All Activity

An extra week or two won't hurt him, other than a bruised ego. It buys the Sabres time to assess Ellis and Lyon further.

To trade Power I would need it to be a Peterka type trade where they get 2 pieces back that can improve the team. Doan and Kesselring are good pieces. Power for a scoring forward and a solid D replacement. One proposal I saw online was Power to SJ for Will Smith and Ferraro. That is the type of deal I would move Power for. Smith has the potential to be a big time point producer and Ferraro is a short term replacement til someone like Novikov is ready. A deal like that is the type I would hope to see for Power.

Give UPL his 2 weeks of rehab. Give Ellis another game or two in that period. Bring up UPL and go with 3 for awhile until you can trade one of them for something.

Also Ref's The criminals look for the weakest link. Either guys who have addictions or don't get paid very well. Ref's are an easy place to start. In game betting makes it worse. In the book I referenced there were people in the stands giving signals to players or refs during the game by turning hat's from one side of the head to the other. It's easy when you have a sport with a ref who can call penalties at will or a goalie who can determine the outcome late in a game on his own.

Just an eye test thing for me. Kozak seems faster, more determined in the forecheck, and more committed to getting to dirty areas. I dont expect tic-tac-toe on the 4th line, and he just seems to have a better direct game than krebs at the moment.

No

I think Kozak game is passing Krebs right now. Given all the injuries we will have more games to compare them and really get a closer look. Krebs gave us 10 goals, playing a lot on the 4th line last season. He logged 81 games and was +1. I don't dislike Krebs but if Kozak can be 4C then Krebs could be packaged for help somewhere else. When UPLs AHL assignment ends I would carry 3 goalies for awhile just to compare Ellis and UPL. Lyon is the #1 until proven otherwise. Or we waive Ellis and risk losing him to a goalie poor team, of which there are several.

I was hoping they'd move UPL this offseason. I was also hoping they'd make a big swing at the position to try and finally fix things back there.

I'm not sure when the clock runs out on the 30-day thing with STL - something like they automatically get him and he goes to their AHL affiliate (I'm not 100 percent certain on this rule so someone can feel free to clear it up). Anyone else who claims him after that window has to keep him on their roster, so if you can wait out that period you might be able to send him to Rochester and waive Georgiev if he clears. He's had jumbly lines since the get-go with benson missing time and Norris being hurt in the first game. I think he might have played center for a game. It's certainly not good enough and he needs to play better though.

I think Norris' timeline was 1 month but I am not sure. Tage is taking heat here at Sabre Space. 7 games with 1 goal, 4 points and a -7 is not helping. He is pressing out there no doubt. I expect he will get on a hot streak and the goals will come.

It's really not something you can teach.

I agree with this, and also with the WAY they are training. It used to be that players played whatever sport was in season. Football, basketball, baseball, etc... all of them require slightly different skills and movements so you are building up different areas in ways that you aren't in other sports, plus you are giving some areas more of a rest. Now, players focus on the same sport from a young age all year round many times, which tends to hurt them from a development standpoint often times and also from an injury standpoint since you are adding much more wear and tear to the same areas over and over again non-stop over the course of your youth and then as a professional. Then training has become year round as well, so even in the off-season, you are still doing significant work. While that helps make them stronger, faster and more explosive, it also puts miles on the tires and eventually, those tires wear out. The human body only has but so many repetitions in it of any movement, so the more you do as you are younger non-stop all year round and then during the off-season, the more likely you are to have serious issues like ACL, Achilles, etc where it just has worn out over time and needs to be replaced. The one good thing is that these seem to be so good these days, that often times players are coming back ready to go without much drop-off anymore.

I'd rather carry 3 goalies and waive Geersten. I don't think he's adding anything of value. Hopefully Greenway is back soon, then you send Östlund back to Rochester (or whoever they call up to play for Zucker, because I hope to god Geersten doesn't return to the lineup) If we can trade Ellis for something, great. But I'd rather keep him a bit longer until we're sure UPL is going to be good.

Well thats good, who'd have thought he'd need to be called up by the 8th game. If Zucker misses time thats like... 1/3 of the salary cap payroll tied up in injuries right now.

