K-9

I’ve never been wrong about anything about any Sabres team ever. From the opening puck drop vs the Penguins in October 1970 thru last night.

I’ve always appreciated an optimistic viewpoint, but the “it’s only one game” philosophy is difficult to embrace when we’ve been outscored 18-6 in our last three home games. Seems we’ve had several “only one game” moments this season and it’s worn on me more than in previous seasons. I’ve always believed it’s all about the journey, especially when it comes to rooting for my favorite teams because the odds of winning it all are against it and only one team can be the champ each year. So it has to he about the journey and the nuggets gathered along the way. But ever since the Damar Hamlin incident, I just can’t even get into being on the journey any more. It’s an entirely new experience as a fan and it’s concerning. Getting that joy back will be, as Rob Ray would say, “a tough road to swallow.”

I feel the exact opposite. At home, they are free to be who they are wherever and with whomever they’re with. Little structure. Whereas on the road, they are totally structured with their time schedules tightly managed. Again, I chalk it up to a maturity issue.

Somebody convince me that this team is not gonna get its butt kicked by two teams that have absolutely owned us when we face the Lightning and Panthers later this week. Seriously, tell me why I should think we have any chance at all.

Scared crapless they are. It’s a maturity issue. Just as I suspect the piss poor performances at home are as well.

This team is afraid of success and raised expectations. And I don’t think a coach can fix that.

Could UPL get himself any more out of position? And as I type,ROR gets his second. Screw this team.

I won’t be surprised to learn that KA and Co. instructed Jeep to do just that; focus on and help Savoie develop those other aspects of his game.

Don’t look at the lines in that way. Unless Peterka impresses early, Quinn is gonna get more ice time anyway. That said, I agree that Quinn shouldn’t be on that line because VO does nothing to help the Cozens line.

Placing Stone on LTIR seems to be an annual event for that team.

Ullmark also underwent double hip surgery in 2015. Ironic.

Like I said several posts ago, reasonable minds can disagree. I hope you’re right about UPL in the meantime. As for the playoffs, we need to play a helluva lot better than we have been and while I certainly hope for the best and will root like hell that they make it, I think we have too many shortcomings in our own end to overcome. I’m not sure these problems can be fixed in season either.

Many goalies? Perhaps. But he’s a helluva lot more inconsistent than the better goalies. I hope he becomes one eventually because we all want to have one of the better goalies in the league. And who doesn’t?

Your previous post certainly implied that, so thanks for the clarification. And I never said I see him as inadequate. I said I see him as inconsistent, which he certainly has been.

The Carolina and Calgary games are still too recent for me to think UPL has finally turned the corner on his consistency issues. It’s maddening because he has a game like last night and I wanna believe he has figured it out. Been fooled too many times over too many years though.

You think UPL is the answer to our goalie situation and that’s great. I need to see more before I’m convinced. Reasonable minds can disagree. Simple as that.

Of course it’s subjective as there can’t be a direct comparison between two different completely different sets of career. circumstances. I get the impression you think that my appreciation of Levi is somehow a knock against UPL. I can say that Levi has been more consistent in his circumstances than UPL has been in his. I can say I find Levi more impressive. I can say he exhibits better instincts as a goalie, better reflexes as a goalie, better anticipation as a goalie all the while knowing he is showing it at one level while UPL has shown it at another. Levi is considered our best goalie prospect since Miller for obvious reasons. UPL will have every opportunity to refute that I’m sure.

The yardstick is the complete body of work. I have no idea what you mean by your second sentence.

He’s had a couple bad games like all goalies do. They are outliers. His career numbers are the essence of consistency. Going into yesterday, he was tied for 2nd in save percentage in the country at .930, just .005 behind the leader who hasn't been tested nearly as often. This isn’t about Levi vs. UPL, btw.

My reason for not being sold on UPL is his inconsistency. Levi may be a total bust for all anyone really knows at this point, but he has been consistently dominant at every level he has played and that’s why he is thought of more highly than UPL was at similar stages. UPL stole us a game last night and he gets full marks for that. And given our seeming lack of commitment to defense and how often we get stuck running around in our own end, is going to have to do that again and again.

I’m not sold on UPL, but yeah, kind of like that.

If we play like we’ve been over the last half dozen games or so, we are gonna get our ***** handed to us by the teams coming up. That said, we finally came to play in the 3rd last night so I’m hoping it’s something to build on.

More than a coincidence that we took control after Donny G nailed Clague’s sorry ass to the bench.

He got a helper on their 2nd goal.