Sabres @ Stars, 1/30/2019, 8:30 PM ET

[SwampD]

I want to hear LGR defend fancy over physical after this game.

Dallas played playoff hockey. We played fluffy and lost because of it.

Edited January 31, 2019 by SwampD

[inkman]

41 minutes ago, SABRES 0311 said:

Is it just me or does it seem like NHL refs have been a problem league wide this year?

You could have stopped at the word "league"

[Wyldnwoody44]

4 minutes ago, SABRES 0311 said:

So the Sabres give you roids?

Nah, they act like they'll do good, and then smear the poop around and make it look messier 

[SABRES 0311]

Watched the Beaulieu interview. Noticed Dahlin looked like a kid sitting in timeout.

[Wyldnwoody44]

Seriously, 

 

Yandle twice, Benn, countless others, where we just turn our backs and then proceed to lose the game anyways. It's maybe the most discouraging thing I've seen all year, except out absolutley dreadful PP. 

Do these guys not care about each other, is it the coach? No one can look at this game tonight and think the Sabres looked good at all. 

[Tondas]

Linus was good tonight.  With any goal support, it's a different story.

[SABRES 0311]

Ray just said the Sabres don’t let teams take advantage as much when playing at home. YANDLE disagrees.

[CallawaySabres]

Most of the bottom six on our team would not even make it in the NHL on 75% of the other teams so it really is not that surprising that they can't get much going recently

[JJFIVEOH]

57 minutes ago, Carmel Corn said:

Because there is no room on the Ontario Reign's roster until Moulson moves on.

From what Moulson has been doing in the AHL, I'd take him in a heartbeat over Okposo. 

[PerreaultForever]

Guess hoping for secondary scoring two games in a row was too much to hope for. Disappointing.

Hats off to Dallas' coaching. Relentless forecheck on our D (where most of our offense starts from) and shut down the top line, that is the strategy to beat this team cause the rest of the forward lines are not a threat. Good game plan and well executed. Sort of game where Housley has to make adjustments and consider a little juggling and moving the top guys around a little. No guarantee that'd work, but you have to try.

Ullmark played really well. Pity they couldn't get a goal or two for him. 

[Hawerchuk]

1 hour ago, JJFIVEOH said:

From what Moulson has been doing in the AHL, I'd take him in a heartbeat over Okposo. 

$73k per game for Okposo? Did I see that correctly? Holy S...!!

Buffalo is screwed w that contract for a good while. Hope he can somehow get a scoring touch back!

[Doohicksie]

Just got back from the game. 

This is a few of us before the game.  I'm the tall guy near the middle in the back row next to the guy with yellow Sabres hat.  There were 118 people in one spot that bought tickets through the DFW Bills Backers group buy.

I was optimistic during warm-ups

...and even into the first few shifts.  But the Sabres looked like they were in a scrimmage while the Stars looked like they wanted to play some hockey.  Connor Sheary was the only Sabre who tried playing at the Stars tempo.  I was not impressed by Dahlin's play.

The Stars simply wanted it more.  The Sabres had a couple of flurries, one at the end of the first, one with about 5 minutes left in the game.  Everything but the goal.  So frustrating.

Some day I will see the Sabres beat the Stars in Dallas.  I thought today would be today, but nope.
 

Edited January 31, 2019 by Doohickie

[MODO Hockey]

This is where Phil.H is absolutly worthless, active coaching is no where to be found. God, he needs to go. Honestly this coach doesnt know how to coach hard, to me it looks like he does the math pregame and then go with that 110% no matter what. 

Someone always gets the blame for a loss, it is what it is, but to me Phil is not the coach i wanna see behind our boys.

 

[SABRES 0311]

37 minutes ago, MODO Hockey said:

This is where Phil.H is absolutly worthless, active coaching is no where to be found. God, he needs to go. Honestly this coach doesnt know how to coach hard, to me it looks like he does the math pregame and then go with that 110% no matter what. 

Someone always gets the blame for a loss, it is what it is, but to me Phil is not the coach i wanna see behind our boys.

 

But but but we like familiar names. Nolan, Housley, Lafontaine. They are going to turn things around. Never mind two can’t coach and the other didn’t get his way so he left. Talk about loyalty. 

