2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs

[SwampD]

Lookin like a full day of hockey today. Love it.

No two screens at once (unless OT), but still good.

[Wyldnwoody44]

Looks like my pick of Tampa over Toronto in round 2 is not gonna happen. FLA just turned it to another level 

[bob_sauve28]

1 hour ago, Wyldnwoody44 said:

Looks like my pick of Tampa over Toronto in round 2 is not gonna happen. FLA just turned it to another level 

Back comes Tampa 

[bob_sauve28]

Total cheap shot

[Thorny]

Only Toronto in “control” of a series

[Gatorman0519]

Foligno is another player I never understood why we got rid of so fast. Dude is everything we’ve needed all this time doing it for Minny. 

[pastajoe]

29 minutes ago, Gatorman0519 said:

Foligno is another player I never understood why we got rid of so fast. Dude is everything we’ve needed all this time doing it for Minny. 

Like so many other former Sabres, he underperformed until he left for another team.

[dudacek]

58 minutes ago, pastajoe said:

Like so many other former Sabres, he underperformed until he left for another team.

Aside from one 42-point blip, Foligno has been the same 25-point player for 8 years in Minny that he was in 5 with Buffalo.

[Thorny]

10 minutes ago, dudacek said:

Aside from one 42-point blip, Foligno has been the same 25-point player for 8 years in Minny that he was in 5 with Buffalo.

Yeah. Him under performing or over seems mostly to come down to being a function of expectations 

Which is most of these guys 

Edited 18 hours ago by Thorny

[Pimlach]

Tanev forces a 4min minor on the Otters in OT.  Leaves given the opportunity to finish them.  

[Pimlach]

Otters stay alive.  Sanderson tosses it at the net and scores!  

[...]

I have to admit, I was hoping Toronto would sweep. Alas. Their skill is fun to watch and their ability to enter the zone is admirable. They're still going to get physically crushed by any other team in the east.

[SwampD]

More hockey is always good.

[SwampD]

Man, that was a great hit by Tkachuk on Gentzle! It wasn’t anywhere close to late. Pretty ridiculous that it was a penalty.

[JohnC]

I was watching a good chunk of the Minny/Vegas game. It was a battle with a lot of hard hitting and tight defensive play. This was typical playoff intense play that you see in most playoff games. What's obvious to me (and most commentators here) is that the way our roster is constructed we will not be able to play the style of game required to be a serious team. Where it becomes really apparent is on the blueline where you see players battling near the goalie. We don't have enough more defensive oriented and rugged players on our blueline unit. I'm not saying anything that hasn't often been said. It's just so noticeable when you watch playoff games. 

The Sabres have plenty of skill players. They need Greenway to get healthy and another Zucker-like player (younger) added to the forward line to make this a tougher roster to play. It just seems to me that a few smart roster moves will make a big difference for this team.  

[bob_sauve28]

2 hours ago, SwampD said:

Man, that was a great hit by Tkachuk on Gentzle! It wasn’t anywhere close to late. Pretty ridiculous that it was a penalty.

Really? I thought it was way late. 
 

Maybe I just hate Tkachuk. But the pass was way away 

[SwampD]

14 minutes ago, bob_sauve28 said:

Really? I thought it was way late. 
 

Maybe I just hate Tkachuk. But the pass was way away 

It really wasn’t. Watch it in real time, not that super slo-mo replay. Totally clean hit.

And after the second time he touches it.

He was admiring his pass.

[LGR4GM]

1 hour ago, JohnC said:

I was watching a good chunk of the Minny/Vegas game. It was a battle with a lot of hard hitting and tight defensive play. This was typical playoff intense play that you see in most playoff games. What's obvious to me (and most commentators here) is that the way our roster is constructed we will not be able to play the style of game required to be a serious team. Where it becomes really apparent is on the blueline where you see players battling near the goalie. We don't have enough more defensive oriented and rugged players on our blueline unit. I'm not saying anything that hasn't often been said. It's just so noticeable when you watch playoff games. 

The Sabres have plenty of skill players. They need Greenway to get healthy and another Zucker-like player (younger) added to the forward line to make this a tougher roster to play. It just seems to me that a few smart roster moves will make a big difference for this team.  

We don't have enough defenders who know how to defend. Dahlin isn't defensive oriented and he's still good defending. They need more gritty puck moving defenders.

[Archie Lee]

11 minutes ago, SwampD said:

It really wasn’t. Watch it in real time, not that super slo-mo replay. Totally clean hit.

And after the second time he touches it.

He was admiring his pass.

I just rewatched it to make sure I didn't see it incorrectly the first time. Tkachuk didn't even commit to the hit until after the puck was gone.

To the bolded, the reason player's in this situation don't have their heads on swivels is because they generally wouldn't dream that an opponent would do something that dirt-baggish.  Of course, Guentzel should have known better as Tkachuk is a world-class dirt-bag. 

Hits like this are available all over the ice, and in every game, and they don't happen. The reason they don't happen is that the vast majority of players aren't dirt-bags.

[SwampD]

9 minutes ago, Archie Lee said:

I just rewatched it to make sure I didn't see it incorrectly the first time. Tkachuk didn't even commit to the hit until after the puck was gone.

To the bolded, the reason player's in this situation don't have their heads on swivels is because they generally wouldn't dream that an opponent would do something that dirt-baggish.  Of course, Guentzel should have known better as Tkachuk is a world-class dirt-bag. 

Hits like this are available all over the ice, and in every game, and they don't happen. The reason they don't happen is that the vast majority of players aren't dirt-bags.

While all that might be true, it still wasn’t late.

[Archie Lee]

3 minutes ago, SwampD said:

While all that might be true, it still wasn’t late.

The refs reviewed it and gave him a 5 minute major for interference.  It was so late that the Refs ruled, after review, that Tkachuk had interfered with the next thing that Guentzel was going to do.

[SwampD]

14 minutes ago, Archie Lee said:

The refs reviewed it and gave him a 5 minute major for interference.  It was so late that the Refs ruled, after review, that Tkachuk had interfered with the next thing that Guentzel was going to do.

And the NHL never gets it wrong.

Who cares anyway? It’s a series and that hit was for the next game. I love Tkachuk.

[SwampD]

The more I think about it, a five minute major for that hit is absolutely ridiculous, considering all the other bs they let go.