HumanSlinky39

They've been gutted by injuries.

It's amazing how streaky Olofsson is.

Mitts is playing great hockey.

Bummed to see this season coming to a close, but very excited for next season. Let's get one more W and surpass 90 points for the year.

Thank you, Mr. Anderson.

MITTTTSSSSS

TNT

He's been an underappreciated player for a long time.

Ray: "Sabres going on the PP."

LOLWUT

I like him when he scores goals. I don't like him when he disappears for two months at a time.

That's kicked.

Ugh. Was that kicked in?

He's been very good. Encouraging for next season.

The frustrating part is, those two big swoons, 0-8, and 2-8-2...if they had just gone, say, 9-9-2 instead of 2-16-2, they're 47-26-7 and comfortably in the playoffs. Unfortunately, with a young team like this, those kinds of bad runs are destined to happen. Another year of experience, including actually participating in a playoff race and Devon Levi in net next year in all likelihood puts us closer to...or better than that 101 point mark.

Husso got off to a terrific start, but he hasn't been very good overall. He's sitting at a .896 and 3.09 GAA. Those numbers would probably be even worse here. He isn't worth that contract. It's easy to say "***** KA should have gone out and got a goalie!" It isn't necessarily that easy. First, you have to find a guy that wants to play here. Yeah, the Sabres rep is improving, but I'm betting there are still a lot of guys that said "no thanks" last summer. On top of that, the market for good goalies is always competitive. KA is assembling a team that he sees as a consistent cup contender by drafting kids, developing them together, and bringing them up when they're ready. I know "trust the process" is a tired cliché, but I think that's behind every move KA does or does not make. I'm sure his thinking is Levi is the guy and he doesn't want to piss away draft picks or prospects that he has hand selected to bring in a goalie that ideally is only needed 20-25 times a year.

I don't think offensive numbers need to suffer significantly to play the bare minimum of defense needed to help out your friggin' goalie. Almost every night goals are going in because d-men are out of position and/or blowing their assignments. It seems like you can count on a couple of flubs of that nature from Joker and Bryson when they're in, and Boosh more than I'd like. Power I can forgive because he's a kid, and honestly for his experience, he isn't a habitual offender. Dahlin and Muel are very solid. Yes, they find themselves on the wrong end of a goof-up sometimes, but not a lot. Dahlin-Muel-Power are very good already and will get better. Power especially with his length is going to be a nightmare to play against. I'd like to see another solid veteran defender brought in to hopefully prevent us from having to ice guys like Bryson outside of emergencies. A lot of our defending woes seem to boil down to coaching to me. Both our forwards and defenders too often don't seem to know where they should be or who they should be covering. That leads to way too many guys wide open in the slot to snipe our goalies. You don't need to suffer offensively to be a sound defensive team. If they can just get to league average, they're a borderline elite team, and a guy like Levi in net with some help from his D likely makes us elite. I like Granato, but he needs to recognize that trying to win games 6-5 or 5-4 every night isn't a recipe for sustained success. You can ice a team that defends well and can still put the puck in the net.

Fought until the end. I can't ask for more. 2 more games to enjoy with this special squad. Next year is gonna be exciting.

Good for Muel.

We just ran out of gas. CAR-NYR-NJD is a brutal gauntlet, especially with the last 2 back-to-back. There's a handful of guys that I hope we say "goodnight and good luck" to after the finale. This is a good team that will be better next season. But there's some fat that needs to be trimmed; especially on the blue line.

I've grown increasingly frustrated with Jokiharju all season. Pretty much every game, he's unnoticeable, but when he is noticeable, it's for the wrong reasons. I don't think they move on from him, but I wish they would. He's just not good.

I'm okay if we don't have to endure Bryson or Jokiharju anymore after this season.