GDT: Tampa Bay Lightning @ Buffalo Sabres - 7:00pm, April 6, 2026 (TV: MSG in market, NHL Network out of market. Radio: WGR-550)

[Shoot da Puck]

Should be interesting 

[LTS]

Yeah.. it will be pure fight night tonight. If it finally motivates the Sabres to play a playoff style game then great. I'm not concerned if they lose as long as they aren't beaten solidly like they have been the past two games.

If I see the "star" players not finishing checks then I know this team is done.

[K-9]

1 hour ago, ... said:

Item one: let's hope. However, Lindy has been regressing as well, so, you can't totally not expect that line.

Item two: this is Cooper's plan. Now the Sabres are skating a defensive pair that can barely play. If I were Cooper I would take advantage of that.

Yep. Sometimes Lindy is too clever by half. Metsa held his own in the limited minutes he played against Tampa last month and there is no reason to sit him tonight, especially with Hagel sitting out. 

[LTS]

1 minute ago, K-9 said:

Yep. Sometimes Lindy is too clever by half. Metsa held his own in the limited minutes he played against Tampa last month and there is no reason to sit him tonight, especially with Hagel sitting out. 

Other than his -3 from the last game?  He was terrible. He can sit down for a bit. If the Sabres aren't going for pure toughness then I would have played Kesselring or Timmins before Metsa this game.. or both quite frankly and sat Stanley as well.

[Pimlach]

2 minutes ago, Mango said:

I would stick with Metsa Stanley. I wouldn't be opposed to giving Kess abother look either.

To my point in the post you quoted, the defense has lacked speed and structure the last 6-8 games or so. I don't think slowing it down helps.

Stanley feels like putting 87 octane in a sports car. It works, it will get you where you need to go, but it isn't preferable. Stanley and Schenn together are like sand in the gears.

I think we saw what unsheltered minutes for Metsa/Stanley looked like in the Washington game and it was not good.  I expect they will be the 3rd pair in the playoffs and will see no more than 10 minutes a game.  

Kesselring has been struggling all season, from what I can see Stanley has been better.  Not sure what that X stuff was really all about, was it publicly saying "I'm out"?   He is clearly in Lindy's doghouse.   Timmons has a better chance to unseat Stanley as the 6.  

Schenn is scary back there.  But Lindy wants to keep him ready and tonight is the night for what looks like obvious reasons.  It could backfire.   

The deadline trade did not improve the bottom 3, it added a few fighters.  

[Pimlach]

11 minutes ago, LTS said:

Yeah.. it will be pure fight night tonight. If it finally motivates the Sabres to play a playoff style game then great. I'm not concerned if they lose as long as they aren't beaten solidly like they have been the past two games.

If I see the "star" players not finishing checks then I know this team is done.

The Ottawa game was telling for me.   Ottawa's players finished every check and wore the Sabres down.  One team played for their lives, the other was stuck in neutral.  

[PASabreFan]

23 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

 ..... did what?    

You can't handle the truth. Coaches can't divorce themselves from the business of sports.

[K-9]

8 minutes ago, LTS said:

Other than his -3 from the last game?  He was terrible. He can sit down for a bit. If the Sabres aren't going for pure toughness then I would have played Kesselring or Timmins before Metsa this game.. or both quite frankly and sat Stanley as well.

Fine. Then I agree that Lindy should go with Timmins and/or Kesselring, who also held his own last month against the ‘Ning. Point is, Schenn is a total liability when paired with Stanley. As for Metsa’s -3 Saturday night, I’m a little surprised Lindy isn’t giving him the opportunity to rebound which he often does. 

[Pimlach]

1 minute ago, PASabreFan said:

You can't handle the truth. Coaches can't divorce themselves from the business of sports.

So Guelli is telling Lindy who to play?   You think this is going to sell more tickets?    Too funny.   

As mentioned, I would not be surprised if Cooper calls off the dogs tonight and the Sabres lose on their special teams play.  Both the PK and PP have been slipping.  

[Sabre The Cup]

If we win tonight, will everybody stop being downers?

[Pimlach]

7 minutes ago, Sabre The Cup said:

If we win tonight, will everybody stop being downers?

[PASabreFan]

17 minutes ago, Sabre The Cup said:

If we win tonight, will everybody stop being downers?

What would the score be?

