msw2112

Until very recently, the ENTIRE TEAM was playing that way. I've noticed a much greater willingness to shoot the puck at the net in the last couple of weeks, rather than waiting for the perfect pass or the perfect shot. Taking these shots, as well as crashing the net for rebounds, will result in more scoring opportunities. Most of the time, the goalie makes the save, but some sneak through for goals and some create rebounds and second chances. It's simple, basic hockey, and I think that the Sabres forwards are so fast and skilled that they've had a hard time making the good play in favor of the (potentially) great play. It's taken nearly the entire season, but it looks like Granato has gotten finally gotten through to them. Also, at this time of the year, opponents that are playing for playoff spots/seeding often tighten up the defense, and the fancy tic-tac-toe and cross-ice passing plays are not available, so getting pucks to the net is even more important. Don't get me wrong, those fancy goals are fun and awesome to see, but I'd rather see them do what is necessary to win games. Arguably, this could tie in a bit to their lack of success at home. Perhaps at home, they are thinking about putting on a show for the fans by trying to score highlight-reel goals, whereas on the road, they're more willing to take the simple, straightforward play.

I have no idea what's going on, what Johnson is thinking, etc., but the fact that he has not signed yet indicates to me that he's not likely to sign. It's a pretty straightforward transaction governed by a defined set of rules, so if no decision has been made by now, that would suggest that Johnson has doubts about signing. Either that, or Johnson and his agents don't understand the defined set of rules, so the Sabres were educating them so that they can make an informed decision. I'm on record as being in favor of the team signing him, but wouldn't lose sleep if he didn't and the Sabres received a compensatory draft pick.

This clip brings back great memories! A good friend of mine at the time (who is still a good friend today) had an extra ticket to this game and I was the lucky recipient. We sat in the first row of the blues on the corner behind this net. We saw the whole thing very clearly.

The Sabres have plenty of draft picks, and NHL draft pick hit rate is not very high, particularly after the first round. The Sabres also have an abundance of forward prospects and a shortage of defensive prospects. Johnson will never be mistaken for Owen Power or Rasmus Dahlin, but he's a good college defenseman who has a chance to be 3rd pairing NHL defenseman (at best) or a good AHL player who could provide organizational depth (at worst). He may or may not turn out to be better than Bryson, but the only way to find out is to sign him and let him play. I think the Sabres will try to sign him, but if he is not interested, it's not the end of the world and they can move on with the draft pick. Unless Adams is lying, he said that the team was interested in signing Johnson and the ball is in Johnson's court. I don't see any reason not to believe Adams in this situation.

I will be watching tonight, although on my DVR about 4-5 hours after the actual puck drop. I'm out of market and on Pacific time, so by the time I get home from work, get the kids settled and family obligations completed, it's around 9 PM Pacific (midnight back in Buffalo). I'll have to make sure to NOT look at texts and other media all evening - a challenge, but one I face routinely. Although this may make me sound antiquated, I have the NHL Center Ice package through Directv. They made me a very attractive pricing offer that I couldn't refuse. I get all NHL games through this package, except those that are: On TNT (which I get anyway) On NHLN (which I get anyway) Are exclusively on ESPN+/Hulu (about 8 of them for the Sabres during the course of the season and which I DO NOT get) Next year, I will likely be moving on from Directv due to their loss of the NFL ticket, so it will be ESPN+ for me. My kids will be happy, as I'll probably spring for the Disney+/Hulu/ESPN+ bundle. For now, Center Ice still works well for me, as I got a great price and I like the ability to save the games on my DVR and not have to mess around with streaming, particularly when I'm trying to avoid spoilers that tell me the score. Go Sabres!

I'm a big supporter of the players wearing the pride jerseys, but I also have an appreciation for Russian players who choose not to. Might not sound like a big deal to us, but if they have family living back home in Russia, any type of "dissent" from the party line could put their families at risk.

Is Levi really 6'? I know that in other sports (basketball and football in particular), players' reported heights and weights are often inaccurate and intentionally so. I don't know if that's a thing in hockey. Levi definitely looks small in the net and looks smaller than 6', but it certainly does not appear to deter him from being an effective goalie. He appears to read the play very well and to be extremely quick. That said, I've only seen him play once. Obviously, his height and stature have not deterred the Sabres from moving forward with him, presumably ahead of 6'6" Erik Portillo. The Sabres would have welcomed Portillo into the organization if he had been willing to sign, but I believe that Portillo knew that the Sabres preferred Levi and that's why he shied away from signing with the organization, leading to the Sabres (wisely) trading his rights to LA for a 3rd round pick. And back to the original question, I'm comfortable with the coach's decision, but I'd play Levi against Florida if he's looking sharp in practice. He looked the part against the Rangers, particularly in the 3rd period and OT when the game was on the line. UPL may develop into a solid NHL goalie, but he's highly inconsistent and Comrie is unreliable at best, playing well in stretches, but not trustworthy in a low-scoring game. Anderson appears to be injured, so out of the mix.

