GDT: Sabres @ Bruins - Thurs. 7pm, Dec 7, 2023, MSG/ESPN+ 📺 WGR 📻

[Thorner]

6 minutes ago, Taro T said:

Absolutely HATE the idea of going to 2 if Comrie as he's playing right now is one of the 2.

You, of all people, should be on board with the Sabres doing what it takes to win games.

“Of all people”

haha, ‘spose I’ve played my part well. If it’s going to be Comrie, sure, keep 3 I guess. Comrie stinks 

[SDS]

5 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

Agree.  They were not pressuring the puck enough, too much waiting.  
 

Missing Greenway and Tuch and the long sticks they bring.  

It doesn’t feel like we’re talking about the same thing. 

[K-9]

8 minutes ago, SDS said:

The one weak spot in an unexpectedly joyous evening, was the amount of panic we had in our defensive zone in the third period.

So many guys had complete control of the puck and then decided to ring it around the boards on the glass or failed to get out of his own like Tage did the one time and there was one prior to that too by JJ I think.

Those pucks need to get out.

Been complaining about our lack of poise in the D end all season. Too many un-poised, unnecessary panic plays, especially by our D when if they’d just take an extra half tick to make the calm, simple play they’d get out of trouble. Dahlin is really the only guy we have who does this more often than not.

[GASabresIUFAN]

Just now, Big Guava said:

They ended up having a pretty good chance and actually kicked the crap out of the Bruins on their home ice.

Shockingly.

I did say it would take a miracle performance by our goaltender.  Levi stopped 29 of 30 for a .967 save %.  If we got that kind of goaltending every night we'd be one of the best teams in the NHL.  Sadly, that's only the 11th game this season we have received 900 or better goaltending, and not surprisingly that is only the team's 11th win.

[FrenchConnection44]

😂 What a friggin’ game, lol! 
 

That sequence over the last two minutes was insane! We could not get the puck! But we fought like hell to prevent a goal. What an intense two minutes plus of hockey! Loved it. That’s some great playing.
 

Levi was phenomenal. Even the goal was a freak occurrence.  A kind of unintended own goal by Johnson. 

Pastrnak. That dude is just so sick with the puck! I hate the Bruins but every time he gets the puck I get intrigued about seeing something special. 

[Pimlach]

7 minutes ago, SDS said:

It doesn’t feel like we’re talking about the same thing. 

Late third period. Our defensive zone. Failure to clear a puck for over 2 minutes.  
 

The 5 Sabres did not pressure the puck.  That means pressure the man with the puck to force a turnover.  They formed a box and tried to cut off passing and shooting lanes.  They failed to clear on two chances. Tage was one of them.   Isn’t that the comment?  

Edited December 8, 2023 by Pimlach

[SDS]

5 minutes ago, K-9 said:

Been complaining about our lack of poise in the D end all season. Too many un-poised, unnecessary panic plays, especially by our D when if they’d just take an extra half tick to make the calm, simple play they’d get out of trouble. Dahlin is really the only guy we have who does this more often than not.

It’s certainly much better than in the past where the “Sabres try to clear but it’s kept in the zone” was an in-game go to phrase. However, there were some really noticeable times when the puck needed to get out of the zone and a spectacular play was not needed. Just an average run of the mill one and they spit the bit. 

[Thorner]

9 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

I did say it would take a miracle performance by our goaltender.  Levi stopped 29 of 30 for a .967 save %.  If we got that kind of goaltending every night we'd be one of the best teams in the NHL.  Sadly, that's only the 11th game this season we have received 900 or better goaltending, and not surprisingly that is only the team's 11th win.

It wasn’t a miracle performance, we are just used to the terribly low expectation of a goalie amounting to “not being the reason we lost.”

This is what merely good/ really good goalies do: make a lot of the high danger saves. We need good goalie play to win, sometimes great - but this is what it looks like.

edit - miracle relative to our usual, sure 

Edited December 8, 2023 by Thorny

[Doohicksie]

1 hour ago, ... said:

If you trash-talk here you best trash-talk with facts.

 Good put.  Otherwise I have @Thorny asking me to step outside.  😉

[SDS]

2 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

Late third period. Our defensive zone. Failure to clear a puck for over 2 minutes.  
 

The 5 Sabres did not pressure the puck.  That means pressure the man with the puck to force a turnover.  They formed a box and tried to cut off passing and shooting lanes.  They failed to clear on two chances. Tage was one of them.   Isn’t that the comment?  

Not really. My comment was that there were several times when we had possession of the puck and all we needed to do was make a Calm play and fail to do so. I think it was Samuelson that tried to ring the puck all the way around on the glass that was easily gloved down at the point. Tage had the puck easily on his stick and he tried to make it off the boards and it was stopped. I think JJ tried to do the exact same thing. None of these plays required pressure or long sticks. We already had the puck and we weren’t under any pressure.

[Doohicksie]

1 hour ago, Believer said:

Happy to listen to Granato post game tonight.

How was Robinson?

Robinson was a boost.  Girgensons at this point picks his spots to turn on the speed.  Robinson was Energizer Bunny all night.  He actually scored the first goal in a scrum in front of the goal but it was overturned when they said Okposo interfered with Ullmark.

1 hour ago, Indabuff said:

Enough of this old lady sledding commercial!

Gawd I hate that one.

[Thorner]

1 minute ago, Doohickie said:

 Good put.  Otherwise I have @Thorny asking me to step outside.  😉

[Doohicksie]

1 hour ago, Spoonman said:

1 hour ago, Slack_in_MA said:

That’s not Mrs Robinson….

