Taro T
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Posts posted by Taro T
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Nice to see them get solid goaltending and a kind of effective PP. Goes a long way towards making what could be toss up games become W's leaving the other team in the rear view.
So they come back with Levi again next game, right?
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1 minute ago, LGR4GM said:
So, you're saying letting D play at the level they should be playing allows them to look better than when they're in over their heads? Who knew?
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16 minutes ago, Flashsabre said:
This checks out. Who wants to talk to the Elders and get this sorted out?
This does. The Bills only won 2 league championships. The Elders must've hated the thought of a 3rd.
The old AHL Bisons won a few championships too. Pretty sure the baseball Bisons have as well. Guess they didn't care about minor league sports.
The Stampede won a championship in their 1st of a 2 year existence. Guess they didn't care about sports that the rest of America someday wouldn't care about either.
And the Bandits have 5 championships. Guess the Elders must've loved the sport more than they hated Buffalo.
Which leaves us with them seeing the Pegulas coming a mere 75 years early. Well, they were mystical. It checks out.
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57 minutes ago, Brawndo said:
Per NHL PR
Will be a heck of a lot easier to get a Dahlin ASG sweater this year than it was last.
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3 hours ago, Doohickie said:
Lots of WJC highlights on Twitter if you want to take a look. Lots of 'em.
Have already seen an odd highlight or 2 here or there. Wouldn't consider watching 5 or 10 minutes of highlights as ever having seen him actually play. Pretty sure a couple fo Sweden's games recorded this past week. If am bored or the show we're watching has caught up to real time, might check one of them out. Still wouldn't say have seen enough of him to make a firm call on whether he should be kept or not (definitely not beyond what others that have watched him a lot suggest).
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34 minutes ago, mjd1001 said:
I remember reading a few years ago that the Sabres gutted the scouting department/budget, and probably the development staff also. I'm not sure how much/how far they have gone to rebuild those things. AND that is something came down from up high (Pegula). The question is....players....coaching, all the problems we see.....are they really the problems that we make them out to be? Or is it more the underlying issues that the budget cuts of the past caused.
You could being in any coach you want, have the highest draft picks, but if you don't have the support you need or your 'develpment' staff and 'assistant coaches' are all former players RIGHT out of the league with little expereince but that you can pay entry level salaries too....are you really setting things up to be as good as they can be?
To the question about the rebuilding of the scouting & development staffs and the building of an analytics staff and the integration of all 3, asked Adams a year and a half ago where the rebuild and realignment of the hockey department stood and he said they were pretty much set then but wanted 1 more development coach IIRC. (Can try to track my notes later.) And believe that position was filled that summer. So, don't really see a lack in the hockey department due to the Covid era budget cuts as being an excuse for any shortcomings.
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32 minutes ago, Pimlach said:
I posed this question recently. Of Savoie, Kulich, Rosen, and Östlund who do you trade/keep? Also, at what point does their value go down, I.e., when is their enough games to ***** what they can be.
From AHL play you would think Kulich is the best, but Donnie gave him one game, very sheltered minutes, and then sent him back. Rosen lasted longer which surprised me. Both looked very tentative.While this is without having seen Östlund play, personally would be leaning towards keeping Kulich and Östlund with Rosen and Savoie in the tradeable commodity pile.
Would keep Kulich over Rosen because Rosen seems to be more of a playmaker than a goal scorer and the team has that throughout the lineup but not many true goal scorers (Thompson, Peterka, and Skinner) which is Kulich's bread and butter.
Would keep Östlund over Savoie mainly because of the reports on him and having seen Savoie in person. Savoie is at least another year out beyond this one before beng ready to be a legit contributor and he also seems to be a bit redundant on skill sets.
You have to give to get and these guys should be worth something legit in return whether in a package or straight up. The point of over drafting high end skill guys is that it keeps the Sabres cupboard full of what should be hard to obtain while having some excess that should be able to be traded for other skillsets that they aren't as good at drafting.
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2 hours ago, That Aud Smell said:
My sense is that Dahlin is the closest this team has to someone in the Drury mould.