In watching the game, I was not in favor of the choices that Granato made. I wanted Quinn first. I didn't want to see Peterka. Despite banking in a nice goal off the back of the goalie earlier in the game, he has not shown as a finisher in games. I wanted to see Dahlin too. That said, I do have to believe and trust that Granato knows more than I (and we on this board) do about which guys to go with. Frankly, other than Quinn, who scored when he lost control of the puck, none of the guys could score. And the same goes for their last shootout too.

Rousek played well last night. I definitely see him as a future bottom 6 winger for the Sabres and a fan favorite. A nice mix of skill and determination. Obviously, given that it was his first NHL opportunity, he played hard, but the book seems to be the he always plays that way. He certainly did not look out of place last night.

I have not seen this guy play, but, based on this thread, took a peek at his stats and they look good. 6'3", 205 lbs, 35 points and +10 in 39 games at the Divison 1 level. Looks like pretty good numbers for a defenseman. His stats have also improved from one season to the next in each of his 3 seasons in college at Minnesota State.

While I think that some of the attempts at "inclusivity" go a little bit too far to the point of silliness, I think that this initiative is a good one. If sports stars, who many look up to (young and old) are supportive of inclusion, it might sway some of the fans who may be on the fence about it. Plus, it's good economically for the sport. If 10% of the population is gay, wouldn't you want to connect with that portion of the population so that they are buying tickets, jerseys, watching on TV (and thus viewing advertisers ads), etc.? You'd think that professional athletes would be comfortable enough in their own skin to be able to wear a colored jersey for a few minutes that might be meaningful to others (and beneficial to the league), even if it doesn't align with their own preferences. I'm not sure I buy the religious excuse. I'd guess if you asked the current Pope or whether he would support wearing the jerseys, he'd say yes. I would also say that if one or two guys don't want to wear the jerseys, let them take a pass, but the other guys who either support the cause, or are neutral about it, should wear them. There may be upside to doing so, and for those guys, there's not much downside.

I'd rather the Sabres win all of their remaining games and fall one point short of the playoffs than continue to circle the drain at a fast pace like they are doing now. It would show heart, desire, an ability to get off the canvas, and set the right tone for the future. That said, if Bedard is a Connor McDavid type, I'm in. If he's Jack Eichel or even Alex LaFreniere, no thanks. I don't follow hockey prospects that closely, so I honestly don't know.

I grew up a big George Carlin fan and still am, despite his passing. I only saw him live once, at Melody Fair, back in the late 80s/early 90s. I don't live in Buffalo anymore and have no idea if the place still exists. My current favorite is Sebastian Maniscalco. I saw his special "Aren't You Embarrassed" back in 2014 on HBO or Showtime and have been a huge fan since. I saw him at a comedy festival in Arizona a few years ago. If you have not seen his stuff, I highly recommend it. A link to "Aren't You Embarrassed" is below. https://www.amazon.com/Sebastian-Maniscalco-Arent-You-Embarrassed/dp/B07Y8S58HF I don't see the play of the Sabres in the 2 weeks to be comedic. I see it more along the lines of sorry and disappointing, but not funny.

I'm not a "jersey guy" but this doesn't sound like a good move for the league. The people who do buy a lot of jerseys and sports merchandise are not high on the move. I suppose Fanatics has enough cash that they can hire the right design and development people and use the right fabrics to make this work and it may end up being a non-issue in time. They're saying 2024, so they also have some time to figure it out.

I listened to a few minutes of this. He seems like a well-spoken kid with a good head on his shoulders. If his talent can equal his ability to communicate, the Sabres may have a good one on their hands.

I like the concept, but I think they need to at least see him practice a couple of times to make sure he's ready. Even though it's a bit of a longshot, if the Sabres get hot and string together 2 or 3 straight wins (which they've done several times this season), they're right back in the thick of the wild card race. It would be a pretty big gamble to insert a rookie goalie who hasn't faced an NHL shot in a very important game.

Adams: "You're a good guy, but it's not working out here. We're willing to trade you back to Winnipeg for a 7th round draft pick, a bag of pucks, or future considerations, if they are willing to take on your contract next season. You did well there. If they won't take you, we'll look at other teams too. If that doesn't work out, Rochester is a nice city."

