Pimlach

Bad game and it needs to be put away. The refs seemed to target the Bills and the calls were certainly not consistent but the Bills panicked at the very end and they failed to make the key plays needed to win and run time off of the clock. Just look at the last offensive drive - it ended with a Shakir drop followed by two broken plays with no one open, there is a cry for DPI on Shakir but no replays to verify what happened. We settled for 3 with lots of time for the Pats*. The last defensive series started with a missed sack, mostly due to the fantastic play by Maye, but a sack changes everything. After that play the defense failed to hold the tie and get the ball back in Allen's hands. If this game showed me anything it confirmed that the WRs and the secondary are just mediocre. We already knew this going into the season. Bills may have faired better with rookies Hairston or Dorian Strong, or maybe even J'Marcus Ingram. Too many times Diggs was matched up with Tre White and the results were not good.

Lyon is a decent backup that must somehow break out as a starter. UPL is starting the season injured and somehow must return to the form he showed in the good season that he had two years ago. Georgiev's play has slipped a lot the past two seasons. Levi and Ellis - two promising AHL goalies Does it look like there is a combination here that can take a perennial loser to the playoffs? Stay tuned to the Buffalo Sabres 2025-26 season to find out.

While the NHL team has a bunch of backups and unproven goalies.

I don't think saying your organizational mission is to win championships is naive. In fact, it is a necessary component to winning. The Bills have that mission statement as well. His methods to do so were extremely naive. The worse false bravado from Terry was the "drill a well" comment. Most of us can see that he cares more about expenses than winning hockey games right now. Hope that changes at some point. I just don't see this team winning with Adams at the helm. Reaching the 7/8 seed in the conference is not a huge accomplishment but something we could celebrate.

I’m not judging this season by the preseason. If we get real NHL goaltending we should still be in it at Christmas and then we make a better assessment. The needs were Goaltending, a top 4 defender, and a power play. Our GM brought in Lyon/Georgie, Kesserlring, and some bottom 6 guys. Let the games begin.

My mother used to answer the TV, “yes I do.” Great lady.

You are on to something. I had dinner with a troubled 35 year old man. He asked me a question on calculating a simple formula and rather than hear the explanation he stopped me and said never mind, he would just ask Chat Gpt. He wanted the final answer without knowing why it’s the answer. He was impressed that my answer was the same as Chat Gpt but saw no value in understanding why. Several other topics came up and he for asked advice, but then became disagreeable and told me to forget it, he would ask Chat GPT. I told him AI is not the tool for this kind of advice, the answer is not in a formula. He smirked and placated me. Later, he got political and told me things about a few current events that I never considered. He smuggly proclaimed I should get news from internet sources and podcasts and everything on TV news is a lie. He may be correct on the TV media, I don’t know. It seems to me that social media and AI can easily create confusion and division.

If you watched a lot of hockey you already knew that a healthy Norris is a better player than the past Dylan Cozens. It’s too early to say that he is going to make a difference, he has to be available to play. But he was productive in Preseason so that is a good sign.

No. Only RJ is RJ. Accept no substitute. And it very well could stifle future innovation and creative thought.

I think this is simple. The kid has played just 43 games in Junior A WHL. He will not be 19 until this coming season ENDS. I would send him back to juniors and expect him to dominate and be a team leader. The AHL is his next step after that. He played a few preseason games for the Sabres against mixed roster competition, not true NHL teams in real games that count. He did ok but there is no reason to think he is ready for the rigors of professional hockey in North America at age 18. He needs to play a lot of minutes, not watch others doing it. I suspect that after a few weeks in Rochester he goes back to Seattle.

I asked you this because I wonder what you base your opinion on how “older people” feel about their savings. You could be a financial planner that studies how people feel about managing finances and risk?

Lyon is a key, no doubt. Norris was very good with Ottawa, he just needs to stay healthy. You need 2 scoring lines. Tuch helps us get that. With Peterka gone they needs others to step up and produce more goals (Quinn, Benson, Kulich) while still maintaining the contributions from McLoed and Zucker.

Ok. Thanks.

He is 18 and drafted from the WHL juniors. Is his time in Rochester limited? It must be.

But yet he is the opposite with the Bills. His problems with the Sabres stem from these things: 1. He thinks he knows the game 2. He gets infatuated with people he knows and likes 3. He does not fit into or trust the NHL establishment and feels they led him astray. Just curious, are you retired yet?

Having a good finance guy on the staff is a nice.

Preseason training and practice means a lot. Preseason games, not as much when you are looking at AHL players and below. My big concern is if the goaltending holds up, and can even steal some games early, while the team comes together.

Good evening teammates, glad I had family commitments and missed this one. From reading the thread it was up, down, and way down. My first concern is goaltending, just like every year in the Adams era. A team cannot emerge to the next level without goaltending.

Yes. I think he is.

I’ve read somewhere that Power was taught to tone down the physical side in youth hockey because his size attracted a lot of penalties. Physical play is more that just hits and penalties, it’s also about leverage and position, and those things still require you to be strong and to physically engage with your opponent. He needs to use the body (and sometimes his stick) to move people and block them out of making plays around his net. He needs to take advantage of his size and reach. If he ever figures this out he will become a very good player. @dudacek mentioned Talinder. He was not a big hitter but he was still a physical player that used his size and strength for leverage. He engaged his opponent in the way that Power should. He also sacrificed taking a hit to get to the puck first and had the ability to shield the puck, take the hit, and still make a breakout pass so the team could transition to attack and the guy that hit him was now behind the play. Bill Hajt was amazing at this kind of game. Fans complained that he didn’t hit or fight much. Those fans probably never played. Hajt played 13 season and over 850 regular season games and no Sabres coach or GM wanted to trade him. They don’t have fancy stats on Bill, but he was + 340’ish for his career. Not too bad for a 2nd pair most of his career. If Power wants to get stronger and engage physically he will be very good someday. Some of it is a mentality.

The A should be taken away, but I doubt that it will now that we are down to 3 A's instead of the silly 4 A experiment.

For his own good I want Mrtka sent down, even if he is "better" than what we have due to injuries, we don't need him tainted by this staff right now. Another year in Juniors is not going to hurt him. We wont be 19 until June and I think its best to save the 8 -9 games for next season. Play R Johnson and Novikov instead. R Johnson certainly looks ready to be given a legitimate shot. While we can admire Bryson for hanging around in the NHL for 5 season and 254 games, Byson playing more games than Darryl Shannon (255), Rhett Warrener (266), Pat LaFontaine (268), and Rick Dudley (279), just shows the commitment to not winning in the Pegula era. This will be his 6th season on the team. All in the Adams era. Adams got rid of Eichel, Reinhart, Montour, McCabe, and Ullmark and proclaims that Bryson is a player he loves. Ok, that explains a lot.

I think I will stick to stretches and PT.