He might be. But like @mjd1001 said, it seems that he's obviously frustrated with the way the team is going but doesn't seem to be the guy to turn that frustration outward to push his teammates to strive for his excellence.
Honestly thought Tuch would be that guy, and he does several captainly (is that a word?) things and the team does seem more sluggish when he isn't there but he doesn't seem to be able to help push them up another level either.
Personally wanted one of Girgensons/Okposo back, but not both, and am now coming to the belief that having them both in the room is keeping the other guys that should be the leaders from stepping up and taking charge for whatever reason. (Seems likely that nobody wants to step on their toes, but it could be several reasons.) To a man, everybody talks about how everybody gets along and there are no clicks on this team and it's all pretty much kumbaya. When you're 3rd from the bottom, it can't be all kumbaya. They all like each other, presumably they trust each other. They need to trust each other enough to say the hard things that need to be said. It either isn't coming from the coaches or it isn't getting through from them; either way they need to start holding each other accountable. There's talent on this team and at least half of the players have been leaders on past teams. They need to start taking things seriously.
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1 hour ago, Derrico said:
While I do agree, E Johnson playing second-pairing minutes doesn't give me the warm and fuzzies.......
It doesn't here either. But, don't want to saddle the rookie with 2nd pairing minutes with a 2nd year player that seems to be overthinking his game. Samuelsson needs 3rd line minutes to regroup/refocus and not to the point that Clifton above 3rd pairing instill confidence either. Which leaves E Johnson, or Jokiharju or Dahlin for Power's partner. Jokiharju doesn't mesh well with Power and Dahlin is a fixture on the top pairing as he's their top D man.
So, via a process of elimination: hellllllllo Erik Johnson, you're the next contestant on Can We Make Power Right?
And it is possible that the guys that are written in as cycling through the 3rd pairing could be used as more of a 2B pairing than a true 3 pairing also lightening Power's workload. (Yeah, who are we kidding, Power will still end up with 24 minutes. But we can hope, right?)
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1 hour ago, Getpucksdeep said:
Was EJ healthy scratch last couple games?
Hadn't seen anything about him nursing any injuries, so it sure seems he was.
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11 minutes ago, LTS said:
I just want to hear about this happening on some NHL locker room today. As much as it may pain some of us to say it, today's youth responds differently and I'm never certain if something like this would tune them in or out. We can all say too bad, but we don't control the youth of today.
Now, if we are seeing this kind of success in other locker rooms I think there is evidence that perhaps the approach could work.
I know the arguments my son and I get into about this team often get to the point of a debate in this area. He often sides with the feel good and I'm more along the lines of how I would be smacking the ever loving crap out of some of the people on this team if I were in that locker room.
There was another B&G Insights last night with Levi and Robinson answering questions.
There is no doubt that this team is still together. And the 2 that were taking questions are both too new to the team to have asked the question that needs to be asked (internally, as there's no way they'd answer it to people outside the room) is what are they going to change to get back on pace to the goals they set for the team heading into the year. These 2 were quite upbeat about the team being able to right the ship. But just doing more of what they've been doing isn't likely to do that.
And this could be a great opportunity for the next captain of the team to step up. The guy in that room who says this is unacceptable and actually gets them to work that much harder is the guy that should be the next to wear the C. Let's hope he's there and that he'll step up now that Okposo is out for an undisclosed period.
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3 hours ago, LGR4GM said:
The pp last year was trash after the 2 months of getting the half wall one timer or the Ovechkin, through. Once teams took that away, the pp became what it is today. Peter's and Rivet are clueless half the time.
Calling these two "good" and saying how they "powerfully" discuss this is something. The "they powerfully discuss" line reminded me of some of the garbage I see on Twitter. Using language like that reminds me of certain click bait and fear mongering headlines.
The PP wasn't even good for most of October last year. It started to get red hot at the end of October (about 2 games before Cozens got moved to the 1st unit) and stayed that way until mid-December. It was trash before that and trash after that.
Yes, let's give Matt Ellis credit for the PP last year. Some of us have been doing so since last year.
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10 minutes ago, Brawndo said:
Presuming R Johnson isn't the odd man out next game, that's pretty much the best permutation of pairings they can come up with at this point in time.
