November 5th practice notes

[LGR4GM]

 

Kozak practiced and Ruff is hopeful he'll play tomorrow. Norris has begun skating on his own. 

[LGR4GM]

UPL has said he'll be starting tomorrow. 

[Taro T]

46 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

UPL has said he'll be starting tomorrow. 

As expected.  But it would've been nice for them to give Ellis that start against his old organization.

[DarthEbriate]

41 minutes ago, Taro T said:

As expected.  But it would've been nice for them to give Ellis that start against his old organization.

If you aren't going to give him St. Louis and the motivation of "You shouldn't have a waived me. Look at your crap goaltending now" then I don't know when he will play with the 3-headed monster. Goalie Hydra!

 

Question: Has Ellis been practicing since he twinged his back?

[Taro T]

1 minute ago, DarthEbriate said:

If you aren't going to give him St. Louis and the motivation of "You shouldn't have a waived me. Look at your crap goaltending now" then I don't know when he will play with the 3-headed monster. Goalie Hydra!

 

Question: Has Ellis been practicing since he twinged his back?

Agreed.

No data on if he's been practicing since then, but he has not dressed for a game since then.

Ruff does continue to say he's willing to play all 3 and will play whichever one on any given night he thinks will give them the best chance of winning.  (And with that said, we haven't seen Ellis dress in about 2 weeks.)

[Pimlach]

Sure seems like Ellis tweaked something, he is not dressing. 

That is just how the season is going so far. 

We started with a bunch of defenseman dinged up, now its forwards, we are carrying 3 goalies, and for some reason are not playing the one we know very little about.  

[Archie Lee]

I think Ellis will be waived as soon as the Sabres are healthy enough to need the 23rd roster spot. I think they have just been waiting for the 30 days to pass in order to increase the likelihood he clears.

[LGR4GM]

Just now, Archie Lee said:

I think Ellis will be waived as soon as the Sabres are healthy enough to need the 23rd roster spot. I think they have just been waiting for the 30 days to pass in order to increase the likelihood he clears.

He clears and goes where to play when?

[DarthEbriate]

9 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

He clears and goes where to play when?

Beat St Louis tomorrow -- then waive him after the 30 days -- and they're second in line to claim him (for NHL). They then ride their own Goalie Hydra for awhile -- until they waive Hofer. Sabres then put in a claim for Hofer in a couple weeks. Rinse and repeat.

[Broken Ankles]

7 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

 

Kozak practiced and Ruff is hopeful he'll play tomorrow. Norris has begun skating on his own. 

Not a fan of these lines at all.  Moving Doan off a higher scoring line to accommodate a move up of McCleod to the first line is just asinine.  We all know Ruff thinks Tage cannot play center, so I guess we need to break up the entire Tuch/McC/Doan line which has been consistently good. 

https://www.naturalstattrick.com/linestats.php?fromseason=20252026&thruseason=20252026&stype=2&sit=5v5&score=all&rate=n&team=BUF&vteam=ALL&view=wowy&loc=B&gpfilt=none&fd=2025-10-07&td=2026-04-16&tgp=2000&strict=incl&p1=8482659&p2=8477949&p3=8480802&p4=0&p5=0

 

The current second line will get crushed out there.  Why not start Softie McSupple at RW?  Not available? 

Maybe  he’s trying a shut down line of Doan/Krebs/Greenway to play against their first line and sees more 5v5 minutes than either Tages line or the three yutes, but I guess we’ll have to see how they are deployed. 

 

Edited 3 hours ago by Broken Ankles

[Slack_in_MA]

20 minutes ago, Broken Ankles said:

...than either Tages line or the three yutes, but I guess we’ll have to see how they are deployed. 

 

 

Nice...

Edited 7 hours ago by Slack_in_MA

[Archie Lee]

1 hour ago, LGR4GM said:

He clears and goes where to play when?

He goes to Rochester I imagine. Whether he stays in Buffalo or gets waived to Rochester, the Sabres will have more goalies than ice time for them. 

