mjd1001

I don't know if it is a 'superstition' or not, but sometimes when I watch the Bills play, especially if there is a delay on the channel I am watching (like last week's game from London, there seemed to be a 10-15 second delay).... If the game isn't going well, I'll have on my laptop or computer the game doing the live tracking (like the game app on cbssportsline, for example). They tend to update the play before you see it on tv. When the game is close or there is a critical play, I refresh my browser every 5 seconds because I like to read the result of the play a few seconds before I actually see it.

I didn't have and don't have much of a problem with Granato, except sometime on his usage. As I mentioned in another post, Dahlin having almost 26 minute of ice time is just too much for a game that you aren't in. Especially when you consider he was nicked up and worn down a bit at the end of last year, AND the rest of your D-men were at full strength and no one was injured.

The Rangers are a good team. Power is still young and is going to have ups and downs. Thompson is a scorer, he might not show up for a few games and then put in a hat trick. After sleeping on the loss, the one thing I might take from that game is Okposo. I really REALLY think he might have had the worst game I have ever seen him have. Is it just one bad game? Hopefully. Over the last few years since he missed time with his injury, I have not said much negative about him. I found myself defending him often on here. His numbers were very good as a fill in on the 2nd PP unit. His production per 60 was pretty good for a 3rd liner. He rarely made mistakes. But last night he didn't do much well and he made key mistakes on a few Ranger goals. I have been pretty critical of Krebs over the last year and didn't want him on that line with KO and Girgs, but honestly he was fine last night. He played well. Girgensons also had the type of game you want from him. Krebs and Girgs can be on that 4th line all the time from how they looked last night, but I thought Okposo brought things crashing down for them. Again, its one game. EVERYONE is entitled to a few bad games. But after last nights performance, I'll be watching if this might be the 'one too many years' year for him. On a slightly different note, you shouldn't have Dahlin at almost 26 minutes of ice time, last year he tailed off by the end of the year it seems as a result of some nagging injuries and just wearing down. If you are protecting a one goal lead, or down by 1 or maybe 2 and trying to come back use him up....but no reason when you were outgunned the whole game and down by 3 late to be putting him through the grinder when, if you want to make the playoffs, you will need him somewhat fresh and healthy.

Not the whole board, but I have followed gameday threads for the Leafs, Patriots, Bills and Sabres of course, and Bruins. And all of them have the same emotional/irrational at times reaction in them, much more than the other threads on the sites.

This is a message board. This thread is about the game being played. When they are getting drastically outplayed, outshot, and outscored, THAT is going to be the reaction because that is what we can react to. A bit more sanity (a bit) can be found in the other threads...but if you are looking for people to not react emotionally in a gameday thread, you are looking in the wrong place. This isn't a Sabres forum issue either, it happens to every team, every fanbase in their gameday thread.

Okposo is really having a bad night. First goal against he could have been back and covered the wing but he either was gassed or just slow to get back. 2nd goal it was him being WAY too aggressive that caused the bad shift in the PP D that led to a goal. 3rd goal, he wasn't the one that lost the loose puck on the boards (was that Power?), but he had a chance to control it a second or two later and he fumbled it a bit...goal scored 2 seconds later.

Some 'kinda' breakdowns on both goals allowed. First goal, Jokiharju played the center of the ice when his D-partner was already there, leaving Lafrieniere uncovered. Now, was that Jokiharju's mistake? or with no trailer on that side should Okposo skated a bit harder to cover that side? Either way, looks like 'kinda' a breakdown/bad decision by Jokiharju or Okposo not getting back quick enough. 2nd goal: They just lost positioning on the PK. Johnson was a bit sloppy with the puck about 10 seconds before the goal. Krebs should have covered/pressured Kreider to prevent that goal, but why didn't he? Okposo looks like he got WAY too aggressive and went out to far to try to play the pass/puck when there really wasn't a chance to do so....Okposo took himself so far out of position that Krebs had to shade toward the center of the ice to cover as much area as he could until Okposo got back into position. Johnson then moves 'up' to cover Krebs spot. By the time Okposo gets back into the zone facing the right way, now you have Okposo, Krebs and Johnson all standing still with no one to pressure the shooter. First goal looked to be possibly on Jokiharju, with him getting a pass if he thought Okposo would be back and he didn't make it. The PP goal allowed started with Johnson not getting a loose puck out, was compounded by an over-agressive play by Okposo that didn't need to happen at that point. Not a good looking 20 minutes for Okposo.

Its good of course. When you make THAT much money though, you can build/buy a house to live in during the season, and still have another house/place to call 'home' during the offseason.

