GDT: Sabres @ Hurricanes, 7:00pm Nov. 8, 2025, 🎙 📺 ESPN+/MSG

[LGR4GM]

Well... here we go again. The Hurricanes actually draft well and even play hockey in a fun coherent manner. Their biggest issue is they don't necessarily have a true best of the best but they've got some really good players. 

Didn't sound like we're getting any forwards back so the questions are simple... can Buffalo stop a Carolina team that's better then them? Who plays pp 1 without Dahlin here? Will Seth Appert ever turn into a butterfly if Pegula likes him hard enough? How many more games will UPL get? When will Kevyn Adams be fired? 

Tune for another exciting adventure of How I Met Your Sabres.

[ska-T Palmtown]

This is one of those episodes where it is all Ted, but no Barney. Bleh.

[Wyldnwoody44]

So I'm guessing Lindy didn't Bag skate them and talk about "compete levels" Maybe Terry came and passed out Yoo-Hoos and Orange slices with his patented pep talks. 

We almost made it to Thanksgiving this year folks... Next year, let's shoot for hope into December 

[Pimlach]

I will be watching.   The roster has been thinned down by injuries but you never know.  A road trip can bring a team together. 

Lyon in the net?  

[PASabreFan]

Two and a Half Sabres?

Quick question, hun. For how many years has Lindy preached going to the net/inside/dirty areas and scoring ugly goals? 30 years? Has any team ever bought into the cliché nonsense? Has it ever worked the other countless times a Ruff team has gone cold on OH-ffense?

 

If it's for public consumption, fine. But if it's all he can offer his team in private, he is failing.

[Indabuff]

2 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

Will Seth Appert ever turn into a butterfly if Pegula likes him hard enough? 

[Gatorman0519]

This has a 5-2 type shellacking written all over it. I would be shocked if we were competitive. 

[Pimlach]

3 minutes ago, Wyldnwoody44 said:

So I'm guessing Lindy didn't Bag skate them and talk about "compete levels" Maybe Terry came and passed out Yoo-Hoos and Orange slices with his patented pep talks. 

We almost made it to Thanksgiving this year folks... Next year, let's shoot for hope into December 

They are still in it Woodman.  Hang in there.  

[Pimlach]

9 minutes ago, PASabreFan said:

Two and a Half Sabres?

Quick question, hun. For how many years has Lindy preached going to the net/inside/dirty areas and scoring ugly goals? 30 years? Has any team ever bought into the cliché nonsense? Has it ever worked the other countless times a Ruff team has gone cold on OH-ffense?

Every coach says this because it is true for most players.   Unless you have a really great shot, or you and your linemates can get the goalie out of position, the goals come from the dirty areas.  

7 minutes ago, PASabreFan said:

If it's for public consumption, fine. But if it's all he can offer his team in private, he is failing.

True.  

 

[Stads]

Interested to see how the lines shake out tonight. Either way, this has butt whooping written all over it

[elijah]

This will be the first game of the year that turns into a background game, put it on the TV and focus on other things instead of full attention on the game. 

Missing half the roster including Dahlin, this one will get ugly quick and is the first game of the year I’m fully expecting a brutal beatdown. I have no interest in wasting 3 hours of life solely invested in this one. Going to be an unfortunate week of hockey on the road trip. 

Optimistically if we can survive the week with 4 points in the 4 games, hopefully we come out on the other end with a (more) healthy lineup and still within striking distance instead of burying ourselves with a 4 game losing streak. 

Go Sabres

[Bangarang]

Will the NHL implement a mercy rule? 

[K-9]

The answer is in the room, gentlemen. In. The. Room.

[Pimlach]

33 minutes ago, K-9 said:

The answer is in the room, gentlemen. In. The. Room.

Yes, it pretty much has to be right now.   

They have been hit with injuries and all of that, but lots of teams go through injuries and hold it together.  They are young, but some of the young guys have played a lot of NHL hockey. 

Like Bissonette said the other night, the Sabres have a tendency to go into a lull and play lazy hockey.  They do this all too often and it just kills them. 

Which gets us to the tireless topic of holding each other accountable for their part.

With Dahlin out who will be the vocal leader?  They need a maniac kind of player in that room.  

Edited 3 hours ago by Pimlach

[K-9]

9 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

Yes, it pretty has to be right now.   

They have been hit with injuries and all of that, but lots of teams go through injuries and hold it together.  They are young, but some of the young guys have played a lot of NHL hockey. 

Like Bissonette said the other night, the Sabres have a tendency to go into a lull and play lazy hockey.  They do this all too often and it just kills them. 

Which gets us to the tireless topic of holding each other accountable for their part.

With Dahlin out who will be the vocal leader?  They need a maniac kind of player in that room.  

