DarthEbriate

Beautiful Dahlin! Beautiful Greenway, Cozens, and then TNT!

Do not start flat. No goals allowed in the first 5 minutes. (or at all, ideally.) Honestly, this is where you let it all out. Wipe them out. All of them.

Both will get better in both. (And defensively in particular, quite a bit better.)

Man... they forgot about Aho right after scoring to tie it. Can't be doing that. Carolina is sooo very good in response and the Sabres relaxed a bit after scoring. Crowd: What the hell are you doing? Levi: Good close to the period to tie it (and keep it tied).

Dahlin's defense is also a good offense.

Quinn missed on his deflection attempt and lost their best forward in the process. Growing up will take some time.

And don't be afraid to hammer the puck around the boards --- the Canes pounce along the sideboards with 2 almost instantly, so get it and fling it to the far corner or far point and get them chasing. The cute, short, touch passes are what they're hoping for.

And Dahlin did!

Chatfield never dropped his gloves (while Stillman did), but seems like Chatfield should be the only penalty. And it is.

Yup. The only contributors on the Canes who aren't 24+ and in their prime are Kotkaniemi and Jarvis. And you can see the difference in coaching in terms of defensive pressure, which you can do when you've got a great top-4 of defensemen all 28 years old (and Burns being paid under $2M with retention). The Sabres can become this team, but it requires experience and a mindset change defensively.

Completely discombobulated at the moment. Outworked at every step by their PK.

Well, they won the faceoff, then Boosh tripped on the puck and then Stillman's skate with the assist. And then a lost battle by Okposo and Power. Yuck and yuck.

Good D by Greenway to negate the shot. If the Sabres ever learn to win a D-zone faceoff cleanly, they'll give up about 6 fewer shots per game.

Skinner didn't stop in front of the net, otherwise a tap-in rebound was there. (Though the rebound may have jumped too far out for him even if he had stopped in front.)

That's a damn good PK display right there.

Filthy, dirty feet direct kicking motion! Then filthy dirty Mittsy mitts!

Two of the least-hitting teams in the league at play today. Expect lots of speed and not a lot of contact, but notable is that Carolina's hit leaders are all forwards (Staal, Svechnikov [out injured], and Kotkaniemi) and the Sabres are all defensemen (but much lower in number of hits) (Dahlin, Samuelsson, Lyubushkin). Because of the ties of front offices (Karmanos, etc.), the analytics approach to draft engaged-all-time forwards (Kulich, Östlund, Quinn, Savoie) and skating defensemen -- this is probably the roster that the Sabres are most trying to emulate.

Quite a bit of negativity in the earliest posts. Bring 'em on! I prefer a straight fight. It's Saturday morning, grab some late coffee... Sabres win with an ENG. 5-3.

That's the Kraken-Shane Wright loophole. Wright was up with Seattle to start the season, never got his 9th game and then they sent him down on a "conditioning assignment". The rule as far as I know it was that he hadn't dressed in 5 consecutive games so they were allowed that AHL conditioning stint. After that, he went to the WJC and then back to the WHL. The Sabres and other teams could do this with their top CHL picks, but I doubt they do it with Savoie next season as it'll be his Draft+2 season vs. Wright's D+1 season this year. And now that his OHL season is over, Wright will be assigned to the AHL vs. joining the Kraken for the playoffs. At least to start.

To give credit where credit is due / Power is a Sabre because of RaKru. (And Taylor Hall as the 1st overall cheat code.)

Statistically speaking... Levi got lit up (6 goals) in a miniscule sample size (3 games played) and his general numbers are still 2nd best on the team -- and well ahead of 3rd/4th.

The Sabres' season will be over well before any of their prospects with the exceptions of Johnson and Huglen (both unsigned) with Minnesota. The Amerks can clinch a playoff spot tonight and the Savoie's ICE just advanced to the 2nd round and await their matchup.

We must remember that Dahlin is not a finished project yet, either. He won't reach his peak, particularly defensively, for a few more seasons. And offensively he can pace for 82+ points when healthy. Power won't get the PP1 time to get the same points opportunity. Power also needs to develop and trust his shot which could take a couple seasons like it did for Dahlin. Offensively (at least on the Sabres) the advantage will remain with Dahlin. Defensively, Power needs to do 3 things: 1. Get stronger. This is just a matter of how long his body takes to fill out. Today, he can get overmatched in board battles and knocked off his feet. Someday, he won't. Someday he'll shrug off the little guys and outmuscle the big guys as well. 2. Use his reach to deny zone entries and to deflect shots. Top defensemen force an offsides on a rush attempt or casually extend their stick to make a mid-to-long range shot fly 15' over the glass into the netting seemingly 2-3 times per game. Yes, Power already does this to an extent but not with the surety of a veteran and he still sometimes gives too much space for zone entries. But with his smarts, skating, and reach, he could suppress shots at an elite level (and he's already good). (Then, the team just needs to get better winning faceoffs as a whole and the shots against drop nicely.) 3. Increase his ferocity. This is the wildcard. Dahlin was a softer skill player and then something clicked. Now, he wails on Matthews (TOR outdoor game), sets up people to destroy them (SJ game this season), and arguably goes too far and rides players into his own goalie, thereby potentially derailing the season (Comrie)... But he's a force and when he's on the attack he is the best player on the ice. Can Power learn the dark side -- aggression, attack -- or will he always be a gentle (if high-IQ and positionally excellent) giant? If Power hits on all three, he could become... ...but still not as fun to watch as Dahlin.

Beniers reclaimed the +/- battle later in the evening. But this goes back to last season: Power finished a positive last year in his limited games and he'll be a career + player. Dahlin will take a few more seasons to get back to even.

The Panthers have a chance now that they've gotten past Bobrovsky and found Lyon. In his last 5 games, he's saved 38/40, 18/20, 21/21, 39/40 (BUF), and tonight was 56/58. That's 5 wins in a row and kicking in the playoff door for them. Sheesh.