Porous Five Hole

The new goal is to avoid the play-in round. Then win the division. Thank goodness we have this team. The Sabres are cooked, but I’m not ready to give up hockey yet.

You really told em on an anonymous message board lol

Cuse is down two with three minutes to go, so a point here is important.

What information did your share? You said drama and issues. Did you share anything specific?

Uh oh. Defenseman Joseph Cecconi along with forwards Tyson Kozak and Brett Murray are all out week-to-week with upper-body injuries. Cecconi & Murr were both in scraps the last game. Also, it was announced earlier in the week that defenseman Riley Stillman had surgery and is done for the year. That’s a lot of injuries to overcome.

Adjusted for age, eras, longevity and games missed, Ovie is still the best. It sucks that Bossy & Mario didn’t have longer careers.

Everyone would agree with you..,But this isn’t about the greatest player. It’s about goal scoring. And Ovie is an objectively better goal scorer.

Benson and Quinn need to be stapled to each other’s line next year. Their hockey sense is just ridiculous.

Way laid would have been way better

Sabres are going to win tonight without even trying lol

Ovie with two goals in the first period tonight. 44 to go.

UPL is a restricted free agent with arbitration rights, so he has an almost zero chance of leaving in the offseason.

Could you feel anything?

Thats a funny way of saying John Vanbiesbrouck won the Vezina and the Hart trophies, but sure.

Yikes that was 30 years ago. Time flies. Back then, each existing club was permitted to protect one goaltender, five defensemen and nine forwards. 😯 What the Panthers did was a minor miracle. They were a 92 point team who got hot at the right time. If I’m not mistaken, the Panthers haven’t won a playoff series since that 1995 run until last year’s Cup final run.

That doesn’t have to be a bad thing.

Maybe I’m wrong, but the core of the defense is 23, 22, and 21. Defensemen cook for longer than top flight forwards on an ELC. When Buffalo drafted defensemen first overall twice, that announced the true “window.” And that is upcoming. But hey, maybe I’m out to lunch.

A couple of things in my mind. First, did you know that Donnie Meatballs has coached the fourth most games all-time in Sabres history?? It’s true. And it’s wild. Coaches in the show are changed like underwear. But we have stood by Meatballs. That makes me think Donny gets a month next year to have this team in the top three in the division. The other thing on my mind is what @oddoublee pointed out to me. The Sabres 05-06 team out of the lockout was only one year older on average than the current team. Sure the window can open for a long time with this squad…but that’s eye opening. There’s no room for error here and if the Sabres move on in the offseason, I would understand it.

good call out. That 05-06 was a young team. As for this current roster, giddyup 🏇

Interesting. I responded to your post from the perspective of roster construction only. But you’ve said more here for me to think about.

I understand the, “why not” because this team has not won anything. But two things stick out to say no. The first is the average age of a player on an expansion team. They’re made of average veterans. Hypothetically, the best is yet to come with this Sabres team due to their age. I’ll sign up for that versus what Seattle has going for them. The other reaction is on the pool of expansion draft. The generally used option for Seattle to build from was 7F, 3D, 1G protected. So a whole lot of third line forwards with a bunch of 2nd/3rd pairing D. I think the Sabres roster going forward has many pieces better than that.

How the AHL playoffs work is each division produces one team left standing, and there are four divisions in the AHL. There’s your conference finals. In Rochester’s division, there are seven teams and five of them make the playoffs. There’s a mini round (best of 3 series) between seed 4 v 5. So goal number one is to avoid that. And it is still tight…the current fourth seed is four points back with a game at hand. Once the mini series is complete, the next two series (1 v 4, 2 v 3, then the winners play) are best of five series. Back to your original Q, yes the Amerks can do it again. Syracuse has been their biggest problem (Amerks only beat them twice in regulation out of 12 games this year) so they wouldn’t be favored…but they can do it and Levi is the wildcard.

Adults who talk loudly or let their kids be unruly in hotel hallways. Show a little class for the rest of us.

Ovie could retire anytime he wants, but he’s signed for two more years. He’s got eight games left this year. He needs 46 goals to tie. So basically if he’s a 20 goal scorer for the next two years, he’s got it. I think he gets there.