Taro T

Fantastic. Pretty sure will be there w/ my out of town kid as well. 🍺

The easy call is that Girgensons goes back to W and Cozens takes his spot. An less obvious choice is putting the Eakin checking line back together and having Cozens center Asplund & one of R2 Rou2, Quinn, Caggiula, or Hinestroza (preference in that order). As to Quinn being that choice, remember Tuch isn't expected until after the February shutdown. Quinn or Peterka should be ready by then if management wants to give one a taste.

Any chance this follows the Olofsson yellow sweater timeline?

Why not both?

It does kinda make the term "Comets" a double entendre and help explain the moniker.

Pretty sure he's referring to O'Reilly during Housley's 1st season.

That was a large part of it. His being on the ice along w/ Eichel and their being a train wreck when on the ice at the same time through much of Eichel's tenure when the other team was cycling was another major component.

For the love of all that is good & Holy, Mr. Granato, please do not put Dahlin & Jokiharju back together as a regular pairing. They are in many ways similar players but with opposite handedness & Ras is far better at the offensive side of the game than Joki is. Because their sets of strengths & particularly their weaknesses are similar, those weaknesses get amplified when they're paired up.

Yes. But the team needs to be significantly better throughout the lineup than the team that has a line that can pretty much guarantee a GPG from that top line. And they definitely can't have more money tied up in bad contracts than this one already does.

Agree that 4 young C's/ prospects are too few, but why discount Krebs as a legit prospect when he was obtained for the #2 OA #1 C? Thompson was obtained for a 1st line C as well. PS - Zubrov also walked in '07. People always forget that because he was only brought in to be a rental, but he could've been brought back when the other 2 guys walked. He was still available at least a week after 7/1/7. Bring him back & that team likely squeezes into the playoffs and then Roy & Connolly likely aren't viewed in the same negative light they ended being viewed.

Disagree. Bales has gotten far more out of the guys he's been given to work with than anybody had a reasonable expectation to achieve.

6th game being in the crowd, and IMHO, of those, this was his best game. He had a confidence with the puck on his stick and seemed to do a good job of choosing when to dipsy doodle and also when to make the pass or try the shot. He played fairly physically and really only seemed to be out of place in his own end 1 time. Right after Domi made Cozens look silly, he seemed flat footed as the puck went to Roslovic and decided to try to avoid screening Tokarski when the better play was probably risking the screen to keep from letting him walk in for a clean shot from the slot. Surprisingly only noticed him on the right side once at 5v5 which was down significantly from the 1/4 - 1/3 of the time the past 2 or 3 games. Also, for a 1st game back was very pleased w/ Jokiharju's game. Didn't seem to have much rust & actually had a bit of a snarl.

True. And it is so difficult to reconcile that this kid that's leading the team in scoring at C is the same one that while playing W ####ed up his shoulder bracing for a check into the boards by lifting his arm to brace for the impact. His sense for playing C is light years ahead of his sense for playing W. Good on Granato for giving him that shot, whether out of necessity, seeing something in his game that sparked that idea, or a little of both.

It absolutely doesn't need to be Wright, and w/ any luck at least 1 & maybe even 2 of the 4 young C they have w/ offensive upside can be a Briere. It would make the odds of becoming an actual contender much higher now that they've traded in their 2 lottery tickets to end up w/ that elite F most all SC winners have for more chances to rebuild the '05-'07 Sabres. (Hopefully w/ no intentions of not paying the key guys when the time comes, should that plan actually bear fruit.) But unless they luck into Wright, they probably don't have that truly elite guy in the forward ranks. Particularly at C (still very interested in what Quinn & Peterka's ceilings really are).

After having lived through the Hasek years, can't see ANY course of action except doing whatever it takes to get a real goalie when the team isn't expected to win. Unless of course, losing in the ST is at minimum acceptable if not a stealth goal.