Agee. To be a good, playoff team, you need to have good players, with a bulk of them in their prime. To be a GREAT team, one that is top 10 year after year and a cup contender, you really want to have at least a few of your top players on team friendly deals. Colorodo is a good example. Toronto is the example of a good team, a VERY good eam that hasn't gotten all the way yet, in large part because they have problems filling out the bottom of their roster because they don't really have team friendly deals at the top of their roster. They don't have any Busts which mean they will be very good, but greateness they haven't acheived because they aren't getting deals. Sure, those guys are now entering their prime sothere is a chance they get a cup, but they should have done more than they have to this point. So the Sabres....Dahlin is not a bargain but its likely not to be a 'bust' deal. But Tage is a bargain (so far) and Cozens and Power are projecting to be team friendly deals. That is why this might be looking good for the Sabres. Its not really about how much you are paying them when they sign the deals...look at the mid way point of the deal...how much percentage of the cap these guys will be getting in years 3, 4, or 5 of the deals comared to how good they are at that point.

For internet (which we need) and Cable with MGS, its a package called select and its over $150 per month. Yes, existing customer for years.

I think unless an injury happens, it has to be Bedard. I'd love to pick someone else and feel good about it, but this to me is like the McDavid year...where there is 1 guy clear above the rest. But, this still looks to be a good year for young rookies, should be exciting to watch and follow them as, as of right now, it looks like there are a few of them that might have a legit impact on their teams. Bedard is good, really good. He might be an MVP candidate (top 5 playing in the league) within the next couple of years. But when I watch him, I just don't 'see' dominance every second, he just get the results. When I think of generational players, I think of Ovechkins shot, Mario Lemieux just doing anything he wants with the puck and No-one could stop him. Lindros (before he got hurt) just looking like a talented grown man playing against 14 year-olds physically. McDavid's speed and his control at full speed. Bedard makes nice plays, I saw a great no look pass yesterday, and obviously he has great skill. I just don't see any ONE dominant trait he has. The collection of various skills he have might make him unstoppable at times, but I'm still looking for that ONE skill that no one can stop (Ovi's shot, Lemieux's size and control, McDavid's speed, Lindros strength, etc.)

I don't see the 'complaint Thursday' thread anywhere, so its going here its about MSG/Spectrum. Right now we don't have MSG. Yes, I'm in my 40s and I can afford it, but I'm cheap. I don't like paying for things we don't use often or overpaying. We have the spectrum 'choice' package (and currently on a promotion) where you can pick among channels. We get the basics (ABC, Fox, nbc, etc) and cable channels we actually watch. Espn. Espn2, cnbc, cnn, weather channel, usa, tbs, tnt and a few others. BUT, you cannot add MSG to this package. Anticipating Sabres season I contacted spectrum last month. I did the 'chat' online thing. The person I got, had NO idea how to get MSG for me. I explained to them I know I needed a different 'tier' of channels in my package, but after she couldn't find it she told me it wasn't available in my area. I ASSURED her it was, waited almost 15 minutes while she kept on looking up, and then just gave up. Well, today I called Spectrum. Was only hold for 10 minutes (not too bad) and spoke to a woman who was friendly. Told her I had the "choice' package and wanted to upgrade to get MSG. She couldn't find the channel. She asked me if I was sure it was called MSG. I said yes. I told her my parents were subscribers of Spectrum cable and they had it, she kept on telling me "I'm still here but I'm still looking for it". I told her it is (or at least used to be) channel 28 in my area. Finally, she found it and told me the only way to get it was to 'upgrade' to a new channel tier (I really REALLY wanted to tell her that is what I told HER almost 30 minutes ago but I didn't). I said how much more would it cost me compared to my current bill. It was almost $50 more a month (high $40's plus whatever extra tax would be). I asked if there was any promotion, any package, any bundle available to me. No she said, nothing. She could set me up with the new package but it would be for almost $50 per month extra. So, No live Sabres games at home for me. I watch most games either by a neighbor down the street who loves having company for games, sometimes at my parents house (but they live almost 30 minutes away), at a bar or restaurant, or if I miss one I watch the replay 2 days later on Hulu/ESPN plus. But as per my prior post, the NHL and Spectrum make it SO DIFFICULT to watch their games on TV, I really don't get it. And how exactly does Spectrum have customer service agents (2 I dealt with) that don't know how to get MSG to their customers, or don't even know what it is? Good luck going to their website trying to add it or figure it out, they basically hide everything and get you to call them (its one of the worst customer websites I have ever dealt with, maybe only 2nd worse to treasurydirect if you want to buy a government bond)

Not a huge fan of this list, but whatever. I tend to lean more toward the 'rock' genre, or if you give me a pop song it better be super up-tempo and hard hitting. Oh well, its what the players want so its not that big of a deal to me.