[K-9]

47 minutes ago, Broken Ankles said:

Not a fan of these line at all.  Moving Doan off a higher scoring line to accommodate a move up of McCleod to the first line is just asinine.  We all know Ruff thinks Tage cannot play center, so I guess we need to break up the entire Tuch/McC/Doan line which has been consistently good. 

https://www.naturalstattrick.com/linestats.php?fromseason=20252026&thruseason=20252026&stype=2&sit=5v5&score=all&rate=n&team=BUF&vteam=ALL&view=wowy&loc=B&gpfilt=none&fd=2025-10-07&td=2026-04-16&tgp=2000&strict=incl&p1=8482659&p2=8477949&p3=8480802&p4=0&p5=0

 

The current second line will get crushed out there.  Why not start Softie McSupple at RW?  Not available? 

Maybe  he’s trying a shut down line of Doan/Krebs/Greenway to play against their first line and sees more 5v5 minutes than either Tages line or the three yutes, but I guess we’ll have to see how they are deployed. 

 

I agree about breaking up the Tuch, McCloud, Doan line. It borders on stupid. I’d rather see Östlund centering Tage and Rosen. They should have been seeing the ice in the OT last night. If they look overwhelmed (and I doubt they will) then mix up the lines again. 

[DarthEbriate]

It's a pretty rough punishment for Doan's penalty or for Tuch shooting wide of the net on the 3-on-1 rush. They've been the best and most consistent line for the season (ever since Benson came back into the lineup). They're 5-1-4 since that line came together -- and have still picked up points with Benson back out of the lineup.

[Broken Ankles]

1 hour ago, Slack_in_MA said:

 

Nice...

It was a callback to another thread about Utah.  Not sure if you were the orignal poster, but I thought it was worthy of a second mention. 

[Doohickie]

2 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

He clears and goes where to play when?

Rochester.  Bye bye Georgiev.

[Doohickie]

2 hours ago, Broken Ankles said:

Not a fan of these line at all.

I think with the pieces available they're about right.  The Krebs line looks like it will be absolutely hell to play against.  Bangers all, but all have decent scoring touch.

[shrader]

3 hours ago, Archie Lee said:

I think Ellis will be waived as soon as the Sabres are healthy enough to need the 23rd roster spot. I think they have just been waiting for the 30 days to pass in order to increase the likelihood he clears.

I’m seeing stories of the Sabres claiming him dated 10/6. We should be at that 30 day mark now. 

[LGR4GM]

40 minutes ago, Doohickie said:

Rochester.  Bye bye Georgiev.

Cool great, so now he's getting what? 1 game ever 12 days while Rochester plays Levi and Leinonen, and him? 

It's not logical 

[Taro T]

5 minutes ago, shrader said:

I’m seeing stories of the Sabres claiming him dated 10/6. We should be at that 30 day mark now. 

Not sure if the 30 day clock starts at the day he was claimed or the day the season starts for claims made before they start playing.  So they MIGHT not quite be there yet.

[Doohickie]

2 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

Cool great, so now he's getting what? 1 game ever 12 days while Rochester plays Levi and Leinonen, and him? 

It's not logical 

Eh.  Let Ellis and Levi fight it out.  I thought competing for ice time was good?

[shrader]

2 minutes ago, Taro T said:

Not sure if the 30 day clock starts at the day he was claimed or the day the season starts for claims made before they start playing.  So they MIGHT not quite be there yet.

So in that case would it be the start of the NHL season or the Sabre season? I guess I’m not sure if they even consider that the start of the season. 

[kas23]

46 minutes ago, Doohickie said:

Rochester.  Bye bye Georgiev.

He can go to Rochester, but will need to pass through waivers. Someone will likely grab him. Maybe STL again. 

[Taro T]

Just now, shrader said:

So in that case would it be the start of the NHL season or the Sabre season? I guess I’m not sure if they even consider that the start of the season. 

No data.  Haven't looked that closely at that as it's only relevant for about 1 week out of the year.

[SABRES 0311]

I kind of want to see what happens if Doan plays with Rosen and Östlund. That line with Quinn has been playing well so no reason to change I guess.