msw2112
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Posts posted by msw2112
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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.
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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.
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39 minutes ago, PerreaultForever said:
No, the correct play is for the young goalie to PLAY at a lower level and to get constant coaching while he does it. The AHL team is for developing your young talent and that's where he should be now and should have been all last year as well.
Consider Thompson and Mitts. Both rushed into an NHL line up, both struggled mightily, both went down, learned to play better and then came back better players actually suited to the NHL. UPL needs the same.
In this regard I am hopeful that we do not try to rush Benson and Savoie and am also hopeful that with a better roster we keep the players like Kulich and Rosen in the AHL long enough for them to become good NHL ready players in time.
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.
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23 hours ago, Thorny said:
If the only basis for declining to ever move on from anybody is, “hey, this other guy bucked the trend!” we’d just find ourselves in an eternal state of movement paralysis
we should also list the names of the much longer list of players who DIDN’T pan out.
KA’s job isn’t just about deciding who to keep, and the answer being a quote from Gary Oldman’s Leon the Professional. It’s also deciding who to deal for other assets. That’s an equally important part of the job.
You actively construct a team, you don’t just run a non-stop drafted players assembly line wherein you stay the youngest team in hockey every season. As appealing as that may seem to many
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.
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3 hours ago, Buffalonill said:
Who cares Dude is not good.
Neither were Tage Thompson and Casey Mittlestadt, until they were.
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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!
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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.
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4 minutes ago, Sabres Fan in NS said:
It says as much in the press release. He is a mentor and sounding board in the locker room. No mention of 'coaching'. At least, not yet.
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.
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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.
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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.
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12 hours ago, Thorny said:
The universe still owes us for the second RoR trade, I’m still collecting on his good plays without an ounce of shame lol
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.
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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.
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Thanks for posting. Just watched while eating lunch at my desk at work. Nice 20 minute video that tells Thompson's story very well.
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There are often negatives stated about playing professional sports in Buffalo. Buffalo is a great town, but if you are in your 20's single, fit, rich and somewhat famous, there are more opportunities for fun in major markets than there are in Buffalo. That's the reason why this is pretty cool. In very few markets would the entire NHL team be able to be on the field in front of 70,000 fans at a NFL game and meet a major celebrity (which Josh Allen has become). The Bills-Fins game was the national TV game that the whole country wanted to see and the guys were right there on the field before kickoff (and presumably either in great seats or a luxury box during the game itself). It's one of the plusses of the Pegula dual-ownership situation and something the teams are wise to take advantage of. It adds to Buffalo being a desirable place to play.
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I think they start with 3 goalies. UPL is still an asset, even though he's clearly not there yet. Some goalies take many years to develop and don't hit their potential until their late 20s. It's hard to give up on a guy you drafted, developed, and invested in. Comrie is what he is. If UPL plays better with the improved defensive corps, he's your guy and you move on from Comrie. If he doesn't, then a difficult decision needs to be made.
I'm also not counting on much from Quinn this year. He's recovering from a very serious injury and although he'll be back and able play in the spring (most likely), I just don't see him being 100% at any point this season. As to VO, I don't see how you waive a guy that scored 28 goals in the NHL. He's an imperfect player, but he has trade value, so he may stick around until the deadline. I also don't think Savoie is ready. He was not effective against grown men in the AHL playoffs last year. He has talent and will be a very good player, but he needs to mature as a person (get older and stronger) and as a player (learn how to play at the professional level). Benson seems to be ready as a player, but he, too, needs to grow up physically. As such, I see a spot for VO on this team. VO also knows that this is his last opportunity with this team, so maybe he has it within him to improve defensively. I do think his offensive play was better last year - he showed some offensive game beyond 1 timers on the right circle on the PP - but he needs to round out his entire game more. Should be an interesting year.
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A couple that are a little bit more uplifting:
Lunatic Fringe for Vision Quest:
And of course, the well-known Rocky movies:
Gonna Fly Now for Rocky 1
and
Eye of The Tiger for Rocky 3
Not going to bother posting those, as those are pretty well known. At least to folks of a certain age....
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Not sure how many will know or remember this one:
Just Once, at the end of "The Last American Virgin"
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13 hours ago, Doohickie said:
Well yeah... 40 inch waist, amirite?
Not that there's anything wrong with that. And I'm taller than Levi.
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24 minutes ago, Taro T said:
And that hasn't been a thing since late 1979. That sellout streak that started in '72 ended while Carter was in the White House. And didn't come back until 2006 for a handful of years.
You haven't been in the building in October when they've hosted the Whalers on a Tuesday night or the Thrashers on a Wednesday night. This season they're going to draw comparably to what they were doing in the 90's when the MMArena 1st opened.