[MODO Hockey]

 

Phil would never behave like this obviously, and he uses words that in a way is inappropirate for sure but he delivers the message.

This is what active coaching is to me, sometimes you need to wake the guys the fk up and tell them to make use for their million dollar contracts.
Sometimes it wont work, sometimes it actually does work and there is where Phil fails. 

I remember a coach we had in MODO during the 90's, he did not stand behind the players, he stood infront of them, he looked into their eyes and litterly scremed to them to shape the fk up and go out there and score. He litterly showed them how important their job was and that there was no excuses what so ever, he drilled them hard and made them realise that all games is important, all minutes out there, boy he litterly told the goalie to remove his mask so he could see his face when he told him to wake up. He was rough against the players, but when the season ended the players told media that they really got a lesson for life and that they were sorry it took them so long to actually realise the importance of, that most normal working people pay their salarys to get something more out of their hard lifes and that its a deal of give and take, not just take.

 

[Sabres Fan in NS]

6 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

Guess hoping for secondary scoring two games in a row was too much to hope for. Disappointing.

Hats off to Dallas' coaching. Relentless forecheck on our D (where most of our offense starts from) and shut down the top line, that is the strategy to beat this team cause the rest of the forward lines are not a threat. Good game plan and well executed. Sort of game where Housley has to make adjustments and consider a little juggling and moving the top guys around a little. No guarantee that'd work, but you have to try.

Ullmark played really well. Pity they couldn't get a goal or two for him. 

This post is a perfect summary of the Sabres this season.

Ullie deserved better, but Dallas played a perfect game and it still was only 1 - 0.  The Sabres are going to have a hard time from here on out, as teams play more of a playoff style game, which the current Sabres are not quite where they need to be in order to play that way.

Edited January 31, 2019 by New Scotland (NS)
1 too many words, but the ones remaining may not make much sense ...

[SABRES 0311]

37 minutes ago, New Scotland (NS) said:

This post is a perfect summary of the Sabres this season.

Ullie deserved better, but Dallas played a perfect game and it still was only 1 - 0.  The Sabres are going to have a hard time from here on out, as teams play more of a playoff style game, which the current Sabres are not quite where they need to be in order to play that way.

I think this team is woefully underprepared for the playoffs but I think they have just enough to get in. If so they will get bounced in five or six games of the first round. Nevertheless I want the experience that comes with playoff style hockey. They aren’t going to go from non playoff to cup in a single season. Likely they will make the playoffs and get bounced a couple of times before making it to the finals. Each time gaining more experience. If I had to guess, the Sabres will have a real shot within the last three years of Jack’s current contract. That team will not have Scandella, Beaulieu, Bogo, Sobotka, Hutton, KO, Pommers, Girgensons, ERod or Sam.

Hutton - traded for a backup to Linus

Sam - traded for a 2C (package deal both ways maybe)

Bogo - traded for a second/third round pick or second pairing dman 

KO - who cares

Pommers - retired

Sobotka - some overseas league

ERod - traded for a bottom six player

Girgensons - traded for a fifth or worse pick

Scandella - traded for a #4 dman 

Beaulieu - traded for a prospect or #6 dman 

Edit: Sheary - traded for a third liner

Edited January 31, 2019 by SABRES 0311

[Sabres Fan in NS]

@SABRES 0311

I agree with a lot that you are saying and the Sabres are very close to a playoff team, but the 10 gamer plays a large part of that.

One issue ... within the last 3 years of Jack's current contract?  Man, that is another 4, or 5. years.  Yikes!!

(winkie - winkie)

[Kruppstahl]

Meh.  A crap performance from the team as a whole.  Sadly, predicted by me pre-game.  

I was expected zero out of them on the second leg of back to back games.  

Eichel is up to his old magic disappearing act again, too.

I will be surprised if we make the playoffs.  What a shame!  It could have been a lot of fun.

And to answer a question posted up-thread: Housley is, was, and will always be a soft guy who I never came close to liking as a player.  That he would be coaching a soft team was entirely predictable.

