DarthEbriate

Wha! That got him!

You know... our passing has been pretty good this first period. A few .... gah! weak pass turnover... But a few nice breakouts, a two-liner. Better than we're accustomed to.

Twice now when switching over to the football game during a Sabres commercial --- it's also commercial time during the NFL game. And NFL commercials come back from commercial and then the announcers give a few more ad pitches. No advertising! <whistle>

Our forwards give their points a ton of space; whereas they immediately pressure our D on their kill. Neither method is right or wrong -- but it was very noticeable in those back-to-back penalties.

Ufda! What a save.

Had a few chances on the power play. We appear to have our legs moving early today -- that's a good thing. And now a delayed penalty.

I care. I'm not some mercenary who doesn't care about anything or anybody. But this team is hard to watch this season. So often they play with about as much visible enthusiasm and competence as an army of CGI battle droids. Where's the threat? Where's the gumption? In football terms, you play to win the game.

^ 1st to 30th is awful, and it's not from 25% down to 20%. It's the 25% down to 12%. If we get 3 power plays a game -- that's 34 goals we're missing over the season. 4 power plays? That 43 goals we'll be missing from last season. That's a huge decrease. Add to it our poor defensive coverage and our significant decreases in save percentage from last season... that's why we've got a an almost -50 goal differential at the halfway point and the standings look like we're in full-on tank mode. It's pathetic.

I am disappointed by our apparent lack of progress. I didn't expect this. I expected a rough-ish start, then bonding with the new system, and then playing pretty well toward the end of the season as the players liked coming to the ice. Just think back to Bylsma's first season. At the end we had 81 points and were playing solid hockey for the final month. I was expecting something similar with better results because players like Jack, Sam, and Rasmus would improve from year-to-year early on. TL;DR research: Here are our top people in terms of games played in that 2015-16 season for 81 points: Risto, Eichel, Moulson, Reino, Gio, Legwand, McCabe, Gorges, Foligno, Larsson, ROR, Girgs, D-Lo, Kane, Bogo, McGinn, Franson, Pysyk And here's this year: Kane, Eichel, Pommer, Reino, Scandella, McCabe, Larsson, ROR, Pouliot, Okposo, Nolan, Girgs, Risto, Beaulieu, Antipin, Falk, Gorges It's a little different, but the core (young and should be improving) is the same. I think we'd all agree Nolan is an upgrade over Deslauriers as player, if not a checker. Scandella is better than Franson. Okposo is better than McGinn. Pommer and Moulson are in the same role and Pominville has been solid in it (at least back at the start of the season). Was Gionta that much better than Pouliot? Do we miss Foligno that much? Or Legwand? Was salary throw-in Legwand worth 20-30 more points in the standings for his 4th line/PK/long-range short-handed fluke goal prowess? Two years later any of our bottom-six centers should be able to make up for his loss: Larsson, Josefson, Rodrigues, Girgensons... So... coming down from the rant... yes, this year is pathetic. And I didn't expect it. And Rodgers and all our cornerbacks got hurt, or we'd be playing this weekend or next. Disappointing sports season.

For easygoing I'm a Cragganmore. When I want a little more fire, I say Penderyn. Are we winning yet?

There’s nothing wrong, Artoo. I’m just setting a new course. <beeps> We’re not going to regroup with the others. We’re going to the Winnipeg system. <beeps> Yes, Artoo? <beeps> It’s all right. It’s not a tank. We’re just going to set it on cruise control for the duration of the season.

Good start to trimming that goal differential against the Wild tonight. That's another -4 in the ledger. C'mon, Sabres. Show a little backbone, will ya?

Win or win not. There is no effort. Never tell me the odds.

We'll be hard-pressed to get out of the top 5 given the standings as is. Perhaps one lottery team leapfrogs us, but we shouldn't pick later than 6, even if my goal comes to fruition: I want us to get our GF/GA under control the rest of the season. We're at the halfway point (two games shy) with an abysmal -43 goal differential. That's almost... on pace with the two Super-Tank seasons. The second half of the season I want us to get that up to a -20 to -25 range. Score more goals than we give up. And with it -- win a few games, too. I don't have any solutions on how exactly we'll do this... perhaps get the power play to get hot for a month. Start suppressing shots somehow...

We’re playing outside today? We’ll have to go out on Tauntauns.

Can we keep the Girgs-Eich-Reino line together for a few games?

3. Unnatural hat trick.

Greetings, all. Josefson's speed solidifies our bottom line nicely -- I'm glad he's back healthy. I've only seen the third, but we look like we're playing like an organized team tonight as opposed to folks trying to go it [their] own.

Watched it instead of Sabres-Bruins tonight. Very solid. Very different Star Wars film; very different structure. I’ll have to rewatch a couple times to gather more thoughts. I enjoyed it quite well. My only distraction were there were a handful too many inserted laugh/levity moments when they were heading toward cathartic moments.

This is good news. I love that we have the Marlies in front of us as a carrot. Yes, the team is better, but look out there: there's a Marley that needs to be surpassed. We all know how all those dog book/movies (ala Marley and Me) end for the dog.

Grumble. I'm on a solid couple-minute delay or so... the anticipation of the goal was even worse seeing.

I suggest a new strategy --- let the defense score!

Nice! Now don't review any sort of interference stuff. Hmm. Faulk and Kane connect and both fall, otherwise Kane is able to peel off away from that.

I'm not much more than an interpreter, and not very good at playing hockey. Well, not making the games interesting, anyway.

I appreciate John Williams organ music night.