Taro T

To a degree. Even Ruff has to acknowledge that Geertsen doesn't gjve them their best chance of winning any given game when he hasn't put him in the lineup in what, 2, 3 weeks? So, this one should've been, and turned out to be a no brainer. The NEXT move is going to be the really interesting one, because don't believe they want to send any of the guys currently in the lineup down to Ra-cha-cha and they don't want to give up on any of the goalies just yet. But something has to give.

Wasn't thrilled with Ellis getting the start either. BUT if he had moved ahead of Lyon in the pecking order, that set him up to get 2 of the 3 games including this weekend's games and also 2 of the 3 games next week. Personally would've given Lyon the start, Ellis the Hawks and Lyon the Canes and then go with whichever one they consider the 1 in the game on Wednesday. But they seemed to think getting Ellis 2 of these 3 starts was the better play. And now here we are once again missing an opportunity to be playing for a chance to get over NHL 0.500. Need to get past that threshold before they can get to NHL 0.600. And yes, if Adams were relieved of his duties in the AM, wouldn't be crying over it.

Curious how many of those PK goals against he was on the ice for came with UPL vs the other 2 guys. THAT could significantly factor into the expected goals against; actual too.

All of that passes the eye test. (Not sure about the Byram being bad at the PK, don't really recall him out there much for that, but the rest of it, yes, it passes the eye test.) And the reason IMHO that the PP is most effective with Benson, Zucker, and Doan all on the ice together is all 3 are willing to go to the net to help create havoc and at least 2 of them can regularly score from down close to the goal. Zucker has proven it, Doan has a couple from there at least 1 of which was bounced in off him, but it still counts and if he wasn't down there in the dirty area it wouldn't have gone in, and pretty sure Benson has scored from there, if not this year then last year at least. Whether Appert is too dumb to get other guys go there when they aren't on the ice or the other players are too stubborn to do so, the rest of the team doesn't go there on the PP. And either way, the PP doesn't work in large part because of it and the predictability it has when they aren't out there. This PP SHOULD be top 10 at worst and really could be top 5 if it stayed healthy and somebody that knew what they're doing was running it. Would not have Tuch on the top unit because he should be able to play that down low role but for whatever reason he isn't effective there. Wouldn't have Quinn on the top unit because he'd be best served to be in Thompson's spot, but Tage is WAY better at it than Quinn is. Let him be the 2nd unit's Tage. Would never take Dahlin nor Thompson off the 1st unit. But would have both of them, and the other 3 guys moving. Dahlin does a bit. Thompson pretty much only does it when they're entering the zone, but he's able to do it as well. Get rid of Appert and let somebody have the guys that are good near the net do their thing with a lot of movement between them. And, personally expect Dahlin's #'s both real and E are reduced due to the fact he's ALWAYS out on the PP and it spends an inordinate amount of time NOT entering the zone and then doing dumb things. His analytics will go up a lot when they stop being coached to do dumb things. MHO, ymmv.

Eh, with Bounceyball, the question isn't points equalling fun, it's WHAT points equal fun. Is it the ones going up when a team puts the bouncey ball through the big metal ring multiple times a game or the ones the players/refs decided to make sure they shave off the line to assist their friendly neighborhood gambling syndicate make large amounts of money? 😉

Seems like a no brainer move. But with this organization, you never know.

Yeah, that one was very frustrating. It was ruled a good goal on the ice, and most of the details lead towards that goal typically being upheld. Thompson was outside the crease when he was impacted by the D-man which seemed to be the impetus for him entering the crease. - that usually leads to a goal being considered good. Thompson appeared to make an effort to not contact the goalie after he entered the crease. - seems to not really impact one way or another the decision in TO. The contact was mimimal and the goalie didn't seem to get moved off where he was - that usually leads to a goal being considered to be good. The goalie had time to get squared to the shot before the shot was taken - that usually leads to a goal being considered to be good. Thompson was outside the crease when the shot came - that usually leads to a goal being considered good. And the Calgary coach was so unsure about whether to ask for the review or not, he burned his timeout trying to decide if it was worth it or not. IMHO, the biggest piece of it was whether the D-man was influential to Thompson entering the crease or not AND whether the goalie still had time to be square to the shot by the time it happened. Those are what the overseers in that room in TO tend to lend the most weight to. And both were on the "good goal" side of the ledger.

