DarthEbriate

Stop in front of the net there, Kulich

Someday the Tage will wake up and realize that he is strong. Carves through the hook and then outreaches Shesterkin for the goal. Nice!

Woooooo!

Sabres don’t look especially fast or crisp. But the Rangers look so slow.

What if they were to stage 3 fights on the opening shift?

I'm OK with Adams keeping his job if the Sabres win 44 consecutive games starting today. ++ The guns booze... they've stopped. -- Stabilize your old-fashioned glasses. Watch for cool Nick and Noras.

Ryan Johnson with his first career AHL goal. Then takes a tripping penalty on the follow-up shift. Good for him!

Helenius has collected two powerplay assists in the 1st vs. Belleville thus far. 3-1 Amerks.

Forgot about McDavid in the slot there.

Miracle and Team USA locker room splices? Alright, now splice Strange Brew with the Canada locker room.

Given they announced he wasn’t playing this morning, I wonder if Tage got a jersey.

Now... maybe the Red Deer folks are pumping up his weight a few pounds, or tossing a bucket of water over him before weigh-in... But the Sabres are NOT exactly earning any respect in their attention to detail over the years. Something in the available information below doesn't quite match up. Maybe the Sabres just don't keep good records. 6/24/2016 Draft date: 6-0 165# (probably 5 pounds too heavy for a draft bump -- in the 6th round) 2016 Sabres Dev camp: 6-0 160# (lost 5 pounds from pre-draft information) 2016-17 Red Deer roster: 6-1 173# -- WHL populates one data set per skater so it's the same across all seasons 2017 Sabres Dev camp: 6-0 160# (no change? Lazy.) 2018 Sabres Dev camp: not in attendance. But from my notes the only official non-invites were Karabacek and Hurley, edit: as Hagel had been let back into the draft. Hagel signs ELC with Blackhawks on 10/30/2018. 2017-18 Red Deer roster: 6-1 173# (yup, still the same) 2019-20 Rockford IceHogs roster: 6-1 174# (gained 1 pound! but now those 160s look more suspect) a few years pass... Current Eliteprospects: 6-2 181# Current TBL roster: 6-2 180#

Two things of note about the 2024 WCs that Power most recently participated in: It was in May -- a few players arrived from Stanley Cup quarterfinal losers, but basically it was only players from non-playoff teams. USA and Canada never met. They were in separate Groups and the US was knocked out in the quarterfinals. (Canada finished 4th.) Power never saw anything remotely close to last night's game in either World Championship he played in. (The 2020-21 WC rosters were even less interesting.)

This is why the Sabres so desperately need to make the playoffs as a franchise; so that they all get a taste of real-speed hockey. I don't know that anyone on the Sabres will make either US or Canada's 2026 Olympic roster; honestly, if I were the US/Canada GMs I wouldn't take anyone who didn't have Stanley Cup playoff experience.

I don't think it can be argued that Dahlin isn't a veteran at this point in his career, but his D coaching on the Sabres is probably lesser than the other players representing Sweden. But although Dahlin is a NHL vet, he's way younger than any other D on Team Sweden. Karlsson, Ekholm, and Hedman are all 34. Brodin 31. Forsling and Andersson (who hasn't dressed yet) are 28. Dahlin is Sweden's baby at 24. I think Team Sweden may make some changes for the 2026 Olympics. ---- The 3-2-1 is perfect for a system with OT. Just for fun: BUF would have 67 points right now; DET (final WC spot) would be at 82 points. BUF would 15 points back instead of 12 -- which is more accurate, in my estimation. ---- Re: USA-Canada. Had to watch it on delay. The fighting was a surprise to be sure, but a silly one. It was highly entertaining (and Hagel... bloody hell, JBott....). The good thing was they got it all out of their system and none of it carried onward in the game. Then, it was just fun high-speed hockey. Hellebuyck was ready and square for everything, like a bigger R.Miller.

The ESPN intermission crew blamed Dahlin's pinch (and yes, Dahlin needs to see Z is not even thinking of coming back to defend and not pinch) on the odd-man goal, but that goal is looking more and more like Zibanejad's mistake because Sweden has been activating D to go low in the zone throughout the game.

Yup, Zibanejad just slowly drifted down below the goal line for a meaningless bump well after Finland had already possessed the puck moved it around the net.

Dahlin back on the ice. Gets a + as Zibanejad bounces one through Lankinen. Then, Dahlin gets caught pinching and leads to a 2-on-1 Finland goal.

Dahlin gets injured on the left arm/side blocking a shot at the end of a good shift.... grumble, grumble.

Missed the anthem for Finland, but the ESPN+ subtitles for Sweden did not appear to be correct. At least, I don't think their anthem mentions insulin.

Gah! I almost looked it up to be sure and then didn't. Thanks! Fixed

Hasek does things.

The Czechs and Slovaks are probably OK with it. But they did diminish their ice hockey team’s ceiling with the split.

In the spirit of Muel-PO, I think his leitmotif would follow the vocal intonations of his character namesake Anthony Daniels. I was debating a line from Star Wars, but I think the most musical delivery is from Empire: ”Well, at least you’re still in one piece. Look what’s happened to meeeee.”

In his career, Joker has had a habit of getting weaker shots through to the front of the net. It’s not a bad skill to have for a 3rd pair guy. And yes, I still think he’ll be a solid and responsible 5/6 on a playoff team this season.