GASabresIUFAN

People keep saying Bear sucks, but does he? He has 6 pts in 19 games for Van. He is skating 18:35 a night for them. He also blocks shots and is willing to hit someone. Last year on Carolina he skated 16 minutes a night for one of the best teams in hockey. Against Pitt the other night DG reduced Bryson’s PT to 8:20 and with Joki out the next night he skated only 12. You can’t tell me that a 5th rd pick was to high a price for a 25 year old player who is likely better than Bryson and certainly better than Pilut, Fitz or Clague. A 5th rd pick has about a 15% of playing 100 NHL games and that would be 5 years from now. What a tiny price to pay for some immediate help.

Exactly. It’s not like we didn’t know that the goaltending and 3rd D pair was suspect before the season. They got off to a good start and then the D injuries occurred and he did nothing and continues to do nothing to support the defense. The only thing he did was grab Jost forthe forwards giving us 15 forwards. Why not at least make a similar move to get a D? It’s very disappointing, especially with the highest scoring team in the NHL. This franchise owes the Buffalo community and the fans around the world better.

I guess we are Chargers and Denver fans for the rest of the day. If the Chargers can beat Miami, I think we can clinch the division by beating the Fish next week.

We miss Daboll.

We have two or more D injured for most of the season. Ethan Bear was traded for a 5th rd pick. Reilly was waived and went unclaimed because of his contract. Both would have been upgrades over Fitz, Clague, Pilut and probably Bryson.

So nothing! You forgot Xmas shopping for his family on amazon. Getting his oil changed. Putting on snow tires. You also forgot about giving interviews admitting that he isn’t doing anything and won’t be doing anything.

This can be fun to watch, but I knew last night the were going to lose from the initial pick drop. They had no energy while the older Pitt team was skating down hill immediately. This team isn’t coming close to the playoff even if they score 500 goals, because the style they play allows 2 great chances on goal for the 1 we get.

Is that called “puck blocking”

This teams lacks a proper roster, just like all the teams for the last decade+. Hard to play desperate when you can’t clear the zone because you lack the players on the back end who can get it done on a consistent basis.

Yet lead the NHL in scoring. Somehow KA remains happy with the plan and unwilling to help the team.

That went about as well as expected.

More good news. Letang back for Pittsburgh.

Letang in for Pitt, Jokiharju out for Buffalo. This should be bad. Pitt 4 - Sabres 2

I doubt it. Even if you are correct that physical maturity (which I somewhat agree with) is more important than skills/hockey IQ experience in development of a player, teams will still need to warehouse young players somewhere as they mature. The salary cap and shorter team control has changed player development. More younger players are getting NHL opportunities because of their cheap contracts. I do agree that teams are more likely to leave a not fully ready youngster in the NHL to practice with NHL players like we do with Krebs. Still I think spending tome in the AHL helped both Mitts and Thompson. Certainly it also helped JJP and Quinn. Maybe it’s just giving a young skilled player confidence they can succeed in pro hockey.

It’s called “Waiting for Levi”.

Translation: KA won’t do anything this season to help the team make the playoffs this season. Oh well!

I was thinking about what DG will do when Bush comes back. I know he is a student of the game and back in the day, the Sabres really only played 5 D each night. They would dress 6 but really only play 5. I wonder if DG might consider this option.

Everyone played limited minutes with the 3rd pairing guys. They only play about 7:30 each. Also they didn't play together. Power played with Fitz and Joki with Bryson. It's pretty clear the DG views them as a serious liability, but he also can't play the big 4 25 minutes each a night.

I think he's been a solid pick up. DG also limited Casey's line's minutes tonight. Casey, Jost and VO only played 11 minutes tonight.

Imagine how dangerous this team will be if we can get 3 lines chipping in. I thought the D was better tonight and I just realized why. I looked at the box score and Fitz and Bryson played a combined 15 minutes tonight. The big 4 all played 24 to 26+ minutes tonight.

@tom webster would say he finally matured into his body and finally was playing for a coach who gave him the right opportunity at the right time.

Yep. He was arguably the best Sabres forward tonight and he needs to play with this kind of drive, energy and physicality every night.

Amerks give up 4 in the 3rd. Lose 5-2.

He’ll be traded for Chychrun by then.

Second goal was a Mitts to Thompson to Skinner. Mitts’ pass was zipped across the rink to an open Thompson. On the first goal Dahlin to Casey who drop passes to a charging Jost who snaps to the middle to VO.