DarthEbriate

This could have easily been a 4-point weekend and putting Toronto in a world of hurt. 3 points is good, but the decision to bring up an unready goalie left a point on the table.

Like I said... he should be in Cleveland right now. That's on Adams.

Power... tsk, tsk, tsk. And any uncontested shot on Luukkonen in OT was going in.

Precisely. You have him and Levi split the games for two weeks --- it's not like the Sabres were struggling in goal and needed a spark. They needed Luukkonen to get his games in.

Dunne, Malenstyn, and Krebs with two shifts in the final 2:30. Getting the big guns rested for OT.

To be fair to him -- he shouldn't be in this game. He should be playing in Cleveland on a conditioning stint right now. (Amerks up 1-0 in the 1st.)

Bummer. Toronto got the matchup of Matthews vs. the 4th line -- and Malenstyn and Dunne almost had Krebs bury one for them. That would've been lovely.

UPL...

Ellis makes that save. Geertsen maybe makes that save.

Luukkonen --- that's why you need more in a conditioning stint. Timing. Vision. Game speed. etc. That was garbage.

The Sabres defensemen have had at least 3-4 toepicks and stumbles today. Dang it.

He's earned plenty of Selke votes and he provides the shorthanded goal threat. He's become a good defensive center over the years.

No. He's just worse at hockey than Dunne. Which Ruff is starting to realize. Thankfully, Greenway will be back soon and move both of them completely out of the lineup. It's weird that this team misses a tweener like Kozak (who, yes, can maybe carve out a 4C career -- but this year he's a tweener) as much as it does. I hope his injury isn't more than a few weeks.

OEL has been jawing the refs all day, too. No misconduct for him.

If it had been Knies taking out Lyon, I'd want the Benson interference called, too. The good thing is the Sabres tied it up already anyway. Tuch's return from the misconduct is helpful.

Go to the net. BB-4 sneaks it through!

Should be Dunne's job. Or.. you know... Geertsen.

Refs have a plane to catch. No whistles any longer.

From now on, this is how we play every game... (but only at home).

Sabres just coasting now.

They'll wave that goal off.

It comes back to --- he missed nearly the entire preseason and played 1 period. Then weeks off and just a single conditioning game. He's not season-ready yet (and he's a sub-average goalie typically anyway). Why the rush?

The difference between Samuelsson and McCabe perfectly illustrated. Byram comes dangling in and McCabe goes for the hard check to punish the shot attempt. Muel just reaches with his stick, allowing an easy assist.

Luukkonen (the clone of Lukkonen) rises from the ashes of 24-25... to initiate the RAMPAGE season.

You're being kind in your evaluations. 20-21 -- Hutton had his eye injury in January 2020. Going into the next season with him as the only NHL-caliber backup to Ullmark was criminal. (Toker at least was able to give them almost league-average goaltending.) Somehow, Ullmark got a .917 behind this team's defense. 21-22 -- Craig Anderson had to come out of retirement. Aaron Dell might have had some average numbers as SJ's backup, but he was coming off a 7-game campaign where he put up an .857 sv%. And he was worse for the Sabres. 22-23 -- Anderson was average, which was good enough for the offense they had. UPL won games because they scored 5+ for him. The Sabres had the best winning percentage of the teams angling for 7th-8th and Adams did nothing to upgrade the net. UPL was still waivers exempt. Get a goalie. Go for it. Coward GM/owner combination. Instead, they relied on Levi to save them, and he almost did. 23-24 -- UPL finished with a .910 sv% despite two months as a top-3 goalie in the league. He was red hot and finished with only a bit above average #s. He was just a bit below average otherwise. Adams gave Levi such preferential treatment that Portillo didn't bother to sign with them, further depleting the system of talent. Portillo is still in the AHL, and not impressive at the moment, but he's had one very good season with a solid playoff run for Ontario, and his debut/only game in the NHL thus far was a gem (better than Ellis'). 24-25 -- They waived their veteran offseason signing Reimer (he of much better AHL and NHL career numbers than anything UPL had dreamt of). He was a solid tandem goalie to pair with the young unproven Luukkonen. Like, Adams finally got it -- and then he waived him! That's like going into this season and waiving Lyon and not bothering to pick up Ellis on waivers. So maybe Adams learned, or Jarmo slapped him upside the head when he suggested such a thing. Taken all together, it's as if Adams didn't just mess up the goaltending, but actively sabotaged it. Bounce him into the nearest supernova already.