GDT: Preseason Game 1: Buffalo at Washington, 2pm

[Jävə Keith]

We're going to Ooooooooooooooovertime!

[Jävə Keith]

Vinnie FTW!!!

[RochesterExpat]

Score. Hinostroza gets it. 4-3 Buffalo

 

[Jävə Keith]

Win in OT.

Then we win the practice shootout in 7 rounds.

Nice start to the Preseason boys!

[Flashsabre]

Stanley Cup!!!!😛

Fun watching the kids up front today.

[French Collection]

20 minutes ago, RochesterExpat said:

We suck at faceoffs. If we're above 40% I'm going to be shocked.

Hinostroza proving he's still absurdly fast and draws a penalty.

Good opportunity to tie it up with 2:30 remaining.

Still not a reason to bring Eakin back. 
Someone needs to become good and be the go to guy.

[PickaPecaPickles]

6 minutes ago, Jävə Keith said:

Win in OT.

Then we win the practice shootout in 7 rounds.

Nice start to the Preseason boys!

Wondered why ESPN was showing a score of 7-5.

[Zamboni]

20 minutes ago, French Collection said:

Still not a reason to bring Eakin back. 
Someone needs to become good and be the go to guy.

It’s also …. Wait for it ….. 

 

the first preseason game …

 

I don’t take anything good or bad from this mostly prospect vs. mostly prospect “exhibition”.

[RochesterExpat]

Couple other points:

- As others said, they did a shootout after the game. Rousek won it in the 7th round. Rousek did a good job feeding Kulich the puck a few times and played well overall.

- Tyson Kozak outshined and outplayed Quinn and Peterka. If you disagree we can settle it with fisticuffs. Both Quinn and Peterka played fine. Kozak was just far more impactful while he was on the ice. Part of that may have been that Quinn and Peterka were with Cozens whereas Kozak was with Murray and Sheahan. Quinn and Peterka are not on the level of Cozens whereas I'm confident in saying Kozak is a better player than Murray and Sheahan. Hence his impact may have been outsized. On the flip side, he got a lot less ice time than Quinn and Peterka did, but made better use of it. He's definitely a two-way player so he was noticeable in both ends. Regardless, Kozak will be in Rochester in the fall. There's no chance he's going back to Juniors. 

- UPL looked good. Not great, but certainly not as bad as I think his SV% will suggest.

- Our best defenseman on the ice was Pilut. I thought he'd be fighting for a 7th or 8th slot, but now I don't know. Curious how the rest of camp goes for him.

- As far as Sabres players go, Cozens looked dramatically better than everyone else. Asplund played well with Hinostroza. Those three were clear NHL players in this scrimmage. I don't see Peterka or Quinn bumping Vinnie from the roster. 

- Kulich and Kozak have a decent argument to get 10 games in Buffalo this year. They weren't at the NHL level of the three above, but they were noticeable and outplayed their opponents when they were on the ice. If you had this on your 2022 Bingo Card I'm calling *****. Not that either are about to bump out Quinn or Peterka for roster spots. Just pleasantly surprised with how they played and it's worth putting here.

- Savoie does not look NHL ready, but I also think pairing him with Asplund and Hinostroza may have had something to do with that. He had some serious flashes of talent and good Lord that kid has some hands, but he played the periphery too much. I'd like to see him with Cozens in a game.

- I said if we were above 40% I'd be shocked. Box score says 24 - 36... which is hilariously exactly 40%. Not above though. I still have some dignity. On that note, Krebs is awful at the dot. 

- These guys have some serious speed. They're going to draw a lot of penalties this season.

- Asplund on the powerplay is... preseason hockey.

1 minute ago, French Collection said:

Still not a reason to bring Eakin back. 

There exists no reason to bring Eakin. Glad he is gone. Just an area that needs some real improvement.

 

2 minutes ago, Zamboni said:

It’s also …. Wait for it ….. 

 

the first preseason game …

 

I don’t take anything good or bad from this mostly prospect vs. mostly prospect “exhibition”.

I'd also argue if Cozens and Krebs can't win faceoffs against other prospects in a glorified scrimmage, the team should be taking note of that and working on it. That's what these games are for.

[LGR4GM]

33 minutes ago, French Collection said:

Still not a reason to bring Eakin back. 
Someone needs to become good and be the go to guy.

Meh

[bob_sauve28]

2 hours ago, DarthEbriate said:

Decided to tune in on the radio for a few minutes between some chores. I know it's a preseason game and half of the players are nobodies and they're wearing super-high digits, but Dan is not a radio announcer. There's no indication who is on the ice with each other or who has the puck (unless it's Quinn).