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1 minute ago, GASabresIUFAN said:
I think people said the same thing about Skinner while he played for RK.
I'm sorry, I know I'm very critical of all levels of the organization, but no way Cozens and Dahlin were simply playing for a contract last season. This season Cozens has been playing through his injury, Dahlin through the lack of an adequate partner, both guys have also suffered from gripping their sticks too tightly and the entire team is suffering from conflicting and confusing messaging from the coaching staff. I think both are also suffering from trying to play to the expectations that went with the new contracts. This is not to say that both players don't have themselves to blame for some of their issues and that both can't be and should be better, but their issues are not from coasting because they got the big contracts.
What injury is Cozens playing through? Prior to breaking his nose, he was not the same player this season he was last year and he's pretty much the same guy he was prior to breaking his nose now. He isn't getting effected by that any longer.
Expect there's a greater likelihood that Dahlin is battling nagging injury at this point than Cozens is. He hasn't looked quite the same since the cheap shot down in the Sunshine State around the All-Star break last year.
And, yeah, neither is coasting.
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4 minutes ago, Second Line Center said:
If you believe the talent is there then it’s all coaching.
Bylsma had us flirting with a 90 point season I believe. It’s irrelevant.
I know it’s been 13 years. But the reality it’s been barely 3 in the Adams era. He should be on the hot seat by January 2025 and Granato as soon as this season if there isn’t significant improvement before games become pressure less and meaningless in March when we’re 12 points out.
Nope. NHL 0.500. 81 points season 1; 78 points season 2. Agree his seasons are now irrelevant to what's going on today.
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2 hours ago, SABRES 0311 said:
You win.
I really thought the Greenway Mitts Benson line would do good things too. Seemed like a good combination of size and skill.
Mittelstadt with Benson makes sense. Mittelstadt with Greenway makes sense. Either can work if they actually have a legit NHLer that can shoot (said legit, please no talk of giving 2 of them Olofsson), but the 3 together is missing 1 major piece - a finisher.
Maybe move Greenway to the Thompson line and Skinner to the Mitts line?
Right now, having brought in a guy to replace Quinn while he was out would be really multiplying its dividends as Greenway could be on the 4th line and the Sabres could be working towards a legit NHL 4th line while still having what should be 3 scoring lines.
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29 minutes ago, GrassValleyGreg said:
Owen is a plus skater and passer, who excels with his offensive zone instincts, particularly knowing when to jump the zone and support cycles/become 4th forward/etc. He is also extremely adept at zone exits, often generating quick transition with his passing from the backend. His massive wingspan should support his growth in the D zone, disrupting zone entries and taking away passing lanes.
Unfortunately, his mistakes jump from the screen because they are mostly a result of a 21 year old growing into a 6'6" body. The goofy turnovers appear more egregious and are thus more frustrating. Anyone who is upset that he doesn't throw his body around more will never like the player.
This is my hopeful read of a second year, barely 21 year old defenseman to counter what I see as a gross overreaction from a frustrated fan base. Defenseman take much longer to develop, particularly those who are 6'6".
Agree with most of this. And when he is on his game, the comment about zone exits is spot on. But lately he has not been good at generating quick exits. He's overthinking whether the pass is actually there or if it's coming back in his face and he has shown a real reluctance to make that quick exit pass.
Which is a big part of why it would be great for him to get bumped to 3rd pairing usage rather than all-situation 2nd pairing. Would have him going against lesser competition typically and would create a smidge more space for his 1st look breakouts to work. He's simply getting asked to do too much right now. He'll grow into the role they're using him at; but he'd get to that point quicker if he weren't currently in that role. Problem is, there isn't really an obvious pairing to be the 2nd pairing if he is 3rd pairing (or even watching a game from above). Clifton or the elder Johnson don't seem able to fill that role and it's a lot to ask a rookie to do that with either Jokiharju or Samuelsson as his partner. So, Power continues to get put into tougher situations than are ideal.
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8 minutes ago, spndnchz said:
He’s played the last few games
Nope. Just the last one.
Robinson got to play against the BJs.
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26 minutes ago, Marvin said:
Isn't that damning them with very faint praise?
