Porous Five Hole

I’m not 100% sure, but I believe he won six straight prior to tonight.

I’m glad you started the topic because I wouldn’t have seen it otherwise

Your title made me laugh out loud 🤣

They’ve lost 13 of 22 at home. That’s bad.

Is this a young team thing, a coaching thing, or something else?

He’s already been ruled out

Per Brian Koziol on WGR postgame show, the top twelve teams in the eastern conference all have winning records at home…except Buffalo. The Sabres are 9-11-2 at home. Losing 13 out of 22 at home is pretty brutal. The last change, the smell of Cheerios, and decently engaged fans (while in lower numbers than most buildings) all seem like they would help. Any idea what gives? I’m not ready to go back to the concept of a season of development. If that means Goat Heads for all home games (6-1 record), so be it.

A whole lot of complaining after a pretty even period.

I think this is only partially true. College players cannot sign their ELC immediately and then report to college to play (singing a pro contract terminates their amateur status). However, Junior or International players can sign their ELC and go back to wherever they came from to continue to develop. https://www.nhl.com/sabres/news/buffalo-sabres-sign-first-round-picks-matt-savoie-jiri-kulich-noah-Östlund/c-335006690 If Portillo could have signed after his freshman year of college and gone back to school, maybe he would have. But those aren’t the rules.

If only the AHL had room for Chris Taylor’s instead of auto-responding that anyone is replaceable because of “development opportunities.” And insert a 20 year old fifth round draft pick on an ELC. The Taylor or Pettis role is mostly gone from the league and I hate it.

I’m just confused by this whole relationship. The Sabres are clearly on the rise, they can burn a year of the ELC if they want, and Ryan was born into a hockey family that has no reason to defect from the Sabres. And, Buffalo has the option of a compensatory pick in their back pocket. So maybe a college degree is a motivating factor for his decision to remain in school, but I can see a happy marriage forthcoming. Am I missing something?

This is classy af Good on you, Sabres.

Vegas has noticed your point. https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2023/01/11/for-upcoming-postseason-game-at-bills-dolphins-are-biggest-wild-card-underdog-ever/

I’m not 100%, but I think the entry level contract and its limitation comes into play. So it isn’t as much of a highest bidder kind of thing. Either way, I don’t begrudge Portillo for exercising his right to free agency. It isn’t great for Buffalo, but it is what it is.

Plus it makes more sense, given the medical event happened during the Cinci game.

That’s a bummer for the Amerks. But I imagine he’s thrilled.

Well they had to send UPL down on paper because he was an “emergency recall.” But Meatballs said on the radio today that UPL is starting tonight.

I’m not passionate about the idea, but that’s 11th and 12th of twelve forwards last night. Since thanksgiving (so the last 17 games), JJ has seven points and Quinn has eight points.

Nine min? Yikes. Do you send down one of these waiver exempt players for space for Comrie? Say JJP for a week on the farm, then Quinn for a week on the farm. That buys a couple of weeks to figure out what to do with UPL & react to any injuries. Krebs or Mitts have each had a good week and slot into their role.

Actually Botts deserves the credit for Tage. Armstrong was asked why Tage was the prospect sent out (instead of Kyrou or Thomas) and he replied that, “Buffalo wanted Thompson.” It was during his press conference.

The Panthers are 18-18-4, so I think their pace referenced above might be off.

Shane Wright got sent back to Juniors

But that’s what waivers are for. There’s literally no reason for Vinny to terminate his contract.

No chance of this. Sheahan was on a two way contract, meaning he got paid a fraction of his NHL salary to play in ROC. Vinny is on a one way deal, so he gets paid 1.7M regardless of where he plays.

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…