Taro T

Expected that when they gave him the night completely off yesterday. Good. It's his crease at present.

Really expect it's a combo of 3 things plus luck. 1. Most of the players aren't being asked to consistently play above their talent level. And of the few that are, it's 1 slot up and playing w/ a guy that could be playing another level higher himself. Don't underrated the value of not being forced into maximum exertion at all moments. 2. The team is crazy young. Though a few guys still need to develop man strength, almost all but 3 guys should be at a very low risk of a soft tissue injury. And they're at the age where they recover from bumps & bruises quicker too. 3. It was reported that management was bringing in people to help them revamp their training, practice, & nutrition guidelines to minimize injuries & recovery times. Surprising it would be effective this quickly. But if there were major revisions, it's not out of the question. And, then there's plain old luck. Jokiharju, Samuelsson, & even Dahlin's injuries were in no small part bad luck. Only Lyubushkin's was a product of his style of play. That bad luck offsets good luck overall.

Nobody is arguing he should be starting ahead of UPL. The argument is he should be starting ahead of Anderson. And admittedly the calculus likely changed after last night's effort. But, the message out of Seymour H. Knox Place has been that they aren't going to prioritize a single win or even a couple over consistent winning LT. How is playing the goalie that has no future in Buffalo, who also was between the pipes for losses to the Otters, Phlyers, & Hawks in the last 3 weeks more beneficial to the LT well being of the franchise than finding out wtf they have in Comrie who IS under contract next year & could literally be anything from the goalie that played for Winnipeg last year to the goalie that was between the pipes for a significant portion of the 8 game losing streak to anything in between. Yes Anderson's #'s on the season are good but prior to last night he had 2 bad games in a row and wasn't exactly stellar against the Otters either though his #'s were good that game. Thing is, Granato seems to know the pulse of his team very well & he & Bales chose Anderson last night who from the outside didn't look too good but they were right in their decision in hindsight. But they need to get to a point where they give Comrie a start or 3 (to UPL's 6 or 7) to make sure the lofty expectations of next season & beyond can actually be met.

The problem w/ having 2 snipers out there, 1 on either side, is the PP becomes extremely static. And a good PK can take those passes away. The problem they had early in the year was the PP was very sstatic. They started adding movement & that pass to Thompson once the PK had shifted away from Tage. They need to start having other guys fake the pass to Thompson & either shoot or pass away from him and get that shot off. The PP is way too predictable now.

Yep. Granato is pretty good about giving guys opportunities in games they're personally vested in. And considering UPLs illness messed up the rotation for the last Jets game am expecting he gets that start. But if he doesn't get it and they go UPL like Biron suggested last night right to the AS break then we might not see Comrie start again until March.

That's sweet. It's not often visitors get greeted by the Mayor himself. We are honored.

Would've preferred they go the other way even into November of this year, but Granato has been playing the kids all along (w/ occasionally breaks here & there) and has gotten more out of them than almost anybody expected. If he's good w/ the kids so should we be. And how cool is it that there's only 1 week left in January and it's still a relevant question & not a complete hypothetical?

Start having Cozens shoot rather than reflexively passing away from the high slot to Thompson or Dahlin. If Tuch & Skinner know that's coming they can crash for rebounds. When defenses start trying to take that away Thompson's 1 timer will start working again. Would also bump Skinner to the 2nd unit bringing up Quinn, but after the Kreuger years that's a non-starter.

Good for us. Bummer for him. He's been a good teammate & is very well liked. Too bad he couldn't stay in the show this season but he literally is behind 13 other skaters. Wonder if he makes his 2nd trip to AZ next year or becomes a Blackhawk for the 3rd time? Or if he follows Sheahan to Europe then?

Not sure they can afford to bridge him if the goal is to keep the Big 3 plus the Joker in house long term. They have $15 MM plus in cap space at present & the cap will go up. Adams is on record as saying often he plans to spend on the guys in house that earn it. Dahlin & Cozens will eat a lot of that space but not all. Power’s contract will come due before either Quinn's or Peterka's contracts come due. There is more in the cupboard at F and if necessary 1 of them can get bridged in 2 years. That's when Adaams will have to start making decisions on which F's he's keeping moving forward. Expect the pieces of the Jost line are what end up getting moved out & if they are there'll be room and cap room for the 2 kid Ws.

