Taro T

Thompson blocked that shot about 1-1/4 - 1-1/2 minutes into OT. That 1st unit wasn't passive the 1st minute of OT but looked to be getting tired pretty soon after that and after Thompson was hobbling around they were fortunate to even get Tuch off the ice.

Awful is a SLIGHT exaggeration, but not by much. He was very bad in the 1st 60 minutes, though he did improve slightly in the 3rd. He wasn't moving well, gave up huge rebounds, was playing small, slow to react. Would say he had 1 nice NHL caliber save that wasn't shot into his logo in the 2nd period and would give him about 3 of those in the 3rd. And, good for him, his teammates did a very good job of getting to those huge rebounds after the 1st few minutes of the game and did a good job of limiting the true high danger chances against. But, OT went about as well as he could've hoped for and with any luck at all that and the SO will get him the self-confidence he needs so much because it is so evident how much his game changes when he's playing with confidence vs when he has little to none. Surely there are other guys in the NHL that are hit or miss as much as he is but particularly like he is with large stretches of 1 or the other not really a true good today, bad next game, so so the next after that and so on and so forth; but don't watch enough non-Sabres games to indentify who they are.

Very well could be. Had never really paid that much attention to the opponents on the bench before; but it was REALLY noticable after having initially noticed it and it seemed odd that during each period (don't believe he did it in OT because he only had the 1 shift; was too busy watching the action to pay attention to where he was on the bench after his shift ended) he sat amongst his teammates between 1 single pair of shifts. He didn't not sit there in a period and he didn't sit there more than once coming back from a shift. Very well could be something he's always done, or has done for a very long time. And when he was sitting at the end of the bench in the 1st and 3rd, he was at least being a good teammate and opening the door for guys coming back to the bench.

Last night was HFC night, and one of the Sabres "Gold Ring Partners" is Roswell Park. That game will always be a good draw because Roswell makes sure of it. (There was one just before Covid (pretty sure the season Covid hit, maybe the year before) that only had about 13,000 fans at; my understanding is Roswell was quite upset about it and every HFC Night since has been very well attended.) As mentioned upthread, last night was a combo of HFC, Saturday night, a (nearly?) final chance to see Ovi, and them playing well at home.

Eh, maybe it's just rust, but he had 2 knee on knee hits his 1st game back and had the shoulder to the Caps head (which led to Wilson going after him taking Wilson off the ice for 17 minutes and Greenway off for 7). All 3 hits were dirty. Were they intentional or mistimed? Well, Greenway's never been a dirty player, so they very well could be mistimed, but regardless of the intent, the outcome was dirty.

And that was the best thing about THE lockout. By introducing a salary cap salaries wouldn't go crazy with an increase in offensive stats (unless it makes the sport more profitable, in which case the owners will also get more money and not just the goal scorers getting it all). The owners getting their lunches handed to them in the 90's CBA negotiations had a HUGE role in the onset of the dead puck era. And, in general, the owners wanted nothing to do with more offense because more offense resulted in more in salaries than it did in revenue increases.

