SabresBaltimore

What is your TV setup? How do you normally stream stuff? Roku? Chromecast? AppleTV? Built in to your TV? I have a chromecast TV so I can install most (but not all) android apps on that, and if not I can load a feed up in Chrome and cast it to my TV from my laptop (but that's annoying because I have to leave my laptop running) or cast from my phone if the app allows it. I'm not sure if Roku or Apple have similar features. Or if the MSG Go app has a cast button, but that might be what you need to do.

The regular season is here! Tonight's game will be on MSG (NYR) and MSG-B (Sabres). ESPN+ for those of us out of market in the US. The Rangers come to town for Opening Night of the Sabres Season. Practice lines from yesterday:

One of the things I love about Ovi is he celebrates his teammates goals like he scored it. Also, I've never seen someone so happy to finally win the cup as he was. I'm sure there have been others, but he was out partying with all the fans and just having a grand old time. It was cool to see.

KA was on Sabres live and they asked him about Savoie playing in Rochester. All he said was "it's complicated and I don't want to comment, but we're talking to the league to see what our options are" So it sounds like they are hoping to send him to Rochester to have a rehab and buy themselves some time. Likely he'll stay on IR until they figure out what their options are.

Personally I never disliked Crosby as a person/player. What I disliked was how much OLN/VS constantly talked about the guy, even in games he wasn't playing in. They aren't alone in this. Collensworth talks about Maholmes all the time. It's a thing most national broadcasts do with star players. As someone who followed the Caps a lot while the Sabres were terrible, I liked the Pens/Caps rivalry. Although Crosby and Ovi are 2 very different players. Both are fun to watch though.

ESPN did a tribute narrated by Gretzky:

You typically only get a single parking pass with 200 level seats, not multiple vouchers

No idea if this is why, but Opening night there are 2 giveaways. Maybe the voucher is for the RJ Way sign? For giveaways it's typically not a "everyone gets one" kind of deal, just something they give everyone as they enter until they are gone. Not sure why they need to do a voucher though source: https://www.nhl.com/sabres/news/buffalo-sabres-2023-home-opener-details-rj-way-giveaway-party-in-the-plaza

Yes. My opinion won't change. I'll be disappointed at another lost season. But if I only enjoyed this team when they won/made the playoffs I would have bailed on them years ago. I have not been happy at the goalie moves KA has made, but I'm also not convinced he had better options than what he did. I'm convinced KA is trying to build us not only a playoff team, but a perennial playoff team. That doesn't mean he'll be successful, but so far I'm cautiously optimistic. I think we'll make the playoffs this year. I think we'll be frustrated with the team at times too. I think it's very possible we'll fall short again if they go through large slumps. There are no guarantees in sports. Injuries happen (we've already lost Quinn for a large part of the season). Players don't live up to their potential. Hell even with bad goaltending and defense we almost made the playoffs last year anyways. That's why they play the games. I'm also not trying anyone to convince anyone I'm "right" about anything. It's just my opinion.

It's not the cap that worries me. It's the term. Unless we get a Stanley cup with him as our starter, I feel like that kind of move handcuffs our future. I'd really only want him for 2-4 years. The other factor is, not only would we potentially be saddled with a much longer contract than I'd like, we would also have needed to give up some major assets just to get him. Likely young (read: cheap) prospects that could be adding value to this team in the future when we can no longer afford some of our older players and have to trade them or let them walk. At some point you need to make some of those calculated risks. Given how our defense played most of last season, and during the preseason this year, I'm not convinced we're a high caliber goalie away from a cup. It could end up the difference in us making the playoffs this year. It's always hard to say. Maybe it would. We'll never know. I'd still rather be a bit more patient, even if it means missing the playoffs again this year (which I don't think we will).

I probably paraphrased badly. They said: That doesn't necessarily mean those players all stay in the NHL though. I'd assume it's including 9 game trials. But it's not my article. I was just repeating what it said.

Not sure how many. Bedard and Fantilli both made it. It sounds like Leo Carlsson is also expected to be playing this year, but is apparently on IR to start the season. This article from June lists some of the other possibilities, but I didn't run them all down. https://thehockeynews.com/news/which-2023-draft-picks-could-start-the-season-on-nhl-rosters It also said the last few years only 5-7 players tend to make the jump right away. They didn't have Benson on their list, but it seemed to be limited to the top 10 picks.

Definitely glad we didn't trade for Hellebuyck now

I'm not sure there were goalies out there to be had. Pretty much all the FA goalies stayed put. And the 2 being that were reported of being on the trade market didn't go anywhere. Defenders I'm not sure what options we had in free agency. Really I'm just not sure if we mostly stayed put because they aren't being allowed to spend like the Bills, they are expecting to need the cap space to pay our upcoming players, or simply because they didn't find anyone they liked for the price it would cost. Time will tell if that comes back to haunt them or not.

I can't wait for the Sabres to hire someone from this forums to be GM or Coach to finally show us how it's done. We'll have a Stanley cup in no time. Personally I'm not going to hold the drought against Adams or Granato. This team has gotten better each season under them both. Not as quickly as I'd like sure, but I think the future looks bright. It's easy to sit here on the internet and dream up fantasy scenarios of players we want to have as it's as simple as playing a video game. I find it sad at how upset people are at this team when we haven't even played a single regular season game yet.

I think it's way too early/too small of a sample size to draw any conclusions about the defensive pairings. I'm definitely underwhelmed so far. If this goes on for a long stretch and he doesn't try swapping up pairs, then I'll be more concerned. With regards to goaltending I'm no more concerned now than I was before. Which is to say a fair bit of concern. We have a rookie goaltender who could be great but is being asked to do far too much. I don't have a ton of faith in either of the others to be a consistent backup. I'd give the edge to Comrie though

The top line is re-united I guess. Benson with Mitts and Greenway. Otherwise I had it right I think.

I'd prefer those pairs as well, but I kind of expect that Granato will try the pairs I posted to start with.

I'm hoping Benson's play just motivates Savoie. The timing of the injury really sucks and we'll never know what the competition would look like if both of them played most of the preseason, but so far his younger teammate has made the case to be on the team ahead of him.

So line-up will probably be: Skinner-TNT-Benson Greenway-Mitts-Tuch Peterka-Cozens-Olofsson Girgs-Krebs/Jost-Krebs/Jost Dahlin-Clifton Power-Joker Mule-RJohnson Levi UPL I don't think some of those combinations looked great last game, and Granato made adjustments as the game went on. But I kind of expect him to try them again at least to start the game.

Good to see both Cozens and Erik Johnson playing

Wouldn't that be great. I'm not as down on Joki as some are here, but I'd prefer him as a 3rd pair guy and have someone better with Power. If he can step up his game and change my mind all the better.

Same, but that's in part why I wanted Comrie to get the nod tonight. But it's good to get Levi another game too

I put it in the original post. Granato announced Levi starting yesterday.

Yeah. I have both so it doesn't matter to me. I would have preferred ESPN+, but I'll take what I can get.