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What I found particularly frustrating last year was their failure to lean into their strength: Thompson. The year before they failed because Thompson was their only weapon and they didn't try anything else. Last year they overcompensated and went out of their way to avoid Tage. Find a happy medium.

I don't see any lead dogs on the roster, which I think is the chief problem in this area. Guys I see who probably would run with the pack if we had it: Dahlin, Kesselring, Thompson, Tuch, Zucker, Greenway, Danforth, Malenstyn, Doan, Krebs Not sure how many more of those guys are necessary to create some sort of a critical mass when we don't have a pack leader. Adding a pack leader sure would help.

You are right but they run it through the point because Dahlin is the only one that can run it. They have no high hockey IQ/playmakers that can run it from anywhere up front or the sidewall.

Another thought... I wonder if you could trade Byram and Krebs to Anaheim for McTavish. They have Carlsson, Strome, Poehling, and Granlund with McQueen and Sennecke in the pipe... I wonder if they would be willing to move McTavish to upgrade their defense. Unsure but just a random thought of the day.

If I were Buffalo at this stage, I would do Byram - Dahlin Power - Kesselring Samuelsson - Timmins

“Historically 3rd pair” translates to “found money top 4 upgrade” in the ancient Adams dialect

You miss the nuance, Gilbert is not Gilbert, don't blame yourself, probably just a younger!

That would be my hope, too, but if Byram isn't on the team, I can only believe we'll see a breakup of Samuelsson-Dahlin when I see it. I'm going by Timmins' career usage. He's been an O-zone start guy until his 17-game stint with PIT when he was at 46.2% O-zone starts, so there's a chance he can be a defensive-focused guy. But I don't put much stock in that small sample size with a Pittsburgh team that was like Buffalo at the end: facing backups, playing easy against disinterested teams, and had Crosby willing them to finish strong. Historically, he's a solid 3rd pair guy.

I did too and thought “uh-oh, sad Sabre fan summer posting is in full effect” 😆🤣

This is the beauty of his game, well said even by proxy of a future scout

In order to have a pack mentality, you need a pack. I haven’t gotten the feeling these guys are a pack. They are more like a flock looking for their shepherd. They needed to draft and develop guys with that mentality. They didn’t for far too long. They have made some improvements but it still feels like they are leaning toward a skill lineup. You need players that do have that pack mentality. I don’t really see it with the current roster. Kesselring and Doan are a slight improvement in that direction but I still feel there are too many players like Quinn & Samuelsson, who play as if physical contact is a foreign concept.

Timmins on top pair still a pretty big (see: massive) question mark but if anyone can make it work it’s Dahlin. I think I’d prefer the situation where Byram was moved for a top 6 forward and we didn’t make any futures trades to the situation where we re-signed Byram and didn’t make any futures trades, putting my faith in Dahlin if Adams won’t inspire any through actual action B : Byram traded for top 6 F (roster remains break even to last year), 2 futures trades made, 1 for an upgrade F and 1 for an upgrade D. OR Byram retained, 2 futures trades made at F (one to get F back to status quo (Peterka), one as an upgrade) (both of these scenarios under A result in the one F upgrade one D upgrade I thought was bare minimum coming in) C- : Byram traded for top 6 F, and 1 futures upgrade (BPA) OR Byram retained and 1 futures trade for a F (these scenarios result in 50% of the raw upgrades I felt necessary. If Byram is retained and the futures trade backlogs Peterka loss, Kesselring represents the add, etc. If Byram is traded for a F, everything is back square and upgrade TBD, if we make one) D : Byram dealt for top 6 F, no futures trades (break even squad to last year) D- : Byram bridged, no futures trades (break even squad to last year, but no shiny new toy) F : Adams has another press conference

I agree on Quinn, just have a feeling... if there was improvement its fringe... you feel like you may have reshaped the roster to a more complete roster and that may help. To me the bottom line is improvement will come from within... Power takes a step, plays more physical and better d, Quinn last year was an aberation and he takes the Peterka role, Kulick proves he belongs as a top 6, UPL gains consistency, Levi challenges, etc....

