DarthEbriate

I love it. Be a heel. It's good. The league needs more of them and more personality in general. But of course, he's not done jack in Utah yet, either. They're currently 4th in their division and tied with the Blackhawks. (Though I do love how their team plays.)

I can see him being a little too abrupt for the likes of Pegulas the Wise and Sheevyn to have a future here. Whether he is a good coach, becomes a great coach, or not.

This is why every player interview is, "gotta get pucks in deep, go to work." I'm fine with players talking about fans, wildly inaccurate expectations, and whatever else. Be a human when you're in an interview. It'll be fine. Fans are idiots, just like 24-hour sports cycle hot takers. The only problem right now is Kesselring hasn't gelled with his partner (I don't know who it will be from game-to-game yet), or his new team and structure, and as much as we all want him to be a top-4 and his Utah metrics say he could be top-4 --- he's only been that player for one season. He'll have that shield down, we gotta give him more time.

He's having a rough start to the season and now at age 32 he's probably lost a step in addition to any lost from his reconstructed knee. He has only 1 goal on the season, though he had another wiped out by an offside challenge. But you know come playoff time if he's healthy he'll be a contributor along the wall and in front of the net.

Until Benson returns and a "first" scoring line can be cobbled together (Benson-Östlund-TNT, perhaps), I'd be tempted to try: Doan - McLeod - Tuch Rosen - Östlund - Quinn Greenway - Kozak - Thompson Malenstyn - Krebs - Dunne

Given (injured when they acquired him) Norris was 1C and 21 year-old Kulich was 2C with 63 career games played... and the other options going into the season were Krebs and Danforth (with Kozak as 13F because Geertsen had to play).... Yeah, it was actually pretty likely in the event Kulich hit any sort of sophomore slump.

He keeps losing his first faceoff taken of the third period... like, one time, his stick was outside his skates... something's fishy.

I got it. I got it! <wires cross; additional blast door closes> Kessel Run.

We've also seen the way Utah plays. Their forwards are everywhere and with pace (and did the same last year). They make things a lot easier on their defensemen than the Sabres forward do. Kesselring looked good jumping up the lineup all last season in part because he was on a solid team and played a bunch with veterans like Cole, Maata, and Sergachev. Most nights (and especially when Benson/Dahlin/Zucker are out, and TNT isn't feeling it) the Sabres don't make anything easy for their teammates. Kesselring looked top-4 capable with Utah and if you put him with a fully operational Dahlin he probably looks great. But with Power, or Byram, or Bryson --- he's going to be exposed at times.

I don't think Matthew Barnaby is qualified to be the Sabres GM, either.

Ottawa cleared the Norris cap hit for a newer, younger, healthy 2C. (Cozens' and Pinto's lines have alternated as 2nd this season, but Pinto gets 2 minutes more of ATOI per game this season, he's the 2C.)

But I have watched the Sabres when both Dahlin and Benson are out of the lineup.

What's the most likely outcome tonight? Lyon/Luukkonen goes full supernova and make 40+ saves. Final: 2-1 (OT) Avalanche The Avalanche coast and let the Sabres stay in it with a couple 3rd period goals, before shutting the door with a ENG. Final: 6-4 Avalanche The Avalanche come out guns a'blazing and do not stop until Ruff asks for mercy. Final: Avalanche victory by 6+ goals

Just for giggles... of pain. Let's play Sabre's mirror injuries on the Avalanche from opening night. LW1 (Benson), C1 (Norris), LW2 (Zucker), C3 (Kulich), C4 (Danforth), D1 (Dahlin) Out = Lehkonen, MacKinnon, Colton, Drury, Bardakov, Cale Makar Gabe Landeskog — Brock Nelson — Martin Necas Victor Olofsson — Gavin Brindley — Valeri Nichushkin Joel Kirivanta — Parker Kelly — Tristen Nielsen Taylor Makar — TJ Tynan — Daniil Gushchin Devon Toews — Brent Burns Josh Manson — Ilya Solovyov Jack Ahcan — Sam Malinski MacKenzie Blackwood Scott Wedgewood Now... That's the cup of a carpenter roster of a contender.

If you wagered, say, $10,000 on the Avalanche to win straight-up tonight... would your winnings be... $10,025?

What are they up to in man-games lost now? 79 in 16? Carson Meyer is back! (in Rochester)

Now that's a name I hadn't heard in a long time. A long time. Until yesterday! I went to hockey-reference to look something up and saw a headshot with a Sabres sweater and said, "who's that?" because I didn't recognize him. It was probably some random passer-through of the Pegular era, right? And it was! Strachan lives. It might not be a bad thing to get 2 or 3 instead of McKenna this year. Simply because if they do draft him, he's going to be in the opening lineup next season as the savior. At least if they get one of the more "project" type guys, they don't just anoint him to be everything from the opening faceoff. I can just see Pegula responding in some embedded video if the Sabres win the lottery, "We get McKenna? I paid to get him to play at my college and he was really good for a 17 year-old. Now we're Stanley Cup contenders!" <Adams is about to say "But..." in the background, but then is like, yup, contenders, yup. The Pegula is always right.>

It has to go much further south for Pegula to give up on his buddy. Think Tuch/TNT requesting trades and the reason given that they have no faith in Adams specifically. And no veteran player is going to do that because they'll appear as a malcontent. Their potential suitor GM doesn't want to see that.

This summer, Leone will get an offer from an NHL team to be an assistant. Prospal may receive an offer to be an AHL HC. Will either of those offers be from the Sabres?

He made the Kessel Run from the Sabres in less than 8 parsecs games played.

And someday, maybe, one of the offspring of the Eichel trade will help the Sabres reach the playoffs.

When Calgary comes to town next Wednesday, there's a good chance the loser of the game is in last place in the league (depending on if Nashville can break their losing streak).

In the first period. Unless the Avs completely take the night off. But I don't think they will. I think they will go into stat-padding fun pond hockey mode. They'll happily give up 5 if it means they can get 10. But against this Sabres offense they're not giving up more than 3. Goal differential tomorrow.... -5?

I keep forgetting him, too, and having to update my comments pre-/post-posting. I truly hope he returns this season and goes 55 points in 55 games and Sheevyn is a damn genius for acquiring him. But the reality is, he's 2C when he's healthy and he's not been healthy in 6 years. And that was this GM's choice as the 1C going into a "lame duck coach/GM saying it's all about the playoffs" season. Fools.