GDT: 9/22/25--Buffalo Sabres @ Columbus Blue Jackets 7 PM TV: MSG

[PromoTheRobot]

6 minutes ago, DarthEbriate said:

It was nice to see our team’s grinders outwork the other team’s home outfit. 

Nothing fancy. I think Levi had to make the hardest save, but the goaltending was very solid. Patient. In position and square. Dare I say it… efficient, effective, and very very economical. 

Not one breakaway given up all game. 

[Flashsabre]

1 hour ago, PerreaultForever said:

One game obviously but if that is him I'd rather we had some of that jam on the fourth line than what we had last year. Not just because he can obviously "chuck 'em" but he was an immovable object screening on the Byram goal as well. Solid outing but no idea if they will go that way or not. History says no. 

Injuries will hit. Who knows how many games Greenway will play.

There will be games this season where Dunne or Geertsen will get time on the 4th line.

Danforth will be there, Krebs then Beck.   Dunne and Geertsen will be fourth line callups

Edit: and I forgot Kozak who is a gamer. They definitely have 4th line options

Edited 58 minutes ago by Flashsabre

[DarthEbriate]

As @Flashsabre said, Doan did some nice things away from the puck and he helped clear the zone, maintain possession a couple times. Little things. But I think the Quinn-Kulich-Doan line looked the least impressive in terms of overall effort or possession. Kulich was solid as a forechecker. Neither good nor bad for one game. But definitely nothing that jumped out. No glaring mistakes though… which is very important for this team. 

[Broken Ankles]

10 hours ago, OverPowerYou said:

Are the Sabres eliminated yet? 

Bravo!

[Night Train]

[CTJoe]

5 minutes ago, Carmel Corn said:

Not able to see the game.....how did Doan look?

We gave up 0 goals and dominated play and physicality in the last 2 periods.  Defense coverage from the defense and forwards was excellent.  Easiest shutout I've seen in a long time.  Didn't notice Doan, but honestly I didn't notice a lot of the Forwards.  #15 and # 44 were noticeable.  Kesselring was excellent (Power looked very comfortable with him), as was Byrum.  Strange seeing the Sabres jam the front of the net (caused the first 2 goals).  Have a gut feeling Geogiev (spelling) might be out game 1 starter.  Early on, but he's now gone 4 period without allowing a goal.  Georgiev has had 2 NHL season that has dwarfed anything Lyon and UPL has done.  Maybe a smart signing by Adams??

[Pimlach]

16 minutes ago, PerreaultForever said:

Interesting. There does seem to be a better focus on defense this year. At least with these players. Much better on the boards as well compared to last year. 

Georgiev didn't suck. 

Mrtka runs around too much but you can see the skill. With good coaching and development (?) he might be very good in a few years. 

Kesselring is tall but lankier than I thought and for his height kind of skinny. Skates well for a big guy but more Tyler Myers than Risto. Not exactly what I thought he was. Need to see more. 

Not impressed in any way with Doan. One preseason game obviously but if that's him, he's barely a roster player and definitely not a top 6. We may have been sold on some hype and name recognition here. 

That's all. Can't say I paid attention to everybody. 

Kesselring is 6’5” and 215 lbs.   Good size and room to add some muscle.  He can be lanky and physical.  He only has 156 NHL games, he is a 25 year old former 6th rounder.   As you know, players like that take some time to develop, especially defenseman.  Power already has 242 NHL games at 22 years old so all this talk that Kesselring is going to come in and settle Power down and mentor him is asking a lot.   Hoping he is a good compliment to Power in the top 4, but he just has to be better than the guys he replaced (Joker, Clifton, Bernard-Docker) to help the team.  
 

 

[K-9]

1 minute ago, Pimlach said:

Kesselring is 6’5” and 215 lbs.   Good size and room to add some muscle.  He can be lanky and physical.  He only has 156 NHL games, he is a 25 year old former 6th rounder.   As you know, players like that take some time to develop, especially defenseman.  Power already has 242 NHL games at 22 years old so all this talk that Kesselring is going to come in and settle Power down and mentor him is asking a lot.   Hoping he is a good compliment to Power in the top 4, but he just has to be better than the guys he replaced (Joker, Clifton, Bernard-Docker) to help the team.  
 

 

Talk about setting a low bar. 

[DarthEbriate]

The game wasn’t chippy, there wasn’t much rattling of boards. But the Columbus statistician was racking up hits for the Sabres. The Sabres did forecheck well. 

32 hits awarded to Sabres forwards. 7 for Helenius.

