DarthEbriate

A first-minute dribbler!

Lafferty and Zucker with breakaways. Sens with a 2 on 0. Not a goal amongst them.

Like a turtle or a baby chick?

DarthExercise phase complete. I missed a goal. And Ullmark a great save on Lafferty. Just elevate ever slightly more.

TSN broadcast interview, asked about adjustments for period 2, player Jensen says “we have to match [Buffalo’s] intensity.” Huh. So that’s a thing?

Greenway can take their entire top line off the ice.

Muel and Joker out? Perhaps I can find new ways to motivate them.

Intraconference fun To make the playoffs as a #4/#5 Wild Card you want to get a few a wins vs. the good teams (maybe face some backup goalies or get FLA on a night without Barkov/Tkachuk) and then make some hay and be handily over (DeLuca) .500 against the other WC contenders and the bottom feeders. Last year the Caps snuck in with 91 points despite being just under .500 (40-42, with 11 OTL. NYI was also sub.500 but had a whopping 16 OTL!) The Caps were 8-8-4 vs. the top teams in the East (NYR, CAR, FLA, BOS, TOR, and TB). 8-12 is good enough against them. The Caps were 17-10-1 against their competition and weaker Eastern teams (1-2 vs. BUF). --- Sabres The Sabres are off to an OK start against the top team(s): 1-3 v. FLA & NJD. Would've been nice to get a NJD game to OT.... If the Sabres want to make it, then they need to be a cumulative 5+ games over .500 against their primary Eastern competitors. BOS, OTT, DET, MON & WSH, CBJ, PIT, NYI, and PHI. They have started... poorly... in that regard at 1-3-1. --- November This month is Western conference-heavy on the schedule, with only 4 games remaining (and those 2 L in hand!) against the primary teams, so we're unlikely to see the Sabres jump them or have significant movement in the standings barring a massive win streak or getting every other game to OT. But each of tonight 11/5 v. OTT, 11/11 v. MON, 11/16 @ PHI, and 11/30 @ NYI is emphatically a must-win game. Anything less than 3-1 or 2-1-1 will have the Sabres all but eliminated because they'll need to jump everyone in the conference.

Take no penalties; accept no penalties.

The Sabres need to play with the intensity of a gang of four-year olds playing Hungry Hungry Hippos.

Well, that's the real trick, isn't it? And it's going to cost you something extra. 7 years, all in advance. And it's the most damning thing of this entire enterprise. There is no way the Sabres should be outworked, out-hustled to loose pucks, or look sluggish. They've got a new coach to impress, a fanbase that hasn't seen the playoffs in 13 years and is desperate to embrace the team, they're the youngest team in the league but they've got plenty of NHL game experience except Benson, and JJP/Quinn/McLeod/Byram are looking for big paydays. To look flat, to not be flying around, is bordering on incomprehensible. They're off to a bad start record wise, but so was 1/2 of the division so they're no remotely out of it (yet). Now it comes to it -- which team will play with more urgency tomorrow? Ottawa or Buffalo?

Certainly, there's no pity for them. And the other teams in the Central are ecstatic. The question becomes, how long is COL GM McFarland patient with Georgiev? They've already claimed G Kahkonen off waivers. They can still look for a trade but have to deal with Georgiev's salary. And how much patience do they allow for Nichushkin to help solidify the top 6 (he just got cleared to practice with the team, but can't play until at least mid-November) before they get desperate? Nichushkin's reinstatement would push them right up against the cap. Do they still trust him at all or do they look to trade him? It'll be interesting to watch how they handle it.

Based on his team's cap savings and direct EEE message (that has not been rescinded in words/writing by himself yet) the past 5 seasons... he looks very, very cheap. And, per the thread: you don't take away a C after 12 games unless Dahlin were doing conduct detrimental to the team or had been arrested and wasn't ever going to play for the team again.

The Avalanche are getting goaltending malpractice this season. As of 11/4, COL has a team sv% of .834. If the Sabres (who give up more shots/game) had that level of goaltending they'd have 59 goals against right now instead of 42. The Sabres would have given up seventeen more goals -- through only twelve GP, with Colorado's goaltending. Mittelstadt, Makar, and McKinnon's plus/minus will be fine (once injuries abate and COL probably trades for a goaltender). Note: Many holes in COL's lineup (Drouin only 1 gp, Nichushkin suspended though he could return soon and their cap space will disappear, and now Colton and Wood. [Is it even worth mentioning still-captain Landeskog won't play again -- except in playoffs when his salary won't count]?).