As the teams were lining up for the opening faceoff, noticed that Ovi wasn't just not on the ice, but was sitting at the end of the bench right next to Rob Ray. He didn't take his 1st shift until the Kids Line finally was due to come on the ice and he took a shift, went up the ice and came back to the bench, right there next to Rob Ray again. He had 5 shifts that 1st period, 4 of which were against the Kids and 1 against Thompson's line. He rolled through with the other forwards on the bench only once that entire period (meaning he didn't sit next to Ray only that once). And he was out there for Rosen's goal. Oops, maybe only playing him against the kids wasn't the best of ideas. In the 2nd, he sat next to Thompson (Logan, not Tage) to start the period and then took a shift against the 4th line. He was out there against Thompson's line the next time and then on the PP (might have those 2 shifts inverted) then he seemed to go back to going against the kids. Only took 5 shifts that period, too. But he did stay out for all 2 minutes of the PP. Once again, he only sat in the middle of the bench 1 time all period. In the 3rd, wasn't paying that close of attention to his shifts, though when they got the back to back PP's he did end up taking a 3 minute shift. His last 2 of the period were VERY short and in OT he didn't take the ice until well after Dahlin and Thompson had been out there a full 2 minutes. As everyone saw he was technically their 4th SO shooter, but the puck just rolled off his stick. And in the 3rd, he repeated the only sitting with his teammates once and sittling at the end of the bench the rest of the time. Am not expecting him to play again next year. As for the game itself, thought Dahlin played better than he had the past 2 or 3 games. Thought Rosen was sharper prior to getting his goal than later, but he also wasn't getting to go against Ovie nearly every shift after he scored. Thought McLeod was better than he'd been the past few, missing the net on the shorty breakaway attempt not withstanding. Thought all 6 D had another strong game. The talent is the best they've had in a long time, but will give Wilford props, they've been playing well and the PK is out of their minds. They just aren't giving up many strong chances while short and didn't expect they'd get to that point with him directing the unit. UPL was awful through 60 minutes. So was the Caps goalie. BUT in OT UPL was that UPL we'd seen back in January '23. Not sure if it was getting banged up on that 1st rush when Tuch wouldn't let the Cap get to the front and the Cap ran into the net and the net hit UPL, or what the reason, but that was the best he's played in a long time. As he tends to get into and out of his head, would give him the start on Tuesday (and tell him and Lyon that Lyon will get Thursday's start regardless to keep them both fresh and to not see UPL reinjure whatever he's been injuring lately) and see if he can't get into his own head in a good way. Quinn continues to be playing the right way in the offensive zone and isn't being bad in his own end. Will take that for now and will hope he continues to improve in his own end. Surprisingly, Power did NOT drop the puck back on the PP in the 2nd when there was a Cap on the ice right behind him. Baby steps. Of course, in the 1st he'd been part of the rare Triple Drop Pass combo and was the star of that making 2 of the 3 drop passes. Truly dislike Seth Appert. Greenway is playing a bit dirty since coming back. Mildly surprised at that; if he can stop taking penalties doing so or if the PK unit can continue to be stellar, it isn't the worst development of the season. Still liking the 4th line's effort level. Too bad Krebs hit the pipe in the 2nd shortly after the Caps had done so at the other end. Fun game to be at. Don't recall ever seeing an OT where all 3 guys got caught on the ice for 2 full minutes and 2 of them got caught on the ice for another minute. And shockingly, they didn't end up getting scored on through all that. They hadn't played their shift poorly, they just went back and forth the 1st minute and then at what presumably was the end of their shift they simply couldn't get to the puck ahead of the Caps with fresh legs. And whoever had Byram scoring the winner in OT with Ovie and Leonard shooting wide (giving Ovie the benefit of calling the puck rolling off his stick a "shot"), go blank yourself, absolutely nobody, not even Bo's mother, had that on their parlay. Bring on Peterka and the Woolies / UTI's and get a 2 game winning streak underway.

Explains why his passes were off in the BJ game. Hope it's nothing too serious.

Wouldn't say the crowds are bigger in general than they were last year at this time, maybe a bit. Last night was a sellout because it was "Hockey Fights Cancer Night" which is always a big draw as Roswell makes sure there are a lot of bodies in the building. Plus it was a Saturday night game which also draws well and it was one of the last chances people will have to watch Ovechkin play in person. Add all those up and you get a sellout. But WOULD say, the crowd has been louder this season, even in games where we've only had ~14k in the barn, we've been able to get loud at times. And, them winning more often than not at home helps feed the crowd participation which also helps feed the team playing well. Once in a while, those feedback loops work in our favor. 😉

Yep. And get pulling Bichette to get the pinch runner in there, but if you are "all in" to win in the 10th WHY leave the #7 hitter who was 0-4 at the time in the lineup with bases loaded and only 1 out? Why not use a power hitter as a pinch hitter to get a sacrifice and drive that pinch runner in? You still have the guy with 30 hits coming up after him if that doesn't work. They ALMOST got the run leaving him in, but it just seemed there'd be a better chance to force in a run if somebody with power was at the plate there.

Why Santy Claus, WHY?!?!?!?

NHL technically doesn't do that. Players go in for their careers and not as a member of a particular team. Which is unlike how MLB does it and how the NFL seems to do it.

During the broadcast they mentioned the Celtics played last night. That was the excuse used for why pucks kept bouncing wildly off one of the stanchions in the Sabres end. Presumably that's why the ice seemed bad too.

On a certain level Ruff isn't the problem. BUT he accepted ALL the assistant coaches when he was brought in wtihout bringing in any of his own guys (with the minor exception of demoting Ellis and moving Appert from Amerks HC to key AC and PP coordinator; which is just as bad, if not actually worse) and then after having worked with all of them for a full year didn't punt ANY of them (not even a demotion) and brought the entire band back except for the S&C coach. Their coaching is bad. Though will give Wilford credit for having the PK playing very well when it gets good GTing behind it. Did NOT see even that coming. And the fact that Ruff hasn't forced any real moves in that department says he's part of the problem too.

