Broken Ankles

The Sabres have been bottom of the league all year. Currently around 16% success rate. In their last nine games they are 3 for 26 (11%). Impotence. Some aspects of their game are improving. Special teams is regressing. Coach-Coach-change.

Escape from New York 3: Sabres 2024 “The name’s Meatballs, Donny Meatballs” ”I heard about you. I heard you were dead”.

Watchnig the Canuck broadcast tonight. How about you give us a sign when the Sabres score. Maybe a Doug Allen like pointing the finger at the camera.

Better than a glow and a smell in your stream.

Nice to get over the hump of finally beating the Kraken but more importantly, a road victory against an evenly matched opponent is key. Money Puck had Seattle’s expected goals 4.12 to Buffalo’s 1.86. Didn’t seem that distant but the heat map shows their chances in close were much higher. Sabres dominance at the dot tonight was noticeable. Byram continues to impress. The “concept of Will Borgan” was -2 and quite pedestrian. Congratulations to the East Coast fans who stayed with it until the end. Sleep fast, because it’s happening again tomorrow. Same “bat time, same bat channel”.

Hands of Gypsum (soft stone). Should have had two goals from the slot. Outside of his dumb penalty, acceptable level of play.

Eddie Olczyk weighs in - not paying Mitts $7m * 8, contract year, inconsistent. Sabres win the trade. Loves Byram.

Like Meatballs running Tag/Tuch/Z after the PP. usually he runs out the 4th line.

FTFY

Eddie Olczyk called for him to be pulled after 2.

Not a Killjoy at all. A Kilroy maybe, as in 'Kilroy was here'. The WWII inspector of warships. You audit and verify the work of others. No, not the Dennis DeYoung line from "Mr. Roboto", when Styx jumped the shark.

I didn't mean you were culturally elite, I meant the joke was written by one. Albeit making fun at the expense of what you are defending. But that's a different debate. I'm only trying to bring levity to grammatical errors about prepositions. Not taking sides on whether or not it should be discussed on Sabre Space. My wife teaches composition and I have to send her all my briefs going to Senior executives because I know she will catch any of my grammatical mistakes. But my 100+ emails a day to others with whom I work could be speckled with errors and it doesn't bother me.

Reminds me of a joke on House of Cards. Setting is a college dorm. "Hi. Where y'all from?" Girl from Connecticut says, "We're from a place where we know not to end a sentence with a preposition." The girl from Georgia says, "Oh, beg my pardon. Where y'all from...c*nt?" Written presumably by a cultural elite.

What are they doing on the back to back games? Does Levi get a look at NJ at home if Comrie fails in either Vancouver or Seattle?

Krebs had 7 FO wins and 1 loss. The line he shared with Skinner and JJP had the most even strength ice time. They had the second best XG% and second best CF%. Obviously the Cozens Greenway Benson has been solid but Krebs is centering two guys who were stapled to the bench for seemingly poor defensive play a few games ago. Sheltered a bit with almost all O-zone starts but solid, and appears to be skating faster with JJP and Skinner vs KO and Zemgus. Could this 3C tryout change his stock from Underperform to Hold?

“I’m born on the prairies”, as in I am born. Present tense, about a past event? Unless, you always have been, and always will be. And your birth is metaphysical insofar as you existing as AI Kevyn. Watergate does not bother me, does your conscience (if you have one) bother you?

Nothing even close it now. Agree with @thewookie1 that SJS were the closest, even though Karlsson was on his Ottawa deal and that was only $6.5M. And look what happened after they came up short. Retaining salary on Karlsson, retaining $2.7M on Burns, and waiting with bated breath to get out from under Vlasic. This is a view of all D-men making $7M + AAV. It’s only 26 players. Only one team has multiple players and it’s Carolina with Burns who really only counts 5.6 million towards their Number because of the retention from San Jose. https://www.capfriendly.com/browse/active/2024/caphit/all/defense?stats-season=2024&limits=caphit-7000000-14000000 I did the math a few days back and the point is not only would that be the highest % of the cap for three defenders, they have 4 others with Mule, Johnson, Clifton and Joki (if he gets an offer). That’s another $14M. It’s 48% of a $91m cap 2025/26. If they trade Matias and Joki and replace Jags, bridge UPL, tender Levi as backup, they would have $19m to sign/bridge Quinn and JJP and 6 other forwards. Which if their draft picks graduate and are on ELC’s is plausible but is it smart? I’d love to see Kev’s whiteboard trying to piece this together.

