SabresBaltimore

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.

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.

I suspect that is the case, and something they changed this year (or if they changed it last year I didn't notice). Center Ice used to include the Canadian feeds, except when in French. Typically on Verizon I got the home team and occasionally the away team. I want to say ESPN+ has Canadian feeds when applicable, but since I always watch MSG-B, I don't recall. I'm kind of hoping they have the Ottawa feed/pre-game tomorrow since MSG-B never includes pre/post game but other RSNs do. I want to see the Anderson ceremony. I don't really watch NHLN unless the Sabres are on. Sometimes for Juniors or NCAA games. It's not a particularly good network. Then again I don't really watch NFL Network that much either. Typically just for a Bills game. Maybe a bit of Good Morning Football. I'm just hoping they have the MSG-B feed on NHLN tonight. They have in the past.

I can't use twitter from work, but according to Lance Lysowski Comrie is warming up in the starter net