Mango

This is where I struggle after this game. Yes we were outshot in the 3rd. Yes Tuch can't take that penalty. But also, the tying goal was on UPL even though it felt inevitable with 6-4. And the second goal was terrible. I find myself more annoyed this AM than I normally do.

A tough 3rd period. I hated the 2nd goal off the chest and the 4th goal was a terribly slow glove. There were moments we hung UPL out there on his own, but he also has to stop both of those to shots. Tuch cannot take that penalty there. I have have highlights replaying on one of my 3 monitors, what a game from Jost and Mitts. I never thought I would say this, but I think I hope they can keep Mitts around after 24-25. As the season slips away, one big take away from last night is that we found the back of the net 4 times when our first line was totally shut down.

Imagine being Danny Brieres kid and ending up with ASU hockey. Woof.

For such an aggressive guy, it’s weird he didn’t even attempt to poke check a guy moving at toddler speed.

Let me start by saying I agree with all of this. I think part of the problem is that UPL should still be considered a “prospect” in that he has moments. But he’s incomplete at the moment. 24 years old for a goalie is pretty young. But the problem is there was a stretch where he was our way goalie. Now he is G1 because the nursing home won’t let Anderson come out to play more than once a month. From a UPL centric standpoint he’s likely a decent guy to have on the bench behind a goalie who is playing 60 games per year. Or could use some time in the AHL and slow some things down for the 24 year old. But I think that has sailed for him in Buffalo.

Sounds like an advantage to me. I wish I were 100% joking. But it really does increase the odds.

Mitts on that one. Impressive effort.

Gretzky is tough to bet against. Not to mention putting a guy like Roy, or Barasso, or Fuhr in net. Against who? Levi and Knies? Ill take Gretzky/Roy.

I always call him Tagey through my TV. It feels like the proper hockey nickname.

At one point in the 3rd Cozens got off the ice early with the puck in the corner of the offensive zone. JJP, Tomers, Quinn had a great 60 seconds or so out there. As our top 6 forwards mature there are going to be a lot of options for line combinations. Mitts has driven me nuts the first half of the year. Shout out to him, phenomenal game.

Are you asking me to get hard… This is a family board Spoon.

Great shift from Mitts here. The terrible things I screamed at my TV/him to start the season. One man show on that shift.

What I mean by that we have a string of bad games under our belt. One step at a time. Lets just start playing good hockey first. If we can do that, the rest will fall into place as it should.

Playoffs....no playoffs, whatever at this point. If we can get consistent efforts like we had against NYR and Edmonton I will enter the offseason happy with the progression of this team this year. Doesn't hurt that I think if we do happen to get those performances for the next few weeks we can squeak by NYI. There is just enough race track left.

God...I hope the Sabres find a way to win this one if for no other reason than to avoid 6 days of text messages from my uncle about how dumb I am for believing in this team.

Good call on why he was on the Thompson line. It was a bit of a head scratcher because Quinn has been pretty good there. It’s clear Greenway has no idea where to be with those guys. It felt like there were a dozen times he was on top of either Skinner or Tage and they had nowhere to pass the puck. He looks slow and clunky to me. Right now I like KO a lot better. But he’s old and on his way out.

This went down a rabbit whole I don’t want to go anywhere near at the moment. Being afraid that Granato might max himself out with this roster is wildly different than saying the org is effed and moving in the wrong direction. You might be right. But it’s waaay too early for that.

I am a fan of the work Donnie has done here with the kids. Baring a full collapse doesn’t he last 17 games I welcome him back with open arms. But this is part of my frustration. Adjustments. We seem to only breakout through the center. When teams clog the lanes we just bash our head into the wall and won’t go near the boards. We almost refuse to dump and chase against a strong forecheck. And to your point about Tomers, a bit, it feels like we are allergic to working the puck from low to high in the offensive zone. I have some mild fear that Granato built some talent but the team is one trick pony’s under him.

We are tied for wins from last year. So I actually expect them to beat that by some margin come April. I think the judgement starts to circle around Donnie/Adams next year. The 2023-24 version of Tomers, Tuch, Skinner, Cozens, Dahlin, Peterka, Quinn, Dahlin, Boosh, Powers, Stillman, Muel, should be good enough to put us in the Rangers, Lightening, Penguins range. We shouldn’t be fighting for the 8th seed in 365 days with a competent system and offseason moves.

The Darcy GM tree is becoming a thing.

If the Sabres finish the season playing hockey like tonight I’ll be happy with the overall season and our direction going forward.

That certainly wasn’t clear to me. But I’m not the smartest guy in most rooms. I might have mouthed off about this comment earlier. Sorry. Internet ramblings and all.

At scale, I get the feeling at defeat. But to post that this is getting “unwatchable” after that game is insane. Thy was very watchable hockey. Go pout about the last two weeks in a different thread. That’s fair.

Tonight wasn’t an implosion. That was a good top level hockey game.

I thought that call could have gone either way. Which to me means you just don’t call it in that situation.