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I asked back in April what KA was going to do about the team’s clean slate in goal. Instead of bringing in proven new blood he chose the path of least resistance. He re-signed Anderson, UPL, Subban and Houser. The new blood is 27 year old Eric Comrie and 23 year old Beck Warm. Comrie has 28 games of NHL experience, including 19 solid starts last year and Warm has a total of 33 games of professional experience split between the AHL and ECHL. While I like Comrie, I still wish he had gone for more proven help for the 3rd straight season. KA’s failure to properly address this area has remained a huge problem with rebuild 3.0 and IMHO has kept the team from improving faster. I hate to be Johnny Rain Cloud heading into the season, but our goaltending remains highly suspect. The best goalie in camp was UPL and he is back in Rochester. DG “challenged” Comrie in two preseason games by playing him behind AHL rosters and he faired poorly. Anderson was fine, but at 41, how much can we really expect from him. If he duplicates his 3.12 with a .897 save% in 31 games, we should consider ourselves lucky. Oh yeah, 4th string goalie, Subban, is already on the IR. To make matters worse, all the teams in our division have better goaltending on paper. That doesn’t mean we’ll end up with the worst goaltending this season, but it points out how small is our margin for error in this department. While I like Comrie’s potential, if the goaltending fails again this year, KA will have no one to blame but himself. The best case scenario is that Comrie duplicates his results from last season with WPG over 45-50 games in Buffalo, Anderson remains healthy and plays solidly for 25 games and UPL proves that camp wasn’t a fluke and gives us .915% over the other 12 games. If this happens, KA’s value approach will be hail high and low on this board and elsewhere. Worst case, Anderson is worse than last year, UPL reverts to the AHL UPL of last season and Comrie can’t handle the extra work load. If happens, we could be back in the Bedard sweepstakes. Most likely scenario? Comrie is exceedingly average in 40-42 games with a 2.85 gaa and a .908 save %, Anderson gets hurt and only plays 17-20 games at similar numbers to last year. UPL plays the most of the balance and gives us similar numbers to Comrie. Somehow Houser sneaks in a couple of starts and outplays the guys ahead of him on the depth chart making people here again wonder why he doesn’t get more of an opportunity. This gives us slightly below average goaltending but we score enough to be above NHL 500 by year’s end. I think fans will be screaming for better goaltending long before the trade deadline.

Goaltending is the obvious Achilles heel potentially. Is Comrie/Anderson better than Anderson/Tokarski ? It’s impossible to answer at this point other than to say it’s not worse. Here is some food for thought. With Mitts, VO and Anderson all healthy and with Tuch and Krebs in the lineup for the final 33 games, including 21 against playoff teams and Anderson as the primary netminder, the team played at an 87 point pace. I think that is the best evidence that this team can succeed with just mediocre goaltending. Get even NHL average goaltending and this team could surprise.

He maybe better than Bryson, but KA is going to take on that $4 mill second year when he has so many kids to retain. I understand your pessimism, but I actually think this team is about to turn the corner if the goaltending holds up.

Out with JAGS - Butcher, Hagg, Pysyk, Bjork, Eakin, Hayden, Dell, and Tokarski In with Quinn, JJP, Power, Lyubushkin, Comrie and full seasons of Samuelsson, Tuch and Krebs. This is a younger, deeper and more talented team. They will score more than they did last year and if they can stop of puck, they should jump in the standings. Goaltending is still a big a question mark and the 3rd D pairing is suspect. Those factors could keep this team from playoff contention.

... and his $3 mill cap hit. He also has another year left at $4 mill in salary. KA isn't going to spend money on a player like this unless he can get Boston or whomever to eat most of the deal.

He doesn't play center and no he isn't as good as Sheahan. I'll give you Bjork, but why would KA take on another JAG, when he has Malone, Murray, Rousek, Biro and others waiting in the wings for an opportunity? It's time to move past the JAG stage of the rebuild.

Less on the ice (maybe), but more in the locker room? They did bring him back after all.

