Porous Five Hole

Yes the Amerks sucked tonight. The Sens opted to play five guys in the box once they went up 3-1 after two periods. It was effective. Rochester also took some silly penalties all night. Onto Friday…

We’ve gone from, “Is Tage even an NHL’er to is Tage a league MVP?” in 1.5 seasons. The meteoric rise is incomprehensible. The answer to the Q, yes he is top ten in the league, and yes he is top five in the league. Especially if you consider the future of the player…he’s top five today and shows all signs of being the “guy” going forward. And he’s signed for below market value for seven years beginning next year. Sweet!

While I can kind of see where you’re coming from, no one is saying that. What we are reacting to is this podcast isn’t the time, the place, or the forum for that commentary.

I don’t know if this is helpful to your scenario, but they’re uploaded to Spotify each time. It is how I find their episodes.

I’m very disappointed to hear this. If i can glean a host’s (or guest’s) political leanings on a hockey podcast, they’re doing it wrong. I will boycott JR episodes forever. This isn’t the first time he’s complained politically on the podcast. The words Biden or “wokeness” don’t belong on a Sabres-centric hockey pod and I’ve previously heard both. If Petey and Rivet didn’t challenge these comments, then it’s pretty irresponsible. It’s just not the forum for that talk. I’m really disappointed to hear this because I’m a regular listener and I would also feel compelled to react the same way as you. What a bummer.

Comrie could have had the fourth one, but now 4-1 baby Sens

Hard to blame Comrie on any of the three. He got a poor lateral push off the post for the second goal (in which the cross-ice pass wasn’t defended), but no one was stopping the first goal and only luck would have stopped the third goal. I hope the offense shows up soon.

Quiet first. 0-0 after one period. Comrie with nine saves, and two appeared high danger. It’s super quiet in the arena. Worst jersey of the night goes to Dea so far. Best jersey so far was Gage (with Noronen honorable mention).

Comrie gets the start. Miersch out of the lineup due to the birth of a baby.

I keep hearing on this board that we need more third or fourth line players who are glue guys and hard to play against. So this is good?

Why would the Wild do this?

I’m sick to my stomach. That is someone’s brother, someone’s son, someone’s hero. Damar, please be OK. ❤️💙❤️

some potentially positive news. follow up tweet said, “Source is me - His friend and marketing rep.”

Tristan Jarry was injured in the winter classic today. That bears monitoring as the Pens (losing today makes it five losses in a row) are a team the Sabres are chasing.

This is so true for me. But tonight I’m like, “Losers couldn’t come up with a logo and just went with “nature’s Zubaz” ffs.

I think UPL is going to Rochester. The guy has not been able to stay healthy and nothing suggests he can be a workhorse yet. Remember, he has yet to survive the AHL weekend schedule playing two out of three without injury. Aside from his one healthy year in the OHL in 2018-19 (53 games played), his durability has been an issue: 2019-2020: 33 GP (for reference, the Amerks played 62 games) 2020-2021: 31 GP (Amerks played 29 games, UPL was healthy enough for 14). UPL got four games in Buffalo and ten in Finland) 2021-2022: 44 GP (Amerks standard 76 game schedule, and UPL was injured for the entire playoffs) 2022-2023: 20 GP so far. GMKA says UPL has to play. I agree. But Anderson isn’t going to be physically able enough to be a 1B and UPL hasn’t been able to maintain this workload before. We all know Anderson isn’t going anywhere. So it’s Comrie’s crease when he’s healthy (with Anderson spelling the crease as able) and UPL can be load managed to hopefully get through a season for the first time as a pro in ROC.

Agree. Their head coach was upset about the defensive effort to the media last night. Seems like the Sens got the message (and had some post/crossbar puck luck).

Congrats, champion 🏆

You can thank me for that as I choked with a loss each of the last three weeks. I lost my starting QB in the first half in back to back weeks (weeks 13 & 14). And then my week 15 QB went on IR after the game. If only someone would have dropped Burrow and I could have picked him up this week. I could have been the hex to help the Bills.

It’ll be the rescheduled Columbus game in April & it’ll be meaningless in the standings because the Sabres will have already clinched a playoff birth. 🤞

Relentless is harder to play against than heavy. I want a relentless team first. Pressure their D with the forecheck (top line & kid line). Attack the net (Skinner, TNT, Okposo). Generate offense with speed (the whole dang team). Transition from defense to offense (Dahlin & Power). Push the pace and make the opponent chase the puck (coaching). Sandpaper can be acquired as this team develops (Tampa acquired Maroon, Nick Paul, Goodrow, etc). And sandpaper can also develop (Krebs as the example tonight). Stand up for yourself and your teammate. That’s a learned behavior with culture. The Sabres have culture. The Sabres are not a finesse team. If anything, they’re just young. While I would love for the team to finish checks more often, they’re loaded with offensive talent. And they’re being coached to out-skate and not outhit. It is working.

In his first conditioning start, Comrie was named first star today in Toronto. Nice!

Hahaha well sure, there’s that. But there’s also Ovie, Crosby, and McDavid within the same timeline. I’m just saying that 1OA in this era is more can’t miss than previously. And Laf is closer to Yakupov than he is to a stud. The Rangers have a problem on their hands.

I agree with you…the scuttlebutt is from the frustrated Rangers fanbase and not the organization. However, the comp to Krebs is not a good one. The pedigree of 1OA isn’t close to Krebs. I understand the line of thinking…young forward to young forward…but Imagine the Sabres scratching Power halfway through next season. That’s the pedigree of comp to consider (albeit different position). Not to mention Laf is getting protected minutes comparable to third liner Barklay Goodrow. It is going very poorly for him.