🏒 Buffalo @ Columbus, 7 December 2022 7:30 PM ET, TNT TV, WGR Radio

[North Buffalo]

6 hours ago, Doohickie said:

For both lines, yes.  I think Jost has an energy that's positively influencing Mitts and even Ollie a little.  Krebs needs the training wheels of Okie and Gus to rehabilitate his game and I think it's working.

Yes his goal was all about hustle... it was a thing of beauty... used his skill and speed to do a classic Okie thingy... forecheck, lift a stick and cut to the net... he keeps doing that...

[LGR4GM]

8 hours ago, JohnC said:

One of the most interesting things about watching this game was the commentary during the periods. Each of the commentators basically made the same comment/observation that it is clear that this team has mastered the art of offense. But in order to make the leap from an interesting and entertaining team to being a serious team, they have to sacrifice some of their offensive style of play to a more responsible defensive game. In this game, the Sabres didn't show that they can do it just yet. (My opinion.) Clearly, the goaltending is not good enough. Also, this team gives up too many quality chances to the opposition. Once there is a better balance between the offense and defense, this team will be a factor. We're not there yet. 

We just won by 5 goals. I'll worry about defense another day. 

[LGR4GM]

8 hours ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

It’s what I’ve been saying for weeks.  If not now with our offense is at the top of the NHL, when are we ever going to flip the switch and try to win?  How many of the goals CBJ scored when Bryson and Pilut were on the ice? The answer is all of them.  Time to make a move.

We're all of them with that pair on the ice?

[LGR4GM]

8 hours ago, Crusader1969 said:

Yes but 23 is definitely young for a goalie

Who knows what UPL will turn into when he is a few years older.  

And 2 years ago Dahlin should have been traded and Tage released.  He’s a young goalie, relax 

Anyone saying 20yr of Dahlin should be traded was wrong then and still wrong today. 

Tage is an exception. 

UPL, doesn't look good in the AHL or in the NHL. How many years do we wait before we upgrade him because he might maybe someday be an average nhl starter?

[K-9]

6 hours ago, bunomatic said:

Donnie knows who butters his bread. How can he not love Tage?

Must be an interesting dynamic for Donnie G and some of those players he’s known since they were kids in the US development program. 

[DarthEbriate]

Stupid TNT. The channel and its complete unaffiliation with any of my streaming options, and not the player, obviously. 
CLB forwards: Our netminders can’t repel firepower of that magnitude.

CLB coach: Their UPL will have his shield down, we’ve got to give you more time. 
<scene cuts to another Tagerblast>

[JohnC]

57 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

We just won by 5 goals. I'll worry about defense another day. 

Your response makes no sense. I was commenting about this game and how the team played. And I noted that the commentators on the broadcast prior to the game, and during the periods accentuated the same point about the delicate balancing of the offense and defense for the Sabres. Those observations are the same observations that are frequently made on this site i.e. that the Sabres are leading the league in giving up high danger shots. 

What does it mean to score 9 goals against a team whose goalie play was atrocious? (Our goalie play was far from elite.) You are making a mistake if you give too much credence to a shootout win against a team that is deliberately tanking. And how will that loose defensive play translate when we play Boston or Tampa?

A win is a win. I'm not complaining. But when it gets to the point that an overseer is disturbed by an accurate observation made by everyone in the broadcast room, then it's time for the overseer to take a chill pill. 

 

[Weave]

Gat dam.  It hit the witching hour last night and all the active threads became unreadable.

Who left the front door open last night?

[shrader]

2 minutes ago, Weave said:

Gat dam.  It hit the witching hour last night and all the active threads became unreadable.

Who left the front door open last night?

It seems that we have a bit of an infestation. 

[GASabresIUFAN]

1 hour ago, LGR4GM said:

We're all of them with that pair on the ice?

All with at least one of the two and the first two with both.

[ddaryl]

11 hours ago, JohninMinn. said:

Feed the Tage..

 

[matter2003]

2 hours ago, North Buffalo said:

Yes his goal was all about hustle... it was a thing of beauty... used his skill and speed to do a classic Okie thingy... forecheck, lift a stick and cut to the net... he keeps doing that...

We may not be happy with the results Krebs has been getting, but the kid works hard...was happy to see it finally pay off.

[WhenWillItEnd66]

23 hours ago, nfreeman said:

Does anyone have an injury update on Lyubushkin?

That was a fun game to watch. Tage has been and is a Monster. With the talent that can get him open and fed, he is going to have a monster year! A game like yesterday shows what we can do on a nightly basis. 6K looked both great and horrible last night. Let the kid play and lets see if he can find a rhythm. Offense is so good we afford a crappy goal or 2 a night. When we get a healthy Bush back our defense will get better.  

[matter2003]

1 hour ago, JohnC said:

Your response makes no sense. I was commenting about this game and how the team played. And I noted that the commentators on the broadcast prior to the game, and during the periods accentuated the same point about the delicate balancing of the offense and defense for the Sabres. Those observations are the same observations that are frequently made on this site i.e. that the Sabres are leading the league in giving up high danger shots. 

What does it mean to score 9 goals against a team whose goalie play was atrocious? (Our goalie play was far from elite.) You are making a mistake if you give too much credence to a shootout win against a team that is deliberately tanking. And how will that loose defensive play translate when we play Boston or Tampa?

A win is a win. I'm not complaining. But when it gets to the point that an overseer is disturbed by an accurate observation made by everyone in the broadcast room, then it's time for the overseer to take a chill pill. 

