DarthEbriate

They played a good first period...

He's gone from Wedge to Biggs. We know what happened to Biggs....

I'm less worried about Dahlin's turnover than I am about the weak backcheck on the tap-in goal. But elite offensive defensemen turn the puck over. Last season: Dahlin 105 giveaways Makar 113 giveaways It's what happens after the giveaway that matters.

All too easy.

Cool. The fans can boo Dahlin when he comes back sporting a Cup and another sweater.

Uffda, that was all Dahlin.

Dare I say it... good period. Dahlin had a great chance on the early power play and shot it wide. The Avalanche have played well and got one excellent video-game type turnover to MacKinnon that became an instant goal for when the AI wants to tie up the game. They have a pulse!

A goal? I don't believe it! That is why we fail. TNT!

Too many men! What poor coaching! You can't give the Buffalo Sabres opportunities like this.

Pegula should. Easy money to pay off Skinner and Ehrhoff.

Sabres skating to start. That's good. MacKinnon is slick. It'd be nice to have one of those top centers in the league.

Avs broadcast having fun. Making jokes about the start time and getting bacon. It's lame, but it's trying. One thing folks should tell Pegula. Other teams don't broadcast the anthems. They show commercials and generate revenue during those 3 minutes.

We knew Norris and Muel would miss games this season. But it's game 3 and they're already both out. Norris has started 4 games for the Sabres, and finished 2.

He's going to play 500 games for the Sabres. Go goathead. Add an A to it, just to be safe.

Here we go again. Even the suggestion of the open-ice hit got him injured before the game started. I guess at least Johnson will dress, then. Novikov should make his debut within the month.

"This is a trap game if ever there was one." - Avalanche broadcast crew. "The longer you let Buffalo hang around in this game, or let them score first.... the worse it is." The Avs should go for the kill shot immediately. Skate hard for 10 minutes, net 2 or 3, and coast the remainder of the day. Add some empty netters to pad the stats.

That's sports radio/tv though. And we here at Sabrespace don't seem to get tired of the same thing non-stop....

4th line energy guys -- 1st shift: each guy get a hit in the stats column. Go rattle the boards a bit. Even if the guy dodges, make some noise. Get the crowd buzzing. Quinn - crash the net. Take the puck and just crash the net with it and see what happens. Pretend you're Zucker. Samuelsson -- line someone up at the blue line. You might miss. Get the audience to go woooo if you do, and for the Avs forward to look back over his shoulder and say, "whoa, was that Muel-PO?" And if you hit, it'll be fun! You're heavier than anyone on their roster, even 40 year-old Brent Burns. (Edit: Muel-PO probably shouldn't do that because the possibility of getting injured is approximately 3:1.)

They're within $3M of the cap (yes, some tough injuries to get around at the start of the season 1G (though, he's worse than the 2G historically), 1C (though... he's a 2C when healthy), 1LW (though, he's a 2/3LW at this point in his career), and D4 (though, he's only done that for a single season because of injuries, so he's a D6 at this point in his career)... huh. When I say it like that it's like the injuries aren't even the problem. That said! This isn't a tank. They're within $3M of the cap. This is EEE. They can't even EEE correctly. That said that said 930 AM hockey. Let's watch! (...to the side of reviewing documents...) Who's with me? LEEEroy Jenkins!

Tuch got to live his childhood dream and wear the crest. (Both old school and ‘90s.) That’s awesome for him. But this organization is not the Sabres of his dreams. It’s the Pegula-Adams version. And as a hockey player with a dwindling number of years to play, he and any other self-respecting player who wants to win, should get away from it if at all possible.

If you get 4 minutes a game, you'd better be getting 8 hits and drawing instigators left and right. Keep your elbows down, stay on your skates, and run people. Get the home crowd excited and your teammates engaged. Whatever it is Geertsen does, he doesn't do that. Kiefer Sherwood had 462 hits last season (which is silly!), but he already has 11 this season. Geertsen has 3. Go be a cult icon. It'd be so easy to be beloved by the Sabre.... hood? Sabrehospicecenter?

When Sabrespacers fight amongst themselves, Sheevyn wins, cackling, "Good... gooooood."

If Tuch gets into self-preservation mode: drop in blocked shots, not going to scrums, peeling off checks, etc., then you might as well listen to trade offers now, because he won't be helping relative to the minutes he'll be on the ice. There's a ton more value if you can get move to a team willing to extend him and give him 9/10 of an entire season at a bargain price (once their coach finds new ways to re-motivate him), vs. holding him until the trade deadline. But before listening to offers -- axe Adams and give Jarmo the control of the team. (Because if Tuch doesn't extend pre-trade, and you want to get him back in the fold as a UFA, he's not rejoining a team led by Adams.) And once you've done that, then you might as well go into complete tank 2.0 to get those top-flight centers again. Dahlin and TNT would fetch the value of at least 7 firsts.

I don’t think he gets fired. Instead, they agree it’s time for him to be POHO so Darth Pegulas the Wise still has his yes man. Jarmo will get the opportunity to be a yes man GM with Appert as the coach and Ruff as an advisor. If he doesn’t want that, they’ll do an exhaustive search… for Ellis or Forton or whomever is breathing the word yes. But there is a possibility they clean house after the season. However, I don’t think Norris is the final straw. It’s Tuch. Tuch is their golden local goose. If he wants out, Dahlin and Tage ask out. Benson can go the JJP RFA no-thanks route. That would end it all.

The team reflects the owner and the GM who orchestrated the tank and EEE and lack of action. Simple as that. This is their manifestation on ice.