Taro T

Helenius tripped up coming through the neutral zone with no call led to a real dangerous 3 on 1 Wing rush which shockingly Sandstrom stopped while giving up no rebound. (Baby steps continuing.)

Well, yes. Sabretooth is in Prague (or on his way to Prague quite soon after hanging out at Oktoberfest) with the rest of the "real" Sabres. But it's a once in a lifetime opportunity for all the Sabres AHLers (up and comers and lifers, too) to get to pretend they're REALLY Sabres for one final night. Surprised they didn't bump Don Stevens up to do the pbp.

Rathbone continues his strong play of this preseason. He looks like he'll be a good signing for Ra-cha-cha.

Sandstrom has at least A save now. (Baby steps.)

Wow. Even the Moose gets to wear Sabres colors today. Not sure that I've ever seen that before. Lyon thwarted a real nice chance by Tullio set up alone in front off a nice feed from Murray.

1 - 1. Slaggart on a nice rush. Drove the net and put it over Lyon.

Very tough attempt to stop for Sandstrom, but even if it was an easy one the Wings would be up 1 zip right now. Abot 1 minute into the game. At least there's no sound to go with it.

3. (Well, most all of them, all except Dahlin (1), Tuch (2), McLeod (2), Greenway (2), and Zucker (2).) And the regular NHLers usually play 2-3 games in a normal preseason. It's just in this one, because of the trip to Europe, instead of having 2 NHL lines, 2 AHL lines and a mix and match of NHLers and AHLers on D and in net; all 20 guys expected to be playing in the NHL together actually played together.

No reason other than the league's seeming obsession with trying to avoid the NFL as much as they possibly can.

Would say Kulich and Rousek are on this trip because should an entire line get food poisoning the night before one of the Joisey games the team needed enough bodies to fill in. Why Kulich and Rousek? Because of the Amerks they are the guy closest to grabbing a top 6 role and the guy closest to grabbing a bottom 6 role respectively so should a 2nd F get injured after Krebs slips into the lineup one of these 2 do as well and it's a matter of who got hurt to determine which one slides into the lineup. Who else would've been next man up if not those 2? Rosen? Murray? Really doubt it personally.

Would say there is a 3rd item which is actually more necessary than your 2nd item (which is also important): get actual good goaltending. If UPL plays like he did in January and February and Levi plays like he did after he got called back up for the final stretch then this team WILL make the playoffs unless they hit a '73-'74 Sabresesque level of injuries. You mention it at the end of your post; but it is too important not for it to be a major focus this season and is a big reason why they upgraded Comrie to Reimer. GTing is too important to the end results to leave it to just 2 guys when a single injury could derail either for a month or more. And if either play like he did last preseason (UPL) or early last season (Levi) and the season is derailed anyhow. They CAN'T count on 92 or 93 points being good enough to get it. It could be; but it would be foolhardy to be expecting it. They need to be shooting for 98-99 at a bare minimum and realistically should be gunning for higher than that. 99 will effectively guarantee they get in; only 1 team in the modern era ever reached 0.600 and failed to get it. 98 rounds to 0.600 (but is a smidge below it); 99 gets it done.

Was hoping they'd continue sort of almost playing nice with each other until after Reimer clears waivers. Then let 'em go scorched earth with each other if they so choose to their cold little hearts contents.

He did. And, it's a big part of why last season was sooooooo maddening. He and Granato expected both that the growth from the previous season would remain linear with minimal adjustments to the personnel and strategy and they also appear to have believed that a 92 point team is a legitimate playoff contender and not one requiring a tremendous amount of luck to go its way to get into the playoffs. And because of both of those expectations, there was little, if any plan B put in beyond the plan A to get them into the playoffs last year. They continued the build (though belatedly) towards the '25-'26 season (HELLOOOOOOO Byram) but didn't make any of the sort of moves they made this year to help last season's team be stronger. There still isn't a lot of depth should injuries or youthfulness cause players they're depending upon to not live up to their internal predictions. But there IS depth at every spot (quite long in the tooth in net, and quite young elsewhere) and they SHOULD be able to still dress a lineup of 20 players each night with an injury in net and up to 2, maybe even 3, injuries elsewhere. So, there is a bit of a plan B for this year right now. Though it still isn't as solid as we'd like and that unused cap space could've been used to shore up depth further. Am really interested in seeing if/how they cut into that cap space this year. They can still do so but we're pretty much at the point where Adams won't be expected to use it until the trade deadline if he doesn't dip into it this week.

