Taro T

Good. Then an opportunity to vie LT as a 2nd pairing fixture should be a no brainer for him & his agent.

Yep. The great diaspora still bleeds blue & red.

REALLY hoping Dahlin gets an ASG invite. Would just be wrong to have a Norris candidate such as himself sit home. HATE the way the league is choosing the rosters this year.

If he or Power can play on the right side, he can be a 2nd pairing guy here and easily get 22 minutes/game if not 24. And though he'll never get PP1 time when all are healthy, he MIGHT supplant Power on PP2 if they decide to make Owen a key PKer when he's done filling out. Being a key piece of a Chicago cup run style D or a D-centric Nashville team could be enticing. (Maybe he does want to have a shot at being the top dog, but he'll necessarily be on a weaker D if he is.) The Sabres really do only have a few gaps moving forward & those gaps (except possibly/likely goalie) aren't at the top of the lineup & there's a lot of highly rated prospects available to step in when new gaps arise. Don't know why he wouldn't want to be a part of it, but definitely have blue & gold colored glasses to view his situation.

It's possible. Hope you're wrong because they've got 2 more weeks of 4 games/ week & after the AS break they have pretty much 3.5/week until April.

Well, if you weren't sick last night, you likely are now. 😉 The most disappointing thing is they had a bunch of kids in the building and didn't really land the hook. Have to readjust the PP. Need to get shots from people other than just Thompson. On to Chicago. Hope they give Comrie the start. He needs a W and some confidence.

He IS better along the boards in the last 10 or so games, but would argue it's his play AWAY from the boards that's fueling his improved play. When he & Olofsson were 2/3's of the 2nd line even though he was playing C, he nearly ALWAYS brought the puck to the boards & then tried to skate it up the boards or he'd win a battle along the boards & then lose it back either via strip or poor pass. It took a few games as the C & then LW on the 3rd line to start to change that & really those 2 games on the 1st line got him to play away from & not just at the boards. He's played positionally sound in his own end, but other than that he was ALWAYS at the boards. He started going to the net after that & ALSO started actually weaving & cycling when put back w/ Jost & VO. IMHO, his not telegraphing the advance up the boards has opened up some space for himself & accordingly his linemates. (Playing as the 3rd line also helps, but the 1st 6 or so games there as the 3rd scoring line actually saw his play suffer when it should've improved.) Other teams just needed to collapse on him because he had nowhere to go & the puck stayed to the perimeter. And also IMHO, it's his improved play & he & Jost starting to get the feel for what the other is doing that has been a portion of Olofsson's improved play. W/ Casey not just going up the boards allows him to do his thing better whichnis find a soft spot to be fed for a 1 timer.

The 2nd is Mitts. No data on the 1st guy.

Don't see any reason not to. The Fishies, being a division rival know the Bills well & play them hard. Read that 8 of Allen's 16 fumbles came against them. And Allen was a fraction of an inch away from having an extra TD on the Knox play; a 1st down inside the 10 on the Shakir play; plus Diggs near catch of another bomb for a TD. Those last 2 connect, & they often do, & Miami likely gets out of cover 0 and then Allen goes back to taking underneath plays. Plus, if Brown doesn't add the hitch to his route & at minimum Howard doesn't have an INT & the Bills might have the ball there or in the end zone. The Bengals were down 3 OL-men by the end of last night's game. If they don't get healthy quick, it'll be a long night for Joe Rodent House. Cincy's O was noticeably limited after the 3rd guy went down.

41.

KC hosts the early Saturday game - 4:30. NFC East rematch 8:15PM Saturday. And Frisco hosts the winner of tomorrow's game at 6:30 on Sunday. Ever since 2001 they've bumped the playoffs later into the day. Remember the Tuck Rule game was a night game. Bigger advertising revenue in Prime Time. It's a made for TV league nowadays.

Bills host Cincy at 3PM on Sunday in the early game on CBS.

Except, he doesn't enhance the guy he's playing with when it isn't a 3rd pairing guy. Dahlin is worse w/ him than w/ Samuelsson. Power shouldn't have to cover for his mistakes, Jokiharju's the vet on that pairing. It SHOULD be the other way around but it's not. And, yes, he's a better partner for Power than Bryson. He's a better player than Bryson.

