Robviously

Bingo. Just dropping the gloves brought the team back to life.

Not necessarily. His stats from last year were good and teams are probably more anxious to get deals done with the shortened season since every game counts more. I could certainly see a GM with his job on the line giving up a 2nd round pick to upgrade his blue line. Also, we were hearing last week that it was a seller's market for NHL defensemen. The Sabres should want to add some draft picks this year. They'll be drafting guys 1 year younger than Grigorenko so this is the draft where you think about who you want playing with Grigorenko when he's in his prime.

Brennan in for Leopold gives us (another) grit upgrade and potentially a guy with a better shot.

Hard to say, but the first disallowed goal only makes is 1-1, so it probably has the same effect their other first goal ended up having. The second disallowed goal makes it a 4-3 Sabres lead. Terrible calls in both cases although I still never saw a replay where the puck crossed the line for that second one.

Leopold and Regehr were my two goats of the game. Leopold was awful in the first period and Regehr just looks old and slow. I hope Regier is working the phones right now (but I doubt it). We can't carry 8 defensemen all season and there's a pretty good chance that Leopold or Regehr isn't going to be cut out for the condensed 48 game schedule.

Probably the same thing that was wrong with the whole team in the 2nd period (or at least the first 10 minutes of the 2nd period). We just looked discombobulated and out of it. The Flyers first goal was just a fluky bad line change thing that you could probably chalk up to a rusty team that didn't have a preseason.

Vanek is so deceptive that he can deceive everyone into thinking he sucks, right up until he starts whooping ass.

I really can't overstate how much Stafford fighting Hartnell did for me. That was so good to see.

And the one they scored in the 1st period. We were actually VERY lucky today. I didn't think so either.

2 goals and 3 assists for Vanek. Imagine what he could do if he wasn't lazy and slow. Pominville with three assists of his own.

Screw that, just control the puck.

Finally ready to exhale after the review.... Great play by Vanek and awesome play by Hodgson to make it count. No one deserved a goal more than Hodgson at that point.

Stafford back out now.

Just noticed that too. Was Stafford hurt in the fight?

His no-look pass to Ott was spectacular. Wish he'd get at least one shift with Poms and Vanek. Or time on the PP.

Second Intermission Thought: I like the McDonalds commercial where the strawberry blonde girl plays horseshoes. Actually I think I just like the strawberry blonde girl.

Love the NBC guys are shocked that Vanek went into a "dirty area." He spends like half his ice time taking a beating in front of the net.

Major respect for Stafford there. Hope that right he caught didn't hurt too bad.

Thanks, I had no idea what that meant.

Who's lazy now, m*****f*****s?!

Leopold was atrocious. Foligno looks like a guy who wants to wear a "C" on his sweater someday soon. Set the tone early on. Ott looked great too, obviously. Not a lot of Grigorenko out there this period. I noticed we kept him off the ice during the 4 on 4 early on, and that was probably a smart move. I'm glad I'm not the only one who was freaked out by that. He wasn't out there much. They kept him off the ice for the 4 on 4's, PP, and PK.

I'll say Stafford just because I don't like him, even when he's playing well.

Hopefully it's just the flu (we're having an epically bad flu season this year) and nothing serious (although I guess the flu can get serious sometimes too). Get well soon, RJ.

It's spectacular that WGR started their pregame show for today's game at 7am.

:blush: Screw it, that's going in my signature.