Taro T

Not thrilled with Pegula selling off ~20% of the team, but guess he has to cover the stadium overruns somehow and "drilling another well" doesn't seem to be on the table. Mainly unhappy with it for what it might mean to the long term picture for the team when TP passes on. Realize the family (Kim or the kids) would still own nearly 80% but no idea how estate taxes might factor into the mix and not sure how much of a stake the new ownership groups would have in keeping the team in Buffalo. Guess worry about that when it comes. But that day will be here sooner than later and after ~20 years of rumors of TO the past decade with no real threat of them leaving has been a nice respite but would really like to have seen the respite last longer.

Actually, according to Orlovsky it was Spagnola who made the better chess move on both that play and the other big run that Allen had in the 4th Q, but that Allen simply made it not matter. Apparently, Buffalo expected zone when they got man and then expected man and got zone (but the way the Bills ran the routes on the TD it effectively became man coverage due to the routes the Bills ran) and Allen simply took off when KC had everything covered on both plays. It's good to have an alien under center. 😉

Based on his play in the last 2 games, it isn't surprising. Wasn't sure if they'd send him down before heading out west or after; guess we got the answer to that. Guess it was smart of him to go with plain brown pads this year. He'll be fine, but right now this move should be good for both the Sabres and him.

You probably should see a doctor for both of those issues. 😉

Pretty sure it was more his entrance onto the scene, more specifically his entrance into Timmy Ho's, that soured that relationship from ownership's perspective.

Father Time remains undefeated. Apparently, he never stopped training with Cus D'amato.

But the 1st letter was clearly a P; and the 1st name of the guy on the Sabres that wears 19 currently starts with a P. And if you expect the Slash 6 could be a K, then, yeah, it looks like a friggin' K. And, oddly enough, expecting the player to be #19 would lead one to expect the Slash 6 to be a K as that's what his last name starts with. (And then the interuterine device in between the P and K becomes likely a Y but possibly a T, either of which are in the middle of 19's 1st name.)

If you knew it said 19 on it, why did you ask the Q?

It MIGHT work. Would not have had that combo on the bingo card 1 month ago.

Wasn't anticipating Greenway to possibly be out. If he is, then they have 4 "regular" C's as Lafferty takes the 4th line and Krebs the 3rd. Was expecting Aube-Kubel being out and Ruff putting the regular 4th line back together like he did last night. With Greenway out, one of Benson, Quinn, or more likely Kulich takes his spot on a very hodgepodge 3rd line (Zucker - Krebs - Kulich most likely).

It's not even Thanksgiving yet. A Charlie Brown Christmas shouldn't be on the tube for at least a couple more weeks. 😉

Good call.

Is it limited to players currently under contract or could it be a player from past seasons. IF it is limited to this season, total guess is Colton Poolman - he wore #6 in training camp.

Could be either he's closer to week to week than Lukkonnen is or they figure that if tomorrow morning they find out one or both of them is feeling well enough to play they'd rather it be UPL they get back into the lineup if they can only have 1. Thought that after the Moe-ray-all game that Ruff said they'd taken UPL out as a precautionary measure - he hadn't felt right the day before but he felt well enough to play so they went with him (implying it could be an illness and not an injury; perhaps am reading too much into Ruff's Monday comments) but decided to pull him for the 3rd; which would also imply that UPL is/was closer to being good to go than Thompson.

And Aube-Kubel is saved from the pressbox once again. (And they have 4C's dressed if he is playing as the 12th F as Krebs and Lafferty won't be on the same line (at least until Ruff shortens the bench).)

Not necessarily, players can be placed on IR retroactively. So, this just means that he'll necessarily miss the Filly game. They don't play in LA until Wednesday (9 days after the Habs game) so even getting IR'd if Tage is good to go by then he can be activated. And Ruff doesn't seem to be happy with Aube-Kubel, so Kulich gets the call-up.

OK, so Krebs goes back to the 4th line. But does Kulich center the 3rd line? Know that technically Kulich is a C, but he hasn't played there at the NHL level. Do they keep Krebs 3rd line C and bump either Quinn or Kulich onto the 4th line with Lafferty at C there? Does anybody other than the 4 guys that have been seeing time at C besides Thompson have C in his NHL past? We seem to be looking at a 3C - 9W situation. (Which doesn't QUITE work.) Am presuming that Aube-Kubel is the odd man out and not Quinn. (Not sure if that's a great call, but A-K is the 1st guy to have his butt stapled to the bench when the bench shortens and Quinn is, for now, on the top PP unit.)

In hindsight, yeah, the deal doesn't look good and good call on not liking it at the time. But still don't see that deal handcuffing them in any way for at least another 2 seasons if even then. And still prefer the idea of locking the guys up that they see as being part of the "future core" sooner than later. Especially knowing as we do now that they aren't going to be legit fishers in the FA pond. They simply need to be better at identifying WHICH guys will legitimately be key components. (And trading Savoie away indicates that they MIGHT be getting better at doing so. (No need to look at the Mittelstadt trade for tea leave pondering. 😉 ))

Because with $8MM or so in available cap space and his contract only being ~$5MM they can't realistically get to a point at present to even get any cap help from BF-LTIR. And, as much as it would be a great thing to have some player(s) brought in to make the cap an actual constraint on the roster wherein his next injury could bring some relief through that mechanism; am not holding my breath waiting for it to happen.

And THAT is part of the GM's job too. If he strongly believes a certain move will help the team either today or down the road (or ideally both), he needs to make the case to his boss strongly enough that the boss comes around to agree with making the move. IF he is getting vetoed (and people that have credibility have implied it if not outright claimed it) then he needs to improve his communication and persuasion skills. We ALL need for him to be better at that or we need somebody else in the role. (And personally still see the playoffs as very much a possibility if not actually kinda likely.)

Yup. We're entering "evil genius" AND "dumbest GM EVAH" territory. (But as long as Gord Stellick and Garth Snow aren't scrubbed from history, at absolute worst he can only be 3rd from the bottom. And that's not even including all the late 60's and 70's GMs that thought trading with Sam Pollock could somehow work out for them.)

Pretty sure he's been on Anaheim's roster for more than 30 days; if so, no they don't have dibs on him.

That stinks. May he RIP. Prayers and condolences to his family.

Personally, would like to see the offsides review remain, but give the refs/linesmen a 1 minute time limit (or maybe even 30 seconds or 40-45) to decide if it's onsides or not. If they can't tell in that much time, then its "inconclusive" and the play stands as called. The rule is there to take away blatent goal hanging and to force guys to actually play hockey to get scoring chances. It isn't there to intentionally make a low scoring sport significantly even more low scoring.

That lot's been where we park since literally the 90's. Stupid easy access back to the Kensington and Ra-cha-cha after the game and also the Union Pub before heading back. Fun game. But so tired of getting 31 reffing our games. He's done at least 4 home games so far and he is not good. Waiting until Calgary scored to call the wrestling match outside the Sabres blue line was par for the course. Had Gilbert not been pinned there, there would've been a D covering the left side of the zone and clearing the puck away after UPL's initial save. That guy is a joke and we seem to get stuck with 13 often too. (Pretty sure that's his 3rd game in Buffalo.) Don't they make these guys travel the full league footprint anymore?