msw2112

I'm in the same boat as you. Was hoping to watch tonight, but it won't happen. I think ESPN+ gets more than 70 out of the 82 games, so I can't complain too much. Maybe I'll spend some time with my wife and kids on a Friday night (while listening to the game on my phone through the WGR or some other app with the radio broadcast). Losing NHL Network is one of the few downgrades I've experienced when moving from Directv to YouTubeTV. On the flip side, there are many benefits, which outweigh these downgrades and I'm saving a good chunk of change every month.

No doubt that for players well into their 30's, one-year deals are the way to go. Even guys you like and respect. Fortunately for the Sabres, Okposo is on a 1-year deal right now.

Before becoming a Sabre, Okposo was able to effectively keep up with a young John Tavares with the Islanders, and had the speed and hands to become a very effective scoring winger. It landed him a big free agent contract (at the time) with the Sabres. As he aged and played on some lesser Sabres teams, Okposo morphed into a great bottom-six forward, checking, cycling the puck, playing sound defensive hockey, etc. and he became a great glue guy and leader too. Unfortunately, he has lost a step to the point where he can't even do the bottom-six stuff as effectively as he used to. I agree that he's not a huge detriment to the team at this point, but he's also not much of a benefit on the ice. A younger, hungry player might bring more. So, in a long-winded fashion, I'm agreeing with what you are saying.

I'm a big fan of Okposo and was in favor of re-signing him for his veteran leadership, but I have to agree. Age appears to have caught up with him and he just can't do it anymore. A couple of anecdotes come to mind: I played a lot of youth hockey, but stopped playing in my teens, as I was playing too many other sports. Around age 30, some friends got me into a rec league. It was like riding a bike, I got right in there and was a really good player right off the bat. I played all the time and loved it. I scored a bunch of goals and was one of the best players in the league for several years. Around age 35, I just lost it. I tried changing sticks and a few other things and NOTHING would work. I was in great physical shape (better at 35 than I was at 30), but my hands were just gone. I couldn't maintain possession, I couldn't score, etc. I was moving in quicksand....I just couldn't do what I used to do. I was no longer fun. So, I just stopped playing. I took up other sports and physical activities to keep in shape (like running, yoga, and hiking), which I do to this day. When I see Okposo this year, I think of my own experience. I realize it's a bit of a stretch to compare a rec league weekend warrior to a professional athlete, but that's what I see. A great example of a pro athlete is Lindy Ruff. As a kid, he was my favorite Sabre. He was tough and aggressive on the ice and not a guy to mess with. He could also score a little bit, scoring around 20 goals at his peak. I just loved the way he played and carried himself. He was a great leader and became the team captain. By the end of his career, however, before he was traded to the Rangers, it seemed like he could barely move. I have memories of watching him falter all over the ice and being completely ineffective. With him being my favorite player, it was hard to watch. Fortunately for Lindy, he was able to retire and establish a great career as a coach. He was arguably the best coach in Sabres franchise history and is now having great success with a young New Jersey team. Another example is from football - Jim Kelly. An all-time great Buffalo Bill and NFL Hall-of-Famer. I recall his last game in the NFL, a playoff game against Jacksonville that the Bills lost. Kelly was old and slow and beaten up badly by the Jags defense and the Bills lost the game. It was pretty clear that Kelly was done. Age had caught up to him. Kelly retired shortly after that game. So to sum up my long post, Okposo looks like he's done. Great guy, great leader, great influence on the team, but he just can't keep up on the ice anymore. I'd love to see him stay with the team in a coaching/advisory/mentoring role.

Good to see Rousek up for another shot, but hopefully Tuch is nothing serious (and hopefully nothing at all). If Biro took Benson's spot, does Rousek take Comrie's spot? I'm not sure how all of the injury designations have been handled.

It's early in the season and he's only played a few games, so we're dealing with a small sample size, but I've liked what I've seen over the course of the last week or 2 and it couldn't have been more timely with the Levi and Comrie injuries. I was always in favor of keeping UPL and giving him time to develop, so I'm happy to see it paying off, at least for now. Whether he can maintain it, we'll see.

Eric Johnson and Jordan Greenway have proven to be great additions for overall team defense and penalty killing. Credit to the "pro personnel" scouting and analytics folks who identified quality players to fill very specific needs. And neither guy costs a fortune to have on the roster.

I was concerned about the slow start, but I agree that they are starting to figure it out and rounding into form with more than enough time left to move up into playoff position. The play of UPL and Comrie (pre-injury) have been good - better than expected - and the the PK has been a revelation. There's too much talent on the PP for it to stay as poor as it's been. There's still too much running around in their own end in the 3rd period of games, but they are keeping more of the chances on the perimeter and the goaltending has been better. With expectations so high coming in, I expected them to come bursting out of the gate and they certainly didn't, but they were not having much "puck luck" in the first few games (due to hot goalies, or simply hitting posts and cross bars, pucks jumping off sticks, etc.), but the scoring is starting to come around, while the overall defense/PK/goaltending is better, so they should be fine.

