dudacek

I'm not going to dump on, or defend Dahlin here, but your comment resonated with me when it comes to this play and the Sabres in general. And it reminded of Promo's automatic defence of a goalie. Whether Sam put Victor in a bad position or not, whether our defenceman put Hutton in a bad position or not, they aren't being put into impossible positions. Victor didn't have to cough up the puck. Carter doesn't have to wave at the puck. Just make the damn play.

As people dream about developing UPL, they ignore what Linus has already done. Ullmark is 27 and he literally has gotten better every year. This idea that he is a 1B is so 2019. He is 6/5/3 2.49 .920 on this team. That's 17th in GAA, and 12th in SP. On this team. His numbers are better than old pros like Price, Rask, Bobrovsky, Holtby, Varlamov and Anderson They are better than guys of his vintage like Hellebuyck, Kuemper, Jarry, Markstrom, Korpisalo, Merzlikens, Blackwood, Binnington, Murray and Gibson In some cases they are far better. On this team! You could make a case that the only goalies in the entire league who have been clearly better than him this year are Grubauer, Vasilievski and Fleury. There is no way that there are 20 goalies right now who are clearly outperforming him. And he has just entered his prime. He is the rare player (other than Olofsson, the only) that the Sabres have successfully developed. I read here all the time about how the Sabres have to do a better job of this. We finally get it right and people are content to let him walk. For god sake, sign this guy.

They are the type of hungry players I expect Adams to target.

The list of players who have scored as many or more goals than Taylor Hall for the worst team in the NHL: Reinhart Olofsson Rieder Lazar Cozens Montour Asplund Skinner Miller Sheahan Staal Ristolainen Jokiharju Thompson Eakin Mittelstadt Okposo Dahlin Eichel I think it's safe to say things didn't work out in Buffalo.

Button was a huge Quinn booster last year. He's played 16 games since — 7 in the WJC and 9 in the AHL. That's a drunken internet fan level "what-have-you-done-for-me-lately."

What was Victor doing where he was if not presenting himself as a passing option? The end zone camera showed Sam gaining the line, drawing the defender, and putting the puck to an uncovered teammate in space, and heading to open space himself expecting the return along the boards. It was tight, but it was also a pretty textbook entry play that NHL players use all the time. For whatever reason — good puck pressure by the Ranger defender, not thinking Sam had enough space — Olofsson didn't take the option Sam presented. At that point, he had three choices: move the puck back to Dahlin (the safest play), skate it out himself and regroup, or try to protect the puck himself. He took option three, failed, and then made the hope play up the boards well after that window had closed, resulting in a turnover. I think Sam's goal was to get a lane on the deep defender and had already done so by the time Victor coughed it up. Do you thihk he should have expected Victor to cough it up and stopped as soon as he give him the pass? I don't see it. He certainly wasn't standing there watching with eyes in the back of his head as the play took 8/10s of a second to unfold. It wasn't an easy play, but it was one Victor usually would have executed. Maybe he was tired?

Really glad to see Thompson and Mittelstadt to not only get significant minutes, but also get rewarded. Next time Carter Hutton allows four in 21 shots and somebody says 'but the team', I'd like to hold up career minor leaguer Dustin Tokarski as exhibit A.

I think that for some people, his play this year has erased his play last year. I don't think that's entirely fair, because I think he's been playing hurt. I still think we can have the player we had last year, and that player is better than five lottery tickets, even five good ones. That said, if we did trade him for futures, I doubt the return would be this good.

The counterpoint is I think we all want to follow the Bills' path of not only the right players, but the right people. If only we had a scouting department to do some intel!

Like the Kahun qualifier these are interesting ones. Certainly worth considering, hard to judge without the context of what cap balls are in the air and other options exist.

I can't imagine preferring living in Buffalo to living in Seattle. 😜

I'm starting to wonder if the Sabres will have to bring in a couple bodies at the deadline? I won't miss most of them, but Hall, Staal, Montour, McCabe, Lazar, Borgen, Cozens, Girgensons, Hutton, Johansson and Asplund is a ton of bodies. And we may be adding some of Risto, Miller, Rieder, Sheahan and Irwin to that list as well

Well, Eichel hurts of course, but at least Reinhart/Mittelstadt is a clear upgrade over Staal/Eakin in the 2/3 slots. Anyone see the Lazar injury? Dead quiet on the broadcast and the GDT.

Imagine someone being touchy about an insult to their personal appearance. Imagine thinking it's OK to insult someone about their personal appearance because of their job.

I think the plan for this season — pushed primarily by Ralph — was "this team isn't that far away, patch the holes and we'll compete." Everything that could go wrong did: The team was far away, your patches leaked, you neglected an important patch and we imploded. It will be interesting to see how Adams resets: firing Ralph doesn't count, that was obvious; the rumoured front-office revamp, the start of the sell-off and the decision to play the kids count, how well does he execute? But the big thing is the build: what kind of players does he go after; what kind of team will he put together? What did he learn?

I'm not sure what's confusing. You've got 40 guys under contract, each of them starts the year pegged for a certain role. When it becomes clear a player is sucking in that role, give someone else a shot. In the context of my original post, if after 20 games, the team's not winning, Taylor Hall isn't producing, and Taylor Hall isn't trying, why keep sending Taylor Hall out as your first-line winger? Give somebody else a shot in that role. And yes, if too many players are failing, you have a problem, and yes you have to get new ones, and yes, that takes time.

You find other guys to keep them honest.

I'm telling you, we can't let this one get away. He's turned into a real starter before our eyes, but the smoke from the tire fire is blinding too many of us.

Everybody see that shift where Taylor Hall turned on the jets, to beat out an icing call? And then, once he got the puck, softly slide it to the open boards where no Sabre had a chance to do anything at all with it? I can't get his selfish ass off my team soon enough. (Only 15 minutes tonight, same as Toby Rieder. Lack of PPs may have been why, but I'm going to say Donnie is doing what Ralph should have done a month ago, and play the guys who earn it.)

I'm on record as having two on-ice goals to give this meaningless run to summer some meaning. 1) Dumping every non-returning piece we can to collect assets 2) Playing the kids a lot, and in all situations, to see what we have. But I've discovered one more: Play Sam Reinhart at centre for every single minute he's on the ice. He looked pretty damn good there and I imagine that will only improve with time. Can you imagine if we discover we had our missing 2C in the lineup all along?

Nothing on the thread or the broadcast about Curtis Lazar? Didn't see him the entire second half. Box score has him down for less than 8 minutes.

It really is starting to look that way, isn't it? To be clear, the Flyers were horrible, but we played with some passion, and we played with some threat. That can't be coincidence.

It certainly does. What was discourteous about Carolina's Tweet? Or are we talking about something else now?

Is this something that happens frequently to you? And by bending over backwards do you mean taking a second or two to remind yourself to do something that isn't habitual for you? Like when your mother-in-law expects you to take off your hat when you're at her dinner table? Or when your new wife wants you to put down the toilet seat?

I've never figured out how one can go too far when it comes to being courteous.