 

 

 

7 hours ago, SABRES 0311 said:

Watched the Beaulieu interview. Noticed Dahlin looked like a kid sitting in timeout.

Well he is a kid.  And if you think he looks young, have a look all Mittelstadt!  He looks like a baby.  Not sure he shaves yet.

 

 

6 hours ago, Doohickie said:

Just got back from the game. 

This is a few of us before the game.  I'm the tall guy near the middle in the back row next to the guy with yellow Sabres hat.  There were 118 people in one spot that bought tickets through the DFW Bills Backers group buy.

I was optimistic during warm-ups

...and even into the first few shifts.  But the Sabres looked like they were in a scrimmage while the Stars looked like they wanted to play some hockey.  Connor Sheary was the only Sabre who tried playing at the Stars tempo.  I was not impressed by Dahlin's play.

The Stars simply wanted it more.  The Sabres had a couple of flurries, one at the end of the first, one with about 5 minutes left in the game.  Everything but the goal.  So frustrating.

Some day I will see the Sabres beat the Stars in Dallas.  I thought today would be today, but nope.
 

Boy, that's a heck of a lot of WNYers marooned in Texas.  Feel sorry for you guys!

 

 

[Doohicksie]

20 minutes ago, Kruppstahl said:

Boy, that's a heck of a lot of WNYers marooned in Texas.

I would say there were over a thousand Sabres fans there.  And we were pretty noisy.  Think of it as revenge for Toronto games at the KBC.  During the second intermission there were a bunch of us in one are of the concourse that was singing the Shout song, chanting Let's Go Buffalo! and toward the end, "His foot was in the crease!"  Any Dallas fans trying to start a Let's Go Stars chant was drowned out.

[SABRES 0311]

24 minutes ago, New Scotland (NS) said:

@SABRES 0311

I agree with a lot that you are saying and the Sabres are very close to a playoff team, but the 10 gamer plays a large part of that.

One issue ... within the last 3 years of Jack's current contract?  Man, that is another 4, or 5. years.  Yikes!!

(winkie - winkie)

I went with that time frame because I think they will need a couple runs before they have the experience needed for emotional maturity. I don’t think JBot is putting a one hit wonder together. I think the plan is to put something in place for a perennial contender. This translates to our now young guys mentoring new young guys with their playoff experience. 

My reasoning for all of this is the lack of big moves aside from Skinner. Contrary to some opinions we have trade bait to get the middle six in shape now but it sacrifices long term plans. Another reason is our young core seems like they will need a few more years to toughen up physically and mentally.

Personally I think Jack should have an A not the C. Tonight was a chance for him to take the bull by the horns but he was just another player. Imagine this version of Captain Jack in a game seven. Mid 20s Captain Jack would have given Benn a couple taps on the thigh after that hit and we’d hear Ray talking about him trying to fire guys up on the bench. I believe this was an attempt to force post game interview Jack into on ice Jack. Captain should be a guy who can anchor the team and lead by example. I think that guy is on the team now but if I say his name I’m gonna have to build my own bunker.

One guy I forgot to add to the departed list is Phil. He will not coach the Stanley Cup Sabres. If he gots a long term extension, JBot will not manage the Stanley Cup Sabres. Again just my opinion and I have been wrong before.

[Stoner]

8 hours ago, SABRES 0311 said:

Watched the Beaulieu interview. Noticed Dahlin looked like a kid sitting in timeout.

I thought that was fascinating. I decided to watch that and not Nate, or even Bogo's enormous tattooed biceps. Dahlin is one interesting cat.

[SABRES 0311]

Just now, PASabreFan said:

I thought that was fascinating. I decided to watch that and not Nate, or even Bogo's enormous tattooed biceps. Dahlin is one interesting cat.

He just sat there with a thousand yard stare. Swedes are an interesting people.

Bogo is a beast. The C would just make that beard pop.

[SABRES 0311]

[TrueBlueGED]

9 hours ago, SwampD said:

I want to hear LGR defend fancy over physical after this game.

Dallas played playoff hockey. We played fluffy and lost because of it.

Yup, the Stars' style of play is so much more impressive than ours that they have fewer points than we do.