Biro earned his shot. He was a captain of his college team (so presumably has good leadership and character), is putting up more than point per game in the AHL this season and is just under a point per game in his entire AHL career, plus, according to Sabrespace, he had a good training camp this season. All that said, his callup surprises me a little bit, given how much more highly touted some of the other prospects are. I assume that Biro has, at present, a higher floor, but a much lower ceiling.

I was thinking the same thing as the earlier post saying they were not ready to throw in the towel yet on Krebs, and compared him to Casey Mittelstadt. Krebs is only 22, and I think Casey was in a similar spot at age 22 (2 years ago). First round draft pick who has played in the AHL and NHL, has shown out in spurts, but has not played at a consistent high level. Casey has developed into a very good NHL player and Krebs could follow a similar development plan. He has the skillset and he has the effort (I like his grit - a smaller guy, but not afraid to mix it up and drop the gloves), but he just hasn't put it all together on a regular basis. That said, I do agree with what's been said earlier in the thread - the Sabres have several strong forward prospects in the system, so if another one is developing at a faster pace than Krebs and is ready, it wouldn't be the worst thing to move on from Krebs in favor of the other prospect. When he came to Buffalo, things were still pretty bleak, but Krebs (and Tuch) embraced the move and have been part of the turnaround. He seems like a good kid, so I would like to see him become a consistently good NHL player in Buffalo or elsewhere.

For all the criticism the kid has taken on this board, he showed up yesterday. If he didn't slam the door early, the Sabres would have fallen behind 1-0 or 2-0 and likely lost the game to fall to 3 games below .500. He may not be the second coming of Ken Dryden, but maybe if given the chance to develop, he can become a solid NHL goalie. Some players take more time to develop than others, particularly goalies. Are their exceptions - sure. Levi may be NHL ready right out of college at age 21. But some goalies take some time and don't hit their stride until their late 20's. UPL/6K is only 24 and has had some bad breaks with injuries and not being given much time in the minors to develop. Maybe he'll make it, maybe not. Last night gives some hope on the maybe side. An interesting side note is the development of Jonas Johansson, who the Sabres drafted and developed, then gave up on somewhat early, trading him to Colorado for a 6th round pick. Granted, he was going to be a free agent and may have left the organization due to UPL & Portillo being in the pipeline at the time (not sure if Levi was acquired by then). Both Johansson are European goalies drafted by the Sabres, and both are 6'5", with Jonas being listed at 219 lbs. and UPL at 217 pounds. There are many similarities. In any event, after bouncing around the league a bit, Johansson is 28 and playing great hockey as Tampa's starting goalie while Vasilevskiy is out injured. He had back to back shutouts in his last 2 starts. Ironically, he did lose to the Sabres a couple of weeks ago, but he's playing well overall. I cite Johansson as an example of a goalie who has some similarities to UPL and needed a few years to figure it out. Jonas was awful in his starts as a Sabre, has been hit and miss since then, but seems to have found his game. It will be interesting to see how he continues to develop, and, of course, how UPL continues to develop.

I can't say I disagree with you. Mighty Taco is a part of my teenage years and somewhat of a cultural icon for me and my peers. It's part of the local fabric. I know people that love it and go out of their way for it. Objectively, the food is pretty bad.

After the Ottawa game, I was going to start a Greenway thread. I've been really impressed with his play this season. He's been great on the PK, great defensively in 5 on 5 situations and has chipped in enough on the offensive side to be an effective contributor there too. In the Ottawa game, the Sens had an odd man rush (2 on 1, I think) and Greenway hustled back to break it up. We have not seen that type of play from a Sabres forward in a long time. Kudos to Granato who allegedly pounded the table at the deadline to get this guy, and to Adams for making it happen. Johnson is also looking like a very smart acquisition. At his age, he's not as fast as he once was, but he clearly has a veteran savvy about him on the ice (and off) and you can see some of the physical traits that made him a #1 overall draft pick. He could also be a mentor to Power, who has some similar traits (big-bodied #1 overall draft pick defenseman). I have not seen enough out of Clifton to make much of an assessment, but he brings a much-needed physical element to the team and he's a veteran defenseman that is a clear upgrade over the guys we were running in the 5 and 6 slots last season. Although I'm not thrilled with a 3-4 record, there is plenty of time to climb the standings and get back in the race, and the team has made some improvements that should prove beneficial in the long run.

I think it had been predictable with Thompson on the left side for one-timers and Olofsson on the right. It appears that they've tried to mix this up and it hasn't been wildly successful, although they had at least one PP goal last night, so maybe things are starting to change. They definitely need to get more shots on goal from the point, with traffic in front, to generate rebounds or deflections. They had a couple of deflection goals last night, although I can't recall how many were on the PP.

I agree with this 100%, but UPL must clear waivers, so if they send him down, he is exposed to being claimed by any team. He would absolutely be claimed by another team who know that he has potential and wants to take a chance on that potential. That's why they can't and aren't sending him down. I also agree with you about not rushing the other young players, although they have a conundrum with both Benson and Savoie in that neither is eligible to play in Rochester (except for a conditioning stint, as Savoie is getting now). It's NHL for 9 games, then stay up, or go back to juniors. My guess is that Benson will stick, based on how he has performed, and Savoie will go back to juniors. Benson seems to be the more NHL-ready of the 2 and before he got injured, he was holding his own.

