EM88

The play did happen fast but I agree McLeod left a zone open he should not have. With this and the giveaway, I wonder if Ruff is singling him out in the locker room for his mistakes in the 1st?

The 'rule of law' thing, especially when driving, is somewhat irritating. A week ago I was on the New York state thruway heading eastbound while driving to Albany and came to a construction site. It was early in the morning so there was not anyone working yet, but the road was narrower, barriers were up and the speed limit lowered to 55 in the work site. I was in the right lane slowing down to 55. I was probably still going 60 at the time when 3 people passed me on the left. 2 pickup trucks followed by an SUV. I would estimate they were all going well over 80 mph entering that work zone. As someone above mentioned it is not just about the speeding. It is that people simply will do what they want, when they want. Rules, laws, the rights or safety of others be damned.

You are wrong, in the context of the post I responded to. We were stating that the teams around them in the division, in separate games, won. Those other games not involving the Sabres in no way has anything to do with the Sabres getting to a certain point total. If Montreal defeats Philadelphia, and Boston beats Columbus, that has zero tangible, immediate impact on the Sabres chase to 95 points.

It matters for what the standings 'look' like today, but I am not concerned right now with who wins or loses on any given night especially this early. The Sabres need to get to 95+ points. If they do that, they will invariably give other clubs more losses along the way. The daily standings do not matter much, not nearly as much as the path to 95+ points.

From Mid December until Mid March, I think the Sabres are on the road for 20 or more games, meaning he will be out of town for probably close to 40 of those 90 days. Then the team has a 19 day break in the middle of February, which I would think many/most of the players can take that on a vacation out of town, and he will spend less than 1/2 of the worst months of winter in Buffalo. It is a bit different when a guy buys a house in the area and their wife/girlfriend is here has 2 feet of snow in the driveway in January, while the players are on a west coast road trip.

I think it is probably more widespread than many of us imagine. This time they were caught. Others will, or are, doing things in a more covert way and getting away with it.

Yes, but if Buffalo picked him up they would have to keep him on the active NHL roster. If Buffalo keeps him on the active NHL roster, then simply do nott waive him to begin with.

Montreal is looking better. This should be the game where Buffalo slows things down. Plays NY Islander hockey (or NJ devil hockey of more than a decade ago.) In the games I have watched this Montreal team, they seem to be very good off the rush and generate a lot of goals that way. Once you show them down into a structured game they are much less effective. I would limit how much the D-men pinch, and almost always have at least one forward in the neutral zone. Stand them up at your blue line and make them dump and chase.

Possession numbers like Fenwick, shots and Corsi show one of the best players on the ice tonight was Dylan Cozens regarding possession. One of the worst was Zach Benson. Possession does not really matter much if the guy who is losing that battle is helping to create goals for.

I challenge anyone to go to the nhl site and watch the replays of the Sabres goals, while focusing on Ottawas netminder, and not have the Benny Hill song going in their head. For once the Sabres have clearly the better netminder tonight. Yeah, that guy is absolutely awful, but Buffalo is getting the saves at their end and that is half the equation for a win.

It is amazing they are tied in this game. The Sabres look like they are getting dominated in every aspect of the game besides the scoreboard.

How bad of a period was that for the Sabres? 1st period Analytics even strength have some really bad numbers. CorsiF% Ottawa 74, Buffalo 26 (raw numbers 20 to 7 Ottawa) Fenwick% Ottawa 75, Buffalo 25 (raw numbers 9 to 3 Ottawa) Shots% Ottawa 100, Buffalo 0 (raw numbers 7 to 0 Ottawa) Scoring chance % Ottawa 80, Buffalo 20 (raw numbers 12 to 3 Ottawa) High Danger chance % Ottawa 100, Buffalo 0 (raw numbers 2 to 0 Ottawa) Xgf% (expected goals%) Ottawa 80.7, Buffalo 19.3 (raw numbers 58 to 14 Ottawa) They need to do something different because right now this team is truly awful.

10 periods into the season and this team is either unwilling, or simply unable to go to the front of the opposition net and get shots from there.

This franchise is terribly unlikeable.

