ska-T Palmtown

<quote trimmed to save space> To be fair ... if I got to practice with Barkov and Brady in FL, I think I'd be able to move up from D to C in my beer league in a year or two 🙂

I want to agree, because I love the Buffalo Sabres and want them to win soooooo effing bad. But ... sports are littered with high draft choices oozing raw physical skills that could just never piece it together at the pro level. Their abundance of natural skills usually gets them by quite easily at the lower levels, but in the pros they seem to lack the mental acumen to make the quick decisions/reactions to allow them to really apply their skill. I think a big thing working for him is that he does have 300 NHL games under his belt at such a young age. If it does not break him, perhaps that extra experience can prove useful for upping his "hockey IQ". What frustrates me the most, whether with or without the puck, I see him turn the wrong way too many times. With the puck, he will try a tight turn into the defender and without he will spin the wrong way and the guy gets away clean.

It does not HAVE to be the way it looks. Players could appropriately respond when they are shown 3 hours of game film of them sucking up the joint. But, at this point in time, this is what it looks like for Lindy's Sabres. So be it. Hopefully getting moved to wing in favor of a 20 yr old rookie center (Lord help us!) will reignite the fire under Cozens.

I am genuinely worried about Benson and Kulich - which is most of the reason I want Kulich to go back to the AHL. Imagine, you are out there busting your balls in the corners, getting loose pucks and you look up and none of your linemates are ready for a pass or you play an angle perfectly as the lead forechecker and your lazy-arse teammate is not in position so there is no turnover. I would not be surprised if you subconsciously start to dial it back a bit from time to time. Benson's hockey instincts appear to be very high and I do not question his character, I don't think he is doing it on purpose. In the business world they talk about being on a row boat and some employees are rowing hard and other are not; the hard rowers see the slacker and think (not always consciously) "why I am I rowing so hard if everyone else is not" I think we still lack the players to stand up and yell "Look how hard effing Benny is rowing! Y'all MF'ers better row harder, too!" At least Lindy calling out Tage and Dylan for not playing center the right way might be the beginning of "row or get out of the boat"

This is the key question for pretty much anyone on the roster. If they can get a decent (equal? fair?) return, I'd entertain calls for just about anyone. We got LaFontaine for Turgeon - that was pretty cool.

no one brought it up, because if we DO get accountability and standards are upheld, but results don't change ... the ugly truth is too hard to handle.

I just can't imagine any decent coach - especially one that has been to game 6 of the SC finals - being even remotely OK with the Utah game. The Sabres looked okay for the first 5-10 mins, then the wheels fell off and the car lit itself on fire. Hell, not even sure how he did not break everything in the locker room between second and third periods ... such a woofer of a game.

Do we have any 'Spacer Spies going to the game that can take actual reports??

I mean, at this point - something is not working (although it sorta seems like The Collapse really kicked into overdrive when Dahls went down?), so eff it, let's put Power at wing and really spice things up!

Ugh. Again? Why?

Can you imagine having to sit there and discuss this shite? This was nearly the second time THIS WEEK that they gave up 5 unanswered goals, if not for whatever garbage time goal Kulich scored. Think about that ... our two goals were by players with a combined 20 games of NHL experience ... barf.

This has been discussed so many times and at least in the case of Quinn is totally not true. In two stints where he came back last year, he was outpacing his rookie year. Both. Times. This has zero to do with his injuries. I believe it was @mjd1001, our resident Cozens scholar, that pointed out that Dear Mr. Cozens was playing like shite last year before he got his face caved in. Both injuries are strawmen that avoid talking about why these two players cannot seem to remove their heads from their rectums (rectum? damn near killed 'im!) in a system that is more than just pond hockey. It is also funny because Sabres fans tend to think Quinn is unique. High draft pick players fail to become impact player A LOT ... or take a while. That dude on the Rags, La Fran Yayr - no clue how to spell it - he was borderline awful his first 2-3 years. Then it clicked. Shane Wright on Seattle. This was the kid that was given "exceptional status" to play as an underager in juniors. He was talked about as a potential #1 pick ... he has like 4 points this year. Slafkovsky - #1 overall pick - 74 points in 144 games that is a 40 point pace for a full season. I don't think any of those players are bad or busts or whatever, but they are not McJesus or Crosby or MacKinnon ... they are regular NHL players. 🤷‍♂️

I mean - WTF was I smoking this morning??

oh no ... a powerplay.

Honestly, worse.

And their one goal is by a rookie in his second game. Cuz he went to the net. Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.

Thir.Teen.Shots.

holy. f*ck. Sabres suck. like - hot. garbage. JFC.

Her lower range is enchanting.

At least there is this?

F*CK OFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

10 more Bensons, please.

They just look so ... disorganized? Tage just flinging it blindly to ... the other team's D?

Nice save by UPL, but Gilbert blew that coverage ..