Taro T

Not positive. Thought they get announced 2-3 weeks ahead of time.

Two players who both had strong skill sets prior to coming to Buffalo who had serious issues early on transferring them into success at this level. One has figured out how to make those skills work & one hasn't. Why did the one "figure it out" while the other didn't? And what might be done to help the other to "get it?" Let's look at Thompson 1st. When he came to Buffalo he already had the crazy reach & in practices he had a toe drag that could make people look stupid. He also has good speed for a big man. He'd been a C at lower levels but got moved to W by the Blues & the Sabres brass kept him there. He tried to make that toe drag & shot work at the NHL level but it simply didn't. He couldn't work it quickly enough nor wide enough to make defenders back off and he could still get knocked off the puck relatively easily. It seemed he simply wasn't coordinated enough to make it work at that level. But thinking about it more, in practice he COULD work that toe drag, so it wasn't a lack of coordination that was making him look like a "baby giraffe." There were coordination issues, but they seem to have been more of an adjusting to a high center of balance issue and a young 20's lack of "man strength" issue. There may also have been a confidence issue as not having success at what came easily & naturally has to take a mental toll. He eventually got sent to Ra-cha-cha & was successful again. We all (well most all, there's never 100% concensus around here) thought it was because he'd altered his game & was "figuring it out." But in hindsight it was likely more a case of playing against slower less skilled players who simply weren't good enough to counteract the toe drag. He earned a callup back to the Sabres & promptly messed up his shoulder. He played the next year at age 23 still on the wing and looked like a 3rd liner. That next year he was still on the wing and got low minutes under Krueger & very few results (1g 1a IIRC) he got a bit more ice time under Granato & also better results (7g 5a in ~25 games) which had him back to a good 3rd liner. The next year, Eichel is gone (or on his way out, technically) & the Sabres had a hole at C so Granato gave him a look at the position he'd played on the NDT & things took off. Some of us (raises his hand sheepishly) thought it was almost entirely due to getting moved to C. & the confidence having a coach that believes in you brings. Being away from the boards, he ca use that entire wingspan to keep the puck aeay from opponents & his coach lets him try that move that doesn't work often for normal sized humans. That was a big part of it, but the overlooked aspect of it is by being 24 last year & 25 now, he's entering his physical prime and due to being man strong, he can withstand pretty much any legal check & his hands are just that smidge quicker that keeps the puck out of the reach of opponents. Another thing he did which comes with being a bit wiser is he figured out when & where to just get a quick shot off without necessarily having a great look. Getting the shot off when the goalie isn't fully ready for it can be as, if not more, effective that that cannon of his. He tried to get to the great shot and passed over a lit of good ones. He doesn't do that anymore. Until extremely recently, didn't think he'd have "gotten it" staying on the wing. Now believe he would've but not nearly at the PPG+ he's currently at. Being on the boards steals away a lot of what makes him special. He loses 40% of his wingspan being near the boards. He still has the size & strength & the hands, but a big part of the sandbox he utilizes so effectively is gone when playing there. He's probably still a 60 pt player at W (at least a 50 pt minimum) but he's legit a ppg player at C. When Savoie, & Kulich, & Östlund, & ..., are ready to come up PLEASE coaches don't overthink it and move him back to W. He'll be fine there but he's great at C. Which brings us to Mittelstadt. Casey's go to plan at lower levels was to ignore a lack of space & drive the puck into a phone booth at the top of the house & either skate through it or dish it to a now open winger & reap the rewards. (Or as was often the case of his time as a Gopher, pass to a teammate who then flubved the glorious scoring chance.) He didn't have any fear of a lack of space because he was better than the players around him & he could still win the battles. His hands were quick enough & he was big enough that it usually was unfair odds when it was just 2 defenders against him. Having above average (though not great) speed helped there too. When he 1st got to the NHL, he still had this as his go to move. Get the puck & drive into the phone booth. But at the NHL he wasn't bigger than those around him & he couldn't consistently win that outnumbered battle. He also was not used to not having the puck because at lower levels he always had it on his stick or would go & take it back if the other team had it. But at this level, he was TOTALLY lost in his own end because he couldn't just take the puck back. And, to make matters worse, due to injuries or just decisions, he was often the 2C and playing against really good players for the opponent. He eventually got sent down & Chris Taylor did a good job of both giving him a clue of what to do in his defensive zone & also to teach him that skating into traffic w/ the puck isn't a good thing. He was brought back up initially as a W on the 3rd & 4th line & worked his way back to C eventually being regarded as the 1C coming out of TC last season. He then suffered his injury in that 1st game & has had issues since. He actually is pretty decent at playing positionally sound in his own end and getting the puck away from opponents but he oftentimes can't control that puck that he's just removed from his opponent. Another issue IMHO is he doesn't receive passes as well as he should, paricularly outlet/ headman passes. He's fine w/ receiving lateral passes but those coming from behind him he tends to biff too often. Probably a byproduct of being way better than everybody else when developing, so he wasn't the guy getting outlet passes as he was in the fray recovering pucks & then making those passes. Another thing working against him at present is ever since getting driving to the high traffic areas beaten out of him, he doesn't carry the puck to the net until he is almost to the goal line. Wide & drive we used to teach our Squirts to be able to get around the D; it works but it isn't everything. They (not just Tails) drilled that into him hard and it's stuck. They need to get him beyond just that. But his biggest issue is, he doesn't go to open space enough & he doesn't create open space enough. This is where sitting a game or 2 could help him. He could watch w/ a development coach what the other F's are doing to create space & get to space & ideally figure out how to do that himself. He has come a seriously long way from where he was at. And he does have skills that are still effective on the PP. He's also (sadly, as he's just OK at it) their best faceoff man at present. Work on receiving that outlet pass & work on finding space. If he gets those down (& Granato & the rest must believe he can), still believe he could absolutely be a high end 3C and maybe even a good 2C. Granato has also talked up his work ethic & leadership. Realize many here don't agree he has either, but Granato seems disinclined to lie. (Yes, he puts a rosy spin on things, but he doesn't outright lie.) So, if he says those are 2 of Mitts positive traits, will believe him. He's 24 now. This is the season he has to figure it out. Do agree w/ those that see him getting moved if he doesn't get it to come together soon; there's some good talent that'll be ready to move up soon, if he isn't better than them, he'll be out. And guess the point of this novella is yes Mitts has stuff to work on, but believe could improve in those areas. Thompson made it happen. His issues were more strength related & being deployed improperly whereas Mitts are still getting taught things he should've learned earlier (some of which he has learned since going pro) but Tage had to learn when & where the toe drag works vs just going for the 1 timer / quick shot. You can teach giys new tricks. Thoughts?

