Buffalo Sabres 21 - 22 Season

[Ann]

...

 

[Taro T]

4 hours ago, Ann said:

...

 

Last update had Anderson & Okposo back off IR and Tokarski is also apparently active.

 

3 of the 4 players that tested positive on the rapid test: Dahlin, Jokiharju, & Asplund are still listed on the roster.  Olofsson isn't listed, so he's likely out tonight.

 

No word on whether Ellis & the other assistant coach are still out.

 

It looks like Anderson will get his 7th Starr of the year.  Which means tomorrow's game in Denver will likely have Tokarski between the pipes.  THAT one could get UGGGG-LEE.

[Taro T]

Updated:

 

 

Plus Girgensons is on IR until after the AS break.

[Taro T]

Apparently, the Sabres positives yesterday were false.  

 

All those players that were out last night for positive tests that day, except Asplund are in tonight.

 

Thompson & Butcher are out.  So, Olofsson & Dahlin are in.  11-7 w/ Tokarski getting the start.

[shrader]

I was in a local target today and I walked through their “fan” section. It was littered with hurricanes gear as you’d expect. Then there was a rack of green shirts, so I walked closer thinking those must be what I think they are… but no, Minnesota North Stars. I’m guessing someone accidentally ordered the wrong stuff. 
 

I kind of want to go back and buy one. 

[shrader]

So that Brad Marchand “suspension”… What an absolute joke. I don’t know how to assign a number of games to it, but an intentional stick to the head should start with at least 20 games. There’s no place in the game for that. And it’s that’s only half of the incident. 

[Alaska Darin]

9 hours ago, shrader said:

So that Brad Marchand “suspension”… What an absolute joke. I don’t know how to assign a number of games to it, but an intentional stick to the head should start with at least 20 games. There’s no place in the game for that. And it’s that’s only half of the incident. 

Pretend you're surprised. 

 

Liar. 😄

[Crap Throwing Clavin]

30 minutes ago, Alaska Darin said:

Pretend you're surprised. 

 

Liar. 😄

 

Same league that let Todd Bertuzzi keep playing after he ended Steve Moore's career.  What a surprise.

[snafu]

11 hours ago, shrader said:

So that Brad Marchand “suspension”… What an absolute joke. I don’t know how to assign a number of games to it, but an intentional stick to the head should start with at least 20 games. There’s no place in the game for that. And it’s that’s only half of the incident. 

 

Was it me, or did the Penguins look real soft in their response?

 

 

 

[Alaska Darin]

6 hours ago, snafu said:

 

Was it me, or did the Penguins look real soft in their response?

Welcome to Betteman's NHL.  In any other era, they'd still be peeling dudes off what was left of the rat.

 

 

[snafu]

3 hours ago, Alaska Darin said:

Welcome to Betteman's NHL.  In any other era, they'd still be peeling dudes off what was left of the rat.

 

 

The real rat was Kenny Linsman. 
Marchant is a douche. 
They should have dragged him around the rink and repainted each of the faceoff circles with his blood.

 

[shrader]

1 hour ago, snafu said:

The real rat was Kenny Linsman. 
Marchant is a douche. 
They should have dragged him around the rink and repainted each of the faceoff circles with his blood.

 

The linesman had him about as quickly as possible (didn’t hold on all that well though). At that stage, if anyone goes after Marchand, they get punished more severely than he did. Great system they have there. 

[Taro T]

17 hours ago, snafu said:

The real rat was Kenny Linsman. 
Marchant is a douche. 
They should have dragged him around the rink and repainted each of the faceoff circles with his blood.

 

 

Marchand is, in the words of the Monty Python troupe, a rat faced git.

[4merper4mer]

22 hours ago, Alaska Darin said:

Welcome to Betteman's NHL.  In any other era, they'd still be peeling dudes off what was left of the rat.

 

 

Next time they play is way too late.  I can’t believe they let that guy skate off the ice.  If no one on the ice was willing, this is a case where someone needed to come off the bench.  WTF?  And 6 games is a joke.  Enough of this guy already.

Edited February 11, 2022 by 4merper4mer

[snafu]

1 hour ago, Taro T said:

 

Marchand is, in the words of the Monty Python troupe, a rat faced git.

 

I think Bob & Doug McKenzie would call him a knob.

