msw2112

Many great players on this list. Ovie takes the top billing because he's the most dominant player of the bunch. He leads in scoring, but also plays physical. He has now achieved a Stanley Cup Championship, so that puts him over the top. Had the Caps not won that Cup, I'd probably have gone with Federov.

The Sabres don't deserve to be in the playoffs, but if this scenario happens and they "get in," it will be interesting to see what they can do and we should allow ourselves to enjoy it. When the Sabres turn it on, they can play with just about anybody. Perhaps they will do that in a playoff type scenario.

Sounds like a modern-day Mike Keenan. Also similar to George Karl in the NBA.

My personal favorite was Paul Harrison. He wore that long white mask....But seriously, the Sabres have had a lot of excellent goalies over the years. No doubt the Dominator was the best, but it's hard to pick a #2 among Miller, Edwards, Sauve, Barrasso, etc. Fuhr was a great NHL goalie, but his tank was pretty empty by the time he came to Buffalo and he didn't have the Edmonton Oilers multi-cup winning team in front of him. I seem to recall Gerry Desjardins being pretty good, but I was a young kid at the time and not really old enough to judge. Perhaps some of the more senior members (than me) on the board can elaborate.

I started growing a beard again, but then realized that beards itch and that I touch my face a lot more when I have a beard. It's also another "surface" in which things like droplets could be caught. Out came the razor.

Working from home is optional at my job right now. I tried working from home Monday and Tuesday, but the kids are home, which makes it difficult to get anything done. Then my wife had the brilliant idea of having her mother come over to help with the kids....I'm back at the office. Fortunately, very few others are coming in, so it is quiet, I can get a lot of work done and I can keep social distance from others. I have an office with a door, so I can keep it closed and not interact much with others. I've even had conference calls with people in the building who I would normally meet with face-to-face. I wish I had something more interesting to share, but I think the mother-in-law thing is kind of funny and many can probably relate!

This is more of an indirect comment than a full evaluation of Ullmark, but the team slumped badly while he was out injured. He came back and started 1 game (which I did not see) and they beat a top team 3-2 in a shootout. I can't imagine they get that win with Hutton or Johansson in goal.

I agree that the goaltending needs to be upgraded. I think that Ullmark is a competent starter who is good enough to do the job on an otherwise good team. He's not likely to be a Vezina finalist anytime soon, but can carry the load if the team has adequate defensive support and scoring (which the Sabres do not). Hutton is a great locker room guy and has flashes, but is clearly not the answer. I was at the game Saturday night in Arizona and sat very close to the Sabres net during the 2nd period. Johansson is simply not ready for NHL duty. While there were many defensive breakdowns that didn't help him, he was shaky at best. One of the goals occurred because he cleared the puck right onto the Arizona player's stick, when no Sabre player was even close to the area. Although he "only" gave up 4 goals (the last one was empty net), he was beaten many more times than that. The goalposts were his friend. He was beaten twice on a couple of the goals. One went in, but bounced out quickly and would have been called a goal on replay review, but AZ put the rebound in so there was no need to review it. On another one, Johansson was beaten, but the puck hit the post, came back out to the AZ player, who potted it on the 2nd attempt. These were my observations live - perhaps those who saw it on TV and had the benefit of replays saw something different. Sometimes young, inexperienced guys from the minors develop into quality NHL players and sometimes they don't. I can't say whether Johannson will develop, but I can say that he isn't ready now.

I agree with those above who think that it is unnecessary to make any changes to this. It has only happened twice over a period of many years and tens of thousands of games. For the sake of argument however, here are some thoughts on how a new system could be implemented: 1. Allow teams to carry a 3rd goalie for playoff games only; OR 2. Allow teams to activate one of the guys on the roster, with the team, but inactive for the game (the healthy scratches in the pressbox) in-game if another player gets injured. It's up to the team what positions they want those players to be. If a 3rd goalie is one of the guys who is with the team and inactive for the game, they could bring him (or her) down. If they choose not to have a goalie as one of the available players, they can still use the insurance salesman who played some net in college, like what is provided for today. This wouldn't be a goalie-only rule, but would give teams some flexibility for injury coverage. The team would only be able to use the move once per game and the injured player (obviously) would not be able to return to the game. Given the rarity of the situation where both dressed goalies go down, I think teams would opt not to have the 3rd goalie be one of the "injury-substitution-available" players, except maybe for the playoffs, where the risk of it not being a goalie is much higher.

