Big Guava

True enough but the main point is that if Gretzky wanted to score a lot more goals, he easily could have, but his main talent was creating for others to score.

UPL doesn't get the benefit of the doubt on anything anymore. He has shown that he doesn't deserve it and his constant being in the wrong position on goals that shouldn't be goals has worn thin. Essentially, if he wants to get the benefit of the doubt more then have a save percentage that warrants it.

What's crazy is that Gretzky while he scored a ton of goals wasn't really known for that ..he was more known for his setting teammates up for goals as his over 1960 assists show... In fact, Gretzky has more assists than the 2nd player on the career points list has points (Jagr with 1921). That's absurd... So while it's great that Ovechkin broke the record, if Gretzky actually wanted to score 1300 goals, he easily could have which would have put the record out of reach for all eternity...but he did that with the assists record instead.

Better hope they can score 6+ goals if they want to win with the human sieve in net tonight. Perhaps it's been something Benson has done and been talked to about multiple times over the last week whereas it hasn't with Peterka? Peterka almost singlehandedly ended the game 3 times yesterday against TB with his effort plays and steals and strips of the puck...kinda hard to bench someone after you just watched that for one mistake the next day.

UPL out of position on the goal ..who would have guessed. Groundhog Day

Wow, now they are ahead of both Philly and Boston with 2 games in hand on each...

Sabres played a very good game tonight...continuing to come on strong... And surprisingly are good at home this year with a 20-14-3 record... Something they could never figure out under Granato

Nowhere close to the NFL who is so far ahead of the next closest league in the world they are almost double the MLB/NBA which are neck and neck in 2nd place

But they are among the NHL's elite teams at scoring. They need to work on the D/Goaltending side of things.

Starts in 2026-2027 and represents a 2.5x increase over the current 12 year $4.5 Billion contract in place. Get ready for a massive salary cap jump coming in 2 years... https://www.nhl.com/news/nhl-rogers-continue-landmark-partnership#:~:text=“We're thrilled to continue,of about 2 ½ times.

The contracts weren't even that much...2 years 4.5 million for one and 2 years 2.3 million for the other. Cost them a 2nd and a 3rd for compensation for signing both.

I don't see this team having any issue drafting players. They have drafted numerous good players no matter where they have been in the draft.

With yesterday's win and a Boston loss, Bruins are now 1 point behind the Sabres and Sabres have a game in hand on them. Sabres will also likely pass Pittsburgh and Philly soon as they are 1 point behind them but have 2 games in hand on Philly and 1 on Pittsburgh... Time to celebrate being out of the basement! Let the sun in...uncork the champagne! 🍾 🍾 Sabres are now tied for 5th in goals per game with 3.26 this season and are the only team in the top 9 with fewer than 91 points. It's really, really hard to be this bad when you score like they do.

Season sweep of the Sens

Yes he has been terrible in virtually every way possible this year.

They get bad goaltending and they play bad defense. It's equal parts of both. Their goalies let in at least 1-2 goals a game that aren't NHL quality goals. See UPL's first goal yesterday. Regardless, it's still hard to score that much and not win more games.

Their goaltending is equally to blame. Too many bad goals, too often. UPL is constantly in bad position on many of these goals.

First time the Caps allowed more than 5 goals all season long.

Sabres are 3rd in scoring in the last 40 games averaging 3.40 goals per game but only have a .500 points percentage over that time. The next worst teams averaging 3.2 goals or more over that time frame are the Oilers at .588 and then the Leafs at .600. There are 5 more teams with higher points percentages than that. In other words, it's damn hard to score that many goals on a regular basis and not be winning a lot of games.

Lose to the 2nd worst team in the Eastern Conference(probably the worst by the end of the season once the Sabres play their 3 games in hand) yesterday and beat the best team in the NHL today. Sabres in a nutshell.

And they are kicking the Caps ass

Hopefully there is a lot of meat on the Rathbone

Band on the run?

Not saying to give him away, get what you can for him and get out of the contract that even as it might be reasonable for a starting goalie in the NHL is a big overpayment for a player who is not a starting goalie in the NHL. I mean a player with a career .898 save percentage in this day and age should not be a starting goalie in the NHL. It's hard to be that low when your save percentage last year was .910 in a season where you played 54 games, which means he has sucked much worse the rest of the time he has played. He leads the NHL in Goals allowed and out of goalies with 20+ games played he ranks 50th out of 56 in save percentage with an abysmal .885. In short, he sucks, so I am not sure what your argument is for keeping him is. And about not replacing him...they could bring in Michael Houser and get this level of goaltending most nights. If that's what you are getting anyway, why pay 5x the price? Stop deluding yourself into thinking UPL is going to be anything other than a disappointment. Just pay a vet minimum contract and you'll get the same level of goaltending...I mean Reimer has been outplaying him and it hasn't really been close.