dudacek

Power wins a lot of battles without appearing to use much energy at all. Seals, protects, and moves the puck smoothly.

But when they other guys did it they never played lousy.

Are you taking about the drops in the end zone, or forgetting they happened? I’m sorry man, but the Pats passing game did “fine” today, but there are a handful of games this year when Josh played “lousy”? What am I missing?

See if Josh had a game where he put up something like, say, 14 for 32, 145 yards, 2 picks and no TDs, then I’d understand if somebody said he played a lousy game.

Living in the Vancouver market makes it impossible for me to like the Canucks. I think it might be similar to how many of you feel about the Rangers, who are a shrug to me.

To me, lousy means - at best - below average. Horrible means right at the bottom or close to it. The Bills have been around for what, 60 years? Where do Allen’s numbers rank on the all-time list of Bills QB seasons? How about the numbers of the offence, or the defence? They’ve lost 6 games and 5 of them were by a TD or less. I can’t believe fans of the Bills, of all teams, have forgotten what lousy means.

It was interesting watching the WJC exhibition game today. You guys have slowly won me over on the need to play your natural side. But Canada and Russia didn't have a RHD playing today between them. Maybe it's not as universal as you think.

Don't have much to add, matches my take. Novikov plays hard and has a physical presence.

Friedman tells Peters and Rivet that he's heard the sale rumour but that he would be surprised if anything gets done prior to the stadium deal being done. He thinks selling the Sabres would give fuel to stadium deal opponents.

After the Whistle podcast Peters says he's hearing the Sabre have a 1st on the table for a defenceman. Friedman responded he hasn't heard that, but he wouldn't be surprised. Peters then asked if it was true Chychrun is available. Friedman says he is and his age and contract status fit exactly what the Sabres are trying to do.

I'm not against Peterka going if that's what he wants. But I'm not sure how the WJC would help his development. He has already played at the WJC twice and dominated his 2nd trip. And he is flirting with being a top 10 scorer in the AHL on a team that would suffer without him. I'd rather him continue playing against better competition in Rochester instead of toying with other kids and losing in the process.

Think I recall reading on here that Steve Smith was a "Krueger" hire and Granato was a "Botterill" hire. And that is often the case when it comes to rounding out a coaching staff. Not that the coach and the GM work separately, just that there are various degrees of compromise in where the buck stops.

Not sure which thread we were having the intense debate on the relevance of UPL's numbers in Rochester over the past two years, but Seth Appert had a great response to that in his INstigators podcast. Essentially, he said it was about sample size. He's played 12 games in Rochester this year, 2 or 3 of them early were absolutely stinkers, and to Appert's mind outliers. His play since is more indicative of his typical game. But the outliers are too much to overcome statistically in a 12-game sample. Similarly, he said that last year UPL was very good until he got COVID (which I don't think I knew about) and it took him a while to get back up to full speed after COVID. Again, the COVID recovery period represents an unusually large portion of a 14-game sample size. Over 100 games in a typical 2-year stretch these 2 "blips" wouldn't have had significant impact on his numbers. But he only played 26, so they do.

'Lousy' is a pretty relative term. But many people seem to define it simply as "he lost"

Where did you see this?

There is a growing sentiment among players seeing their vaccinated peers on the sidelines without many of them actually being sick that the asymptomatic should be allowed to play.

A team loaded with cheap young talent at the cap floor with a streamlined front office and saddled with very few big, long-term contracts in a good hockey market? For sale you say?

Amerks can certainly use him. He’s apparently CoVID free, leaving an environment that is apparently CoVId-free to go to another that is COVId free. He’s been travelling with the Amerks all season. He can be recalled when the Sabres start again. What am I missing here?

JJ had a nice bounce back game after a few were he looked like he hit a bit of a wall. Wonder if he was one of the Amerks affected by the flu bug?

Since Casey, Murray and UPL aren't doing anything until next week, love to see them join the Amerks for the Willkes-Barre game Wednesday.

Jackets only have 3 guys in protocol themselves, but have played 3 straight against teams with issues. If this had happened last year against New Jersey it might have changed the course of the Sabtes' season. Then again, Ralph Krueger might still be our coach.

Waitaminnit, there's a prospect named Frank Nazar III? Can he play with Count Van Barkenow?

I'm expecting that a year from now Sabrespace will be treating Alex like Drew Stafford, just because he doesn't match a false picture they've created in their heads. Never mind that he never did. It'll be Dahlin all over again.

He was a force tonight regardless of the goals. Gilmour is a good comparable. He plays faster, but the competitive streak, the two-way commitment and the pass-first mentality are similar. Dont think he will reach the offensive heights, but you never know. 19 points in 18 games as an AHL rookie is nothing to scoff at. Rossi has 18 in 18. Newhook and Boldy are also at around a point per game. Caufield a little less. Villardi has 7 in 9, Turcotte just 10 in 18. Byfield 0 in 4. Zegras had 21 in 17 last year.

That’s scary if Tage has an issue, intriguing if it’s a maintenance day. IMO Tage/VO/Asplund is the best line the Sabres have iced this year, Tuch into Kyles spot beside Cozens makes sense and I'm very interested in Skinner with LOGgers