mjd1001

This is a strange game. Dallas seems to be outplaying the Sabres positionally, but they don't seem like they are 'better'. I know that doesn't make sense. I guess I just can't get a feel for this game.

Faceoffs are 72% Dallas, 28% Buffalo. I know others have said as a stat they don't mean much long term as far as wins and losses, but in this game, the Sabres have lost some faceoffs in their own end that Dallas has controlled for a while after.

The past 2 weeks Cozens and Quinn have been playing a lot better. They are both invisible tonight (in terms of good plays). Would be nice to get something from one of them here.

Guys contribute at times. Zucker has had some good moments. Peterka was great for stretches earlier in the year. Lindy loves giving ice time to Bryam. Tuch has a few big goals too. But this team seems to be absolutely reliant on Thompson, Dahlin, and UPL. They could interchange most of the rest of the roster, but if those 3 are healthy and 'on', this is a good team. If any of them are hurt or 'off' they are in trouble.

Dahline still must not feel 100%. The last few days he was trailing the other top D-men in time on ice. First period, he is 4th in ice time again. Just seems different than past years. Even when he was banged up in the past, Granato would put him out there for 22-26 minutes per game.

Looking back at it, yeah, exactly. He didn't play that game against Boston, but since Laine came back, Montreal has been 9-4. So, it can't be ALL him, but without him playing, they played at a 65 point pace. Since he came back, they are playing at a 113 point pace.

Montreal seems to be turning things around. They lost to Boston Dec 1, that made them 8-13-3. But since then, They have gone 9W-4L. They are only 3 points back of the last playoff spot in the east. Its not just going 9-4 though, They beat Tampa handily, just beat Vegas, shut out the Panhters in Florida, Beat up on Detroit 5-1, blew out the Sabres 6-1, so some pretty big wins in there. If it wasn't for that 9-2 loss to Pittsburgh, I'd say they had a great month.

I think I heard Tage was playing through an injury again. He seems like someone that when he is hurt, his shooting percentage drops 50%. Hopefully he is getting better though. I think Quinn (not just goals but overall) and Cozens have been playing a bit better lately. I haven't seen as many 'boneheaded' mistakes/plays. Even with that, they still aren't good out there unless they are scoring. Are these numbers over a certain period of time, or for the whole season?

I could go either way with Jim Carrey. The Cable Guy, The Grinch, Mr Poppers Penguins, and The Mask not only did I not like them I found him really annoying in them. Really didn't like them. His more serious roles like The Truman show, the Majestic, Eternal Sunshine, or Number 23...whatever, I could take them or leave them. Other ones with him Iove. Liar Liar (although it hasn't aged that well), Dumb and Dumber, The pet Detective movies...yeah they are really dumb but if I'm in the mood for that silly type of comedy, I can love them. Its like watching 'an idiot family member' do dumb things that still make me laugh.

Looking at that 1996 draft, wow, was it bad. Buffalo picks Rasmussen (bust), 2nd round Darren Van Oene (Who?) and Corey Sarich, 3rd round Francois Methot...From the middle of the 2nd round to the 7th, the Sabres had 8 picks. 7 of them didn't even play a single NHL game. The one who did? Alexei Tezikov (he had 1 career goal and 2 career points in the NHL) The top 10 picks in that draft: Chris Philips, Andrei Zyuzin, J.P. Dumont, Alex Volchkov, Ric Jackman, Boyd Devereaux, Erik Rasmussen, Jonathan Aitken, Ruslan Salei, and Lance Ward. If there is a worse top of an NHL draft, I'd like to know what it is. The interesting thing is, 4 guys in the first round had 200+ career goals. 3 of them spent time on the Sabres: Dumont, Zubrus, and Briere.

Caps lost, but Ovechkin with another goal. 2 games back from injury, 2 goals already (although one was empty net). 7 goals in his last 4 games played. 15 goals in his last 13 games. He has scored in 12 of his 20 games played. He's a plus 16 in 20 games played. Shooting 23% This might be the most productive stretch in his entire career, and he's 39 years old (and looks like 50) -- But the 32 year old Jeff Skinner with more than 400 less games played than Ovi is "spent".

I think so. Sabres win. Bandits win. Bills win. Sabres win. In that order I think.

POSSIBLE. He obviously didn't play in all the games so he is behind in terms of games played....but...7 goals in 27 games so far...that is a 21 goal-per-82 game pace.

Last (8th) playoff spot in the east is at .543 point percentage. Just 9 more wins in a row and the Sabres match that!

