GDT Montreal Canadiens vs Buffalo Sabres 7:30pm ET 11/8/18

[WildCard]

Just now, Thorny said:

On Tim and Sid on Sportsnet today, they were talking about Carey Price's recent struggles and mentioned that he gets a "pass" for yesterday because the Sabres' goals were generally too high-skill to fault the goalie.

Been a while since the Sabres were on that end of the conversation. 

Sobotka's second goal was a rebound Price put right into the slot

Sheary's goal ws difficult but something that can be saved

Both of Skinner's goals aren't his fault

Risto's goal is 100% his fault

[Thorny]

6 minutes ago, WildCard said:

Sobotka's second goal was a rebound Price put right into the slot

Sheary's goal ws difficult but something that can be saved

Both of Skinner's goals aren't his fault

Risto's goal is 100% his fault

Just sayin' what they says.

[Assquatch]

15 hours ago, Huckleberry said:

Everytime someone speaks of her I think of this

 

This just made me go through a 2nd puberty.

[PerreaultForever]

It's too late to really get into discussing this game but the one thing I want to stress was how the team looked after Risto's winner. Big smiles, emotion, comradery, we looked like a team that was starting to believe in itself. This, more than anything else is a huge huge positive change.

[Doohickie]

2 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

comradery

I noticed Berglund gave him warm congrats.  Could he quietly be another veteran presence on the roster, one who can relate to the young Swedes?  He's got three more years; he may be the welcoming committee chairman for the Swedish prospects that will soon get their crack at the lineup.

In general it seems that all of the locker room concerns have evaporated.  Winning helps, but the veterans brought in seem to be really be stabilizing the team, making sure they don't get up or down too much.  Pommer has been great on Jack's line, not just during play but on the bench.  Okie seems to be bringing Mitts along, and the fact that they're both Minnesota boys seems to help their rapport.  Berglund and Sobotka seem to be quietly going about their business and helping carve out a personality for this team.  Skinner and to a lesser extent Sheary are the scoring left wings this team has needed.  It's interesting that each line has a recent acquisition and one could say that the new guys are like glue holding the roster together.  All of the new vets seem to be developing great chemistry with each line.  The common thread seems to be that they're all humble, hard working guys that don't take their positions for granted, and that humility and work ethic seems to be permeating the roster.

[Doohickie]

On 11/8/2018 at 11:04 PM, nfreeman said:

Separately, Ullmark really fell apart in that game.

I watched the game on a small tablet Thursday, so when I got home from my business trip I decided to chill out from the flight and drive home by re-watching the game on a real TV.  For as bad as he looked on the goals, he actually made several very impressive saves; saves that I doubt Hutton would have made.  Had Hutton started it may very well have been 5-4 MTL going into the third although it would have been a different 5 goals.  I see Ullmark's performance against the Habs as a learning experience.  One of the tweets from the practice report thread from Friday said "Ullmark was doing early work to try to identify issues with positioning."  We have to remember that while he's a mature prospect and more or less ready for NHL duty, he's still learning.

I'll said it yet again:  For all the mistakes on defense (including Ullmark's gaffs), this is the kind of game we dreamed of during the tank.  This team is finally pulling in a common direction, playing for each other, and doing it with greater consistency that any time in the last five years.  You can't point to one thing and say it's the reason for the team's success to date; it's a myriad of improvements, blatant and subtle, that all contribute.

Now that Jack has a soul-mate winger, now that Mitts is developing into a very talented center, now that Pommer and Okie are rejuvenated, now that Berglund has given a steadying backbone to the shut-down line, now that ERod is playing with confidence, now that... well you get the idea, the team is winning games and is fun to watch.

Having said that, Vancouver could be a tough game.  Even if they lose, I hope they get something out of the experience; I hope they get a glimpse of what they need to improve individually and as a unit to beat top teams.