Taro T

Yeah, he did his normal trope about how everyone needs to be better and he needs to be better, but at this point, all that was and is is merely words. The actions don't match. Personally, expect this team is ready to rejoin the NHL because there are actual NHLers at every spot and there are kids in Ra-cha-cha that have demonstrated they can handle playing in the NHL without getting caved in should callups be necessary. But, that's where they were 13/14 years ago at the time they decided to blow everything up. Don't expect they actually WILL join the NHL until Adams is gone. Hoping Christmas comes by NYD this year but by no means am expecting it.

Maybe they slide Benson to the 1st line, Quinn to the 2nd, and Doan to the 3rd in that scenario. Don't want Quinn out there with the rookie. The rookie has good hockey sense and is decent in his own end. Quinn, um, does not. And didn't say that McLeod line would be a shutdown line. Intentionally said checking line. They'll try and do a reasonable job of it, but they'll face top lines sometimes and will get beat in those situations; but don't expect they'd get their brains pounded in. And not sure that I'd agree that the 4th line in your version was a true shut down line either.

Excellent question. Win every game they can. PA will argue against this, but this team SHOULD win in Calgary. Additionally, they might win in Vancouver; they should be able to win in Seattle, but until they ever finally beat them will always expect that to be an L. Maybe we'll get lucky and they'll make that one a moral victory by only losing that one in OT. Know it won't happen, but would really like to see a bloodletting in the hockey department on Boxing Day (or whenever the roster / personnel freeze ends; and realize the FO and coaches don't get holiday job protection; but waiting 3 extra days to can them won't make any difference on this hockey season and if it lets folks have a good holiday with their families, why not). Find out what you have should Leone be the interim coach. (Or heck, let Appert be the interim coach to prove just how friggin' bad he is and keep him from getting the promotion to the job full time. Nah, on second thought, he might have a Rolston dead cat bounce and we'd be stuck with him for the next 5 years. Better to not risk it.) Let Kekelainen take the reins. And whomever Terry's advisor is (he's bouncing ideas off somebody's noggin or getting input lo these many years) make sure he's the 1st one sent packing (Forton perhaps?).

The same guy that is instructing them in HOW to play D is the same guy that was doing so when Granato was the coach. Granted, that guy's system when he gets adequate goaltending is actually GOOD on the PK (at least it has been through the 1st 1/3 of the season) which is something that wasn't apparent when he was getting below average goaltending. But it is, has been, and likely always will be horrible at 5v5. With Ruff only making 2 moves altering the coaching staff in 2 years (1 being demoting Ellis and elevating Appert, and the other being the canning of a S&C coach), totally get being disappointed in how they play in their own end, but when they're getting told by the same people what to do, it really is a bit on the Sabre fan side of things to expect anything different. Sure, hope for something different, but to expect it, so, so, very Sabrey. (And, yeah, had hoped things would change under Ruff and even expected them at the time he was hired, but since he didn't make any changes other than using line matchups when available at home, not much has changed. He does have them playing better to start games than his predecessor did, but even that's not a huge change this year as they're tied for giving up the most 1st goals of the game w/ the Phlyers. 18 times in 28 games.)

So, we now have nearly 4 games of Norris and all of them have been with Thompson on his wing. They were great in the 1 adrenaline game and have been bad in the other 3. When things were going well prior to Norris getting back in the lineup, Ruff had said he saw Thompson as his 1C and Norris as the 2C. Realize the sample size of them together has been very small, but this team has played its way into not having the luxury of letting the 1st line have 10 or so games to find itself and gel. So, IMHO (and likely most people's here) the time has come for Ruff to break those 2 up. Thompson and Tuch show a lot of chemistry with each other. Doan has played with Tuch a lot and has reasonable chemistry with him. IMHO there's your 1st line. Norris and Benson should have chemistry together. And, in the adrenaline game they did. (But pretty sure Norris would've had chemistry with people from here that day.) What winger to give them? Options are Zucker, Quinn, Östlund (yeah he's a C, he can slide), and Greenway. Personally am giving them Zucker as he's the best of the bunch. Now, who to play on McLeod's line? For now, would give him Östlund and Greenway or maybe see what Kozak gives you at W. Actually would like to see what Kozak gives at W. Don't want Quinn on this line as am planning on using it predominantly as a checking line and Quinn doesn't fit that bill. That McLeod and Östlund can contribute some O would be enough in that department, at least on an initial looksee at what we have. Which would leave Krebs and Malenstyn wtih either Greenway, Quinn, or Dunne. Give it to Greenway when he's available and Dunne when he isn't. Quinn hasn't really played his way out of a job, but last few games he hasn't exactly played his way into one either. Doan - Thompson - Tuch Benson - Norris - Zucker Östlund - McLeod - Kozak Greenway/Dunne - Krebs - Malenstyn

And have said it before, and at this point it really isn't a knock on Bryson, who is who he is and when not asked to do too much is actually playing well in that 7thD pressed into duty play, but want either Johnson or Novikov (or some other 7th guy that has a D-1st focus) in the lineup which does 2 things - 1 it gives Power a defensive partner to let him freewheel as much as he wants and more importantly, if Byram and Timmins aren't working, you can break Byram and Timmins up without having to take Samuelsson Dahlin apart and without giving Byram a partner he won't be able to be effective with. (If it isn't working with defensive 1st D-man Timmins, give him the other one, and let Timmins go bcak to playing with Power who did look good together earlier this year.)