I notice 2 things about this poster vs poster battle going on above. It appears I have been drawn into it myself. First, one side, Thorny, seems be almost as concerned with defending himself, and how smart he thinks he is, as he does about the actual content of his post. There is a lot of mentioning of himself and how correct he is. As stated above, there is a larger than average does of narcissism when someone needs to do that so often. Second, the Island comment. I think figuratively it can be viewed like one a cruise ship sailing by and telling the people of Australia they are on nothing but an island. It appears that island is very large. I personally have a difficult time respecting a post or poster that feels the need to outright state that their posts are better than others, they know more than others, or they are correct more than others. If that were true, it would not need stating.

From what I can tell over the last few months of reading posts here I do not get the impression posters like Pimlach, myself, MJD, and others are saying Adams does not deserve to be fired. It does seems to me that many of us are not dying on that hill alone as we think Terry Pegula is as much of a problem if not more. In the recent posts in this thread it seems like you are arguing a point vs them and myself that we are not making.

I think Adams is an issue, he has made some bad decisions. It is also obvious in my mind Pegula is the ultimate problem and he pulls a lot of strings behind the scenes as many others have pointed out. Judging by some of the above comments, that better be a big island because there are many of us who feel the same.

I agree. On the surface I want to say the NHLPA union can not be all that happy with him for taking 'only' $12.5m per year. But in the end, Edmonton is going to spend to the cap, so the union members will still get the same money.

Zucker is on a long term contract taking him into his late 30's making close to 10% of the cap. For what is likely going to be close to 10% of the cap, at least initially, and close to 8% long term, I do not want to sign someone who "IF" something good happens he'll be able to contribue "in some form". Not for that money.

Plenty of teams across all leagues have a bad rep and manage to turn it around eventually. I think it was 16 out of 16 teams last year in the NHL that made the playoffs without Alex Tuch on their Roster. He is nice to have, but signing him now does not make or break the organization.

I hope the team does not rush into signing him to a large contract. As others have correctly said, he will be here this year with or without an extension. Also, the charts and stats are out there regarding players, especially forwards, aging and their production. Unless you are an elite player, and even when you are, your production curve and overall 2-way play plateaus and peaks between the ages of 23-28. After that in almost all cases you are in decline. In your late 20's that decline may or may not be all that evident but after age 30, it does become evident in most cases. Unless a player is elite, someone like McDavid, Pastrnak, McKinnon, Crosby, or Ovechkin, I do not want them on my team with any more than 2 years remaining on their contract at age 32 or later, unless it is a very team-friendly deal. If a team is in the middle of cup runs like Florida, it may make more sense, however they are still likely to pay for it a couple years down the road. Buffalo is not currently looking like they are contending for the Cup. I respect those who post that they want an extension done for Tuch, and I know many fans have an emotional connection to him. I just personally would rather have the Sabres let things take their time if they are not getting a deal that fits the team short and medium term.

I think the team will miss Peterka more than many are assuming. It seems to me that many people are saying his defensive, 2-way game was awful, putting him in a class with Cozen and Quinn as the forwards that cost the team the most in their own end. I disagree with that. It is not to say I think Peterka was a very good player backchecking or in his own zone, that is not the case. But he was, in my own eyes, close to average. For sure better than Cozens and Quinn last season.

To my ears its a bad song. I can take songs from many different genres. I just do not want something that sounds bad. Swords of a thousand men to me is bad.

The Sabres goaltending hurt them so much last year. Take a look at UPL the year before. For the season he had a .910 save percentage. From Jan 1 though the end of that season, over 3+ months he had a .919. However, last season it dropped to .887. I know some on this board will say the defense in front of him was terrible last season. My personal opinion is the defense was not that much better or worse last year than the year before. Shots allowed, high danger shots, and other advance stats were similar both years. Not the same, but in the same ballpark. My eyes tell me he let in a lot of soft goals last year that he was not allowing in the previous year. Conclusions from those numbers: Had he played last year like he did the entire year before, the Sabres would have allowed about 30-35 goals less, making them well into the positive goal differential as a team. The vast majority of positive goal differential teams, especially once you hit +10 or more in goal differential, make the playoffs. Had he played last year like he did only in the 2nd half of the previous year, things would be even better by 5 or 10 more goals. If nothing else changes from last year about this team except UPL stepped up to be an average level goaltender, this team at least competes for the playoffs. If nothng else changed except UPL started to play like he did the year before, a much better than average goaltender, then this team makes the playoffs.

Does the 35+ rule for buyouts still apply? If I remember correctly, the later years of a contract that a player signs when he is 35 or later can be bought out for a fraction of what most other deals would cost.