Ctaeth

With so many NHL capable defensemen and a seemingly decent goalie (Tokarski), why are they giving up so many goals? I thought that side of things would be improved this year for the Amerks

Tage is going to miss significant time you say?

Sure, the Bruins are good. But still... it's just so disappointing.

Don't have the athletic, so I can't really comment on the article. But I am curious how similar charts would look for the Sabres. I suspect it would look quite different than NHL averages. It would probably just reflect what we already know.. that the Sabres have a bunch of shooters that like to take shots from outside and that we don't get many shots/tips from right by the goalie. Also, the fact that about 20% of goals come from shots behind the goal is kind of crazy. EDIT: I misread the goals portion. It is actually less than 1%. It is kind of crazy that there are ~5% shooting percentages from the corners behind the net.

Just watched the highlights. That sequence where Raanta came out on Mitts and then had the diving out stretched stick save on Greenway...whew. What a save. And what a pass from Dahlin to hit Mitts like that. The Dahlin goal was real nice. Pass to himself and then that shot. Wow. You need your stars to step up in that type of situation.. and he sure did.

If you told me over the offseason that we would be getting average goaltending this year, I would've taken it in a heartbeat. Our strength is supposed to be the rest of the team, not the goalies (yet).

This team has wayyyy too much talent to be a marginal playoff team. If they don't get their act together before the end of the season... heads are going to roll in the coaching staff/management. Rest of the season is going to be tough, they have a lot of good opponents on the schedule: Philly, KC, Miami, Dallas, etc. Going to be tough to turn it around with that schedule. If they make the playoffs, they will definitely deserve it with that schedule. Will be interesting to see what happens.

Metsa played 3rd line center

Last time VO looked serviceable 5v5 was when he was playing with Mitts/Jost last year (imo). Maybe pairing with Jost will help reignite something in VO? One can hope. Regardless, Tuch will likely send VO back to the pine whenever he returns.

amerks are going to be really fun to watch this season. enough NHL caliber talent that you would expect them to make it at least as far as they did last year in the playoffs (conference finals, I believe)

Was at the game today. Amerks were far and away the better team. First goal by Rousek was a very pretty short handed goal, fought off the defender hanging all over him during breakaway and then somehow beat the goalie. One of the Laval goals was really fluky, hit Cooley's helmet (?), bounced off the wall behind the goal right to the front of the goal where it struck a Rocket player in the leg and fell into the goal... Like how unlucky can you be?

what is this bruin's schedule to start the year? Chicago x2, San Jose, Anaheim x2, Nashville, LA

they've played decently the past two games. even though they didn't win this one, you're going to win these sorts of games more often than not playing like that. not worried

so that's what samuelsson's goal song sounds like 😄

keep it up. one will go in

Glad to see they made this official. Wonder how Mrs. Craig Anderson feels about this. Time to make the move to Buffalo permanent craig and fam!

These Thursday evening games are killing me. Can't watch tonight, but hopefully sabrespace's collective willpower will propel them to victory!

The first line if they don't start scoring! 😄

If that's the case (which I hope it is), I wonder how they would adjust the rest of the lines with Jost coming in? Makes it a kind of interesting puzzle with Jost only having played center (as far as I know). I'm assuming they don't want to mess with Greenway/Mitts/Benson or Skinner/Thompson/Tuch (yet). I'm sure there's more, but here's a few possibilities off the top of my head: 1. Move Krebs up to the Cozens line & move Jost to fourth line center? 2. Move Jost in directly for VO to the Cozens line (either Cozens/Jost kicks out to wing) 3. I could even see them moving old man Okposo up there to the Cozens line and keeping Krebs/Jost both on the fourth line with one of them kicking out to wing.

It is kind of a no-win situation. Play him, and your team is likely worse off. Bench him and you kill any trade value he might have. So, to me, it comes down to which of the two situations is worse? IMO, playing him seems like the worse situation because of how important this year is perceived to be by everyone. If he is costing the team on standings, I don't think you can continue to play him.

did i just hear "it feels like rangers-sabres"? 😄

I would in a heartbeat. Sign me up for Savoie, Kulich, Rosen... honestly anyone. I feel like a broken record complaining about Olofsson, but I just don't think he is a good fit on a team that is already defensively challenged. He exacerbates their already bad defensive issues. I suspect this version of the Olofsson experiment is an attempt to jack up his trade value prior to attempting to trade him when Quinn returns. Just like with UPL, I think they might be better off just cutting bait since their value is minimal anyway.

looked engaged finally

Coming into this thread not having seen the game:

Going to miss this one. Really would have been nice to see the opener, but just isn't gonna work out. Let's start it out right boys!!