[Gaskal]

Around the League Report

Spoiler!

The Benched Dimension

Listen, UPL has saddle sores from sitting too much, and his legs are beginning to atrophy. He can barely stand. Eric Comrie has entered some sort of hibernation state. He built a lair in the laundry room, and he sleeps 16 hours a day. He has drawn a face on his blocker and can be heard having polite conversations with it during his few waking hours.

No one is talking about getting into a rhythm. With 3 goalies, that's next to impossible.

I'm talking about just not being so rusty that you become the Tin Man.

I wonder if UPL and/or Comrie sit long enough we can send them down to the Amerks for a conditioning stint without exposing them to waivers.

One challenge for Comrie and UPL is the rust that is accumulating.

UPL has not seen game action in 15 days. Comrie has not seen game action in 21 days.

The longer they go without game action, the rustier they are going to get.

Their job is to be ready at any time. Find backups better at going in cold. QB's go years without live game action a goalie cant go a month? Finding Rhythm is for starters not backups.

"Be the change you want to see in the market"

goalies used to play 70 games. Man up.

We face our official first backup(technically) tonight.

I have 3 pretty good guesses.
Jokes aside I’d guess Comrie / UPL tonight, Levi Saturday against the NYI, other of Comrie/UPL Monday against the Canadiens and Levi against the Senators Tuesday.
Which means it will probably be Levi tonight, Levi Saturday, Levi Monday hahah
Edit: Lance says Levi is in the starters net so I’m off to a great start

Possible responses:

1. Doesn't matter to me which goalie plays any day, afternoon, or night the rest of the season AS LONG AS HE WINS!!!!

2. By carrying three goalies, we have two names instead of just one for the shoulda coulda woulda post-game thread if the starter loses.

3. Goalies play Scrabble the day before a game to determine the starter. Levi plays in French, UPL in Finnish, Comrie in English. highest point total gets the start.

4. In this bizarre era of hyper-diversity and hyper-inclusion, why not give all three goalies 1 period each game the rest of the year?? And randomize which period each goalie plays every game. Keep EVERYONE guessing. The goalies, the Sabres defense, the Sabres forwards, their opponents, the fans, Rob Ray, EVERYONE. Scratch VO every night so as to dress the 3rd goalie. Solve all your problems with one tactical solution.

Early Hubey Dooby Doo

Jesus that was some of the worst goalie play in the first minute i've ever seen super slow reaction

I got up during the anthem to get some apple crisp and came back and it’s 1-0

Wtf Levi

Woof.

Great start boys

Levi needs to stop reading the HFBoards Levi thread.

Levi waaaay too slow getting up and over to the side he left that rebound on.

The way this team plays at home (not to mention their 12 years in a row of futility) I don’t want to hear #### about the attendance. They’re lucky they have one person willing to go.

Jesus Levi does not look ready to go

Did anyone let them know that the game started at 7:00 tonight?

Walker DUEHRRRRR

That's on Tage for not clearing

Stop playing like f***ing idiots had all day to get it out holy ####

They look f***in drunk

It's hard to anatomically have one's head up their ass when they are that tall, but Tage is actively hurting them right now.

That was all on Tage going back into his zone. Get it out

Sloppy McSlopperson

Calgary analysis: Shoot from anywhere and everywhere, early and often.

Unforced turnovers. What the f*** is going on

Helluva system they've got here, keep passing cross-ice at your own blue line until you give it away.

f***ing Tage. Go forward with the f***ing puck

The more I watch this team the more dissatisfied I am with Don Granato as our coach.

Levi with 2 goals against that are the softest I've ever seen

Levi's looked good this season but he looks like a high school goalie tonight, I hope this doesn't get really bad.

Power Kill?

Was there a shot on the power play?

Can we please have our good players be good again? Please?

There was a power play?

Are we just not allowed to have our PK and PP be good at the same time? Do we have to pick?

What the f*** is powerful about any of that PP?

