Curt

Trade deadline, UFAs, RFAs, training camp, Montour’s return, Sweden trip. Seems like there’s always some next hill that needs to be created before a trade can happen. I’ll be waiting patiently.

What was the reason?

https://www.sny.tv/islanders/news/robin-lehner-explains-what-happened-with-him-and-islanders/308698400 Lehner: "It not working out in Long Island had nothing to do with me. I never walked away from anything." "We were still pretty much all in with Long Island, and they walked away," Lehner said. "They didn't want to do anything. They walked away with another goalie." Read article for more details.

I’ve been “hoping” that Risto would play better for years. Suzuki is pretty good.

Pretty sure it was NY who declined to bring back Lehner more so than vice versa.

They don’t need to call him up or do anything that violates the CBA in order to have a player get on a plane and fly to Sweden. That’s my point. Thanks for the polite reply.

Brawndo was talking about Hammond who is going to Sweden, but hasn’t been called up to the Sabres, and how it’s surprising that they maybe didn’t do the same with an extra forward. They could have had someone like Wilson travel to Sweden, but not call them up to the Sabres unless needed, like they are doing with Hammond.

It’s my interpretation based on the majority of preseason predictions that I saw.

Sure, maybe it SHOULD be the expectation. But playoffs wasn’t the expectation of most fans.

Deficient for what? I think that’s the question. For a playoff team? For a cup contender? They have exceeded expectations so far. Most were pretty sure this was not a playoff team.

Islanders lost 3 of their first 4. Coyotes lost 3 of their first 4. Capitals had a stretch of losing 4 of 5. It happens. They do need to turn it around here soon.

They have been winning a lot. Is nothing but a 65+ win season acceptable? Just because Buffalo is now decent doesn’t mean they will win every game or won’t have rough patches. smh The Islanders are one hell of a good team, especially right now. Even the best teams in the league have all they can handle against them. They specialize is getting a lead and strangling the offense out of the game.

They aren’t playing so hot themselves.

With regards to the playoff format, great work @Randall Flagg, but as an impartial fan I like the new format where it feels like the good matchups are sort of spread throughout the playoffs and rivalries can grow a little more. However, if it was the Sabres being randomly put at a disadvantage because of it, I wouldn’t like that.

Yeah, I wasn’t super confident about the spelling when I wrote it. Deslauriers, sorry Nicolas.

This thread is awesome. Never saw it before now. Rice cooker...........the Matt Ellis (or Evan Rodrigues) of kitchen appliances.

Nick Delauries transitioned from D to W. In the AHL I believe.

I think this would actually be pretty easy for the goalie to stop. We’ve seen players try this in all star game shootouts and it doesn’t seem terribly effective.

First of all, no, he isn’t going to do that. Secondly, why do you think the bolded.

Winnipeg and Minnesota also are in same boat.

I don’t think he is bad. He has been bad so far this season. I still think he will be an NHL 3rd/4th liner for the next several years, even if it’s not in Buffalo.

I don’t know what exactly November holds for Buffalo. The schedule looks a little rough and they haven’t been quite as good the past few games, so I would predict around a .500 record. I do know that this is almost definitely the best Sabres team I’ve seen since 2012-13 and possibly even since 2006-07. One thing about this team that has given me some confidence is their resilience. In games they are trailing, they do not go away quietly, and after losses they bounce back instead of sinking deeper and deeper into suckyness. It’s been quite a while since I’ve seen that from the Sabres.

I’ve felt for some time that Dahlin will sign a deal that matches Eichel’s. It just feels right. Enough to acknowledge the player he is and his vast potential, while at the same time not “showing up” the team captain. Just a gut feeling.

A good forecheck is something that just about any team has trouble with. I agree that Buffalo needs to improve against an aggressive forecheck, but they also worlds better against the forecheck than any time in the past several years. I think they are on the right track and regularly beating the opponents forecheck with quality passes and dmen skating the puck up ice.

I would say this is just part of his rehab. Ease him back into playing full games against lower level competition on a team whose results don’t really matter. He may play one game, then have a week off, play one game, then 4-5 days off, etc etc, working his way up to where he feels ok playing 2 games in 3 days. When he feels back up to full speed, he’ll be in Rochester.