday at home against Anaheim, so they'll be more rested, but we're a much better team.

I was OK with us losing on Tuesday to San Jose (ideally in OT). I am NOT OK with us losing to Tampa. So let's get that streak to 11 boys and set a new franchise record! Tampa is only 6-4-0 and their last 10. What a bunch of losers. They are coming off a 3-1 loss to the Ducks on their home ice. Let's extend that streak to 2..

Lol. I'm changing my vote to that.

I don't want the streak to end, but of all the games this week for us to lose, this is the one, ideally in Overtime so we still get a point in the standings. But western conference team is better. The next best option would be Florida. So I vote we HAVE to lose, we lose Friday at Florida ending the streak at 11. Actually nevermind. I vote we end the streak when we win the Stanley Cup. That's realistic, right?

I'll take that. Hopefully JBots makes that happen.

That's a good point. I'm just simply looking at point totals for those games. I don't have a good/easy way to do that without way more time than I'm willing to put into it (looking at individual game stats/making a spreadsheet). I do think this team would fall apart if we lose either Eichel or Skinner for more than a game or two, but productions from other places does appear to be up slightly at least from the pure point perspective.

I was curious to see the trend, so I contrasted the 9 game streak with the 9 games prior to it at least 1 goal from 12 players (9 not counting the top line) 4 players not from the top line with 2 or more: Okpokso (4), Berglund (2), Sheary (2), Middlestat (2) 3 goals from defensemen at least 1 point from 19 players (16 ignoring the top line) 14 of those have more than 1 point 16 points from Defensemen So it's not dramatically different, except the goals Pommers scored (7) are little more spread out than in the last 9 (he only has 1 in the last 9) 9 game streak Record: 9-0-0 Just Eichel/Skinner: 21points: 10g, 11 assists Everyone else: 63points: 20g, 43 assists total: 84 points: 30g, 54assists Previous 9 Record: 5-2-2 Eichel/Skinner/Pommers: 39points: 16g, 13a Everyone else: 50 points: 15g, 35a total: 89 points: 31g, 49a

With regards to secondary scoring. During the 9 game streak (NHL.com stats) we've had: at least 1 goal from 17 players (15 not counting Eichel/Skinner) 4 players not named Skinner score 2 goals: Thompson (3), Middlestat (2), Sbotka (2), Reinhart (2) 6 goals from defensemen: 1 from each of our top 7 minus Scandella at least 1 point from 18 players (16 not counting Eichel/Skinner). 15 of those have more than 1 point. 27 points from Defensemen So things are trending in the right direction, even if Eichel/Skinner are still carry the bulk of the load.

Definitely a bit of mix between luck and good. I am still worried about how top heavy our scoring is. We're getting a lot of points from our defense man though, and we have finally started to see some more scoring from guys on the other lines. We're not as balanced as the post lockout years where we had nearly 5-7 guys with around 20 goals. My guess is we'll have a few 10+ goal guys, and maybe only 2-3 with 20+. Both Eichel and Reinhardt's goals are down (although Eichel's still racking up the points). Pommers has 9, but his production has tapered off, and he's not playing with Eichel and Skinner as much now. Okposo and Sheary have both done it in the past too. For the Detroit game, I had their coverage and they were talking about our balanced scoring, but I don't really buy that looking at the numbers. During the winning streak though it has been different guys coming up big. So maybe that's what they meant.

Wow. I wouldn't have guessed he's 210. He looks so small out there. NHL.com lists him as 201, and Jack as 200. Maybe it's just the babyfat like you said. I agree about the angst. It's come out in a few games recently, but not as much as I'd like.

