Curt

Out of the 2, Laine is probably the one most likely to make great improvements. It sounds crazy but Laine is actually 3 years younger than Olofsson.

Or the backup plan just worked out great! Either way, I’m not complaining.

Didn’t mean to imply that they weren’t playing hard. I was more so talking about going into a “defensive shell”. Did they seem to do that at all before it was 4-0? I don’t hate it so much with a 4 goal lead, as opposed to 2.

I don’t like that they have been consistently packing it in with 3rd period leads. I don’t think that’s going to be a successful strategy agains good teams very often. One of my few complaints thus far.

Yeah, that’s a veteran team who are finding themselves not quite good enough to be a contender. With this bad start they are probably all thinking that the team may be blown up and sold off by the trade deadline.

I wasn’t really able to watch. Seems like they turtled in the 3rd again with a 2-0 lead, getting massively outshot in the period. How was it to the eyes?

17-18 Scandella even was decent. Seems like only 18-19 was a terrible year for him.

Yes, I would replace Sobotka with a better overall player if I could. It’s is possible that he is a better fit on that line than Sheary/Vesey/Rodrigues though.

Agreed. He isn’t very good, but he does something helpful from time to time.

He is ok defensively/positionally. He doesn’t make gaffes. But his offensive skills are pretty limited. He doesn’t contribute much on that end.

It was the first time he got a primary assist off the rush. It was his first point of the year! The narrative is that Sobotka is not a good offensive player. You think he is?

Yup, Reinhart is doing a just ok job of doing everything well, while Sobotka is doing a great job of playing decent defense with almost zero offense. I know which of those I would rather have.

I think this is all correct

I’ve seen this idea more than once, and I don’t really agree. I think, so far this season, the D group is more involved than ever in offense and is the most offensively talented D group Buffalo has had in a very long time. I don’t think the team has played a defense first style, or has been more defense first than when Housley was coach.

The inverse of that is the Columbus game where they came back from a 2-0 hole to tie, then again came back to tie in the 3rd and force OT, stealing a point in a game that they were getting beaten pretty thoroughly. It happens.

Ok, but the point wasn’t that Mitts is bad. The point was that he is on the line that plays the 4th most mins and is the 4th most important. That’s just the truth.

Having a hitch in your giddy up is actually a bad thing, usually a limp of some sort. Okposo seems to have some extra giddy up. His giddy up has been great, hitch-less even.

I don’t think Miller is any more of a defensive liability than Ristolainen, and Jokiharju is not a rookie.

Great job by Mitts in the OT and shootout.

This is great! I have a similar story. I have a friend who is a Flyers fan. When we were in middle school (10ish yrs old), I was over at his house one day and they had the Flyers game on......against Buffalo. I saw Hasek make several acrobatic saves, including the cartwheel stuff he used to do. I’d never seen anything like it. I’ve been a Sabres fan ever since. Best goalie ever as far as I’m concerned.

I’m not sure that an agitated Ovie is what you want to play against. Can we get that controller disconnected Ovie instead please?

I think it’s interesting that they are sticking with only one extra for the moment. With this mini home stand and Rochester so close, I can see how it’s feasible. Does this save some cap dollars? I think it does.

I think he has looked slightly better than usual. Not so many poor decisions with the puck. Part of the reason that he gets so many mins is because he is capable on both the PP and PK. That’s probably not going to change much.

I mean, he was still an asset to the team, and he was still good on the power play, but I thought that he didn’t have a good game relative to himself. For example, even when Dahlin has a bad game, he is still better than Scandella having a good game, lol.

This was a pretty evenly contested game and Buffalo was able to come out on top. It wasn’t a drubbing like any of the first 3. EDIT: wow. Didn’t realize the the shots favored Buffalo so much. Still fell like scoring chances were pretty close.