DarthEbriate

Florida has the best path to 8th and have been playing solidly since February started. The Islanders have had stretches of malaise throughout the season and may be caught in one now on their California trip. The Sabres are the streakiest team and are hopefully coming out of one of their worst streaks of the season. It all comes down to the head-to-head matchups remaining. If the Sabres win on 3/25 and 4/4 it is going to get very, very entertaining.

ESPN and ABC/Disney+ whatever conglomerate used motion capture to turn tonight's Rangers-Capitals game into an animated TV show. Gary Bettman had a phone conversation with the cartoons, Kevin Weekes did play-by-play and appeared to be having fun with it. I made it through the first 5 minutes or so and I turned on the real game via ESPN+ a bit after the game started... they actually did a pretty good job with the players and how the puck moved around with their sticks and such and it was only about 30 seconds behind the real game. Occasionally you'd get a "BOOM!" on screen when someone threw a check or hit the boards. But it was bizarre.

I think this is silly and sort of fun, but I'm really glad it's happening to a Caps-Rangers game. If it were a Sabres game being replaced by this however, I'd be rather put out.

They'd have had to trade him to unblock Levi and Portillo?

Good game. Took awhile to get warmed up, which would've been a disaster without Anderson, but then from the midpoint on the Sabres outskated them and earned the victory.

Up by 2, late in the 3rd... give up a 2-on-0. That's reverse-thinking defense, right there. Thank you, Mr. Anderson.

You see, you can do it.

Nice. Now get the PP for that first bit of insurance.

Cozens -- I'll try spinning, deflecting, and then burying it. That's a good trick.

Dang. Close for TNT. And now the lead!

Phew. Thanks, Bryson.

Lovely pass by Tage.

Good period, that.

Quinn passed to a fallen JJP, but thankfully redeems himself. Just shoot, kids!

Nice to see Tuch and Greenway out on different PK pairs.

The Sabres are super-talented. It's the a matter of their players getting to NHL speed up and down the lineup, especially defensively. The passes are still a split second slow, the dump-ins and clears a bit too soft, the removal of time and space not as crisp as Toronto's. As an example, someday Krebs will make Kampf look sluggish, but Krebs isn't there yet.

Leafs still winning every footrace to a puck against any line not featuring Tuch.

As much as I want Levi to sign quickly, I don't want him to abandon his team to do it. The Frozen Four selection show is Sunday. I want him ready with pen to paper the instant Northeastern is not selected. However, it should be fairly easy to suss out whether they're an actual bubble team beforehand or not. Is ESPN going to list you on the bubble and ask for a camera feed to your team gathered in room? No? Then I want Levi signing immediately.

Good point. Down the stretch last season Bryson played several solid (and high-profile games like TOR and VGK) with Dahlin and Samuelsson as his partner. It likely looks quite a bit different if he's playing solely with Hagg or Pysyk or Butcher during the March-to-end stretch.

Won’t see this one, but I hope the Sabres find their game again. Possession, skating fast, and aggressive forecheck. And maybe show up for all 3 periods and not get outshot 2:1.

I’d have liked to see Montour say “I can be a top 4 guy on this Granato-style team” and keep Joker on the third pair. But at the same time, Montour is not the defensive defenseman this team needed last season or this or next season. He had been in Buffalo through the worst and he was right to say “I don’t want to be here.” It’s worked out for him the past 2 seasons. But it goes back to the spending of draft capital on D. They traded a 1st and Guhle (who was gone anyway) for Montour and got only 2 seasons out of him. That’s not good spending of D draft capital.

And the result is: trade him for a 3rd. Next up: use that 3rd on a goalie. 😇

Yup. Hasek would have this team in the playoffs… but he wouldn’t have his gaudy numbers with the defensive structure and awareness they play with. And even back in the day Hasek got shelled on occasion.

Unfortunately, it appears Portillo was going to be scared off by either Wallstedt or then-WJC-hero (to silver anyway) Levi. The question could’ve been: does Wallstedt scare away Levi? Which is a fascinating question and a fantastic looking duo if both were signed. Addendum: and then in the 2022 draft it frees you up to take a D in round two instead of Leinonen because Wallstedt is already slotted for the AHL. (And you can use one of the last picks on a college or European goalie as a long-term developmental flier).

Agreed. If they plummet from here I’ll be disappointed. But they’re so streaky I don’t see it happening. One day this year they’re going to wake up and not feel any pressure and rattle off 6 of 7 again, even against this schedule of tough matchups. Granted, it’d be a lot easier with Tuch in the lineup and the forwards playing well in their own end.