Doohickie

A lot of game left. Don't panic.

Granato with more instructional video.

How Grošek.

We change this weekend.

I think it was an okay first period with two glaring errors, one of which ended up in the back of their net. Still like our prospects for a win. I never heard of the Jagr salute. Was that a thing?

Yeah... not a fan. The Sabres need to keep their pressure on and maybe just be a bit more defensively aware. They will wear the Pens out.

Play the whole game in the Pitt zone, the Pens score first.

I get the impression Clague may have been a mature prospect in a system with no clear path to the NHL.

What's that now? Wut wut? Their respective parents still live on the same street, yeah.

Oh, I see that. It's just that Pitt @ Buff is not one of the options when I click on that. The first Buffalo game is Carolina on Friday. Do you have basic Hulu ($7.99/mo) or Hulu + Live TV ($69.99)? It looks like the TNT options under the basic plan which I have does not include TNT live programming, just streaming of past programs. Maybe the Live TV package includes TNT live programming (which would give you the game).

Nope. Not me.

I just checked.... no Hulu. If you have a Hulu account that has a local TV package and/or a "basic cable" package that included TNT, maybe Hulu shows it. I just have basic Hulu.

I just checked: The next Sabres game on Hulu is against Carolina.

By the way, tonight's game (11/2) against the Penguins is one of those games you need TNT to watch.

On your butt, right above the tattoo

I think Joki is actually close. And it depends on the injury and how it fits with the helmet but I'm pretty sure he'll be wearing a full mask when he first gets back so I expect that he'll pretty quickly be back at 100% effectiveness.

Bold prediction: The genie is out of the bottle and the Pens can't get it back in. Sabres 9 - Pens 3. Hattie for Skinner; two each for Cozens and Mitts, Tuch and Dahls round out the scoring.

And the Sabres already have "pedestrian replacements" that they signed in the offseason for the AHL.

It only worked out for the Sabres because Granato moved Tage back to center. If he was still on the wing he would still suck. Also a happy coincidence (for Tage at least) that Mitts got injured as the season started which thrusted Tage to the top line.

So you'll be watching the game with @inkman's mother-in-law?

I think if you ask some of the other posters they'd say I'm irrational but not exuberant.

Krebs is one of this year's whipping boys but he's light years ahead of previous years' roster fillers. This is something we've hoped for and dreamed of for years.

That's never been Granato's philosophy. It's always been if you play the right way, the results will come. If you disagree with that you'll never be happy with Granato. I think the corollary from Donny's perspective is, if you play the right way you will eventually learn that winning comes first and losing is unacceptable, but telling someone that won't be as powerful as if they take that on themselves. In a way, "If you play the right way, the results will come" is a logical equivalent to McDemott's "Trust the process." There is an element of trust in the method of playing the right way. It's hard because we see the Bills over that hump but the Sabres are still looking up. I think it's critical to stay the course though rather than looking for quick but possibly temporary fixes.

I'm not sure I agree. They're not Dahlins but they're not trying to be. As long as the whole team (not just the D) keeps their gaps close they may be serviceable. I'll put a big ol' disclaimer on that and say I might be totally wrong, but we should know in a week or two. But I think those three in particular may take steps up with increased NHL minutes. And think of this as an investment in the future: If they do prove they can play at the NHL level it will increase our defensive depth and we'll be that much better off when Boosh, Joki and Muel return due to the NHL experience the AHLers got. We might find that they're not simply AHLers but actually valid NHL depth. They seem like NHL no-names but I think Claugue and Davies (not previously mentioned but 7D right now) may have been picked similar to how they selected Comrie: The analytics and scouting departments identified them as mature prospects who have had to work to get where they are and were blocked on their former teams but are ready to take a step up, and are players that bring good character traits to the room.