#freejame

Heckuva save there by Hutts

Agreed. It’s got me much more invested in the game. I want to see all these ***** go home pissed.

Why do people believe the yells of “Dougie!” are sarcastic and that people don’t like him?

I only read a handful of comments, but it seems like most of their “fan fixes” are also the obvious needs of the team and concerns of writers, reporters, and analysists throughout the league (not that they know more than every fan either). They have no defense, one goalie, and too much money upfront. I saw one comment about Babs needing to make more adjustments. I can’t speak to the accuracy of that statement because I don’t watch enough Leaves games, but it’s far from the “fire Housley” calls that are everywhere right now.

This is my dream free agent acquisition. He’s still a force on the ice and definitely is a leader. He would be our Marleau...only better.

The Sabres aren’t going to control every single possession, no matter how good they are. All people want is a team that will be aggressive and play like they give a ***** (which includes finishing checks). How is that so hard to understand? The Flames hit less than us, but I guarantee Sabres fans would be happy with their numbers if it came with their effort and aggressiveness of the hits. There are opportunities in every game to separate your man from the puck using a check. One team (Flames) does that. One team (Buffalo) doesn’t. Flames have fewer “hits” because they control possession more.

I think you are right about the talking past and I think we agree on our expectations.

That’s not at all what I’m saying, nor do I know where you got that from. We have players on this team now that are capable of finishing their checks but seldom do. It’s a question of effort. We need more players who will put in the effort. Finishing checks goes along with a strong forecheck and aggressive backchecking. Are you saying we don’t need that? It also seems like you’re implying a player can’t produce and also finish their checks, which is just flat out wrong.

But did the Hawks finish the hits they did lay? That’s the biggest difference. I would rather the Sabres get ten hits where they finish them all than get 30 hits that are more like shoves and don’t do much of anything. That’s where this team has been. There wasn’t a ton of hits at the end of the game, but they hit hard when they had the chance. I don’t care if the team leads the league in hits, but finishing your check is something every team should preach and something most fans get enthusiastic about.

Yes, but if you don’t have the puck you might as well finish your check. IMO, that was the biggest difference in the last ten or so minutes of the period.

I would say that as long as an ID is given (“Buffalo heading up the ice”), it’s not a mis-ID. As long as a picture is being painted (correctly), it doesn’t matter if it’s paint-by-numbers or a Picasso.

I have no issue with the 3 fights and a suspension rule in juniors, but I would be hesitant to give game misconducts at the professional level or institute a similar suspension rule. There are too many skill-players who are willing to drop them when they feel they are being targeted. Those are the guys people pay to watch and kicking them out seems wrong to me. I enjoy a good fight, so long as it’s not staged (though there have been exceptions to this). I could see the major penalty becoming a 10-minute misconduct in the future, which I would probably be okay with.

I felt like 150 was pretty low, so I think you’re right about it being closer to 720. He does seem to ID far fewer than he used to though. I think out of 1000 IDs he’s probably at 980 correct. Like I said earlier, I’m not sure how that compares to the rest of the league though.

I would think an announcer says the name of players 150+ times a game. 95% of 150 is 142.5 correct identification. That seems like a lot of mistakes to me, but I don’t listen to enough broadcasts to compare. All I know is listening to the game in the car yesterday was difficult because of RJs announcing. However, he did sound really good, much better than the beginning of the year. I agree with all of this.

Considering how often an announcer mentions a players name, is 95% even impressive? Everyone should like everyone more than they like Jack Edwards.

I wasn’t able to watch during the welcome back, but I thought I saw on here that it was pretty mixed. Agreed on the reaction during the shootout though. Good to see the arena can still rock

Every opposing player should be boo’d during the shootout. But there’s no need to boo ROR during his welcome back from the PA or when he’s touching the puck. Like others have said, he didn’t say anything negative about Buffalo.

That doesn’t mean he gets a lot of ice time in overtime. It just shows he makes the most of it. I’ve been looking for OTOI but I can’t find anyone. I would suspect he’s 5-7 range in time. I had been IrwinNelson but I changed my name the other day.

Go suck a lemon. It’s our first win in 15 days and it looked like real hockey. We’re talking fractions of percentage differences in the lottery for our pick. The Blues likely won’t be climbing higher than 14th/19th pick and I would guess they’ll fall more in the standings and that pick will get lower.

I only saw the last 9 minutes and overtime/shootout, but what I saw was some really exciting hockey. Can’t speak to the rest of the game though.

Sabres win!

SAMSON!

Shootouts are dumb. Ties are worse.

It doesn’t seem like he usually gets OT time. It’s nothing new. I’m sure someone has the numbers for that.

E-Rod looked great there. Pretty sure I heard a ***** in there too. He really wanted that.