Probably more than that when you look at contracts for the rest of the forwards. This is the Sabres MacKinnon contract.

Was going to ask about that too.

There's a good chance you can get a R&B goathead as those are 3rds and should be around for at least 3 years w/ that designation. So they are probably still available now as Adidas shouldn't just have a limited amount of fabric & crests assembled for it. (Presuming they will have the contract w/ the league for a while longer.) Another thought, if your kid really likes the B&G goatheads, and it is a significant downgrade from a real sweater, is getting a sweatshirt or hoodie in that style. (Said it's a huge downgrade.) The butter knife hoodies were pretty sharp. Would guess the B&G goatheads would be too. Wishing you good luck at finding something that'll work.

Just got tix for All Star weekend this morning. Was wondering if both Dahlin & Thompson would be there for certain. Pretty sure we know the answer to that. Hoe-lee chit. What a ####ing game for him.

Not true. The one puck that hit the post & harmlessly bounced away from the twine could've been an inch to the right & would've been in the net too. It was luck that he wasn't perfect, but Glenn Hall used to say he'd rather be lucky than good any day. 😉

Regarding Wood: He was born in Buffalo, because his dad was a Sabre, who happened to be the Sabres NHLPA Rep just coincidently during the only inseason players' strike in NHL history. The Knoxes, being old money, did not appreciate the fact that the players struck, and soon thereafter sent him packing. Randy has never gotten over it; doubt his kid is particularly fond of the organization that traded away his father out of spite, regardless of the Knoxes being gone for roughly a quarter century. As for Chychrun, alao wouldn't mind seeing him in B&G (wanted him to be the pick in that draft held in Buffalo) but believe he isn't an ideal partner for Power. Would like more of another Samuelsson for him. But it would give the Sabres an above average 1st pairing, and an above average 3rd pairing; the 2nd pairing only being average would still overall be an upgrade over where they're at.

A reasonable take. Can't see any situation Wood would ever play for the Sabres, but someone similar might.

We both agree that the team still needs improvements in net & on D among other things.

Like mentioned, it didn't make any sense for it to be vs last year. Vs '19, oh yeah, absolutely believe it. Danke.

Better D-men could help. But when they're healthy, they have 5 competent defenseman. Even w/ just 4 the bigger issue for giving up high danger chances is they are an offense 1st team right now. Even the good D-men are out for a lot of goals against. Fortunately they're also out for a #### ton of goals for too. Until defensively responsible play is emphasized, unless they have a true stud between the pipes they're going to give up a lot of goals. Better D-men would help w/ more W's (which is what really matters), counterintuitively not positive they'd really bring the GAA down nearly as much as you expect as long as the emphasis is still offense now & forever.

Is that drop vs last season or vs prepandemic #'s or some other baseline? Find it hard to believe it's vs last year as they only had really really good home attendance in 3 games plus the Heritage Claasic (which was a "home" game, wink, wink) and attendance was worse in October & November overall last year w/ the border still effectively closed. There is a bigger STH base this year than last. If it is vs last year, that's a pretty good indication that the "Bills effect" is real & attendance will pick up come February.