I was mocking Pegula and being sarcastic, but you raise an important point here. Unless it’s actually one of those younger guys, I don’t think they have that maniacal vocal leader. Tage and Tuch are too used to being passengers on this team and have been since arriving. This team has needed a boombox throwing, get in your face after a loss or lazy practice leader since Drury.  

[DarthEbriate]

And here we are.

Last year, Dahlin's injury ended the season. This year, can Lyon, Ellis, Kesselring, Timmins, and Doan -- the new guys -- help raise the team up to play at a higher level when they're missing their best? (I'd add Danforth. And Norris! Can't forget Norris. But at the moment, they're unavailable to help.)

The season stands upon the edge of a knife. Stray but a little, and it will fail, to the ruin of all. Yet hope remains...

[LGR4GM]

3 minutes ago, DarthEbriate said:

And here we are.

Last year, Dahlin's injury ended the season. This year, can Lyon, Ellis, Kesselring, Timmins, and Doan -- the new guys -- help raise the team up to play at a higher level when they're missing their best? (I'd add Danforth. And Norris! Can't forget Norris. But at the moment, they're unavailable to help.)

The season stands upon the edge of a knife. Stray but a little, and it will fail, to the ruin of all. Yet hope remains...

[K-9]

3 minutes ago, DarthEbriate said:

And here we are.

Last year, Dahlin's injury ended the season. This year, can Lyon, Ellis, Kesselring, Timmins, and Doan -- the new guys -- help raise the team up to play at a higher level when they're missing their best? (I'd add Danforth. And Norris! Can't forget Norris. But at the moment, they're unavailable to help.)

The season stands upon the edge of a knife. Stray but a little, and it will fail, to the ruin of all. Yet hope remains...

Hope is always present, but this team has found ways to feel sorry for itself for years and Adams loves himself built-in excuses. Hope I’m wrong, but I expect this team to fold like cheap tents in the face of adversity as they have for years now. 

[Broken Ankles]

My vote for the Sabres-flavored sitcom is Arrested Development - "Now the story of a family that lost everything, and the one son who had no choice but to keep them all together"

Yeah, Kevyn - keep 'em all together....in hell. 

 

....but I'll be watching.  It's not like I have anything better to do.  Must Tie. 

[pi2000]

might watch

[Taro T]

11 minutes ago, K-9 said:

Hope is always present, but this team has found ways to feel sorry for itself for years and Adams loves himself built-in excuses. Hope I’m wrong, but I expect this team to fold like cheap tents in the face of adversity as they have for years now. 

They have folded when the pressure is on.  It is another constant of the teams in the "full seasons of ownership" Pegula era.  BUT this FEELS different.  They have NHL caliber goaltending and not from a 40-something year old that you KNEW would run out of gas.  They have an opportunity to make this season ABOUT something - win FOR Ras.

Yes, they still have a GM that won't likely be able to bring them additional reinforcements in season.  Yes, they still have a coaching staff that doesn't seem to be able to twig to the fact that the reason other teams execute a drop pass on the PP is to have several players all approaching the blue line with speed and therefore giving the puck carrier options to enter the zone; it isn't done simply to be able to check off a box - well, we dropped the puck back, now Tage can carry it in to about 12' inside the blue line and then look for a pass to one of the other 4 guys all still within 6' of the blue line, good things are sure to happen now.  Yes, they still have a coaching staff that seems loathe to make in game adjustments when they could alter the flow of the game.

But, even with all that and with missing their best D and some of their best F's, they have a solid D corps, they are getting good goaltending from 2 of their 3 goalies (hopefully that doesn't turn into a mirage), and they have several F's that are more willing to play physically than they've had in past seasons.  Pegula made it a bad joke: the answer is in the room.  But get the last laugh and show us all that the friggin' answer IS in the room.

There's never a better day to start doing things the right way than today.  There are no expectations.  You haven't won in Carolina in a loooooong time; your best D-man and captain is out.  You haven't won a game on the road in 4 tries.  Maybe Camelface's troops will take you lightly.  Accept it and play like tonight's game is for the Stanley Cup.  Worry about the next one when it gets here.  But for now, get that 1st road win, and give Dahlin and his fiancee the piece of mind that they can focus on what they need to and you'll focus on what you need to.

[JohninMinn.]

Sabres fans are not giving the Doan rebuild enough time. Adams went all out for this year.

[Sidc3000]

I’ll be watching, from section 218 of the Lenovo Center.  Easy 3 1/2 drive from Va so my son and one daughter decided to go.  We know they’re going to lose but it’s great experience with a few of my kids

[SwampD]

The only question I have for this game is will Tage show up. I think the D is in a much better place to agsorb (as Rob Ray would say) the loss of Dahlin than it was last year.

[PASabreFan]

1 hour ago, SwampD said:

The only question I have for this game is will Tage show up. I think the D is in a much better place to agsorb (as Rob Ray would say) the loss of Dahlin than it was last year.

My question is who is in goal. I hope it's Lyon and he is fire.