 

[Taro T]

A few observations in no particular order from last night's 4-3 OT loss.

 

They seemed to not realize the league wasn't taking the Olympic break in the 1st, but woke up in the 2nd.  That's one thing (among others) they need to fix before next season.  After having a few days off, they need to come ready to play.  Fortunately their longest break after February is 3 days & that only happens once.

 

At least 3 times all the players on the ice (at least those near the puck) had no idea where the puck was when it got deflected high into the air.  Haven't seen that happen that often before.

 

Early in the 3rd, shift after Tuch scored his goal, he took a heavy shot that deflected off Werenski's leg and the BJ's cleared it.  Weren't was in great discomfort, so much that the ref asked if he needed a whistle.  He shook the ref off, but could barely get to his feet much less propel himself towards his bench.  So, the ref helped him up & then gave him a huge boost towards his bench.  He eventually worked his way off the ice & was back about 6 minutes later, so no serious damage done.  But honestly can't recall seeing a ref help a player off the ice during play before.  It won't be on the highlights as the play was in the Sabres zone by the time the ref gave him the boost.  Weird.

 

Speaking of Tuch & blocked shots.  In the 1st, right before an icing, Tokarski made a save & the puck made an enormously loud thud as it hit Tuch's shoulder pads at chest level.  He never flinched & never reacted to it at all even though he couldn't get to the bench for about a minute.  Guess it sounded worse than it was.

 

While we're discussing Tuch, as enticing as having Krebs & Tuch on the same line is, really don't want to pull Skinner off Alex's line.  We've found the ONE player in the entire league that Skinner can effectively pass the puck to & don't want to mess that up.  😉  Though Skinner CAN'T hit the post w/ a wide open net off that feed from Tuch in the 1st.)

 

Skinner might have had his best all around game last night even though he didn't score a goal.

 

Wtf is Dahlin's goal song?  They played it for about 4 minutes waiting for the video review & it epitomizes what you'd expect to hear in a Euro version of a Pokémon video game.  Love the player, but he really needs to never score another goal at home.  😉

 

And speaking of Dahlin, maybe part of his lack of chemistry w/ Jokiharju is that Swedish Finnish thing because he was going ALL over the ice to hit Laine every chance possible.  Guess he likes Finns in B&G, but he really doesn't like them wearing opposing colors.  Which is good.

 

Krebs was finding the puck like crazy, but his passing was waaaaay off.  Expecting it was due to a lack of playing much w/ his linemates as he was clearly expecting them to zig, but they zapped & the puck was turned over or given back to Tokarski from the offensive zone.  D'OH!

 

Also looking forward to him bulking up a bit as he was getting ragdolled at times by BJ D-men.  But it never stopped him from going after the puck nor to the front of the net.

 

Hagg couldn't get anything to go right for him.  Hopefully that was bad luck or rust because he's likely in the lineup at least until Power shows up.

 

Merzerklins was bad.  Tokarski said, "hold my beer."  Not sure why he got the start over Anderson.  That decision likely cost them a point.

 

Watching OT, had just got done saying, "2 D, guess Granato wants OT to go a little longer than ..." "so much for that, it was a nice idea though."

 

Anyone that thinks Dahlin can't fly, go back and watch him go back for the puck as the PP in the 3rd was expiring & he realized the BJ coming out of the box had the line on the puck.  He found a completely different gear & won that race cleanly.

 

Thompson continues to show he is the 2nd Sabre exception (right after Larsson) that proves the rule that all C's can play W.  As long as Granato is coach, doubt we ever see him back on the wing, but NEVER want to see him at wing again.

 

Hayden has an excuse for making poor plays - he just doesn't have NHL baseline skills.  Wtf is Bjork's excuse?  Really think he simply doesn't have "hockey smarts."  Can't wait for him to be supplanted.

 

Nice pass from Jankowski to Mr. Leatherman (he may not be the ideal tool for the job, but he can get just about any job done) Kyle Okposo.

 

Will Olofsson EVER buy another goal?  Bounced a shot off the far post right after Dahlin's goal that looked like it would go.

 

Another very sparse crowd.  Definitely less than 5,000.  Probably less than 4,000.  Would believe it if you said there were under 3,000.

