GDT: Game 8: Sabres vs Kings - 10/20 3:30pm ET (MSG-B, WGR 550)

[Dreakon13]

Game Preview: 10/20/18 at Los Angeles

LAST GAME
Thursday, October 18
Buffalo 1 at San Jose 5
Goals: McCabe
Goalie: Hutton (34 saves/38 shots); 1 ENG
PP: 0/5; PK: 4/7; Shots: San Jose 39 – Buffalo 25

CURRENT INJURIES – (Man Games Lost: 32)
Player (injury, first game missed) – total games missed
Matt Hunwick (neck, Oct. 4; injured reserve) – 7 games
Sean Malone (knee, Oct. 4; injured reserve) – 7 games
Scott Wilson (ankle, Oct. 4; injured reserve) – 7 games

TRANSACTIONS IN PAST 7 DAYS
10/16: Activated D Zach Bogosian from IR; Assigned D Matt Tennyson to Rochester (AHL)
10/17: Signed F Matej Pekar to a three-year, entry-level contract

UPCOMING GAMES
Sunday, Oct. 21: Buffalo at Anaheim, 8 p.m.
Thursday, Oct. 25: Montreal at Buffalo, 7 p.m.
Saturday, Oct. 27: Buffalo at Columbus, 7 p.m.
Tuesday, Oct. 30: Calgary at Buffalo, 7 p.m.
Thursday, Nov. 1: Buffalo at Ottawa, 7:30 p.m.

TODAY’S GAME
SABRES at KINGS

• This is the first of two meetings between the Sabres and Kings this season.
• Last meeting: Los Angeles defeated Buffalo 4-2 in Buffalo on Feb. 17
• Next meeting: Tuesday, Dec. 11 in Buffalo
• The Sabres are 4-6-0 in their last 10 games vs. the Kings; 2-7-1 on the road
• This is the 124th game all-time between Buffalo and Los Angeles; Buffalo has a 59-45-19 series record.
• The Sabres are 24-28-10 on the road against the Kings all-time.

Click to read more...

 

[TheMistyStranger]

Can’t embed the tweet on my phone, but the lines at practice....

It reeks of desperation from Housley. I mean, maybe it’s works out, but Poms with Eichel and Elie with Dahlin seem pretty goddamn desperate to me.

 

[26CornerBlitz]

 

[Rasmus CacOlainen]

Can’t embed the tweet on my phone, but the lines at practice....

It reeks of desperation from Housley. I mean, maybe it’s works out, but Poms with Eichel and Elie with Dahlin seem pretty goddamn desperate to me.

I hope hes desperate, maube he does enough even stupider than normal things and Botts gives him his byebye cheque.

 

[joshjull]

Can’t embed the tweet on my phone, but the lines at practice....

It reeks of desperation from Housley. I mean, maybe it’s works out, but Poms with Eichel and Elie with Dahlin seem pretty goddamn desperate to me.

Unless something changed I’m pretty sure it was Skinner/Jack/Pommer. Elie wasn’t on any line

 

[sabresfan129103]

I expect the Kings to put a good beat down on us. I also fully expect to lose my shit when the team can only manage 1 goal for the 3rd game in a row and 4th time in 5 games.

 

[Doug Prishpreed]

I’m scared to find out what Phil does with the D pairs. I know he has very little to work with but I hope Nelson with Scandella is just a placeholder

 

[TheMistyStranger]

Unless something changed I’m pretty sure it was Skinner/Jack/Pommer. Elie wasn’t on any line

Elie skated with Dahlin at practice yesterday afternoon. See @26CornerBlitz post a few up.

 

[Zip15]

At least this will only ruin our Saturday afternoon instead of our Saturday night.

 

[Dubi Doo]

My god those lines are putrid. Housley is in midseason form I see.

 

[kirby11]

I'll be a bit optimistic and say we lose 3-2 or 4-3 instead of by 3+ goals

 

[Tatanka]

They should mount a a GoPro on Poms helmet to get great action video of Jack and Skinner flying by him. He can skate, yeah I use the term loosely, in his comfort zone between the blue lines and always be close to the bench for a change.

 

[brian_griffin]

That's like taking your Lineup Leftovers out of your Sabres refrigerator and frying up a Hockey Hash.

I'm actually fine with whatever gets jumbled up because how much worse can the ES & PP "chemistry" get?

 

[Tatanka]

That is ridiculous. Okposo is not the answer to any question facing the Sabres and yet Phil doubles down on him and Vlad who stinks. Erod is softer than Charmin and good for two to three blind passes to nowhere that usually wind up back in our zone. I really want to root for this team. Phil makes it harder than it should be.

 

[joshjull]

Elie skated with Dahlin at practice yesterday afternoon. See @26CornerBlitz post a few up.

They usually have an extra forward skate with a dman if there is an odd number Elie isn’t on a line and isn’t going to play with Dahlin in the game. Not sure why you think that’s going to be a thing. Unless your commenting on the fact that Dahlin wasn’t with McCabe for practice.

If I had to guess, based on practice, the dpairs will be McCabe/Risto, Scandella/Bogo and Beaulieu/Dahlin. I believe that was the case near the end of last game.

 

[Buttons85]

Glad to see our coach is using the "pick numbers out of a hat" strategy for line combos now.

 

[26CornerBlitz]

I wonder if Pilut has been recalled with him being scratched last night in Rochester and Bogo/Beaulieu missing.

 

[Washed Up 29YearOld]

Pilut left last night's game with an upper-body injury I believe.

