GDT: Sabres @ Sharks - Sat Jan 27, 2024, 4:00 pm ET MSG, ESPN+ NBCSCA 📺 WGR 📻

[Spoonman]

Good Day Sabres Spacers!

Matinee Hockey Before the Break:

Sabres Look to Slash Sharks

 

  @ 

 

             21-23-4                                      13-31-4

                                         LAST 10

             6-4 (W1)                                          4-5-1 (W3)

       46 pts. / 48 gms.                          30 pts. / 48 gms.

• Sabres currently sit in 27th in the league, with SJS anchoring in 31st
• UPL between the pipes to pick up on goalless streak v Sharks
• A chance to go into the All Star Break on a 2 game win streak 
• The Boys in Blue need to win this game

# MUST WIN

#LETS GO BUFFALO

 

 

[Spoonman]

Sabres line up for practice:

Forwards

53 Jeff Skinner – 72 Tage Thompson – 21 Kyle Okposo

12 Jordan Greenway – 37 Casey Mittelstadt – 89 Alex Tuch

22 Jack Quinn – 24 Dylan Cozens – 77 JJ Peterka

9 Zach Benson / 71 Victor Olofsson – 19 Peyton Krebs – 50 Eric Robinson

Defencemen

26 Rasmus Dahlin – 78 Jacob Bryson

25 Owen Power – 10 Henri Jokiharju

33 Ryan Johnson – 75 Connor Clifton / 6 Erik Johnson*

Goalies

1 Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen

27 Devon Levi

 

Out today due to injuries:

Z - UBI

Muel - UBI

Big Johnson - UBI *did skate w the team in practice

[bob_sauve28]

Go Sabres! 

 

Maximum warp! 

[Kristian]

Having Kyle Okposo on the first line makes me really sad… This is where we’re at.

[Doohicksie]

Mushy waters.

[Weave]

 

Meh Wails

[Taro T]

8 minutes ago, Weave said:

 

Meh Wails

Aren't meh whales natural enemies of sharks?

This could work out.  😉

[Sabres Fan in NS]

50 minutes ago, Kristian said:

Having Kyle Okposo on the first line makes me really sad… This is where we’re at.

That is not a thing that will be happening in the game.

[Stads]

Another chance to continue on the elusive quest towards 3 wins in a row. That's right folks. We are 48 games into the season and the Sabres do not have a 3 game winning streak. Absolutely boggles the mind.

[Sabres Fan in NS]

MUST WIN !!

GO SABRES !!

AVENGE SOMEBODY !!

SWORDS !!

 

[Thorner]

The Sabres long stretch of poor opponents finally comes to an end today. We didn’t make up the required ground, but a win today at least makes it a respectable stretch 

[Pimlach]

Seems like a good cloudy day, Saturday afternoon event.  Hope the Sabres show up and get another win.  
 

Still missing my Bills in the AFCCG.   Meh.  
 

I don’t see a Sabres playoff run at this point, would like to see decent hockey though.  

[PickaPecaPickles]

2 hours ago, Kristian said:

Having Kyle Okposo on the first line makes me really sad… This is where we’re at.

I kind of like it. Having tuch on the 3rd line with mittlestadt creates a solid scoring line. KO provides the forechecking of tuch, but not the scoring, which forces TT to pick up the offensive load. 3 solid scoring lines, though the kid line now appears to be #1. 

[Wyldnwoody44]

I am taking the ferry from Quebec to Levis today. I'm going to ice skate and eat poutine. I make this trip every January. I used to stream the Sabres whenever I could, but they won't steal any of my time away anymore. The Bills would have if they had won last week but alas, here we are. 

[Marvin]

Mediocrity winning.

[LTS]

2 hours ago, Sabres Fan in NS said:

That is not a thing that will be happening in the game.

This actually happened last game.

1 hour ago, PickaPecaPickles said:

I kind of like it. Having tuch on the 3rd line with mittlestadt creates a solid scoring line. KO provides the forechecking of tuch, but not the scoring, which forces TT to pick up the offensive load. 3 solid scoring lines, though the kid line now appears to be #1. 

I also believe it's an indictment of Tuch who has not been forechecking as well as he should.  They don't want to mess up the JJP-Quinn-Cozens so they move up Okposo.  I do think it also has the impacts you mentioned. If Tuch was playing the way he SHOULD be playing, he'd be on that line.

Won't see this one.. real life has more important things planned for today.

[thewookie1]

Oddly enough, we are more or less the last place team of passable hockey teams at this time. We have a 7+ point lead on all 5 teams behind us and would jump to 24th with a win and losses by MTL, MIN and CGY. Just very unusual.

[TheAud]

4 minutes ago, thewookie1 said:

we are more or less the last place team of passable hockey teams at this time. 

[Thorner]

9 minutes ago, thewookie1 said:

Oddly enough, we are more or less the last place team of passable hockey teams at this time. We have a 7+ point lead on all 5 teams behind us and would jump to 24th with a win and losses by MTL, MIN and CGY. Just very unusual.

This isn’t unusual 

we are a bad team, but that there’s a tier of putrid below is not uncommon. You often see tiers like this. I don’t consider 27th place passable (nor 24 - I think passable is 16th) but that we can jumps 3 teams if we win and all 3 lose isn’t odd at all. 

Edited January 27 by Thorny

[thewookie1]

Just now, Thorny said:

This isn’t unusual 

Not for the Sabres to be there, just the odd formation in the standings

[Thorner]

In January, Sabres had 11 games, 9 of which were against non-playoff teams. Easiest month by far, and we’ve played 10 of the 11 so far.

We’ve gone 6-4. Likely needed better than 7-4 here considering the ground we need to make up, but it’s still been a good month with a dub. 6-5 would of course be a different story 

[Thorner]

I don’t know why I just feel they’ll have at least one stretch in them where people start to ignore the math and believe, before the season is out 

[Taro T]

4 minutes ago, Thorny said:

I don’t know why I just feel they’ll have at least one stretch in them where people start to ignore the math and believe, before the season is out 

Because sheer chance says they should be able to have 3-4 4 game winning streaks throughout the season.  Nearly 50 games in, they're still looking for their 1st 3 game winning streak.  Get a couple of 4-0-0 stretches around an 0-2-0 or 0-1-1 stretch and it APPEARS doable.

[Thorner]

4 minutes ago, Taro T said:

Because sheer chance says they should be able to have 3-4 4 game winning streaks throughout the season.  Nearly 50 games in, they're still looking for their 1st 3 game winning streak.  Get a couple of 4-0-0 stretches around an 0-2-0 or 0-1-1 stretch and it APPEARS doable.

Was running the math again today..even if we win the next 4 straight (thus giving us a 5 gamer when we haven’t even got to 3), we’d from that point need to play at a 109 point pace (something only 7 teams did last year) over the final 30 games. 

Perhaps you’re right that we’d be feeling so good after that we’d be willing to ignore the math: cause it’d still look daunting. So I dunno if it would APPEAR doable but maybe FEEL doable 

I’m still thinking about moneypuck’s 8.8%. That seems so high to me considering the ground we need to make up and the teams we need to leapfrog 

still have shot 

Edited January 27 by Thorny

[Stoner]