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Maybe with Adams. I think the rest of the world knows that he's not very good.

My understanding is that KA wouldn't accept a one for one (JJP for Keisseiring) deal. So Doan was added to the deal to satisfy KA. How good will each of our new acquisitions play for us? TBD. For me, this was a fair deal for both sides.

You're just wishing and hoping. It's all they leave us with every year. If this guy if that guy maybe him maybe maybe maybe. Rarely doe much of it come to fruition though. Utah obviously didn't feel this way about Doan or they wouldn't have made the deal.

I am not sure i have a feeling about Doan... I just do... If he is the anti Peterka with 70% of his numbers you have a guy that plays two ways produces maybe at a 20 goal 45pt pace has size and grit we need 4 more of that

Another thrilling offseason conversation. All that matters is the sum of the parts.

We have them here, at least in one network. Apparently some of the good old boys need to hear a male voice, no matter how muffled it is.

Woo-Hoo! Looks good. I like fruity beer but most of the commercial fruit beers taste more like soda pop than beer. Sometimes less is more. Hope it tastes great.

Really never heard of that...

Trump lying? Who’d have thunk it? Everyone in that administration lies with alacrity. Gabbard told a few whoppers in order to bolster the case against Obama and several former CIA and FBI operatives. Too bad that pesky bipartisan Senate committee report that Marco Rubio chaired and the Mueller report refute everything Gabbard and the ridiculous GOP House report says.

One more top 6 F would really help us theoretically shuffle the lines without the fear of not having the right mix. Unfortunately, we have a GM that is unwilling or incapable of making such a move. I still have a nagging feeling that this season we are going to deal with some injuries and we simply don't have the quality depth at this point to insulate the team from anything that is going to be medium term in nature. Overall, I do think this offseason was a failure in the grand playoff scheme (would Love to be incorrect); this coming after a season ending meeting where our franchise Dman was clearly Unhappy, this is what you do to placate?! Maybe Ras is happy with the moves and he just wanted some better D and JJ gone, hard to speculate, but that's like me going to admin and asking for more help and instead they upgrade the fridge in the break room.

No. You're twisting the words. You include Cozens as well then. You can then make the argument that Cozens production was crap (which it was) but then also Norris was injured and didn't produce much for them. So last year they expected Cozens to step up. This year they expect Norris to stay healthy. There's always a hope and pray aspect and a young guy stepping up aspect to the Sabres. They don't build with established veterans. So if Benson and Kulich step up or Quinn re-emerges then I guess your forwards aren't terrible but as usual we are relying on a bunch of kids to leap forward and the one kid who did leap forward is gone.

Personally, don't like Kulich with Thompson because he isn't ready for true 1st line usage IMHO, but expect he meshes better with Tommer than Norris will. Would have Norris with Tuch and Tommer with Juri and then figure out the LWs from there. And expect Benson would fit very well with those 2, especially if he managed to put on some more upper body strength (not that he was weak last year, but he is smallish and should be able to put on muscle pretty easily at his age). Then it becomes which of Doan, Quinn, or Zucker do you want working with Norris and Tuch. And expect that could very well vary on a game by game or even period by period basis. Kind of the way how Roy bounced from Drury and Grier to the RAV line depending upon health and circumstances. And, with that said, do expect you are correct that Norris is pencilled in with Tommer. Just personally would rather those 2 be on different lines.

I still think Benson is the best choice to complement Norris and Tage: netfront presence, passing, puck possession, puck retrievals, defensive zone coverage - he’s got proficiency in areas the other two lack and he’s got enough untapped offence that he won’t slow them down in that area. Doan might work for similar reasons but I think he’s not as smart or skilled. Same with Greenway. Quinn is plenty skilled but too similar to Tage in his approach and too lacking in the off-puck areas. Kulich is too similar to Norris. Tuch would make for the strongest line, but that would expose vulnerabilities elsewhere. Zucker might work nicely.

Well, Cozens and Norris are both centers. If one looks at positional symmetry, Josh Doan is the replacement for Peterka, though he isn't a top six.

