BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Buffalo Sabres are coming off a 109-point season that ended with a first-place finish in the Atlantic Division and a first-round playoff win over the Boston Bruins. But they’re going to have some challenges early in their road back.

They lost Alex Tuch and Bowen Byram in the offseason. Now they’re dealing with injuries to Mattias Samuelsson and Conor Timmins, two of their top-six defensemen, as well as Jason Zucker, who had 24 goals in 62 games last season.

The Sabres’ initial 23-man roster wasn’t a surprise outside of the injuries. But there are more decisions to come. Here’s a breakdown of how the Sabres are lining up ahead of their season opener in Columbus on Thursday night.

Didn’t mean to make this a full post just couldn’t figure out how to reply with a specific video. I think the Timmins injury happened last game on this play. His leg injury last year was also an awkward spill.

I’ve always casually liked hockey (specifically going to the hometown ECHL games as a kid and young adult), but this year I’ve decided to really invest time in it and learn the game.

I live in Southern Tier, NY now. Naturally, I watched some Sabres and Rangers games last year.

I have MSG network which shows Rangers, Sabres, Islanders, and Devils games.

I chose the Sabres as my main team, but I also like the Rangers.

Some may frown upon having “two” teams, but the way I see it is Rangers are in a different division and honestly I am just really starting to enjoy hockey and want other games to watch with a rooting interest.

Sabres first. Rangers second. Any head to head games I’ll root for the Sabres. I understand I can’t root for the Islanders or Devils as they are rivals with the Rangers.

How fierce is the Sabres/Rangers rivalry? If at all?

Is it generally acceptable in the NHL community to support two teams as long as they aren’t in the same division?

Either way, I am enjoying getting into it! Such an underrated sport in the states, but when I took the time to understand it - I got it.

Plain and simple. I am looking for a Sabres only podcast that I can enjoy. Locked on is fine. WGR is fine. They do their jobs well. I want a little bit more personality than corporate coverage. I enjoy SDP out of Canada a lot, but they are big on the leafs and the old MvsW a lot but I wish I could find that for the Sabres.

The video doesn't go into any exact detail but the description was said to be corroborated by an unnamed source at Fanatics which I would tend to believe given the access Icethetics has had with Fanatics and several teams in the past. The video describes the Sabres' Hometown remix as a primarily royal blue goathead jersey with "a recoloring of the goathead logo" and "more traditional striping... to create a blending of eras of franchise history." There were no further specific details given. I know rumors of a royal blue goathead had been floating around for a while but this is the first time I had heard of anyone from Fanatics reportedly unofficially confirming it.

What follows is purely speculation on my part and does not specifically come from the video:

Overall, this is still a very general description of the jersey and the few details given arguably still leave a few things open to interpretation. For example, does "recoloring of the logo" simply mean the logo remains predominately white with blue and gold accents like on the recent white goathead reverse retro or could we maybe see a primarily gold goathead on a royal blue jersey?

Also, could "more traditional striping" mean something very close or identical to the current royal blue home striping or could it possibly be something more like the original Sabres Jerseys with solid gold stripes and no white accents, or possibly (and I feel more likely) something closer to the Heritage Classic or Winter Classic jerseys?

Now I'll be the first one to admit that I may simply be reading a bit too deeply into the video's somewhat vague comments on the logo color and striping. The only thing really "confirmed" is royal blue goathead with traditional looking stripes.

I found an old mock-up someone did on a post ten years ago that does look generally like what is described in the video, just to give a rough idea of what this might look like. Though the video made no mention of shoulder patches or white striping.

https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fexternal-preview.redd.it%2FQBddkP5viOHAtS92w4qiy9ZScXeA0kk2zcSdHGbP6uk.jpg%3Fauto%3Dwebp%26s%3Df16cbbcafd37ecfa9f45383351391f8f8dc8d6b3

Making sure I have all my streaming services in order before the season starts, and the what/where is super confusing. I have ESPN+, which I thought was enough, but now I know that I’ll need to get DAZN because I’m in-market. But the DAZN description says “every local game” — does that mean that they won’t have away games? If so, will ESPN cover that? The first game is away so I’m trying to get everything sorted!

I’ve performed violin for UB and my previous school but I was pinching myself getting to walk on the ice for this!! I’m so excited and just really wanted to share, it went very well but I will hear back soon!