GDT: 1/14/21 7pm ET Washington at Buffalo, MSG, ESPN+, WGR

[jsb]

     VS     

 

Yes, Hockey and the NHL are back as the Sabres host the Ovie led Capitals in a fan less Key Bank Center. The long awaited and anticipated Taylor Hall and Eric Stall 1st game arrival starts today. The Keys to victory and making a playoff run for the Sabres are

1. Hall and Eichel meshing into a top of the league line #1
2. Samson and Stall becoming a legitimate Line #2
3. GTs having career years and keeping bad goals to a minimum
4. The PK improving from one of the worst all-time
5. The PP improving to what should be a contender for top 5 in the league
6. The Defense taking another step forward
7. Eakins, Thompson, Skinner, Olofsson and even Cozens giving us some semblance of balanced scoring
8. Rasmus Dahlin saying I'm no longer going to stand for being just a teenage scoring machine, I'm not going to be forgotten among the leagues best young defensivemen, I'm going to announce to the league and the world I'M A M.    A.      N.      MaaaaaaaaaaN.

 

TONIGHT’S GAME : THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW
 

• This is the first of eight meetings between the Sabres and Capitals this season.
• Last meeting: Buffalo defeated Washington 3-2 (SO) in Buffalo on March 9, 2020
• Next meeting: Friday, Jan. 15 in Buffalo

• The Sabres are 3-5-2 in their last 10 games vs. the Capitals; 5-3-2 at home.
• This is the 164th game all-time between Buffalo and Washington; Buffalo has a 90-52-21 series record.
• The Sabres are 49-23-9 at home against the Capitals all-time.

OPENING NIGHT

• Tonight’s game marks the 50th season-opener in franchise history.
• The Sabres are 25-19-5 all-time in season-openers; 17-10-5 when opening on the home.
• Buffalo is 22-20-7 all-time in their first home game of the season. This is the team’s sixth season-opener in the last seven seasons to take place at home.
• The Sabres have previously opened their season against the Capitals twice (1979-80 and 1981-82), earning wins at home to open both of those seasons.

The Sabres have 8 new players on the roster, Cozens, Quinn, Rieder, Eakin, Irwin, Hall, Stall and Sheehan. This appears to be on paper the best, fastest and maybe biggest lineup we've had in the past decade. Okposo with a LBI is the only question mark for this game although you know it's a Sabres season with the fanbase already questioning the ability of the bottom 6 lineup, our GTs, who was sent to Rochester, who's on the taxi squad, is the Coach another bum, blah, blah, blah.....

NHL Notes:

Please do not put the Blackhawks on National TV again. I know the fan less banner raising ceremony for Tampa Bay but OMG what a train wreck of a team that once mighty franchise has become. Toronto beats Montreal in OT with Simmons getting the Loafs pumped up with some fisticuffs, Bogosian being Bogosian and Vesey scoring the tying goal. Pittsburgh also on the list of getting spanked by Philadelphia and Vancouver beating Edmonton last night and St. Louis just wearing and beating down the Colorado Avs. 

LETS GO BUFFALO

Edited January 14, 2021 by jsb

[That Aud Smell]

Wooo!

Must swim.

Also, great job @jsb!!

[I-90 W]

LETS GO BUFFALO!!!!!

The wife is making is making me homemade nachos for the game and I took the night off work.

[CallawaySabres]

Please win for my kids, they have waited so long for a decent team.

I will be happy just seeing the royal blue.....for tonight

[StuckinFL]

It's finally here!

[French Collection]

I will miss the first period but will watch the rest with great anticipation.

I am really excited to watch Dahlin and see if he does break out this season. He can be a game changer.

Let’s go Buffalo!

[LTS]

Stayed up last night to catch the first GDT.  Went off to sign up for Fubo so I can watch this season and it was a little after midnight when I was done. Forgot to stop back here and just went to bed....

Doesn't matter.. @jsb rockin out a great start to the season with a killer GDT.

I'll be parked in front of the screen with my reverse retro jersey on that my son bought me. 

I wish I had some idea of what to expect... but at this point I'm just happy that hockey is back!

[Zamboni]

Let’s start the season optimistic.

5-3 Sabres 

Skinner, Staal or Risto with a goal

[inkman]

15 minutes ago, LTS said:

Stayed up last night to catch the first GDT.  Went off to sign up for Fubo so I can watch this season and it was a little after midnight when I was done. Forgot to stop back here and just went to bed....

Doesn't matter.. @jsb rockin out a great start to the season with a killer GDT.

I'll be parked in front of the screen with my reverse retro jersey on that my son bought me. 