 

They should have allowed no more than 2 goals last night.  UPL's best and most consistent ability is to allow at least 1-2 goals a game that have no business being NHL level goals.  He gets beat cleanly from distance when he has clear views of the puck far far too often and it's due to terrible positioning.  It's like he doesn't know where he is in relation to the net sometimes when he comes out to challenge shooters and instead of using his 6'5" frame to take up more of the space, it's almost like he tries to be 5'10" by crouching down so far that is opens up more space than there should be, especially high blocker.

Analytics confirm what we see...he is one of the worst goalies in the NHL. He allows .597 goals per game more than expected(58th out of 68th), his GAA is 4.15 but xGAA is 3.55(61st out of 68th).  He should not be in the NHL.

Edited December 8, 2022 by matter2003

[rickshaw]

It would have been great had they locked the game down and won 9-2. 4 goals against doesn’t win ya too many. UPL has 3 wins letting in 9. 21 for makes me win those games too. 
 

I’d love to see us make a move for a goalie and D man. 
 

Side note. 37 and 71 aren’t doing the job. Hard to mess up other lines chemistry though. Maybe a press box seat would do them some good.

Great night though. 

[That Aud Smell]

6 minutes ago, matter2003 said:

We may not be happy with the results Krebs has been getting, but the kid works hard...was happy to see it finally pay off.

Speaking of hustle - I saw Mittelstadt deny a breakaway to Gudreau (so many likely spelling errors here) by hauling ass back into the neutral zone.

[matter2003]

2 minutes ago, rickshaw said:

It would have been great had they locked the game down and won 9-2. 4 goals against doesn’t win ya too many. UPL has 3 wins letting in 9. 21 for makes me win those games too. 
 

I’d love to see us make a move for a goalie and D man. 
 

Side note. 37 and 71 aren’t doing the job. Hard to mess up other lines chemistry though. Maybe a press box seat would do them some good.

Great night though. 

You can't lock a game down when your goalie gets beat from anywhere on the ice routinely.  There is no shot that is a guaranteed save with UPL.

[LGR4GM]

1 hour ago, JohnC said:

But when it gets to the point that an overseer is disturbed by an accurate observation made by everyone in the broadcast room, then it's time for the overseer to take a chill pill. 

 

[LGR4GM]

1 hour ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

All with at least one of the two and the first two with both.

Yea, it is time to up the level of aggression we have in making a trade for a defender. 

[GASabresIUFAN]

1 minute ago, LGR4GM said:

Yea, it is time to up the level of aggression we have in making a trade for a defender. 

The trade should have happened when Mule went down.  

It’s time for KA to get off his behind and fix the D.

[Mustache of God]

7 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

The trade should have happened when Mule went down.  

It’s time for KA to get off his behind and fix the D.

Seriously, from 21-23 drafts we have 4 1st round picks (Rosen, Savoie, Östlund, Kulich, 23 1st) who haven't played an NHL game yet and 5 2nd round picks (Polapov, Kisakov, and three '23 2nd rounders) - I am not counting the goalie we drafted in the 2nd round because we need him for depth. That's 9 high draft picks, all forwards, that can be packaged with a Mitts or VO to bring in some defensive help. Tage and Skinner are locked up long term, Cozens is next and JJ and Quinn aren't going anywhere, plus I can see Tuch signing an extension. We simply don't have room for all of these picks, now is the time to use the draft capital to improve the team.

We have a top offense in the league, tighten up the D and we will make the playoffs. 

[Doohickie]

2 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

We're all of them with that pair on the ice?

Let's put it this way:  Pilut was -2 for the night and Bryson was -1 despite having 2 assists.  No other defenders were negative.

[LGR4GM]

35 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

The trade should have happened when Mule went down.  

It’s time for KA to get off his behind and fix the D.

I know you have pushed this but trades like the one you want early in the season are exceedingly rare. Teams simply don't trade much in October-December. End of January you might start to see some movement. 

Come on now, Adams may have flaws but he isn't sitting on his butt not doing anything. It just doesn't fit who he is. 

[Pimlach]

2 hours ago, Weave said:

Gat dam.  It hit the witching hour last night and all the active threads became unreadable.

Who left the front door open last night?

Just wait until they get that 3rd center, 4th D, and #1 G.  This place will be crawling with hockey experts looking for Rob Ray and Mathew Barnaby.  

[GASabresIUFAN]

16 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

I know you have pushed this but trades like the one you want early in the season are exceedingly rare. Teams simply don't trade much in October-December. End of January you might start to see some movement. 

Come on now, Adams may have flaws but he isn't sitting on his butt not doing anything. It just doesn't fit who he is. 

I agree generally that it's hard to get deals done at this time of year but not impossible.  However it is different this year because of the top 3 kids in the draft are game changers.  I fully believe teams will tank early and often this year to try to get into contention for these kids.  There are 4 teams that are already done in CBJ, Chi, AZ and Ana and another three close to oblivion in Ott, Philly, & SJS.  Even team on the bubble like us are floating trades like Van on Boeser and Demko.  

I would think there is a deal to be had with one of the 7 bad teams that could help our depth on D without breaking the bank, especially cap spending but failing teams like CBJ and Philly. I mentioned McCabe in Chicago.  We know Chychrun is on the market. Maybe CBJ would trade us the 6'3 Gavrikov to partner with Bush?  Maybe it's time to get Reilly from Boston.

Doing nothing to support this team IMHO is verging on criminal and making a deal at the deadline is 3 months to late.

 

Edited December 8, 2022 by GASabresIUFAN