Taro T

Well, yes and no. When everybody is playing to their potential, he is the 13th F. But, at least according to his coach, 60% of the time this year to date he has been made the 12th (or even up to the 9th) F. And it wasn't even a week ago that his coach was explaining his philosophy on playing & sitting young players; in order to sit someone, Hinostroza rolls into the top 12. He could easily have dressed in 9 of the 10 games without anybody batting an eye provided the player sitting wasn't their best young defensive F.

Comrie.

It was brought up in IIRC Adams end of the season press conference that they were going to look hard at why they've been suffering so many injuries the past few years and what they could do differently to reduce them & their severity. So far this year, through 10 games only 3 players have missed time with injuries and 2 of those injuries couldn't have been avoided without equipment modifications (puck into the lower leg & into the face). Even the 3rd seemed a bit flukish as it occurred when the player threw what is typically a routine check but ended up twisting awkwardly. So, is the reduction in injuries due to better training/ recovery protocols, due to having so many guys under the age of 25 when soft tissue injuries simply don't happen nearly as often as when guys are older, having better players that don't have to push their bodies beyond their limits to have success on the ice, simple luck, a combination, or something entirely different? Absolutely did not expect them to get this far into the year as healthy as they are. Thoughts?

For 10 games we saw a different player sit a pair of games and then rotate back into the lineup. By the rotation, it's Hinostroza's turn to get back onto a line, but according g to Heather Engel he was still the odd man out. Does this mean Vinny is officially the 13th man? If so, presuming they continue to stay healthy up front, does that remain the case and he needs to wait for an injury to dress again or does it just mean his stay in the pressbox will extend to say 4 games rather than 2 and a kid will still sit but only for 1 game rather than 2 u til somebody eventually does miss a game with an injury?

Their legs won't be dragging for a while. Now, they may still have the occasional game where they're simply overmatched. But don't know that it'll get them a trip to the pressbox again. It's funny. 2 games ago, was sure Krebs would be odd man out on the 2 game road trip, but now that's highly unlikely. The kids seem closer than all but the most optimistic of optimists were expecting back in training camp & earlier. Sweet.

True on the coach. (That one seems to be happening on both ends of Cassidy's move, unfortunately.) They aren't staying at an 0.900 pace. And wouldn't be shocked to see them drop below an NHL 0.600 pace for a month or 2 about a week or so after all the stars are back. Not enough to drop out of contention, but enough to make them beatable.

We're also a year or 2 away from seeing guys that could be in the NHL cooking down in the AHL an extra year or 3 because they can't beat out the guys that are ahead of them. We might actually be on the verge of having the Ra-cha-cha Marlies in our back yard. Which will be fun as well.

They were. But wondering how much of the great start was the lesser guys knowing that the studs would be back soon, so they just need to find a little extra while the studs are out, which while it isn't sustainable over 82 games can be over 15-20. IF that's the case, we should see them drop back a bit when their top guys do get back as everybody else will relax back to their normal games (or even lesser for a bit as they've got to be getting close to spent). Seen it happen often. A team hits a run of bad injuries but stays strong as their remaining guys find that playoff intensity for a bit & their opponents have ever so slight a let down not having to get 'up' to play against somebody they know they have to play hard against or get embarrassed by. Hoping that's the case. ;)

The Comrie Anderson stats are kind of an updated version of Edwards Sauve. Sauve's stats were better on the surface, but he got the Detroits & Rockies/ Devils while Edwards got Moe-ray-all & the B's. Sauve wasn't better than Donnie. Anderson hasn't been better than Comrie. Anderson wouldn't have given them as many w's in the other games had the usage been adjusted. MHO. YMMV.

Good news, but not surprising. Granato said before the past couple of games that Lyubushkin has a tremendous pain threshold and did not willingly come out of the lineup. Will be interesting to see if he's back in the top 6 at tomorrow's morning skate. And if so, is it Pilut or Clague that sits. Pilut got more ice time late, so would guess Clague is the odd man out. But who knows. The bigger story IMHO is Hinostroza is still the 13th man. Which would imply the "they're all equal, nobody sits because they need to sit, but everybody needs to play" era may be coming to an end.