Don't believe a 5 is necessarily a 1 way D-man, though he usually is. Believe he can also be a 2-way guy that gets overmatched when the other team's top line is out or when a cycle gets going & he takes himself out of the play. Again, believe he's a GOOD 5, & believe he's improved a lot over the past 2 years & very well could become a 4. (Don't ever see him becoming a 3 though.) And, he's gotten better about not pinching at bad moments, but still get nervous watching him pinch. And his play on the PK when he's forced into a structure is a big part of why he likely can grow into a 4. He's good on the PK; he doesn't run around. So he SHOULD be able to grow out of that 5v5.

If the Sabres have Granato at one of the B&G insights will try to ask him about the philosophy of not trying to box out F's in front of the Sabres net. Believe you are correct that it is in fact a coaching decision to play that way. Lyubushkin is the only one that seems to do it & expect that's more of him falling back into a habit as he doesn't seem to do it all that often.

Still believe at present he's a 5, not a 4. But, he's young & could very well mature into a 4. And still want him to have his own Samuelsson. Would completely solidify the top 4 & Joker/Lyubushkin could be an elite 3rd pairing with either having the ability to fill in on the top 4 to cover for an injury.

That matches up w/ the eye test. They'd had decent moments on the road trip prior to Christmas (the couple of games where Mittelstadt filled in for Skinner & then the Vegas game), but the Detroit game was their coming out party. (Not sure ottomh when the 3 became a line. It was ~ the home Colorado game but not positive exactly when he & Krebs flipped lines.) And it was the NJ game 4 games earlier that saw Mitts & VO go from 2nd line usage to 3rd (or 4th briefly by ice time).

Well, yes, STs made several out of character bad plays. The messed up KO, the huge punt return, & the fortuitous recovery by Dotson on Hines fumble being the biggest examples. But w/ all that, plus 3 Fish starts in Bills territory & another at the Mami 40, the D only gave up ~250 yards & 24 points. No point in being upset about giving up ridiculously long 3rd down conversions; it's a staple of Frazier's D. So is solid red zone D & being good at short/moderate yardage 3rd down D. They gave up 5 3 FGs (several off short fields), 1 2 TDs (1 off a short field), & a 2 point conversion. The D showed up. The rest, not so much. But, overall, they were good enough to beat a divisional foe (almost always a tough out). Expect the whole team will be ready for Cincy or the Jags.

Yup. The seeming dearth of prospects is mildly concerning for the big club, but Adams will find enough D tweeners in the next offseason to have Ra-cha-cha fully stocked. (Although likely w/ only offensive D-men if the past 2 offseasons are indicators of what to expect moving forward.)

They entered NBA-Mode for the last 2:11 of the 1st 1/2. 3 pointer, TV timeout. 3 pointer, TV timeout. Lather, rinse, repeat. Didn't like "sugar high" Josh, but doubt we get that again next week. The D came to play and covered for his & STs mistakes.

Knew those Eulers had firepower, but didn't recall them ever getting more than about 12 in any 1 game. Guess the pain meds & Molsons really were kicking in that day. & btw, Gretzky was long gone by then down to LA.

Believe they're getting around needing to actually making them report to the Amerks by changing who is "down" each day. (They get called back up before making the drive down the 90.) Again, the issue is they can't practice w/ the Sabres if they're "in" Ra-cha-cha. (They count against the roster when they practice even if they get loaned later in the day.)

Good. They shouldn't need the lift from him being there today. Now, next Sunday is another matter. Let him lead that charge.

Depends. If UPL gets the Swamp Cats, then yes. If Granato is giving that one to Anderson or Comrie, then no.

Only players on 1 way contracts don't take a pay cut to be sent down. These skaters are on ELCs, so they absolutely lose money getting sent down. UPL loses money too, not not as badly as the kids do. Puckapedia has his AHL deal at $350k, so he loses a bit more than 1/2 his NHL pay each day he's an Amerk.