GDT: Buffalo Sabres @ Washington Capitals 3/15/23 7 pm tv and radio

[Sabel79]

Just now, Randall Flagg said:

I'll grant any goalie-lover that the defense sucks.

 

No goalie lasts long in this league spitting out the rebounds that UPL does

Never mind the rebounds ( which are myriad and atrocious), let’s talk about how it must be his personal goal to cover as little of the net as possible at all times… hoo boy does he make himself small more or less constantly.  He’s a big guy.  Maybe use that, I dunno.  

[Pimlach]

3 minutes ago, Randall Flagg said:

I'll grant any goalie-lover that the defense sucks.

 

No goalie lasts long in this league spitting out the rebounds that UPL does

Yes. I am going to call him Gumby.   Pucks bounce off of him like crazy. He is not learning rebound control. 

[TageMVP]

Just now, Pimlach said:

Baloney.  They should not have given us the PP if they were looking to negate it. That is not how officials are trained. 
 

Irwin and Tuch were being stupid so you send them BOTH to the box.  The let the instigator win by using your ridiculous logic. They created on 6 v 4. 

Tuch cleary got a punch up high to Irwins face. It wasn't a heavy punch, but he still made contact that was unnecessary. 

The result stinks, but that's a penalty 

[CTJoe]

12 minutes ago, JohnC said:

Attached is a link from NHL.com showing the standings. The loss was disappointing because of the penalty call against Tuch. This was a victory that we allowed to be snatched out of our grasp. It wasn't a smart play on Tuch's part. Getting the point for the SO loss is somewhat of a consolation. 

This was a game that is difficult to say who stood out. On the blue line I liked the play of Power and I thought that Lyubushkin had a good game. 

There were too many occasions where the Sabres were stuck in their own zone with the Capitals controlling the puck. 

UPL in the shootout is a disaster. He's worse than Lehner in SOs. The goal off his chest was a bad goal but the other goals in regulation can't be blamed on him. I still get nervous when he is in between the pipes. 

The Sabre play of the game for me was Krebs pass to Gergs who converted. Krebs fought to get the puck, dig it out behind the net and then get it to Gergs. 

https://www.nhl.com/standings/2022/wildcard

 

UPL isn't an NHL goalie and never will be. goal off chest was bad but so was the 4th goal.  He's on his knees with a bad angle to Wilson, for no reason whatsoever.  All he has to do is stay on his feet and the shot hits him in the chest.  Needed a save there nad, per usual he failed

[Pimlach]

4 minutes ago, KC Scouts said:

Donnie

Lost our game 

Lucky we got one point 

Need to move on fast

I don't want to pin a loss on one guy

Results matter, we need to be better

🤮

 

He is 100% right.  He should not blame anyone. He should work on the PK more before the next game. They are terrible. 

2 minutes ago, TageMVP said:

Tuch cleary got a punch up high to Irwins face. It wasn't a heavy punch, but he still made contact that was unnecessary. 

The result stinks, but that's a penalty 

Irwin clearly roughed, interfered and instigated.   Take them both off. 

[Sabel79]

Just now, Pimlach said:

He is 100% right.  He should not blame anyone. He should work on the PK more before the next game. They are terrible. 

GOALIE 

[Pimlach]

Just now, Sabel79 said:

GOALIE 

Win a face off.  Clear the puck.  Help the dam goalie. 

[sabremike]

3 minutes ago, TageMVP said:

Tuch cleary got a punch up high to Irwins face. It wasn't a heavy punch, but he still made contact that was unnecessary. 

The result stinks, but that's a penalty 

Particularly after we got the late PP and you had to know the officials would have it in their mind to make an even up call.

[Crusader1969]

Wish I could stay up for ducks vs Isles but wont be happening tonight 

let’s hope we wake up to a nice Ducks victory.  

[TageMVP]

2 minutes ago, sabremike said:

Particularly after we got the late PP and you had to know the officials would have it in their mind to make an even up call.