Expectations. Zemgus still hasn't scored any points this season, so some things remain the same. Though, he will obviously be on PP1, standing in front of the net, in Tampa's first game in Buffalo this season. He'll tuck in a hat trick.

Second place? It’s too soon to be looking at Tankathon!

Playoff births? 😇 A wave of new Buffalonian girls named Quinn, boys named Tage, some Lindys, and many, many Zemguses (out of respect for the name). Zemguses or Zemgi?

I really don't understand the defense of Rodgers at this point. That Jets team was lost until Will Anderson got injured. Once he was gone, the Jets offense had a chance. Throw in no Nico Collins and no Diggs (and granted, he's a me-first prima donna, but he's still a good possession receiver at this point) and that the Vikings and Packers laid out the blueprint on how to defend a young QB in Stroud and... great, the Jets got one on a home game on a short week against a struggling and very-injured team. They're still garbage with poor washed-up QB play. Hope the Bills win today: avenge Beebe, Kenneth Davis, Paup, and Lofton!

On average, I've bowled once every other year in the last 20 years which includes 2-3 times in the 2003-04 era. So, considering that... I did great! We had a 2-hour time limit and I broke 100 in each game, including hitting a strike to get to 101 in the 8th frame just before time expired. I also restrained myself to a single Lebowski quote. "Over the line!" on myself. Am I the only one who gives a ###### about the rules? It's so bizarre. Rodrigues is a first line winger on the defending Stanley Cup champion Panthers. Now, Barkov and Reino... it's the Kunitz on the wing. But still. You could even add Ristolainen. He's not great and never will be. But he's learned to be a structured bottom pair defenseman. And that could've been here if he'd been properly blocked instead of rushed onto a team designed to finish last. Every playoffs we take a look around the league of ex-Sabres in the playoffs and it's maddening. There was a darn good team here, potentially, but it was an impossibility. You know who's going to look good in the playoffs this year? Jokiharju

With Adams, it starts even in 2022-23 at the trade deadline. The Sabres had the best winning percentage a few weeks before the deadline of the wildcard teams. They had the best chance to make it, and Adams basically stayed pat. Why? Because it was a young team and it wasn't their window yet. They hadn't made the playoffs in 11 years and he didn't had a veteran D. He added Greenway, which, great. Not enough. His defensive move at that deadline was this: D Chase Priskie to ANH for D Austin Strand. The rumored defensive move? Chychrun. But GM Sheevyn wasn't willing move a prospect like Savoie. Here's the issue. Who is Chychrun? He's Dahlin/Power/Byram. He's not overly physical; and he's not a defensive defenseman. He was just a pre-Byram Byram with a first-round draft pedigree.

Just remember... since GM Sheevyn was given the job because JBott wasn't willing to axe his AHL and other staff.

Went bowling and then to drinks/dinner with some friends tonight. Had lots of fun. I checked the score twice during the dinner portion, once when up 1-0, once when down 2-1. I should do more activities during Sabres games; maybe I'll even hide my phone. Thanks, Darth Pegulas the Wise! He did allow himself to be convinced to take the job. Just think who we'd have as coach if the extensive search had gotten past Ruff. Probably it'd just be Appert. Maybe Matt Ellis.

Second of the back-to-back. This time, get in the shuttle and cruise through space to Detroit.

Certainly a dip, but he'd be a sweetener anyway. What it changes is the teams you would target with him included in a deal. It's now teams that are into their rebuild and will need someone to fill out a roster once some big paydays come due. Chicago could be one, with Bedard on a 10M+ by then, and Korchinski as a PP1 contract. Alternately, a perennial contender who would need a ELC ready to go for their bottom six. Poltapov with Florida's projected lineup? Sign them up. --- That said, this move means that Poltapov wants to come over to the NHL and play immediately. That's excellent and there's nothing preventing him from doing that with the Sabres. Heck, we saw that player last night in Maxim Tsyplakov: first season in the NHL, already 26 and mature. 1-1-2, 8 hits!, and one pretty ticky-tack penalty.