SabresBaltimore

Yeah. I got Sunday Ticket this year, and I was debating swapping to YouTube TV next year since it will be "cheaper", but I don't think they have some of the channels I rely on for hockey, so I just adjusted my FIOS plan to try to get things a bit cheaper. We'll see how that goes. I have friends coming over tonight, so I won't get to watch the game until tomorrow

Ugh. I feel like Tuch was just starting to get back to form after looking hurt/bad to start the season. I hope it's not serious. Maybe a personal day or something.

Biro has more goals than Oloffson...

How about now?

I live in a 3 story townhouse. My street has a ton of houses in short walking distance, but I guess having to walk up all those stairs (especially for the very little kids) is off-putting enough that I rarely get trick or treaters. So I never bother. I did buy a bag for myself though.

Bummer about Backstrom. I've always liked him. A key piece to the long stretch of the Caps being good for all those years.

Biro in. Levi back to practice:

I don't get why he did the traditional logo with the black and red. I like Comrie's mask better (and UPL's for that matter). After how good his regular mask looked, I find this one a bit of a let down. But art is subjective.

The 4-5-0 Sabres head into Philly tonight for the first game of a home and home with the 4-4-1 Flyers. The Flyers will head to Buffalo to face the dreaded Goat head on Friday night for game 2. If the Sabres win tonight they'll move to .500 on the season. The expectation is that UPL will get the start, and Levi may return to the line-up as the backup. I haven't seen word on that yet however. Yesterday's practice lines: We'll see during morning skate if he keeps Biro with Thompson or decided to shuffle the lines a bit

Their coach got fired before the season started. The new coach was in the AHL last year (and has been an AHL coach for a bit I think), but I guess there is uncertainty about how good things will be with the last minute change

I think if Krebs wants to remain in Buffalo, he needs to turn himself into a shutdown center. DG has been playing him in key defensive zone face offs already.

Biro looked better in preseason and I think the only reason he didn't make the team was Benson looked better. While Biro doesn't have quite the same stat line (I haven't watch any Amerks to go on anything besides that), I suspect part of this is a reward for his play in the pre-season, while still doing well down in Rochester.

Seems like a lot of pressure to put him on the top line. Or whatever that is. The way they are playing I think the Mitts line is top atm. Then again they put Benson there, so not surprising. I'll be curious if that's what they go with. I suspect DG likes the other 3 lines, so he's keeping them the same

It was. The injury to Benson was announced the same time as Levi's. Benson missed some practice and a game, then returned and played again.

So with Benson out and Biro called up, what do we think the lines will be now? I assume Biro wasn't called up to sit in the box and will play over Olofsson or Jost. Last game's lines: Greenway-Thompson-Benson Skinner-Mittelstadt-Peterka Jost-Cozens-Tuch Girgensons-Krebs-Okposo I'm not sure where I'd put him. Maybe something like: Greenway-Thompson-Cozens Skinner-Mittelstadt-Tuch Biro-Krebs-Peterka Girgensons-Jost-Okposo

Someone previously explained what 6k meant, and I promptly forgot. I still find it a confusing nickname. UPL makes sense to me. Upie also makes sense to me. I won't call him 6k, but at least I know who is being talked about now (the first time seeing the name I had no idea they were talking about UPL). But anyways. I feel like he showed last year he could play well. The problem is he couldn't do that over a long stretch with consistency. He lost confidence, then the team lost confidence in him. Levi is hoping to practice tomorrow. But even he's able to go this week, we have a back to back on Fri/Sat. He'll get at least one game there. Likely he'll be the starter Wed as they try to ease Levi back in from injury (assuming no set backs). We need him to play like he did on Sat with consistency. I'm not optimistic, but I'm rooting for him to succeed.

For me, I first got into the Sabres as a kid when they were in the black & red. So I have a fondness for those colors and the goat. However I think the original color and logo is iconic and what the team should be using. And I'm sure the NHL wouldn't allow them to do 2 completely different uniforms full time like that. They won't let teams wear 3rd jerseys on the road either. My guess is the team is at the boundary of what the league allows because they use it as a promotion to try to get more butts in the seats. It also shouldn't be necessary to swap like that. But it does seem to fire this team up. I was half-joking about them wearing goat head shirts, but hockey players (all athletes) tend to be a superstitious bunch. So much of it is the metal game. If somehow that gets the team in the right head space, so be it.

All things being equal, I like them using the original logo and colors, with the Red & Black and special occasion type thing. Maybe we can get them all goat head t-shirts to wear the rest of the games? I just want them to win all the games. For whatever reason they do that more in the goat heads. I'd request putting them out there in purple polka dots if I thought it would help them win.

I've lost too many relatives to cancer. Sorry to hear about your brother.

Yeah. Not sure if this warrants its own thread, but who do the Sabres put in that spot? Savoie? They said Comrie is week to week originally. I'm not sure of the rules of IR, but I would think we'd pull up another defender if it doesn't go to Savoie. I think this week will be a deciding factor for both Benson and Savoie.

And of course the 1 is the game I went to. I didn't even know when I got the tickets it would be a goat head game. When I found out I figured I was in for a good game. Instead I got a building full of Rags fans, and a lot of disappointment. This year's game is not a Goat head game, so I can't jinx the streak again..

I posted the lines from yesterday's practice in another thread (same as the last game but with Jost on the 3rd line instead of Benson), but nothing is official for tonight's game that I've see

Everyone is entitled to be a fan in their own way. Get angry. Don't get angry. Whatever. It's a game. Telling other fans they are doing it wrong is just a waste of time. Personally I just don't subscribe to the getting too angry over losing. I used to when I was younger, but the last few years have put things in perspective. I just don't want to live with that negativity anymore. I will always hope we win. I want the team to improve every year. I want ownership and management and coaching all to be the best it can be and finally get a cup. But at this point, I just want to enjoy the ride. If a season without a stanely cup is a wasted season, then basically every season will be a wasted season for most teams in the league. So when the Sabres win, I'm happy. Even if it's an ugly win, or lucky or whatever. And when they lose I'm bummed and shut down the forums for a bit until things have cooled off. Then I gear up for the next one. It's one the reasons that despite being a member for 11 years, I haven't been around much. There wasn't much to be happy about. So there wasn't much I wanted to talk about. I've still watched all the Sabres games, but when they were terrible, I didn't want to make the suffering worse by complaining about them with a bunch of other people.

Let's hope so. It seemed to help Krebs. Although so far Krebs offense have felt absent since getting a promotion. I just hope if there is a critical defensive zone draw he sends out Krebs or Jost with them instead. Or maybe the Thompson/Greenway line since they are already killing penalties together.