Pokey Jones

Well, on the speed thing, who are our best players so far? It is not a coincidence they are also most of our fastest skating players and the slower ones (for the most part) have struggled.

Or seeing this effort means they were right NOT to make him captain. I honestly think he is having trouble adjusting to the system. Give him time. (meanwhile blame his diet if it makes you happy - lol) Now I don't usually pay attention to much off ice gossip stuff, but given the car crash into the Tim's when we signed him is there a drinking problem? He wouldn't be the first.

I think there is no chance of it happening, but if this team gives Reinhart a big contract they will be a last place team for the next decade.

If you start playing Chad over Lehner, Lehner's going to get all moody and we will lose him for the season. I predict Lehner is traded before the end of the season and not for much. There are a number of potential free agent goalies on the market for 2018 if they don't like Ullmark. I expect them to keep drafting goalies.

Another Murray mistake........but we are stuck with him for now. Johnson has never shown himself to be a solid every night goaltender. Goaltending is a definite weakness.

Yes we won. How did we do it? We out skated them. As we learn to play faster and faster, we will get better and better. JBot will be trading and drafting speed first. We are finally on the right path.

Nice. What I really wanted to see, was would they play hard after a tough loss or quit and they played hard. Probably the best they've skated all season. Much much better. I know Anaheim was a depleted line up, but this was what I wanted to see, true effort and desire. Now we shall see what they can do against a slower choke and block everything off type of team in Vegas. A few observations/critiques, 1. Bailey CAN be quite good, but will he be hungry and want it every shift from here on in? If he plays like that, he will be a solid addition. 2. Kane's lack of discipline and dumb penalties will lose us many games if teams we play have decent power plays. He has got to learn to not be lazy with his stick and not be dumb. 3. Jack has to shoot more. He is trying to set up his wingers too much and not firing the puck enough. 4. They almost blew it shooting for that open net and not controlling the puck first. Possession and puck control is an ongoing issue and there is much work to be done. Enjoy the win guys, it just felt so much better didn't it?

Well obviously the plan depends on how the team does. As it is going, I suspect we see a yard sale, but honestly, there isn't going to be much demand for the players we will want to get rid of except maybe for Kane and maybe (although unlikely) for Reinhart or possibly Lehner. I said this before but it is worth repeating, there is a disconnect between the fans view and management's. To them, this is year 1 of a rebuild. To us it's we want in the playoffs now we are tired of losing. So as has been said above, he is rebuilding the organization from the foundation, from Rochester, hopefully in the scouting department. from the ground up. It's going to take time, Murray was a disaster.

Wow, you know your hockey team is bad when a game thread degenerates into idiots arguing about Trump and Hillary! But about the game, I was actually happy to see effort and some speed. This was the best game we have played this year despite the loss and IF we'd shown this type of effort in all the previous games we wouldn't have lost them all. Eichel is clearly at his best when playing at top speed and I think this why Housley keeps trying to find players who can keep up. In the long run, don't worry, Eichel is going to be ok. Pouliot has no business being in the league, so I wonder how long it will take for management to accept this mistake and sit him out of the line up. I hoped Beaulieu would surprise, and he has. he has surprised me at how bad he is!!!! Two long shot gambles that have failed for JBot. Well, nothing given away really so whatever. I guess it was worth a try. It is refreshing to see people bitching about refs, that's what you're supposed to see after a game. Not a game so bad nobody cares or notices but a competitive game that is a bounce or two from a win. Good to be able to bitch about Kane taking a typical lazy penalty that he is prone to take, and not simply about how bad the team played. They actually hit some people now and again and showed signs of life. This is encouraging. It's not great, but it's a pinstep in the right direction. The interesting thing will be to see if the effort continues against the Ducks or will they quit and fold for the rest of the trip. That will tell us a lot about this team win or lose tomorrow.

Well in fairness, Housley played for a lot of great coaches so he must have picked up a thing or two along the way. That's the main reason journeymen make great coaches, they move around and see lots of coaches and lots of ideas. It's not Housley, its the team. It's just so much easier to blame one guy instead of 20.