Expect he will be. He's been able to do the dispassionate canning of most of the front office and also got rid of guys he brought in that 1st year though it can be argued they weren't really "his" guys as they were brought in to support a structure he thought needed to be torn down. That said, until a Quinn or Krebs or Power do get moved, we won't know if he will or won't do so. (And there is no rush at all on any of those guys moving so we literally might not know the answer to that definitively for years.)

Chicken & egg. You could be right it was the Sabres poor play feeding that forecheck, but Dallas was flying and it was like watching men play against Juniors for 10 or 12 minutes. And all 4 lines were susceptible to the pressure. But focusing more on the better play after that poor start. Don't believe it's a coincidence that the Sabres coming out of their 5 or so game funk corresponds directly w/ Adams ending the "Amerk of the Day" experiment by waiving Hinostroza.

And again, the shift before he was out w/ 17-71 he was out w/ 37-71. That line was essentially made a 4 player line w/ 37&17 alternating as the LW. But then the PP happened & that line didn't see the ice again (except in their roles on the 2 PP units) during regulation.

Dallas did forecheck the heck out of the Sabres, particularly in the 1st 1/2 of the 1st. But that is a difficult thing to do for long and after Anderson weathered the storm (let's face it, he weathered it, not the Sabres, they barely survived it) the Sabres evened the play and even had the edge in play slightly from then on. Really expect the 2 middle lines to be improved next year as the kids mature and the Jost line continues to gain chemistry. Also expect Power to be significantly better and Lyubushkin to be better as he gets comfortable w/ what he's asked to do & hopefully stays healthy. Get 1 more Lyubushkin (or better) defensive D-man & a lot of the improvement your looking for will be here organically. The top line doesn't have much more to give as they are pretty much at their ceilings in their prime, but Krebs will be better too. Okposo & Girgensons (if both are back) could take steps back, but they're towards the end of the line & won't lose much defensively. So, a lot of the improvement your looking for will happen with minimal moves as half of the team will be better just by being 1 year closer to their primes. Edit, and upon further review, guess we're on the same page but expect Cozens or other will become that power forward you're looking for.

Took a few game for them to jell, but they have been effective post Christmas.

And there is a bit of a yin & yang to their results. When Mittelstadt & Olofsson were getting blown up as 2/3's of the 2nd line, the Kids Line was running wild. Since the lines flipped, so have the results. (Although the kids ran on adrenaline for ~4 games after getting bumped up a line.) If the Jost line can keep playing like this to the AS break wouldn't be at all surprised to see the lines flip back. That line is more veteran than the Kid Line and are playing w/ confidence. They likely won't get destroyed like earlier in the year if flipped though they'll likely not continue as a GAG line but it could get the kids really rolling again.

One was a 2ndary assist. The play a couple of games back where he freed the puck along the boards that Jost then skated it to the netfront & passed it to Olofsson at the far side of the crease for the 1 timer. Pretty much everything else he has an assist on since Jost joined the line is a primary as well. The majority of his assist prior to the line reforming were primaries as well but were coming on the PP. The Mitts VO Asplund-Krebs-Hinostroza-Other line was not scoring much at 5v5. And they didn't score much the 1st ~6 games w/Jost. But since Detroit (or maybe the game before that) the line has been very effective.

Sell low, buy high. Pretty sure Tim Murray has that embroidered on his pillows. 😉

Minnesota. 😉 Colorado got Sturm for him.

Anderson had not played particularly well in January. Kudos to Granato & Bales for knowing the pulse of the goalie room & giving him the start. Don't believe UPL would've gotten that win tonight even though he'd been playing better than Andy lately. Hoping UPL gets the W tomorrow. Was smart to give him the day of rest today.

Last season.

Actually, trying to get Quinn & Peterka less ice time. Shift before that Jost sat & Cozens took his spot. Looked like had there not been the PP altering the rotation that that Jost line would've been the Cozens line w/ Mittelstadt & Jost alternating as the LW.

Is OK. It balances out Mittelstadt's 7G 20A.

But @Eleven isn't arguing to play Comrie over UPL. UPL isn't getting the start tonight. With that being the case, how about we find out if Comrie can play hockey behind this team? Absolutely would rather see Comrie play than Anderson. Hoping this is just a case of the Sabres getting Anderson to a milestone (it's his 700th game) & that they'll move to find out wtf they have in Comrie the next time UPL is getting the night off.

He's played exactly 1 NHL game since November. On a night he was not supposed to get the start. It's almost as compelling a point as saying Anderson's last W was in December. He's only played thrice since then.