GDT: Blues @ Sabres, 7:00pm Nov. 6, 2025, 🎙 📺 ESPN+/MSG

[LGR4GM]

9 minutes ago, Weave said:

So, the Blues played a back to back, had a FULL practice in between, had the statistically worst goalie in the league in net, and we got shut out?

[inkman]

7 hours ago, Gatorman0519 said:

They have won 4 games in regulation out of 14 games. That is really bad. If not for the loser point, they’d be buried already. 

Hey they are .500 according to people who don’t understand life and just want to look at the NHL’s point system and scream what a success the Sabres are.  

[LGR4GM]

Thompson, Tuch, Dahlin. The core of the team was in and the failed. 

[Pimlach]

11 hours ago, Scottysabres said:

Wow, just horrible hockey. This isn’t bad coaching, it’s bad GM’ing.

The coaching is terrible.  The lines were terrible.  There was no effort to counter the simple game that the Blues were playing.  

The decision to play UPL, the power play, etc.  

[Slack_in_MA]

8 hours ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

Well at least they didn’t lose again in OT.

Hard to believe that they just got shut out by the worst team in the NHL on the back-end of a road back to back with a goalie who had a 5.02 gaa.  Truly a new low and that is saying something.

At home

[Pimlach]

10 hours ago, Mango said:

Yeah, I don't get the Ruff anger here. The issue is the Pegula, Adams, Forton clan. Hands down.

There was no other realistic hire that that group was going to make that's significantly better than Lindy. There just isn't.

With Adams in House, Appert is the heir apparent and we'll beg for Lindy back.

There were SEVERAL veteran coaches out there when Lindy was hired. NONE OF THEM WERE FORMALLY INTERVIEWED.  

 

[Pimlach]

1 hour ago, Weave said:

So, the Blues played a back to back, had a FULL practice in between, had the statistically worst goalie in the league in net, and we got shut out?

Yes.  And do not forget that the Blues coach benched Kyrou and Sunquist on top of that.  

[Ogelthorpe]

Sub .900 save % again for UPL. complete trash

[Bangarang]

Imagine having somewhat decent goaltending to start the year and then making the decision to insert UPL and flushing it down the toilet. 

Also, Tage looks terrible. He desperately needs a center that can drive play and create chances for him. 

[Mango]

24 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

There were SEVERAL veteran coaches out there when Lindy was hired. NONE OF THEM WERE FORMALLY INTERVIEWED.  

 

That is literally my point. Lindy is a "fine" coach. But the best coach the Pegula/Adams were ever going to actually hire. 

Could you hire a better coach then Lindy? Sure

Was Pegula/Adams going to hire a better coach than Lindy? No. 

This is a group that has whined and cried and given up under what 3, 4 head coaches now? 

[GASabresIUFAN]

39 minutes ago, Slack_in_MA said:

At home

....and in the goat head uniforms.

[JohnC]

28 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

There were SEVERAL veteran coaches out there when Lindy was hired. NONE OF THEM WERE FORMALLY INTERVIEWED.  

 

As you noted, this was a fraudulent "coaching search" that fooled no one. Everyone who had a penny's worth of sense recognized that the hiring process was an undisguised charade. It was lame to even try to call it as anything other than for what it was i.e. an owner's hire. The disqualifying issue isn't that Ruff was selected as the HC. It was that a critical hire, like the GM hire, was made based on the whim of an incompetent and hubristic owner. It isn't a surprise that when an organization acts in a third-rate manner that the end product is third-rate. Ownership matters!

[DarthEbriate]

23 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

....and in the goat head uniforms.

The final nail in the coffin.

 

The thread this morning reads like 12 days of xmas.

The Sabres got shut out / Blues were back-to-back / full morning practice / Kyrou healthy scratch / Baaaackup goallieeeeeee / 5 hit posts / 70% puck battles lost / all this was at home / a brand-new Sheevyn thread .... and while wearing the goat head uniforms!

Edited 2 hours ago by DarthEbriate

[Goldseatsaud]

These guy don’t care enough it very obvious. Has anyone ever benched besides 19&22. 

Edited 2 hours ago by Goldseatsaud

[Believer]

Couldn’t watch live. Watched the recording.

If Ruff and his staff feel any urgency to win games like this one, against an inferior team that played the previous night, had to travel, and had a practice session in the morning, they failed to convey it to the team.

The Blues out skated, outplayed, and wanted the win more than the Sabres. 

Sure, we were missing parts of our top lines, but two of our top scoring forwards failed to perform with only 2 SOG apiece. We can’t win if we don’t score. 

UPL was not sharp and his tripping penalty with a few minutes left was careless and beyond stupid.

How will Ruff respond to this team failure?

How will Adams respond?

How will the players respond?

Big road trip ahead. 

[GASabresIUFAN]

7 minutes ago, DarthEbriate said:

The thread this morning reads like 12 days of xmas.

without the dinner and nice gifts

[PASabreFan]

42 minutes ago, Bangarang said:

Imagine having somewhat decent goaltending to start the year and then making the decision to insert UPL and flushing it down the toilet. 

Also, Tage looks terrible. He desperately needs a center that can drive play and create chances for him. 

It has to be so demoralizing to see the kazillionth example of hockey decisions that are not about winning.

[elijah]

Generally I find myself on the optimistic side of things until it’s too late into the season and the writing on the wall is abundantly clear. 

This one we dominated the analytics, dominated the third period especially, had a lot of good chances and rung a lot of posts in a night where shots just weren’t falling. They’re still missing 4 guys out of their top 9 and are essentially skating an AHL roster in their absence. 