If it were simply a binary choice of keep the current system or go back to no reviews at all, would likely reluctantly go to no reviews. But, it doesn't have to be all or nothing. Already said how this kid would fix the offside challenge. For goalie interference, wonder if something like adding a 2nd "crease" 18 inches (or whatever distance makes the most sense) outside the actual crease might allow them to make that a more cut and dried endeavor. ANY contact with the goalie or his equipment that is within the blue paint is goalie interference UNLESS the defenseman drove the offensive player into the blue paint OR the puck was uncovered inside the crease. If the offensive player was outside the yellow (or whatever color they choose) paint when the D made contact that drove the offensive player into the goalie then if he makes ANY effort at avoiding the goalie, it's a good goal. If that offensive player is in the yellow paint when the contact with the D begins then it's goalie interference. Simple. Might result in some plays that should've been interference to go uncalled and vice versa but its easy to implement and people will finally know again just what goalie interference is. Maybe you even enlarge the blue paint about 6" to allow for the goalie's glove being outside the blue paint when a stick or arm bumps against it impeding the movement which would bring a judgement call back into play. And you still can't intentionally check a goalie inside or outside the crease. Wouldn't that result in D-men intentionally checking F's into their goalie when he's inside that yellow paint? Well, it could. But D that start regularly breaking their goalies by running F's on top of them won't be long for this league. Just spitballin' that goalie interference idea. Hadn't really given much if any thought to how to fix that issue prior to this post. So, get to a spot where OBVIOUS missed calls are now fixed and close judgement calls are left to the refs' judgement.

Hoped he was going to be paired with Dahlin this year and actually look like a 4th OA pick. But Samuelsson has been so good with Dahlin, you can't break that up. And Byram just doesn't seem to click with anyone (else).

Sometimes it takes a while, but except for when he plays with Dahlin, Byram seems to have that effect on all his partners.

You sure about that? 23-24 PP% 16.6% 29th ranked - horrendously bad 22-23 PP% 23.4% 9th ranked - good 21-22 PP% 21.2% 16th ranked - average And that "good" year was the year that they had the best PP in the league by far for about 6 weeks, when people hadn't figured out Dahlin -> Thompson -> Blast -> (hopefully a) Goal was the ONLY trick they had in that bag. They were well over 30% in that stretch (IIRC it was over 35% then, but would have to look at more granualar data to verify that). Take that stretch out and they're as mediocre/bad as the other years.

Worked out in the Sabres favor, but yeah, the review process for offside plays is seriously flawed. Thing is, if they adjusted the review procedure to ONLY overturn OBVIOUS errors by doing something like only giving 30-60 seconds for the review and the play can only be slowed to 50% speed at MOST, we'd probably see leaguewide goal scoring go up (even more than just the now non-called back goals) because linesmen will be more willing to err on the side of letting a close play go rather than calling it back because a guy MIGHT have been in early.

This isn't on UPL. He hasn't given up any UPL Specials. But, on the flip side, except for the PS which the guy surpisingly didn't try to make a move on, UPL hasn't stolen anything. On Wednesday, when the Sabres were getting a push in the 2nd Ersson put that horseshoe firmly up his arse and robbed Doan with the skate blade save after giving up the monster rebound. UPL doesn't give the Sabres that. And a team with 0 regulation wins on the road two full months into the season that has only even gotten to OT on the road 4 times REALLY NEEDS the goalie to get one or 2 of those horseshoe up their arses saves. He got the 2 monster goalpost stops, but was cleanly beaten on both and teams don't get a boost from the other team hitting the post. Not like the boost they get when the goalie absolutely robs the other guy. 10 scoring chances against through 2 periods. 2 of those bounced off posts (and 1 needed to do the reverse 5 hole to keep from then going in after hitting the post) so UPL gave up a goal on 3 of 8 high danger chances (at most) that were actually on net and was cleanly beaten on 5 of the 10. He's played fine so far. But, there was no true "big save." And a team that stinks on the road, sadly, needs more than fine. Maybe you let him get the majority of the home starts because fine is actually fine the way they're playing at home but give most of the road starts to the other 2 guys who have on occassions given them the "big save" on the road.

Lucky bastage. 😉

Personally, wouldn't like to see teams get an extra timeout, but do agree a coach should be able to have 1 challenge when nothing too onerous happens should the challenge be wrong. Would go with, you can lose 1 challenge without getting a bench minor. IF you still have your TO, you lose it for a failed challenge. If you don't, then no harm no foul. Yeah, it might seem unfair, but unless a team has been REALLY bad early on, everybody is going to have their TO until at most least 5 minutes are left in the game. So, a 1st failed challenge will typically result in a lost TO, but not always. Who cares that all 1st failed challenges aren't identically onerous. Hockey GAMES aren't equally valuable - some games are worth 2 points and some are worth 3. A 2nd failed (and any subsequent) failed challenge is still a bench minor. And would have the league or an off-ice official review all plays that are close in the last 2-5 minutes in a game (not sure just how long). Personally would also like to see something to keep teams from calling a timeout and THEN challenging a call. That seems to be outside the spirit of the challenge.

Tonight's game will be interesting. Expecting UPL to get the start. Which will only be his 4th game on the road and only his 3rd start on the road. Both of the road starts, his SV% was well south of 0.850. In the Avs game, he only gave up 3 on 30 shots. Overall, he's 4-1-0 at home and 0-2-1 on the road. The Sabres as a whole tend not to play well on the road (well, no Schlitz, Sherlock). And just as they've fared slightly better at home with him bettween the pipes vs the outcomes with other 2 goalies, they've fared slightly worse on the road with him between the pipes vs the other 2 goalies. This is a game that will go a long way towards either showing the people that believe he is the best of the 3 (some even saying CLEARLY the best) are right or that those that believe he's at best in the mix with the other 2 and likely worse than either are right. Hoping for his and our sakes that those that believe he IS good (and not just that he may be good in the proper circumstances) are the ones that are correct. And if they shy away from giving him the start, that could be telling in itself as well.