A lot of people were excited about the Calgary game, but said they wouldn't be sold until they saw the outcome in Philly.

What I was most proud of is the fact that this weekend, we were able to play an entirely different style of play, extremely effectively, against one of the top teams in the league after playing extra minutes the night before and commuting.

Also, outside of goaltending, the depth of this hockey club is becoming very apparent to me. Mair has brought a lot of energy to the 4th line in Grier's absence. Kaleta's promotion has shown how much he has grown as a player. And Ennis coming up from Portland to play on one of our top lines for a while was impressive.

Even with Lydman out of the lineup, who is considered to be one of our best defensemen, we can play lock down hockey.

So... are you convinced? And if so, what do you think is the most important element missing in our team? A better back up goaltender, or a high scoring winger?

Personally, I believe.

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Wheelhouse

High scoring Winger. Or, I will except the Coors Twins as compensation, I prefer 2 weeks with them in a retreat in the rockies (with hot tub) and 3 games worth of tickets (corporate box stocked with Jim Beam)

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Lord Stanley's Cup is what its all about.
Mr. Pegula, your destiny awaits you sir.

I believe only in what has already happened, and have no faith in the future for any Buffalo sports team. I do think they are very good right now, and the opportunity is there this year for something special to happen, but that's as far as I'll go.

Way too many times burned for the faith thingy. If anything, my faith is that the curse will come down and crush us in the end, so keep at least a small piece of your heart protected from the tragedy that history tells us awaits.

I hope for the best; let's keep it at that.

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Oh lord, it's hard to be humble, when you're perfect in every way. I can't wait to look in the mirror, 'cause I get better looking each day. To know me is to love me, I must be a hell of a man. Oh lord, it's hard to be humble, but I'm doin' the best that I can.

Miller is the only player who is playing at his peak right now. Other's must raise their level, or we won't compete with the top teams over the course of a whole season.

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"I'll rap you with my cane; you pencil necked geek!!"

-Bowler, imitating Freddy Blassie, at the very first M & G.

Yeah, things seem to be finally clicking with this team but it's way too early to tell if they will stay consistent.

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Defensively, we are there. If we lost Tallinder and Lydman we have plenty enough talent in the pipeline to replace them.
Offensively, just 1 or 2 key pieces missing (RWer). I feel Ennis is 1 of the 2 pieces missing.

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Lord Stanley's Cup is what its all about.
Mr. Pegula, your destiny awaits you sir.

Slesh paging Zack Kassian. Come in Zack Kassian...

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Oh lord, it's hard to be humble, when you're perfect in every way. I can't wait to look in the mirror, 'cause I get better looking each day. To know me is to love me, I must be a hell of a man. Oh lord, it's hard to be humble, but I'm doin' the best that I can.

How old is Kassian? You think he could step in at that start of next season?

With that in mind, if they trade, I would think they would get a whole lot of draft picks and maybe even pickup a talent for the run into the playoffs.

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Lord Stanley's Cup is what its all about.
Mr. Pegula, your destiny awaits you sir.

BTW, here's Kassian taking on one of the top heavyweights in the OHL last week. In addition to this toughness, he's got 6 goals, 6 assists in his first 14 games and is the team captain.

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Oh lord, it's hard to be humble, when you're perfect in every way. I can't wait to look in the mirror, 'cause I get better looking each day. To know me is to love me, I must be a hell of a man. Oh lord, it's hard to be humble, but I'm doin' the best that I can.

Kassian is bad ass.

I can't wait until this kid cracks the Sabres lineup.

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Wheelhouse

Alright come on Phil, where are you?

I think it was you who said something along the lines of, "Good win against Calgary, but I'm not sold yet. If they beat Philly, they'll have turned me into a believer."

Come on... I know you said it! Haha

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Wheelhouse

Yep it was me.

(I'm at work on my BBerry...pardon my brevity haha)

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mechaphil

We consist of incredible goaltending that pretty much consists of just Miller, above average (so far) defense and mediocre offense. We have enough grit guys and guys with heart for the first time in a while (Ellis, Grier, Kaleta, Kennedy, Gaustad, pretty much our third and fourth lines)... but now we need our skill guys to finish those chances they have been getting more often, or bring in guys that can. That and having a reliable backup for Miller would help immensely, especially when the Olympics come around.

That's my take on the season so far, in a nutshell. Hopefully guys can keep playing strong and certain 1st and 2nd liners on this team can step up a bit...

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That got me so excited. Oh my gosh. I cannot wait for him to be in Buffalo.

I can see Line 2 soon looking like this:

Kennedy - Ennis - Kassian

Hopefully in 2 years, but, I would love to see it as line 3 next season

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Lord Stanley's Cup is what its all about.
Mr. Pegula, your destiny awaits you sir.

We need a backup first and foremost. We're winning now without an effective RW, so we'll be fine in that department until later in the season. If we can get an effective back before Christmas I would be really happy. And in the process of getting this back up we trade Hecht and Stafford, I would be ecstatic. In part because we lost their contracts freeing up a lot of cap space, which we could use to bring in someone that is actually worth that money during the deadline (pray to the hockey gods that it's not another Bernier or Moore, but actually an effective RW), and we could also bring Ennis back up here (that is if he truly is as good as he was against Philly). I think all this happening would be enough to shake up the slackers (i.e. Vanek) into knowing they're not safe and that they have to work their hardest, and it would give them that little push that they need to really be a force in this league. If all this happens, I really believe we will make it to ECF's again, and then to the SCF's, and then to Ryan Miller holding Lord Stanley above his head.

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"Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid." ~ Han Solo


We truly are not worthy of Miller!

Maybe I'm the only one but I don't think that much changed. We had a very good start last year too! This roster is NOT deep enough to compete with the juggernauts over a whole season. Miller has been stellar so far but everyone needs a bit of a break sometime, so getting a good backup should be 1st.

Next BENCH the slackers.

esp. Vanek needs to step his game up he's making elite player money so he better play like one!

+ I think we should call up Kassian who has proven that he IS NHL ready!

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Sloppy seconds = 6 games "clean" headhunting = nothing
it's obvious Bettman and Campbell are Pens cocksuckers

It's very, very different from last year, in tons of ways. In terms of;

The roster changes.
The system adjustments.
Personal players' improvements.
Ruff's approach changes.
Grit and toughness; mental and physical.
Look and feel of the on ice product.

It is very, very different.

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Wheelhouse

So far this season they have done a great job against the top teams in the League. It still concerns me that they don't bring that same level of play when playing against some of the lesser teams in the league. Those points are just as important as the big game ones. Consistency is still a bit of a question for me but I like what I see so far.

I'm not quite sure what it is that you're talking about.

Our losses have been to Boston, Atlanta, Montreal, NYI, and Philadelphia.

The Philly and Boston losses were back to back when the team was wrecked by the flu bug. In addtion, Miller did not play in Boston.

How did we respond? By winning 3 in a row. 1 against mediocre Edmonton, and 2 against top tier teams in Philly and Calgary.

Lalime played in the loss to Atlanta... which always spells disaster.

New York is a pretty good team.

And the loss to Montreal was in overtime off a fluky play that Gomez took advantage of.

Meanwhile, we have wins over all kinds of teams.

The Sabres have the 2nd best win % in the NHL, and we're half way through November.

If you take a look at last season, we were no where near this successful.

So... if your definition of "inconsistent" has on on pace to finish with the 2nd best record in the NHL, then I'll take "inconsistent" any day of the week!

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Wheelhouse