Taro T

No Krebs, Olofsson? Huh? Trying to help PP2?

So now it isn't even his development we're concerned about, but how much his parents get to enjoy watching him play? 😄 Pretty sure they didn't EXPECT to only give him less than 4 minutes of game time, but that's how it went. If he wanted more ice time, maybe he shouldn't have kept trying to make passes through Wild defenders? Pretty sure Granato would've let him get more time had he earned any additional shifts. He did make a better upgrade on D than Clifton. Some guy named Erik Johnson, perhaps you saw him play? There's also some guy named Ryan Johnson playing who looks pretty good in limited action. Were they not "upgrades?" So far, Adams goaltending moves (or lack thereof) appear that they might just work out. Would've preferred they go a different course there, but really don't see how that nor the D moves affect whether Mr. & Mrs. Savoie's 1st trip to Buffalo was as dreamy as they'd hoped it would be.

7 D, you say? And not one of them named Jacob? That works. 😉

It means it almost definitely will slide. Should his WHL team get upset early in the playoffs and circumstances dictate he gets an NHL callup rather than an AHL callup he could still play 9 games at the end of this year for the Sabres. But that would seem to be unlikely at this point. However, it does mean he definitely won't accrue an NHL season this year. And for long term cap management, IMHO, that is more important than the ELC sliding a year.

Yeah, because those 4 minutes he played against Minny were the only 4 moments of evaluation they had of him. They never saw him in practice nor anywhere else. 🤪 And they surely never spoke to him about what last night was going to go like nor that he wasn't long for the NHL in this particular stint. 🫨 Again, they aren't in DEVELOPMENT mode now. They are in WIN mode. And after sending Minny on their 2nd odd man rush, Granato decided to nail his butt to the bench. Am fine with the decision, though, again, did expect he'd get 1 more look before getting sent back. A big part of the reason that he didn't get a longer look but Benson did is that Benson controlled and drove play his 1st 3 NHL games and he'd done so in all the preseason games he got as well. He pretty much FORCED the Sabres to look at him longer. You can say the reason Savoie didn't do so is because of injuries or whatever; but at the end of the day, he DIDN'T force them to look at him longer. And in the season the goal is to not just end a 12 year drought but actually do something once it ends, when they need to drop the roster back to 23 men, they can't keep a kid that is far less likely to help in that effort than another player like Rousek is. (Jost is going to help them win more games at this point in time than Matt will as well.) It's a shame he can't play in the AHL this year until WA is knocked out of the running for the Memorial Cup; but it is what it is and it isn't going to ruin him to go back to the W. They still have the same development guys that they did before this season and they'll be working with him even though he is in the W.

Fun city. HATE driving there. (Nowhere near familiar enough with it to have a good feel for when there's going to be a need to slide over 3 lanes in the next quarter mile.)

Am primarily using the Sabres own players as comparables and also looking at where the cap is going now that they're in the last year of the players repaying the lockout money they were fronted. Mittelstadt isn't going to be a 0.52PPG player this year. If the contract hawks are lucky he'll only be a 0.75PPG player. It's below where he's been for going on close to a season now.

Expect it came down to Samuelsson being ready to come off IR and somebody had to leave the roster to make room for him. They weren't ready to send Johnson back down & for whatever reason they still don't want to send Bryson down. With Rousek getting raves from his head coach, don't see him going down. Actually expect him dressing again tonight and also Tuch rejoining the lineup giving them their 12 tonight. Though several here would be perfectly fine with Olofsson going down, doesn't seem to be Adams style and don't see it happening until there aren't any other moves he can make that doesn't expose a player to waivers. As said elsewhere, thought he'd get 1 more game, but the #'s seem to have worked against him. If Samuelsson is off IR (or any of the other 3 are instead, they still are at 23 minus Savoie) then they have 2-8-13 healthy players and no room for Savoie.

That's ok. The sky will have fallen after the next loss.

The GOAL this year is playoffs, NOT development. Wtf would they give him a few more games if they've seen all they need to see already about where he is at as a player? Personally, expected he'd get 1 more game against a lesser opponent, but thought there was a strong possibility he'd get sent back after that game. They obviously decided they've seen enough and didn't need to overwork the rest of the forwards by giving him 4 more minutes in another game.

4 years does do that for him. But, can't see him, who one has to assume presumes that he's part of this team's core, settling for a 4 year deal at below market when everybody else on the team that's part of the core that showed up after he did gets 7 or so year deals at / SLIGHTLY below market.

Can't see any way he takes that deal. He's going to get Cozens/Thompson money.

