Taro T

They are SOOOOOOO horrible at entries with an extra man, WHY do they insist on pulling the goalie as they're moving the puck up the ice? Lyon made a huge save on the 2 on 1; get the friggin' puck into the zone BEFORE pulling the goalie. So truly dislike Seth Appert. And @PromoTheRobot, you are right, in that UPL didn't get much help from his teammates. But the 2nd and 5th goals at minimum need to be stopped. The 2nd one getoneg tipped by Timmins had no effect on whether that one was going to go in or not. UPL was sooooooo far over to his left trying to see through the screen that he left 1/2 of the net open and never reacted. The puck was going to go just inside the post, it moved a bit closer to the goalie but still not close enough. Lyon didn't face much, but he faced 2 high danger chances and stopped both. Wolf didn't play particularly well, but he stopped Zucker (?) alone in front. And UPL on the road is now 0-4-1 and hasn't given up fewer than 3 in any of those games. For the love of all that is Holy, if the 3 headed goalie monster must continue, PLEASE only play UPL at home. He actually has been effective there. Ruff can control the matchups and keep from having his team give up too many high quality chances against, especially early as UPL is getting his head into the game. But the team isn't good enough / deep enough to keep from having horrible matchups on the road and UPL is NOT going to steal you a save or 2 (or however many you need) to pull a game off on the road. In a vacuum, he probably is the best of the 3, but they don't play in a vacuum. And he gives them 0 chance to win on the road. Personally would give Lyon most of the road starts with Ellis getting about 1/3 of them and give UPL most of the home starts with Ellis getting a 1/3 of those. And once Ellis starts to consistently outplay one of the other 2, well then you know which one is on his way out the door. And @PASabreFan, still say they SHOULD'VE won this one. But they also should've started Lyon. 😉

It's possible; likely actually. But, essentially not making any changes in the coaching staff before he started coaching them again nor again after coaching with them for a full year; seems to say something too.

And yet every single day that passes brings them that much closer to their next playoff berth. (Glass halffull indeed.)

Good. Let them lose 3 of their last 4. 4 of 4 works too. 😉

IF the Cheats lose to Miami and Buffalo and both win all their other games, why? If the Cheats beat the Fish & or the Bills, yes, Buffalo will need more W's than the Cheats to get the division.

Stand corrected. Danke.

Pretty sure they didn't consider teams to officially be in the playoffs unless they made it to the round of 16. Could be misremembering as the Sabres were one of the unwashed and unloved that year so didn't follow the bubble tourney that much.

Post-Covid Sabres in Calgary 3-1-0 Post-Covid Flames in Buffalo 4-1-0 Last year was the only time they flipped the results. Don't know why the Flames tend to play well in Buffalo and the Sabres tend to play well in Calgary. They just do. Why did Buffalo go 12-2-1 over 11 seasons against the Snarks with the only drubbing against being the Thornton game? Sometimes stuff just seems to happen. Though really not happy UPL is getting the start. Maybe they SHOULDN'T win afterall. 😉

4. And he's a plus 3 somehow. So expecting it'll just be a matter of time before @Doohickie's telling us all how he should be playing every night. 😉

Since Josh Allen became JOSH ALLEN, the Bills very rarely lose in December. Hate that the Cheats got an extra week to prepare for next week's game, but am not conceding anything right now. Miami splits with the Cheats surprisingly often. Not sure who holds the tiebreak but IF Buffalo wins out and those are the Cheats other 2 losses, they'll have identical records against each other and in the division. So, it goes to common opponents. They both will have lost to each other and Buffalo beat the Stealers and the Cheats beat the Flakes. Buffalo didn't play the Raiders and the Cheats didn't play the Texasses. So, it looks like they'd be tied on common opponents too. So, it goes to conference record. Buffalo would have 3 in conference losses and the Cheats 4. So, don't break out those Cheats AFCE Championship T's just yet.

Good post. Wondering how much of his dropoff this year is because of age and how much of it is knowing in his heart that it probably doesn't make sense for him nor the Sabres to keep this marriage going and that has to be depressing for someone that's married their "dream girl" and it just doesn't work. Expecting it's a bit of both, but don't have a good feel for how much of either.

Would expect it to be a spare D, either Kesselring finally getting healthy or the marvelous (at the AHL level, not so much at the NHL level) Zach Metza. And Metsa it is.

Forton needs to go. (Obviously Adams and others need to go too, but Jerry needs to leave the building.)

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.