Kruppstahl

His soft, pathetic play on the Habs' first goal made me want to kill him. But he had 2 goals. I don't know; we don't really need him around here rolling forward.

Boring hockey game and the lower seats visible on TV were a mix of red Habs sweaters and empty seats. LOL. But another 2 points are another 2 points. Has this team finally turned the corner?

We won't really know until they put a chunk of wins behind them and show consistency. We have been lucky lately catching dead flat teams, like the Kings, who showed no interest in playing hockey a bit after noon local time. This group of Sabres has also sucked it up for a single game and put together a solid effort only to relapse to 2 or 3 straight losses again. I thought this year would be solid improvement but no playoffs. Got off to a shaky start. Today we sit in a playoff spot. If we can make the playoffs this year it would be Christmas and my birthday coming at the same time.

It's not too difficult to see hustle/effort/desperation at this level compared to a more floating style of play. This team floats most of the time. Eichel leads the charge, often. And yes, that's a problem.

He's standing out there right in the middle of it. Has a good vantage point. Robin Lehner used to make a lot of comments like that too. I thought he was a very direct, straight shooting, down to earth guy, particularly in his post game interviews. He often spoke of poor team effort.

As much as Housley is not the right coach either, it is absolutely on the players. And guess what? That Eichel style of play ain't anywhere near good enough. I'm telling you, this guy (so far) is Pierre Turgeon 2.0, at least as far as Sabre Messiahs are concerned. The good news is he is still young and can figure it out at any point. He has the talent no doubt. Not sure he is going to get it though. For me, that means playing to his maximum potential every time he goes on the ice.

Not sure what you're getting at here, but the good teams in this league score goals in 5-on-5 play, and control the puck and play during 5-on-5 play. A hot PP is nice, especially in the playoffs (if we ever see those again) but you can't survive on a diet of PP goals. In that regard, I totally agree with Phil; he's right about all that. I still would like to see his ass off this team.

No you don't! Phil should go but Lindy can't come back! He got beat so bad one on one for a goal last game I felt bad for the kid. This team seems like an improvement over last year based on the games we've seen so far, but they still kind of suck. He's a non-existent kind of guy a lot of the time. That hot streak he got on last year (admittedly lasting a good 3 months) shot his stock value up but the fact of the matter is he was the highest forward taken in his draft class. When you remember that, he's not nearly as good as we would have hoped for. The data would suggest Risto is a pretty bad player. He is one of the very few players on this team who will throw his body around and seems to enjoy hitting people, so for me, he gets a pass. This is a wimpy team, a collection of wimpy players. It is funny. Back when we still had the old Rochester core and Ruff was still the coach, we sucked and had a very specific makeup with cowards like Derek Roy who would rather wave a stick at someone than play tough hockey. We stripped the whole thing down to nothing and started over. Years and years of, by far, the worst hockey in franchise history go by, and what do we have to show for it? A soft soulless team. We even have one of the old guard back on the team now. Not going to happen b/c that is not in the makeup of this team or this group of payers, and you can't coach that into these guys. Yeah, I thought the frustration to end the game was f-ing fantastic and the only thing (seriously) that caught my attention in this entire game. That sort of thing is sorely missing from the game now and I'm afraid it's never going to come back. He seems to be, so far. I think we do need a tough coach, but if you listen to Rob Ray, this new generation of players will simply not respond to a tough guy coach. They will reject him and need to be coddled like babies. That's probably mostly true. I still think Phil will never be the right guy; he was a soft player and he's a soft coach. They all are, save 7-10 per season. I've been saying that for years now and I think it's mostly true. Yes they do; that's not just an appearance, that's who they are. This post sickens me.

And he needs 164 games to figure that out? That kind of time is a luxury in professional sports these days, but it could be true. I have no idea where Pegula is with his ownership of both teams. We never hear from the guy and he keeps a low profile.

What a boring game and disappointing too, after having played such a complete game last time out. Maybe this is who we'll be this year. Win one, lose one. Win one, lose one. Finish out of the playoffs with 85 points or something. I can see that happening. It would be an improvement.

And if cancer didn't kill you, it wouldn't be such a bad disease!

Didn't sound like a delay dump at all to me. You could hear him hang up and there just wasn't that odd disruption to the sound you would expect if that was the case. I also highly doubt anyone at the station would have been listening for that with his finger on the dump button! Their not competent enough for that, and they wouldn't expect McD to swear or anything like that I don't think. I think he was just frustrated. I found the whole episode to be highly entertaining however. No real follow up on any of it during today's S&B show.

