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I don't think he can be sent to Rochester until his Juniors requirements are met (games/age) or he gets an exemption. The number of games in the NHL don't matter as far as I know. Otherwise teams would probably have done something like that before now. Games in the NHL only matter in terms of "burning" a year of eligibility. Fewer than 10 and it doesn't kick in. I think there is also some rule about total games played so you can't do back to back 9 game seasons without it counting the 2nd time.

Tuch/Okposos finally playing a game. My guess at lines: Skinner - Thompson - Benson Olofsson - Cozens - Tuch Biro - Kulich - Rosen Rousek - Krebs - Okposo Bryson - Johnson Stillman - Jokiharju Davies - Cecconi Although I could see them putting Biro with Cozens/Tuch instead.

It was already announced that Levi is playing the whole game yesterday ahead of the roster moves. I'll be curious who else gets the nod. Do we finally see Tuch, Okposo, Erik Johnson or Clifton? Have to figure this is the last game for many of the remaining bubble players before they get returned to Rochester. So maybe we'll still be seeing a lot of the prospects than something resembling the final roster.

Same. But right now I have Benson and Biro ahead of Bryson. I also have him cutting down to just 2 goalies..but maybe that's wishful thinking.

Is it too early to start projecting the initial 23? I think I want to keep too many forwards (14), but that's because I want both Biro and to give Benson up to 9 games. That would only leave me with only 7 defenseman and a need to move a goalie if possible (UPL right now)

Definitely starting to be a bit concerned about Tuch. Last thing I saw was he was dealing with Soreness on Tuesday, but he's not out there practicing yet? Whew. I was getting a bit nervous about Tuch..

It's still pre-season, so the Penguins starters are probably knocking the rust off. That said when I saw the line-up, I figured they were going to score 2-3 each period. The fact that we held them to 2, was pretty surprising. Johnson continues to look good. The rest (apart from Bryson) look to have some protentional. Not sure sure if any of them will be NHL regulars beyond Johnson though. But still better than expected In general though I give Comrie a lot of credit for keeping it close. The Penguins got several breakaway opportunities, including one by Crosby and Comrie shut them down. A major contrast to what UPL did against a much weaker Toronto team the night before when put in similar situations.

I wonder if he'll be able to get a game in preseason. Just Wed/Friday. I'd like to at least see him get a chance before the season starts.

I'm not sure I've seen a goaltender celebrate a stop quite like this before

Figures, lines come out while I'm trying to figure out my 3rd and 4th line combos. Interesting Greenway with Thompson and Benson. I think Johnson has been the most noticeable among the defensive prospects. I don't see him cracking the roster now, but he's looking like first call up for sure.

So what do we think the forward lines will be? Both Thompson and Mitts are out there. Does Benson get the nod again to play with Tage. Maybe do: Benson-Thompson-Peterka Biro-Mitts-Rosen Greenway-Kulich-Girgs/Nuevchev/Kisakov Cederqvist-Jost-Girgs/Nuevchev/Kisakov I think this is the last best/chance for Biro, Rosen and Kulick to make a case for staying around. Rosen and Kulick won't have to clear waivers, but I think Biro will. So I think unless something impressive happens tonight Rosen and Kulick get sent down and they hang on to Benson for his 9 or less try out and keep Biro as a depth forward

Pretty underwhelming defense in front of Comrie, especially considering the forwards the Penguins are playing. Still no Clifton or EJ. I guess they really want to see what they have with their defensive depth before sending most to Rochester?

Ah. If that's the case maybe they stick around until just before or just after the Saturday afternoon game with Columbus. Especially since there is a big gap (compared to this week's insane schedule of games) until the next game on Wednesday

I'm a little surprised that's it. I guess we still have 4 more preseason games left (counting tonight), but I'd have thought we'd start trying to flush out the last 1-2 roster spots, defensive pairings and determine which 2 goalies we want to keep. I think the goalie battle is probably most important. I'd like to see them play behind our actual defense. I think a lot of the players don't have a realistic shot at making the team and could safely be returned. Hopefully we see at least Clifton and/or Erik Johnson tonight.