Would be extremely surprised if Granato goes against what he said a week ago was the plan. UPL gets tonight's game. Unless he gets a SO, Levi gets the Bruins game.

Slow news day.

Would have to go back and review it, but thought the Rags PP goal was a backdoor play as well. But that was game 1, they've improved a lot since that game (which still only gave up 1 PP goal on 4 chances). Agree on Power. The funny thing is, he IS having a sophomore slump as he gets asked to do more than he was last year. But he's still far and away their 2nd best D-man. Not wishing any of this season away, but really looking forward to seeing what he'll end up doing next year when all this is starting to become old hat for him and also when he will likely FINALLY be nearly as strong as a person with a body that large should be. He can very much be a Lidstrom-style player. There also is a reasonable chance that R Johnson will be getting top 4 usage next year (at least at 5v5) which means Power can have either him or Samuelsson as his partner. Don't underestimate how much having a guy that SHOULD be top 4 as a partner will make him better. (Will also likely make the 3rd pairing better regardless of which 2 guys end up there.) Granato has definitely changed his coaching style to a degree. In tight games, the 3rd period is pretty much always 3 lines (and can drop to 2 at the very end). He also mixes lines much earlier in games when things aren't working. That used to always wait until the 3rd period (except when he wanted to get a guy some extra ice right before a TV timeout was due) but now that will happen earlier if things aren't working. He does occassionally match lines (last night being an example, after having the Thompson line play against the Foligno line to start the game, the Okposo line got matched up against that really heavy line when he could). He NEVER did that when development was the focus. Can't wait for tonight's game and Tuesday's as well. Expect they'll play a lot better tonight than they did last night. Hopefully they do and the better team gets the W too.

You bring up an interesting point about his attachment to his teammates and his coach. The reason he was the best HS hockey player in Minnesota was he wanted to stay with his friends on the HS Team rather than move to Major Junior or a Shattuck St Mary's. MAYBE that helps keep his cost down to the Cozens' level?

It seemed to be shift related because nearly positive Skinner started on that PP but came off at the 1st faceoff during the PP.

He was great in the playoffs when he was an Amerk. He took his game up a level in that run.

Well, that's the Q. HAS Johnson moved ahead of anybody in the top 6. He's playing on the 1st pair right now, but that doesn't necessarily mean that he is in the top 6. (McNabb early in is career was Doughty's primary partner on the Kings' top pairing but was only 5th in ice time.) It SEEMS he's ahead of Jokiharju on the pecking order but not sure whether that's wishful thinking or reality. IF they're willing to / going to go to a rotation with the D similar to the rotation they went to w/ the F's last year, keep him up. If they aren't ready to cycle through benching a vet every 3rd - 5th game, send him back and bring him up as soon as the next injury happens. Expecting Girardi and E. Johnson will have a lot of input on the decision.

Very possible. But regardless of how things play out this year, expect he's pencilled into Okposo's slot on next year's roster. They may decide they want to go outside to get a more veteran presence there if his play slides, but right now he has the inside track to that job. (And things can definitely change. Just barely over a year ago, it looked like that job was going to be Asplund's now. THAT didn't happen.)

It also gives Savoie a look at how much different the NHL game is from the AHL game and the WHL game. The puck found Savoie a lot in his 3-1/2 minutes of ice time. He was going to good spots to have the puck come to him. That's extremely encouraging. But he put it into a Wild player very often. (He did get one pass through that hit Krebs in the Buffalo on his chest. But maybe 2 others got through. Neither to a teammate in a high danger location.) He was fairly fortunate to not have had any assists on Wild goals as he set up at least 2 odd man rushes from the Wild blue line. He's going to be a very good player. And he'll get another look or 2, but if he plays like he did last night he won't get to 9 games. It really is a shame he can't stay in Ra-cha-cha this year because that seems to be where he belongs.

Because Skinner is a fixture and they continue to give Cozens time there as well. Thompson and Dahlin are not coming off that unit (nor should they even be considered for removal). Mittelstadt has (deservedly) moved up to that unit, but it'll be interesting to see if it's Mitts or Dylan that comes off when Tuch is healthy again. Expecting it's Cozens that comes off, but not positive that'll be the outcome. Would personally like to see Mittelstadt at the bumper, Peterka opposite Tommer, with either Tuch or Greenway down low. When Benson is healthy, try him at the bumper and move Mittelstadt down low. But can't see Granato EVER moving Skinner off that top PP unit. (Nor Okposo getting bumped off the 2nd unit while he's still here.) They try to claim it's a true meritocracy, but politics still play into some of the decisions.