I wish I had some idea of what to expect... but at this point I'm just happy that hockey is back!

I jumped back into Fubo as well.  Pleasantly surprised they have the ESPN channel family.  Last time I had it ESPN was not on Fubo.   Now I can get all my sports in one place.   Been a long time coming and no I won’t go back to Spectrum or Direct TV.  Those thief’s are not getting another dime from me.   

[nfreeman]

Yeah, baby!  Yeah!

[Doohicksie]

A GDT.  What a welcome sight.  Seems like forever since we've had one of these.

[LGR4GM]

[Mustache of God]

28 minutes ago, Doohickie said:

A GDT.  What a welcome sight.  Seems like forever since we've had one of these.

310 days to be exact. When do final "lineups" get published. It's been so long I don't remember.

Sabres 5 Caps 3.

[LGR4GM]

1 minute ago, Mustache of God said:

310 days to be exact. When do final "lineups" get published. It's been so long I don't remember.

Sabres 5 Caps 3.

Morning skate will give us the lineups, they typically happen around 10 or 11. Unsure if there are changes to that this year with covid stuff. 

[Marvin]

Yay!  It's here!

[SabresBaltimore]

Living in Capital Country (hockey isn't nearly as popular here as in Buffalo, even with the recent Stanley Cup win) it's going to be weird being in the same division as the Capitals this season. I tend to follow the caps a bit, though never as closely as the Sabres.

 

One of my co-workers is a pretty big Caps fan though. Most of rest are just bandwagoners if they are even aware of the Capitals at all. Like "yay we won the Cup".

 

It also means a lot more games being forced to watch the non-MSG-B coverage. Personally I'm a fan of Joe Beninati, but I can't stand Craig Laughlin, despite the fact that he played hockey at my alma mater. I'm pretty sure I've said that before, but it annoys me everytime I watch the Capitals coverage.

 

Either way with the Bills being so good right now and the Sabres being so bad the last few years, I'm not as excited for this as I used to be. Normally by this point in the season I'd have been to at least 2 home games too. I'm sure once the NFL season is over, I'll be more excited for the Sabres again.

Hopefully our new additions can finally get us to the post season again. But we got a really tough division this year.

Somethings to watch for tonight:

• The capitals have question marks at Goalie. They lost Holtby in the offseason, brought in Lundqvist and then lost him due some heart issue. So now they are relying on Ilya Samsonov. That may have been the plan anyways, with Lundqvist serving as a veteran backup, but I don't think so. Samsonov has had some good games behind Holtby but now he's the starter with an even younger/unproven backup in Vitek Vanecek (who has yet to play a NHL game).
• There will be a familiar face on the Capitals backline tonight as Zdeno Chara signed a 1 year contract.

 

Let's go Buffalo!

[WildCard]

Honestly I haven't been paying attention to the Sabres at all...Quinn made the roster, and not the taxi squad? Is he playing? What does that do for this ELC?

[Stoner]

6 minutes ago, WildCard said:

Honestly I haven't been paying attention to the Sabres at all...Quinn made the roster, and not the taxi squad? Is he playing? What does that do for this ELC?

Don't feel bad. I'm not even sure who Quinn is.

I like to go in fresh!!!

[LGR4GM]

19 minutes ago, WildCard said:

Honestly I haven't been paying attention to the Sabres at all...Quinn made the roster, and not the taxi squad? Is he playing? What does that do for this ELC?

He can only play 6 games I believe. They aren't going to trigger his ELC this year when they can let it slide 1 more year. 

[Doohicksie]

43 minutes ago, SabresBaltimore said:

One of my co-workers is a pretty big Caps fan though.

A high school friend of mine lives in DC, has a Russian wife and named their twins Alex and Nicklas.  Apparently they've appeared on local news when the Caps won the Cup when they took the twins to a game, still infants at the time, in teeny Ovechkin and Bäckström jerseys.

Edited January 14, 2021 by Doohickie

[LGR4GM]

My take is that Quinn is up to get as much practice and coaching in as possible before being ultimately sent to the AHL as I don't think we see an OHL season. 

[fiftyone]

Assuming RJ is on the call today? Does anyone have any reason to believe he won't be?

[Doohicksie]

1 minute ago, fiftyone said:

Assuming RJ is on the call today? Does anyone have any reason to believe he won't be?

I think I will only be able to see ESPN+

Edited January 14, 2021 by Doohickie

[slugspirit]

Conor Sheary skating on the Caps' 3rd line.

[fiftyone]

1 minute ago, Doohickie said:

It's showing as an ESPN+ only game.

Bah. I have ESPN+ so that's fine, but i'd unquestionably buy center ice early to hear RJ call it.