I agree that we need to temper our expectations. Levi is a talented young goalie and likely has the best future of any G in the system. He still might need some time to develop in the AHL, as did another top goalie coming from the NCAA, Ryan Miller, and others. Trading Portillo now looks like the right move for everyone involved. I'm still very excited that they have signed Levi and have him in the system. They still need a veteran to pair with UPL for next season, when Anderson is retired and they've presumably found a way to move on from Comrie. As I've stated elsewhere, Comrie is a good guy, hard worker, and a solid backup on a defensive-minded team, but he's not a good fit for the Sabres style of play.

For next year: 1. NHL Vet under the age of 40 not named Comrie - 1 (perhaps a high annual, shorter term deal) 2. UPL - 1A/2 3. Levi - Rochester It's too bad Comrie isn't working out, because he seems like a team player, good guy, and hard worker, but it's pretty clear he's not a reliable NHL goaltender. He may be fine as a backup on a team with great defense, but that's not the Sabres. Not sure what they do with the year remaining on his contract, but I guess they'll figure it out.

I believe that Adams and Granato have eyes. They can see that this team needs defense, goaltending, and more grit and toughness. The minor moves at the deadline to add Stillman and Greenway added some grit and toughness and a (very) little bit of defensive depth. They didn't do more to patch the holes because it wasn't worth it. They could have traded away young players or high draft picks to acquire veteran players, but even if they did, and the team squeezed into the playoffs, they were not going to beat Boston or Carolina in a 7 game series. They would be lucky to win a game in such a series. I expect that more moves will be made in the offseason to address the holes that the team has and that the team will be better overall next year. I also expect that Granato is going to focus more on defensive play next season. He's been transparent and said that he's taught offense first, because it's easier to teach, easier for guys to buy in to, and more entertaining. That is getting the team to roughly a .500 team, an improvement from where they've been. It's built some momentum. Now the defensive concepts can be worked it. The opposite approach was that of Ralph Kreuger, who pushed a rigid, conservative, defensive-minded system first. It took all of the fun out of the game, the players lost confidence in themselves and in the team, the guys tuned out, and the bottom dropped out. Will the Adams/Granato plan work? I don't know, but based on the progress I've seen over the course of the last couple of seasons, I'm in for the ride. None of this makes last night's game any more tolerable, but I think they ran out of gas after putting a great effort forth against Edmonton and losing, then a strong start against the Isles and losing. They were physically and mentally drained, and what they had left in the tank was not close to enough against a strong team like Dallas. I think their "spirit" was broken by those two losses and Dallas took full advantage of a fragile team. I don't expect they'll be able to recover from this to make the playoffs, but I'd like to at least seem them get back on track and be competitive in their last stretch of games.

I'm looking forward to having Levi be part of the Sabres organization and think that he could be the future starting goalie. But let's not create too many expectations on the kid right away. He has not played a signed minute of professional hockey. While over the decades, there have been occasional goalies who have come in at a young age and been stars right away (Ken Dryden and Tom Barasso have been mentioned above), it's not realistic to expect that of Levi or any college goalie coming into the NHL. Could it happen, sure...But it's more likely that Levi will need a year or more in the AHL before he is ready to succeed at the NHL level. Hopefully, the Sabres can bring him in, see what they have, and gain enough information to help guide their goaltending decisions over the summer. Assuming Anderson retires, are they comfortable going into next season with Comrie and UPL as the tandem, with Levi in the AHL? Is Levi a realistic candidate to make the team next season? Do they have to shop for a veteran goalie over the summer? These are the questions that need to be answered. If they are not, the organization is going to be in a real bind.

He is definitely playing well. He's stronger along the boards and a more confident player overall. He's reasonably physical in the offensive zone and has shown an ability to battle and come out wtih the puck, along with some good offensive skill - more passing that shooting. He's developed into a solid middle-6 forward and a positive contributor at the NHL level. I see him as a "victim" of his draft position. If he had been drafted in the 2nd round or later, everyone would be happy with where he is in his career now. Given that he was a top-10 1st round pick, expecations were/are much higher. At some point, folks have to let draft position go, and decide whether the guy can help the team. I think he can. And he's not going to get paid superstar/top-10 money, so if he can play a good middle-6 role and get paid as such, there shouldn't be an issue. That said, given the influx of young forwards in the coming years, I agree that he might get squeezed out. While he isn't going to get $7M, he's going to make more than a guy on a rookie contract and they can't keep everybody.

Fair enough. My sarcasm meter was on low! I might feel differently had I seen last night's game.

As I said, I didn't see last night's game, but didn't both of those guys score a goal last night? Plus, even if they missed chances last night, they have consistently capitalized on chances. I can't remember the last time Peterka did. Olofsson is clearly streaky and is not on the good side of a streak now, but I do think that he has value on the right side on the PP, even if he is not scoring, he's a threat that draws traffic and opens things up for others.

I've noticed this too. He doesn't look like a teenager anymore.