SabresBaltimore

Jost in on the 3rd line. Olofsson still on the 4th. Benson out. Still no Levi

I'm torn at this point. After a good start, I think he's shown in just a short stretch he's not ready for the NHL yet. But I hate sending him to Juniors. He might develop more playing occasional games in the NHL (with a break to go play in worlds) than with an unknown head coach in Juniors. Rochester is probably what would be best for him, but that's not an option. If sending him back to Juniors gives us the Rochester option next year though, maybe that's worth it. Although I think depending on how much he develops physically in the next year, he should be making his case to stay again next year too. However it'd be good to be able to bring him and up and down from the Amerks next season if that is the better option.

That was Tuch retaliating for the cheap shot Tkachuk got away with on him earlier. I forget exactly what he did now, but he took a few strides to hit Tuch away from the play and there was no penalty called.

Why not just rename it to "Zach Benson's NHL Tryout", that's a more accurate title anyways

From that article: Nevermind that Tkachuk started it and Tuch retaliated, then Tkachuk escalated. Tkachuk is a scumbag

I've watched a lot of Capitals games over the years. I really like Joe Bennati as a play-by-play guy. I think he's one of the few really good ones left at this point. However his color guy Craig Laughlin annoys the hell out of me. I feel like me makes Rob Ray look like a genius by comparison.

So I get a lot of people don't like Dan and Ray, but I know Benson was serving the extra 2 because they said so on the broadcast. After the Tuch fight, Ray snapped at Dan because he was talking over the PA announcement of the penalties. Ray learned the right way to do things from RJ, but can get off on tangents and needs to be reigned in. RJ would do that. Dan does not. Ray was never a good replacement for Jim Lorentz (or Harry Neale, who I never liked personally but seemed to make RJ happy), but I don't find him as bad as a lot of people on these boards seem to. I think Ray and Dan are "fine" when compared to many other broadcast teams around the league. There was always going to be a big fall-off from RJ no matter who they got to replace him. Similarly, I've never liked John Murphy for the Bills after Van Miller retired either, but he was "fine". I haven't tried Chris Brown since I'm no longer in the area to hear the radio broadcasts, but I'm not a big fan of him on Bills Live, so I doubt I'd like his play by play either. National NHL broadcasts have had the the same issue of them talking during play for years, and often times they are doing a bench interview while play his happening. It's maddening. Those are made for TV only, but as someone who grew up listening to RJ, I share your frustration that they aren't shutting up and focusing on play by play while the game is going. Unfortunately I think the ship has sailed on that style of commentating. I think the perception is that few people listen to games these days compared to watching, and many don't even watch a full game, just clips or game recaps. So a lot of the quality of commentating has changed as a result.

I think Benson was just serving the extra 2 for Cozens there.

I don't really price watch, but in the past I've had mixed success with that strategy. Sometimes you can get really cheap tickets at the last minute, other times not so much. It depends on how bad the team is playing, who the opponent is and night of the week. Weeknights and and Western Conference teams always seem to be easier to get cheap last minute. Given the number of empty seats for home games, it's probably a good idea. However I expect a lot of Bruins fans will show up, which could end up driving the prices up some. Being a Tuesday game though, it should be cheaper than if they were playing on the weekend. But if the Sabres start winning a lot, it may get people back into the arena, especially for a division game. I'd hold off on buying tickets right now, but maybe check daily and if prices start to rise pick it up. But it's always a bit of a crapshoot in my experience.

Looks like you can watch the pregame stuff for Anderson for free: https://www.nhl.com/video/senators-celebrate-anderson-6339800016112 They don't appear to have the interview though

Thanks for the heads up. I was watching the Sabres feed so I missed it. I was able to go on to ESPN+ (https://www.espn.com/espnplus/player/_/id/23dbf4fc-a1d3-4361-934e-a28440b5cb56) this morning and watch it though. It starts around the 1h 7m mark

I only turned it on for a few minutes during the Sabres first intermission. I didn't really get a good feel for it. I'll be curious to see if it generated any buzz for the league or not. Did it appeal to casual fans? I'd assume any non-casual fans were mostly just watching their own teams play. I only watch Redzone when the Bills aren't playing, but I really enjoy it, even if it's just in the background while I'm making dinner during the late games. They aren't going to typically have all 32 teams going at once, but there have to be nights (Tuesdays or Saturdays) where enough games are happening at the same time to make the format work. Since it's not a premium thing, it's a bit different with the commercials though. It looked like they were doing something similar to redzone with just having ads built into the video. Did anyone else besides Swamp check it out? I assume most of us just watched the Sabres instead.

Not sure, but ESPN is doing that Redzone like coverage they are calling Frozen Frenzy. I don't expect to check it out, but it'll be interesting to hear if it brings more eyeballs to the league.

Hopefully they can figure something out tonight. We can't keep affording to drop games. Especially with a team we may be vying with for the final playoff spot.

By sheer coincidence I realized I have chicken fajitas for tonight

I love this move. It's funny that I was hoping for this kind of thing earlier today when the announcement about his retirement in Ottawa came out. It's probably something that's either been in the works for a bit, or that they just formalized and waited to go with the "official" retirement.

Pleasantly surprised Mule is out there with Dahlin and not just an extra skater. Given his history I was expecting him to miss at least one game.

Well that's good news. There is still a chance he misses tonight's game, but hopefully he is back for the Islanders.

The only reason I ever disliked Anderson was how well he played for Ottawa for all those years. I thought it was a nice gesture to have his final game be against them last season. I'd really like him to sign some kind of contract with Buffalo to be consultant or something. He seems to be hanging around at times, which is nice to see. I'm not sure if that's a paid thing or voluntary (or maybe they like pay for hotel, travel and food?). I suspect he wants time with the family in the short term, but that may change once he's been gone a bit and misses being around the rink all the time.

We may simply see something like: Dahlin/Clifton Power/Joker Bryson/EJohnson instead if Granato wants to keep Power/Joker together. I can't imagine either Johnson or Bryson being the one paired with Dahlin. Johnson is too old to do those minutes and Bryson is too much of a liability.

I don't expect Mule to play, but I don't expect him to be out long enough to call up Ryan Johnson. That means we're stuck with Bryson. Based on how the numbers looked last year I'd do these pairs until Mule returns: Dahlin/Joker Power/Clifton Bryson/EJohnson Clifton is still acclimating and making some noticeable mistakes, but I'd like to see how he pairs with Power. Hopefully the veteran play Johnson bring keeps Bryson from being too much of a liability (and hopefully his "improved" play in pre-season actually translates to decent 3rd pair play but I'm not holding my breath). I didn't really remember Joker playing with Dahlin last year, which probably means Joker wasn't messing up too bad. Apparently their stats for last year are really good. That's been brought up on both Maintenance Day and Expected Buffalo. Last game he had both Johnson and Clifton playing with Dahlin. Then late in the game it was Power. We'll see what the pairs look like at morning skate though

the early stuff was kind of meh..but at the end with 4 of them and JJ was messing with the other players was pretty good. But yeah..I hope Skinner does another 2 stalls

Sabres are 0-2 with GDT I've made and 1-0 with GDT I haven't. My initial suspicions have been confirmed. It's scary to have this kind of power. I guess no more GDT from me for the rest of the season, or until the unwelcome power recedes..