Big shout out to Beane, McDermott, and the Bills depth. We are down 4 Pro Bowl players on defense including 3 of the 5 starters in the defensive back field and only give up 3 points. Impressive. Admittedly Pitt isn’t very good, but this is the NFL and any team can win given the right circumstances. Hamlin, Elam, Shakir, Dodson, Morris, and others really stepped up. That said hopefully more starters are back next week against KC. Also what crock of crap that the Bills are traveling to KC fir the 3rd straight year.

I want Cam Allen. We need depth at RHD and it wouldn’t be such a bad thing to have a star “Allen” on both the Sabres and the Bills.

I’m ok with KO as the Captain. He has seems to have done a very good job of mentoring the kids. Dahlin as an assist I also agree with. He has matured and he is the most proven of the young home grown talent. Not that it really matters, but with Z on the final year of his deal and playing on a line KO, why not give an A to someone in core that organization is committed to long-term like Thompson or Tuch? Admittedly KO is also on his last year, but I expect him to be re-signed at some point this season.

Only because Sheahan will be on IR

They needed positive PR after that terrible performance against the Pens.

Maybe we need to start a noobie dictionary thread for the sites’ abbreviations, contractions and other terms of art. for example: DG or DM or Donnie Meatball = HC Don Granato

Why sign him at all if you were going to put him into a position to fail? UPL and Anderson have experience playing behind our top D and Comrie still doesn’t. IMHO it would have been better for the team, Comrie and the fans to see how Comrie did with the guys he was signed to play behind. Having face 30 point blank shot for 60 minutes from Crosby and Co. is no way to build confidence in the new guy. It was simply a stupid decision and could end up really costing us this season.

Can we just put “MW” before each game thread?

How does that help build a goalie’s confidence in his new organization?

Major Wilt tonight.

That the D depth in the organization still isn’t good enough. He also learned that if Bryson and Lyubushkin have to play more than 12 minutes a night we are in trouble.

It wasn’t the number of shots, it’s the quality shots that killed tonight. For example the first 2 goals tonight were defensive breakdowns and he was hung out to dry. No one would have stopped those. Hard to know if Comrie isn’t up to the task if he doesn’t get to play behind real NHL D.

It’s this stupid organization putting their FA goalie in net behind 6 defenders who shouldn’t be in the the NHL including Bryson and Lyubishkin. They stink. I said before this game even started that they were throwing Comrie to the wolves for a second time in preseason and I was correct. He has had no chance on any of the goals. Flat out stupid lineup decisions tonight.

Exactly. The first time Comrie will play in game conditions behind the NHL D men will be during the regular season. How does this makes sense? It’s not about winning a preseason game. It’s not about being tested. It’s about preparing a guy new to the organization with the guys he’s actually going to play with.

Neimann cheated on chess.com where it’s easy to cheat if you use a chess engine (computer program) to determine the ideal move. The website now says he has cheated 100 times on the site. The real issue is how do you cheat during a live face to face match? In live matches you can’t bring or wear any technology. Did someone in the audience some how give hand signals? Did he stash a laptop in the bathroom? I have seen any reports of either being the case. So if Neimann cheated how did he do it?

I really don’t understand how DG has utilized Comrie this preseason. Should the new guy get some game experience with the defenders he'll be playing behind? Why throw him to the wolves in both preseason appearances?

1. Where will the Sabres finish in the Atlantic? 2. What will their record be? 3. Will they make the playoffs? 4. How many goals with the team score? 5. How many goals will the team allow? 6. Team leader in goals and with how many? 7. Team leader in assists and with how many? 8. Team leader in points and with how many? 9. Team MVP? 10. Most improved player? 11. Team ROY? 12. Biggest positive surprise? 13. Biggest disappointment? 14. Outside the box prediction? 15. How many 20+ goal scorers will the Sabres have? 16. How many 10+ goal scorers will the Sabres have? 17. Best case scenario for the Sabres? 18. Worst case scenario for the Sabres?