Noticing something about Cozens for the 2nd time in the past couple of weeks. His average shifts are very short. I don't know if it was the Islanders game of the game before but in the GDT I noticed he was getting regular shifts, but his average ice time was lower than anyone else among forwards. Same thing today through 2 periods. Today he is averaging 36 seconds per shift. For the season he was at 47 seconds. The game a few games ago through 2 he was at 30-32 seconds per shift. The thing that is significant is, he usually has close to the longest shift times. He is 3rd right now among all forwards in average shift time, and I think I checked a couple weeks ago and he was first then. Maybe its just random. Its not like he is getting benched, he is close to getting the most shifts on the team game after game. Just wondering if there is something to a couple recent games his shifts being much shorter than usual.

Scrolling on the bottom of the screen?

The Sabres have scored first more than any other team in the league. 22 times in 37 games played. Ironically, you think scoring first is very important, they are actually tied with another team that has also scored first 22 times. Chicago. Last year Buffalo scored first in only 36 games the entire year.

Even though the losing streak, they do seem to be better at scoring first in games lately.

Is it strictly a kids movie or can 2 adults enjoy it? We like going to the theater a lot to see movies, but most of what we wanted to see we have already. This time of year (January/February) is when we would go the most. My wife and I haven't seen any of the Sonic movies, the thought enterered my mind to watch the first 2 at home and then see the 3rd. But watching the trailers and reading reviews, i cannot tell at all if this is a 'geared at 10 year olds and parents MIGHT enjoy it" movie...or one that can actually be enjoyed by 2 adults with no kids?

I'm probably watching both back and forth, but unless the Sabres are down 4 or 5 or more, I'm watching more of the Sabres. I used to be a bigger Bills fan. Had season tickets for over a decade at one point, but football and the NFL for me, I just don't care as much. The more something gets overhyped, the more I can't get away from it, the more discussions/arguments between fan bases (like the Allen vs Jackson for MVP thing that I am trying to avoid), the more they push overhyped halftime shows, the more bandwagon fans that appear and just say 'dumb things'....it just turns me off of football. Hockey, the Sabres, its a more comfortable sport for me to watch and follow.

I didn't really understand just how bad Chicago is until watching the Sabres game and a couple other of their games recently. -Bedard is fine. Coming out of the draft I really didn't get the hype for him, I didn't see a player that excelled at anything that jumped off the ice to me against pros, but for being 18-19, he's almost a point per game guy. The rest of the team? They are going to be in trouble for a few years: -They have a #2 overall and a #7 overall guy in their system (Levshunov and Korchinski), but both are D-men and likely years away from being very good. Nazar looks like he might be a decent prospect, but from what I read he's a 2nd or 3rd line ceiling guy. Hes still young, but from what I read about him, he's getting pushed around big time in his limited stints in the NHL (he's 5'8 or 5'9 and close to 170 lbs) Other than that, no top 20-level picks in their system. As of right now, their farm system is pretty bare, its a shadow of even what the Sabres have. Not much on their current roster either: -Foligno is 37 and looking it. On most good teams he would be a 3rd or 4th liner at most. -Teravainen produces ok for a 2nd or 3rd liner at best. -Bertuzzi is....Bertuzzi. At times he seems like a head case. He'll have a decent month and then you won't even notice him for a month. At best at this point he's a 20 goal guy that you don't trust to play a good 2-way game -Taylor Hall looks as washed up as a 32 year old can be. -Donato and Dickenson are "OK" players, but probably about the level of a Ryan Mcleod. Thats it for their forwards. Nothing great, not much even good, and not much help on the way anytime soon. If the fans and team are patient, this could be a pretty good team in 3-4 years. But it doesn't look like they will be contenders anytime sooner than that.

Well, the ECHL affiliate of the Sabres actually has palm trees on the jerseys they wore tonight...

If they DID win the next 8 in a row, that would give them 46 points in 44 games. .522 point percentage. 8th place (last playoff spot) in the east is currently at .559. So, they would likely still be 3-4 points out of 8th even with 8 more in a row after tonight.

No PPs or PKs in the first, so ice time is pretty straight forward, Lindy can play who he wants in the first regardless of situation. Interesting on the D-corp....Power, Byram, and Samuelsson all with more ice time than Dahlin. Even Clifton was only 11 seconds behind Dahlin.

I never understood that late 90's "hardest working team in hockey thing" at all -They had the best goalie. They had some guys that could, and would fight. They had a coach that 'talked' about hard work (tell me a coach that doesn't do that) But what I saw was not the hardest working team ever. I saw a team that was outshot game after game after game and had their goalie bail them out. I saw a team that, to my memory, wasn't good at backchecking but had their goalie bail them out. I think the 'hardest working team in hockey' would go all out, give up everything on the Penalty kill, and with the best goalie in the world, should be simply the best at it..but what I saw was a team that was good, but not great (nor at the top of the league) in penalty killing. They were good. They had a great goalie. They would fight. They weren't LAZY, but 'hardest working team in hockey' was just marketing.