Dreams Burn Down

The Penguins look old and slow in their own end thus far.

Tuch! Great release on that shot.

The Penguins, though not nearly what they once were, are still more than capable of giving the Sabres a reality check. We will not be able to roam so freely down low or in the blue paint as we were allowed to by the Habs. I'd like to see more of the new defensive pairings, though, and continued improvement on the PP. Those two PP goals the other night gave me a nice jolt in an otherwise moribund season.

Benson and Quinn are unafraid in front of the net. It's refreshing to see.

SHG. Dahlin with yet another giveaway in our own end. There have been a few of those from him tonight.

Skinner! Two for two on the PP?!

Great nose for the net by Mitts there.

I hope EJ's okay.

We're very charitable with the puck, again. Thankfully, Levi is on his game. We're going to need it.

That's two nice hits from our team thus far.

The bolded hits home for me. The minimum expectation used to be to make the playoffs. I remember being relieved with the May Day goal because we finally got out of the first round, which the media and fans were down on the organization for not achieving for years; and rightly so. It shows me how far my own expectations have fallen since. Honestly, I don't think playoffs anymore. I simply want the Sabres to be a fully functional hockey club in every sense of the word. KA and DG deserve their full share of blame for the dysfunction now, but TP is the common denominator here. Unless he lucks out and finds a GM and coach combo that he is willing to grant certain autonomy, we're going to be spinning our wheels here for the foreseeable future.

[Uwe Kruup has entered the chat]

Even with the no goal, our defensive positioning was still wretched.

Wow! What was Cozens thinking about there?

Is this like the movie Hoosiers where you have to pass so many times prior to shooting?

We were outplayed by the 32nd rated PK.

That was another ugly defensive breakdown.

Tage! Hopefully that'll put a spark in us coming out for the 2nd period.

Cozens will feel that in the morning.

Let's get it back, boys. Who am I kidding?

I hope that we match the Sens physicality tonight. Happy New Year, Sabrespacers!

Not a pretty one, but I'll take the W. Onto Miami with the AFC East title on the line.

Our defense is hungry today. All 20 points thus far are off of four takeaways.