GDT: Leafs @ Sabres, 12/20/24 - 7:00 PM, ESPN+/Hulu 📺, WGR550 📻

[gilbert11]

It seems like just a few days ago that the Sabres were only 4 points back of the last wildcard spot.  Now it’s 10 points so Adios! Sayonara! Aloha!  Don’t let the door hit you in the butt on the way out!

[Kristian]

3 hours ago, Archie Lee said:

It's incredible the negative impact that complacency has had on this team. I legitimately feel sorry for the players.  I was bitter, at the time, when O'Reilly and Eichel wanted out.  Today, I would not begrudge any of our players for publicly stating they don't want to be a part of this any longer. 

Buffalo is where careers go to die.

Hockey-hell.

[JP51]

21 minutes ago, Kristian said:

Buffalo is where careers go to die.

Hockey-hell.

Amen

[PerreaultForever]

I had 30 seconds of enjoyment in this game when Tage belted Matthews and then held his own well against Reilly. For 30 seconds Tage was a hockey player. That was fun. 

The rest had me nodding off. 

Edited Saturday at 08:36 AM by PerreaultForever

[Billznut]

5 hours ago, Crusader1969 said:

Not sure if anyone else likes to gamble on sports BUT if you are FanDuel has Sabres at +1800 for last place 

for comparison sharks are only at +110

may as well profit from the Terrys dumpster Franchise 

As of 5 am it’s at +1600 for last place. Still decent odds. Made my bet. 

[Wyldnwoody44]

It's sad because that was the first game they showed even the slightest bit of "grit" maybe "poise" idk, maybe it was 26 back. But ultimately just more of the same. There was little of that play in the last 11 games before last night also..... We're on to next season before Christmas again 

[CallawaySabres]

I really hope they get to 18 losses in a row. I want the national media to embarrass them more and more with every loss as well. 
 

I want this organization to feel pain so it’s not only the fans that have felt it. I want players, coaches and owners to all feel it.

[bob_sauve28]

12 hours ago, Slack_in_MA said:

So if there's no whistle, who determines there was a penalty after the fact?

If there was no goal, would there have been no penalty?

I watched the highlights and they did not even try explaining what happened there. 2024 can't end fast enough

[MISabresFan]

How can someone who runs anything not see any of this poop, while watching.  Wow!  The players have to be embarrassed if they have any pride at all.  Everyone else in this organization has to be wondering if they will have a job. Running scared.  I would pull an Arizona/Utah and start selling everything.  Need to remove the doom and gloom surrounding this franchise.  Something outrageous needs to happen to add some kind of spark to light any glimmer of hope.   Might need to lean on the people responsible for the Bills turnaround to help (after the nfl season - which is never over) with the clean up.

[Carmel Corn]

37 minutes ago, CallawaySabres said:

I really hope they get to 18 losses in a row. I want the national media to embarrass them more and more with every loss as well. 
 

I want this organization to feel pain so it’s not only the fans that have felt it. I want players, coaches and owners to all feel it.

Yes, total and complete national humiliation is the only hope now.  Let’s hope Chicago doesn’t disappoint us.  Any team that has Buffalo on the schedule in the next month does NOT want to be the team that loses to the Sabres….as it would be a humiliation for them.

[PromoTheRobot]

8 hours ago, SwampD said:

It was a high stick.

With blood.

Missed by the officials and not called until a Sabres goal was scored. Have you ever seen a retroactive penalty call made by a linesman? Only in Buffalo, I guess 

Then there's the GI call. 😵 I get were all rooting for failure here, but c'mon. You ask if the players are embarrassed, but how would you feel when this s**t keeps happening to take away any progress you make?

Absolutely snakebite.

Edited Saturday at 01:44 PM by PromoTheRobot

[LTS]

Just now, PromoTheRobot said:

Missed by the officials and not called until a Sabres goal was scored. Have you ever seen a retroactive penalty call made by a linesman? Only in Buffalo, I guess 

Yes, actually. Multiple times I have seen officials congregate after a whistle to determine a high-stick infraction occurred. It's not only in Buffalo. It was the right call. It sucks that it happened, but it was the right call.

[SwampD]

39 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

Missed by the officials and not called until a Sabres goal was scored. Have you ever seen a retroactive penalty call made by a linesman? Only in Buffalo, I guess 

Then there's the GI call. 😵 I get were all rooting for failure here, but c'mon. You ask if the players are embarrassed, but how would you feel when this s**t keeps happening to take away any progress you make?

Absolutely snakebite.

I have never seen it. Didn’t even know it was a thing. But they changed the rules recently, where a coach can challenge a play for a penalty or something that would have stopped play (like a hand pass) and figured it was just part of that.

I agree that they are snakebite.

[LGR4GM]

They aren't snakebit, they simply lack talent. 

[SwampD]

Is Bryson hurt or just in the press box?

I know some will disagree with me, but I would have rather seen Bryson last night than Gilbert. Yes I know Gilbert hits, but, that’s about it. He’s pretty bad at everything else and Toronto isn’t exactly a heavy team. I think Bryson’s speed would have served us better than Gilbert’s hitting.

 

[Carmel Corn]

2 minutes ago, SwampD said:

Is Bryson hurt or just in the press box?

I know some will disagree with me, but I would have rather seen Bryson last night than Gilbert. Yes I know Gilbert hits, but, that’s about it. He’s pretty bad at everything else and Toronto isn’t exactly a heavy team. I think Bryson’s speed would have served us better than Gilbert’s hitting.