Both. Eichel is older. He is more mature physically and mentally and is entering his prime. Some guys enter their prime earlier and are immediate stars at 19, 20, 21, etc. Others need some seasoning before really hitting their stride. Eichel may be one of the latter, plus RK's coaching has kept him fully engaged. His demeanor on the ice is noticeably different this year. He plays with a new level of confidence and engagement. Now there's the chicken and egg issue: is he more engaged and confident because he is playing well (and pucks going in the net, etc.) or is he playing well because he is more confident and engaged? Again, let's go with both.

He's a veteran guy that was a solid player and a solid team guy at one point. If a contending team is short on veteran d-men and have some cap space, the hit is only for a few more months, then he falls off the books at the end of the season. The Sabres, on the other hand, are not a contending team (arguably), are not short on d-men and don't have a lot of cap space. Plus, he hasn't demonstrated himself as a solid player and a solid team guy this season. A change of scenery benefits everyone involved. Let's hope lands on his feet somewhere and is able to resume a previously productive career and the Sabres are able to move on with younger and less expensive talent.

That bodes well for the present and future of the team. If the captain and star player hasn't bought in, it's a big problem. That was the case with Bylsma and sure seemed like it in the later part of the Housely era. Jack's next-level play this year certainly indicates that SOMETHING is working with him.

Don't forget: Steve Patrick and James Patrick. Was there a third? And I'm pretty sure there were only two, but we had father Mike Foligno and son Marcus Foligno. Too bad Nick Foligno, a pretty good player for the CBJ, isn't a Sabre.

I spent as much time watching the NHL All-Star game and related festivities as I did watching the Pro Bowl and related festivities. Zero. Great to hear that Jack centered the top line and had a few assists.

Freddy Krueger, Ralph Krueger - brothers?

I wouldn't trade Sam. He's a building block for the team. The team's biggest need is quality forwards and he's one of them.

Joe Byron was the best. I miss him and always hoped they could replace him with someone of a similar style, but they never have. Has he passed away? It's been many years (decades?) since he sang. He had that classic style ("opera" style) that you rarely see today. I think Montreal used to have a similar type of guy who would do O Canada in half English and half French. Tynan arguably has that style, but he's not a permanent Buffalo guy - he would just come in on occasion; plus, with the whole Yankee stadium, post 9-11 thing, he got a little too big for his britches.

My father (in his 70's) always does this. I was mid-sentence telling him "The Sabres are playing tonight and I recorded it and can't wait to watch it later," but after the word "tonight" he proceeded to interject into the conversation to tell me that they won. After I get frustrated, he always tries to backtrack and say "well, I don't really know what happened" but it's too late. The horse has left the barn. I have other friends that text frequently during games to talk about them, no matter how often I remind them I live in the West and to please not do this. The only way to do it is to not answer or look at your phone for a few hours. One time, I went phones down and my neighbor was calling to tell me there was a fire at her house. I ignored the call and was quite startled when fire trucks showed up shortly thereafter! Thankfully, it was a very small fire and nobody got hurt and little to no property damage. (It pains me to tell this story, as I sound like a real a-hole - but really, I'm not. I just like to enjoy my sports.???)