Just awful and pathetic. He sits there talking about last years standing as the play is going on then he announces a 2-1 break, but for who? He is terrible. 

[K-9]

5 minutes ago, bob_sauve28 said:

Just awful and pathetic. He sits there talking about last years standing as the play is going on then he announces a 2-1 break, but for who? He is terrible. 

He’s a feature reporter only. Been saying it since he came here, he literally cannot keep up with the play. If you have to rely on radio play by play only, you’re screwed.

[Mustache of God]

49 minutes ago, K-9 said:

He’s a feature reporter only. Been saying it since he came here, he literally cannot keep up with the play. If you have to rely on radio play by play only, you’re screwed.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Dan Dunleavy era.

[Flashsabre]

Every time I saw #20 I thought “ah crap Eakin” then he would make a positive 

play and I would have to remind myself it was Pilut😀

[inkman]

2 hours ago, RochesterExpat said:

We suck at faceoffs. If we're above 40% I'm going to be shocked.

Hinostroza proving he's still absurdly fast and draws a penalty.

Good opportunity to tie it up with 2:30 remaining.

How many Sabres regs were on the ice today?  How many of those guys played center exclusively for the Sabres last season? 

[Huckleberry]

 

Pilut looked good , I think he is in the NHL this year.

[Eleven]

It's a nice preseason win and a good audition for some of the kids.  Nothing more to read into it.

[Eleven]

4 minutes ago, Huckleberry said:

 

Pilut looked good , I think he is in the NHL this year.

Sounds like there were a few Sabres fans there.  Nice.  

[French Collection]

1 hour ago, LGR4GM said:

Meh

I think you’re not a fan of faceoff stats. I don’t care about the stats too much, there is not much difference between 48.9% and 51.1% when two guys are facing off.

What I like is having a guy that will win important draws in the D zone in the last minute protecting a lead or the O zone when down a goal. Possession is huge with seconds left and a game on the line. Overtime is another instance where possession leads to the first scoring chance(s).

This is a skill that is tough to measure but someone on the coaching staff should have a handle on who is hot and wins a lot of key draws.

[RochesterExpat]

38 minutes ago, inkman said:

How many Sabres regs were on the ice today?  How many of those guys played center exclusively for the Sabres last season? 

The only one was Cozens. Krebs if you want to count him. I can’t pull up the box score on my phone that shows FO%, but I’d be shocked if Krebs won more than two draws in ten+. I saw him win one. That was it. Cozens looked better and, in the very least, when Cozens lost a draw he was able to hold the other center down. Krebs did not play well in the face off dot.

[PromoTheRobot]

2 hours ago, PickaPecaPickles said:

Wondered why ESPN was showing a score of 7-5.

Counting shootout goals.

[DarthEbriate]

3 hours ago, bob_sauve28 said:

Just awful and pathetic. He sits there talking about last years standing as the play is going on then he announces a 2-1 break, but for who? He is terrible. 

He's improving. Last season he made strides. And that's good. But he cannot do the radio broadcast, he just can't. You have to be a storyteller, a visual artist, to do radio. The WGR broadcast needs to be someone else.

[DarthEbriate]

Radio may be a dying breed. But it's also a dualistic announcement. If you can do radio, you can do TV. But it's not two-way. A TV announcer cannot necessarily do radio. It's the ol' a square is a rectangle but a rectangle is not a square.

Here's the story. I listened to the Brian Campbell game on WGR online (no cable, no OLN, etc.). You know of which game I speak. I knew what was happening the entire time. I had an image of the Campbell hit. I knew it was right to left. After listening to the win, I went out on the town with friends. (Being in Seattle this was still only like... 10 pm.) We went to a bar and ESPN was showing highlights. The Sabres came on and I yelled at friends... "Campbell's gonna kill Umberger. Watch! Watch!" Everyone gave a collective ooooh (or oh god how can humans do that to each other depending on their mettle). But still....  Dunleavy wouldn't have me watching highlights and yelling at my friends who have no interest, "Watch this! Watch this!"

And it spills over to TV, too. Because even a generic Al Michaels at age 65 (now retired years later) call is more engaged.

[Porous Five Hole]

Dunleavy doing tv PBP on the radio is nothing new for him. It’s also been that way with RJ for many, many years. 
 

Things may have changed, but the Sabres were literally the only NHL franchise prior to Covid to have one PBP team for both tv and radio.  And it stinks. 

[SabresBillsFan]

Not a fan of Dunleavy’s play by play. Sabres should hire someone better.