Taro T

1) Sabres point total? 92.5 (In one game, against the dastardly Bruins, as @Sabres Fan in NS would say, after all 18 skaters and the backup goalie has gone in the SO, the score remains tied at 2 as Mittelstadt and Jokiharju score for the B's and Geertson and Bryson are the only 2 Sabres to score; figuring this'll go on all night they decide to call it a draw and split the extra SO point.) 2) Will the Sabres makes the playoffs? Yes, the Aisles end up in 9th place with 92 after having swept the Sabres 3) Sabres leading goal scorer? Thompson 4) Sabres leader in total points? Dahlin 5) Sabres MVP? Ellis 6) Sabres ROY? Johnson 7) Best off-season acquisition? The S&C coach 8.) Worst off-season acquisition? The new sound system (technically the new B&G goal song; but that wasn't actually "acquired" in the off-season so ...) 9) Biggest surprise? (positive or negative) The Sabres are legitimately in a playoff spot (both by points and %age on US Thanksgiving) 10) Breakout player? One of the guys in the press box for the Vegas game. Fortunately it doesn't spread through the entire roster. 11) Will any Sabres players or coaches finish as finalists (win?) for any major awards such as the Norris or Selke? Dahlin - runner up for Norris. Tuch gets votes for Selke but just misses top 3. Thompson ends up 4th in the Rocket Richard race 12) Unsung hero? Byram 13) Who will be the first Sabre traded away this season? UPL 14) Will KA make any in-season acquisitions before the deadline? Yes. 15) Will the Sabres be buyers or sellers at the deadline? Yes. 16) Other bold prediction? {Such as KA gets fired mid-season ;)} They bring back Gilbert singing after home W's, but courtesy of the Wonder of AI, it appears he's singing it to RJ. THAT's what rallies the team to the 92.5 point season. 17) Any other thoughts? The season needs more cowbell.

Not sure if my kids went or not; did get them tix. Back when the criminals owned the team, this was pretty much an annual staple right before the season started. Hopefully it becomes a thing again. There's plans for the equipment sale to be an annual thing.

Before watching him in the preseason was right there with Marty expecting a big year from him. Hopefully he's more the Jack Quinn that we saw in the 3rd period against the BJs than the one we saw the 1st 2 periods against them. Since it's the Hopium thread; should Marty be right, that'll go a long way towards giving them a legit shot of ending the drought.

Bulldog's kid is now on GR? Didn't see that bit of nepotism happening for some reason. Good for him?

Players annual Corn Hole tournament.

At least he won't be a Bruin anytime soon. But seeing him sign another 8 year deal stings a bit. Should've been a Sabre for life along with his bike riding buddy.

Awesome, so only a couple more throwaway seasons before they get serious. 😡

That number still has Georgiev's contract counting against the cap. It's only ~$875k so it'll go bye bye when he clears waivers. Back up to $3MM in space.

Realize that you were joking; but seriously, if they decide they want Appert they might as well just bring Granato back. They ran the same "system" when they were each in charge of a team; the only difference being Granato actually understood what it was he was trying to accomplish and the why of it. (Not saying the why was correct; but he at least had one.)

You're getting out ahead of your skis. Youve made a classic blunder (not as bad as getting into a land war in Asia, but still); you've assumed that Wilford is capable of implementing ANY system. In order to CHANGE a system; one 1st needs an implemented system. 😉

Nothing to do with Mrtka, but really hoping Leone leap frogs Appert in the succession planning. Not positive Leone will be great at the next level, but it's possible. Appert is clueless.

That's unfortunate timing.

Got tix to the event for my kids, not sure if they went or not. We've been busy lately. Glad you had a good time.

Interesting. Whoever had 14-6-3 on their card when camp opened, please share whatever it is you're on. Guess if a D-man not named Dahlin gets hurt, until they can get an emergency callup of Jones, they'd run Dahlin for 30-32 minutes; Byram for 26-28; leaving the other 3 ~20 minutes each hoping for a LOT of PP time.

He's essentially the same age as Binnington was when he was loaned to San Antonio because he was so far down the depth chart they didn't even want him as their primary AHLer and ended up gettting recalled to the parent club and won the SC. Goalies are weird; this is a goalie in St. Louis' system and they are even weirder about goalies than goalies are. And w/ all that said, not expecting much of anything from him except ensuring Georgiev never sees a RS game in Sabre blue and gold (nor Sabre red and black, for that matter 😉 ).

