Doohicksie

Isles lose to Ottawa in regulation.

It's an animated gif. I can see it fine.

One thing that happens fairly routinely now is that the Sabres will control the puck in the offensive zone continuously long enough that they will do a line change while they're still controlling the puck. So it's not just continuity within a unit but a hand-off from one unit to another. If done right it wears out the defense and can lead to a good scoring chance. Other teams used to do that to us all the time but we rarely did it to other teams before Granato.

Note that it doesn't say anything bout whether the hand is on the stick or not. Page 98 at https://cms.nhl.bamgrid.com/images/assets/binary/335473802/binary-file/file.pdf

I think moving the puck through contact with a glove is just plain not allowed. It's different than, say, hitting a player in the hand before going into the net or hitting a glove on the stick when making a pass.

I was looking at the depth chart and defense is really a "cupboard is bare" situation. If we don't sign Johnson we really don't have any prospects that are anywhere near NHL ready (even Johnson needs some seasoning). But thinking of Savoie, Kullich, Östlund, Rousek, Bloom, Nadeau, etc., there is literally no one like that who plays defense in the system.

It's very loud. When they play their goal song by Pantera (BOOM BOOM "DALLAS!" BOOM "STARS!" BOOM BOOM "DALLAS!" BOOM "STARS!" BOOM BOOM "DALLAS!" BOOM "STARS!" followed by heavy metal jamming) is enough to rattle your teeth. But even pre-game, intermission and commercial breaks have a lot of booming bass. When the Sabres were losing it was barely worth it. On the funny side, they do a thing where they video people in the crowd eating, then they play them backwards on the jumbotron so it looks like you're spitting out a hamburger and putting it back together kind of thing. Anyway, they did that with one of the Sabres fans and his wife in our section (the row in front of me) and we had some fun with that. She was totally embarrassed. 😄 I think he's always on the verge of going full snark and that's what's rolling around in his head when he's talking and has to filter it as he speaks to throttle it back to stuff that's fit for broadcast.

Watching the Power goal song video, you can see how much has changed even from the start of this season. Jost for Sheahan/Bjork/Vinnie, Clague for Fitz, UPL playing well after Comrie went down, etc.

Muel had been in a bit of funk the last three or four games. Hopefully he's pulling out of it. I suspect he's got some nagging injury that's not enough to keep him out but enough to hamper his play a bit. The all star break should be good for him if that's the case. I think he already does. Physical anyway, but not necessarily nasty. But when he's physical, resistance is futile.

Krebs was down on hands and knees and nudged the puck with the hand on his stick. That was the violation; you're not allowed to play the puck with your hand on a faceoff. He did it, sure, but he was only down on his hands and knees because he'd been cross checked.

"...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.