GDT Columbus at Buffalo 9/23/25 7 pm Streaming Sabres.com, WGR 550

[K-9]

I thought Rosen had a few good moments as well tonight 

[LGR4GM]

16 minutes ago, Doohickie said:

From what little I've seen I thought, wow, it's so great to have a huge physical forward and then I looked... he's 5-11, 190?  Either he's grown a lot or he plays way bigger than his size.

Bigger than his size. He's basically similar to Benson or Doan

[Turbo44]

21 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

Bigger than his size. He's basically similar to Benson or Doan

???! Benson is 5’9” Doan is 6’2”

[LGR4GM]

1 minute ago, Turbo44 said:

???! Benson is 5’9” Doan is 6’2”

They play hockey in a similar way.

Zach Benson is 5'10" btw

[PerreaultForever]

Sportsnet didn't deem this game worthy of coverage. So I only saw the highlight package and couldn't tell much from it. So only one question, was Norris any good? Did he have chemistry with Tage?

[zow2]

1 hour ago, SABRES 0311 said:

He’s hurt. Week to week or something. Personally I think we should flip the net over and turn it around to give us a better chance than UPL.

They shoulda found a trade partner for him.  Time to move on and give some other guys the keys.

[inkman]

1 hour ago, K-9 said:

Chintzy call.

I guess I never thought about how you spelll it. Been saying it for years. 

[GASabresIUFAN]

2 hours ago, DarthEbriate said:

They're on to something. Levi is the closer. Switch starters. Go full goalie rotation. UPL as long relief for when someone gets shelled.

Bold new strategy to dress... five goalies???

Who is the 5th?

[erickompositör72]

23 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

Who is the 5th?

Ryan Vinz

[SABRES 0311]

3 hours ago, DarthEbriate said:

They're on to something. Levi is the closer. Switch starters. Go full goalie rotation. UPL as long relief for when someone gets shelled.

Bold new strategy to dress... five goalies???

Like baseball you got a starter, relief, and closer.

[Night Train]

How often would the Sabres need a closer ?

  That would constitute finishing chances and scoring goals.  They can't hit a soccer net many nights. 

 To be determined.  

 

[Flashsabre]

Helenuis has looked good. I’d say one more year in Rochester than he is up with the Sabres.

Him and Mrtka have acquitted themselves nicely this camp. I’d send Mrtka to Seattle and let him dominate the WHL this season. Dont rush these guys.

[LGR4GM]

Game thoughts:

McLeod, Zucker, Helenius were effective at mostly getting pucks up ice and keeping their zone clear. Helenius needs more time but he dominated the shift he got an assist on.

Samuelsson looked slow. He had some nice moments but he also got caught and turned pucks over. I think his skating is very average and lacks agility. Personally, Novikov is ever so close to him but not yet... not yet. 

Dahlin is very good. 

Bryson shouldn't have a roster spot. Luca Del Bel Belluz mauled him a few teams by being bigger and faster... but hey! We have Leinonen so ... yea. Anyways, Bryson has no spot. Johnson was better than Bryson and I thought showed solid if not exciting play. 

No goalie notes, they weren't under much pressure. 

Norris looked okay but Thompson was the driver and star of that line. Benson looked faster and as usual, won battles, made passes, forechecking machine. 

You can tell teams are shaking off rust and the defense Buffalo iced was bad. Felt the forwards were held back by them, without Dahlin on the ice breakouts and entries seemed hard. 

The PP is stupid and looks the same. No acknowledgement of why it doesn't work from this team. 

Finally, there were several instances I thought they could have pushed play but instead reloaded in the neutral zone. Clear message of dropping back. 

 

Edited September 24 by LGR4GM

[bob_sauve28]

 

[bob_sauve28]

 

[Jorcus]

10 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

Sportsnet didn't deem this game worthy of coverage. So I only saw the highlight package and couldn't tell much from it. So only one question, was Norris any good? Did he have chemistry with Tage?

 

I thought Norris looked good. He missed a few good chances. I think Thompson and Norris were still looking for each other rather than knowing where the other guy will be. That will come with time. Norris speed was noticeable. Say what you want about the Sabres but the center spine of Norris, McLeod, Kulich, and Krebs is faster than most. I expect a lot of breakaway chances.  

[DarthEbriate]

8 hours ago, erickompositör72 said:

Ryan Vinz

Nice one. I'd have said Houser.