He has arbitration rights, which if he performs equal to or better than Dahlin he could demand more than $6M. And those scenarios offer either 1 or 2 year options. Two years walks him to UFA (7 years service - this contract takes him to 5), and then you get nothing after the deal. Plus I don't think the Sabres are competing for the Cup in year three of his tenure (aka Year 16 of our suffering).

Money. Last year, the highest paid blue line in the NHL was $34m. If you assume he is a top pair, then with an elevated cap he would slot in between $10.5m-$11.5m. If that holds, then with Power, Dahlin, Mule, Joki, and Clifton the 2025/26 AAV of this six would be $42-43M. This does not include Johnson would be also be coming off his ELC that would increase to around $2-3 on a bridge deal. Half your cap cannot be spent on 6 defenders. I would add that I’m not sold Adams wouldn’t extend him either. Not saying he would keep all three massive salaries. It gives him options next year. Rasmus for example is not an Adams draft pick, and he has until June 30th next year before his NMC kicks in. Kev likes to it young around here. Or, if Byram has a breakout year, he could garner much more than you mentioned next offseason if KA decides to keep Dahlin and Power. Think close to the return that Calgary got for Tkachuk. A defensive D (Weegar), a top line player and a 1st. Obviously health and performance are assumed.

Gotta love a goon getting his comeuppance (used correctly?) challenging a player then taking a dozen plus rights until a knockout from another player who accepted the fight. He took so many rights, he was begging for a left.

Not questioning Skinners salary, nor the fact he floats. But he finishes. Meaning scoring 40+ goals, more than a PPG in some years. Last year Skinner was +15, and this year he is -1. Benson is a -5 even though playing significant minutes with Mitts and Greenway who the two of the best +/- players this season. What does that say? I also hope Benson develops and earns top line minutes on the roster eventually, but sorry, I don't want an undersized 19 year old who is a .3 PPG player on my top line. The fact you cannot see Quinn or JJP on the top line over Benson make me think the same as the bolded. This is my rationale for seeing him on the 4th - Quinn - Tage - TRADE (size/net front presence forward - dream scenario Brady T) JJP - Cozens -Tuch Greenway - Krebs - UFA Skinner - UFA (with age like C Stephenson) - Benson

Not sure where you define this game as a low event win. If you look at the advanced stats for this game, in every metric (Corsi, Fenwick, Scoring Changes F/A, High Danger F/A) the Sabres had more chances in this game than their average for the season. Similarly the oilers had more offensive chances than their average. As an example, Oilers average SCF per game this season is 25.5. Yesterday they had 27. Average HD chances - 12 per game. Yesterday Edmonton had 16. They are top 2 in Corsi averaging CA of 40 per game. The Sabres had CF of 44. You should also find another team than the Islanders to support the low even hockey example. the NYIs are a bottom 10 in Scoring Chances against, bottom 5 in High Danger chances against, and bottom 4 in Corsi against. Perhaps that was their identity a few years ago under Trotz but no longer. But you know if is top 3 in these defensive categories (CA, FA, HDA and SCA)? Edmonton. We think of them as an offensive juggernaut, which they can be with McDavid and Draisatl on the ice, but their success is also driven by playing better defensively. So I'll take a slightly different tact from you and Perreault. The Sabres played exceptionally well offensively yesterday and despite being out chanced in a high event hockey game, the Sabres had solid goaltending, and Skinners gaff on a weak shot from Bryson was a deciding factor for Edmonton losing the game. The Sabres also showed superiority in a shootout, which has been a weakness for years.

I keep hearing the phrase 'weaponize cap space'. Philly received a 2024 5th round to retain 25% of Hanifans salary. That's an actual payment of $312,500 (1/4 of the season on $1.25M) for a 5th. Whoop de do! We don't need more draft picks. I think it's objectionably funny that a guy who is a Captain (read Leadership/Locker Room guy) who makes less than EJ and had arguably a much better on ice performance yielded significantly less return than Johnson whom we all saw struggle this season in Buffalo. Maybe Philly did overpay. And Zemgus - who has seen his fair share of support recently wasn't even seriously pursued. Adams said their was interest, but I presume retaining 50% and receiving a 7th round pick isn't real interest. All playoff contenders thought they could get more from their current 4th line role players. If that's not enough to tell you to move on from a player, I'm not sure what is.