How a league makes their product so hard for people to view is beyond me. Still trying to protect the legacy cable business? It took a while, but we finally have MSG+ as an app, but no one really knows if you can cast it from a phone to a tv, it may be available on some OS's but not others? This is YOUR PRODUCT. People who have games available to watch game are more likely to go to games, buy your overpriced concessions, buy jerseys and merchandise...in addition to paying $30 a month to view them those games. Make it work. Negotiate with all the popular streaming Operating systems to get your app on there. Its not their responsibility it is YOURS.

As others have said, you are paying 'market rate' compared to what other players are getting around the league. Jake Sanderson: 8 years, $64.4m, $8.05m per year Owen Power: 7 years, $58.47, $8.35m per year Sanderson: 5th overall pick 2020, 21 years old, 1 NHL season played, 4 goals, 28 assists, 21:55 min per game on a 39 win team Power: 1st overall pick 2021, 20 years old, 1 full season played, 4 goals, 31 assists, 22:05 minutes per game on a 42 win team. The production/age/draft pedigree is very, VERY close, almost unreal how close they are. If anything, you might give Power the slight edge in these measurables, thus the contracts should be expected to be about the same, if anything with Power getting slightly more. I'd expect Moritz Seider to sign an extension soon with Detroit for about the same term/money.

Long term so I guess its ok. I would have done a bridge since you have so many others locked up long term...but this is ok.

Agree on the money going to a 30+ year old is kinda bad. They just might look at as the cost of business of staying playoff competitive the next 2-3 years. Once you are into the last couple years of the contract, they might be bad so it won't matter much.

I really don't like the amount. Yes you may not have had a choice, but the way the team is going to be competitive is if you don't pay too high for many players and if you can bring them in at a fair value or ever so slightly below.

This is what I am hoping to see change once the regular season starts: -Krebs got slightly better as the year went on, but there were many, MANY times goals were scored against the Sabres or big time chances were allowed when Krebs either was 1/2 step too slow getting back or he lost a battle on the boards. Hoping he is better this year. -Cozens. As good as he is, and a large part of how good he is has to do with how aggressive he is....he needs to show better decision making. I can't remember how many (it was a lot) goals were allowed last year when Cozens was on the ice, not due to him not giving effort, but due to him chasing the puck relentlessly, often times when another Sabre was closer to the puck, and putting himself out of position. Effort isn't the issue with Cozens, but hopefully one more year of experience will help him with his decision making for knowing when to NOT chase the puck full speed no matter where it is. -Peterka and Quinn. Honestly, by the end of the year I thought they already were much better than the beginning of the year, but when they started they were losing a lot of loose puck battles. If they can pick up where they left off at the end of last year (whenever Quinn gets back) that will be a good step. -Tuch is a great forechecker. I don't analyze the entire league but with how relentless he is on the forecheck I can't imagine a lot of players being better than him. His linemates just have to be aware of where he is in the Offensive zone so they can cover any opponents exit from the zone in case Tuch gets caught deep.

Agreed. Moss is playing well, but I don't think hes better than he was when he was here. Put him on this Bills team and I still don't want him starting. He is doing well in the situation he is in.

Bills seem to handle Miami, and for the most part, KC, better than the rest of the league. Jets, Jacksonville, and Cincy I don't have much confidence with them playing.

For now, the Bills are 4th in the conference, with 2 conference losses. 2nd in the Division (as you said) with a division loss. If we can't be guaranteed a SuperBowl, I would LIKE to have one year where they get the bye and home field advantage throughout, but they are already behind with that.

I don't think the effort was the problem. Not making excuses but factors include: 1.) they don't seem like the match up well vs Jax 2.) Maybe the Bills flying out 2 days ago and Jax being there for 2 weeks helped Jax 3.) Just too shorthanded on D with the injuries. I'm not seeing a lack of effort. I'm seeing a team making mistakes and overmatched in certain matchups.

I don't think of them as like any other team of the past. To me, this team, and Josh Allen, when they are "On", is better than anyone else. When they play their 'best' game, and the other team plays their 'best' game, I think the Bills come out ahead against anyone. The problem is, the Bill can't seem to string as many of their 'best' games together in a row, or when they are 'off', they can be really REALLY 'off'. So in the regular season, they have too many 'off' games where they might never get the bye and home field the entire playoffs. So when they get to the playoffs, they need to win 4 games in a row to win it all, but they can't string 4 games in a row of them being 'on' to do that.

Games like this, for now at least, are why I have a LOT more fun following the Sabres than the Bills. With the Bills, if they win big, well, they are supposed to. When they play a game like this, its just horrible to watch and then to listen to others/read forums/listen to talk radio for the next full week (and yes, to me those are parts of being a fan.) The curse of high expectations. With the Sabres, right now watching a young team get better is just so much more fun. I don't want it to be that way. I wish I could see things differently, but, I just can't. Maybe they can still pull this one out, we'll see.