Taro T

Since Dell got called up, except for a couple of games where he reverted back, UPL has played well in Ra-cha-cha. Have no idea what clicked for him, but he is actually playing large rather than getting too low which was causing him to give up a ton of shots over the shoulder which also was then causing him to over open down low resulting in even more goals. Maybe he's worked through whatever mental hangup he's had since the hip surgeries. Way too early to say that for sure. But at least he's showing they don't need to give him a bus ticket to Cincy & they might be able to get by on a single real goaltender this offseason rather than needing to find 2.

To the bolded: no. That is not control. That is possession. They are distinct. To the sentence after the bolded: yes. That player is both in possession of the puck AND control.

There were a lot of pundits throwing that term around.

UPL made a pretty good case tonight to get to stay up. He actually looked like a big goalie, which he should, because he is. Presuming Dell gets tomorrow's start. Will be interesting to see if they go back to trying to win a shootout without UPL in net. If they do, could be a real long (or more accurately, a real short) night for him.

Apparently TO reviews all goals in the last minute of regulation. (Kind of like no coaches challenges in the NFL after the 2 minute warning.)

Expect they'll cite COVID concerns. Don't expect any mention of human rights on it. But, their shirts are made in Indonisia, so maybe.

Let's see how this weekend goes before making that decision.

Nice review. Expect Samuelsson would be an upgrade today but really should get an opportunity to be 3rd pairing were he to come in this year but would likely be bumped to 2nd or even 1st pairing were he in Buffalo real quickly. Am OK whichever way management wants to go w/ bringing him up or keeping him on the farm as there are arguments both ways. Also expect Peterka would be fine in 2 of the 3 zones and an upgrade on the typical bottom 6 wingers they've used. But would like to see him improve in his own end before calling him up. He creates a ton of breakaways at the AHL level. Will be interesting to see how much that falls off at the next level. Those 2 likely come up right after the "Olympic break," if injuries don't force them up sooner. No rush bringing up either of the other 2 this year; would like to see more strength before sending them in. But expect both to move up last 2-3 weeks of the season for a taste when the college kids show up, too. Really expect that except for the possibility of a Wright lucking into the organization and onto next season's lineup that all of next year's F's are in house already and that FA will focus on 2 quality D & a quality G.

If it comes to fruition, will take a bit of self-imposed pressure off Eichel's rehabilitation. So, there's that. in general, agree w/ @Marvin, Sabres Fan. Standing on principle would have been nice but was too much to ask for.

Not really. IMHO, there was a very high likelihood that Adams was under constraints tighter than those the rest of the league needed to operate within due to COVID impacts on the owners' cash flow. If that assumption is incorrect, am very willing to say both those guys should have been given LT deals at that point. (Well, technically, they should've regardless, but if they couldn't be given deals commensurate w/ their worth, it amounts to the same thing effectively.) Completely put the goaltending mess on Adams' shoulders. And absolutely agree that Reinhart should've been a Sabre LT. But, don't pin that on him at that point in time. Am very willing to revise that opinion if we get evidence that the final bridge was Adams preferred way forward.

But, not sure that he was given the green light from ownership to sign LT deals for real money during the shutdown. @Brawndo & a couple others here would likely have more insight into that. While the owners were still ridiculously wealthy, with the crash of hydrocarbon prices & the shutdown of their pro sports teams & most of their other service/entertainment related businesses, they were cash poor with a lot of uncertainty as to when their revenue streams would reopen. Not getting the LT contracts for Reinhart & Ullmark before last season is one IMHO that Adams gets a mulligan on as there was a lot beyond his control seemingly going into that decision. Botterill should absolutely have gotten Reinhart under contract LT.

Too much!?! There're only up to ~27 movies so far. Sheesh.

Since the knee injury he really seems to need to be glued to the hip of an excellent playmaker to be able to come close to the hype. He got a PPG (mainly assists) playing with Eichel & produced playing w/ Krejci. No Krejci, no production. Maybe if they broke up that top line ...

It's almost like they're trying to do a Steve Buschemi "Music Band" T-shirt tribute for no apparent reason. At least they're showing that they're a US based team. If they were Canadian it should say "Sweater."

They designed a hat worse than the BS one? TIL. SMH.

45 of Donna McDaniel's "We're Gonna Win That Cup."

The Sabres sold RJ bobbleheads a few years ago. Pretty sure a couple of people here bought them.

Your question was answered above. It has already slid twice, so no it can't unless he gives up hockey for a non-injury related reason. So, no, his contract won't slide again.