Is there a single assistant coach on this team that deserves to be on an NHL bench?

Third times a charm?

Crapfully Crap

A few Sabres need a colonic

I figured Calgary would play well, they been in town since Tuesday.

Seriously. What a #### period.

Sabres all over the place....but we're tied.

Hopefully we decide to remove our heads from our recti.

My week has been way too ####ty for this start tonight

I think Levi got ####faced before the game

That period was a cluster #### lol

Oilers look like a team whose warts mirror ours

Gamesmanship

That's an interesting 'penalty' there. Didnt know a player trapping a stick with both hands and holding onto it was a penalty on the other player. Where I come from that would be considered holding the stick.

Well, that seemed soft. Not that it shouldn’t be a penalty, just that it’s never called.

On the one hand, the stick got there somehow. On the other, seems like a long time holding his stick there without getting called for holding the stick.

high sticked, punched in the face twice, pushes him away… alright buddy you’re going to the box

Just want to take a moment to respect the fact that Johnson chose to yell (to my eyes) "HERE WE GO" and I just love that THAT'S what he went with. Like it's such a selfless rally cry, right? Like cool I scored let's keep going we're just getting started. I'm drinking.

The Goalman Cometh

Zero continuity

Sigh. Of course

Man on man man oh man

This is worse than an Islander game

Boy, have they sucked so far tonight.

That's on Benson, gotta get that puck deep when you're at the end of your shift

Benson turning it over leads to a 4-on-2.

Good learning moment for Benson. Can’t let that happen in the NHL

WTF was Eric Johnson doing? Didn't take away the pass or the shot...just stood there pointing.

Rosie’s Winner

f***

Make a f***ing stop

Jesus Christ

And the pendulum swings wildly back the other way.

Levi needed a game off … Jesus.

Of course they score while we SHOULD be on the PP. Because Sabres.

we are simply not a good team

there was no way you can assume that multiple players who had career highs could replicate that or even improve.

This debacle is squarely on that joke of a GM called Adams

It would be really great to have a reliable veteran goalie to turn to as a 21 year old struggles in his first pro season, wouldn’t it?

Everyone was warned about this all summer.

I wouldn't stfu about it.

That's on sleepy Kevyn.

This team is never making the playoffs while Granato has the job. The constant home losses are such a clear indictment on his awful in game management. Wonder which undersized forward we are going to draft 8th OA next year? I'm just tired of the neverending bull#### that is this organization.

The problem with this team is the top players do not play a mature game, they try this fancy garbage which when it works it's beautiful, but when it doesn't it ends up the back of your net. The top line is an abomination right now, no one wants to get the puck they all just float waiting for someone else to do all the work.

The Edmonton Quitters

I want Tage to get at least 5 points tonight, not because he's playing against Calgary but because I was really wanted him to get 50 goals and 100 points last year...

“Just the first game of the year!”

“We’re 32nd place LOL!”

“Nobody would care if we lost two in a row in the middle of the season!”

“We’re mad they played their top PP unit when we were getting pumped!”

Maybe this time the media will actually ask tough questions and this group of lazy morons actually take some f***ing responsibility and recognize that there’s a problem and take some accountability.

This team has the worst work ethic in the NHL by some margin. No other team does this this often.

That was depressing just no pushback or effort

Ugly. Is this one of those years when we're done by Christmas?

Butter soft schedule to start the year, and the team has a zero give a #### meter. Beyond embarrassing and frustrating.

ITS ONLY BEEN FOUR GAMES.lololollolololololololololoolllllllllllloooo oooooooo

I don’t know how you go into a 3rd period while behind against f***ing Philly and get outshot 17-4.
Boys straight up GAVE UP. Some of you put more effort into finding streams than these boys put in tonight. Starts from McDavid down. Pathetic.

That’s the type of game teams play when a coach has a foot out the door.

Don’t think that’s the case here. Don’t think the players even want him gone. But it was that game.