Great topic. It is my life! I live in Arizona now, so I'm usually at work when Sabres games start. I also have family responsibilities when I get home from work until the kids go to bed, so I often don't get to sit down and watch a game until 8 or 9 PM Arizona time, which can be 10 or 11 in Buffalo. The game is long over. I have to live in the bubble and not look at my phone or someone will ruin it for me. Even thought I have turned off all "alerts," my friends like to text when a Buffalo team does something good or bad. Same goes for football. Bills games start at 10 or 11 am (no Daylight Savings Time here, so it varies by an hour). It's often difficult to have all of the Saturday or Sunday morning responsibilities out of the way and be ready to go by that early start time, so the DVR comes through for me. I do prefer to watch live, but with fast-forwarding, I usually catch up to live sometime in the 3rd quarter. It allows me to zip through the first half commercials and halftime. I also very much agree with the earlier post about MLB games. The DVR allows you to fast forward until the point where the game becomes interesting. I just can't spare (nor do I want to spare) 4+ hours for a baseball game, but the late innings of a close World Series game are entertaining. The DVR also (as someone else mentioned) sometimes spares some agony. I was able to fast forward through most of the Sabres-Caps game the other night. It saved me a lot of time watching a putrid game. If, during my fast forwarding, it looked like the Sabres were going to get back in the game, I could have switched back to regular speed and enjoyed it. Unfortunately there was no need.

Now that the thread title has been corrected....It will be interesting to see how the goaltending situation plays out over the next couple of years. With a capable defense in front of them, Hutton and Ullmark are both playing pretty well this year. When the defense has been poor, they have stepped up and bailed the team out. Ullmark was the reason we got a point in the Columbus game and I think that Hutton stole a game for us more recently (perhaps the LA game, which I didn't see). If these guys are able to sustain this level of play for the next couple of seasons (a big if, I understand), how and when does UPL get into the mix? After Hutton's contract expires? What if Ullmark, who is still young, becomes a bona fide NHL #1. Where does UPL fit in? This would be a good problem to have, mind you....

Based on what we've seen so far, the Sabres have the luxury of leaving him in the AHL for a while. So long as the team is performing at a high level and everyone remains healthy, there is no need to change the lineup. It also gives Pilut more development time. He got thrown into the fire pretty quickly when he got to North America, and did pretty well under the circumstances, but some time to develop at a more regulated pace might be good for him.

I have never used NHL.TV or other streaming services for sports. I live in the West, so the games are usually half over by the time I get home from work. Is it possible to start streaming the game from the beginning while the game is already in progress? In other words, if I get home 2 hours into the game, can I start streaming from the beginning (and without the app showing me the current score)? Also, can you pause and resume the feed while you are watching? Just evaluating whether to give this option a try versus going with Center Ice (on Directv). Thanks!

It's nice to have a little depth for a change. E-Rod is a competent NHL player. We're not scraping the AHL bowl for a callup. Let's hope E-Rod takes advantage of the opportunity.

We're only 2 games into this season and Krueger has a better roster than Housley had. But you can still say that Housley was bad without comparing things to this season. Housley was a great NHL player and is in the Hall of Fame. That was because of his tremendous skill. He was one of the best offensive defensemen in history and had a really long and productive career. One thing he was not, however, was a team leader. Phil never wore the "C" for the Sabres, and I can't recall whether he ever wore the "A" - but I don't think so. Some guys are skill guys, some guys are grit/glue guys and some are both. Most successful coaches that were former players had that grit/glue element to their game and were natural leaders. Phil the coach had some good systems that worked well in Nashville when he was an assistant, but he was not able to get the guys to buy in and stick to the program in Buffalo when things went south. They became disinterested and disorganized and it spiraled down. He didn't have the leadership skills to get it back on track. Housley could probably be a good assistant coach somewhere else again, if there is a strong leader as the head coach. I see he is an assistant in Arizona, with Rick Tocchet as head coach. It might work. He just doesn't have the personality to be a head coach at the NHL level.

I did not see last night's game, but I wouldn't draw too many conclusions based on one preseason game. I was pissed when we traded a 3rd round pick for the guy's rights and he signed with someone else anyway, but that is really more on the GM than the player. He was a UFA and could sign wherever he pleased and he made that known. Now that we have traded some assets for him (again - but a different GM) and he is a member of our team, I hope he succeeds. I think we all agree this guy isn't the 2nd coming of Wayne Gretzky, but let's hope he can be a solid contributor to our lineup, which has very much lacked secondary scoring in recent years.