Doohickie

Oh please please please let Matt Ellis be the Matt Ellis of fired assistant coaches.

Simple: Donnypuck plays well against some teams, not so well against others. They are good at playing a pressure game against older/slower teams but if a team plays that kind of game against the Sabres, the Sabres wilt under the pressure themselves. A good coaching staff would find ways to match the team as constructed up against teams that play the uptempo game more aggressively than the Sabres. In general it seems that the Sabres historically play only the loose pucks that are at least 50-50 or better.... or even 60-40 in their favor, and don't want to expend the energy to contest pucks they don't think they can control. So when they play a team that aggressively fights for loose pucks, they sit back and let them have the puck, preferring to regroup and organize the defense. I think they need to be more aggressive on the puck in general. Benson is good at this with Quinn as a good complement. Peterka/Tuch seem to work well as a 1-2 forechecking duo. When they try. The problem is they don't try to disrupt the other teams consistently enough. You see it used against the Sabres all the time, and a guy like Dahlin who thinks he can take on a double team is especially susceptible if it's done right.... the first forechecker chases the defenseman behind the net, and right into the second forechecker who's coming down on the other side of the net. If the first guy can rush or disrupt the puck carrier, it can cause a turnover. This is precisely what happened on the Stamkos goal last night. They used Dahlin's tendency to make the cute play against him and hung him out to dry. I've seen the Sabres do the same, but not often enough.

He *did* play well last night. Not as well as Dan and Rayzor built him up with their commentary, but he played well. Oh the Vinzanity.

The problem is he's signed long term... and he has his injury history. Who's going to want to take that risk?

Yep. That was a 3-ply goal fer shur

Look out, here comes... Maybe I'm wrong?

Amazing backcheck by Quinn.

I bet Benson felt the push on his back and drew the penalty.

Nikita Kucherov: 99 assists in 80 games Zemgus Girgensons: 99 assists in TEN YEARS

Byram having his best game in a while. Playing actual defense.

Honestly it sounds like to me that Dan really doesn't expect Comrie to make *any* of these saves and is genuinely surprised when he does.

So Tage was hurt? What kind of injury was it?

I believe it's one set of feeds but each director gets to pick the views they show, and for shots like that they can probably request the shots they want.

That's the part of Dahlin's game I HATE. He's good but he's not as good as he thinks he is.

Yeah, missed the first period. I was picking up my Monday pizza and they had Rangers-Tigers on in the bar. Just watched the goal. Cozens has okay hockey IQ, but man is he ever gonna benefit from the hockey genius of Quinn and Benson if they keep that line together.

I've now lost 16 pounds. Yay! That yardio this weekend really worked.

Thank you for using paragraphs. What your analysis tells me is that Matt Ellis needs to be shot into the sun. Or at least replaced as special teams coach.

Sweet mercy from the NHL scheduler. I hope they play better for you than they did for me in Dallas.

Hell, even Bryson's been pretty solid the second half of the year.

I didn't like the Mitts trade. I thought I was wrong after Byram's first few games with the team, but now I'm pretty sure trading Mitts was a mistake.