DarthEbriate

For any folks who were thinking he wouldn't report and that the Sabres were getting a glorified PTO... Georgiev isn't about to let that cash slide. He doesn't have a Minors Salary breakdown listed on capwages. But maybe he's an elite AHL-level goalie?

I might not be able to see this one live, but it is also a game I'm looking forward to as well. Test their mettle and resilience and how they respond. For a large stretch of game 1 they carried the play, but with the exception of Zucker they stayed mostly away from the crease. Now, another team that is not going to want to play freewheeling open hockey awaits. Can the Sabres offense exert their will upon it? We shall see.

I'm really glad that that HBP call wasn't the deciding inning. Fun baseball, though.

To the bottom of the 12th. The Tigers and Mariners are having themselves a game.

A PP drawn by Kuntar delivering a hit (clean? unknown until highlights, but he wasn't penalized) and a Marlie jumping him and taking an instigator penalty. Amerks capitalize. Another PP, another Rosén goal. One-timer.

It doesn't mean anything, but Mrtka got to start the Amerks' season opener, paired with Rathbone. Wahlberg - Helenius - Rosén was the forward line. Levi starting and Leinonen as the backup.

I was looking forward to a series of Delta Force, Missing in Action, Octagon, and Invasion USA fodder this season. The highbrow Norris, if you will. But this feels more appropriate today

They have a couple Cups.... but Florida isn't making excuses for Barkov or Tkachuk just yet. During the season I'm sure they'll get a bit of flak when someone says "oh, yeah, we missed Barkov, he's one of the best" when a team reporter asks them a leading question "Normally you'd rely on Barkov in that situation... probably missed him today, huh?"

It's a little bit apples-to-oranges though. Quinn was already on the team and just signed a 2x$3.375M extension. (You can certainly argue about the wisdom of that contract.) Benson was replacing Jost (a waiver claim) and Olofsson (a 7th rounder on the last year of his deal who the coach no longer believed in). I don't think either Östlund or Rosén was beating down the door in dev camp or the preseason. And rushing Helenius is probably the worst thing they can do for him, even if he has the stoutest frame of the 3.

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.