Correct. Krebs contract already slid 2 seasons. No more slides unless he sits an entire year for reasons other than injury. So, no more slides. Definitely expect them to make a full court press to get Johnson to sign. Maybe even going so far as to guarantee he'll get into 10 of the Sabres last 11 games to let him accrue a year of service towards FA (or 10 of however many games remain after Minny's season ends, he'd be eligible for 11 games if they make the Frozen 4 Finals) & not just burn an ELC year.

IMHO he is doing about the best he can knowing that his bosses want the kids to develop but also aren't real interested in winning games THIS season. He wants them testing their limits and finding out what they can get away with at this level & what they can't. That that necessarily will result in plays that blow up in their faces like a Wile E. Coyote ACME purchase is something that he's willing to live with. There's no way he's been told to lose. But he's been told to put the kids in as many different situations as he can and let them try to work through it & figure it out. Would explain keeping the goalie pulled until a 2nd EN goal gets scored. Let them try again, & if it doesn't work, well, they were likely going to lose any way and now a guy like Asplund who likely wouldn't normally get that chance has gotten some experience I that situation. Good for him. Good, hopefully, for us LT. Bad for us ST. Especially for those of us still wasting time & money on them at present. And that that experimentation & gaining of experience still leads to losses more often than not; well, when getting high draft picks is an unspoken but obvious goal ... Really don't see Granato as a dumb guy. (Actually expect he might be the smartest coach they've had since they moved into the MMArena. (Though brightest doesn't necessarily equal best.) Pretty sure he realizes that allowing Skinner to be on the ice in the last minute of a tied game has a tremendous chance to be an ACME Rocket Roller Skate set. If he's not dumb & he does know that, well, pretty sure he wasn't going 100% with making sure the team got the maximum points out of those games. The Anaheim game showed these guys can play responsibly when asked to do so. Not too worried that they'll completely forget how to play defense. Though, as stated far too often the past few days, do have concerns that running w/ sub-replacement level goaltending will wind up creating bad habits that might need to get broken at some point. (Yeah, it's slightly contradictory, but this post is already long enough, not going to turn it into a thesis to clarify how they aren't completely contradictory.) Long story short. He isn't playing wide open just to better the draft chances. He's doing it to better the draft chances, let the kids find out where their limits are & hopefully push them out further than they'd've been without stretching past them, & to play entertaining hockey & not necessarily in that order. (And all w/ throw away goaltending.) They don't see UPL as a throw away yet. So, they had to tweak the game plan a bit when he' between the pipes. MHO.

At least 1 of the 2 was a 2ndary assist that he had little to do with. Not sure about the other 1. Also, as mentioned it was his turnover that created 1 of the Comets rushes for a goal. He had passes in skates & behind guys all over the ice. Good thing is he was getting the puck, but he really didn't do much w/ it until the very end. Cool that he had 3 points in an otherwise off game.

Not sure what's puzzling. Management has 2 goals he's in charge of achieving: development the kids while remaining in the Wright derby. The goals he's been tasked with are pretty much mutually exclusive. His plan to reach both are by playing a fairly wide open style most games. The kids get to work on their offensive skills and the losses pile up as goals in this sport are very often the fruit of a mistake by the other team. The "fun" teams get burned on their high events especially when they don't even have replacement level goaltending. It was a mild surprise, though it shouldn't have been, that when they had the 1 goalie amongst their 50 (47, whatever) signed players that they actually want to develop, that they played a more low event style. (Or seemed to have; only got to watch the very low event 1st period, so don't know for certain that continued, but it seems to have.) You don't develop a goalie prospect by throwing him to the wolves in his 1st opportunity in over 1/2 a calendar year. He needs to have support (so do the other 4 throw away guys they used to date, but they're the "red shirts" from ST TOS and Kirk & Spock don't really give a rat's behind about any of them but Scotty & Uhura; but we digress 😉 ) and Granato had them give him the support he needed to not have to stand on his head. At least not for much beyond 1 shot that was illegal. So, apparently, Granato CAN have the kids & JAGs play D. There just isn't enough talent on the roster for him to get them to also play O apparently. Which shouldn't be a surprise either - they're kids & JAGs & 2/3's of the top line are currently on IR & the likely other guy for that line hasn't been himself since missing a couple of weeks either. Am expecting if UPL gets another start this weekend, we see that same low event hockey they played Tuesday. Doubt it will be as "successful" but that's why they play.

Mugwumps, obviously.

3 stars. 1. Krebs 2. Malone 3. Samuelsson Wouldn't have given 1 to Krebs. His passing seemed off most of the game. But he came through in the end.

From Peterka & Malone.