Richard Noggin

Cooper's team fell apart down the stretch and resorted to repeated and honorless goonery as they were getting overtaken. This is a lifetime achievement award at the expense of that guy in little old Buffalo. Will need those young Sabres to do it again and/or better next season to prove that Ruff deserves the award. Or some such legacy hockey/national sports media nonsense. Buffalo (and in this case, Lindy Ruff) is the perfect sacrificial lamb, because our little market will continue to consume hockey no matter how obviously the league leans on the other side of the scale. We're the perfect team (in both sports) to have in the playoffs, but there's no "need" for us to ever achieve the generational dream. The big picture storyline might be better the longer we don't. Lovable losers. Resilient runners-up.

Dang. Good on you for keeping this in-house and hometown bargained. Really admirable. Sad I wasn't here last night...

I saw it go to UPL, actually? Except to give them first dibs on the power play from here on out I was SO close to canceling my Gotham app subscription a few times. They never lost any of the ultimatum games I'd declared back in November and maybe even early December. Or if they did lose one of them, I was too distracted elsewhere to follow through. Fortunately. Please don't show me AI slop. Thanks.

This is a funny response to someone expressing their frustration with you. The crying memes and "cope harder" mentality, on the other hand, is weak. As a poster who seems to delight in upsetting others, strive for the funny. It makes this a better place.

Mostly agree. Tuch is so gifted and so valuable as a top-6 winger and a PP and PK stalwart. Athletically/physically/competitively, however, Tuch appears to throttle-down more often than a player of his all-around caliber should. As evidenced by what it looks like when he sells out and finishes checks and outskates everyone. This could all be mitigated by the strategy of Ruff to utilize his top line in a more defensive/stalemate capacity much of the night. I was trying to track who Ruff intentionally put out there against Caufield/Suzuki and it seemed often to be Tuch/Tage/Krebbs. In that scenario, I'm guessing those boys are evaluated differently in-house. More favorably, given tonight's result, for sure.

Just sayin

That's who I'd start. Wasn't Lyon the better road goalie this year? (Can't locate those home/road splits for Lyon and UPL, but I think that's right...)

Benson WAS up with Thompson and Tuch in the 3rd period, at least a little bit. Replacing Zucker seems silly, given he's one of our only net-front operators and is a big glue guy. I get the urge to go back to Metsa, given how well he played most of the time (and often with a carousel of mediocre pairings). But that was also mostly prior to the league's intensity ramping up down the stretch. Didn't he get a bit exposed in his last couple appearances? Or can that be partially blamed on his new/rotating partners? Agreed that Boston was antagonistic and dishonorable before and after the whistle all night; seemed to me like the Sabres were too focused on avoiding any instigator penalties, and in so doing, they let the Bruins get away with too much. Looked to me like Dunne was propositioning Bruins all night long but they were refusing to square up. Greenway, similarly, needed to stop jawing and eventually force someone to pay the price. Watching McAvoy in a fiery scrum shake one glove but then keep it on as his Sabres combatant (I forget who) dropped em as the ref stepped in was WEAK. Luckily the Sabres didn't get an extra penalty there. HATE the Bruins again just like the last 5 decades.

Twice he describes what Sabres fans "love" and it's "cheering and booing and chugging beers."

Show I'm attending downtown starts at 8 PM. The overlap/proximity is brutal on several levels.

Heard his name a bunch but don't know much about him tbh. Young power forward with ascending offensive playmaking? Is he a 2-way guy or does he suffer from Torontitus n. metropolitan malaise infecting Maple Leafs rosters for years, robbing them of defensive buy-in and physical sacrifice. Maybe his line with Domi has been somewhat resistant to that condition? (His +/- suggests otherwise.)

Of course I agree. Was just pointing out that small sample sizes are not super reliable predictors.

27 of those on the PP though...kinda crazy/lopsided production.

Obviously, the Sabres are DUE against the Bruins. Imagine how Lindy used to feel about those Ma$$holes back in his playing days. Hope the boys get caught up on how much unpaid debt the Bruins have rung up on Buffalo over the decades. The first villains of my early childhood sports awareness (circa 1st half of the 80s) and attended games. Dolphins came later. Two overtime losses and 1-1 otherwise (only -1 goal diff overall) isn't overwhelming given the small sample size. 4/6 points over last 3 contests isn't turrible either. Especially given the two teams' trajectories down the stretch. But yes, the Sabres have had more success against Ottawa this season.