Very tough game to have Shakir gimping around on 1 good ankle. He being at 100% would've helped. (Whether it would've helped enough is open for argument, but it would've helped.) And Brady not outthinking himself would have helped even more.

Agree 100%. Seems like completely backwards in their logic. But must have something to do with the way the CI and ESPN+ contracts (and their equivalents in CA) are structured that they can't just let those games be viewed outside their local markets. (Could be something to do with the way the other broadcast contracts are structured, but that seems less likely.)

Savoie was, at best, the 3rd Sabres F prospect prior to this draft and realistically would also be behind Helenius. Getting McLeod and change for him was a very shrewd move. Another one, taking from an area of strength to bolster an area of weakness. That it actually bolstered an area of weakness TODAY AND for the forseeable future, was the only thing that makes the move out of character (to a degree) for Adams to date and is further proof (as if the rest of the revamping of the bottom 6 isn't) that he actually thinks the team should start winning now. (Even though still expect he sees their truly becoming contenders as 1 more year away when Quinn & Peterka start to hit their primes and Power and Byram get that much closer to theirs and guys like Kulich and Johnson are at a point they can step in and be useful immediately.)

Personally expect that the Avs saw they had the top D pairing covered for the next many years and that having a good 2C that could bounce up in a pinch or out to W in a pinch was more valuable than a 3rd future top pairing (or 3 at the likely worst) D-man based on where they are in their current win now mode. Adams saw that he had Thompson, Tuch, Cozens, Peterka, Quinn, and Benson but really didn't have a true 3rd top 4 D-man (Jokiharju plays there but isn't one IMHO and Samuelsson is a defensive D-man that probably is top 4 but can't stay healthy, and even Power, their 2nd top 4 D-man, is barely out of his teens). So, they had enough bodies to play the top 6 well and had a 3C that didn't really play as well in a 3C role as he would in a 2C role; but were lacking in top 4 D-men. Enter the elusive true "hockey trade." Whether Byram ends up the right guy for the top 4 remains to be seen. He very well could be. But the Avs traded from a position of strength to fill a weakness and the Sabres did likewise. My personal beef with the trade is that the Sabres traded away a guy entering his prime for one at least 2 years still removed from being to that point. And Power will never be a bruiser nor have even the snarl that Dahlin has; but Lidstrom wasn't a bruiser nor had the snarl and he was one of the best. Power will still get better. How much better? No data.

Most likely. Might want to check the Red Wings feed; but that is likely restricted to MI.

But, until that brainfart from the OC, they were getting back into that game. They didn't need to play perfect over the last 22 or so minutes; just keep playing like they had the previous 10 would've been enough.

Forcing STHers to buy tix to the games is pretty bad. But, if they did the PS at neutral site games, it would be better.

They play 6 PS games EVERY year lately. It's not like this year is a significant aberation with the extra game against Munich.

Wadr, game wasn't lost on those 1st 3 series. Game was lost on the bizarre trick play that nearly got Allen killed. Bills scored on their 1st drive of the 1/2; Jackson was on the ropes with 2 horrible drives to start the 2nd half following his fumble near the end of the 1st half; and the Bills were driving again. Just keep doing what you're doing at that point. Expecting that was a learning moment for Brady and expect he learned what he needed to from that. That got the Ravens fired back up and the game was all but over after they scored to go up by 18 on that followup drive late in the 3rd. Allen is very good late in games; Jackson, not so much. The Bills should've just kept doing what they were doing and let the 2nd half snowball in their favor as much as the 1st half did for Baltimore.

Was wondering why Johnson had been listed as one of the 7 D on the roster against the BJs and then didn't play. If it's dtd, expecting (hoping) it can't be too serious. If they're going to split the G's again with both getting time, am not expecting a W even with it being Detroit's AHL squad primarily too.

What part of "VERY well endowed" was the confusing part? 😉

The BJ's didn't show up in the 3rd, at least no more than they'd done so in the 1st 2 periods. The problem is Sandstrom showed up in the 3rd. Well, he arrived in the 3rd, pretty sure they're STILL waiting for him to show up.