GASabresIUFAN

The CHL dies without its star players. The rules are there to keep the league viable like it or not. Should there be certain exceptions? Of course, but if you take every player like Savoie and move them at 18 or 19 to the AHL it would destroy the CHL and also send many veteran AHLers out of hockey or to Europe. Many of these vets are important to the development of young AHLers.

KA is going to do nothing until the deadline at the earliest. He floated the rumor to make it sound like he is doing something now but don’t be fooled.

What makes it worse is that they battled back to tie the game at 3 and then let Stl score 2 more times.

Maybe if the organization was interested in having real goaltenders then the results might be different.

How bad was UPL tonight?

I asked the question because if this is considered a violation of the "morals" clause in the contract, I'd assume we could void the deal, but I'm honestly not sure.

Can we void Miller’s contract?

That’s always the question isn’t it. Fire McD and you could end up with Hank Bullock (RIP).

No ROR no TNT, the game won’t feel the same. Sabres need to win and show the dominate effort at NY wasn’t a fluke. Time for this team to step up.

This is my 4th year. Mitts and Tage on helmets and then Asplund on a baseball cap. I like that they use the younger players. I’d be happy with Quinn. JJP or Devon would be great as well.

Z has 2 goals this season and zero assists in 20 games. That’s an 8 pt pace for a full season and half his normal production. That’s not even close to adequate production from any NHL forward even a 4th liner.

My email on Monday says my helmet will arrive Dec 11th.

Rosen, Biro, Kulich, and Rousek, do any of them make the Sabres materially better right now?

The only place that depth is really improved is on defense. Johnson & Johnson have been a serious upgrade on Bryson, Stillman, Lyubushkin, and Clague etc.. Clifton hasn’t been the positive we hoped, but there is a great deal of time left for him to turn it around. The goaltending is the same, but if UPL continues to play well, then there is hope for improvement there as well. If Levi can find his game in Rochester and return as a capable backup, then things will be substantially better. Last season the D depth was tested by injuries and was found wanting. This season is the reverse as the injury bug has hit the forwards, and the forward depth is failing the test. Things feel a little better because KO and VO have finally started to contribute on offense. VO has 8 points in his last 7 games (courtesy of 4 2 pt games) and KO has scored a goal in 3 straight. However Krebs still only has 1 pt for the season. Z has 2 goals this season and nothing in his last 13 games. Greenway, before he went on IR had 0 pts in his last 7 and Jost has 1 pt in his last 11 games. Cozens has 2 pts in his last 12 games. Tuch, Mitts, JJP and Skinner are carrying this forward group. Getting Thompson will help. However, if this team is going to work offensively Cozens is going to have to find his game. I’m still in the camp that one or two outside forwards are needed. Kids who can’t be trusted to play more than 6 minutes isn’t real depth.

He is listed as IR - NR (Non-Roster) according to capfriendly.

Translation: it wasn’t doing Devon any good sitting on the bench in Buffalo, but since I can’t admit I was wrong for dumping the weight of the franchise on a kid with 7 games of NHL experience, this is the solution I came up with.

Here is the break down Games 1-10 - 6-3-1 record - .889 save %. If you remove the two bad performances to start the year he had an .910 save % Games 11-20 - 7-2-1 record - .909 save%. UPL got off to a slow start last season as well. He was 1-2-1 in the first 4 games with a .846 save %. That was a pretty big hole stats wise, but then went 12-3-1 over the next 16 games with a .911 save %. Then as I posted earlier the wheels came mostly came off. In his next 12 start (he had one relief appearance), he went 4-5-2 with a lousy 874 save %. His worst start was getting pulled 12 minutes in a game after allowing 4 goals on 10 shots.

Who?

You are wrong. In his first 10 starts last year the Sabres went 6-3-1 and UPL gave up 3 or less in 6 of the games and was .897 or better in 6 of the games (he had 2 terrible games very early in the year) in the next 10 starts the Sabres went 7-2-1 and had 900 or better in 6 games and gave up 3 or less in 8 of the 10 games. His worst game in that stretch was an .875. He was also getting shelled most night as the Sabres gave up 35 to 45 shots in 5 of those games.

@Thorny Agreed. There are 60 games left in the season. Do we really trust UPL to give us quality starts in 40 of them? Do we trust anyone else with the other 20 or with the ability to step up and be the starter if UPL gets hurt or goes into the tank like he did last season after 20 games? If UPL manages to play at or near this elite level for the remainder of the season, it would be the most shocking development in the NHL this season given his substandard NHL and AHL track record. Frankly, our moribund franchise deserves a little luck.

So far. UPL gave us quality goaltending for much of his first 20 games last year and then the wheels came off over the next 13 starts.

This is a fair statement given how UPL has played of late. He has 4 straight starts (plus a replacement appearance) with a .923 save % or better. He had a similar run last year in starts 8-11 with no start under a .903 save % and another very good run in starts 15-20 with a record of 4-1-1 and only one start under 900 and that was only an 893. He was 13-5-2 in his 1st 20 starts last year with a 900 save % or better in 11 of those games. Then the wheels came off. In his next 13 starts, he had only 3 900 or better games and was 4-7-2.

Correct. That's why teams with competent management lock up their good goalies. What a crazy idea.

https://www.nhl.com/sabres/news/buffalo-sabres-loan-goaltender-devon-levi-rochester-americans See u in a few days when Comrie gets hurt again.

I'm not sure that's true. I think we have enough talent to play with anybody if we give the effort we saw last night.