[Weave]

17 minutes ago, Sabre The Cup said:

If we win tonight, will everybody stop being downers?

Until the next game, sure.

[Carmel Corn]

58 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

What 3rd pair would you play tonight?  

I myself would like to see Stanley and Kesselring.

[msw2112]

1 hour ago, All Along The Watchtower said:

I have YouTube TV, without NHLN.  I wish NHLN would make their channel available to stream...even MLBN does that. 

I'm hoping there's no Sabres playoff games on NHLN, but I fear they'll be a few. 

I'm fairly certain (and AI backs it up) that NHLN (mercifully) does not televise any playoff games.  All games are on either the ESPN (ESPN2, ABC, etc.) or Turner (TNT/TBS/TruTv) families of networks.  I'm pretty bummed out that the biggest Sabres game of the season to date won't be available to me (I also have YTTV and am out of market), but my bigger watch tonight is the NCAA Men's Basketball championship (Go Blue!) so my focus can be there.  I'll have to watch the 11-minute Sabres highlight reel on YouTube (not to be confused with YouTube TV) after the basketball game.  Whoever puts those together does a pretty nice job.  I can also catch the first period on SiriusXM radio before the basketball game starts.

The Sabres were fortunate that Carolina and Montreal both lost yesterday, so that makes tonight's game an even better opportunity to gain ground on the 3 teams they are competing with for playoff seeding.  I'd rather play Boston than Montreal, but if it has to be Montreal, I'd rather have home ice than not.  I realize there are lots of statistics that show that it doesn't make that much of a difference, but I would still rather have it than not, and again, while a strong finish may not be the ultimate predictor of playoff success, I'd still rather finish strong and go into the playoffs with confidence and momentum than not.  Remember that the Sabres are a younger team without a lot of playoff experience, so they may be more susceptible to playoff pressure and momentum swings than a veteran team would be.  Being in a positive mindset going in may be more important for a team like the Sabres than it would be for a veteran team with a lot of playoff experience like a Tampa, Pittsburgh, Dallas, Vegas, Colorado, etc.

[Doohickie]

21 minutes ago, Sabre The Cup said:

If we win tonight, will everybody stop being downers?

If we win tonight, it's a Pyrrhic victory.  A week ago the Sabres controlled their own destiny with respect to the Atlantic Division.  But after 2 straight losses (and losses in 4 of their last 6), the Sabres have ceded control of the division to the Lightning.  This should have been a game for the division lead.  Instead, the best the Sabres can do is catch up a bit and hope the Lightning loses one more game than the Sabres after that.

Maybe the Sabres can pick it up for the playoffs, but it feels to me like they've taken their foot off the gas and punching the accelerator when the playoffs start is far from a sure thing.

[SabresBaltimore]

1 hour ago, All Along The Watchtower said:

I have YouTube TV, without NHLN.  I wish NHLN would make their channel available to stream...even MLBN does that. 

I'm hoping there's no Sabres playoff games on NHLN, but I fear they'll be a few. 

This is one of the reasons I haven't left FIOS. NHLN + Monument Sports (for when the Sabres play the Caps). It's so dumb you can't get NHLN in more places at this point.

[Gatorman0519]

Putting Schenn in may backfire. I don’t think Tampa plays their intimidation game tonight like the last two games. I think they play more clean and more attack, especially the way we’ve been defending lately. I could be wrong. 

[msw2112]

5 minutes ago, Gatorman0519 said:

Putting Schenn in may backfire. I don’t think Tampa plays their intimidation game tonight like the last two games. I think they play more clean and more attack, especially the way we’ve been defending lately. I could be wrong. 

I was thinking the same thing, but others have pointed out that the top-4 will probably get extended ice time tonight and the 3rd pairing won't see that much ice time.  If things get rough and physical, Stanley and Schenn will be valuable.  Also, Schenn is the most experienced player on the Sabres roster and has played in a lot of big games, so maybe his presence will help the team with the mental aspect of tonight's game, which is going to be a playoff-like game as much as any they've played this season.

He can be an "assistant coach" on the ice.  Much better than the thought of Marty Wilford on the ice (although I think he could probably drop the gloves pretty well back in the day).

