Jorcus

Not a word of it on the post game that I am aware of. He did get the helper on the 4th goal but I did not notice him much.

According to ESPN 15,017 but that is normally tickets sold so probably 1000-2000 less.

From NHL.com "Alexis Lafreniere signed a seven-year, $52.15 million contract with the New York Rangers on Friday. The contract, which has an average annual value of $7.45 million, will begin next season. The 23-year-old forward, who has seven points (four goals, three assists) in seven games this season, is in the final season of a two-year contract he signed on Aug. 23, 2023. Lafreniere is coming off a career-high 57 points (28 goals, 29 assists) last season and had 14 points (eight goals, six assists) in 16 Stanley Cup Playoff games to help New York reach the Eastern Conference Final. The No. 1 pick in the 2020 NHL Draft, Lafreniere has 155 points (79 goals, 76 assists) in 305 regular-season games and 23 points (10 goals, 13 assists) in 43 playoff games." Maybe Taxes don't matter. Seems like a sweet deal for the Rangers.

This does seem like a very important game. We have the advantage of being home, healthy, and rested against primary competition. It would be good to see the Sabres take advantage of this.

There only 3 seats in the press box. Because the Sabres are pretty healthy right now bringing someone in for prospects does not seem like an option without moving a roster forward. They could try to get one of the D men through waivers but the injuries will come sooner or later. Bumping Quinn down seems like the next move if he does not wake up. From there who knows. You would think being a contract year he would be ready to go.

Maybe at the high end but on the second level contracts, Think Quinn, Peterka, and maybe Levi all can be poached for a second round pick unless you give them 4.5 + for however many years.

I like this change for a few reasons. 1st it is not disruptive the the first line which has worked well so far. Second I think it will help Cozens having a player that he does not have to compensate for on the ice with him. The other thing is it moves the wings back to preferred positions. Greenway going back to the left, and if Juri has to come in for Aube-Kubel he is back on the right wing. It seems the least disruptive of all the moves. 100% agree on the Ruff wanting the vets on the Ice.

I think I am more worried about Ottawa than Detroit at this point. I wonder how well the Redwings defense is going to hold up. Ottawa will be fine if Ullmark can get back on the ice and in form.

Tony Iommi is a -2

That may be true but I remember Casey being about as jinxed at scoring as Cozens is now. Missing a lot of open nets and not putting breakaways in. It was a big slump plain and simple and not just coaching. My point is if Casey can work his way out of it Cozens can too.

The legend of Mitts. I remember him going through a scoring streak so bad he stopped even trying to shoot the puck. In 21-22 he shot 7.6 % for 40 games In the next year he got to a respectable 11.1 % but he did not start playing well until the second half of the year. I think a lot of the improvement had to do with the Granato coaching. Granato let him focus on the things he did well. He got good at gaining and maintaining puck possession. He limited his passes to no one and bad giveaways and then the assist started to come. Finally he has gained some scoring touch. In a sense you are right they cleared a path for Cozens and there is a chance it won't work out. I would still say Cozens has more upside and in general will put more pucks in the net than Casey will.

I have to wonder if the Oilers would not have made this move if they knew they were going to lose Holloway and Broberg. From the Oilers point of view it was a forward looking money issue I think.

One of the things he needs to improve on is staying on his skates more. He can get knocked off the puck or he comes into battles off balance.

That is a good question. They are not going to do that.

If Aube-Kubel plays Saturday and there are no other injuries, it looks like Benson or Juri would go back to Rochester as they are waiver exempt. So who goes? Was the sit down to prepare Benson for the possibility? Chin up kid, we will call you when we need you.

one of the youtube versions vicious fight.

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Ducks are right on our tail. 0-17 for the year. If the Sabres want to be the worst PP in the NHL they better get to work losing face offs, sloppy drop passes, stay away from the front of the net and miss the net on the slap shots, that should keep you where you are.

One has to keep in mind that it may take Samuelsson time to get back to where he was. It can take players time to get back up to speed after a long time off. This team has also gone 2 defensive transitions since he last played. Remember how Clifton sucked the first 20 games of last year? Once he got comfortable his play improved. 2 years ago we could not win a game without Sammy in the lineup. That shut down D man is in there someplace waiting to come back out. He will get better I am pretty certain of that. Quinn has had periods in his past where his production has gone to almost zero. It happened when he was an Amerk. Maybe there is something wrong but he has been the most disappointing player so far. Cozens gets his chances it sucks that he does not score on them. Quinn does not even seem to get many good looks.

I think if both those guys came back Benson is going to get the hook. What can he do that Aube Kubel can not? They are just not going to take Cozens out. Quinn and Kulick may trade off depending how things are going.

It looks to me like Thompson skated better last night than any game since his back injury. He was up and down the ice. The first line was hard to handle again last night.

The Amerks deserved better last night. They totally controlled play in the 1st. They had speed the won battles and even though the power play did not score it got in the zone had good movement and number of shots that the goalie made good saves on. They kind of lapsed a little in the second after they got the 2-0 lead then when the Sandstrom give away goal happened they got a little sloppy after. Going into the third down 3-2 does not stop another in close shot. The difference was goaltending. Rosen blew a breakaway attempt, Rousek raced to get a get a puck, Toronto's D man can't keep up so he does the slide, and somehow Rousek jumps over him with the puck to get a shot off. Akhtyamaov was good for Toronto and that was how they won. As far as the prospects they all had moments. I would not say anyone looked dominant. Helenius is the youngest player in the AHL and he looked comfortable. Rathbone was an interesting pick up. He has good shot. He is an undersized D man but should be a good Amerk and emergency call up.

Total gaff by Sandstrom. He came out to play the puck with plenty of time. I think he wanted to shoot it out of the zone then when pressure came he tries to wrap it around behind the goal. Instead of going behind the goal it banks to the front of the crease which he is 15 feet away from where Nylander gets the easy tap in. That sucked.

I think Tuch has been ok. Maybe not his very best. Pittsburg had a very hard time against that line in general. They did not play very well last night but when Peterka is on the line in general they are pretty good. They are not as productive with Benson on the line.

At this point I would lean to other factors. He thrived in the all out early Granato system. Offence first, gambling defense. He scored a lot of goals playing that way. When it came to playing clamp down hockey post injury is when things started going south. The thing is he is still getting a lot of good chances but he is going to have to play more of a system game. Ruff alluded in post game comments, too much one on one hockey. Whatever happens to that line they have to get better established in the O zone. I don't every remember Benson playing well with Cozens. Quinn drifting around does not help. That is odd because they have played well together before. For now I would go back to Quinn and Juri with Cozens. I don't know what you do with Benson right now. He is not taking JJ's spot. I know people are going to freak out but he may be the odd player out for a few games.