Pimlach

Is Benson being bad again? Can’t wait to see the replay.

Malenstyn. You can only hope to contain him.

Break out the Single Malt

Nice finish JJP, Benson good work.

Nice. Let’s stay 5v5

Terrible power play. Totally useless.

How was The 1970 Club? I’m gonna have to check that out.

Ok. Let’s get another one.

This is ridiculous if they overturn it. Tage tried to not interfere.

Tage TNT

Good evening Teammates, especially those in The 1970 Club. Enough has been said. Let’s see them perform. MUSCLE WEIGHT

We need to get pucks on net early and often.

Mountain Whoppers

Dunno. Not sure that matters.

We have lost 3 straight (includes 2 home games). We "have to" win tonight. Yes, and we have to win the next game too. We cannot afford a long losing streak. We just fell behind Columbus and they have a game in hand. We need to stay ahead of the Isles, Pitt, Wings, and Sens - all are either tied or within 2 points of us. We cannot afford to fall behind, we don't have the guns and we don't have the experience. We will not get to 8th place in our conference without urgency right now and consistency every game. BTW, 16th overall is not the correct goal. Do you think they can get hot and win 10 in a row? or even 6 in a row? I don't. Teams that can hover at .500 don't lose 4 in row and they don't lose 3 in a row every other week.

Yes indeed. But to stay in the mushy middle we have to get 2 points tonight. They are home, they are rested, they have no excuses. Their best players need to start being their best players, like before Tage got hurt.

Yes, Tuch hurt his hand. Todays NHL - if you are going to punch a guy with his helmet and visor on you will hurt your hand. It WILL happen. Speaking of Gilbert. As soon as Gilbert is on the ice for a goal against, or he takes a penalty, he is targeted by fans and apparently the coaches. The Sabres seem to like guys like Bryson more than guys like Gilbert. If I were coach I would be the opposite. We already have guys like Bryson on our defense but with much more skill.

Agree. I would prefer that someone else jumped in first but we don't seem to have that kind of team. This all gets back to roster construction and having a team that averages 24-25 years old every year. There are players on the roster hurting our playoff chances and the majority of them are young and homegrown players. Too many with the same skill sets and no room for them to struggle while learning. There is no margin for error and the depth is being tested.

Clifton has fought Gudas before and he holds his own against him. Clifton took on Anders Lee last year and held his own, and that was a very big size mismatch. Clifton is smaller and yet he can handle most middle weights. We don't have a heavyweight guy, people say we don't need one. Greenway is big and strong but he does not really like to fight. Last year Tuch took on Brady Tkachuk and he survived it.

The context is a bit different. I consider this a late hit, after the whistle, and not a clean body check. The play ended, Quinn's momentum caried him to the goalie crease after the Minnesota goalie made the save. Foligno came in a little bit late and knocked Quinn down hard after the whistle. Quinn fell like a ton of bricks. No Sabre player did a thing. Quinn slowly got up and skated away while Foligno looked menacing, waiting for someone, anyone, to respond. No one did. A ref stood right there and called nothing. I have seen Benson get called for less offensive hits at the whistle. To me someone on the Sabres could have responded while Quinn was down, but they did nothing. Just a push back and a sign of life would have been something.

This is precisely what needs to be done. They also have to overcome the no trade clause issues to make fair trades because some of the vets we need to add are likely to have them. I posted a quote from the Athletic about this, the NMC issue is real and Buffalo is an NHL destination that is undesirable right now. McDermott fixed that problem for the Bills, can the Sabres change? What is sad is they made Cozens and Samuelsson alternate Captains. Why they needed 4 guys with A's is hard to understand. Cozens especially does not need to carry any more weight, he needs to play freely.

I would not call him a coward for not wanting to fight Marcus Foligno. He has no chance in that fight, Foligno is a monster. All he is going to do is get injured for no reason. Why no one else came in to answer, that is another story all together. Quinn needs to get physically stronger, he doesn't stay on his feet in scrums, and it does not look like he added any strength in the off season. He just turned 23, he should be packing on some more weight and at 6'1" and 185 he has the framework to add muscle. Physically, he very similar to Sam Reinhart. Same height, and Quinn can add 10 to 12 pounds just like Reinhart did. People said the same things about Reinhart and look at him today at 29 years old and in his prime. I am not saying Quinn can be as good as Reinhart, I am saying we threw these kids out there at 20 (Cozens, Quinn, Peterka) and they are still growing and learning at 22-23. They will all get stronger and better. They will be better players at 25, probably for another team with the way things are going for this franchise. You can develop one or two good young players on a veteran team, but the Adams plan of no blockers called for a large group of kids to all come together at once, assumes no set backs in their game (straight line improvement), and with very little veteran help. I cant think of a team that successfully did this without having to retool the group at some point.

I agree that the roster make up is not on Pegula. It just isn't. But as far as hiring a Beane type of GM - TP did not ever put restrictions on Beane's internal staff or his cap management. From day one Adams had to sharply reduce scouting and front office hockey staff, eventually he was allowed to slowly re-structure it (bringing in analytics emphasis) and bring in some help. Worse, Pegula imposed an internal cap. They operated at the cap floor for two seasons, and they are still below cap in this second "playoffs or bust" season. Given the constraints on Adams, what Brandon Beane Quality GM was going to sign up for that?

Because this entire conversation started with the question "why is Pegula so successful in football and so unsuccessful with hockey".

Could be but he didn't show any obvious injury affects last season, he came back and played pretty good hockey. It looked to me at the start of the season that Quinn was playing reluctant hockey, maybe thinking too much, not shooting when he had opportunities, and now he is probably pressing and frustrated. He is not fulfilling the role of a scoring top 6 winger. Unfortunately, unlike Benson, he is not a scrappy and physical two-way 3rd line player at this point either. If he could get himself stronger, play in the 195 lb range, he could be a really good 3rd liner with scoring ability to help the second line as well. Physically he looks the same as last year to me, no stronger and no faster. Mentally he is much worse - less hockey sense and less confidence. He hit a wall that he could very well snap out of, the problem is what to do with him until he does? He has to play to get better and he won't clear waivers to go back to Rochester. We could trade him and watch him grow and flourish on another team which would be a very Sabre-like thing to have happen. We could be seeing that Adams' decision to keep all these high draft picks, not bring in solid vet "blockers", and then quickly sending a bunch of promising 20 year olds up the NHL so quickly was maybe not a good move? Right now there are several young Sabres that are struggling and holding the team back, but they cannot play down in the AHL. We just have to coach them up and get them to the next level while still trying to win games. The Sabres are still developing players in the wrong league, BUT maybe by mid-season Quinn and few others will come back to life?