Geertsen was 100% on Ruff.

Yeah, so much for he and Timmons being a good pair at home at least. They lost their minds in the 3rd.

Still plan on having 3 for Union.

Yeah, Adams needs to go. But Forton needs to be clearing out his desk the same day. Doesn't Pegula have some sort of tie to Jerry? He'll be a mole in the new guy's operation and end up with too loud a voice. Until Forton is gone, personally don't expect things will ever truly change. Yes, Adams is bad at his job and needs to go, but Forton seems to be the cancer that's going to metastasize throughout the organization. IF he survives the next purge, and personally expect he will someone somehow be one of the survivors, would almost rather have him be the GM and take the pain that comes with him demonstrating the Peter Principle than have him merely having one of the loudest voices in the room and having Pegula's ear. Because, they're always going to do boneheaded things as long as he has input. Yes, he identified McAvoy, but he was unable to convince anyone else. Since then, he hasn't seemed to be as good at picking them, but he has found his voice in the room, unfortunately.

Except, IN Buffalo, the Sabres usually play well and often beat the Eulers; and they play like trash against Calgary there too. So expectations were met EXACTLY as should've been expected. And out west, the pattern is reversed, Both the Eulers and Flames play to their normal levels and the Sabres end up expected to go 1-1 again, but the way you expected this week to go.

Power and Bryson make no sense. BUT you aren't breaking up Samuelsson-Dahlin, Byram-Power doesn't work, and Bryson-Byram would be a disaster waiting to happen. Byram-Timmons looked very good against the Eulers and Bryson-Power wasn't bad against them either. But then again, as somebody had mentioned in the Euler GDT, Bryson is actually an NHL D-man when he's playing against a fast team that doesn't play a heavy game. So, there was a logic (personally disagree with it, but there was a way to justify Bryson on Monday) to having him in there. That Byram-Timmons deficated the bed in the 3rd period made the thought process to come up with Bryson-Power even worse. They needed to have a more defensively responsible guy in the lineup instead of Bryson playing vs a heavy team like Calgary because those are the teams Bryson has issues with and Power needs a defensively responsible guy to partner with and really Byram does too. Metsa and Jones aren't that guy. If Johnson, or even if Novikov got his 1st taste of the NHL, the team probably doesn't give up the 2nd goal nor the one Rosen is getting blamed for. And they could've flipped Timmons and Johnson/Novikov to Power and Byram after the clock struck midnight on the Byram and Timmons pairing.

Why are, of all teams in the NHL, the Calgary Flames reigning supreme in the Sabres barn? They usually win IN Calgary, but they look like trash against them in Buffalo. The exact opposite of their provincial neighbor Eulers. Why, for as good as he played the rest of the game, did Samuelsson take the puck away from Ellis only to give it to the Flame? Why did the NHL overrule the refs on a call that it took the Calgary coaches more than their entire timeout's time to decide to challenge? And why is Seth Appert still devising the Sabres power play? IF there was ANY possibility the Sabres MIGHT score on one, they wouldn't have risked the challenge and possibly having the score tied less than 2 minutes later. But the Sabres PP is hot trash and doesn't scare anyone. Why, after looking good together for 5 periods did Byram and Timmons decide to look like the pair that was playing in Detroit before Kesselring broke? They were horrible in the 3rd. Why, do we have Quinn, Rosen, and Bryson out on the ice at the same time? Why did Tuch look so disinterested out there? Why did Doan try to pass when in the slot and then get the puck back along the boards near the blue line and decide to shoot from there? Sooooo many questions, so few answers. ???????????????????

Bills are playing Saturday after going tomorrow night? Wow, the NFL schedule really is getting nuts. 😉