DarthEbriate

Cozens with Skinner and Tuch allows for Asplund-Tage-VO to be reunited. Ach. Bad penalty in the offensive zone, Skinner.

Seemed like a good time to call interference on Girgs. Even the Nashville announcers were expecting the call.

Nashville's first time trailing in 2022.

The Predators play heavy. They're going to wear this Sabres team.... Pysser + Jankowski! ...down.

Nashville's broadcast goes to commercial during their anthem(s). This is common throughout the league. Interesting which teams do which approach.

Tuch and Okposo back in the lineup will be an enormous lift for the forwards. Control the puck. Battle. They'll also respond if someone touches Dell/Houser (although I'll hope Okposo stays clear of any rough stuff). However... Dell instead of UPL sort of undoes the return of the some of the skaters.

The Sabres are going to ice about 1/3 of the roster next season of 23 year-olds and under who still need massive amounts of physical maturation, adaptation to NHL game speed and savvy vets, as well as the adjustment to full NHL salaries and living as an adult. If the Sabres pick Wright, he can get 9 games spread out over October and into November with plenty of press box time, then be given a laundry list of things to work on down in Kingston. No need to rush anything.

Asplund has struggled. He's a complementary player and has been bounced through every possible permutation of line since Olofsson got hurt. What he needs most is for Tage to get back and VO to get healthy and regain the ability to shoot the puck. Reunite that line. Then, Rasmus the Young can relax, play his role, and get back to being a solid player. Or -- let Asplund join another established pair (Girgs-Okposo, for example). But some stability would do him wonders, methinks.

Trade him to JBot for Borgen.

In this doomsday scenario: Devon Levi is Aurra Sing. The pre-Phantom hype (leaked set photographs, promo materials, action figure) vs. Sing's role and impact in the film.

They're coming in too hot! It's unsustainable against Dell's deflectors and the Sabres shooters.

Although... Jarvis has looked really good. 😇

Game 1 - Canada loses to a good Russia/KHL squad. Levi takes over in net for Canada and they storm their way to the Gold Medal game with his .944 sv% and sub-1.5 GAA, including a WJ revenge shutout over the USA in the semis. But in the Gold Medal game is China, who accepted Sweden's forfeit (COVID) in the semis. The night before the game, Levi is sent into COVID quarantine... and disappears. And never signs with the Buffalo Sabres.

Funny thing about goaltending... Take Schmid (.944) and Daws (.926) off the Utica roster and replace them with Tomeo and Mitens.... and the top team in the AHL is getting drubbed. By the way: Drub on, Amerks! Drub on. Go get R2 his hattie.

RJ is great, isn't he? 🍺 With Dunleavy, we wouldn't have even known anything had happened.

The longer GM Sheevyn takes to take goaltending (and winning) seriously, the more the young core will slip through his fingers will get disillusioned. Sure, you want to burn a year on everyone's contracts... fine. They understand it. But do it again? If I'm a good young player I tell my agent to look for RFA qualifying offers. And if the Sabres match, then I politely ask for a trade and sign only the shortest deals to get me to UFA. If they're not serious, then I'll go be serious elsewhere. (Aside: This is pure speculation on my part, but I imagine Chychrun has asked leadership for a trade. He sees what ARZ is doing and has said, as Eichel did, "I'll play to increase my value, but you're a chicken**** franchise, so get me out, please. Thank you.") Just imagine if Levi gets hurt and is never the same. Or if Portillo stays in school and hears from Power how messed up this all is and is like, "Nah, I'll finish school and go to UFA, Cal Petersen style." Note: GM Sheevyn kept Hutton for a 3rd year of his contract with the eye issue and a pathetic preseason. He also didn't extend Ullmark well before UFA. Nor did GM Sheevyn claim Nedeljkovic off waivers when Hutton was garbage. Nor trade for Vanecek after Seattle signed Grubauer. Sheevyn has been treating the most important position in hockey as the least important since day one of his term.

Which is why the goaltending salaries on the Sabres are as follows: Subban 850, UPL 778, Anderson 750, Dell 750, Tokarski 725, Houser... TBD.

Demko was playing goalie this year at a level above any of Buffalo's goaltenders except Anderson (very small sample size). And since Boudreau arrived and kickstarted a more-skilled and much-deeper and veteran Vancouver team, Demko's been on fire. Boudreau could've helped the Sabres, true. But with the lack of talent/depth and the AHL-level goaltending... any coach would be watching this team crumble. Now... that doesn't excuse the lack of fight in a team when both of their goalies get hurt. Instead... just a bunch of profanity between the benches between the 2nd and 3rd periods. But nothing done. Not a single attempted big hit. No fight. Nothing to change the tone or culture. And that is on Granato. He cannot (and should not) reward or incentivize attempt to injure or goonery, but he should absolutely set the expectation that you defend your goalie and teammates. And encourage a fight now-and-then. Lindy-style. Just to liven things up.

I think Mann would have to sign a 2/3-year ELC and would therefore block someone (and also international travel restrictions). Houser was a nice little story for a week last year and can get here fast.

Execute Order 73.

They're headed for the medical frigate. Tokarski's COVID listing notwithstanding (and Ullmark's knee injuries both being non-contact skate-caught-in rut issues)... it begs the question: do the Sabres goalies get roughed up and injured more than leaguewide average the last 8 years because they get bumped and run into with nary a bit of pushback or retribution? Not to the offending player. Certainly no worries of a Sabres player crashing an opponent's net.

It wasn't that bad. There have been much, much worse. Maroon got blocked a bit by Joker, then fell over Subban from behind. But --- Tampa is up by 5 goals at that point. Someone just tumbled your backup goalie and UPL is already hurt. There has to be some scrap and fight and defending your goalie.

It never ends. (And I think it's the right way to build for sustained success.) The sad part is the first time this team gets to the playoffs they're going to get steamrolled because none of these players know how to adapt to a team when it turns up the intensity. They haven't as a team for almost 8 years... see any Boston game. (Eichel's rookie season with Gionta/ROR and some veteran D they were able to stage some comebacks and weather some storms, but nothing even remotely consistent since then.) So then it will take an additional couple seasons to become a good playoff team together. I think the first playoffs could be in the 2024-25 season. But it'll be '26-'27 before this new rebuild has the in-house developed depth and leadership and goaltending. Florida has taken forever to get good. Colorado had one blip season with Patrick Roy as coach, but otherwise it was 8 years before they started to be a decent team again, and then a few more years to be continuously good. The Sabres just hit the full rebuild button again by dumping Eichel and Reinhart (and others) for picks and prospects.

Yup. He's got to turn this game around the second half of the season (they all do). And that could just be getting the real lineup together and having him settle into his appropriate role again. But even more so -- it means the team needs to start skating and putting the effort in like they did in the beginning of the year until Anderson and Olofsson got hurt. Asplund has to be a part of that effort.

Exactly. The reset plan is along the timeline of all of these young defensemen. And they won't be consistently good until they each have a couple years of NHL experience. It's 2024-2025 before this roster has a chance. That's by design.