I expected they'd be better this year, but not this much better. There is still a lot of season yet to play, but it's certainly trending in the right direction. A lot will depend on how the rest of this season goes and more importantly the offseason. Last offseason worked out really for us. We need another like that. At the top of last offseason, you've got the Skinner and Hutton moves. Of course the Skinner move will require a fat check this offseason. I'd like to see JBots lock him down before then. I feel like Skinner is more than happy playing here (he did waive his NTC to come here too), but will he take a discount to stay and/or be willing to sign before testing the market with the season he's having? I'm not sure if we have enough cap space for what Skinner will warrant the way his season is going though. And will he keep up the production after signing a new deal? Pommers is in the last year of his deal (hopefully we can sign him to a much cheaper 1-2 year deal) and I think Molson also rolls off? I'm not sure if Molson is counting against our cap or what. There is 1 more year of Bagosions deal. And of course all that money we're wasting on Okposo right now. I like the guy and feel bad for all his health issues, but he's not earning his paycheck right now. He's making more than Skinner. We need to resign Mccabe too though. And he's due for a huge payraise over what he's getting right now. He makes less than Beaulieu somehow. They should bump him early with the way he's been playing. Edit: I didn't notice Ullmark is due for a new contract too. With Hutton playing so well, we need to decide what to do with him. Can we keep him in a backup roll for another 1-2 seasons? He's playing well in that role, but is he a starter in this league? Will he want to leave to go elsewhere as a possible starter? It helps that he's a Restricted Free agent. Would another team make a bid for him though? I'm also starting to change my mind about Tage Thompson. I wasn't happy about his acquisition, or even him playing instead of Rodriguez. However, he's been a lot more visible out there when he's playing lately. Scoring a few goals in the last few games doesn't hurt either. We'll see if he can keep it up going forward though. I was also a bit skeptical about Middelstat playing in the NHL this season. I felt like JBots signed him just so he wouldn't walk away from the team completely. I wanted him to spend some time in Rochester playing big minutes. He seemed small and underdeveloped, but he seems to be coming on as the season goes on. He still needs to bulk up a lot though. Then again Jack was pretty small his first year and has bulked up quite a bit. Overall I'm ecstatic with where the team is right now, and hopeful toward the future, but we'll see where we are next season.

I don't want to call this a must win, but I hope that whenever this winning streak ends, it's just not against a division rival and/or someone near the top of the east. If we have to lose this weekend, I'd rather it be tomorrow against Detroit. Ideally I'd like to extend the streak until at least San Jose. Losing to them would mean less. Of course if they want to keep on winning forever..I won't complain. I do like they finally got out in front and managed to play with the lead on Wednesday. Hopefully they do that again today.

Pittsburgh is on a 3 game losing streak and 2-7-1 in their last 10, while the Sabres are on a 5 game winning streak and 6-2-2 in their last 10. This is a game we should be taking advantage of. The last few games we've been on our heels and starting slow. While I love that the team never gives up and has been finding ways to come back/win I'd like to see us come out dominant, take the lead and hold it for the whole game. Incidentally, it's crazy to me that the Sabres have won 5 straight after winning a TOTAL of only 3 games in all of November last year. Let's Go Buf-fa-lo!

This will be a big test. We need to start beating the teams ahead of us, and Tampa is having a great season so far. I'd prefer wins over lightning and pens than the Jets or Wild, but yeah if we can come out with 4-5 points I'll be happy. Pens are 3 points behind us with 2 games in hand, so a loss to them would put us out of the wild card spot. It's early in the season still, but these head to heads may be the difference at the end of the season.

That was easily the best game I've ever been to. The only way it could have been better if Pommers got a hat trick for the 10th goal

While I'm never going to root for the Sabres to lose, I'm paranoid about streaks, especially for home and homes. So selfishly since I'm driving up to Buffalo tomorrow for the game Saturday..if the Sabres HAVE to lose one..let it be this one so they can win Saturday. Really though, I hope they win both of course. But they need to put up some more offense than they did on Tuesday against Calgary. With Ottawa reeling from their road trip, hopefully they can take advantage. We also need to get better at 3 on 3 in case we head to overtime again. We haven't looked good in overtime so far this season.

Pommers is one of my all time favorite Sabres. I own his jersey and I was glad when we brought him back. However, he's currently way overpaid. He's not the player he used to be in the mid 2000s. However, we're far from having enough depth to replace him. There are a lot of other players I'd want gone well before him. I'd be happy to resign him for cheap for a year, maybe 2 if the cap hit was small enough.

I don't feel like Larsson showed anything in the preseason to warrant starting on the 3rd line. He should start on the 4th and work his way up (assuming he even can). I just don't see him on a team that makes the playoffs, except maybe the 4th line/13th forward.

I'm hoping we continue the momentum tonight. The Rags and Knights both have negative Goal Differentials, but the AVs are currently at +3. They are 2-1, and both wins are at home. They are coming off a 5-2 loss in Columbus on Tuesday, so they will probably be looking to bounce back tonight. While I want to see Ullmark get some time in the net soon, I feel like Hutton is playing too well to play Ullmark before the Back to Back November 16th/17th.

Oh awesome! My work PC badly needed this!

I haven't been following much of the preseason, so I'll be curious to see how they look. Can't be worse than last year, right?

Congrats to Minnesota Duluth. https://www.ncaa.com/news/icehockey-men/article/2018-04-07/frozen-four-2018-minnesota-duluth-holds-notre-dame-win-ncaa