Doohickie

"...but not out!" The DFW Bills Backers usually do a group buy of tickets for the Sabres game in Dallas which means I see lots of WNYers I know and meet new ones. We always dominate a section or two, several dozen people.

This is standard arena fair, methinks.

This used to be Eakin. Think about the upgrade Tyson is over Cody.

From a functional standpoint I see Jost and Mitts as sharing the role of center on that line. You see both of them lugging the mail up ice, backchecking like a center does, etc. But there's a natural chemistry between them in that they don't step on each others' toes or leave gaps. What it has done is the opposite of moving Tage to center: Where Tage is best away from the boards, I think Mitts actually excels along the boards. He's been getting steadily more physical and hard to knock off his pins. Knowing that he doesn't have the responsibility of being center seems to have freed him up to do what he's actually good at. Yes. This. Just give him 55 and be done with it.

Oh, we still have a rational reason to hope they suck? Excellent.

I won't lie.... Optimistic @nfreeman is a little unsettling to me.

I agree, but first things first. Get to a playoff position before hunting down division leaders. I hope their playoff push at the end isn't about making it in but in enhancing their position. ...ultimately made the Sabres a better team. It increased our defensive depth by forcing the Sabres to see what that had. This resulted in promoting Clague over Fitzgerald. It also challenged all the D to play a little better than expectations.

It should be. I'm not sure Clague is any better, especially paired with Boosh. For the most part they seemed like JAT last night. (Just A Team) St Louis Blues: The Matt Ellis of opponents.

Wow they went deep into the well for that one!

...and who are we kidding? The Sabres aren't great, not yet. They are.... good? THE BUFFALO SABRES WILL BE FINE.

I think Bryson is serviceable as a defenseman, but I think we'd be that much better if we had someone that could bump him down to 7D. Who in the system currently could replace him as an upgrade next year? If the answer is no one, I think he's going to have to go outside for help. According to the depth chart, the defense is pretty bare, with no waiver exempt Dmen, and no one under 25, in Rochester. All their contracts are up this summer (two of them UFA). And I don't see anyone from the unsigned prospects that will jump right into the NHL next year, unless Johnson decides not to go the free agent route and signs, has a really good camp, and displaces Bryson (the chance of all three of those happening is not great at all). The only other scenario I can see is that the defensive equivalent of a Jost pops up but I think that's far more unlikely to happen with a defenseman; the best you can hope for is another Clague. Kevyn is going to have to acquire a mature D prospect or two that are ready to potentially step up to the NHL next year, or stand pat (which would be a mistake).

VGK are only 4 points ahead of EDM, 6 points ahead of CGY and 7 points ahead of MIN, who have 1, 1, and 3 games in hand over VGK respectively. I would love to see them slip behind those three teams and miss the playoffs. Again. With Jack. 😄

We've already seen that with Hinestroza being waived rather than sending down JJ or Quinn. Also bear in mind that the forward corps has been remarkably healthy most of the season. I'm certainly not hoping for it, but an empty roster spot due to injury could also result in a promotion.

The nice thing is with Washington's loss yesterday, the Sabres don't need to cash in all their points in hand to pass them. It would be nice if they did but now they only need 4 of 6 to pass Washington.

But it doesn't preclude Donny from tinkering with lines or strategically shortening his bench.

Well the shoe's on the other foot now. @DarthEbriate mentioned watching an episode of Bojack, a reference to Bojack Horseman, a show on Netflix, if you can't be bothered to Google it.

You know what's nice? Almost forgetting who the 7D is. That's nice.

You're not gonna like the third period then.

I think some of our D problems have to do with having a top 4 D playing huge minutes who has fewer than 60 NHL games under his belt. Power's very good for someone with so little experience but he's still learning the NHL level. He's almost always in position, but doesn't always make the play. For instance he was standing right next to Barbashev but only waved his stick at him instead of boxing him out and Barbashev had plenty of room to spin around and score. Lay the body on him, young man. (In Power's defense you could also blame it on lack of communication as Barbashev was Joki's guy until just before the pass came in, or even say Joki should have boxed Barbashev out before he even got to the prime slot position.) But yeah, he still has some learning to do.

I think Bryson is our weakest defenseman. I still think he's more positive than negative, but out of the top six he's the one I would upgrade. Now that Boosh seems to be recovered from whatever was ailing him, Bryson and Boosh seem to complement each other and seem to be developing some chemistry. I thought Clague might be climbing over Bryson on the depth chart but apparently not.

He's not on the same level as Dahlin, or probably even Muel or Power for that matter, but he's an unsung hero. And over the last few games he's played better than Muel who seems to be in a funk at the moment (nagging injury?) Bryson, I think, isn't as bad as many here say. He has his flaws; I'll grant that. But he is pretty good at moving the puck up and out of the defensive zone. Getting weird bro It took me a while to even know what he meant by "smokeshow"; eventually got it from context. I agree: Getting weird.

If you look at standings points percentage, the Sabres are in the second WC playoff spot.

Ukko Pekka Luukkonen is the first Buffalo Sabres goalie with at least 10 wins and a 0.700 standings points percentage since... Ryan Miller did it in 2011-2012

No EN goal but the Avs win 😄

Awesome show.