I think in Buffalo it’s more like 16 hits. But that’s just me. 

[JohnC]

8 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

Kesselring is 6’5” and 215 lbs.   Good size and room to add some muscle.  He can be lanky and physical.  He only has 156 NHL games, he is a 25 year old former 6th rounder.   As you know, players like that take some time to develop, especially defenseman.  Power already has 242 NHL games at 22 years old so all this talk that Kesselring is going to come in and settle Power down and mentor him is asking a lot.   Hoping he is a good compliment to Power in the top 4, but he just has to be better than the guys he replaced (Joker, Clifton, Bernard-Docker) to help the team.  
 

 

Joker, Clifton and Docker were third pairing caliber of players. As I stated in a previous post, it seems that the projected three pairings i.e. 1.)Dahlin/Byrum, 2.)Power/Kesserling and 3.)Samulesson/Timmons will be slotted where they should be. That in itself is an indication of a better roster construction, at least for this unit. 

Edited 2 hours ago by JohnC

[Pimlach]

2 minutes ago, K-9 said:

Talk about setting a low bar. 

I guess the real bar is Jokiharju since he played with Power a lot, but those are the guys that are out, along with Gilbert.  

Kesselring and Timmins are expected to be upgrades.  Muel is the wild card.  Will he ever be worth the contract?  

[K-9]

Just now, Pimlach said:

I guess the real bar is Jokiharju since he played with Power a lot, but those are the guys that are out, along with Gilbert.  

Kesselring and Timmins are expected to be upgrades.  Muel is the wild card.  Will he ever be worth the contract?  

Unlike Power, I don’t think we’d regret trading Muel for one second. I think Mrtka is better than him already. Can we send Muel back to the WHL as well?

[PromoTheRobot]

18 minutes ago, DarthEbriate said:

The game wasn’t chippy, there wasn’t much rattling of boards. But the Columbus statistician was racking up hits for the Sabres. The Sabres did forecheck well. 

32 hits awarded to Sabres forwards. 7 for Helenius.

I think in Buffalo it’s more like 16 hits. But that’s just me. 

There was one good fight.

[PerreaultForever]

43 minutes ago, Flashsabre said:

Injuries will hit. Who knows how many games Greenway will play.

There will be games this season where Dunne or Geertsen will get time on the 4th line.

Danforth will be there, Krebs then Beck.   Dunne and Geertsen will be fourth line callups

Maybe. Sportsnet had the Columbus broadcast on. They were saying Danforth was their "swiss army knife who could play up and down the roster". I didn't see anything to validate that but if it's true maybe he's that injury plug in guy. 

[PerreaultForever]

30 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

Kesselring is 6’5” and 215 lbs.   Good size and room to add some muscle.  He can be lanky and physical.  He only has 156 NHL games, he is a 25 year old former 6th rounder.   As you know, players like that take some time to develop, especially defenseman.  Power already has 242 NHL games at 22 years old so all this talk that Kesselring is going to come in and settle Power down and mentor him is asking a lot.   Hoping he is a good compliment to Power in the top 4, but he just has to be better than the guys he replaced (Joker, Clifton, Bernard-Docker) to help the team.  
 

 

That's all true. I just thought he was more of a physical thumper than he appears to be. Being in Utah I didn't see much of either of them last year so it's just my wrong impression. We'll see how he actually is over time. 

[sabremike]

 

[Flashsabre]

58 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

I guess the real bar is Jokiharju since he played with Power a lot, but those are the guys that are out, along with Gilbert.  

Kesselring and Timmins are expected to be upgrades.  Muel is the wild card.  Will he ever be worth the contract?  

Muel has one year if that. Novikov is going to come knocking.

[dudacek]

Columbus played one good line of NHL forwards.

Within that context, the Sabres played hard and gave up nothing.

People saying they don’t notice Danforth or Doan should re-watch the game with that in mind.

I thought Dunne acquitted himself pretty well in his brief NHL look last year and looked very good tonight.

The number of times a Jacket was prone in front of the net with Novikov standing over him made my heart smile.

Kesselring looked like what I expected: engaged and competent in all facets of the game.

People might need to re-assess their opinion of Mrtka. That kid turned 18 two months ago. He was playing against men tonight and he was good.

None of it means much, but it was a promising game.

Edited 52 minutes ago by dudacek

[dudacek]

Oh, one more note, Marchenko, Johnson, Fantilli averaged nearly 30 goals per player last year.

Might be wrong, but I’m pretty sure the Kulich line went head to head against them until Evason got tired of losing that battle and broke his big 3 up.