DarthEbriate

WOOOOOOO! Nice pass, Skinner

Let's ... oh, Mitts...

And now it begins!

Looks like Chiarot put Mitts into the crease.

Florida gets the quick whistle.

That was Florida's first penalty of the day?

Well, shoot.

Florida had a wild comeback yesterday. Hope they burned it all up in the 2nd, and now we've got our own comeback in store, Chicago-style.

Diving at someone's legs would be a trip, right?

This was not the shift we were looking for. Gotta rebound in the intermission.

Need a strong shift from the top line.

Florida skating hard this period. Sabres waving a lot of sticks by comparison.

Topplin' Toker keeps it out.

Important kill for the flow of the game. The Panthers have been really strong this period.

We're going to hear a lot of buzz this summer. Ottawa played super-strong late last season and generated some buzz (Canada division or not). The Sabres will be in that spot this summer. The difference will be --- what do the Sabres do in goal? And are the upcoming kids the next injection while the current kids keep improving?

Top line starting to get warmed up. The Dahlin-dodge seemed to wake up the team.

Up 6-1 in the third... good response after losing to the last place team in the division last game (Monsters both games).

Judge TNT by his size do you? As well you should not.

Call up AGMJBott in Seattle. Puck mover and a bit undersized? Perfect! Get a pick if he’s not the future.

Extend him. Even a slight overpay won’t hurt in the next 2 seasons. We can bridge some folks and bring back Okposo on a lighter deal if the money is a concern. But VO will have value on a TDL market if we’re good but not good enough in a few seasons. What I don’t want to do is just give his spot to Quinn when Quinn has had issues staying healthy and Okposo could move or succumb to injuries. I view VO as a transitional Kotalik... specialist who’s going to be in the bottom 6 when we’re good. And that has immense value.

It’s not my 1977 movie, but it is an extremely fun and ridiculous 1977 movie.

Adding a Hellebuyck-level goalie to this squad instantly takes them to an 88-point team next season. Even so, I wouldn’t deal a top-10 pick for him. The kids and the kid goalies are coming. A regular NHL caliber starter in the off-season probably gets the Sabres to 80-point pace, with UPL as the backup understudy. Don't rush things now. Use that top-10 for the RHD or scoring threat cornerstone for the next 10 years.

Outpossessing and greatly outchancing the opposition is becoming a theme with this team. It means we can get by with .908 sv% because we’re still only giving up 2-3 goals per game and the offense is taking care of their end.

This is an odd way of speculating on an offseason acquisition of Buffalo native and NJ RFA Miles Wood.

Is it bad news or a challenge to see how far this roster has come in the last month? I don't expect the Sabres to win every game or outpossess/outshoot these games like they did against Nashville and others in this last run. But I want to see progress against these true Cup contenders. 3-2-1. 3-3. 2-3-1. And play like they have been 5-on-5 to keep the goal differential near even. Show the elite teams that now it's a fight each and every night.