 

The intermission band was playing blues & was actually pretty good at it.  No idea who they were.  Bring in live bands for the intermission was a very good idea.  Hope that stays for next year.

[Taro T]

Some observations from today's game in no particular order.

 

If only they had this afternoon's effort on Thursday ...

 

Tokarski was hot trash the 1st 17 or so minutes, but he made a save late in the 1st that caused his mask to go back to the dressing room for repairs during a TV timeout & was lights out after that.  Though he gave up 2 bad goals & one meh in the 1st, he was drawing on his inner Hasek in the 2nd & into the 3rd.  He had 1 stick save in the 2nd that should've made all the highlight shows.  Dove back towards the net to rob an Av of a wide open net.

 

The Skinner - Thompson - Tuch line continued working it's magic w/ Thompson netting a hat trick through the 1st 2 periods & Tuch hitting the post/outside of the net on a 2nd period PK off a nifty feed from Tage & just missed on a chance early in the 3rd w/ the score 3-3.

 

Mittelstadt was back and though his skating still looked labored, he had most of his usual speed back.  He was working between Asplund & Okposo and they played OK.  

 

Still hating on Bjork.  His turnover just inside the Avs zone led to the Avs 2nd goal as Tokarski appeared to have stopped a bad angle shot but it went just behind him as it fluttered over his shoulder and trickled over the goal line before Pysyk could make a heroic dive to keep it from sneaking over the goal line.

 

Olofsson was back in the goalless column after getting 2 vs Moe-ray-all on Tuesday, but he continues to play well in other areas.  His hustle on the backcheck prevented a 2 on 1 when Tokarski was still in tire fire mode.

 

Thompson had opened the scoring very early but before they could even announce the goal over the PA system MacKinnon tied it on a horrible angle shot Toker would like the have had back.

 

Edit: Sabres went down 3-2 in the 1st very shortly after Tage got his second late in the period.

 

Avs outshot the Sabres badly in the 1st but the shots for the most part were from seemingly harmless areas but they still managed to get 3 by Tokarski on their 1st 10 shots.

 

Game turned on a horrible non-penalty midway through the 3rd. Dahlin was racing into the Avs zone to retrieve a puck behind their net on a dump in & got manhandled by the D-man and thrown into the boards.  Should've been interference.  As he lay behind the Avs net, the Avs came back up ice & scored on the defacto 5 on 4.  About 30 seconds later nearly the same play happened but (IIRC) this time Bryson was the Sabre being interfered w/.  The ref called this one while fearing for his own safety but the damage was already done & the good guys couldn't get 1 past Kuemper.

 

Avs got an empty netter late & the Sabres lost one in regulation that they'd worked hard enough & well enough to deserve at least 1 point.  As awful as they'd played Thursday, they played that inspired today.

 

Crowd was the 2nd largest this kid was a part of this season.  Would guess it was 6,000+ in the building w/ a lot of kids in the crowd.  Hopefully they didn't learn too many new words after the takedown of Ras behind the Avs net.

[Taro T]

FYI,

 

Anyone avoiding going to Sabres games because they haven't been vaccinated, apparently that restriction will be removed as of 2/28.

 

Looks like Polencarz is removing mask & vaccine mandates per CDC guidance for all but schools & health care facilities.

[Taro T]

Sabres announced that they've initiated a Fan Council to help them get a better understanding of where their fans are at, so to speak.

 

https://buffalonews.com/sports/sabres/as-sabres-unveil-new-initiatives-for-season-tickets-theyre-mostly-holding-line-on-prices/article_938b3cd4-9727-11ec-bac9-eb84ea008c6b.html

 

In case anyone has anything they'd like to have brought up at one of those meetings, might know a guy ... 😉

 

[Alaska Darin]

3 hours ago, Taro T said:

Sabres announced that they've initiated a Fan Council to help them get a better understanding of where their fans are at, so to speak.

 

https://buffalonews.com/sports/sabres/as-sabres-unveil-new-initiatives-for-season-tickets-theyre-mostly-holding-line-on-prices/article_938b3cd4-9727-11ec-bac9-eb84ea008c6b.html

 

In case anyone has anything they'd like to have brought up at one of those meetings, might know a guy ... 😉

 

Uh, what is the plan to have the team be competitive past Thanksgiving?