Make up call or not, it doesn't matter. Tuch took an obvious retaliation penalty 

6 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

He is 100% right.  He should not blame anyone. He should work on the PK more before the next game. They are terrible. 

Irwin clearly roughed, interfered and instigated.   Take them both off. 

Tuch retaliated. That always get called. If he has to punch or shove, keep the fists lower 

[TRIP65]

6 minutes ago, CTJoe said:

UPL isn't an NHL goalie and never will be. goal off chest was bad but so was the 4th goal.  He's on his knees with a bad angle to Wilson, for no reason whatsoever.  All he has to do is stay on his feet and the shot hits him in the chest.  Needed a save there nad, per usual he failed

UPL too inconsistent and we have a defense that is too. Bad combination! UPL in same game makes great saves and lets in Easy goals too. Why wouldn't Granto go to Anderson to change his luck in Shootout. Not like UPL was standing on his head in Third.

[SwampD]

12 minutes ago, DarthEbriate said:

You're looking at it from the Sabres' post-loss perspective and the slow motion replays on the near-ice angle. That's not what the ref sees. He sees Tuch's hand come upward and make contact with Irwin's head. It's a point-of-emphasis roughing punch to the head. The refs are purposely looking for something to negate the powerplay because they don't want to determine the outcome of the game and they know they just jobbed the Caps more on the initial call on the phantom slash. There shouldn't have been a Sabres PP to begin with, so negating it evens out the game as far as the refs are concerned. It was a terrible decision by Tuch.

The problem I have is that I truly believe that they would not have called that on a Cap.

I also believe that they would have called a Sabre for that non-hooking call where Tage had the guys stick in his midsection for a loooong time in OT.

[HumanSlinky39]

44 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

The Kunsnetov goal told me everything. 

Yeah, I’ve been one of the ones preaching patience with UPL, but tonight was kind of a tipping point for me. He was making some terrific saves, but his rebound control in brutal. He was serving up juicy ones all night, fortunately, we had guys in front of the net to clear them out of they flew untouched over to the boards most of the night. He ain’t always gonna be that lucky. I also really noticed that his lateral speed just isn’t enough, especially to make up for how out of position he gets when he gets aggressive…which he likes to do. The lack of lateral speed was painfully evident in the shootout. That shot by Kusznetsov would be stopped by most capable NHL goalies.

He reminds me a lot of Mikko Koskinen late of the Oilers. Big old Finnish dude who is capable of moments/games of absolute brilliance, but just didn’t have the skill/instincts to put it together in any sustained fashion. Koskinen also toiled with mediocre-to-bad defenses in front of him the whole time, which doesn’t help, obviously.

I really hope Devon Levi is a fast tracker and the real deal like he appears to be. Adams is clearly all in on him.

Edited March 16, 2023 by HumanSlinky39

[DarthEbriate]

8 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

Baloney.  They should not have given us the PP if they were looking to negate it. That is not how officials are trained. 
 

Irwin and Tuch were being stupid so you send them BOTH to the box.  The let the instigator win by using your ridiculous logic. They created on 6 v 4. 

Flip the jersey colors. You'd be livid at the refs if Stillman (in place of Irwin) took a roughing penalty for that push and grapple. The refs let players grapple and jaw all the time, and moreso in the final 2 minutes.

Now, maybe Tuch could've tried to skate and drive back toward the net and drawn an interference call. But he didn't. Tuch did the one thing you cannot do -- a punch at the head while you're on the powerplay.

You've been watching hockey and playoff hockey for years. You've seen the refs be happy to remove a powerplay, especially one that's ill-gained. It has nothing to do with their training, it's how referees and humans are. That lost powerplay (not the loss of the game) was all on Tuch.

[Quint]

Greenway lost Tom Wilson on that tying goal. 

Losernen looked so bad against Oshie in the shootout.

What has happened to Tage Thompson? He isn't scoring anymore. Is he playing hurt?

[DarthEbriate]

2 minutes ago, SwampD said:

The problem I have is that I truly believe that they would not have called that on a Cap.