I tried sleeping on it, but with this one that stuff just doesn’t matter to me for some reason and feels and sounds like excuses. You’re playing a team among the basement on the NHL, on a back to back where both goalies played, and sitting one of their top players. If you truly want to believe that things have changed, that’s a “must win” game. I don’t care if shots just weren’t falling in this one, I don’t care that they won the analytic battle, I don’t care about the excuses. 

Getting shut out by a goalie coming in with 5 GAA and .830% is inexcusable. 

Tage & Dahlin desperately need to show up, all the smoke and rumors about this being unacceptable to them and the dire need to turn it around to keep them happy and here without another rebuild. The brutal fact on the team this season is that the secondary talent and the system has been there, we’re only 5-4-4 with .500 point % BECAUSE of them right now, not in spite of them. The stars need to start being stars, the hustle and secondary play has been there for this team to be successful. 

I guess there’s not much to do aside from wait and hope they find themselves in a (brutal at that) 4 game road trip. 

 

Oh, and let’s get UPL the hell out of a Sabres uniform and never back in one. 

[inkman]

47 minutes ago, Bangarang said:

Imagine having somewhat decent goaltending to start the year and then making the decision to insert UPL and flushing it down the toilet. 

Also, Tage looks terrible. He desperately needs a center that can drive play and create chances for him. 

I’m not saying I wouldn’t do it or it’s difficult but what do you propose the Sabres do with UPL?  NHL contracts are guaranteed.  So they’d have to find a trade partner or pay him $5 million to be Rochester’s goalie.  I doubt anyone is going to trade for him and Pegula has demonstrated that he isn’t interested in paying people who aren’t with the team.  Adams basically hitched his wagon the UPL, he may have to entice a team to take UPL by linking him with an actual asset to get a deal done. So do we want to give up Jiri Kulich to get UPL off the team?  Just spitballing what I think would have to happen. 

[Jorcus]

1 hour ago, Ogelthorpe said:

Sub .900 save % again for UPL. complete trash

UPL sucked but even if he was perfect that would have gotten us a tie game. This scoring drought is what is killing us. Very frustrating.

[matter2003]

22 hours ago, msw2112 said:

Had Ellis not had back issues, he would have started the 2nd Toronto game, but UPL played instead and wasn't great.  I don't know what Ellis' health was for the Washington game, but UPL got the start and, after bad first few minutes (2 early goals), played very well the rest of the game, and was great in the OT and shootout.  I think that's why he's getting the start tonight.  Ellis is the victim of some bad luck with the back injury, and UPL playing well in his last start (and Lyon being terrific in HIS last start).  Given how well he played in first (and only) game, I would also like to see Ellis get some more opportunities, but if Lyon and UPL keep playing well and there are no injuries or illnesses, he may have to wait.

well there goes that theory on UPL

[Pimlach]

37 minutes ago, Believer said:

Couldn’t watch live. Watched the recording.

If Ruff and his staff feel any urgency to win games like this one, against an inferior team that played the previous night, had to travel, and had a practice session in the morning, they failed to convey it to the team.

The Blues out skated, outplayed, and wanted the win more than the Sabres. 

Sure, we were missing parts of our top lines, but two of our top scoring forwards failed to perform with only 2 SOG apiece. We can’t win if we don’t score. 

UPL was not sharp and his tripping penalty with a few minutes left was careless and beyond stupid.

How will Ruff respond to this team failure?

How will Adams respond?

How will the players respond?

Big road trip ahead. 

Thanks for reminding me about the UPL tripping penalty, which killed any chance of a comeback since we played 2 of the last 3.5 minutes in our end killing that penalty. 

That was dumb and dirty.  It was childish and selfish.   

The Blues are a bad team and yet they knew how to finish a road game and preserve a shutout.  Coaching matters.  

I just want to see if Colton Ellis can play in the NHL.  Give him some games then decide on a #2.  Why is this so hard?  

[Porous Five Hole]

1 hour ago, Bangarang said:

Also, Tage looks terrible. He desperately needs a center that can drive play and create chances for him. 

What he needs is to not play on a top line with 160 pound rookies. 

[Goldseatsaud]

Tie his ass to the bench then

[mjd1001]

34 minutes ago, Jorcus said:

UPL sucked but even if he was perfect that would have gotten us a tie game. This scoring drought is what is killing us. Very frustrating.

The scoring drought is killing them now. 

At times last year and parts of this year it was the special teams. 

When it's neither of those, it's goaltending. 

When it's not goaltending, it's awful play of your defenseman. 

And if it's not that, it's injuries. 

A good sign of a bad team is when you poke one leak in the dam, another leak springs up someplace else. 

At some point, and I think most of us believe they are there, you need to build a brand new dam. And you need new engineers and workers to build it. 

I think most of us have a plan to make this team better. For me It starts with get rid of UPL, then bench or get rid of Quinn, And pray for no more injuries. 

You know what though? Maybe that allows them to be good enough to squeak into the playoffs. I see very little hope for this team sniffing a deep playoff run in the next... 3 to 5 years at least with the current roster and management?

Unless they catch fire, and I mean immediately run off a 4 to 6-game winning streak, they have to start over. 

And starting over means really starting over. Brand new hockey people. Those hockey people are given power to make decisions. A coach that can hire his entire staff. Sure. Pegula is the owner so you run things by him, but he doesn't make decisions, he's informed of the reason why the hockey people are making the decisions they are. 

Really, what are most of us holding out hope for? That they can squeak into the playoffs? That they're the number eight seed with 95 points? That's the aspiration? That's not good enough, and they're not even close to doing that.