Alaska John

Dahlin has turned out to be an excellent player, maybe not (yet) the superstar we envision. So far Power has no power. He needs to be reminded that playing physical hockey is required. Bowen Byram was also a very high draft pick and I think he might be more useful than Power this season -- although maybe Power will figure things out and use to his advantage the parts of his game that are exceptional.

Watching the NHL playoffs I saw that the winning teams usually were bigger, stronger, and tougher than the teams the Sabres put on the ice year after year. I think Adams finally realized that too. The shorter, quicker forwards the Sabres have been drafting are not the only solution. So I'm pleased to see the Sabres adding grit and size to go along with the scorers. As for the scorers, the hope is that the Sabres already have those guys on the roster and just need to scheme up an offensive system that frees them up. Tage Thompson, Alex Tuch, Jack Quinn, and Dylan Cozens all had down years last season. Was the problem with them, or with the Granato scheme? Blending in the young guys has to be done selectively so the Sabres don't revert to being pillows. I watched the Panthers style of play and how for three games it stifled the Oilers. That was team defense that led to sufficient offense. And then the Oilers coaches did their job and figured out how to attack it, setting up that great Game 7. I don't think the Sabres players or coaches were good enough to play the Panthers system, or to play the way the Oilers did to figure things out. Zippy skating will get you only so far (did you see how McDavid became invisible late in the series? Even the great players have to be part of a system that works).

You're absolutely right. The Sabres started that season on a roll and then collapsed after the Lucic assault. I think the Sabres all looked at each other and said, boy we suck if we can't stand up for our great goalie on a play like that. And it's been mediocrity and disappointment ever since.

2006 playoffs, losing to Carolina in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference playoffs when almost all (or all?) our defensemen were injured or sick, and we went into the third period up by a goal. Lost by one, and then the Hurricanes played the lousy Oilers for the Cup and won easily.

If you put together a roster of former Sabres still active in the league you certainly have a better team than what they've got now. I think ZG makes that castoffs roster a little better. He'll be a solid add to the Lightning who are desperately trying to win one more before their core ages out.

So happy for all four former Sabres, particularly Reinhart and Okposo.

You have to factor in taxes to calculate affordability properly. I've lived all over, ending up in Alaska up to two years ago. When we decided to leave Alaska, I thought about moving back to WNY where I grew up. The housing costs were very competitive but when you add in the property taxes and income taxes and sales taxes, suddenly it became unaffordable. It's too bad. I always wanted to live in East Aurora when I was growing up in West Seneca, but I couldn't make the numbers work.

Can someone please remind me what happened with Brandon Hagel? I have read the Sabres were unable to sign him at the time they needed to, and he went his separate way, bouncing around for a bit until really coming into his own the past couple of years. Did he just not show enough for the Sabres to make him a good offer, or was he just mis-handled by the Sabres talent evaluators? Thanks for the info.

OK, the Leafs suck, love watching them lose, yada yada yada. I feel the same way. But at least they make the playoffs. Until we do too, this is all a little embarrassing.

I keep thinking guys Benson's size can't hold up in the NHL. But I just realized Benson (5' 10") is taller than Marchand (5' 9")! I hate Marchand but I'd love him if he was on the Sabres. He's a pest like Kaleta but has much better skills. And other teams just hate playing against him, and they throw their defensive plans out the window to try to stop him. (I watched the Bruins-Leafs game last night, and Marchand was simply the best player on the ice, better than any of the Leafs. Geez I hate typing that...) Anyway if someone can convince Benson to find and channel his inner Marchand, that would be great.

Phil Housley would like a word. You know, the guy who was a great favorite and a HOF player in Buffalo, who got creamed by the fans, the media, and the current players when he was the head coach. It's always been a mystery to me why he was not better treated, considering what he'd meant to the team previously, or why the players didn't seem to care what he had to say.

Interesting that there's nary a word about this on the nhl.com website. That doesn't mean it's not happening just that the league doesn't know what to say about it. And be called the Missionaries. No telling how well they'll do, or what the Missionary position will be in the standings.

So after losing to Dallas they're 6 points out, riding a two game losing streak. They're not going to match last year's fingernail finish. My guess is they'll end up 8 points behind the final wild card team, a little worse than I guess when I started this thread.

Imagine if they'd beaten the god-awful Anaheim Ducks in both games, instead of losing both games.

There's a really good book (and a not quite so good movie) called The Art of Racing in the Rain, where a race car driver says you can't win the race in the first turn, but you can sure lose it in the first turn. The Sabres consistently manage to lose their race to the playoffs in the first turn, by having a lousy record out of the gate. For this there's no culprit as obvious as the coaching, which doesn't have the team ready to compete when the games start counting. Granato acts like training camp is just a tryout process, and that keeps on going for 10 or 20 games. When the Sabres finally get down to business, the race is over. There was an article in The Athletic in late 2023 about the Sabres going into one of their patented early-season swoons, where it said "It's happening. Again." And that was on the money, except it could have said "It's happened. Again." Really the question is whether the team is willing to watch in happen again this fall.

Last year the Sabres were one point behind the final playoff team. They're currently four points behind the Flyers. Assuming their usual fools-gold late season surge continues, how close do you think they'll be before failing once again? Yeah, I'm a bitter fan, but my guess is they'll slip a little from last year, and finish three points behind the final team.

Any team that can lose twice to Anaheim and give up 5 first period goals to Ottawa is not going to get me interested in watching. And they gave up the first two to New Jersey and scored none in the first period tonight. Just too slow out of the gate, both in games and in the season.

The difference is that Reinhart wants to be there. He didn't want to come to Buffalo and he never consistently put forth full effort.

The Sabres while still mathematically alive are clearly not going to make the playoffs. Facing facts, they should be tanking to get the best draft position possible. And based on the third period against Edmonton, it looks like the Sabres got that memo. It would be better not to bring any Rochester players up so they're not in the locker room while this is going on. Toxicity is contagious.

It isn't stressful to cheer for the Sabres. It's masochism. Tease me, tease me, never please me.

Losing twice to Anaheim will probably turn out to be the difference. Can't do that if you're on the edge of the playoffs.

Tuch is the guy ready to take leadership.

Groundhog Year. We see this year after year. The days get a little longer and the Sabres start playing well. Not well enough and not soon enough, but enough to see some tickets for the next year.

I didn't see the game. Was the officiating in the Florida game particularly egregious or just standardly egregious?