Giving this iteration of team, maybe we need to look back upon of those teams, and thank ourselves that we were blessed at a time

I'll always remember the Larry Carriere quote, along the lines of "playing defense with Bert on the ice was easy - gather the puck, take it behind the net, wait for Bert to circle around, pick it up, watch him skate through the opponent, score, and you're +1 as you get to the bench"

Based on the thread title, I thought Gretzky was taking about Dennis Gilbert. 🤷‍♂️

Yes he did, but shout was to Perrault, the best forward line ever was Gretzky in middle with Perrault and Lafleur as linemates in the Canada Cup 1981, sucks he broke a leg, but crowd was unstoppable for 2 games

The Florida Panthers do what Buffalo has failed to do for years, pack mentality. Not some pugilist who you need to protect the frail and soft willed players like Samuelsson but a pack mentality where if Thompson gets run, no one waits to see what they should do or ask for their fighter buddy to handle it, nope you just drop gloves and start firing. Sabres haven't had that since Chris Drury got screwed and Drew Stafford didn't hesitate... see Miller Lucic.

The problem with the PP is coaching. That and they insist on running it through the point which is super easy to defend, you just stay in the box and barely slide when it goes to the half wall... because all the Sabres do is stand around.

I loved watching those rushes but they are rare today even by the likes of McDavid and MacKinnon. The mobility of defenders was terrible so a great skater like Perreault or Orr could weave through them like pylons. Gretzky did mention Perreault as a hero but he was a Howe fan and always regarded Gordie as the 🐐.

Following your scenario, bring him up to beat the snot out of Mule in practice after Lindy treats Mule like Luke Adam.

I agree that their zone entries on PPs have been brutal to watch. The very predictable long drop pass allows teams to know in advance how to defend. The odd time there is a dump in it is not coordinated with speedy forecheckers but rather a last ditch effort to get it deep and hope for a retrieval. Faking a drop pass and carrying it in, short pass forward, give and go, coordinated dump and chase to keep opponents guessing imo is superior to the same long drop pass.

Fully disagree here. Timmins pushes Samuelsson and Bryson down another slot, he is very much needed. I also don't think an "offense first" defender is going to clock a whopping 15pts, that doesn't scream offense first as Samuelsson had 14pts, is he offense first? You don't pair Timmins with Karlsson if you want Timmins to be offense first. I understand about the limited PK work but that could be personnel related or Timmins related. Maybe he won't be used on the PK here or maybe he will. With the PP slots taken by Dahlin and Power, it seems unlikely that Timmins won't be used on the PK here and if he is the 2nd PK unit behind Kesselring/Samuelsson or Power/Samuelsson or whatever, so we shall see.

If Geertsen makes the Sabres roster for more than a handful of games as a callup this season*, then something is seriously wrong with the roster (beyond the other things that are wrong with the roster -- re: every other active thread on the 'Space). *Like Lyon gets run and Muel does nothing and then next game they have Geertsen called up in a pointless display "we're going to be tougher now" and Geertsen has a fight in his first game, skates 5:00 each night for a few more, and then disappears back to the AHL as the team toughness is forgotten. He's an AHL enforcer. The Amerks can use that. It's a good signing for them.

Gretzky was from Brantford ON, he got through the afore of cable watching the Sabres on Channel 2 at the time... Yikes aging self. Gretzky at the time was a legend in minor league hockey in ON at the age of 11, me a few years younger, on my team but he destroyed our NF ON team, he said at the time Gilbert was the best ever, which made sense, Gilbert was built for hockey like Secutrait《yeah bad spelling) was built built for racing Gilbert if you ever saw him, behind his own net, weaving yards to the opposing net was a treasure, no could do that not Howe, Orr was close but Gil had a gift