 

[Dreakon13]

That is ridiculous. Okposo is not the answer to any question facing the Sabres and yet Phil doubles down on him and Vlad who stinks. Erod is softer than Charmin and good for two to three blind passes to nowhere that usually wind up back in our zone. I really want to root for this team. Phil makes it harder than it should be.

These are the posts that drive me nuts. Okposo on the 2nd line and Sobotka on the 3rd line is not "doubling down" on them. Using the players he has is not "doubling down" on anyone. Phil maybe hasn't made many of the arbitrarily determined "right choices" yet per HF... but the whole team has sucked (by all accounts) the last few games. Playing musical chairs with the players he has is really the best he's got until something clicks.

Fans are just seeing red at this point and decided any lineup sucks as long as Okposo isn't benched. Which is Pejorative Slured.

 

[yahhockey]

The game is also on SN1 (Sportsnet 1) for my fellow Canadian fans.

I hope they can pull a rabbit out of a hat but first glance at the lines is scary.

 

[Aladyyn]

These are the posts that drive me nuts. Okposo on the 2nd line and Sobotka on the 3rd line is not "doubling down" on them. Using the players he has is not "doubling down" on anyone. Phil maybe hasn't made many of the arbitrarily determined "right choices" yet per HF... but the whole team has sucked (by all accounts) the last few games. Playing musical chairs with the players he has is really the best he's got until something clicks.

Fans are just seeing red at this point and decided any lineup sucks as long as Okposo isn't benched. Which is ******ed.

Sobotka playing at all is worth seeing red.

 

[GellMann]

They usually have an extra forward skate with a dman if there is an odd number Elie isn’t on a line and isn’t going to play with Dahlin in the game. Not sure why you think that’s going to be a thing. Unless your commenting on the fact that Dahlin wasn’t with McCabe for practice.

If I had to guess, based on practice, the dpairs will be McCabe/Risto, Scandella/Bogo and Beaulieu/Dahlin. I believe that was the case near the end of last game.

Right. B&B didn't practice but nobody has said they're out for the game, and Bogo is a real regular at not practicing to not break him, and they both had nasty shot blocks last game. But if we were really in a scenario yesterday where Elie would be playing D today, somebody would have been flown out there last night and ready to play today.

 

[Buttons85]

These are the posts that drive me nuts. Okposo on the 2nd line and Sobotka on the 3rd line is not "doubling down" on them. Using the players he has is not "doubling down" on anyone. Phil maybe hasn't made many of the arbitrarily determined "right choices" yet per HF but the whole team has sucked (by all accounts) the last few games. Playing musical chairs with the players he has is really the best he's got until something clicks.

Fans are just seeing red at this point and decided any lineup sucks as long as Okposo isn't benched. Which is ******ed.

Probably true, but the whole construction here doesn't seem based on anything. Despite the overall ass-ness of the team, individual players have looked better than others, and those players should be getting more time. Maybe something like:

Girgensons - Eichel - Pominville
Rodrigues - Mittelstadt - Reinhart
Skinner - Berglund - Okposo
Sheary - Sobotka - Larsson/Thompson

Eichel can carry a line with 2 guys that, despite being 4th liners so far, have actually looked halfway decent in their roles.
Mittelstadt and Reinhart haven't gelled with their linemates yet, so it would be interesting to see them together with a guy like ERod helping to drive the forecheck.
Okposo is deadweight at this point, but Skinner doesn't need him to make something happen, and Berglund (despite the VGK game) is probably our most defensively reponsible player and can help cover Okposo's gaffes.
While Sheary has potted a few, he seems to have been fighting the puck a lot lately. The 4th line is admittedly a bit of a mess, but with this roster... I don't think you can avoid it.

 

[Dreakon13]

Sobotka playing at all is worth seeing red.

Most people here could say that about half the team. The guy I quoted even seemed to have it out for ERod of all players. Think we gotta dial back the red-seeing. Folks losing it waiting around for Housley to make the one or two moves that will alleviate their varying personal concerns must not only be exhausting/frustrating... but is completely irrational.

Probably true, but the whole construction here doesn't seem based on anything. Despite the overall ass-ness of the team, individual players have looked better than others, and those players should be getting more time. Maybe something like:

Girgensons - Eichel - Pominville
Rodrigues - Mittelstadt - Reinhart
Skinner - Berglund - Okposo
Sheary - Sobotka - Larsson/Thompson

Eichel can carry a line with 2 guys that, despite being 4th liners so far, have actually looked halfway decent in their roles.
Mittelstadt and Reinhart haven't gelled with their linemates yet, so it would be interesting to see them together with a guy like ERod helping to drive the forecheck.
Okposo is deadweight at this point, but Skinner doesn't need him to make something happen, and Berglund (despite the VGK game) is probably our most defensively reponsible player and can help cover Okposo's gaffes.
While Sheary has potted a few, he seems to have been fighting the puck a lot lately. The 4th line is admittedly a bit of a mess, but with this roster... I don't think you can avoid it.

I'm sure people can come up with a million line combos with their own personal observations that may or may not be completely valid. That's the tough part about a team that isn't clicking almost from top to bottom. Phil may even have his own reasons for these lines, that if explained would make some kinda sense. Getting belligerent and seeing it as almost a personal slight because Housley didn't "pick yours" seems to be how people are approaching this lately.

 

[Moskau]

Lines turn out to be genius, Buffalo wins 6-2 and Housley buys himself 2 more years.

 

[Buttons85]

Fair enough. Upon second look, it feels like Housley is probably trying to simultaneously mix up the lines and prevent any 2 of Pominville/Okposo/Sobotka/Larsson landing on a line together. I don't envy his job with this lineup.