I am impatient because I think that this team, as constituted, should be somewhere around 8th in the conference. Because they are not close, I infer that the problem is the coaching. In particular, I see specialist issues, which point at the assistants. They could change the coaches at any time.
Yep. They absolutely should've made changes in the assistant coaching ranks. Thing is, that CAN be remedied today. Doubt it will, but it can.
The points missed because Quinn was in the pressbox and Olofsson wasn't a good enough replacement can't be recovered.
These HAVE to be moments that management has learned from or this season is a bigger waste than it's setting up to be.
The one item though that Adams was right to a degree on is that MOST of the goalies that were avaialble would not have been significant enough upgrades for what they'd've cost over the guys they have. The one thing people forget about when suggesting guys that seem better than what is here is that those other goalies would still be in this same system. And it is NOT goalie friendly in any way shape or form. There were rumors that Saros or Hellebucyk were available. Saros would 100% have been an upgrade over what we have and would've been good enough. Hellebucyk would've been an upgrade. Based on the talk from the analytics people, not positive that he'd've been enough of an upgrade though he definitely would've been an upgrade. An offer to Varlamov that got him to leave his bestest buddy or an offer sheet to Swayman also could've worked. But not much else without actually teaching and reinforcing the defensive system was going to be a significant upgrade over what they have. And what they have is an upgrade over last year; just to date not enough of one. And those guys aren't available anymore. (If they ever were. Hellebucyk was available and for the right money Varlamov and Swayman were too (everybody has a price). Not sure if the Saros dream was ever more than wishful thinking.)
But, Quinn is back and hopefully his return brings back the Cozens that could actually shoot the puck. And, assistant coaching upgrades are available today. Make at least one there, and let's see if they can battle back into this thing.
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4 minutes ago, Brawndo said:
Lower Body Injury
Glad it isn't upper body as that rules out concussion/ related issues.
🍺
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Just now, bob_sauve28 said:
Youngest team in the league won't be winning all the time. Granato and Adams should be allowed A LOT of leeway to try and figure this thing out. Losing sucks, but overreacting and firing everyone, trading away great young players and taking on some expensive vets is not the answer, IMO, Just sit back, say, "It is what it is" and get use to more losing for the time being and let this cake bake.
At an absolute MINIMUM they need a real PP coach brought it. That unit is embarassingly bad and is a big part of why they haven't strung 2 W's together multiple times this year. There is too much talent on this roster for the PP to be so horrible and the Sabres PP is a major momentum driver this season.
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2 minutes ago, Brawndo said:
Per Sabres PR
Upper body? Lower body? Old age?
He'd actually picked up his game the past 3 or so weeks. Hope it isn't too serious. But not too broken up that he's out of the lineup.
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35 minutes ago, Pimlach said:
Come on Inky. That is spin. Matty Ellis runs the PP, imagine if he ran the bench.
Appert was brought in to see if he can spark something AND because there is zero confidence in the current staff.
He also MIGHT've been brought up to get an "outsider's opinion" on whatever minor move they're thinking about making to try to spark the season being saved. (We can hope, right?)
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6 minutes ago, inkman said:
/sarcasm? The GM literally said it would be the smoothest transition. But just make stuff up I guess.
Yeah, DEFINITELY didn't want to disrupt that PP that's clicking on almost 1 cylinder. Imagine how bad it would've been had they disrupted it.
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GDT: Sabres @ Habs - Thu. 7 pm ET, Jan 4, 2024 MSG-B, ESPN+, RDS, TSN 📺 WGR 📻
in The Aud Club
Posted
The NHL Rulebook doesn't specifically state how 2 and 2 from 1 team vs 2+2 from the other are to be served when all occur coincidentally. But it does state that 2 and 5 from team 1 vs 2+5 fom the other result in 5v5 play. So, one can infer that's the correct way for that call to be enforced.
Except 3rd man in refers to a fight. The original 2 penalties were only 2 minute roughings, not 5 minute fighting majors. Since there was no "fight" there was no 3rd man into the fight.
(Personally felt that Cozens should've only gotten 2 minutes, but wasn't asked by the refs for help with the call. 😉 )