After the “core four” I see three groups of three battling for ice time and to carve out a specific role for themselves. The third group is the easiest to identify: Krebs, Danforth and Malenstyn, the energy guys. These are the role players who will typically get 4th line minutes and bump up the roster to keep the rest honest. Think Mair, Gaustad Group 2 is the scorers Zucker, Quinn and Kulich who will battle for PP time and offensive opportunities. Think Dumont, Afinogenov And group 3 is the “hard-to-play against” group of Benson, Greenway and Doan who will battle for shutdown time and the dirty work with skill guys. Hecht, Grier. Im really curious how much scoring we can get from Group 3 and how much defence from group 2 - I think rounding out their games will be key to their ice time, and how Lindy will mix and match in terms of lines and deployment. I see those 6 with more or less equal opportunity to fill out the top 9 in myriad ways based not only on how well they play, but what kind of identity Lindy wants to establish. Some will sink and some will swim.

Oh I would have. I’m a Sabrespacer, we know better. 😜

And the response back should be, "why? YOU sure as #### never showed us any better."

The Sabres are the least experienced team in the league. The defense has 1 guy who has over 300 games played.

I am real curious about what Lindy’s plans are for this group of forwards, if it’s indeed what they start the season with. I don’t think there is much debate about Thompson and Tuch being our top 2 forwards and the guys who are going to top the ice time charts. And Lindy seemed to make it clear down the stretch that he prefers Thompson on the wing, which is probably going to put these two on different lines. It was made pretty clear when they acquired him that they intend to lean on Norris heavily in a top 6 role. Whether that’s with Tage as in his brief trial, remains to be seen. And for all the Kulich chatter, Lindy playing McLeod 19 minutes a night as he registered a point per game makes it pretty clear who his other top centre is. It’s possible McLeod ends up centring a “3rd” (checking) line of some sort. But personally I think he and Tuch will be a hard-minute pairing on the “2nd” line deployed like the Drury line back in the day, while Tage and Norris are the first choice in offensive situations. Regardless of lines, I think it’s pretty clear these are the four guys starting at the top of the depth chart in terms of ice time.

We already experienced not having Cozens and the metrics that I saw show we got better. His removal has already been at min partially consumed. We wouldn't have to attach Norris to his play from last year. It's much more logical and clean to compare Norris being added, to the loss of Peterka. It's the clearer one for one.

I agree with your point that these are not kids. It remains for me though, that they are collectively young and inexperienced. Individually, any of them could fit in and play their role on a playoff/contending team. What is unclear is if they are talented enough to overcome* their collective youth and inexperience. *They also will likely need to overcome that they will not be playing within a sound, easily repeatable, defensive structure. I acknowledge that Ruff knows more about coaching hockey than I could learn in a dozen lifetimes, and also that he has not been blessed with having the most talented teams to coach since he left Buffalo. But it is undeniable that his teams have been bad defensively on a pretty consistent basis. Our D will not be playing in a system that demands structure and accountability and that is repeatable night after night, like the systems of a Cassidy, DeBoer, Maurice, or Brind’Amour.

I agree. Look at some of the key players on this team (the guys who are most important/get the most minutes) -Tage: 8 NHL seasons (all but 1 of them playing more than half the games), going into his 9th. 450 career games played. -Tuch: 9 NHL seasons (8 realistically not counting his brief appearance his first year), 536 games played. 66 additional playoff games, 4 playoff runs including deep to the cup finals. -Dahlin: 7 Full NHL seasons so far. 509 games played. In his 7 seasons, only 7 players in the entire NHL have more total ice time than him. International tournaments. -Zucker...14, maybe 15 year vet? 770 games played. 9 different (years) playoff appearances. -McLeod. 5 years (4 full seasons) going into his 6th. Most importantly with him is 4 years in the playoffs including a full run to the cup finals. -Byram has a cup run (and one he got a lot of top minutes in) Power is still young, but even he has already over 240 games played in his career, should pass 300 this season, and is 39th out of about 250 Dmen over the last 3 years in total minutes played. This isn't even considering other older 'veterans' who will play a lesser roll but have a lot of experience like Greenway, Danforth, Timmons, Malenstyn, even Lyons. That is less than most teams sure, but its not 'nothing'. There is more than enough there, in terms of age and experience, to generate a competent leadership core.

If I was coaching any member of this defence corps I would be entirely comfortable saying “you’re not a kid anymore, you should know better by now”

Do your machines modify a woman’s voice so that it sounds like a man? That’s one of the dumbest things I’ve ever encountered.