Doohickie

If they win I don't care if Lindy dresses Sabretooth.

For years people complained that the Sabres had no toughness. Now they bring in a guy just for that and people complain. So Sabresy.

I agree; we'll have to wait and see. And yet, if they finally a standard to follow that produces wins, and a rallying cry "This is how we play", it could become a self-fulfilling prophecy. I think for it to work, you need the elder statesmen of the team giving full support to the upstarts and recognizing their contributions. They have to support the Crest, not individual factions in the room like they did int he Eichel era.

And yet the drop pass persists.

"This is how we play every night from now on."

mjd is correct. You can't backload contracts to gain cap space up front in the NHL.

Well they're not trading Power...

The standard Kevyn deal: $7M per year.

It took the Sabres a few games but they seem to be gelling too: "This is how we play every night from now on."

Barely memorable? It was a recurring theme last season.

Well Benson's practically underage himself... Still can't buy a drink.

They don't think so or he would have played by now.

I know the reaction to acquiring Lyon wasn't too strong/favorable, but when I heard we got him I was pretty excited. I'm not sure he's a long term answer but he certainly has shored up the position for now.

Paraphrasing his remarks at the end of the interview: "JJ who?"

I think the players that deserve letters, thinking of guys like Benson and Zucker, are just as effective as leaders without an extra jersey patch. I think some day it will naturally fall on Benson, but as has been said in the past about other recent captains/assistants, let him grow into it; don't thrust it on him.

I hope your assessment is right. I would love for them to be the veteran leaders of this young team. I'm just not seeing it so far this season. I heard the problem with Tuch's signing is length of contract. They want to lock him up for as long as possible and he wants a shorter term.

Look who the poster children are for that tweet. No surprise. Among the forward ranks this will soon be their team.

I'm just happy it was one of our guys.

Was this Power's best all around game as a Sabre? He seems to finally be using his body size as an advantage.

That was the general impression I got... so it's verified I guess. It's almost as if they were holding them back so they'd be fresh when killing penalties.

I think he's a bottom sixer who will be part of the team going forward. He may get bounced back to the AHL, but I think late last year he shifted from an AHLer to a tweener in my mind, and I think he is moving from tweener to NHLer as we speak.

Doan is better than I expected. He's doing pretty well for himself and that helps the team. Benson, though, is the heart of the team right now. I'm already looking ahead in my mind to the Sabres moving Tuch if he won't sign a long term deal, and maybe trading one or to of their other stars to shore up the build that's going on right now with Kulich, Benson, Doan, Krebs, Kozak, etc. Looking at the D, I think once Kesselring is back, the defense will be largely set going forward for the next little bit. But on the offense, watch for people like Tuch and Thompson to get moved. When I watch the team it almost feels like they're outsiders now.

They seem to be playing for each other more. And also they seem to be a LOT more in sync with their passing.

It was discussed during the intermission and the Sabres broadcast team it should have been an Unsportsmanlike 10 minute penalty. Kudos to Dahlin for putting it behind him quickly and the Sabres capitalizing on the penalty. It's likely that Marchand will be fined.

Anyone else notice that when the Sabres were in puck battles along the boards, other Sabres jumped into the fray to back them up instead of waiting around for something to happen?