Broken Ankles

The overlap is small. The Sabres average share for viewership on MSG is around 4 or 4% of the local market. Conversely the Bills/KC game (maybe an anomaly) had an 82 point rating. The Bills viewership dwarfs the Sabres. I have a feeling the average Bills fan that knows little of Terry’s meddling with the Sabres probably have a somewhat neutral view about the Pegulas as owners. Where as we have disdain they have ambivalence.

Lots of this face….dismissing media questions about roster construction. GO AWAY Kevyn!

The Sabres already have $36.5m tied up on the blue line. There was no space to get a Brad Peche type defender and overpay. Adams deserves all the criticism for doubling/tripling/quadrupling down on the puck moving defenseman. No disagreement that Owen should be paired with a respectable vet but decisions were made to trade for a similar piece to Dahlin and him. Knowing that none of the three were going to receive third line minutes this meant that some combination of Dahlin, Power and Byrum would be playing together often….and it’s translating to horrible play in our own zone. Especially when you add in other possible pairings like Bryson and Joki. He should have moved one of Dahlin, Power or Bryum for a top 3/6 forward, moved Joki to the third line and traded/signed two competent defenders (Weegar or Peche types) to play with the two you did keep with cap space you opened by moving one of the top three. If Adams is dead man walking (and I hope to God he is), I hope he is replaced sooner than later, b/c Dahlin NTC kicks in July 1st, and if there will be a massive shakeup to the roster, move as much money off the blue line and replace with able-bodied big men (not boys).

Dude - Not even close. And I love Jim. Our era. Apples and oranges in terms of overall skillset. He will break all Jims records. Edit - And fun factor which was the orignal comment. YES

Where is the speed JJ?

Clifton - proving your point.

Gorgiaev has his B game tonight.

I will never understand the rule. Looked like he his is skate.

I think it’s the effort and how he grinds for puck possession. Plays the right way. I agree with your assessment that he seems to be immune from criticism and I have never understood the notion of having him play top 6 minutes. I thought he would be a solid complement to Greenway on the third. But injuries and circumstances (Quinn’s play) have elevated his TOI. He has fewer points than Krebs, which is one of the many reasons why this team has averaged less than 2 goals/game their last 7. You can’t run out a second line of Benson/Cozens/ Krebs - scoring .28 PPG an expect to win games.

Let it roll, baby, roll Let it roll, baby, roll Let it roll, baby, roll Let it roll, all night long

I can just see Ruff right now in the locker room. Doing his best Ara Parseghian. “Cozens, if you had a tenth the heart of Benson, you’d be an All-Star by now. As it is, you just went from the 2nd line to the fourth line”.

Live look at the NYI PK.

Joki stat line. 1,000 shot attempts… 1 shot on goal.

Mary Jo Buttafuoco

The Cozens perspective is welcomed and informative. Appreciate the context.

Tons of giveaways in their own zone. Clean it up boys.

Malfunctioning Wishbone

Let’s hope the Sabres have more focus than we do at puck drop. For those of us who don’t do social media, how about some line updates from the usual suspects?

Quinn’s wrister was Cozens-like. Right on, dead center.

But he started them on the opening faceoff in period one and two, then followed up on Kaprizov’s second shift. You have changes on the fly which make it hard to always match lines. My point is there were three face offs where you have a choice and it’s Cozens line?

Ruff with a conscious decision to match them up against Kaprizov and FL#1. Head scratching for sure.

Agreed. Maybe Ruff abandons this decision early. The 4th line role has dimished greatly over the last 6 games averaging under 10 minutes 5v5 per game. I dont want the line #2 to see more minutes than McCloud. Unless this is a defensive match up. McCloud Waning? Minneapolis Withering.

The Beck/NAK/Lafferty minutes are real low. That is driving those two stats you referenced. They are obviously a defense first unit, so low offensive starts are limited. But when you look at % of starts in the defensive zone they are not the highest. Which means Ruff has consistently put third line players (like Krebs, McCloud, Greenway) out there more frequently than the fourth line (I assume late I games) to take faceoffs. Similarly, Tuch dwarfs Beck in TOI for both 5v5 and PK, so the stat of blocked shots per 60 minutes makes perfect sense. What I find interesting is that if you look at Malenstyns 2023 vs 2024 TOI he is playing less than he did last year in Washington. And while the ratios for scoring/60 are about even, his giveaways and takeaways are both going in the wrong direction. In terms of forwards, Tuch, McCloud, Greenway have more Pk time per game. Maybe a surprise to no one. Maybe it’s too early to root cause but why does Ruff utilize the fourth line less than expected? Specifically Malanstyn, who to your point is blocking shot at a high rate when on the ice? And winning faceoffs at a high rate. I was able to watch him in Anaheim and he had one significant hit in the first period. After that the game became more physical and I would have expected more from Beck and got less. And he had the lowest 5v5 time in that game at 10 minutes. Not saying the experiment is a failure but lots of hype around the fourth line this summer not living up to expectations early in the season.