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With Byram.... I'm still in somewhat of a purgatory with him. He's young, he's skilled, he has the potential to be very good I think. But I don't think he's been all that special with the Sabres. He looks the part with his skating and raw talent, I just don't see them as being a better team when he's on the ice though yet.

19 of the top 25 accounts that bought the $Trump meme coin were bought with foreign accounts, the top 25 accounts got a free "tour" of the White House... Bribes through crypto from corrupt countries.

So, you're saying the Sabres S&C coach is the job he's custom made for. 😉

He's been investing heavily to clone Dan Dunleavy. Dan provides the call and then sends it over to Dan for color who sends it back to Dan to not say anything when a goal is scored.

Beane also has surrounded himself with a lot of people that have significant experience in FO roles, some even having been GMs before. (The names keep changing every year, so not positive if there are currently any former GMs under him, but there oftentimes are.) And McDermott has not been afraid to hire people like Frazier who have HCing experience in the past (and others like Kromer and Brady who are very highly regarded). Adams has Karmanos who has Ventura (but he also has Forton and Nightengale) and now Ruff at coach, but Ruff has a merry band of misfits under him as well. Nowhere near the same level of support. Always thought that was a byproduct of EEE. If it isn't (and it's now sounding increasingly like it isn't) well, Houston, we have a problem.

Well, shoot isn't QUITE the right word, but they could and likely would drop the wooden gun on their foot, break a metatarsal and also catch a splinter carrying the tetanus bacterium, and, well, the end result is they would've been better off just shooting a hole in the darn foot.

Between all the Ray bashing in the game day threads, it's refreshing to see in this thread how many people still like him for the same reasons I like him. Yeah he doesn't speak the King's English and he's no Roger Neilson on the video analysis, but he's entertaining! I've said it many times- I've been around the game (watching, playing, coaching, parenting) since I was a kid. I don't need somebody breaking down plays for me. I just want to be entertained between the whistles. Now if only he and Dan would STFU and call the game while it's being played. As I'm forced to listen on the radio in the car a lot... this is so irritating.

I really thought they were gonna come back and take it with Pickard hurt and Skinner in net. He's been atrocious. But, nope...shutout LOL

Looking that way. It just shows you how hard it actually is to move up. The same top teams are still the same teams. Bet they don't. Florida are masters of getting in your head and then doing the opposite. Really good at walking away after instigating and not retaliating. Refs coudl decide it though. Hope they don't.

This is Reimer erasure! 😇 Reimer was fine in his first 9 games with the Sabres. Note: 2 games were coming in for a yanked UPL. The larger issue is that game #1 was 11/23 at the beginning of the losing streak (Reimer was OK giving up only 2 goals in a 3-0 loss) and game #9 was all the way to February 4th. He rarely got a chance to start. 1st 9 games: 2-4-1 .908 sv% GAA 2.2 no offensive help 2nd 9 games: 6-2-1 .900 sv% GAA 2.9 offensive help! final 4 games: 2-2 .882 sv% GAA 3.5 largely influenced by the 7-goal game Tampa decided to unleash at the end of the season Play him on a set, well-rested schedule--but play him consistently--and he'll stay fresh while also taking 5-10 starts away from UPL over the course of the season. But that's all last season. All that said, he should be upgraded next season unless is pounding on the door to keep his career going.

That isn't a thing on any NHL team. More $$$ than Byram.

Adams remains unskilled with the public and media. He has done a poor job throughout his career, and has not improved. Whereas Beane arrived as a very complete and polished executive. If you compared the drafting skill they aren’t that far off from each other. But that is where any similarity ends. Beane understands team building and Adams does not. I get your point Pimlach, but isn’t Pegula’s personal involvement with the Sabres——the real problem. His distance from the day to day management of the Bills is a large contributor to their success. Actual football professionals seem to make all the big decisions.

Noah Dobson - I like his size and skills. Can he bring a strong defensive aspect to the team? Will he cost as much or more than Byram?

Agree with above who mention eyeball over stats. Forwards float back on D far too often. D-men coughing up puck in own zone. Physical play next to invisible. Physical fitness. Why so good in 1st period? Major decline once the 2nd period starts. Start using all 4 lines on regular shifts. Keeps the top guys fresh.

Here's RFAs if you want a right shot

The Defense has not been great, but all year I have been saying in terms of goals allowed, the 6 guys on the blueline are the 3rd problem. Problems #1 and #2 were the goaltending and the support the Forwards give the D-men. Cozens singlehandedly put the D-men in situations where they looked bad on the replays of goals allowed. He's gone, but Quinn wasn't that far behind Cozens and Peterka had his moments also. Watch replays of any game, good teams included. They all allow goals and guess what? Usually about half the goals they allow on the replay has a D-man that looks like he his lost or has no idea what he is doing. Thats the NHL, a lot goes on and it happens fast? So what is the difference between good teams and bad teams? What is under-rated is the support that the forwards give the D-men. To repeat myself, D-men look bad on goals allowed, for almost every team. Good teams have forwards that help out in the D-zone or Neutral zone so the D-men are simply put in that position less often than with Buffalo. Yeah, and goaltending. The good teams have their D-men get turned around by elite forwards all the time, or they might 'choose the wrong guy' and let a good scoring chance against happen. So why do we think the Sabres D are so much worse? When those things happen, our Goalie allowed a lot more of those chances to go in. We see the replay of the D-men "not doing anything" where on many other teams the D-men play the puck the same way but if the goalie makes the save more often we don't see the replay and dwell on it as much. This D-unit isn't great, probably not even good...but I think many on this forum put more blame on them when often it should be directed other places.

Exactly, put lipstick on the pig...rinse , wash, repeat.

Not if it was Reimers first 9 games, he was not very good until he started playing games at the end of the season that didn't matter. Like UPL, he played poorly and he played good. UPL had one very good stretch and couldn't maintain it, when he started his slide the overall team defense was terrible too. UPL eventually looked like a bad backup out there. Fix the defense and get a goalie, its the same thing every year. How long have I been asking for top 4 RHD? Years upon years

I mean how fast does he have to be? He should not play more than 2 feet over the blue line. I know this is not fair because when you have experience it can make up for lesser skating ability but some how the 40 year old Brent Burns gets up and down the ice. I know this much he can clear the crease and pin a guy behind the net.

So many nuances missed here. In 3 years, the cap hit of the average NHL player will be a tick under $5M: Dahlin 11 Power 8 Byram 8 leaves $8M to stay on average. That means rounding out your core with 2 $3M players and 2 $1M players, with the option of using some of your Tage savings to spend on an upgrade, if you want. The cap hit is hard now, it will be the opposite long-term. Power was a positive player - largely without Dahlin - in each of his first two seasons. We shouldn’t forget that. Byram couldn’t anchor the first pairing of the Buffalo Sabres for 7 games without Dahlin is a far cry from Byram needs Dahlin to be effective.

Don’t underestimate them. They could shoot themselves in the foot with a wooden gun too.

Do coach contract run through the end of June too? edit: Autocorrect really sucks sometimes. I have no idea why it originally changed “do” to “donate”.

https://upsidehockey.substack.com/p/2025-nhl-mock-draft-20-post-lottery I’d take this mock draft.

And to be clear, they very well may be planning on and actually effecting additional changes that do matter. But after sitting at status quo (seemingly, heck they even changed out the HC last year but by only changing Ellis' role within the coaching staff that THAT felt like status quo (especially in hindsight)) for so long; will believe the major change is happening when it has actually happened. 😉