Taro T

TIL Dionne Warwick is still alive. Would've lost that bet.

No, not really. Not saying he was Skinner, but he absolutely wasn't Drury and he benefitted greatly from primarily having Hecht and Dumont as his wingers.

He was. But he was not good in his own end.

It's still officially summer for a couple more hours. Hold your friggin' horses. 😉

And this is a big part of why Tuch tends to be Thompson's Hecht with Tommer his Briere. Danny was NOT good in his own end, but Dumont was good there and Hecht was a rival to Drury and Grier in his own end. But they found ways to make it work in their own end. Often, Hecht found himself playing the C role when the puck came back into the Sabres end, much like Alex does now. (Alex isn't at Hecht's level in his own end, but he's better than Thompson is and the 2 of them kind of play C by committee.) And that lack of 5v5 defensive zone skill that Tage exhibits is a big part of why it wouldn't be at all surprising to see Benson and Peterka flip lines at some point in the next couple of seasons. Once Ruff is comfortable that Zach can handle that role, could definitely see him moving to the "top" line while Peterka reunites with 2 guys that he's shown a lot of chemistry.

Don't have a dog in this fight, so really don't feel like getting into the details of how much impact he has in the defensive zone, but the reason Granato stopped having him kill penalties wasn't because he was ineffective in that role; he stopped having Thompson kill penalties because he broke his hand blocking a shot. And there were several other guys whose hands were FAR more expendable than Tage's was. So, would say he SHOULDN'T kill penalties, not that he DOESN'T kill penalties.

Didn't take long for Krebs to move from 9 to 13.

They're like the anti-Fishies. They're horrible in September but typically very good in December.

Well, sure, he was waiting for the Ennis announcement before making his announcement. Tyler blinked first. 😉

Well, when you don't know if you should go with blue and gold, black and red, or blue and red; just punt on the decision and go "old school."

Eh, we'll know within a week or 2.

And again, Dahlin and Tuch were the guys that were sent to talk with the STHers on Saturday. Pretty sure they and Ruff know what's up. It just simply isn't getting announced publicly yet. And Ruff very possibly hasn't settled on who's getting the A yet. He's been a part of all of 1 practice with his team (well, 2 by now); why not get to know the team a bit 1st?

He looked fine on Saturday.

He's not just the only one to still be playing that has scored in the playoffs for the Sabres, he's the only NHLer to have played in the playoffs for the Sabres. Not many NHLers w/ 14+ year careers.

They've had exactly 1 practice under Ruff. Wtf should it "be done by now?"

Might open up a playoff slot in the East if he pulls a Nylander. And could force Adams hand to sen Levi to Ra-cha-cha to keep the B's from snagging Reimer.

Yes, Ruff will select the captain(s). Honestly not sure that the players have ever had final say in who the captain is. It wasn't the players that took the C off Schoenfeld and gave it to Gare.

They absolutely 100% will have 3 goalies on the trip to Europe.

Pretty much all the F's were where the ended the year (not counting the new ones obviously) so it's very possible Ruff was merely having guys play w/ who they were with last year to keep up the fast pace of practice. Will be interesting to hear what the lines are tomorrow.

Yeah, Chicken Hat Guy had it right. The biggest photo at the top was him in a Sabres Slug.

Makes sense. GR was fading in & out so didn't hear Hammie's comments on it. But apparently Levi is running w/ old school brown pads. (Makes sense. If he goes down, the Sabres pads look out of place. Smart kid.)

Ooooh, 1st page. What a day; what a day!

Well, at least on day 1, Krebs is 9th (7th?) and Kulich is the only AHLer skating w/ the NHLers. So, it does appear that they aren't too worried about Rousek's feelings.

Mildly surprised Krebs is penciled in at 3C. Hopefully not TOO many heads explode over that. Will be interesting to see if he can hold onto it. There is a logic to the D pairings. Hopefully it's just a tweak keeping Dahlin out of practice today. (So tired of not being allowed to have nice things.) Sounds like they skated hard today. Ruff mentioned how he felt bad for the guys in the 2nd session as this is the 1st time he ever started TC with the NHLers & AHLers segregated on day 1, but due to heading to Europe camp is compressed this year. Ready for them to start playing for real.

Based on today's practice (UPL & Levi w/ the NHLers) and Ruff's comments it sounds like Levi will start the year as a Sabre and if he doesn't get into enough games then they'll swap him and Reimer. But it seems he has the inside track to be the #2. (And it doesn't sound like they'll have 3 goalies up by the time they play the Kings.)