I'm surprised no one here is discussing Sean McDermott's hanging up on Schopp and Bulldog during his weekly segment with them today on WGR-550. When the interview was over, Schopp said: "All right Sean, thanks." And McD just hung up the phone without saying anything like "goodbye" or "you're welcome." They then had to go to commercial break. When the show came back, for the remaining 1/2 hour or so in the 3rd hour, Schopp simply disappeared. He was not on-air; it was all Bulldog and Bulldog never discussed Schopp's absence. When Hour 4 began, Mike Schopp was back and said "Where were we?" and Bulldog just laughed. That was as much as was ever explained. I think Schopp called McD to ask "What the hell was that about?" and they got into it on the phone, such that Schopp ended up missing roughly 1/2 hour of broadcast time. That's all pure speculation though and I have no idea what happened. The segment starts 12 minutes into Hour 3. Here's the link. https://wgr550.radio.com/media/audio-channel/10-15-hr-3-schopp-bulldog

In his post-game comments, Eichel says "we probably weren't ready to start the game." That sort of Scheisse has to end. Why the F not? This was your fourth game of the year, Jack. Have you and your teammates lost interest already? And if Housley can't fix that, find someone who can, Botterill, and do it sooner than later please.

That's going to remain a given; it's a soft group of players. What a #*&%#)@ hockey game.

He mentioned that someone representing the building (staff, security?) was there. Rob showed him the heads and said "Do you have a problem with this?" And the guy said "I didn't see anything" and so they went into his bag! He said the Sabres team at large was grabbing anything they could from the building to keep as personal mementos.

Anyone listen to Rob Ray's game-day segment with Schopp & Bulldog just now on WGR-550? His game day segments and reminiscences contained therein are some of the best stuff you will find in the world of hockey. I just love them to death. You never know what funny or incredible story he is going to tell. Today he mentioned practicing with the Sabres in the old Montreal Forum after the building had been officially closed down pursuant to the move to the new building. Seats were missing, panes of glass were replaced with plywood, etc., b/c they had been auctioned off as keepsakes. Rob said he went into the Montreal locker room and grabbed like 3 of the black and white heads of Montreal players in the Montreal HOF hanging on the wall, along with their name tags below. That is fantastic. He said he would go home and try to dig them up. This is what he's talking about below. I guess he has 3 of those heads and nameplates. LOL!

There's guys like him at every sports forum I visit. It's the "R-E-L-A-X" crowd, as if this somehow conveys a connotation of sophistication, experience, and wisdom. They say it under all conditions, all the time. Over at HF Boards theres a similar guy. He was urging patience and mentioning "growing pains" back in 2013 when the Sabres organization had more or less hit dead rock bottom, with Ron Rolston and his gardening gloves at the helm. A few days after, Rolston was canned. Once he was canned, the fanbase at large felt it was then OK to criticize the organization and everyone started pointing out how Rolston was in totally over his head and not NHL HC material. Of course "Relax Guy" went quiet for a few days. I guess he was still exercising patience. There are long time posters at Two Bills Drive still waiting for EJ Manuel to "arrive" as the Bills long awaited franchise QB. They've been urging patience since Day 1. LOL.

Who's suggesting that? I'm the one who created it, and was asking what people think. There's an option for "No way" if you didn't see that.

Game is going on the DVR; will be enjoyed later this evening at a more normal time for hockey; I hate afternoon games and always have. As an added bonus, the tape-delay route also allows eliminating all pre-game BS, both intermissions, and all commercials! Can't beat that with a stick.

What's your vote?

The "game night experience" on WGR-550 has blossomed to fill the entire first hour! Callers basically talking about poor concessions service/food quality at the building. One caller mentioned that 20 minutes before the season opener, at a pizza stand, all the slices available looked like they had been sitting under the sofa for 3 weeks. ?

Regarding the general theme of the Sabres organization being incompetent: Turn on WGR550 right now! 3:20pm eastern time, 10.5.2018 Mike Schopp is going off on the various letters and announcements he has received from the team as a season ticket holder and how insulting they are, and the fact that he can't get a good dunkles Bier anywhere in the building. He then mentioned how the team was a mess, the building was lifeless, and it's all more of the same crap from last season. Kind of entertaining if you ask me, but I don't buy tickets to the games. EDIT: This should be available at the WGR website later; Hour 1; I recommend it. He just finished his 25 minute rant. Segment 1.

The highlighted text says it all. Those here who are really concerned about last night likely believe the highlighted text to be true. Those urging patience I guess don't see it that way. The next 5 games, let's say, will tell us a lot more.

Wait a minute. Now you are taking aim at RJ? He is nothing close to what he used to be, but he is still a WNY legend and I think he gets to keep his job until he flat out can't do it anymore or decides it's time to quit. It's also worth noting that the game of hockey is nothing close to what it was for the vast bulk of RJ's career; it is a pretty boring game most nights (regular season) and the Sabres teams have been horrid for what? 6 or so years now? RJ doesn't have a lot to get enthused about these days. I think his broadcasting would step up a notch or 2 if the team was really good and played exciting, physical hockey.