SabresBaltimore

So I don't know Montour. I tend to be pretty oblivious to players on other teams outside the division, especially those in the Western conference. I do like adding an NHL ready player to our RHD since we're thin there and a lot deeper at LHD. I'm not sure I like giving up a first, but no way we get this guy for Guhle straight up and in the scheme of things a 1st may be a little high, or it might be a wash. It's always so hard to gauge because whoever gets picked with that first isn't likely to be playing in the NHL right away anyways. Mostly though, I don't get the timing of the trade. We need offense right now. Is this the first step towards trading away someone else (Risto seems to be the most likely that anyone would want to trade for to me) today for some offense? Does Jbots like this guy so much he thought it wouldn't be a move he could make in the offseason? I guess we'll see if anything else happens today. If nothing else happens, I'll be kind of confused. Personally while I wouldn't mind losing Risto longer term if we get someone good offensively back in his place. Right now though, I don't think we have anyone to fill the minutes or toughness he brings. I already feel like we're too soft if we're building a cup contender as is. And, if we're trading him for prospects or picks though, no thanks. We have enough of those, even after trading away a 1st on this pick.

I was hoping to see Skinner signed by the trade deadline. I feel like if he's not (which it appears may be the case now) we're going to lose him in the offseason. Not to mention as we continue to lose, does he really want to stay here? Yes, he's having a great year paired with Eichel, but he's spent years losing in Carolina, does he really want to be part of a rebuild here? Then again, I worry he'll get a huge contract and then regress/get hurt. That seems to be what happens with most big contracts we've signed of late. Personally I want JBot to stay fairly quiet unless he can pull off a con to get rid of dead weight or somehow get us a non-rental #2 center. The latter is more likely for an offseason move though and the former is not likely to happen without us giving up someone I'd rather keep or giving up draft picks (which I'd also rather keep at this point).

Yeah, the signs of that were there last year when the Bills finally made the playoffs and fans came out in droves to welcome them home from Jacksonville even though they had lost. This town is itching for ANYTHING to cheer for. That doesn't mean he's entirely wrong though. I was pretty young back in the four superbowl years, but there was A LOT of bitching in my experience. It was just drown out by those who looked forward to next season because most fans (rightly) believed we could do it again next year. And that I think is the real difference. There is no belief anymore, just doubts.

Bump! Today's gameday. 12pm EST on NHL Network in the US and in Canada: TSN 3 and 5, RDS plus streaming on TSN eStreaming apparently. Beauts goalie Shannon Zabados is supposed to be starting for the Canadians, so it's going to be a tough one.. Let's go U-S-A!

I don't know you, so I may be generalizing, but In my experience Buffalo fans LOVE to urinate in Buffalo's own cereal. It's easier than holding out hope we might win and let ourselves be disappointed. Again. Better to just expect the worst so you won't be let down because you expected it all along..

It's easy to get down on squandering that 10 game win streak from back in November, especially after that collapse on Friday night. However if you told me before the season started we'd be in the Wild Card race, I'd be really happy. I think Buffalo sports fans thrive on being miserable and complaining about their teams. It's about all we have some seasons. But not this season. At least not yet... We may make the playoffs. We may not. But at least we still have a shot. As NS said, it's been at least 5 years since we had a meaningful game this late in the season. I'm going to enjoy it and hope for the best. I think this is a team moving in the right direction even if not as fast as we'd like because we're all sick of waiting for "next season". Rochester is also looking better too, so hopefully that means we'll finally have a proper pipeline of new talent in the coming years. It's easy to be a fan when your team wins all the time. Buffalo fans know what it means to be a die-hard. I'm going to send them positive vibes... We've been saying it all season, but as the number of remaining games continue to dwindle it because more and more important: MUST WIN!

Yeah. 12pm. I did say that in my original post, but it maybe didn't stand out..

Anyone else been watching/following this? I've been following the Beauts a lot closer this year with the addition of Savannah Harmon from my alma mater (Clarkson) and the Rivalry series includes her playing for the USA for the first time along with several other former Golden Knights (and their head coach) on the Canadian side. Plus there are a few other Beauts playing (I think 1 more American, plus Shannon Szados). The first game was played in London, Ontario (I think?) and the Americans won 1-0. I'm not sure if that was televised, but if so I missed it. Last night's game in Toronto was very different with the Americans losing 4-3. I thought it was a great game and I'm really looking forward to the last game in Detroit on Sunday afternoon (12pm). Last night's coverage was on NHL Network in the US, but it was just the TSN coverage. I suspect Sunday will be the same (NHLN lists it again)

If we win tonight that's 9/14 points for this homestand and a 4-2-1 record. It's not enough to put us back in the Wild Card, but it goes a long towards keeping us in the picture. Winning tonight: puts us ahead of Caronlina if they lose tonight, and if not we'll remain 1 point back with a game in hand. puts us 2 points behind Pittsburgh puts us 4 points behind Montreal (although they'll have a game in hand) Really at this point we need as many wins (or garbage points) as we can get. All that means. MUST Win!