 

So who is the lesser of these 3 evils:  Bryson, Gilbert or Joki (in your opinion)?

[Pimlach]

6 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

I had 30 seconds of enjoyment in this game when Tage belted Matthews and then held his own well against Reilly. For 30 seconds Tage was a hockey player. That was fun. 

The rest had me nodding off. 

Power’s second goal was nice.  Unfortunately the league is completely stupid on goalie interference.  

10 minutes ago, Carmel Corn said:

So who is the lesser of these 3 evils:  Bryson, Gilbert or Joki (in your opinion)?

They are equal.  Depends on the day and the opponent.  Joker should grade out the highest but lacks consistency.  

[Pimlach]

2 hours ago, CallawaySabres said:

I really hope they get to 18 losses in a row. I want the national media to embarrass them more and more with every loss as well. 
 

I want this organization to feel pain so it’s not only the fans that have felt it. I want players, coaches and owners to all feel it.

Fans feel it, players feel it, coaches feel it, ....  not sure about the owners.  

No commitment to winning from the top, just words and slogans and irrational behavior.   I feel for the people in the organization that actually care.  

[thewookie1]

2 hours ago, PromoTheRobot said:

Missed by the officials and not called until a Sabres goal was scored. Have you ever seen a retroactive penalty call made by a linesman? Only in Buffalo, I guess 

Then there's the GI call. 😵 I get were all rooting for failure here, but c'mon. You ask if the players are embarrassed, but how would you feel when this s**t keeps happening to take away any progress you make?

Absolutely snakebite.

I've seen it before once or twice but it was far more direct situations. One of them was a two on one in a game where #2 guy high sticked the defenseman as he got to the net and cut the guy as the goal was scored. Refs didn't see it, but a linesman saw the stick get high.

In this case the high stick really wasn't an egregious slashing of the face, honestly I'm confused as to how it drew blood to begin with, and wasn't integral to the goal being scored.

Couple that with at least two non-calls on that 4 minute PK with one involving Toronto tripping Malenstyn thus directly leading to the 2-0 goal is outright lunacy. 

[PromoTheRobot]

2 minutes ago, thewookie1 said:

I've seen it before once or twice but it was far more direct situations. One of them was a two on one in a game where #2 guy high sticked the defenseman as he got to the net and cut the guy as the goal was scored. Refs didn't see it, but a linesman saw the stick get high.

In this case the high stick really wasn't an egregious slashing of the face, honestly I'm confused as to how it drew blood to begin with, and wasn't integral to the goal being scored.

Couple that with at least two non-calls on that 4 minute PK with one involving Toronto tripping Malenstyn thus directly leading to the 2-0 goal is outright lunacy. 

The GI contact had no impact on Murray stopping the goal either, but there you go. That decision is 180-degees opposite of the call when UPL had his glove contacted during a goal. No consistent application of the rules.

Edited Saturday at 04:13 PM by PromoTheRobot

[Crusader1969]

2 hours ago, SwampD said:

Is Bryson hurt or just in the press box?

I know some will disagree with me, but I would have rather seen Bryson last night than Gilbert. Yes I know Gilbert hits, but, that’s about it. He’s pretty bad at everything else and Toronto isn’t exactly a heavy team. I think Bryson’s speed would have served us better than Gilbert’s hitting.

 

How about Neither?  And have them take Jokiharju and Clifton with them 

not sure any belong in the league at this point 

[SwampD]

1 hour ago, Crusader1969 said:

How about Neither?  And have them take Jokiharju and Clifton with them 

not sure any belong in the league at this point 

That’s a different discussion. I’m just talking about the coaching decision for last night. I’m not as down on Joki as others and he is still youngish for a D man.

[PerreaultForever]

5 hours ago, Pimlach said:

Power’s second goal was nice.  Unfortunately the league is completely stupid on goalie interference.  

They are equal.  Depends on the day and the opponent.  Joker should grade out the highest but lacks consistency.  

That's fair, it was a nice play against a weak Leafs D. I've seen goals called off for less with that rule though. Agree it's stupid. I'm sure you remember Jim Lorentz. Imagine how he'd struggle under today's rules. He was no Dornhoeffer, but boy did he like to sit in tight on goalies. I imagine big Dave would lose a lot of his goal totals as well. I'm old, I liked old hockey better. 

[Pimlach]

2 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

That's fair, it was a nice play against a weak Leafs D. I've seen goals called off for less with that rule though. Agree it's stupid. I'm sure you remember Jim Lorentz. Imagine how he'd struggle under today's rules. He was no Dornhoeffer, but boy did he like to sit in tight on goalies. I imagine big Dave would lose a lot of his goal totals as well. I'm old, I liked old hockey better. 

Yes, Lorentz was willing to take a beating to get his goals.   Another great pickup back in the day when our GM made move to improve the team.  Lorentz cost us a 2nd rounder (to Rangers) and that player saw the NHL.  
 

Why our GM can’t find a few better players with all the capital stockpiled is crazy.  A good GM could fix this.  We need about 4 players to be competitive.  

[Marty]

28 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

Yes, Lorentz was willing to take a beating to get his goals.   Another great pickup back in the day when our GM made move to improve the team.  Lorentz cost us a 2nd rounder (to Rangers) and that player saw the NHL.  
 

Why our GM can’t find a few better players with all the capital stockpiled is crazy.  A good GM could fix this.  We need about 4 players to be competitive.  

Yeah… Wayne Gretzky, Bobby Orr, Dom Hasek and… oh hell, with just those 3 we might win a game or two.