dudacek

I don’t have preference in terms of which guy I think is a better goalie, but I definitely think Comrie is better suited to be Levi’s backup.

UPL was the guy on the Island.

While this is true, I don’t really care Just play the goalies in the way that best gives us a chance to make the playoffs. Ive fully expected them to treat Levi as a number one and that means if he’s rested he starts. Get used to it Curious if they will share the backup duties or not. As in are we going to see one guy every 4 games so, or will they each play once every 8.

Peca is one of my all-time faves and I’d be happier if he was in the organization. That said, I suspect some of the same people who criticized 30-year pro coach Granato as inexperienced would be happy with handing Peca the reins after what, 3 years? I find it kinda disingenuous to characterize the situation as “the Sabres refused to promote him”. He has 2 years pro experience as a bench coach, both in the AHL, both with the Buffalo organization. The thing people seem to be overlooking in the Peca case is that there wasn’t a job available on the Sabres coaching staff. They literally have 5 assistants. They actually did offer him a job with Buffalo, but not behind the bench. Sure, you have no problem firing someone (Matt Ellis is the likely suspect) in order to keep him, but they apparently like what they have. He got an offer he liked better and took it.

More specifically it’s “I feel connected to him in a way I don’t with the current team” stuff.

Marchand, the guy who is listed 6 pounds heavier and 3/4 of an inch shorter than Benson?

"We need more guys like..." We add Johnson, Clifton, Greenway and they play that way. "Not those guys" "We need to stick up for each other and play the right way" Team jumps to the defence of Jost and Jokiharju after questionable hits, Dahlin, Clifton, Greenway throw devastating hits in 1st 3 games "That doesn't count" "We just can't play defence and Granato doesn't hold players accountable" Granato benches Olofsson, cuts ice time to underperformers, team allows just 5 goals and 51 shots in its past 2 games. "We just can't play defence and Granato doesn't hold players accountable"

This is a weird flex after last night's game.

So it looks like we are going to get a taste of RJ every home game with a “Here come the Buffalo Sabres!” as the team hits the ice to start. Personally, I think they did good: the right amount of presence, good clip, well-placed.

Based on the Canucks situation, both big picture and how they were trending, I’m good with what Tocchet said. I kinda feel the same way about Granato too based on where the Sabres were. Each of them has to read the team and determine what’s needed in the moment to bring out the best in them. I think it’s fair to wonder whether Donnie has it in him to say what Tocchet said when it’s warranted. It’s something that warrants watching in this “about winning” season.

Where do the Tocchet quotes fit?

Is this what our team needs? When? How often? "I can't even pick one guy who played well other than Demko. He was unreal. He was great tonight and the rest of the guys weren't." "We were just off all over. We were off every single system part of it. And then the compete wasn't there. They competed, we didn't it. Bottom line. You guys saw it. I don't really have anything to say. No compete. And then we tried in spurts, but it's not good enough." "We just got some guys -- whew -- they better pick it up. I don't like to use the word soft, but I didn't see guys competing. At all. And that's alarming. But saying that, you win two games, let's not get too high. Same thing. Obviously, bad effort. Let's not get too low. But we have to go back to the drawing board with some guys here. They've got to pick it up. We can't be throwing goose eggs again." "Times when we should shoot the puck and had a guy in front, we pass it. When it was time to pass it to the flank, we shot it and it was blocked. It's a good lesson for us. It's a good lesson. Who are we to think we're anybody?" (Rick Tocchet after the Canucks lost 2-0 to Philly, after beating Edmonton handily in their opener and luckily in their 2nd game.

Johnson has been both stable and assertive. You get the sense that he might be lacking a bit in what he can do, but he knows what to do and does it with authority. I was a bit skeptical when we signed him, but I like what I've seen so far. They were my pre-season answer to the "yeah but who are they going to knock out?" question.

i kinda feels like people don't remember, or didn't know, what attendance has been like the past few years.

The hope meter overflows for some of you. Bryson is the spare defenceman. He goes in.

Saw this earlier this week. Hope it doesn't happen. The NHL draft is so much better than the NFL draft —more personal for the participants, a great place to people watch

I remember the days of having to watch Connor Sheary on the ice in extra time. Suck it tampa.

They did miss the net quite a few times. The ones I noticed were mostly on the PP from 40 feet out, with Levi in position. They weren’t dangerous on the rush, they didn’t get many back door looks or clean lanes from the slot. Even throughout the 3rd when Tampa was battling hard and keeping the puck in our zone, the puck stayed mostly to the outside. Kucherov was the only Lightning player who seemed to have any success breaking us down. The Lightning are not as deep or as dangerous as they were, but they remain one of the best in the league in puck battles. I thought the game was played their way a lot, along the wall, and we beat them at it. I thought our battle game was excellent and there were stretches we dominated in that area. This is hockey, where dominance is winning 5 out of 9 situations, pucks bounce and chaos rules. This thread has a real Bills fan vibe.

