DarthEbriate

Or not. Can't take the goalie's glove off there, Quinn.

Flyers could've been called for too many men, but it's Peterka on the redirect.

Östlund started that chance with a drop pass to the corner that Dahlin couldn't get to.

Fantastic save by Reimer. It should've been tied 4-4, but it stalls on the line.

Not a great shot. Östlund had a lot more room short side to make the goalie need to make the save. Instead, right into the crest on a late slide.

That pass back to a triple-teamed Dahlin was just plain odd. Possess the puck, hold for the line change, or do something fun yourself -- Dahlin's trying to give you space and you set him up for a body check?

It would be appropriate for the 24-25 Sabres to blow a 3-goal lead at home.

Cool thing for Cozens is he gets to experience playoff hockey and learn how to play with a gear and intensity his previous team never gave itself the opportunity to do. He’ll be a better player for it. How much better? That’s for another few years to determine.

Clifton, that is what we call poor shot selection. Unless he had a shots on goal clause. Then, keep firing!

Lovely move to pass, McLeod. Tap-in.

Krebs! Nice backhand

So many soft and slow passes this season. They’re professionals they can accept a good hard pass.

Good drive to the net, JBD.

The Wild are not a great hockey franchise. They bought out Parise and Suter and it was...wild. They purposefully took on $14M in dead cap! That's more than the EEE-imposed (or Adams- because he says he has all the resources he needs) spending limits the Sabres have set for themselves the past couple seasons. But when the Wild bought out those two, did they say, "we give up!" and also trade away Kaprizov and Zuccarello, Brodin, Spurgeon, and Eriksson Ek, or heart-and-soul guys like Foligno? Did they jettison goaltending? No. They kept a good guy in Gustavsson and got a real backup like Fleury. (They didn't grab Anderson out of retirement and pair him with kids and AHLers. They didn't get rid of Eichel, Reinhart, Montour, Ullmark, etc.) This has forced the Wild to shave their roster in a couple spots: MoJo? Bogo? Hartman is meh. But next year they'll get all that cap space back to fill out the roster, plus the rising cap. In the 4 years they've dealt with that cap hell, they've made the playoffs three times. Again, not a contender, but they've got playoff revenue and an engaged fan base and they still have their superstar in Kaprizov. They're ready to rebuild this offseason. JJP would be an excellent offer sheet target for them (replacing UFA MoJo).

Right, but the folks you listed: Dahlin, JJP, and Tage aren't in the system. They're already on the Sabres.

There were so many other avenues available beyond going cheap (until the owner says "tear it down, EEE only"). But Adams had to say that he could do the teardown and keep it cheap, he was fully complicit. If he had gone to TPeg and said, "Keep the core, I can get this roster to the playoffs" they could have extended Reinhart and not alienated Eichel, and built around them and Dahlin. And the kicker, once the cap rose, you could pay all those players their current salaries and still fill out a roster. And you'd have made the playoffs in '22-23. You wouldn't have Power and you wouldn't have been able to extend Skinner for 8, but whatever.

By system, I think @Ogelthorpe means the planets prospects not the star NHL roster.

Someone needs to let GMKA that the absolute floor is set for Byram. Edit: LT. You could and should bridge him for less. Or trade.

I think you're thinking Norris instead of Docker... otherwise, I think you're going to be sorely disappointed when Docker scores goal number 25 in... 2031.

This is it.

Retirement game on home ice. Because... I don't know. He's been overplayed (not over the course of the season, but over the course of the last month.) There is an imbalance in the Force concept of goaltending with the Grand Ruff. What little I saw of it, Östlund and Rosén looked good on the fourth line last game. I still want Östlund to notch his first career goal this season.

Once more, unto the breach! Finish 7th, lottery jumped to pick 8th. It’s our lot in life.

Well, yes. Eventually, the current core of TNT/Dahlin/Tuch will want out or be sold as being rotten. And the only folks to remain will be ELCs. Keep this going long enough and we won’t see Benson smiling as he starts a ruckus. Because what would be the point?

It must be tough on a person to be the only one available for a job (because you listen to the boss). But to know you don’t have the skills or means to do the tasks, loathed for holding that position by your fans, being the very worst among your peers performance-wise, and not respected by said peers. That has to be exhausting.

I suppose the only question that I’d honestly want to have an answer to is “When is Pegula going to announce that EEE is over and the franchise’s purpose is back to winning a Stanley Cup?” That’s the root of everything else. Because then you can justify a POHO and a full scouting department and spending to the cap and even arena renovations in the name of increasing revenue.