u/DegreePrize4722

For those wanting Alex Tuch gone and who bark out silly comments about him doing nothing in the playoffs -- there was someone on here yesterday claiming "Tuch hasn't scored at all in the playoffs" 😂🤣 this post is for you !

Here ya go -- Tuch is tied for the 2nd most shots on goal - across the entire NHL players in the 2025-2026 post-season -- he's tied in SOG with our top scorers -- Rasmus Dahlin and Tage Thompson -- all three are tied at 41. One can't have the 2nd most shots in the entire playoffs, if they are not trying, nor putting an effort in.

Tuch also has the 2nd most scoring chances in this Montréal/Buffalo series out of all players. Some of you were saying he's not even trying - bullsh*t of course he is. He's snakebitten right now and it happens to great players - yes, even in the playoffs.

One of Montréal's top forwards - Ivan Demidov had 62 pts in the regular season and only had one assist the entire playoff series against the Tampa Bay Lightening. He was snakebitten in that series. Demidov had four pts in four games against Tampa in the regular season and that's pretty darn good.

As for hits/checks - Alex Tuch has the 10th most hits/checks, out of all players left in the playoffs. Most of the top checkers are defensemen. Tuch is third on the Sabres in hits -- third only to only Mattias Samuelsson (44) and Beck Malenstyn (38) and Tuch has 35 hits/checks.

Tuch is also one of the top penalty k*lling forwards on the club. That cannot be denied.

This post is directed at those who don't know what they are seeing while watching a hockey game on their tv or in the arena. There are a lot of people who don't have a clue as to what they see out on the ice. How do we know - the comments on social media prove it.

When someone is struggling to score in the playoffs, yet their club is advancing - players understand that they have to carry each other to win.

Thompson finally broke out in game 6, after skating on the ice looking like he didn't want to be here with the Sabres.

Tuch has never looked like that in any game in these playoffs and if you think he has -- you're one of the ones who does not know what they are looking at when watching a hockey game.

Just because Tuch's name isn't up in lights for scoring - that doesn't mean he's doing nothing out there.

It's interesting to note - when Jack Quinn was struggling these entire playoffs -- he had no goals in 11 playoff games and he finally scored in game 6. After he scored, he immediately turned around and he skated right over to Tuch for a hug on the bench.

There's no doubt Tuch has been mentoring Quinn, the otheryounger players and talking to them, bc why would Quinn go right to Tuch after scoring in game 6 against Montréal ? They have clearly been talking and Tuch is struggling to score. They must be close and it was like a little brother going to his big brother for approval. It was pure gold.

Tuch will be playing in his 79th playoff game in his career tonight in game 7. That cannot be discounted for the experience he brings to these younger players - behind the scenes. It's not always the scoresheet that talks or the tale - there are intangibles involved as well, which cannot be quantified, nor discounted.

The Buffalo Sabres need to stay in Montreal tonight and tomorrow - come home on Monday in the early afternoon and go to a local hotel in Buffalo and stay there at the hotel till a few hours before game time. No skating, no practice and no film.

Then go right to the arena on a charter bus, like they are playing a road game.

My game 5 report: Your best scorer - a 40 goal scorer - skates in on a break away - does a couple of tiny shoulder moves - gets no real shot on goal - that says it all.

His name is Tage Thompson and that was his moment to shine on that break away. It was a complete epic fail and 100% inexcusable. He just has to reach back, use his super long powerful torque and fling the puck into the net at 85mph from 12 to 13 feet out - instead - nothing, zero, zip, nada. It didn't look like he even tried.

The score would have been 4 to 2 in favor of the Sabres and they would've tightened up defensively and taken their scoring chances when presented.

Thompson's scoring chance was the easiest chance to score for anyone in the whole game and maybe for any Sabre in all 11 playoff games we've played in. He blew it.

When the game was still winnable, late in the 2nd period and Montréal was only up 4 to 3 - what does Thompson do ? He goes out of his way and cross-checked Jake Evans for absolutely no reason whatsoever near the Sabres blue line at the 17:23 mark of the 2nd period.

Thompson used his stick with 1,000 times more effort at cross-checking Evans, than the effort he used on his stick for that weak marshmallow shot along the ice at Dobes pad - on his infamous zero effort game 5 break away.

