DarthEbriate

The lowest common denominator is the highest position.

All this with 3 full days of rest against a non-playoff team missing two top-6 forwards in Barzal and Duclair, and down two defensemen for most of the game and a third defenseman who missed ice time and returned. Edit: And in the goatheads at home. Zucker and a veteran Zucker-caliber defenseman needed to be acquired 2 years ago when the current "leaders" were still hungry.

Zucker's a veteran. That's something Girgs wouldn't do and Okposo (rightfully so, because of the concussion history) couldn't do. The question is: will it wake up the team at all?

Did they call the major just so they could review it and cancel it? Because if anything, Greenway let up on a clean check. He's simply a 240# guy and there's no give to the ice.

From a GM Sheevyn perspective, does this mean Poltapov does not want to be here and is now a fully-on-the-table trade chip? Or, alternately, from a GM Sheevyn perspective, is this a boon as they'll get an in-his-prime, aggressive, (probably middle-six capable), ELC forward to add to the lineup the season Skinner's buyout drops back to an easily managed $2M, after they've settled on the core costs/decisions of Quinn, Peterka, Byram, Benson, and Levi?

Philp Gogulla?

Is it short for anything? Brockolomew? Brockington? Brocklesbury?

Last night, the Pens snapped a 6-game losing streak with both goals from Crosby in a 2-1 OT win. They've looked pretty poor all year. Prior to that game, their last win was the Crosby/Malkin Dual Milestone game against the Sabres that they probably weren't going to lose regardless of the opponent. History may show that was one of their last hurrahs.

After some workshopping... ++ The dyLando Center? -- dyLando's not a center; he's a wing. DyLando Cozrissian. Workhorse. Gambler. Goal-less. You'd like him. ++ Thanks.

Here goes nothing.

Quinn Solo: Well, look at you! A winger, huh? Cozensrissian: Someone must've told them about my little maneuver at the Battle of Prague (2024 World Championship where I led Team Canada in scoring).

The Reimer signing was a perfect offseason signing to pair with UPL. Proven, veteran NHL-caliber backup who can give you .900 sv% and 20-40 games every year depending on the season. His numbers are solid and steady -- except for one tank season in SJ. It also allowed them to get Levi all the playing time in Rochester can continue to hone and mature his game (get him up to 100 professional games played; he was at 56 entering this season). Instead, Levi won the competition for the Sabres lineup. (And I use the term competition in a GM Sheevyn voice -- "competition" "Now witness the firepower of this fully armed and operational competition.") That's fine if he won the competition, but it's at the expense of him getting into a daily groove or growing his game. Instead of playing 2 of 3, he'll get 1 of 3. Right now, the bigger issue is UPL. He's made some great saves, he's moved and read the play fine. But there have been at least 4 soft ones this season already. And the defense can't abandon him... like Dahlin leaving last season's PP-goals leader (27) Reinhart unmarked on the doorstep.

It always seemed to work on The Flintstones.

It's an alternate reality, but those can be fun (or sad, if you're a Sabres fan). What's disconcerting is that the once-future Sabres roster below is about $86M, or $2M under the cap with everyone playing on their current contract. To get here, the only thing they couldn't have done is sign Skinner to the long-term deal. Peterka - Eichel - Reinhart Cozens - Mittelstadt - Thompson Benson - McLeod - Quinn Malenstyn - Lafferty - Aube-Kubel Dahlin - Jokiharju Samuelsson - Power Gilbert/Bryson - Clifton UPL Reimer

Yup. For me, TNT remains in that mushy 13-17 range where he can be dominant against teams that don't have an elite center or an elite checking line. (Note: You should be able to win a bunch of games this way, because not too many teams have one, let alone both.) However, if you're a one-line team, which the Sabres appear to be this season until a 2nd scoring line appears, then TNT needs to be elite and the top line needs to be the cliche "you can't stop them, you can only hope to contain them; they're going to get theirs" level night-in and night-out.

What Quinn's poor play is doing is making financial decisions easier. If this continues, he's a trade chip or a bridge contract. If he had hit the season rolling, he'd be with JJP at the top of the list for GM Sheevyn to lock up with all that future cap space (he needed to save cap space for?...because, you know, how the NFL cap can rollover and...yeah penny-pinching winning isn't important internal EEE cap.) on another 7x7.25 deal.

Sad, but true. In the past, he's looked dynamic and he's made the JJP-Cozens line go. This season, he's lost. Now that Aube-Kubel is back, give Quinn this weekend's back-to-back games off. And if Benson is healthy, then get Kulich back to Rochester's top line. Kulich needs playing time.

He had his opportunity to wake up by throwing away his stick and pummeling Verhaege with fists after the Krebs boarding. Pre-Hathaway, he would have. Instead, Krebs was a punk -- which is good, and Verhaege gave the Bastard Panthers standard response to punks. The Sabres didn't respond.

Instead, Verhaege with a boarding/crosschecking, and worrying about the PP instead of addressing it.

Send a message for the rematch. Crush someone on the boards. Spray Bob with ice. Florida would.

Columbus is up 6-0 on Edmonton... and... McDavid had 1 shift of 37 seconds TOI. That would explain it.

Forced to grow. He was tenacious, but after getting pushed around enough in the second NHL season, he learned that he could push back. I think he first snapped against Boston... at least I have a visual of him being very steamed. And that'll probably do it.

If you'd ask him, he'd say he already has: it's Benson and Kulich.

Wanna talk about hockey IQ? Greer is here!

Hey... check that out! The Barkov line elevates, Rodrigues throws a hit... and then the Sabres respond. I never knew I had it in me.