ska-T Palmtown

You get the intermission stuff and maybe a little bit of pregame? ESPN+ generally offers me (in Chicago) all the viewing options - even the 'Hawks, so I am not sure what the blackout rules are. I just picked up Proton VPN last week for the Bills game - so far so good.

I use ESPN+ as I enjoy some their other content as well. I think it was $120 for the whole year? And you can get bundles with Disney and Spotify to further reduce your "per hour of usage" cost. For the national broadcasts, I have enough fake email accounts to pick up some trials here and there and also, missing a game or two this year is honestly a reprieve.

I still think Krebs is a very good passer ... when there is someone to pass to. Wasn't that the prognosis when we got him? Excellent playmaker?

Not to bring up the "B" word, but the Sabres did trade for Briere at the trade deadline of a season in which they did not make the playoffs. It would be the third year in a row. I am too lazy to dig too deeply, but based on the final standings, I don't think they had a realistic shot at said playoffs that year at the trade deadline. Point: good hockey trades can happen at any point. If The Greatest Trade in Sabres History (as proclaimed by the Athletic) can happen in a non-playoff year ... maybe we (the fans) get lucky this year?

Is asking a Buffalo sports team to not shizz the bed early too crazy of an ask 😞

I know this season has been maybe just north of a full disaster, and I have seen many straws at which I have grasped to try to save any shred of sanity ... but it sure seems those four years of NCAA hockey brought a healthy helping of maturity to his game. I think his overall trend has been up in terms of performance and learning.

It should be normal in all aspects of society for anyone to take the time they need to be with family during important times of their lives. End.

What the actual eff?

I had a few black walnut trees at a former house ... the oil from the green stuff around the shells kills a lawn hard 😞

This kinda reminds me of pre-Allen Bills when you would hear that the D looked great in practice ... against Tyrod 🤣or that the O had a good day ... against the 30th ranked D. Remember all the stories about how Hasek hated to get scored on in practice? I doubt that intensity exists today in Sabreland.

Tonight, since 3 of the 4 goals were on the PP for Boston, the +/- stats for Le Sabres did not look too bad, but boy howdy did they get their arses handed to them. 🤷‍♀️(that's a shrug emoji, but like, super hard to see)

Do you think TNT might approach the league about not having the Sabres on any more? I mean, two REAL clunkers and national TV. Great.

I was at the Bills/Bears game last year for Christmas ... -5F with air temp -30F or worse. This year - upper 40's here in Chicago. What a swing!

I watched the 9 min recap video (after watching the Bills nearly scheisse the bed) - not sure if the NYR guys put the video together on NHL.com or not ... but it was like 3:1 of the Rangers almost scoring. At least Quinn can still score?

The J E T S went so far in the opposite direction with personnel choices, they ended back on the sport naughty list - lol. I'd say they are more worsely run!

This year has been do dizzyingly disappointing that last year feels like the faint memory of a fever dream. Does anyone recall where we may have given up lots of goals last year: (goalie performance removed for purposes of this discussion) due to turnovers in the neutral zone (or at our own blueline), resulting in odd man rushes due to turnovers in the offensive zone, forwards not necessarily hustling back, resulting is odd man rushes (think earlier this year when Cozens pinched too hard) terrible positioning in the D zone once the opponent gets established (ie - forwards and D chasing the puck too hard until the end up in a tangled cluster of 4 Sabres leaving 1 to deal with 3-4 open opponents) First one is going to come back if the Sabres move to a more aggressive breakout style just by percentage of bad passes, etc Second one - if certain players (and we have seen glimmers) remember there is a D zone to get back to, this might not be as bad as last year? Similar to the last 10 games or so last year. Third one seems to be the low-hanging fruit to the casual observer, but are we foolish to hope for miracles?

I think they knew the boos from before were for them. <insert many threads worth of back and forth over whether or not that is ok>, but hearing the fans' chanting for DG to get fired, probably struck a different chord. If it (for whatever reason) never occurred to the team that the fans would blame DG for their inability to consistently perform, perhaps his reaction is somewhat justified. It is still an odd thing if "GD guys, the fans think Donnie is the reason we are so unpredictable, I guess we better just pull our S together ..." is really all it would take.

LOL - I clicked on the thread title and was gonna make a joke about "where's the ska discussion group?" and there is a youtube to the Specials! I am actually not a "life is ska" type (I generally enjoy most music genres) - but I was fortunate enough to be able to appreciate the rise of the Mighty Mighty Bosstones after Clueless and through the mini-renaissance in the late 90's very early 2000's. Saw Dickie and the boys a dozen times or so in the Chicago/Milwaukee area - great freaking shows. Tons of smaller venues in Milwaukee had lots of the smaller acts, too! What a time to be alive! Probably mostly stems from playing the trumpet 4th grade through pep-band in college 🙂

After a pleasant evening with my wife since turning off the game at the end of the first period, I feel refreshed. Lighter. But then I remember it took what seemed like a 600 game losing streak to fire the fussball guy ... so I would not be shocked in the slightest if ol' Donny G gets to ride out the rest of the year.

Welp, tonight did it. The sweet release of IDGAF. I wonder how many novels I shall write with all this new found free time?

I am guessing there is a certain level of tongue-in-cheek in this, so I am not picking on it per se. But, it just presents an opportunity to say that sometimes systems are put in place to keep the simplicity of the game from getting out of hand. A decent example, I hope, is a forward in the D zone and there is a scrum for the puck in the corner. The two D are doing their jobs with support from the C and the strong-side winger. Puck pops loose, near the scrum, but definitely free. Simple hockey might compel the weak side winger (or net-front D) to try to get the puck leaving huge gaps in their coverage. The weak side winger needs to understand their role in that defense and hold position trusting the other teammates to do their job, etc etc. Obviously there are 1000 different tiny variations for that scenario which probably include several in which the weak side player should get involved, but generally - no. Why this example? Because it seems like 5 or more times a game a Sabre ends up out of position in our D zone because they are chasing the puck. Tying this back to the actual thread - I have generally seen Bennie in decent position for strong and weak side winger and he has fully intercepted many passes as a result, not to mention being in position tip to harass the puck if it comes near him.

I remember the days of the mad dash to the puck! I am generally opposed to adding any more replay review to any sport, but I do feel for the refs who have to make that hit from behind call in real time. I think you are right that players turn their backs with impunity - and I would suspect some wait until the last second to do so in actual hopes of drawing a penalty. I think there is also something to be said for it maybe being "safer" for the hitting player to continue to make contact instead of tearing up their knee avoiding contact. I was always drawn to intensity of the continuous physical play of hockey vs starty-stoppy football, but watching Patty LaFontaine talk about missing days out of his life due to hitting his head too often really pushes me towards player safety.

See Reinhart, Sam.

Asking for a friend ... do the Sabres have better options when UPL or Levi inevitably get hurt? Like, not being facetious at all - do they?

He is way too good of a skater to a) not know that was how the hit would go down - the guy had his numbers to him since behind the net and b) to avoid it if he wanted to. He sure seems to turn on a dime when the puck is on his stick. That said, suspension seems a tad high, if that is really in the conversation.