After another Sabres faceoff loss, in their own end, a couple of quick passes and the puck is in the back of the Sabres net -- 10 seconds into the power play at the 17:33 mark, which again was caused by the completely unnecessary cross-check by Thompson. He is an epic liability at this point.

I can point to a small handful of lazy plays by only a few Sabres in their losses to Montréal this series. The losses turned on a few crucial, yet pivotal self-inflicted mistakes, which were totally avoidable. The mistakes were split between a combo of a few high quality players and a few of our mid-level players.

It's not over, bc we have at least one more game to right the ship - maybe two.

Barring some type of inspired miraculous turn around with three of four lines consistently firing on all cylinders, which happened from December 9th, 2025 through December 31st, 2025, in the next few weeks - we're going to be hurtin' for certain.

Unless that turn around happens and is non-stop - starting tomorrow - we'd most likely not get past Carolina and certainly wouldn't be raising silver in June against -- Colorado or Las Vegas.

The future is bright - much brighter than it was in October and November of 2025 or the last 14 years for that matter. It's been a pretty good experience for us all -- considering the years of suffering we've been through.

The Buffalo Sabres were buzzing around the ice in Montreal in the 1st period for just over 8 mins to start game 4. The puck was taken from Montreal at the 12:06 mark in the Sabre's end by Samuelsson, which stopped a rush by Montréal.

The Sabres' quick speedy transition game kicked in and top prospect Konsta Helenius was in on the Montréal goaltender w a high quality scoring chance 7 seconds later.

Just as Helenius approached the net - goaltender Dobes used his goalie stick to make contact w Helenius's right skate - when Helenius was outside of the goal crease. As Coach Ruff said after the game: [Their goaltender initiated contact w Helenius, so we thought we'd be credited w that goal].

Jack Quinn followed up the play and quickly lifted the still wobbling puck w a backhand into Dobes glove, but it appeared that Quinn had hit Dobes' glove, which may have pushed his goalie glove back over the goal line. It may have pushed his glove into the net or that could be Dobes reaction to keeping the puck from another whack by Quinn.

Many stated Helenius made no contact w Dobes and it was Quinn's hit on the glove which was the interference being asked to be looked at by Montréal, which caused the goal to be disallowed. That is not correct as per the NHL's situation room statement released afterwards.

The situation room's response is the first screen shot here. The challenge was on Helenius contact, which there was no contact initiated by Helenius.

The officials, along w the sitch room caused an almost 10 min delay in the game, which cooled down the Sabres clear momentum and control of the game.

Buffalo had 6 SOG to Montréal's 1 (see pic 4 and the time of the game). The momentum was heavily in Buffalo's ​favor.

First, it wasn't a goal called on the ice (understandable - due to visual restrictions), then it was a goal (as per an 8 mins review) and then reversed on a phantom goaltender interference call.

It was one of the longest reviews I've ever witnessed in any sport event and within one minute Sportsnet of the play stopping -- showed a zoom in shot of the puck, which one could see the puck -- thru webbing of Dobes' glove and clearly fully inside the goal line.

Why it took 7 mins more to call it a goal is beyond me. The other almost 2 min to account for almost 10 mins - was the review called for by Montréal. ​It sure looks like the delay was to cool the momentum of the Sabres, who were buzzing all over the ice.

Guhlie ran into his own goaltender pretty hard on his own accord and Montréal at the end of the play, after the whistle - crosschecked Helenius in the upper back 7 feet from the back most referee - no penalty called.

I'd love to hear the conversation going on between officials in the sitch room and on ice. I have no idea what they'd be talking about for so long.

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As per many experts - the impact was: The lengthy pause was seen as a momentum shifter in the game

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That was ridiculousness on the NHLs part, which we can't control. However, seeing these issues clearly is necessary to understand what really happened with all the facts put together as a whole.

Yeah - we won the game, but the officiating has become as bad as the color commentary by Ray Ferraro, which is another issue on its own.

PS: WKBW's channel 7 sports director Matt Bove confirmed with Konsta today -- that his last name is pronounced -- HELLA noose.

Bolduc 100% leg n arm/elbow locked Malenstyn from the side and behind, bc Bolduc failed defensively to keep up with Malenstyn.

