GDT Sabres Season Opener: Sens @ Sabres 10/13/2022, 7pm, MSG, ESPN+, RDS, WGR

[matter2003]

2 minutes ago, That Aud Smell said:

that was horrendous.

but the plays he made on his goal? wowza.

Yeah that was freaking nice...that puck went into the net so fast I thought he kicked it or it hit his shin and bounced off him and into the net

[inkman]

1 minute ago, That Aud Smell said:

that was horrendous.

but the plays he made on his goal? wowza.

Yeah I feel like the board consensus at the end of last season was that Dahlin was a high risk high reward player with the upside that he may soon become a stalwart in his own zone as well. 

[Sabres Fan in NS]

Great win !!

They all are.

That's all.

[That Aud Smell]

1 minute ago, matter2003 said:

Yeah that was freaking nice...that puck went into the net so fast I thought he kicked it or it hit his shin and bounced off him and into the net

it was his play in the d-zone - to get it started - that most amazed me. it had echoes of high risk play in his own zone.

[matter2003]

1 hour ago, NJhopelessSabresfan66 said:

I have to say, watching the games a few thoughts came to mind:

 

- Same old Sabres - Heavy pressure on them and they move quickly away from their game and start to panic. 

- After same old Sabres, the team figured it out and came back hard in the 2nd and pretty much dominated that period, That was something we did not see a lot of until recently with Granato. He pays attention to what is going on and makes adjustments in between periods. That is very refreshing!

- All the D were pinching when they could. That definitely will wreck havoc as the team gels.

- Ottawa is going to be good. Damn they are fast! At times it looked like we were in slow motion compared to them.

Not going to pass any judgement on this team, but they have potential to be decent. I can see some lines being juggled after a couple of games, and that includes the PP. It was a fun game to watch and fun to watch the kids flying around the ice! 

The one thing I will say is that outside the breakaways and stupid giveaways in their own zone they played a very nice defensive structure...there were not players skating around by themselves, they were covered up pretty nicely by Sabre players.

[That Aud Smell]

2 minutes ago, inkman said:

Yeah I feel like the board consensus at the end of last season was that Dahlin was a high risk high reward player with the upside that he may soon become a stalwart in his own zone as well. 

given his upside, i feel like he only needs to be above average/good in his own zone.

[nfreeman]

51 minutes ago, NJhopelessSabresfan66 said:

Does GR still have the post game show? I did not see it on my Audacy app this morning

The “Sabres Hockey” podcast on apple podcasts has the postgame shows, plus interviews with DG and a number of players most days.  

[DarthEbriate]

39 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

JJP was our best rookie tonight but Power and Quinn will emerge too.   When was the last we had 3 rookies with this much promise in the line up? 

Eichel, Reinhart, Ullmark in 15-16?

[Doohicksie]

4 hours ago, That Aud Smell said:

I do not want the Sabres’ cornerstone  center’s line merely busy with the other team’s top line. And I certainly don’t want that line getting its ass kicked, which is what happened last night. That line needs to be a lot better than it was in order for this team to have a shot at 95+ points.

This is the first game of the season.  They will be better.

 

 

Sheesh.

[Doohicksie]

3 hours ago, Weave said:

Was overall play in the 3rd favoring the Sabres, or was it more a case of VO capitalizing and Buffalo hanging on?

I felt like it was a game of momentum shifts.  The Sens pushed the play early which is what you saw.  There were times when the Sabres controlled play.  Both teams actively worked to steal the momentum from each other.  In the early 2nd period the Sabres carried the play, resulting in JJ's and Dahlin's goals.  The Sens pushed back but in the end Anderson was the difference maker.  When they got to the mid third period Ottawa tried to open things up but left themselves vulnerable to counterattack which the Sabres tried to exploit but they didn't score until the Sens finally pulled their goalie.

It was a game that gave Granato a lot of video to go over with the guys and they will undoubtedly learn from it.  The effort was there.

[FogBat]

2 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

Metalocolypse

Thanks! That was really cool.

[Doohicksie]

2 hours ago, LabattBlue said:

Ugly

- Virtual board advertising changing while play is going on.  Very annoying. Not as bad as screen shrinking ads from a year or two ago, but still 👎🏻 .

Out of the games I've seen so far this year, I actually the the Sabres broadcast ads were the best.  In Edmonton they were flickering and lagging which was extremely distracting.  In general when they change they just change instantly.  The Sabres ads actually transition with animation which seems less attention grabbing actually (at least to me).

My prediction is that as the season goes on, most teams will get their virtual ads worked out better but that also we, as fans, will learn to ignore them kind of like the little virtual ads on the games people play on their phones.

[LabattBlue]

1 hour ago, matter2003 said:

 

Just "OK" huh?  I guess stopping 4 breakaways, a 2-0 and a few 2 on 1's and was just "OK"?  He is basically the only reason the Sabres were not down 5-1 going into the 3rd and why Ottawa never tied the game late.

 

Team had too many giveaways in their own end trying to make "cute" exit plays...like Dahlin dropping the pass to the other team near the blue line to set up a 2 on 0 the other way on Anderson.

Sorry Mrs Anderson, my choice of words did not meet your approval.  
 

He was pretty good.  Better?

 

 

Edited October 14, 2022 by LabattBlue

[Doohicksie]

1 hour ago, NJhopelessSabresfan66 said:

Does GR still have the post game show? I did not see it on my Audacy app this morning

You can see the player and coach postgame interviews at the Sabres page on NHL.com.  Sadly it appears they've taken down Peterka's postgame interview with the F-bomb.

