DarthEbriate

I think it was in the 2nd, but he went to the net and gave Shesterkin's glove a couple whacks as he was covering the puck. We'd have wanted him dead if he had done that to UPL Lyon Comrie Hutton Anderson. We respected Anderson.

But mediocrity isn't the question. You keep everything else the same and swap out the center spines -- which group would you rather have? Eller and Evans are there to kill penalties and win d zone faceoffs, which they do. But Stutzle and Suzuki are so much better than anyone the Sabres can put at 1C that I take their full spines in a heartbeat over the list as shown. Boston is the only team that I clearly rank below the Sabres. McLeod is good. Kulich has some potential. Krebs is a JAG at this point who is poor in the dot. Kozak is a 4th/tweener.

Benson did earn the spot, but he shouldn't have been given the easy opportunity. Sign a veteran middle six guy (Tarasenko, Gustav Nyqvist, etc.) to replace Quinn until he's healthy, and then trade VO with retention for ... whatever, seeing as how the coach no longer believed in him.

Le sigh. You're welcome, Amerks! You don't get to have your heart-and-soul AHL-level stud veteran in the lineup for opening night. You also don't get Kozak or either Bryson/Johnson because of injuries. Dunne should've been in the lineup and Geertsen waived to Rochester based on play in the preseason, but they had to keep Ruff happy. Now, you've got 2 fourth line low-minute energy guys at the NHL level instead of one.

He did have a great pre-season.

I'll nibble on the quibble. Hmmm.... are we still doing phrasing? Brew that is true... nevermind. Onward! Per the bold: Yes, all too true (and exaggerated with Benson and Kesselring out of the lineup). But although Thompson can play center, he isn't as long as Ruff is coach because he doesn't play defense as Ruff expects him to. Here are the center spines in the division. One team is missing the best center in the entire division (and most people around the league would their new #1 over anyone the Sabres ice, and another team is banking on Pastrnak+playing every game 1-0 to avoid being top-5 in the draft order. Contract aside, how many of these spines would you take before you selected Buffalo's? dailyfaceoff for the lines/order Lindholm - Mittelstadt - Minten - Kuraly (Norris) - Kulich - McLeod - Krebs - Kozak Larkin - Kasper - Compher - Rasmussen (Barkov) - Bennett - Lundell - Rodrigues - Kunin Suzuki - Kapanen - Dach - Evans Stutzle - Pinto - Cozens - Eller Point - Cirelli - Gourde - Holmberg Matthews - Tavares - Domi - Roy

Detroit signed Compher and Copp to help keep youngsters blocked and in their place (deservedly). They are decent supporting players. But who are the supporting? Larkin is a very good player, and he looks great when his speed is unlocked by playing with stars on Team Canada. But he himself is not a star center. And that is a problem when he has to both shut down and outscore the top lines in a division with Matthews, Point, Barkov, 'til recently Stamkos/Bergeron, and now I'd add Stutzle and Suzuki, and whoever is playing with Thompson as he's no longer a center. (Kasper and Brandsegg-Nygard will be fun, though.) They've also been deadset on young defensemen in Seider, Edvinsson and fill-ins (the husk of Hamonic) rather than extending objectively good D in Hronek and Walman. But most like Buffalo, they don't have a #1 goalie. Maybe it's Cossa. I doubt it's Gibson as he hasn't been an above average goalie for almost a decade.

I'm really glad I didn't choose TNT as my unsung hero in the predictions thread.

A note on Rempe. Yes, he is big, but... he didn't go running anyone. He had 5 hits in 9:30. He went to the front of the net as he's supposed to, and he had the speed and angle to get to Krebs and flatten him against the boards -- forcing the puck loose for what turned out to be the insurance goal. The puck went back to the point, over to Soucy for the walk-in on Lyon. No assist, but Rempe made the play that sealed the game. By contrast, Geertsen didn't go running anyone either. He played 4:26 with 2 hits. I checked it again, Geertsen was -1, but blameless. It was all a Ryan Johnson failed clear (like a failed lob shot exit after the icing) and good Rangers keep, then Bryson getting outworked by Lafraniere. 3rd pairing defensemen made mistakes after an extended shift and an icing.

It goes back to, "why was Ottawa willing to deal a 2C with the playoffs looming"? Simple, they needed someone they could rely on in the playoffs. Can they rely on Cozens? TBD, though he was definitely on the ice for some bad goals against in their series last year. Maybe he can learn (maybe they'll move him to the wing). But at least he was there in the playoffs and durable. Heck, Norris was already injured when they traded him.

The Avalanche just had a lovely set PP play goal to take a 3rd period lead vs. Utah. Makar took the puck below the blue line into the corner and MacKinnon came from across the top of the blue line, looped around and drove into the vacated gap. MacKinnon! Completely forgotten and unmarked because he had basically fallen away to center ice and people were watching Makar and the guys near the net front. Makar made the pass. MacKinnon made the shot from the circle. Not just Thompson standing in the circle waiting. Video scouting should be a thing.

Well, Adams has that going for him. Which is nice. Montreal may also be decent again this season with another year of experience under their belts. They could get the goal differential to even.

Meet the new goal song, the same as the old goal song. Except for when they wear black.

I'm just going to copy and paste this from the game day thread... And there it is. Judgement is in: If Norris can't get to 50 games played, their center depth is McLeod (a 2-3) and Kulich (still too young to be sure exactly, but 2 ceiling). That's going to lead to where they were last season -- which was 5th from last for much of the year until the other teams started exclusively playing backup goalies against them. That's good news at least. Strength & Conditioning switch should have included team medical staff.

The Sabres certainly don't have a player who gets the puck and the opposition immediately backs off and says "uh oh." You can tell yourself it's Thompson, but most teams know that when he gets the puck in transition you have to attack him immediately because his gangly frame prevents him from a lot of nifty transition touches or dekes.

I'm going to withhold judgement on the Norris injury until Ruff says "upper body injury and he'll miss some time". Then, I'll be upset. For now, there's no reason to worry. Because I've got a glass of gin.

Florida is going to start this season on a massive "we don't need Barkov or Tkachuk" F.U. bender. That will wear off in a few weeks. But yeah, instead of upping their game for 5 minutes to beat the Sabres, they're probably going to put the pedal to the metal for an entire period.

For a home opener and being harder to play against, I don't recall any time where the Sabres did something hard to play against to get the crowd going. Was there even a body check that rattled the boards and got the crowd to ooooh?

Trailing 4-0, Geertsen gets a shift.

Sabrespace is the documentary.

Undersized pest-type grinder. Likely to score between 8-12 goals in bottom 6 minutes which he's done in 3 of the last 4 seasons for Columbus.

Someday Adams will learn that goaltending is still important. (and Lyon has been solid!)

Tuch just couldn't corral it in time. That's Kulich's second feed to an uncovered Sabre in the slot.

Zucker deserved that pop from Schneider, and went right back after Schneider. Take note.... Kulich and Quinn. And every defender not named Dahlin.

They have woken up and are carrying play (thanks to the back-to-back power plays), which is good. Also Malenstyn-Krebs-Danforth. Get used to that because that is the better 4th line.