I also believe that they would have called a Sabre for that non-hooking call where Tage had the guys stick in his midsection for a loooong time in OT.

Maybe if the Sabres are the home team and have been in the playoffs year after year while playing against... Columbus? Then maybe.

But the headshot while you're on a powerplay absolutely gets called.

[KC Scouts]

We all knew the penalty call was coming, I posted that half kidding with about 8-10 minutes to go.

But how sad is it that we know the script of how the game was going to end !!!

[spndnchz]

5 minutes ago, SwampD said:

The problem I have is that I truly believe that they would not have called that on a Cap.

I also believe that they would have called a Sabre for that non-hooking call where Tage had the guys stick in his midsection for a loooong time in OT.

Or that supposed trip

[TRIP65]

21 minutes ago, HumanSlinky39 said:

It's REALLY hard for a goalie to come in cold like that, but he literally could not do worse.

Well if Anderson was in goal he stays. This is about UPL, questioning him being a Starter, NOT close to being a Franchise Player. Anderson was 35 he would be our GOALIE. UPL should NOT do another SO unless it means nothing!

[HumanSlinky39]

3 minutes ago, Quint said:

Greenway lost Tom Wilson on that tying goal. 

Losernen looked so bad against Oshie in the shootout.

What has happened to Tage Thompson? He isn't scoring anymore. Is he playing hurt?

I don’t know that he’s hurt. Most stars not named McJesus go through slumps like this from time to time. He’s still been contributing with assists.

[Sabel79]

13 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

Win a face off.  Clear the puck.  Help the dam goalie. 

But isn’t the goalie required to help the team, at least a little bit?  

[SwampD]

1 minute ago, spndnchz said:

Or that supposed trip

On Cozens? I think they would have called that, Jebus I hope so.

[PerreaultForever]

Pretty typical Sabres loss really. Game they could have and should have won but they took the foot off the gas and let them back in, got bad goaltending, bad D, and were horrible in terms of net front presence. Pretty much the same things that were wrong with this team when the season started.

 

[Pimlach]

17 minutes ago, DarthEbriate said:

Flip the jersey colors. You'd be livid at the refs if Stillman (in place of Irwin) took a roughing penalty for that push and grapple. The refs let players grapple and jaw all the time, and moreso in the final 2 minutes.

Now, maybe Tuch could've tried to skate and drive back toward the net and drawn an interference call. But he didn't. Tuch did the one thing you cannot do -- a punch at the head while you're on the powerplay.

You've been watching hockey and playoff hockey for years. You've seen the refs be happy to remove a powerplay, especially one that's ill-gained. It has nothing to do with their training, it's how referees and humans are. That lost powerplay (not the loss of the game) was all on Tuch.

Your logic does not work for me.  The ref felt bad for calling one on Washington, so he “evened it up”??? Really??? Do you think he would say that???  I’ll bet $100 buck he wouldn’t .  
 

Not our problem if he called a bad call.  You are not trained to call two bad ones in a row.  Was it even the same ref that called both ?

 

That is not how they are trained.  The correct call was Irwin and Tuch, 2 minutes each for roughing.  Irwin did everything possible to draw the penalty, instigate, rough, interfere. -  and the ref fell for it.  
 

He didn’t even it up, he gave them a 6 on 4.  We only had a 5 on 4.  The ref should not EVER think of that stuff, his job is just call what is in front of him.  Tuch deserved a penalty, so did Irwin. 
 

I am more made at at the damn PK, than Tuch, UPL, or the ref. They are terrible.  Abysmal is more like it. Last in the league.  

Edited March 16, 2023 by Pimlach

[Mango]

37 minutes ago, sabremike said:

Look at our remaining schedule (particularly playing 6 of the last 8 on the road), we couldn't afford to piss away a point tonight. And we aren't just competing with the Isles for that last spot.

Sounds like an advantage to me.

I wish I were 100% joking. But it really does increase the odds.