[That Aud Smell]

Sounds like Helenius needs a Luke Adam Bucket Whack.

[DarthEbriate]

7 hours ago, SABRES 0311 said:

Like baseball you got a starter, relief, and closer.

Shootout/penalty shot specialist. And ideally, you get a goalie who catches right-handed to really mess with the shooter's minds.

[mjd1001]

58 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

 

Norris looked okay but Thompson was the driver and star of that line. Benson looked faster and as usual, won battles, made passes, forechecking machine.

 

Which is why I'm leaning toward Norris not being on the same line with tage. Tage doesn't need him. 

Tage creates his own scoring chances and puts his own scoring chances away. He's one of the best in the league at that. If Norris has talent, let Norris's talent Help guys on other lines. 

In short, other guys need Norris a lot more than Tage does.

I'm not saying to put tage out there with a couple ahl-ers, but put him out there with a guy like Benson who will do the dirty work and will help keep the puck out of the defensive zone.

Benson does not have anywhere close to a good shot. It doesn't matter if he's out there with tage, he can do everything else on the ice but tage is going to get in position and take the shots.

Edited September 24 by mjd1001

[Pimlach]

Sounds like I missed a good game.  

Helenius played 2 games in a row so he knows he is getting a look.  

 

[LGR4GM]

1 minute ago, mjd1001 said:

Which is why I'm leaning toward Norris not being on the same line with tage. Tage doesn't need him. 

Tage creates his own scoring chances and puts his own scoring chances away. He's one of the best in the league at that. If Norris has talent, let Norris's talent Help guys on other lines. 

In short, other guys need Norris a lot more than Tage does.

I'm not saying to put tage out there with a couple ahl-ers, but put him out there with a guy like Benson who will do the dirty work and will help keep the puck out of the defensive zone.

You have McLeod and Kulich, who are you putting with Tage?

Also Norris isn't a play driver at least imo.

[mjd1001]

4 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

You have McLeod and Kulich, who are you putting with Tage?

Also Norris isn't a play driver at least imo.

If Norris is not a play driver, all the more reason I don't want him with Paige. He's a scorer, I don't want him taking any shots away from tage.

I'm starting with Kulich.

I posted this a few weeks ago but him and tage together were an elite goal scoring combination. Not for a game. Not for a week, but for a quarter of a season they played together. 

They had better numbers as a combo than Matthews and marner did for the season. Their numbers were even slightly better than McDavid and Draisatl playing together.

Now I don't expect them for a full season to necessarily be better than those guys. But if they were that good.... And 20+ games is a decent sample size, I want to try it again and at least see how it goes. 

If it doesn't work after a while then make a change. But I cannot fathom why they don't want to to keep that combo going after how they played last year. At times they dominated play and their analytics were off the charts.

 

Edited September 24 by mjd1001

[LGR4GM]

4 minutes ago, mjd1001 said:

If Norris is not a play driver, all the more reason I don't want him with Paige. He's a scorer, I don't want him taking any shots away from tage.

I'm starting with Kulich.

I posted this a few weeks ago but him and tage together were an elite goal scoring combination. Not for a game. Not for a week, but for a quarter of a season they played together. 

They had better numbers as a combo than Matthews and marner did for the season. Their numbers were even slightly better than McDavid and Draisatl playing together.

Now I don't expect them for a full season to necessarily be better than those guys. But if they were that good.... And 20+ games is a decent sample size, I want to try it again and at least see how it goes. 

If it doesn't work after a while then make a change. But I cannot fathom why they don't want to to keep that combo going after how they played last year. At times they dominated play and their analytics were off the charts.

 

Probably because Ruff isn't that good of a coach and Kulich is 21.

[mjd1001]

12 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

Probably because Ruff isn't that good of a coach and Kulich is 21.

Yeah, I'm not denying that Kulich might have some growing to do in his game, and there's a possibility he could take a step back. 

I'm just saying that I would start there and then make changes if necessary after you see it works or doesn't work. 

Maybe the coaching staff thinks a key to this team's success is getting good on the power play... And you want Thompson and Norris to play together to develop chemistry that will translate to the power play? I don't know.

I'm supposed to be working now so I don't have time at the moment... But I think an interesting project might be to look at Norris's numbers in Ottawa. Who is he the most and least productive with? Where were his analytics good versus bad? Basically, to find out what type of player in Ottawa he played the best with versus not so well.

 

Edited September 24 by mjd1001