To answer the question, probably. The start is comparable to last year, but w/ 2 big differences. 1. The goaltending seems sustainable. We knew (or strongly suspected) Anderson & Tokarski wouldn't be able to keep it up all year. 2. It's been infrequent for them to be flat out dominated for 50 or so minutes. Yes, they gave up a ton of shots to a few teams, but the majority of those shots weren't really high danger and they gave up very few rebound chances. They need to clean up the odd man rushes & should to a degree when the 3 return. But, though breakaways should be significantly reduced getting Samuelsson & Lyubushkin back, doubt they'll do much more than cut the 2-on-1's & 3-on-1's down 30-40% (significant but nowhere close to eliminated) as when they are always attacking, an oops (which is inevitable) necessarily can't be fully covered. As others have said, this is the point in the year the the wheels have fallen off for lesser Sabres teams. (They sometimes get through November, but they always fail in December post-"suffering.") If they're still on a playoff pace when the calendar flips, will believe. They were ahead of it through October (as is typical), they seem different this year, and they just might be able to keep it going. Not to be too greedy, but really hope to see 7 points through this next 5 game stretch. It would go a long way towards maintaining the momentum of October & would contine building to stay ahead of a playoff pace.

Samuelsson is only injured. He's still on the team.

The officials were bad. It worked both ways.

They'll figure it out. ;)

Not sure if it's just because it's been so warm the last week, but the ice crew has been squeegeeing the ice after the Zambonis are through. Shouldn't have to be doing that w/ the fancy laser-levelled Zambonis they have. So, yeah, the ice is bad.

Literally. And they were pounding the whole 4 hour trip.

It would've. But like somebody said in the uni thread, these reverse retros are substantially the reverse of the black goatheads done in b&g. Those unis had black pants w/ black sweaters & socks. Though if they could go w/ blue helmets, they definitely could've gone w/ blue pants.

Just hoping we can avoid having Power & Bryson on the ice together. Bad things seem to happen in the brief time they've been together. Surprisingly, Clague settled in pretty well next to Owen in the Detroit game.

Really? Guess that story only seemed to be told 150 times after he became a Sabre.

The '74-'75 Caps have brothers in the White Pants Club. Who did the equipment staff piss off over at Adidas?

Their ENTIRE starting 6 left (for varying reasons, but at the end of the day they were all gone). Those weren't the only guys not returning. It most certainly was a tear down. Not all tear downs result in last place finishes. Sometimes they are actually effective. The Bills in '17 & '18 were in a tear down and it was successful. The Sabres were in their 3rd in about 8 years in the end of '21 & through that summer. So far, it looks like it will be successful, but that is by no means a given. A TANK means emptying the cupboards. A tear down means replacing (a significant portion of, or in this case all of) the guys that are getting the significant minutes and are what's identified by pretty much everyone not affiliated with the team as the key people. Would you say what happened in '95 wasn't a tear down because Hasek & LaFontaine weren't punted when pretty much every other vet was? If so, you're pretty much the only one. And if you agree that was a tear down, how is it in any way significantly different than when Muckler was told to work with an austerity budget rather than the 3rd highest salary in the league?

1st one this kid is missing. Some Pens fan (presumably) decided they wanted to go this one REALLY badly. At the price they were willing to pay, had to oblige. Will be watching this one from home.

Good for him. He seems like a decent enough guy but was never going to get the usage he needed to be successful in Buffalo. Could be one of those trades where both teams get what they need out of it.

Welcome to the Lake Wobegon Conference.

You honestly think Asplund in the lineup gets the team past Moe-ray-all? The Sabres problem that game was nobody except Skinner was getting caught dead near all the loose pucks Montembealt was dropping in front of the crease. Standing in front of the goalie is not Asplund's game. Really doubt that was THE difference and also expect the players themselves took ownership of that loss. Heck, Granato blamed the loss on the Sabres not being aggressive enough. Which sounds about right. Asplund over Krebs or Hinostroza doesn't appreciably change that IMHO. YMMV. Girgensons & Okposo were benched? When?