The bolded is a huge concern & why not having real proven goaltending is so troubling. The one shred of hope to hang onto is IF Adams is right about the character of these players, they will be able to fight through the adversity. (Keep mentally cycling back to the scene in Miracle where Brooks is talking with the Dr. & the doc says he's pushing them too hard and Brooks reply back that that's why he gave them all the psyche test - to know that he could push them that hard & they could take it.) But, giving up 5+ each night wears on players quickly & not having faith in the keepers causes guys to play differently in their own zone & stuff starts to snowball. They've fought back & played hard to the end every night but 1. But, how long can it continue w/ "goaltending dreck?"

True. But they've abandoned the hope/expectation of having a TRUE 1 C running the 1st line (& maybe even the 2nd line) unless they luck into Wright & he winds up at the very high end of expectations. We're back to hoping for what they had in the Golisano glory years; a couple of borderline 1/2C's w/ 2/3 C's supporting (both at W & the bottom 6 lines) & having an ability to score from any line & cover for an injury to that top scoring C.

As much as the bolded would go a long way towards making the road games watchable (all the home ones, bar the Calgary game have been), until Cozens, Thompson, or Dahlin show signs of getting beaten down by the losing, can't see the goaltending getting fixed this season. Even then, doubt it'd happen. Development & losing are the 2 contradictory (& seemingly mutually exclusive) goals for this year.

The Sabres were the better team in the 1st minus the goal rolling up Tokarski's shoulder & then Domi & Rostlovic making 2 kids that otherwise had great games look very young. They outplayed them in the 2nd once Dell realized stopping the puck was still legal, though there could be a "we've got a 3 goal lead, we can coast" vibe from the BJ's so maybe there isn't much to hang one's hat on for that one. And, except for the 5v3 & following 5v4, they were charging hard all the 3rd. Even with that horrible start to the 2nd, it was a fun game to be at. Have been entertained in every game have seen in person this season. That's more than can be said in any year under the current ownership. And sadly, after the decision to reload a 3rd time was made, that was the best that was left to hope for. (Some could say it's the growth the young guys seem to be displaying, but that's a big part of what's making it fun. Poe-tay-toe, pah-tah-toe.)

Have liked most of Granato's decisions this season (especially not putting Dahlin & Jokiharju back together) but REALLY wanted him to either keep the 2nd PP unit out to start the 5v3, or, better yet burn his timeout to get the 1st PP unit rested. Most (all?) of them had been out for the full 1st minute of the 5v4 and hadn't gotten their legs back. Realize that lets the BJ's D rest too, but it was the right move there. They were too tired to move to the puck on the faceoff win & then all kept skating over top of each other on the entry. They completely neutralized themselves and that was the game.

Agreed. There are 19 other guys dressed any given night to stand up for the Sabres; just because you're one of the biggest doesn't make that your job. That concussion/ neurological ICU stay inducing injury gives you a pass until you retire.

Really wondering if Tokarski was injured on that collision in the Pens game? He still played extremely well the rest of that game but was very ordinary (for the 1st time all season) against Calgary & was downright bad last night. If he is playing through an injury, this will be a very long stretch waiting for Anderson to get healthy enough to play. (And if it's just the magic has drained out, it'll be an even longer stretch waiting for a serviceable or better replacement. So, really hoping it's injury related.) How about giving fans a nice early Christmas present Mr. Adams and bring us something from Dallas' goaltending surplus store? Please? We've been nice.

2,000-3,000 most likely. Eyeballing it to be the second smallest crowd next to the AZ game.

To the bolded, that's a really interesting idea. Don't see how it could be made to work except for in a few very unique places. There simply aren't enough coaches nor available ice to increase the # of teams in most areas. And in the few like Ra-cha-cha where collectively across several organizations they could make it happen w/out appreciably increasing the # of teams, the adults running things don't play nice w/ each other. (Which is why there are so many different organizations in the 1st place.)

Why, if he needs to get rid of those seats in the next 3-5 days would he post there? There's been exactly 1 post in the last 15 months. Do people even realize it exists?