I'm voting yes with my heart, even if the math tells me head we probably won't. Either way, I'm just happy to be thinking about if we'll make the playoffs this late in the season..

Yeah. The way they have stuff up migrating certain settings proved to be an adventure. I basically lost half a day just getting back to a functional state.

I've been spending my morning dealing with migrating my work computer from Windows 7 to 10..so I didn't get over here until now. Of course with our loss on Sunday we can no longer hit my arbitrary 10 point goal for the homestand. But I'm not giving up on the team. So Hopefully we get the next 4 points and end with 9. At this point of the season all EC games are critical, but especially against anyone in the playoff hunt. So tonight is probably the tougher of the two. Definitely a MUST Win.

I was out yesterday morning to do my homestand point watch, but we actually played a pretty good defensive game and secured 2 much needed points. Having lost to the Canes though 10 points may no longer be enough. Our maximum points is now down to 11. Total Games played: 4 Total Games Remaining: 3 Homestand Record: 2-1-1 Total Points obtained: 5 Total Points remaining: 6 Points required to hit 10: 5 Record options: 5-1-1(11), 4-1-2 (10), So we need to pull out at least 2 more wins, and at least 1 point in every game remaining. Hopefully we look a lot more like yesterday than we did on Thursday. It's another afternoon game, and we seem to play pretty well in those this season. Once again we MUST WIN!

I wish the whole team played with the same level of effort ERod shows. He's never going to be a top 6 player, but he's definitely an important piece on a Stanley Cup team IMHO. I'm still a bit shocked no one drafted him, even with a late round pick.

Well I'm going to continue my push to 10/14 points for this homestand..cuz why not? Total Games played: 2 Total Games Remaining: 5 Homestand Record: 1-1-0 Total Points obtained: 2 Total Points remaining: 10 Points required to hit 10: 8 Record options: 5-0-0 (10), 4-0-1 (9), 4-1-0(8), 3-0-2 (8) So at a minimum we need 3 more wins in the next 5 games. Tonight is extra critical because we're tied with Carolina in points. Making this the most MUST Win of all the Must Wins. This would in fact be the worst game of the this 7 game homestand to lose. Let's go Buf-fa-lo!

So last game I said I feel like we need to earn 10/14 points to have a shot at remaining in the Wild Card hunt. That means we're now down to 10/12 points for this homestand. So we have to go either 5-2-0 or 4-0-2. That makes this another MUST Win! But considering Phil's approach to lines appears to be by rolling dice (or maybe flipping a coin?), I'm not sure how well we're going to play against a team ahead of us in the standings. Here's to hoping for a return to some of that November magic!

Awesome. Thanks!

This 7-game home stand will probably make or break the season. We've been playing way better at home this season (for once). We're 14-6-3 instead versus: 11-13-3. I feel like we need to come out with at least 10 points. It starts tonight. Must win!

My expectations for this year was just out of the playoffs, which may be in fact where we end up. However my expectations changed after that 10 game streak. I agree with Doohickie, though I'll be watching every game regardless. I don't want them to do anything stupid at the trade deadline. So far JBots seems to be better in Free agency anyways. I'd love to see them announce a new contract with Skinner by the deadline, but most likely we're not going to get any long term help without giving up too much to a team desperate to win it all this year.

Yeah. Since I get up at 4am, I typically get to bed by 9/930. So a 7pm start is no problem. 7:30 is a bit less sleep than I'd like..but doable. 8 tends to be about my limit. With a 9pm start, I'm basically in "record the game, avoid the results and watch the next day" territory. 8:30 isn't much better, but I can probably do the first 2 periods.

And here I was thinking 830PM was too late for me. ? I might watch the first 2 periods or so. We'll see. I hate having to avoid the results for half a day so I can watch the rest after work tomorrow.

Well we got good secondary scoring finally last night. And we needed it because our defense and goaltending could have been better. I wasn't expecting much from the ERod-Mitts-Sheary line, but you can't argue with 2 goals. Back to back games with a 3 hour flight and a timezone shift. Hopefully they come out with the same energy we did in the first last night though. A good team will find a way to win. MUST Win! If not, it's will apparently be Doohickie's fault for bring bad mojo to the rink..

I personally like ERod a lot. He's a bottom 6 guy with good wheels who is responsible defensively and capable of filling in on a top 6 line due to injuries, etc. I think he's been a great addition to the team, but is often asked to do too much because we're lacking enough solid talent in our top 6 to field 2 quality lines.

The team needs to step it up if they hope to salvage the great start we had last year and at least make the wild card. That starts tonight. MUST Win! I hope we can get some secondary scoring going. Interesting to see eRod with Sheary and Mitts. Maybe he can get them going by shaming them with his effort..

The man of the hour.. https://www.facebook.com/BuffaloSabres/videos/790895781268165/ https://twitter.com/BuffaloSabres/status/1083803248069394433