Doohicksie

Which is what I predicted in the earlier thread on the subject.

Some might argue that merely hanging on and your goalie bailing you out is not "protecting the lead." At least not in a sustainable sense. I think it gives Donny lots of video to help them improve, plus they got 4 points out of those two games.

Still too early. It's the hopium.

The difference is that when the Bills have a visitor in December, BOTH teams are experiencing the cold, more or less equally. To have the visiting team's bench 30 degrees hotter than the home bench is beyond home field advantage.

No, I said it *might* have but I didn't see that view enough times to tell.

Now you're just being porous.

Yeah, it's not a strong opinion on my part. Could go either way.

Well it won't be UPL.... I think it could be Comrie for two reasons: 1. Granato wants to see how he handles a starter's work load; and 2. Calgary is the toughest of the next three games. Let Andy take one or both of Vancouver (who probably aren't as bad as their record tbh) and Seattle (who probably are worse than their record).

I get it: Small sample size so far this year. Let's see how he projects over a longer span of games. But you bring up a good point in terms of being a continuation of last year's arc. If he is who Adams thinks he is, that would be expected.

His teams are: 1. Vancouver; 2a. Boston; 2b. Dallas. He wears various jerseys for his videos so he can write his jersey collection off on his taxes. Duh.

I read after the game last night that Comrie saved 3 goals above expected. For the two games he's played, he's at 4 goals above expected. So even in the FLA game he was +1 goal saved above expected. He lost but he certainly kept the Sabres within striking distance.

So sounds like it's a painful bruise, probably some swelling that hinders his skating.

There were some toughies but realistically a lot of the shots where handled only because even though they were from close in, the defenders prevented the Oilers from getting clean shot off either due to sticks in the lane, body checks or just taking space away. Out of those 48 shots, perhaps 10 were true threats to score (and only two did). It's the same thing only different when the Sabres were in their post-tank years and they'd outshoot the opposition and lose, not because the shots were from too close, but because they were from too far away.

The Hockey Guy's take. Pretty much the same as this thread, but it's nice to hear it from someone outside of our little fan base.

People forget, or don't even notice, that VO is a good two-way player.

One of the best developments is that they make sure that if they don't get the puck, they tie up a man.

Did you even watch the 3rd period??? Yes... they did maintain their structure defensively. He saved 3 goals over expected last night alone.

Well, you did get the score right. And Hinestroza did have one point at least.

First period was an early push by the Oilers and the Sabres played kind of a bend-not-break game on defense. The Sabres scored right off the faceoff on a power play, wicked wrister from Dahlin in the high slot. Off the ensuing faceoff Thompson had a good opportunity but then the Oilers turned it up ice and scored on a break. Comrie really had no chance as it was a shot following a cross-ice pass that beat him. In the second period, Tage used his size and reach to cut back into the middle of the ice after being forced wide to get a tap-in goal. Oilers pressed but on the counter-strike Hinostroza passed to Peterka on a clean breakaway from center ice and JJ buried it. Lyubushkin had two huge hits in the game, one of which rivaled the Cream of Umberger Soup hit by Brian Campbell. Boosh would leave later in the period after blocking a shot off his skate. Hopefully he won't be out long because the Sabres are a better team with his physicality. The third period was frenetic as the Oilers applied the full-court press with McDavid and Draisaitl on the ice most of the period (McD had 10:14 of ice time in the period). The Sabres played desperate defense. I think they outsmarted themselves trying to do cross-ice passes to get around Comrie, but the Sabres were pretty effective in stopping those passes and tying players up in front of the net. Still, Comrie had to come up huge in tight and he did, allowing one goal on 20+ shots for the period, with about a minute and a half to go. The Oilers pressed more but then Cozens broke up ice, got blanketed by an Oiler but managed to push it up ice to Tuch who fended off an Oiler to get the empty netter.

I thought they did okay.... for two periods. By the third they were whooped. For the most part though they kept their structure and didn't panic, even under the wilting barrage.

But we do make the most of our chances.... unlike the Eulers.

Small sample size, but