Ellis was good last night and seems like a nice kid, but why would we keep three goalies? Three healthy goalies creates more problems than it solves. I’m down on UPL more than anyone, but we are stuck with him. I could not imagine this GM would trade or waive him, so we thank Colten for his time here, waive him, and hope Lyon stays hot.

Sports gambling will end more coach and player careers in college and professional sports. Book it. Organized crime. Temptation. Easy money. Greed. Addiction. Potent mix. The NHL is not immune to it.

Our goaltending has been crap for years, but so far this season Lyon and now Ellis, in his first NHL game, have played well enough for the Sabres to win most night. Ellis was particularly strong last night making four or five critical saves. In Rochester is “key” acquisition Levi and late signee Georgiev. Levi is off to a bit of a slow start in Rochester in 2 starts, but has been excellent there the last 2 seasons and Georgiev is what he is and was solid in his one start so far. Last but not least is UPL. Adams spent big money on UPL after his one good pro season and he is now on a rehab assignment. He was very good in his first rehab start in Rochester. Adams has a very tough decision to make once UPL’s rehab assignment is over. If he waives either Lyon or Ellis, they will immediately be claimed. Ellis has an excellent minor league record and looked very much like an NHL goalie last night. I know StL was unhappy that the Sabres claimed him. Lyon is a proven NHL vet who was a starter the last 2 seasons in Det and has looked solid so far this season. I do think both have some trade value, but not much if rival GMs think Adams is backed into a corner. However, Adams is bound to UPL. He gave him the big contract. Will he really waive or trade UPL and run with Lyon and Ellis? I honestly believe that UPL might be the worst of the 5 goalies. Given his injury history and big contract, I would do anything I could to get out from under his deal. That’s me, not Adams. I believe an Ellis/Lyon combo is an upgrade over UPL and having two experienced guys in Rochester should be sufficient if either gets hurt. My guess is Adams does nothing immediately. I suspect Adams will carry all 3 goalies and play them all for a few weeks. This might be necessary to showcase that UPL is healthy and help his trade value, but given how bad our goaltending has been, Adams will want to keep his options open. What do you think will be the ultimate resolution?

It's rochester so just a tweet that he left the game early and went to the locker room. I can probably dig it up, but its far from official so probably not worth sharing. I'd say kozak over krebs. Krebs seemed to kill that line against montreal.

I don't see much in Krebs game that i'd play him over kozak at this point. If the entire roster is healthy I'd envision krebs as an extra skater, Östlund back in rochester, and danforth on waivers. For goalies i'd probably carry 3 for a bit since someones bound to get hurt.

Vegas would definitely put a claim in. Adin Hill is week to week so the only guy they have is Schmid and his numbers aren’t great in the NHL or the AHL. A real GM might be working on a trade…

He’s a selfish player. I hate his game. Yep. The ice mics pick it up for the broadcast. Man, that would be awesome. The first three games. I really hope we have the opportunity to. He looked better than usual tonight because Detroit doesn’t play a heavy game. Not sure that is true. In fact, someone had a stat last year showing that it is not a fallacy. What skews those S% numbers is that shots that miss the net are not counted as shots.

I am also worried about Zucker because he is hard to replace. He’s one of the adults in the room and the Sabres need that. This coaching staff will just slap Krebs onto the third line and bemoan injuries. But to your question, Rosen can supply Zucker replacement level play on the PP and that’s about it.

If they waive Ellis, surely he will get picked up by another team. I’d keep three goalies. If UPL looks poor, sit him. Try and move him. Difficult.

Dahlin could have a difficult year with all that’s going on with his girl. Tage? He needs to get going and fast. Talked prior to season about feeling great and taking his game further. Didn’t think he meant further, back.

I doubt it. Once UPL is back Ellis is gone unless there is a roster space open. Before we think Ellis is the second coming of Ryan Miller try to remember back to Devon Levi's first stint in Buffalo. All good until it wasn't good enough. Ellis did not have the likes of Clifton, Bryson, and Johnson, playing in front of him. UPL has had some bad games in Buffalo but he has had plenty of good ones. If the team plays like it did last night in front of him he will be better than he was last year for certain.