Malenstyn got passed Bolduc and Bolduc caught Malenstyn from the side just before the inner faceoff hash marks. Between the two inner hash marks Bolduc arm/elbow locked Malenstyn. (Pic 2)

Within one more skate stride Bolduc began to move his left leg between Malenstyn's legs and then firmly leg locked Malenstyn, while pulling back on Malenstyn's chest. (Pic 3)

This was clearly a holding penalty or an interference penalty - depending on how you look at it and the purpose was to prevent Malenstyn from gaining possession of rebounding puck, which was shot from the left faceoff circle by Sam Carrick.

In pic 4, the puck has bounced off of goaltender, Dobes, and is still inside the goal crease by a few inches. One can see it and Dobes is clearly looking down at it to his right.

Pic 5, shows the puck just in front of Malenstyn in reach of his stick, on the rebound. Bolduc is still completely locked up with Malenstyn in an effort to keep Malenstyn from using his stick on the puck and they are both about 4 feet from the crease.

Buldoc is pretty much riding Malenstyn into his own net and there's no way for Malenstyn to turn yet as his right side and right arm are both locked into place, as is his right leg and he cannot turn - to make an attempt to stop.

By pic 6, Bolduc finally began releasing Malenstyn, about a foot in front of the Montréal goal crease, as the puck has went back between Malenstyn's legs.

Between pic 6 and 7, is Malenstyn's first chance to fully turn his skates toward his right and try to stop. That moment only began when Malenstyn's skate were at the very front edge of the goal crease arc marking line.

In pic 7, one can see both of Malenstyn's skates turned to the extreme right in an effort to stop. It was way too late. You can also see how close Bolduc's forward most skate -- his left skate - is literally right behind Malenstyn's right skate.

In pic7, one can see Malenstyn reaching upwards to try to use his forward inertia to jump over Dobes, but it's nearly impossible bc of how late Bolduc disengaged Malenstyn.

I don't recall Bolduc getting a holding or interference penalty on this play and I'm not sure why he didn't, as Malenstyn never had possession of the puck. I'd call this an obvious holding penalty.

In pic 8, Malenstyn's whole upper body from his waist up is bent at a 90 degree angle over the crossbar and his skates are two feet off of the ice.

Bolduc rode Malenstyn so long towards the crease, Bolduc did a 180 degree turn, attempting to not hit his own goaltender and yet he also plowed into Dobes.

This collision was 100% caused by Bolduc's actions​. In pic 5, how referee in the corner fails to call a holding penalty on Bolduc is beyond me. The ref had a clear view of the whole incident.

Beck Malenstyn's fine is $3,515.63 and that's pretty much chump change to him or any professional athelete in the four major sports. If I was Malenstyn -- on principle alone -- I'd challenge and ask for a hearing with the league -- just to make a case that it was Bolduc who caused it. Everyone in the hockey media and non-hockey media are parroting each other and I don't believe any of them took slow motions looks at what really happened on the play.

This could cause some serious cheap shots to Lyon or UPL, which happened a bit later in the game to Lyon, but no one in the hockey world is talking about that hit. This is going to give Malenstyn a bad reputation as well.

The Montréal fans are comparing this Bolduc riding Malenstyn into Dobes --- to goaltender Carey Price being "run" by Chris Kreider, while Kreider was on a full speed break away.

The part most people ignore, as to why Kreider did not deliberately run Price -- is that the Montreal Canadien who caught up to Kreider on Kreider's right side -- dove and swung his stick along the ice, which hit the front of the blade of Kreider's right skate so hard -- the striking stick flexed ​and that knocked Kreider off balance.

Kreider fell from losing his balance and attempted to use his skates to slow down, but the inertia and speed wouldn't allow Kreider to stop in time.

Every single Canadiens fan -- and the media at that time of the collision -- between Kreider and Price -- completely ignored the swing and hit on the right skate blade of Kreider, which the Montréal Canadien player did to cause Kreider to slide into Price -- skates first.

Both incidences were caused by a Canadiens player and most are ignoring those facts.

