Doohickie

Two Flames in the crease. Kind of a tough situation for him.

Two guys in front, Rob. Owen can't cover both.

Not winning the the puck battles at tall.

The wrong kind of consistent.

They had over a half dozen chances to clear the zone prior to that goal but....

Put him on the waiver wire. If he clears, he goes to Rochester. If someone picks him up, his contract is off our books. Win win.

Not bad. But you forgot to toss in Daylight Savings Time.

They are literally 4 points out of a playoff spot right now. If they win tonight they will be no more than 4 points out of a playoff spot. If all the other teams lose, they could be as few as 2 points (although might not be possible if some of the teams ahead of us play each other tonight. But yeah. If they win tonight, they stay no more than 4 points behind a playoff spot.

Zucker will return this Friday at the earliest per Joe Yerdon. ^ Or what he said ^ Riding the hot hand.

Nate Danielson scored a goal for the Red Wings by dragging the puck around the goalie and tucking it into the goal... and Mickey Redmond described it as "scored a goal like Tage Thompson." 🙂 But then they said it was offside.

Eh. Waiver claims are always trash players.

There were a few shifts yesterday when the Sabres had the Oilers hemmed into their own zone and had total control of the puck. They had 2-3 players up near the blue line and the other two at the net. They were primarily taking shots from above the faceoff circles but had a crowd in front of the net, and were able to recover their own rebounds time after time, totally wearing out the Oilers stuck on the ice. I believe Malenstyn's goal came at the end of one of those shifts, or maybe it was Byram's, and I made the remark that the goal felt inevitable. Long shots are okay, as long as you're crashing the net, obstructing the goalie's view and possibly getting a deflection (doesn't matter if it's off a Sabre or an opponent, as long as it's still on goal). Perimeter shots can be fine, as long as you do it right. The problem with the Sabres in seasons past is they weren't crashing the net with their low guys. That's kind of why I made that remark. I don't trust him either. Then again, just looking at the opinions on Sabrespace, there isn't a clear consensus who should stay, who should go, and who should return to Rochester.

I heard his name mentioned a few times. Meh.

Yeah, for all the people hating on Malenstyn and say he doesn't contribute to scoring... he does contribute by disrupting the other team's offense.

St. Louis Blues have no choice but make a trade for a new goalie to save their season

Kozak is a Sabre now.

He's just more poised. Power is still trying to catch up to the game; Byram is up to speed. Maybe Power gets there, but right now I like Byram better.

Watching them last night reminded me of the Sabres after Ryan O'Reilly was traded. They've got McD and Draisaitl, similar to Eichel/Reinhart and then.... nothing. It's just not sustainable. I said upthread: all you need to do is hit McD every opportunity. Because of their lack of quality forwards, if EDM gets behind they play him more and more and if he's beat up he's not gonna have anything left in the tank at the end of the game. There were only two or three moments where he looked dangerous; the rest of the time he looked tired.

I noticed that on the Amerks roster they list Dunne as a center, and Östlund as a LW.

He also had probably his best game as a Sabre last night, and arguably outplayed McLeod. It's weird: This team seems to have new talent bubbling up and figuring out who to jettison will probably determine the Sabres' success this season.