I'm sure you did get shredded, and I'll be called a troll or something but you're absolutely right. He's never been a #1 center. When he was playing well (not this year) you could make a solid argument that he was one of the best, if not the best, second center in hockey, but not a number one. Even Murray's plan was Jack #1, ROR #2, and that seemed sound, in theory. Clearly not though.

Dahlin/Ristolainen could anchor the D for years..............

Anyone on the Amerks I haven't seen who looks like he could crack the Sabres line-up?

If you think you'd get a lot for Reinhart right now you are sadly mistaken.

Ummm, the only guys who have scored any goals played with Jack, it's not a coincidence that they didn't score when they weren't. Jack is definitely not Matthews or McDavid right now. Maybe not even Heischer. But he literally is working with nothing. ROR, Okposo and Kane is how much salary for one line? 20 million plus (I'm too lazy to look up the number but its big) Is there another line in the league paid that well that did that little?

is it possible for a hockey team to go through an entire season winless? i think they will give it a shot.

Just give me something exciting and entertaining tonight. Effort and emotion. That would be a start. It's not asking a lot.

Well it appears they have them. The third line is kind of weird (is it a checking line or?) but the rest seems worth a try. have Girgensens get into the dirty areas a little and maybe open some ice for Jack and take the hot hand to try and help kickstart ROR. Worth a try. Beaulieu worries me. I know this is an odd idea, but I'd seriously try him as a winger like Bowman did with Lindy.

I saw part of the Flyers Sharks opener and the Sharks didn't look as good as they have in the past. Thornton has definitely lost a step and I didn't notice anybody new that stood out. They look like a team on the decline so with a solid actual effort they are definitely beatable. Flyers definitely looked better than them despite it being their opener. On the other side of the coin, if we don't seize this opportunity not sure who we can beat.....

@bunomatic - Nanaimo BC, wow? I lived there for 10 years and never met a single Sabres fan or saw a single jersey ever. Figured I was the only one in that town. Amazing! That was like poetry up there. Very nice. Guess that's one way to go. Myself, I'm more in the "enough already" camp but you all already knew that.

I'd agree with that. I talked in the preseason about us needing to find somebody who had chemistry with Jack. Puck possession give and go back and forth etc etc. There is no Jack plus whoever magic. Kane has talent, but he is just a trigger man, not a good passer or play maker.

The thing that really gets to me is why do we seem to be the only team that can't seem to find that unknown guy from Europe or a low draft pick that surprises or whoever. Top teams like Chicago always seem to find somebody obscure and plug them in a hole. Antipin was supposed to be this, and maybe, but not yet. Who else? Nobody. Cast offs and slackers. Our best new guy in camp was Seth Griffiths, a guy who struggled to crack the Bruins line up last year and a guy they decided wasn't good enough to keep. I don't remember if JBot replaced the whole scouting staff, but he should have. And while I think about Chicago (who look awesome so far) how the heck does Fransen make their team as their 6th D and play reasonably decently while he sucked so bad here and we couldn't wait to see him pack up and leave? Everyone who comes here gets worse. Is it something in the water? Maybe they need to go back and check that old Hooker Chemical site again.............

In fairness to Jack, you also have to realize other teams know how to defend against him now. Kane is a very predictable player and the other side is nothing special so they key on Jack and shut him down. I think this is what they thought they could get from Reinhart on the 3rd line. They shut down Jack, ROR was supposed to shut down their big gun and then Reinhart dominates on the 3rd and wins the game for us, but he hasn't, and it's been a disaster.

You really can't play a season of uptempo hockey and have guys logging huge minutes, no matter how good they are, the body won't allow that. You have to roll lines and pairs of D and play everyone. If we go back to huge minutes for the best players again like Bylsma did, we will also have to slow it all down and we will be back to what we had last year.

Jack shouldn't be coddled any more. He got the contract, now he has to deliver. You put him in all big situations and sink or swim with it. As far as Reinhart goes, I just think they are trying to find ways to get something out of him. He has limitations, especially in traffic, so it makes sense to let him try to shine in shootouts where he can use his hockey sense and skills at his own tempo. But really, I'd be happy if we could just get to shootouts. The way this team plays right now we won't need to worry about shootouts at all.