Keep that hard working spirit going man and enjoy your 75th playoff game. I hope things are special for you tonight on the ice and keep being the on ice Guardian of the Buffalo Sabres for us ! 🏒🥅🔥🎂💐🎊🎉🍰🍻❤️

It looks like Ricky will be back, as Tyson Kozak got a maintenance day and wasn't on the ice. I feel a bit bad for Kozak, as he's worked hard, but I'm sure he knew when Ricky was better - he'd be odd man out. Thank you, Tyson for the hard work.

Having practiced with the team all week, Carrick could be getting set for his first game of these playoffs – the veteran has been out since injuring his left arm March 31.

“Carrick’s available for tomorrow, for sure,” Ruff said.

Thompson, Dahlin and Quinn moved around quite a bit during the drill, so expect their positions to be pretty fluid as they look for shooting lanes in-game.

“We’re gonna shake it up. We feel it’s the right time for it,” Coach Lindy Ruff said. “We think that putting Doaner and Benny – Benny’s really playing well, he’s making a lot of small-ice plays. We think that can be a factor. We’re looking at Quinner coming off the flank, so, yeah, why not?”

“We had a good meeting,” Alex Tuch said. “As we got skating out there, I think everyone loosened up a little bit. Getting back into playing hockey, some good laughs and just trying to stay loose. Trying to build up each other’s confidence and get back to how we know we can play.”

I'm happy to see Thompson pulled away from Tuch on the power play. Tuch hasn't had great games, but he had six shots on goal last night in game 2 against Montreal. Thompson had zero shots on goal in game 1 and one shot in game 2. I did like seeing Tommers more active in the hitting game, as he had 6 hits.

Krebs was pulled from the Tuch/Thompson line for part of game 2. I know Krebs gave the puck up on an early goal - it may have been goal one. I'd like to see Benny possibly double shifted once in while with Tuch and Tommers, if he can handle it.

Jordan Greenway checked Ivan Demidov during a 2nd period power play last night. Demidov went a*s over tea kettle and his right skate blade came down cutting Malenstyn's hand or wrist. Malenstyn's glove flew off as well, yet Malenstyn continued to play throughout the penalty kill.

Malenstyn could be seen holding his hand behind his back as it had no glove on it. What a warrior. After over a minute of bleeding, he was able to push the puck out of the Buffalo zone and he immediately skated to the bench holding up his bloodied hand up.

He immediately went to the dressing room, received stitches and returned to the game.

More than one fan was complaining that these towels were contrived by the Buffalo Sabres front office, but they were incorrect.

Tage Thompson explained: “It means no job is too big or too small for anybody. That when everyone is willing to do the little things that aren't always flashy - it shows the room that you care about winning and doing whatever it takes.”

*Tap the diagonal slanted double arrows in the bottom right corner next to sound speaker - to turn it to full screen mode.* I watched this an unhealthy amount of times - non-stop - to hear the roar of the crowd n just to see Tasmanian Benny's arm pull back on his stick, then leg lift to fake the shot, which froze goaltender Jakub Dobes and then smoothing it over to Josh Doan for the tap in. It was a beautiful goal on a puck steal and all three Sabres' forwards beared down on Montreal's net.

This needs to happen more. It's good to know if our top line is struggling a bit - our other lines will step up. It was a great game and will be a great series.

1.) Zach Benson

2.) Ryan McLeod

3.) Jordan Greenway (who was also given the Sabres belt in the dressing room by Zach Benson). Greenway had the game winning goal, as well.

*Note: Someone was *on one of these Sabres comment threads was claiming "Greenway bogs the Sabres offense down." 😂

While Tasmanian Benny is a western Canada fella from Chilliwack, BC - when asked about playing the Montreal Canadians in the playoffs, he responded: "I mean, any Canadian kid dreams* of playing against the Habs, in the playoffs."

Here's Ricky chatting with the media about an hour or so ago - after practice. Lindy has already said - it's a day to day thing.

https://www.nhl.com/sabres/video/carrick-practice-6394699563112

It's definitely great seeing Ricky out there shooting pucks in practice. Half of the club was wearing that color sweater, including Konsta Helenius who'd I'd like to see play. It's not a special designation wear.

It's definitely a wait and see on Ricky, but I'm sure most of us would like to see him out there when he's 100% and ready to go. Here's to hoping.

Just moments ago in a radio interview - Coach Lindy Ruff clearly stated: "Sam Carrick is cleared to practice," and finished up with: "We'll see how it goes."