Your comments on the PK overloading on the puck carrier on the goals is spot on. But interestingly, that is what the Wild were doing on the PK all game long and against the Sabres broken PP it was working. Pretty sure that having 2 men in the board battles vs 1 Sabre is what they do against other teams as well (haven't watched any other of their games than just this one, but have seen that they've been the worst PK in the league letting in goals on every 3rd PP attempt against heading into last night) and 2 things should've happened from the Sabres side - they should've supported the player in the 1 on 2 battle to even it up and a 3rd Sabre should've been ready to get the puck and either take the puck directly to the net on the now 3v2 or ready to pass it to whomever is the now open player (like the Wild were doing on their PP when the Sabres PK broke down). They didn't and the PP except for that one right at the end of the 2nd looked very discombobulated. Wiith the Wild's backup goalie in net, their PK was set up to fail if the Sabres were smarter on the PP. A really agressive PK can work (see Carolina's) but it absolutely needs a goalie that can stop the back door shot more often than not and also can stop the clean shot from the slot. And while Fleury might be able to be that guy, their backup isn't. They really need to learn to be less aggressive on the PK when they aren't playing PP's that have no clue. But on that 1st goal for the Wild, Kaprisov just barely snuck that puck under Levi. Levi is CLOSE to being good enough to stop most of those killer chances (and he did stop some others like that). Will be interesting to see if the Sabres PK does become more aggressive later in the season if Levi gets even better at stopping those chances.

3 prospects in the lineup and all playing very well you say? Sounds an awful lot like Levi, Benson (when healthy), and Johnson. 😉

Didn't read through the thread, apologies for comments that are redundant to what's already been posted. Once again they did a very good job on the HFC Night IMHO. One thing they might want to rethink though for next season is not taping the placards for people to show support for particular cancer survivors to the seats. The reason being, it was VERY obvious which seats in the building weren't filled. The 300's were nearly completely full, the 100's about 80-85% full. But the 200's were well under 50%. Still believe Levi's bad game against Calgary was due to him playing through whatever injury it was that kept him out for a week or so. He was lights out tonight. And this time (unlike the Loafs game that he played very well in too) the numbers align with the eye test. He was chosen as the 1st star and it was very well deserved. There were several "we're not worthy" moments. The other 2 stars were Skinner and Peterka. Believe Skinner deserved the 2nd star and based upon the way the media chooses the stars, yes JJ deserved the 3rd star. But holy cow, even though he didn't have any points, Mittelstadt was very good. And that play in the 1st where he skated around/through all the Wild then drove to the net will probably end up being the best play the Sabres have this season that DOESN'T result in a goal. And in the 3rd he was toying with the Wild. The puck was on a string for him tonight. Too bad Greenway's hands were absolute granite tonight because he could've had probably 4 goals off just feeds from Mitts alone. And Mitts wasn't the only one trying to feed him. Did like JJ's game, not implying he didn't play well and the play that sprung Skinner's breakaway was excellent. Was hoping after the 1st period that Cozens would drop the fishbowl and go with a full cage. It was clearly affecting his play. The puck was finding him all night but his hands were off. Girgensons had a strong game too. Not sure why he didn't get a call when his leg was taken out from under him after the shorthanded breakaway he got stoned on. Jost is playing effectively in his role. Liked Dahlin's game and both Johnsons too. Glad the dirty hit from Bogosian on the Big Johnson didn't do any real damage. Also still not sure why Foligno didn't get called for interference on that same sequence when he took Peterka out. Savoie got very little ice time, but didn't do much with what he got either. A lot of his passes got picked off, but at least he was getting the puck. When he gets another opportunity, hopefully he's settled down better. If not, he might not make it to game 9. Have been more impressed with Benson to date. But in fairness, it's too small a sample to really know what Savoie might be able to do. Mildly surprised at how much ice time Rousek got; particularly because he was taking time that Krebs had been getting in games like this earlier this year. Wouldn't be surprised if Krebs was around 6-7 minutes tonight. Rousek seemed to be playing responsibly but wasn't going to be generating any offense tonight. Could see him being groomed to take Okposo's spot next year. That 2nd period was the opposite of what seems to be the way things have gone for the Sabres the past couple of seasons. They were dominated for long stretches of that period, but courtesy of the Peterka intercept that he chipped up to Skinner who did not disappoint, they came out of the period up by a goal. This was a game they probably deserved to lose, but Levi didn't let it happen. And, it's good to see them come out on the good end of one of these. Go win in Pittsburgh and start moving up into a playoff position.