IKnowPhysics

Ugh, good tip. And JJ was too deep for the point shot.

Ugh, Jack lets his man go uncovered in the crease. He needed to tie up all the way through the play there.

I like KO as a human being. It'd be great to see him get right again.

I'll take "holding on" over "first period drubbing" any day.

Buffalo Sabres Plumbing Supply "Pipe Experts est 2021"

JJ is seriously huge. Congrats to him on his first NHL start. I find myself rooting for him like he were Giant Goalie Son.

lol Rick "Well, some parts of me are shrinking."

Well, at least this way, we'll have more questions at the end than when we started. Happy that Jack's penciled in, Risto's back, and Skinner is playing. Don't like seeing Cozens and Miller out though.

In my mind, this is one of the biggest mysteries about this team. I simply can't wrap my head around why this is happening and what the players or the coaches can do differently. And it's killing them. It crushes their goal stats, it prevents them from gaining leads, it prevents them from coming back in games. And with big goalie questions, they need to be piling on the goals, but loads and loads of these high danger shots just vanish into thin air. It's maddening to us, and I'm sure it's 100x more maddening to the players.

One weird bit from this game: Shot possession stats-wise, xGF/xGA/xGF%, and high-danger corsi-wise, Rieder-Eakin-Okposo was the Sabres' best line, with Okposo leading the way in those stats. Maybe Kyle and this line can turn a corner...?

I don't know that we'll ever get that chance. Hall is here because of Ralph. If Ralph is fired before Hall is re-signed, I'm near 100% that Hall walks. I, personally, would rather Hall not walk. I'd like to see him play some ridiculous minutes with Eichel. But something has to change.

I'll *****in do it again.jpg

Who else wants to hop in the toaster tub before the fuse blows?

Edit: If he's right, we're *****. There's no way out. And it's only a steeper uphill climb with Ullmark out.

RK postgame: Blames the busy schedule for preventing the players from matching Flyers energy (Sabres had played eight games, Flyers had played four in the same time period). Says this, along with lack of practices, has caused a lack of sharpness and confidence. Points out that defensive zone puck management was bad. It seemed to be a tendency today to over-complicate and over-pass on offense too. "There's no easy magic here. It's grind, it's character, it's grit and bite that we need to find."

Yep. Ullmark's out a month. We're ***** dead in the water.

Jesus, I'm sorry, chz.

He's answered this before by not answering. He's said more than once that the decision is more about the group of 12 skaters that's on the ice and how they accomplish what the coaches are looking for and not about what individuals aren't doing. In short, they see it as more of what they like the group that doesn't include Jeff more than what they don't like about Jeff. What does he mean by this? Who knows, maybe it could be something like, "we like our bottom six and how they've improved the PK, and we know adding Jeff doesn't make our PK better" or some *****.

2020-21 goalie stats so far, btw: Ullmark - NHL - 5-4-2 - 2.44GAA - 0.919 SV% Hutton - NHL - 1-4-1 - 3.24GAA - 0.889 SV% Johansson - NHL - 0-0-0 - 3.15GAA - 0.889 SV% (stepped in for 19 minutes against the Flyers when Hutton got elbowed in the head; allowed 1G on 9S) Tokarski - AHL - 1-1-0 - 2.51GAA - 0.932 SV% UPL - Liiga - 6-3-4 - 2.52GAA - 0.908 SV% UPL - AHL - 3-0-0 - 2.90GAA - 0.916 SV% Portillo - NCAA - 3-1-0 - 1.80GAA - 0.933 (3rd round pick in 2019. As a freshman, Portillo has taken about 1/3 of Michigan's starts from undrafted goalie (and captain(!)) Strauss Mann, who's posting 1.94GAA 0.929SV% in his junior year) For funsies, here are highlights from Portillo's USHL Goalie-of-the-Year campaign last year:

For the record, I didn't forget he walked on Kahun and Larsson. Time will tell. Larsson is playing heavily defensive minutes in ARI (OZstart% 23!) but is struggling corsi-wise. Kahun is playing with Draisaitl and has 4G, 4A in 22GP, with corsi so-so.

Pros: He landed Hall. Highest profile UFA signing in Buffalo since at least the salary cap era started, likely longer, I'm not looking it up. He landed Staal, and while not the player he was and probably frustrating to watch, he is still a functioning upgrade at middle-six center. He held a steady hand on Ristolainen, the Sabres' best defenseman, who's showing signs of improvement under Krueger. Cons: He made the wrong call on Hutton, likely because he was told Hutton's faliures would be fixed with his vision recovery. He was likely thinking that Ullmark and Hutton could hold the fort until UPL was ready, but this won't be enough. Many predicted this outcome. He brought in Matt Irwin. Everyone saw how bad he was going to be. Time will tell / work in progress: He drafted Quinn over Rossi and Perfetti, which most people thought was a minor reach, especially Rossi lovers (myself included). We'll see. Quinn is still an outstanding prospect. I'm open minded about it. He made the call to keep Ullmark, who is showing signs that he may be evolving to the next level: NHL competence. He reworked a very ***** bottom six into something that might evolve into something less *****...? He's found some value roleplayer UFAs, but has also found some *****. More to do here next trade deadline and UFA cycle. He's chosen to keep Ralph Krueger, likely the most polarizing figure in Buffalo sports right now. Krueger is either a buffoon or he's going to make us all look like buffoons. He could theoretically manage to re-sign Hall while managing other core re-signings. I like Hall so far, so this'd be a win to me. Seattle expansion. It's a pretty big test for a new GM to masterfully handle their assets so as not to get ***** in a VGK-style expansion. If all of the latter is a push, then it's basically Hall/Staal vs Hutton/Irwin with a sprinkling of an improving Ullmark. Hutton and Irwin are back up and supposedly third-pair plugs. Hall is a Hart Trophy elite 1LW still in his prime and Staal's a 2.5C we didn't have. It washes out significantly better than average at the moment and only gets better as Hall signs, goalies get fixed, bottom six improves, and Quinn shows up. Kevyn Adams has put the Buffalo Sabres in position for marked improvement despite its current frustrations. B+.

Good data point, if true. GM knows not to dictate to the Head Coach what to do on the lineup, regardless of agent phone calls.

I give him credit. He's in a tough spot, maybe the toughest spot he's been in during his career. His veteran professionalism helps him out here. Also, good question, @john wawrow. It's a nuanced interviewing ability to ask a useful question that gets the answerer out of their comfort zone without stepping over the line into assholishness. Everyone knows that Skinner wants to play, so he naturally wouldn't see eye-to-eye with the coach that benches him, but his response is interesting nonetheless.