Maybe I'm giving him too much benefit of doubt, but I'm sure KA tried to upgrade our goalies during the offseason. I highly doubt he "refuses to address" the need. I do think he's maybe too reluctant to trade away some of our pipeline to win now though. I do find it telling that most (all?) UFA goalies stayed put. Plus no one traded for Hellebuyck or Hart. Those were supposedly the 2 goalies on the trade market this summer. No one here knows what was actually being asked for those guys. So it's impossible to speculate if KA is refusing to do what's needed, or simply not going to get fleeced simply to appease fans impatience due to a long playoff drought that is largely not his fault. People want Olofsson and Byron gone, yet somehow think other teams will take them as part of a trade for a quality goaltender. I suspect the asking price for Hellebuyck and Hart was simply too high. As bad as UPL played last night, I suspect he won't clear waivers. Some team will take a chance on him. I definitely think we need to upgrade on Comrie and UPL and I'd love it to be a vet who can start for 1 or 2 seasons while Levi gets used to playing a rigorous NHL schedule. But seems that ship has sailed.

With that line-up do you want to see Levi start or Comrie? With how bad UPL looked last night, I'm tempted to say Comrie. It is in theory his "turn" in the rotation too. However, while Levi looked great against Boston, Boston wasn't playing a line-up like this. Either way this should be a much better test for whoever gets the start than their first game was.

Oh yeah and the Pens announced their lineup yesterday. It seems like a lot of their starters:

3rd game in 3 nights. Hopefully they look better than last night. Per: https://www.nhl.com/sabres/news/how-to-watch-buffalo-sabres-preseason-games-2023 📺 Watch: Sabres.com (Pittsburgh feed with Penguins commentators) 📻 Listen: WGR 550 (Dan Dunleavy and Rob Ray)

Apparently the game is on NHL Network too. So I guess I can watch it after all. Go Sabres!

This kind of thing is an issue in all sports, not just hockey. Players of all ages are going to want to play all the time even when they are hurt physically (or mentally). Both physical and mental issues related to playing sports has long since been ignored by the leagues, coaches and even players themselves as players were expected to "tough it out". That's lead to a lot of long term health effects, especially with repeated concussions, etc. So the player's association really needs to be the ones pushing to ensure players aren't being put in unfavorable positions because if left to the league, the team and/or just the player, they are likely going to favor playing even if there is a good reason they shouldn't. The NFL's concussion protocol is a good step in that direction, but if you look at what happened to Tua last year he was out there playing when he should have clearly been required to recover. Athletes play hurt all the time. Tage was playing hurt last year in the push for the playoffs. I'm sure others were as well. Inevitably I think the best that can be done is provide enough experts for physical, mental/emotional health as well as nutrition to give these guys the best information possible to make good decisions about their careers and weigh the risks accordingly. Teams are always going to try to do what they think is their best chance at winning games/a championship. I don't think Benson is any different than Rousek or Levi in regards to if they play or not. If they are good enough they play. I'm not sure Levi's ready for a full NHL season straight from, especially if he's our starter. But we're going to find out because he wants to play and the team wants him to play.

It was on the Caps RSN (Now called Monument Sports Network). Not sure what you mean by the Jumbotron feed, but the TV coverage seemed like the normal deal. It was the first live game aired on the new network (I guess the Caps/Wizards owner bought out the old one from Comcast) Its hard for me to say what is normal for the Caps games and ESPN+ since I'm always blacked out and have to watch on TV instead.

In that hypothetical, I'd prefer Tuch with Cozens to start with. I think we saw last year that giving Cozens 2 rookie was a bit of feast or famine. Spreading the youth/experience out a bit should ideally help both lines.

Joe Yerdon posted some slightly different lines. Mersch with Weissbach/Jost instead of Kisakov. And Kisakov is with Slaggert/Richards instead of Murray again.

I like the look of the Cozens line. As expected Power is with Joki. I'd have preferred Johnson just to see how that chemistry looks.