PerreaultForever

Is that the criteria for Buffalo hockey decisions? Who is best friends with who or lives with who? If so, that might explain all these years of futility. Do they have a tandem bike?

Sort of true. Montgomery has been juggling lines a lot though and they've had several bottom 6 injuries so the 6 now are not the 6 who started. We have some of that too of course. Lucic-Beecher-Lauko started really strong as their 4th line and played very heavy. It hasn't been the same since the injuries to Lucic and (until recently) Lauko. Poitras has also slowed down and looked more like a 19 year old lately. He's like Peterka and Quinn were last year. Good one moment, iffy the next. Bruins (as a whole) are slow. The way to beat them is with fast relentless forechecking on their D. It's their Achilles. Hopefully DG knows this and will gameplan accordingly. If not, it'll be like the Philly game we lost.

Ted Nolan wrote a book. I wonder how the Sabres will come off in it?

Ya, Ned Stark was the King's Hand. The hand chopped off was the Kingslayer. Anyway, it's Little Finger you have to watch out for.

Practice lines: Marchand-Zacha-Pastrnak Van Riemsdyk-Coyle-Frederic Heinen-Poitras-DeBrusk Lauko-Beecher-Steen Lohrei-McAvoy Lindholm-Carlo Forbort-Shattenkirk Brown-Mitchell Ullmark Swayman So that's your match up. I suspect if they have the choice they play Coyle against Thompson. Lucic still out with a foot injury so VO is probably happy about that. Ullmark probably starts.

Well you know what happened to the King's hand in Game of Thrones 🙂 I think the tension may have been more with Terry's other half but that has changed, for obvious reasons. I would hope that TP is learning from his mistakes as well or at least he should be. He's made enough of them.

What King McDavid wants King McDavid gets. Don't see how any coach can fix that D and goaltending but miracles do happen. It was an inevitable move.

Except Krebs is playing his way out of the NHL. He's been garbage so far. I agree on the "gritty depth" and have been on that soapbox for years but we just don't have it. We have a lot of the same. We do not have a team structure suited to it and we do not have those type of prospects pushing to come up.

This is blatantly false. You play the hot hand and the match up. Should your most talented play the most? Sure, but lots of times that isn't the best plan. You coach, and play people, to the game and the situation.

Benson yes, Savoie ? Not unless he develops a lot over this year in junior. He did not look close imo.

I'm not giving up on Cozens but at the moment he isn't growing into his new shiny contract. He needs to look at Mitts and perhaps take a lesson. Mitts was ineffective at the NHL level, got humbled, and then apparently got serious. He seems to have beefed up a little and is certainly using his body to drive through and past opponents creating his own time and space. This also draws additional defenders towards him opening up space for others. Cozens needs to do this more. He still tries to move the puck around people, control it, and move to open space rather than trying to create it. He's a big enough guy, he has to use it.

I said he'd be the "potential" replacement in a down the road a little way. After some time as the assistant. We have a tendency to hire coaches with no NHL head coaching experience after all. Peca and his style/background bring all the things Granato and the current group do not. Could he translate that and get our guys to learn it/play it idk but he brings a fire and passion that Granato seems to lack in his more intellectual and (generally) calm approach. He seems to be working out in New York.

Fluke? I rarely blame goalies but those first 2 goals were bush league garbage. Beer league goalies stop those. UPL is as inconsistent as f... Maybe the coach brings the style but their roster is constructed differently than ours as is their style of play. Will it last all year? Unlikely, but we shall see.

Boohoo. Imagine how Clifton felt after he bought every friend and relative a ticket and then was ejected for a bad hit a few minutes in. S&&t happens.

I was yoking. I thought that was kind of obvious with the Babcock. The Claude Julien I threw in there because he is the antithesis of the Sabres ideas. Absolute antithesis. But again, just kiddin'. There's no one obvious out there at this point in time.

As I've said before, my lack of faith in this coaching staff (and management in general) was lost when they let Peca walk rather than making him an assistant. imo he'd be the potential replacement but at this moment I see few options. I mean who would we hire? Claude Julien? I hear Mike Babcock is looking for work.

and Dahlin and Samuelsson the year before. I remember liking Peterka in the worlds and thinking he might become something. His breakout is a bright spot this season.

We are, as the athletes like to say, on the same page. This is absolutely 100% correct.

Which is what happens when you ask too much from a D man too soon, don't pair him with a solid veteran mentor and/or don't give him AHL time/experience to develop. It's not like we haven't made this mistake before.

Well as I said last night, goaltending matters. So we won one last night because of good goaltending and we lost one tonight because of bad goaltending. Although I'm not sure we'd have won even if UPL was any good (first two goals were absolute garbage, third one a tip so I guess can't fault him on that one) as we struggled with their forecheck and once they got up they checked and kind of took the foot off the gas so it's hard to say. We were just easy to beat tonight. Can't say I liked much about how we played except maybe a few quick outlet passes that created opportunities. We do do that well. The good news is Montreal showed the Bruins are very beatable. The bad news is they did it a completely different way then we play (they used the Florida game plan) so it will be interesting to see if our way can succeed against their style. Contrast in style games are always interesting imo. Might have been a one off, but based on tonight, the Montreal rebuild looks like it's leapt over us already. The make up of their team is balanced and has the ability to play different ways. I wonder if that'll hold up over the full season. If it does, our chances for playoffs are slim to none.

lol, what I find the funniest is I'm so past Murray I forgot which first name was which. Tim Terry call him Fred maybe, doesn't matter. it's the critique some people jump to here any time you talk about trading a prospect. So we agree on the nowish thing. That's good cause it's pretty much my main point. My other point you have trouble understanding is, as simply as I can explain it, I think this team is being built or structured poorly for future success. I'm probably projecting too far ahead, but that's what old guys who have seen teams rise and fall many times do. Let's just leave it there until something actually happens.

As much as any game is a must win it's a must win. You simply have to beat the WC competition each and every game and not give them loser points either. So it's a true test if we have anything building here or not.

I'm not disagreeing with this but once you add one more top paid player to that we get in their situation. So yes, we get one more top player than the Leafs in our top core, and that makes a difference, but it still ends up being a lot of money that so far has not brought dividends. The bottom end of the roster sucks. Everything with the Sabres is still in an optimists projection era where there is an expectation that they simply HAVE to be good, how can they not be with so many prospects, but so far they are not. I simply feel that this treasure chest of prospects philosophy makes us as fans keep waiting on that future and if and when that future gets here the window of opportunity will slam shut on us because of it. I'd prefer if we NOW used some of that prospect capital as assets, made a deal or two and (as much as you can) assured success now. So before anyone screams that's Terry Murray, it's not. This is a completely different time and situation.

I'm not saying we don't have more prospects than them, that's not the point. The point is how many do you need to be good. They filled the holes they had. That's all you ever need.

as a motor oil you could say it means we need more greasy goals. That would be accurate.