Doohicksie

I just checked: The next Sabres game on Hulu is against Carolina.

By the way, tonight's game (11/2) against the Penguins is one of those games you need TNT to watch.

On your butt, right above the tattoo

I think Joki is actually close. And it depends on the injury and how it fits with the helmet but I'm pretty sure he'll be wearing a full mask when he first gets back so I expect that he'll pretty quickly be back at 100% effectiveness.

Bold prediction: The genie is out of the bottle and the Pens can't get it back in. Sabres 9 - Pens 3. Hattie for Skinner; two each for Cozens and Mitts, Tuch and Dahls round out the scoring.

And the Sabres already have "pedestrian replacements" that they signed in the offseason for the AHL.

It only worked out for the Sabres because Granato moved Tage back to center. If he was still on the wing he would still suck. Also a happy coincidence (for Tage at least) that Mitts got injured as the season started which thrusted Tage to the top line.

So you'll be watching the game with @inkman's mother-in-law?

I think if you ask some of the other posters they'd say I'm irrational but not exuberant.

Krebs is one of this year's whipping boys but he's light years ahead of previous years' roster fillers. This is something we've hoped for and dreamed of for years.

That's never been Granato's philosophy. It's always been if you play the right way, the results will come. If you disagree with that you'll never be happy with Granato. I think the corollary from Donny's perspective is, if you play the right way you will eventually learn that winning comes first and losing is unacceptable, but telling someone that won't be as powerful as if they take that on themselves. In a way, "If you play the right way, the results will come" is a logical equivalent to McDemott's "Trust the process." There is an element of trust in the method of playing the right way. It's hard because we see the Bills over that hump but the Sabres are still looking up. I think it's critical to stay the course though rather than looking for quick but possibly temporary fixes.

I'm not sure I agree. They're not Dahlins but they're not trying to be. As long as the whole team (not just the D) keeps their gaps close they may be serviceable. I'll put a big ol' disclaimer on that and say I might be totally wrong, but we should know in a week or two. But I think those three in particular may take steps up with increased NHL minutes. And think of this as an investment in the future: If they do prove they can play at the NHL level it will increase our defensive depth and we'll be that much better off when Boosh, Joki and Muel return due to the NHL experience the AHLers got. We might find that they're not simply AHLers but actually valid NHL depth. They seem like NHL no-names but I think Claugue and Davies (not previously mentioned but 7D right now) may have been picked similar to how they selected Comrie: The analytics and scouting departments identified them as mature prospects who have had to work to get where they are and were blocked on their former teams but are ready to take a step up, and are players that bring good character traits to the room.

Okay, let me try a different response: at this point, the last decade of Sabres futility all blends together so sure, I probably got my timelines messed up. Your post was well supported, mine was not. I'm not really looking to pick a fight at this point.

*Disclaimer about the thread title: Inky's mother-in-law does not play favorites. She loves all her illegal streaming options equally. Messy Wigwam

You've obviously put more thought into this than I have. Congratulations. I'm done thinking about it.

Meh.

Okay? What's your point? They're one of the better teams in the league with one proven NHL D right now.

Oh come on. Not one person on this forum thought it was in bad taste when Cody Eakin "neck rolled" Eichel to his face. How is what she did worse than that?

I agree that we are almost at that point but I disagree that it is an either/or proposition. If they are in a solid playoff position come the trade deadline, they will likely "go for it" and try to augment the roster with a piece or two.

On paper what you say make sense. And the right coach could have helped the situation. But by the time Kevyn did his retooling the Sabres locker room was a hot mess of cliques and personalities. I think everyone from the fan base through the ownership felt that viewing Jack as the team's centerpiece and building around him was the way to go. That was exactly wrong. Let's just say for the sake of a thought experiment that Kevyn Adams was the GM in 2015 and Granato was the coach. Would the team dynamics have worked out differently, or was it still going to be a shitshow of cliques and personalities? I don't know the answer to that and I'm not sure anyone does. If they had Eichel, O'Reilly, Dahlin, Reinhart and Okposo, but they still had brought in Evander Kane and Zach Bogosian, would the toxicity in the room still have formed? I think so. BUT if KA and DG were the GM & coach maybe they wouldn't have brought in those two, maybe they would have focused on character from the start, maybe they wouldn't have treated Jack like some sort of god. I dunno. Too many variables.

There won't be That Day. It will be a gradual transition from Development to Win Now with lots of overlap.

They'll be on the second night of a back-to-back in a game they should have won. The Sabres need to run them out of the building with speed. It's a TV schedule thing: The game is on TNT.

In our division, certainly, and even in the conference. I saw a stat when the Sabres were finishing their road trip that the East was 26-5-4 or something like that versus the West. The East has 11.25 standings points per team on average. The West has 9.31 points per team (I didn't go so far as to look at games played, assuming they're more or lease even).

I've got no issue with you. To me, those stats you posted contradict the narrative that Reino is a slow starter. Behind his average pace? Okay, sure. But slow starter? Eh, not really, at least not the way I see it. I really thought you were citing those numbers to present evidence that Reinhart does not start slow. Sorry if I misinterpreted.

They're not mutually exclusive. They're 6-3 right now and are showing top tier analytics. Granato has always said he doesn't worry about winning: He just wants the team to play the right way and the wins will naturally follow. I think we're seeing that this season. Player development is part of that: Develop them right and they will bring the winning up even more. Let's see where they stand in a week or two; if they're still in the top-10 league-wide/top-4 in the division, it may be a case of having our cake and eating it too. And I think that's the way it will work: He will still be developing the team even as they're challenging in the playoffs.