It's far from the only basis. Allowing young players to develop is not bucking the trend, it's sound management. Some guys develop and some don't. It's pretty well-known that taller players often take more time to develop (UPL is tall) and that goalies often take more time to develop (UPL is a goalie). UPL was a talented guy when he was drafted and expectations were high, and the Sabres have invested a lot in his development, so I think they want to see where it goes rather than selling him off low for a bag of pucks. Maybe he'll develop into a reliable NHL goalie and maybe he won't, but in the relatively small sample size they have with him, he's flashed at times. He won a lot of games last season playing behind a horrible defense. He also looked like crap a number of times, including the pre-season this year. At this point in time, they are not desperate to fill his roster spot, so the correct play is to hang onto the young goalie and see if he develops.

Neither were Tage Thompson and Casey Mittlestadt, until they were.

I've never heard of this food. It doesn't look like something I'd like although it does look like something my grandmother from the old country would make when she was still alive and able to cook. She did a lot with cabbage. Go Sabres!

Ride the hot hand - let Comrie play until he deserves not to, then UPL should get a shot between the pipes to see where he's at. Levi has been good, but not spectacular, and now he's recovering from an injury. I wouldn't be opposed to sending him down to Rochester for some "conditioning" as he recovers from his injury. I just get the feeling that if we let UPL go that he will surface elsewhere and develop into a quality player. I was surprised to see Jonas Johansson starting for Tampa and maybe he's finally getting there. He played OK against the Sabres. I believe we let him go for a 6th round pick to Colorado, which isn't much, but I think he was going to become a UFA and we had UPL, Levi, and Portillo in the system at the time, so he was likely to leave after the season anyway. I'd hate to give up UPL for that little of return. He's still a young guy with some future potential. Many people on this board were ready to give up on the likes of Mittlestadt and Tage Thompson, and thought Skinner was done, and I'm glad the Sabres brass saw things differently. I think the same could happen with UPL.

True about the content of the press release, but coaches are sounding boards for players and to some extent mentors too (Bales was a professional goalie with a bit of NHL experience), hence my comment about how he fits in with Bales. I could see the Sabres being interested in him as a goalie coach in the future if they are unhappy with Bales (perhaps the genesis of your "at least, not yet" comment), but I get the sense that Anderson wants to spend more time with his family in Florida, not live in Buffalo full-time, and not travel with the team (although I have no idea whether Bales or other goalie coaches travel with the team). It will be interesting to see how it plays out.

I moved out of Buffalo a long time ago, but from my childhood, the 3 "Mexican" restaurants that I remember were Grandma Mora's (I think on Niagara Street), some place in a plaza on Maple and N. Forest in Amherst up the street from the UB Campus, and Chi Chi's chain restaurant near the Boulevard Mall at Bailey and Maple. I recall liking all of them, for different reasons. I recall the bar at Chi Chi's being a good happy hour place and fun bar scene, although I was a little too young to participate. The free chips and salsa were good and they'd bring you the "extra hot" if you asked for it specifically. I'm not going to count Mighty Taco, which has its own place in our hearts and lives...Obviously, I'm in no position to comment on the scene today, but it's nice to reminisce. I've since lived in Chicago, which has a huge Mexican population and now live in the Southwest which has an even greater Mexican population, so I have had access to a lot of great Mexican food over the years. From this thread, it looks like there are some good options in the Buffalo area today and a lot more than from my time there.

Not sure how he fits in with Bales, but Bales is full-time and Anderson is only part-time, so he's probably more of a sounding board than a day-to-day coach. In any event, this looks like a smart move for the organization and I agree that it lessens the need to allocate a roster spot to a veteran backup goalie.

Everyone is too quick to judge a trade that involves "future assets" such as draft picks and young players, me included. I thought the trade was a bust and one of the worst in team history. Years later, the ROR trade is a great one for both franchises. St. Louis got O'Reilly in his prime and won a Cup. While the veteran players thrown in didn't amount to much, Tage has developed into one of the top goal scorers in the league, he's still young with many good years ahead of him (he could even get better), and I don't think he's being paid any more than O'Reilly was making as a Sabre. On top of it, Ryan Johnson (who the Sabres drafted with the pick acquired in the trade) looks to be on the development path to becoming a starting NHL defenseman (probably a top-6 and maybe even a top-4 guy) within the next couple of seasons. That Sabres team was not going anywhere with O'Reilly and badly needed a reset, so acquiring future assets was the right move. And although O'Reilly was an excellent player, his tank is running out of gas. Tage and Johnson will likely be productive NHL players on a winning Sabres team long after O'Reilly retires from the game.

Great to see the guys having fun together. It builds camaraderie and hopefully pays off on the ice. If guys like each other, they are more likely to play unselfish, good team hockey.

Thanks for posting. Just watched while eating lunch at my desk at work. Nice 20 minute video that tells Thompson's story very well.