deluca67

Rob Ray is like a carnival barker promoting the Sabres "toughness."

Sabres needed that. Why was the goalie on his arce? That was the type of goal-tending you see in replays of games played in the 80's.

why the F**%^$^!!!!! is Scott playing?

Must be a glitch, MY DirecTV NHLN feed is blacked-out.

That should be more than two minutes.

Who knew Donald Brashear could sing?

Scott is the wrong way to address the Sabres toughness issues. Steve Ott is the correct way to address those issues. As you said Scott is a waste of a roster spot and, IMO, the Sabres should be embarrassed that they feel the need to employ such a player.

Lack of secondary scoring is surely a concern. I wouldn't completely dismiss Myers as a potential concern as well. Myers may be a victim of expectations he has created with his play as a rookie. On a team with few stars and a lack of overall team success, fan impatience is understandable.

The quality of play this weekend is a huge improvement from what we seen over the first week. One early season league wide trend has been the use of stretch plays. Teams seem to be looking to take advantage of early season confusion during line changes.

This afternoon is a good time for a line not including Vanek or Pominville to step up and score.

It's not like he is playing with the #1 and #4 point producers in the NHL this season. ;)

If the plan is to keep Grigorenko up with the Sabres, which I disagree with, the Sabres should put him with Vanek and Pominville and allow Grigorenko to get residual points and build confidence.

The Sabres are not a "small" hockey market. I would even say that Buffalo is one of the premier hockey markets in North America. There is a reason Versus and NBC love to put the Sabres on, it's instant ratings and major share of the market when games are aired. The key word this season is "expectations." Unless I have read the board incorrectly, it appears that amongst veteran posters is that the Sabres finish will look much like last season with some expecting the Sabres to claim the 7th or 8th spot and some like myself who expect the Sabres to miss out again. There were minimal moves last off-season with Steve Ott being the big prize. We have to remember there were not a lot of options available to the Sabres last off-season. The big ticket free agents were not coming to Buffalo and the Sabres trading for Nash was just not a realistic option. Vanek and Poninville are the constants this, and any, season that we can write their production in stone. It's up to the youth in the forward ranks to come through and start producing. There are forwards on this team making millions of dollars, they have to start producing, no excuses. Hodgson has to prove he is more than Luke Adam 2.0, Ennis, Foligno and Stafford have to get things going. The good news is that the season has just begun and all these players have more than enough time to find their legs and start taking the pressure off of Vanek and Pominville. I'm usually not the one promoting patience. I say give it a couple of more weeks, if we are still having the same conversations I'll light my torch and sharpen my pitchfork and head down to Regier's office. (That's metaphorically speaking, I'm not threatening to pitchfork anyone.)

Does, or should. the current discussion regarding Tyler Myers fit into this conversation at all? Myers was rushed into the lineup, had early success, now people are scratching their heads wondering what's going on. Is there a warning in the Myers story that should be applied to Grigorenko?

On the MY Team page there is a feature where it will start all active players for that day. It's really convenient.

The Sabres have yet to score a goal that did not involve Thomas Vanek or Jason Pominville. That's 11 goals over 4 games. It's eerily familiar to last season.

Hodgson scored a couple of goals and posters were willing to declare the Sabres the hands down winner of the trade. It'll be interesting how things play out long term. Alos, I never understood the idea that it was Kassian or Foligno, the Sabres could have kept both.

I stated my opinion on Myers and his development over the past couple of years. I will say this now, it is too early in this messed up season to judge any player good or bad. They just played the equivalent of their 3rd pre-season game. Give the players a couple of weeks to find their legs ad then judge good or bad.

Wanting him to stay seems more like wishful thinking than a sound decision on what's best for the franchise. There is no doubt he has the skills, throwing him in the lineup without the benefit of a full training camp is really unfair to the kid. Veteran players have trouble adjusting to Lindy Ruff's system with a full training camp, asking this kid to just jump right in is way too much pressure to heap on the kid. The time will come for this kid, let it happen naturally, no need to force it.

By leaps and bounds that was the best Carolina looked so far this season.

Carolina has not looked good so far. The only way the Sabres lose this game is if they get some bad breaks. I can't see Carolina outplaying the Sabres at this point.

Interesting point considering the only difference between myself, any other poster on this board and Terry Pegula when it comes to hockey is the size of Pegula's check book. When it comes to credibility of a hockey opinion, Pegula's is no more credible then any on this board. IMO, Ralph Wilson plays a big role in formulating fans opinions regarding ownership. For 50 years Ralph Wilson has been the predominate sports owner here in Buffalo. He is very hands on to the point of being meddlesome. His only success came when he hired Bill Polian who had a strong personality which kept Ralph in check. Regier is not as strong a personality as Polian, Regier has been seen as pretty much a "Yes" man for most of his tenure. Any concern for things coming down to a push & shove on ice decision between Regier and Pegula with Regier being willing to shove back is justified. Pegula's opinions need to be placated to keep him happy and to make him think he is involved, that's fine. Regier should not be taking them seriously.

Pegula being anything other than a signature on a check when it comes to the on ice product is very dangerous. If he wants to build statues and redecorate the arena, that's great. Just stay away from the on ice decisions.

The Sabres positioning on the series of PKs was pretty impressive for so early on in the season. If Scott can't handle Orr he might want to stay clear of Lucic. Toronto is skating much better than they did against the Habs. It will be interesting to see how the Sabres hold up over the final 40 minutes. The Flyers looked good in the 2nd period yesterday and hit the wall in the third.

Hopefully Stafford learned an important lesson today, a punch to the head only hurts for a little while. The feeling in the locker-room when you protect your teammate lasts much longer.