Porous Five Hole

It’s not a loss. Ingram hasn’t dressed on game day in a month. His season stat line is five tackles. He couldn’t beat out Cam Lewis or Taron Johnson, and he’s never going to play over Max, Tre, or CB. It really is kind of a nothing burger.

Utica wins 4-3 in OT 😡

And the Amerks are headed to OOOOOOOOOVERTIME!

FYI Komorov getting top line minutes with Metsa tonight.

Levi stops a penalty shot with 2.6 seconds to go in the second period! We head to the third tied 3-3.

And a PP goal by Helenius ties it at three!

Rosey again after a gross defensive zone turnover by Utica and it’s 3-2. Amerks have some life. Seven min to go in the second period.

Rosen on the PP makes it 3-1 Utica. Amerks still look sleepy.

Amerks host league worst Utica and are down 2-0 with 17 min to go in the second period. Levi could have had the first one, but had no chance on the second one. Not much of a spark for the home town team so far.

Not sure how this team shakes off the “we’ve won two in a row and we are good so we don’t have to go balls out” like they did against St. Louis & Calgary. And last year. And the year before that. It has been a recurring theme with this squad for a while. Tage called his teammates out the last time. Tonight is a huge game. This team needs to show that they can flush away recent good results and work their azz off and earn it. The injury bug is no longer an excuse. How hard are they willing to be to play against? Dahlin and Tage score tonight and Ellis does enough to get a win. Let’s gooooo!

Sabres top six is healthy, Dahlin is playing great, and we are getting a steady diet of backups. Phili: Backup confirmed this morning Winn: Backup or third string since Helle is on IR Calg: probably Wolf even tho Cooley’s numbers are better. So kind of the backup? Edm: Most likely the Skinner experience, so who knows what we are in for. Van: backup or third string because Demko is on IR Sea: Starter We are getting almost everyone’s worst in the crease and we have to take advantage. I’ll say 4-1-1 when it’s much more likely it’ll be 2-2-2.

When you speak to him, can you please find out what goalie interference is?? Cuz no one knows…

Flyers backup Samuel Ersson was the first goalie off the ice at the morning skate, indicating we are getting the backup tonight (per Jordan Hall of NBC Sports Phili). He’s 4-2-2 with an .859%. Ripe for the picking!

That’s totally fair. I still think he’s best served in the minors while he gains some weight and feels pressure to lead and produce for his team. I’m glad we got to see at he can hang in the NHL and his future can be bright.

It is noteworthy to me that Östlund had a team low 12:03 of ice time last night. While we like everything we see from him, I believe he’s best suited in Rochester in all situations for now.

Interesting. Finland doesn’t have a lot in the crease right now. Juuse Saros has looked bad on a bad team, Joonas Korpisalo’s numbers are even worse and he’s clearly just a backup in the NHL these days, and Kevin Lankinen’s numbers are even worse than Korpi’s as an NHL backup. I think Luukkonen is a lock and might even play 🤢 Good thought on the “why” question I had. Thank you.

Agree but why does national media know about it?

I don’t agree and I think this is recency bias. Kulich was centering a top six line as a rookie and in 62 games, he put up 15G, 9A and was only a -4. I think what it boils down to is usage. Östlund is centering a bottom six line with absolute dawgs on each side (Doan & Tuch yesterday, before that Benson & Kozak). He’s been good but there’s no pressure for production. Kulich had that pressure to produce and was on a 20 goal pace as a rookie…and was not a dud defensively. I’m not down on Östlund at all. He’s a smart hockey player and the points will come. But their usage is completely different and it’s important to consider.

Something I find interesting. From Elliotte Friedman on Friday: “Luukkonen has asked to play more.” “You know, Luukkonen wanted to play more.” While I don’t have a problem with a guy wanting the crease, it’s weird to me that Friedman reported this while talking about the Sabres. Why is the player’s agent squawking to the media about playing time? What’s the motive? It’s just weird to me.

That’s what I would do. I’m not sure why Pi used Nov 1 for his analysis since both UPL & Ellis had their first starts of the season a week prior. Taking out that week prior conveniently wipes out a UPL loss in Toronto and Ellis’s first win against Detroit. Just use the season: UPL has seven starts, 4-3-1, 178 saves and .899% Ellis has six starts, 4-2-0, 168 saves and .898% So I disagree with the OP’s assertion that it’s clearly UPL’s crease. However, it is best case scenario for the Sabres that UPL figures it out (my opinion is he won’t). Ellis is an unknown commodity and I want to find out more. He should continue to get starts as frequently as UPL does.

Stolen valor from Reddit

I was having a little innocent fun.

You tell me yours and I’ll tell you mine

Right back at it. Yes that’s a 7:30 home start. Fourth game in six nights for the Sabres (10-11-4). The Jets (13-11-0) are also on their fourth game in six nights, and tonight is the fourth stop on a five-game road trip for Winnipeg. Both teams will hold a morning skate, so stay tuned for line-up information (Joshua Norris, Jordan Greenway, Colten Ellis, etc). This may be an Eric Comrie revenge game as Connor Charles Hellebuyck is on IR after knee surgery. Tage Nathaniel Thompson leads the Sabres in goal scoring with 12 goals and nine assists. Alex Daniel Tuch leads the team in points (8G 14A for 22PTS). Joshua Thomas Doan has four goals and three assists over the past ten games. As a team, the Sabres shooting percentage is 10.34%, good for 19th in the league. Kyle David Connor has 12 goals and 17 assists for the Jets. Mark Scheifele leads the team in points (13G 18A for 31 PTS). Defenseman Joshua Morrissey has three goals and eight assists over the last ten games. As a team, the Jets shooting percentage is 11.85%, good for eighth in the league. Last ten games as a team: Sabres: 5-5-0, averaging 3.4 goals while giving up 3.4 goals per game. Jets: 4-6-0, averaging 2.9 goals while giving up 3.3 goals per game.