Since when did facts become so important on this site?  

I know, right?  Blow a post outta your ass just once and people are all over you!

1 hour ago, SDS said:

I lost my subway fare card.

They haven't appified that yet?  Sheesh.  Even Fort Worth has a fare app, and our transit sucks.

[Taro T]

1 minute ago, FrenchConnection44 said:

😂 What a friggin’ game, lol! 
 

That sequence over the last two minutes was insane! We could not get the puck! But we fought like hell to prevent a goal. What an intense two minutes plus of hockey! Loved it. That’s some great playing.
 

Levi was phenomenal. Even the goal was a freak occurrence.  A kind of unintended own goal by Johnson. 

Pastrnak. That dude is just so sick with the puck! I hate the Bruins but every time he gets the puck I get intrigued about seeing something special. 

Levi was.  But the team also, for the 1st time all season, made his job relatively easy.  (Especially, when considering how good the opponent is and how hard his job was the last time he faced them.)  They've played well in front of UPL some, but this was their best game in front of Devon this season by far IMHO.

Yes, he faced a lot of tough chances, but he wasn't facing tic-tac-toe plays through the slot, nor uncovered players on the back door.  The B's didn't have their A game, but the Sabres had theirs for the most part.  

Hated them going into Alamo mode the entire 3rd period.  And, when you get a chance to get the puck out of the zone, get it out of the ####ing zone.  (That stuff will bite them in the butt more often than not.)  But even then, they didn't really give up many great chances to the B's.  People have talked about Mittelstadt making some nice plays to take away chances, but he wasn't the only one.  And when Boston got their great chances, Levi was up to the task.

[Doohicksie]

1 hour ago, Spoonman said:

Duffer recovering from Covid 

Is that what it was?

[Doohicksie]

1 hour ago, Crusader1969 said:

Need a slogan when a team is stoned by Levi   
Being Levied ain't it

1 hour ago, Norcal said:

Levi pantsed em

THIS IS IT!

[Taro T]

5 minutes ago, Doohickie said:

Robinson was a boost.  Girgensons at this point picks his spots to turn on the speed.  Robinson was Energizer Bunny all night.  He actually scored the first goal in a scrum in front of the goal but it was overturned when they said Okposo interfered with Ullmark.

Gawd I hate that one.

Robinson was.  Looking forward to Saturday to see if it was legit fitting in with Krebs or just the 'new team adrenaline burst.'

Jost looked good for about 20 games before settling in to what he is today.

[Stoner]

Maybe some day, before he dies, you'll listen to your grandPA. This isn't his first rodeo.

[Doohicksie]

31 minutes ago, SDS said:

The one weak spot in an unexpectedly joyous evening, was the amount of panic we had in our defensive zone in the third period.

So many guys had complete control of the puck and then decided to ring it around the boards on the glass or failed to get out of his own like Tage did the one time and there was one prior to that too by JJ I think.

Those pucks need to get out.

But they were swarming the Bs when Boston had the puck, especially in the slot, so that counts for something.

[K-9]

12 minutes ago, SDS said:

It’s certainly much better than in the past where the “Sabres try to clear but it’s kept in the zone” was an in-game go to phrase. However, there were some really noticeable times when the puck needed to get out of the zone and a spectacular play was not needed. Just an average run of the mill one and they spit the bit. 

Yep. I can still here RJ and his, “Cleared…but not out!”, calls echoing in my brain. 

[PromoTheRobot]

20 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

I did say it would take a miracle performance by our goaltender.  Levi stopped 29 of 30 for a .967 save %.  If we got that kind of goaltending every night we'd be one of the best teams in the NHL.  Sadly, that's only the 11th game this season we have received 900 or better goaltending, and not surprisingly that is only the team's 11th win.

You know why Levi was so effective tonight? Because the Sabres played solid defense. It makes all the difference. Think about it. There wasn't a single breakaway or Bruin hanging out untouched by the crease tonight.

[Taro T]

3 minutes ago, K-9 said:

Yep. I can still here RJ and his, “Cleared…but not out!”, calls echoing in my brain. 

Mother blankin' Smehlik's middle name.

FTG.

[SDS]

3 minutes ago, Taro T said:

Mother blankin' Smehlik's middle name.

FTG.

I was thinking of the Brian Gionta years. Not that I’m singling him out, but that’s the era where I think we were a very low skilled hockey team.

[pi2000]

1 hour ago, Crusader1969 said:

Need a slogan when a team is stoned by Levi   
Being Levied ain't it 

 

 

 

The Devonator?

[Thorner]

16 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

You know why Levi was so effective tonight? Because the Sabres played solid defense. It makes all the difference. Think about it. There wasn't a single breakaway or Bruin hanging out untouched by the crease tonight.

It’s also because Levi played really well. I caught a ton of breakdowns in the 3rd where he came up huge. I’ll say it every time: it’s both. Simply crediting team D when the goalie plays well and then saying “not even prime hasek could have saved our bacon with that D” every time they don’t just devalues the position in its entirety.

No idea why we want to always pin it on one thing: you need good D and good goaltending. Goaltending has not been good enough overall. Tonight it was 

Don’t undersell what Levi did. He made a couple saves off deflections that if (when) Comrie had let in, we’d say “can’t blame him, deflection.” You can also just make the save. As we saw today 

Edited December 8, 2023 by Thorny