You are correct that I haven't been in the building on a Tuesday or Wednesday against a lesser opponent in a very long time, although I most likely have seen the Whalers on a weeknight a long time ago. I live out of state and usually only get to games when I visit, which is typically over a weekend.
This website (https://www.hockeydb.com/nhl-attendance/att_graph.php?tmi=5054) shows the "Buffalo Sabres Yearly Attendance Graph" and indicates that in only 12 seasons out of 51 (COVID season is excluded) has the Sabres' average attendance been below 15,000. I have lived in other NHL markets that DO draw (Detroit) and others that do not during lean years (Chicago) or during any years (Phoenix). Outside out the last couple of years (2021-22 was 9,998, the lowest since the Sabres' first season) Buffalo has drawn pretty well. This compares well to NBA attendance too. I realize that some numbers are inflated, but I've been to many pro sports venues around the country for various sports and other than recent times (and a couple of outlier seasons during their history), the Sabres have drawn well.
But to get back to my main points, if the Sabres put a playoff team on the ice, the attendance will increase substantially, particularly after football season.
EDIT: the post above mine cited to the same link, but I did not see it until after I posted.
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26 minutes ago, Taro T said:
Except ticket sales AREN'T lower. They are up relative to last season and are probably close to triple what they were the 1st post-covid year. They are probably very comparable to or perhaps a bit better than they were the last Eichel year that more than a few hundred fans were allowed in the barn at any given time.
When I said "lower," I was referring to the historical context, not comparing last season to this upcoming season. When I grew up in Buffalo and my family had season tickets, the Aud was sold out (or damn near close to it) EVERY NIGHT. Other than a few down seasons, the Sabres have drawn very well prior to the drought of the last decade.
And although they are currently higher than last season, they are still nowhere close (hence "lower") to where they were when the Sabres were a perennial winning/playoff team. If the team again becomes a winning/playoff team, the ticket sales will reflect that and the building will be substantally full.
I should add the caveat that attendance is down across pro sports in general because of the advent of big screen high definition TVs, streaming, etc. There's a lot of competition for the stadium experience, especially given the cost of tickets, parking and food & drink.
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I think the two biggest reasons ticket sales are lower are a) it's still football season and the Bills are contenders again; and 2) the Sabres, although much better last season, are still not a playoff team. If they can play consistently at a playoff level, the fans will come back. These two reasons have been stated multiple times above in this thread.
If the Sabres are playing well and on the right side of the playoff race after the Super Bowl in early February, they will be filling up the house most nights. Maybe not on a random Tuesday against Calgary (or another "unexciting" opponent), but weekend games and games against rivals will be sellouts or close to it. Even the random Tuesday games will have a decent crowd - larger than what we've been seeing in the recent past.
I believe that the Sabres will play to that level and the attendance will increase substantially.
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30 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:
I have long believed that a missed penalty shot should still result in at least a 1 minute PP.
I don't understand why a SH goal would end a PP. I do like the idea that certain dangerous infractions, like boarding, could result in a two-minute PP regardless of how many goals are scored. Otherwise, I'm not sure I'd change the regular PP rules. I agree with the delayed penalty idea.
In other words, a major minor?
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I'd say Bills, just because NFL football is king and is the most expensive and difficult franchise for a city to get. If Buffalo lost the Sabres, I could see another team coming in the future, with Buffalo being such a great hockey market. If Buffalo lost the Bills, it would never get another NFL franchise. The market is simply too small and the demand and money is too great in other much larger markets.
All this aside, I played hockey from a young age (started at age 4) and the Sabres were a great team during my youth; the Bills not so much. I didn't play football until my teenage years. My family shared Sabres season tickets since I was a kid and I used to go to games without a ticket, sitting on my parents' lap, whereas the family didn't get Bills tickets until after I was grown up, off to college, and moved out of the city. So my first love was hockey, but, objectively, if the city had to choose, keeping the Bills would be a higher priority. I'm fairly certain that thanks to the Pegula family, the city won't have to choose. I think that they will keep ownership of both teams. Even if they do sell the Sabres, I believe that they would only sell to a local interest with a commitment to keeping the team in Buffalo.
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I did not like the goatheads at the time they originally came out. I still don't like them in and of themselves, but I like the nostalgia associated with them, so I'm good with the Sabres wearing them a few times each season. I'm no math whiz, but I believe that wearing them 15 times amounts to a little more than 18% of their games. For me, that's too much. But I won't lose any sleep over it. It's just a uniform.
OT: Best Mexican Food in Buffalo
in The Aud Club
Posted
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.