For 30 days, yes, St. Louis could claim him from Buffalo and send him down without re-reclearing waivers (presuming Sabres were only team making claim; don't recall ottomh the exact mechanics if more than just Buffalo put in a claim). If he stays on the Sabres for a full month, then St. Louis would be in the same pack as everyone else should Buffalo try to send him to Ra-cha-cha.

Ooooorr, Jacksonville could have Ratzlaff, Leinonen, and Georgiev. 😉

When he's motivated, he can still be a world beater. Problem is, he wasn't motivated his last year at least (and arguably last 2 years) in Buffalo and he won't likely be motivated to this degree again often in Cheatland. When he isn't motivated, he's a huge distraction. Looking forward to Maye, McCown, or Vrabel looking at him crossways one time and him going back into pouty mode. (The sooner, the better. 😉 )

He's his dad's kid, for sure. Ed was a tool. Shawn is a tool on steroids. (Though it's likely dad did more of them than sonny boy.) They both are under the misguided impression that the people in the stands and watching on TV are there to watch THEM do their jobs. No, actually we prefer it when the refs are essentially invisible. But as bad as Hochuli and crew were; they didn't cause Knox to mistime his shift; they didn't cause Coleman to fumble the ball; they didn't cause Allen to Brett Favre that ball into a non-existant window; and they didn't decide Tre White could cover Diggs without any help as often as he was given that assignment. Stinks that they lost this one; but the Cheats will lose a couple more they shouldn't; the Crows and the Bungles are both essentially dead men walking; SD is still SD; and KC has a killer schedule. The Bills get the AFC North in the year that some teams are emerging in the South and West and they get the NFC South in a year that except for TB they all look like the Fishies. Injuries let them luck into a better PK and better P than they started the year with. Find a way to get past Atlanta next Monday. Get Hoecht and the other suspended guy back; get Oliver healthy; and get to it. They still control their own destiny.

Realize 3 of the 4 pairings aren't those they'll be running Thursday night. But holy cow is that a serious hound's breakfast back there.

Have admitted it likely won't work as Krebs probably doesn't have the chops to play on the top line even with 2 really good top line finishers. BUT, and again it was against lesser competition, he was in the right spots when he played with those 2 and he had important quality passes that led directly to 2 goals (he got assists on both, know 1 was primary, not sure if the other was 2ndary or not but it was crucial to the play); IF he can play within his limitations and just get pucks and feed them to spots those other 2 can work with it would free up a better player to play with McLeod and Tuch and it would also let whatever version of a Kid Line the 3rd scoring line is have Zucker on it, which should make THAT line significantly more effective. Krebs will be what he will be should he end up where we all expect centering the 4th line. But if he could be even a discount Rob Brown with Lemieux or Sheary with Crosby (guys who don't bring down significantly better players, but are themselves elevated by playing with the better player) then the middle 2 lines can both be improved. The idea is to maximize the total, not one of the parts. And, once again, it likely won't work. But it flashed it could. And this team has enough self-inflicted contraints already applied to it ($5MM under the cap; very bad X&O coaching; no proven goalie; just to name a few); they need a bit to break their way unexpectedly to overcome them. This could be one of those bits.

Good question. Understand why the media folks use it, because seeing who's working through the drills together (aka a rush up the ice) is how they figure out which groupings are actually lines on that particular day. But no idea when it went from simply "lines" to guys taking "reps" together to "line rushes." When did "physicality" become a thing? Heck, when did we go from "noodles" to "pasta?"

So, Johnson goes into the lineup and Bryson remains that guy that is there should someone's pregame meal start coming back on him.

Would really like to see them give Krebs another look with Thompson and Norris. IF he can be effective there (and he very well might not be able to do so) then Benson can become McLeod's winger, Zucker can become Kulich's winger, and Quinn becomes Danforth's problem (or Danforth gets Doan and there is the makings of a very good "energy" line; Quinn is still Kulich's problem in that situation, but Zucker is experienced and can help probably more than Doan would with all 3 still learning the NHL as is the current projection). Before TC, was expecting Quinn to bounce back to where he was prior to the injuries. But after the PS, no longer am expecting it. Still hope for it; it really adds a ton of flexibility to what they can do if he could be what his contract shows they expect he can do; but just don't see it.

Basically, it's a redux of Bertuzzi-Moore. Hagel got a 1 game suspension in the playoffs last year for a late hit on Barkov. Greer decided the suspension wasn't enough punishment for having injured Barkov, and attempted to mete out extra punishment on Hagel. The Bolts took exception to that, and came prepared to explain how that response would receive a response as well. Pretty sure this is how Hatfields-McCoys started, too.