Very interesting stuff. Thanks for sharing. 🍻

After watching what happens to Lyubushkin every couple of games am just happy the rest of them don't flamingo. And after seeing how many pucks got deflected past him, Comrie would probably prefer a bunch of them to not even try to block shots. 😉 Agree w/ those who are saying better D-zone coverage would likely affect not only shots against but also shot blocks.

Really expect that at some point they'll get a 5-6 game winning streak. (Doubt it happens before Comrie comes back, but they're in a stretch of winnable games now, so who knows.) Expect in general, they'll play NHL 0.500 until Comrie is back & NHL 0.600 after he's back. With the youth they have expect them to continue to improve throughout the year which should make those predictions low should other teams still look at them as bottom feeders but expect by the end of the month teams will be playing their top net minder against them & they'll be ready to have a tough game (due to speed, not rough stuff) so so those changes will likely offset each other. They have a great chance to be in the mix for the playoffs. To get in, is obviously a very tall order w/ the current GTing. But likely comes down to can they find a 2nd 5-6 game W streak & can they avoid another 5+ game losing streak. If the answer to both is yes, will say they'll be in the playoffs. If no to either, then no. Really expect they've got a good chance of getting that 2nd W streak. But not convinced they can avoid another losing streak. As we saw last month, all it takes to go on 1 is have a tough stretch of schedule with a stinker game in the gimme sprinkled inside that stretch. If they could find a really good PKer that would help too. The PK is killing them. (GT is your best PKer.)

Not saying there's an expectation of a blockbuster deal. But right now, there are no deals (not entirely Adams fault, he made a trade for a goalie but was then rebuffed & supposedly might also have had 1 other trade worked out that got rebuffed by the player) at all. Expecting that will change this offseason. And we'll see 2-3 middle 6 players &/or prospects that project to that level traded for either GT, #4 D (though that piece will more likely come via FA, hoping he brings in a couple that way), or very good PK C that's a reasonable 2 way player. Granted, that could all be projection, but Adams realizes the team needs to be better & not all the holes will be filled w/ on house prospects.

Is it because they believe their fans are dumb and will watch anything? If that ISN'T the answer, no clue.

Had noticed that lack of younger guys upthread. Watch the WJCs every year but hadn't really paid attention to the ages of the players that much but always thought there were significantly more than just 3 D+1 players in most years. (1 - 3 draft eligible players seemed about right, but not the few D+1's.) Any thoughts on why the roster is skewing that old?

Your best PKer is your goalie. Just sayin'. Yeah, the defensive zone play leaves a bit to be desired fairly often. But 2 of the lines & 1 of the D pairings are "getting" the offensive ideas & really one of the other lines & both of the D pairings seem to get them as well, just not with the same kind of success (& when you look at the players in that mix really only Power & Okposo would be expected to be scoring at a level remotely like their teammates). Would hope that Granato isn't waiting for every skater to fully get the O under their command before focusing some on the D. Which would have that part of the game getting worked on sooner than later.

If you think that suit is too big, you'd hate his REALLY big suit. 😉

Because he's WAAAAY older than that. He's been 20 for almost 3 full weeks. 😉

There definitely will be. Hoping it comes this offseason. (Would be nice if it were sooner, but just not expecting it & won't go constantly shouting at the clouds hoping he will do something sooner when it isn't likely to happen.) The fear is we won't be there until the next offseason, but am pretty sure it'll start this offseason.

He & Allen both have the KC D's #. If the Bills are still healthy when Cincy is up. Like their chances. Especially as that could be Miller's 1st game back.

That line, for about the last 6 games has been scoring at a ridiculous rate. They have also been out for a fair # of goals against this season. Thing is, the ridiculous rate of scoring is greater than the # of goals they've been out for going the other way. It's a good thing. Both takes can be accurate. They do tilt the ice, which is awesome. But their aggressive style also results in goals against; both off the rush or pursuing the puck hard in the D-zone. They are a very high event line. And fortunately there is more good high event than bad high event. It's going to be interesting to see whether the high events start tilting in the other direction as other teams put their top line out against them more rather than treating them like the 3rd line like they had been for most of the season. But they're doing exactly what is being asked of them right now. They're being asked to look for more creative ways to attack & with that will not only come more highlight reel goals, but also some goals going the other way. And they could be the biggest winners when the goaltending does get good (maybe if WE'RE lucky w/ Comrie's return) as their firewagon attack will give up even fewer goals with an oopsie because the goalie will be able to stop high danger chances. As for their plus minuses being good, yeah, they've been out for a lot of points for and the vast majority of them have been at 5v5 or even SH. They're scoring a lot. They also give up a fair amount. But a lot is more than a fair amount. Thus a positive +/-.