Edited April 6 by msw2112

[Taro T]

1 minute ago, msw2112 said:

I'm fairly certain (and AI backs it up) that NHLN (mercifully) does not televise any playoff games.  All games are on either the ESPN (ESPN2, ABC, etc.) or Turner (TNT/TBS/TruTv) families of networks.  I'm pretty bummed out that the biggest Sabres game of the season to date won't be available to me (I also have YTTV and am out of market), but my bigger watch tonight is the NCAA Men's Basketball championship (Go Blue!) so my focus can be there.  I'll have to watch the 11-minute Sabres highlight reel on YouTube (not to be confused with YouTube TV) after the basketball game.  Whoever puts those together does a pretty nice job.  I can also catch the first period on SiriusXM radio before the basketball game starts.

The Sabres were fortunate that Carolina and Montreal both lost yesterday, so that makes tonight's game an even better opportunity to gain ground on the 3 teams they are competing with for playoff seeding.  I'd rather play Boston than Montreal, but if it has to be Montreal, I'd rather have home ice than not.  I realize there are lots of statistics that show that it doesn't make that much of a difference, but I would still rather have it than not, and again, while a strong finish may not be the ultimate predictor of playoff success, I'd still rather finish strong and go into the playoffs with confidence and momentum than not.  Remember that the Sabres are a younger team without a lot of playoff experience, so they may be more susceptible to playoff pressure and momentum swings than a veteran team would be.  Being in a positive mindset going in may be more important for a team like the Sabres than it would be for a veteran team with a lot of playoff experience like a Tampa, Pittsburgh, Dallas, Vegas, Colorado, etc.

No ground to gain vs the Habs.  If the Sabres win out, there's nothing they can do to get ahead of the Sabres.  There is ground to be gained on the other 2. 

A Sabres win tonight in regulation puts the Sabres even with the Bolts in points, though TB will have played 1 less game and would hold the ROW tiebreaker over the Sabres (they'd be even with 39RWs).

A loss tonight pretty much puts the conference out of reach as the Canes would have a 4 point lead and a game in hand over the Sabres.  Sabres would need to win out their last 4 with the Canes going 3-2-0 or worse while still winning enough games in regulation to maintain their RW lead over them (currently up by 2 RWs).  A regulation loss would pretty much do the same to their chances of winning the division as they'd need to win out with the Bolts going 3-2-0 or worse and they'd need to find at least 3 more RWs than the Bolts get over that last stretch of games.

Pretty sure this game means more to the fans than it does to the staff, but would really like to see them win this one.

[RETURNTOGLORY]

This a must-win tonight. PERIOD!

 

[msw2112]

14 minutes ago, Taro T said:

No ground to gain vs the Habs.  If the Sabres win out, there's nothing they can do to get ahead of the Sabres.  There is ground to be gained on the other 2. 

A Sabres win tonight in regulation puts the Sabres even with the Bolts in points, though TB will have played 1 less game and would hold the ROW tiebreaker over the Sabres (they'd be even with 39RWs).

A loss tonight pretty much puts the conference out of reach as the Canes would have a 4 point lead and a game in hand over the Sabres.  Sabres would need to win out their last 4 with the Canes going 3-2-0 or worse while still winning enough games in regulation to maintain their RW lead over them (currently up by 2 RWs).  A regulation loss would pretty much do the same to their chances of winning the division as they'd need to win out with the Bolts going 3-2-0 or worse and they'd need to find at least 3 more RWs than the Bolts get over that last stretch of games.

Pretty sure this game means more to the fans than it does to the staff, but would really like to see them win this one.

AI seems to think the Sabres can still gain ground on the Habs, but I agree with you that a loss tonight pretty much kills the chances of catching Carolina and, in my opinion, pretty much kills the chance to overtake Tampa too.  Mathematically, they still could, but the likelihood goes way down.

 

Edited April 6 by msw2112

[All Along The Watchtower]

35 minutes ago, Taro T said:

A Sabres win tonight in regulation puts the Sabres even with the Bolts in points, though TB will have played 1 less game and would hold the ROW tiebreaker over the Sabres (they'd be even with 39RWs).

First tiebreaker should be head-to-head points, of course, the Sabres would already own that...then RWs, followed by ROWs.  

[GASabresIUFAN]

Must win tonight to stay in it for the Atlantic and to at least keep home ice over Montreal.  They also need to play better for their own confidence heading into the playoffs.  

[Mustache of God]

CAN I GET A "MUST WIN"?