The amount of finger-pointing at “bad defence” in this thread is baffling to me. They allowed 23 shots and 2 goals in 62 minutes of hockey, including 5 Tampa power plays, against a team that has the 8th-best offence in the league last year.

I don’t actually think the goal was his fault, moreso kinda bad luck. The puck just kinda jumped off his stick and right to Hagel. Just like it was kinda bad luck when it hopped over his stick at the blueline against the Rangers and when he got hauled down on the Brock Nelson goal.

Random observations: Had to be one of the better defensive efforts the team has put in over the Granato era, no? And the fact that it came against Tampa has to be good for their psyche (even though I think time will prove this Tampa team to be less than it's been). Still not completely satisfied with the offence, but its nice to see we don't always need it to be 6-5 to win. Hope the single point we gave up doesn't bite us in the ass come April. To be honest, i didn't really feel that one coming. It never felt like we were in Alamo mode. Thought maybe a bigger goalie would have had that, but Levi continues to give us a chance to win. he has to be giving the team confidence. Doesn'tseem to get talked about much, but we seem to have become a real good team 3-on-3. it's a speed and puck possession game and that's what we're good at. Really made tampa look silly in extra time tonight. Erik Johnson continues to be exactly what last year's team was lacking: a reliable presence and a difference maker on the PK I hope he can hold up if Mule is out for a while because that will hurt and is starting to feel inevitable. Speaking of PK, the Greenway Thompson Mule Johnson unit has to be one of the longest ever iced in the NHL. And it worked. Clifton was better, although he still seems to have been involved in approximately half of our goals against. Jokiharju seemed pretty good out there to me 🤷‍♂️. Cozens wasn't exactly good, but he wasn't bad like he has been the previous games. Very happy he got the winner. Hopefully it puts him in a groove. Not sure who needed it more, him or the team. Too early to to say anything definitively on Greenway, but not to early to say 'see, that's what I was talking about." Both he and Krebs have been two-way puck hounds and the type of middle-six players last year's team was missing. i liked how Donnie had Krebs out specifically with other lines for defensive faceoffs in the 3rd. Both the Girgs line and the Tage line looked more like themselves, so probably no coincidence the team looked better too. but Mittelstadt continues to be the tean's best player early.

Connecting to the community and to the history of the franchise has been a repeated talking point from the organization for about 2 1/2 years now. I'd go as far to say as it has been a central platform in Adams' plan. It's manifested itself most notably in events and people such as RJ and Miller jersey nights and the RJ memorial, but it also seems to be an ongoing thing tied to smaller events and off-ice sessions including alumni like Biron and Danny Gare. "Wanting to be here" isn't just about attracting free agents, it's about guys like Peterka and Krebs identifying themselves as Sabres, first and foremost: recognizing what the crest has meant to people, and wanting to be part of it. It's clear from listening to the players that they know what the relationship between team and city can be and they want to recreate it. The Sabres have also, post lockout, invested a significant amount of resources in expanding their coaching and development staff in order to give the youngsters an extraordinary amount of 1-on-1 time with the youth both on and off the team, teaching them how to be pros; This includes veteran NHLers like Peca, Weber, Paestch, Mair, Girardi, Kennedy, Ellis... Guys like Ryan Johnson and Matt Savoie have talked about what a great and constant presence these guys have been for them. They've also very much targeted guys like Anderson, Okposo, Girgensons, and Johnson for their locker room specifically for the same reason. Now is this the same thing as Terry O'Reilly stopping by practice for an hour? Not exactly, but I think it's pretty clear Adams is both conscious of the need to teach these kids how to be pros and is proactive about addressing it. Same thing for sharing with them the culture of the community. I kinda think you need your Marchands and Bergerons in the room before an Eichel is ever going to give a ***** about Rick Middleton and Danny Gare, anyway. Hopefully Dahlin and Cozens are becoming that. When you say " idk, I get a sense this is what is missing and our culture here suffers and so the team keeps losing" I think you are 2 years behind the times, unless you think a 10-year culture vacuum is something that can be repaired overnight. These things definitely have been issues. Steps have been taken to see them addressed. The team has improved since the process started. We'll see how much in April.

OK? I thought this was a conversation, not a debate.

And the benching has come after 2 games. From a roster that literally has two spare skaters to move around. The top free agent acquisition struggled in training camp and started the season on the 3rd pair. The first line sucked and its ice time was cut. The 3rd line played well and its ice time increased. Two games. The perception of what Donnie is doing or not doing to make “winning a priority” and the reality don’t necessarily line up. But people will see what they want to see.

Now this is fair comment. I think most coach’s messaging has always been dictated primarily toward what they want the players to hear. And there has been a concerted shift away from pushing their buttons in public to massaging their feelings. Fans generally don’t dive too deeply into what the coach is saying to the players, they want a coach who reflects what they’re feeling back at them. They want to say “He gets it!” Krueger’s presence jumped the shark when it became obvious he couldn’t coach and his words were hollow. Donnie strikes me as both more knowledgeable and more genuine, but if you ask me if I still feel that way when our record is 8-17-3, I suspect I won’t.