[LabattBlue]

5 minutes ago, Doohickie said:

Out of the games I've seen so far this year, I actually the the Sabres broadcast ads were the best.  In Edmonton they were flickering and lagging which was extremely distracting.  In general when they change they just change instantly.  The Sabres ads actually transition with animation which seems less attention grabbing actually (at least to me).

My prediction is that as the season goes on, most teams will get their virtual ads worked out better but that also we, as fans, will learn to ignore them kind of like the little virtual ads on the games people play on their phones.

Why do they need to change while the game is going on to begin with? There are numerous stops in play that allow for the change to be made. 

[Doohicksie]

1 hour ago, matter2003 said:

Yeah that was freaking nice...that puck went into the net so fast I thought he kicked it or it hit his shin and bounced off him and into the net

I had to watch the replay several times before I could decipher what happened.... bang bang!

1 hour ago, matter2003 said:

The one thing I will say is that outside the breakaways and stupid giveaways in their own zone they played a very nice defensive structure...there were not players skating around by themselves, they were covered up pretty nicely by Sabre players.

Yes.  They have lots to clean up but the structure was there underneath.

[Doohicksie]

35 minutes ago, DarthEbriate said:

Eichel, Reinhart, Ullmark in 15-16?

Ullmark was not a regular NHLer in 15-16.  He played more for the Amerks.

[That Aud Smell]

25 minutes ago, Doohickie said:

This is the first game of the season.  They will be better.

 

 

Sheesh.

Right - and as I acknowledged upthread - maybe just a bad matchup and then it just wasn't that line's night. But what I was reacting to was the idea that the team's "top" line should be busy, preoccupied with the other team's top line so that a lower tier line can clean up. That that's how the team should work (in general). That's how I read your OP.

Maybe the point you were making was more along the lines of: Sometimes it's gonna be like that for your top line (but hopefully not often!), which, when it happens, can free up another well-balanced line to make hay.

[matter2003]

Just now, That Aud Smell said:

Right - and as I acknowledged upthread - maybe just a bad matchup and then it just wasn't that line's night. But what I was reacting to was the idea that the team's "top" line should be busy, preoccupied with the other team's top line so that a lower tier line can clean up. That that's how the team should work (in general). That's how I read your OP.

Maybe the point you were making was more along the lines of: Sometimes it's gonna be like that for your top line (but hopefully not often!), which, when it happens, can free up another well-balanced line to make hay.

wouldn't be the first time the Sens were a bad matchup for the Sabres...I believe in the year we beat them in the playoffs on Pominville's OT winner that we lost every game to them in the regular season.

[That Aud Smell]

3 minutes ago, matter2003 said:

wouldn't be the first time the Sens were a bad matchup for the Sabres...I believe in the year we beat them in the playoffs on Pominville's OT winner that we lost every game to them in the regular season.

good call. that team had the sabres' number, which made that playoff series SO delicious.

[nfreeman]

11 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

Well that was pretty enjoyable. 

I don't think we really outplayed them and all those break aways will kill us against a team with better talent but there were a lot of things to like in this game. 

I did not think Anderson was going to steal games for us this year, which he did, so I guess the question is how many games does he have in him?

I thought the Cozens line was the best. Peterka looked very different from what I saw in preseason. He showed me a little of that snarl I'd heard about and played very well. The team as a whole showed more team toughness and that's going to be important. 

Dahlin looks like he's ready to be dominant and Power looked fine. In fact, I'm more worried about Jokiharyu than him after this one. He's still running around and chasing pucks too much. Power was the more positional sound player of the two. 

I did however think Mitts looked awful. At this moment, he is the weak link. 

Nice to start a season with a win. 

I agree with most of this except for your observations on Power, Joki and Mitts.  As I mentioned upthread I thought Power was shaky for most of the game and Joki was solid.  Despite being a longtime Mitts skeptic, I also thought that was maybe the best I've ever seen Mitts look, and I think he's going to have a pretty good season.

I'm already looking forward to tomorrow.

[Sidc3000]

3 hours ago, NJhopelessSabresfan66 said:

Does GR still have the post game show? I did not see it on my Audacy app this morning

I’m sure they do but i don’t know if they will put it in audacity anymore.  I’m not really fond of Audacy 

[French Collection]

Forsberg, the Sens goalie, bobbled the puck all night long. He made the saves but didn’t look good. The Sabres were a bit unlucky to not capitalize on a few of those.

Anderson was way better and the difference.

[Taro T]

22 hours ago, Mustache of God said:

Are they full size flags or fun sized flags?

Neither really.  Haven't pulled it out of the bag but a few people had pulled theirs out and it looked like it was 42-48" wide & ~30" tall.  

It'd be a nice item to throw on the wall.

[Spoonman]

6 minutes ago, Sidc3000 said:

I’m sure they do but i don’t know if they will put it in audacity anymore.  I’m not really fond of Audacy 

Here is Meatballs: https://21143.mc.tritondigital.com/OMNY_SABRESHOCKEY_P/media-session/893b1665-a2d1-49e3-bfc6-77f49b172141/d/clips/4b5f9d6d-9214-48cb-8455-a73200038129/5f47c5fb-d9f1-4f87-adb1-a92b003718e7/69a9cdc1-8f3c-4475-8d1b-af2e00308cee/audio/direct/t1665716248/10-13_Don_Granato_Postgame.mp3?t=1665716248

go to Podcasts on Audacy. Sabres, then DG

2 minutes ago, Taro T said:

Neither really.  Haven't pulled it out of the bag but a few people had pulled theirs out and it looked like it was 42-48" wide & ~30" tall.  

It'd be a nice item to throw on the wall.

Picture please!