No, Stillman is the guy that Jeannot destroyed. In IIRC Stillman's 1st game in a Sabre uni. Sorry if that wasn't clear.

Yes, but at least they picked up 3 points in these 3 losses. Doing that several more times 3 years ago would've easily gotten them in the playoffs and could've had them in contention the last couple. But now they need to stack some W's.

Hoping just a retool, not a rebuild. Fix the coaching and upgrade about 4 roster spots and they can be good.

Stillman. (Probably already answered by somebody else. Apologies if this answer was redundant.)

Ruff will go with UPL. Personally, would go with Ellis. UPL giving Ovie a hattie won't help anyone's psyche. (Well, nobody in B&G at any rate.)

It WAS the right play. He had 2 guys ready for a rebound towards the far side and he went far blocker side so there was no way for Korpisalo to freeze the puck. He simply didn't get the shot on net to force the save (should the shot not have gotten though to the twine). He simply didn't MAKE the play. He tried the right thing, he simply didn't make it work.

The league doesn't get it because they have no incentives to "get it" and their broadcast partners have never gotten it going back at minimum to the days NBC couldn't wait to get Marv Albert back behind a mic.

If they're keeping it a secret, we just don't want to know.

Unless another team besides the Sabres put a claim in on him, if St. Louis wants him back in the 1st 30 days and the Sabres waive him then he's Peoria (or wherever the Blues farm club is nowadays) bound. Should the Sabres keep him around a bit longer, then anybody making a claim would have to keep him in the NHL. But, no point at all in waiving him until they know what they have in him. Maybe they lucked into something.

He played better than UPL the 1st few games of last year, having 2 very good games out of 3 to UPL's 1 good game out of 4; but Ruff still decided to run with UPL after UPL finally had A good game against one of the worst teams in the league. (And UPL's 1 good game didn't happen until after Levi had a disasterous start against the BJs.) He'd also played very well at the end of the previous season in the handful of games he'd gotten as Granato was on his way out the door. Levi was bad when he finally got back in but wasn't horrible, but by then Ruff had already long before made up his mind on who his starter was and when they managed to regrab Reimer, the Amerks net was his; but he'd played well those 1st couple of games when he believed he had an opportunity to win the job after having beaten Reimer out of the top 2 role and having outplayed UPL as well. UPL played well for a few games after being handed the starter's net, as he'd done in the past (you LIKE UPL, you really, really LIKE UPL) after getting handed the starter's net. But after losing a game to Minny that he'd personally played great in (as did the rest of the team), the wheels fell off for both UPL and the Sabres. Also, would agree that Adams has wanted to give the crease to Levi; but Ruff never had any plans to give the net to Levi. At his B&G I's that 1st summer he was in town, he was talking UPL up hugely with little mention of Levi. And UPL was the presumptive starter as camp opened both last year and this year. Had UPL not been broken heading into camp, he would've been the starter and Lyon the backup as was the original plan.

Personally, try to give them the benefit of the doubt and when it's obvious they're going to be in way more of a hurry than this kid, try to wave them through the interesection. (And then get ticked when they DON'T end up driving like maniacs but rather driving right at or below the speed limit.) Why give them the benefit of the doubt? Because a long time ago in a place far away had to drive about an hout to get back home once and about 15 minutes into the trip started to have an allergic reaction. Started driving way too fast on a multilane highway to get to the hospital (had no idea where or even if there was one near where the reaction started but knew where one was 30 or so miles down the road) and had idiots that were upset seeing this car flying down the highway and they'd pull out in front to force weaving down that highway to get to the hospital. Reason for flying was twofold, getting to the hospital quicker, and hoping to get pulled over so a cop could get me there with his lights on and flying even faster. Never saw a cop that trip, but when finally got to the emergency room the person at the attendant's desk was quite blase until she looked up; after that she and the rest of the staff started moving much quicker. So, tend to try to believe they are having some sort of emergency situation they're dealing with, even though it's far more likely they're young and driving the way @Weave says he did when he was young or yours truly did back then too. It's not likely they are dealing with an emergency, but on that 2% of the time they are, maybe getting over and helping them pass ends up saving a life (besides my own).