DarthEbriate

And now it comes to it... It's a beautiful day. The Sabres are in town. Normally, I'd have my tickets months in advance at full price. Vividseats is claiming tickets as low as $32. Maybe I'll walk my dog to the local taproom and watch part of the game from there.

Stupid NHL Network. But... it is supposed to be sunny and 70 in Seattle today, so... good luck, 'Spacers! Keep winning and keep dreaming the playoff dream.

Road trip? General, count me in!

Kulich, Rosen, and Neuchev get goals to pull away by the middle of the third. However, the Amerks collectively go full Alamo Death Star mode with for the entire 2nd and 3rd periods and are outshot 36-9 in those final forty minutes. Get that team a Byram. Levi saves many.

Where does Dahlin play on Detroit? LD1 or RD1, PPD1. Where does Seider play on Buffalo? RD2. PPD...4? Seider's floor was higher than Dahlin's floor, as evidenced by the excellent rookie season and Calder. But Dahlin's ceiling has been and continues to be way ahead of Seider. Seider's play and points have gone down each season. Dahlin has gotten better and better (all-around). This season they even have the same number of hits (153 Dahlin, 151 Seider) for folks who tell you that Seider is a wrecking ball compared to Dahlin. And Seider is, in general, more physical. He also has a much worse Corsi and has a lot more opportunity to throw hits because he doesn't control the ice and possession. Note: Seider would look a lot better with Byram, but the sample size of BB-4 and R2-D2 is so small that we don't even know how good they can be.

Having two Mahomeses? Hey-ooooo!

Goalierberus?

Good game, gents! Get ready to jump to the other end of the lake and take it to the Red Wings again.

Throw up the Dahli--oop!

Nice hit. Nice scrap. Silly Isle, lost your powerplay.

Thanks, Luukkonen. I owe you one.

Good period, gents. You were clearly the better team. Now, finish them and let them know you'll continue to be the better team. That is as it should be since getting Karmanos and some of the scouting influence from the Canes.

They're definitely homers. They initially said the challenge was desperation all you can do. Then, the more they watched it, the more they tried to convince their audience that it was interference.

And well you should not. For my ally is the Concept of the Cup. And a powerful ally it is.

You Isles won't clear the zone past the first marker. Then we'll score on you in hell!

Extension! 7x$7.5!

Pressure leads to rebounds. Rebounds lead to scrambling D. Scrambling leads to goals.

Gimme gimme gimme, 50 more goals!

I just got in from work. VOOOOOOOO!

Yup. This isn't some freewheelin' Leafs or no-confidence Wings team. This is the grind-it-out veteran "We-ARE-the-loser-point" team that's been solidly 4th-6th in their division every year but are built to win a quarterfinal playoff round. These are the teams in the way. Starting now, they must be left behind. The Sabres need to beat the Isles decisively and prove what they're learned from last season. Or to put it another way: "The Island. Remember your failure at the Island." (Caveat because all we remember is the Fasching kick in a loss -- the Sabres shut out the Isles 2-0 later in March last year.)

And thus... the Concept of Bernier was born!

I couldn't remember Bernier's name last week, either.

If my math is correct, the Sabres were 22-24-4 in the 50 games he dressed. That would make it 9-6-1 without him in the lineup so far. (7-5-1 scratched/injured; 2-1 post-trade) It's not as nice a W-to-L correlation as Bryson has this season.

This was my thought as well. Robinson or VO (or maybe Rousek if dressed)... if the Sabres win, one of them plays a key role tonight.

They're very, very good. And now for the fun "sample size" we'd all be hearing about if this were at the beginning of the season: Byram's got a Corsi of 59%, pacing 82 goals, and +109 for a full season. 😇