MattPie

Well, seems very unlikely either of the coordinators are going. That's unfortunate IMHO, they don't seem to have that next level to succeed in the playoffs.

For that kind of money, he has to be an immediate core player, and the Sabres likely need to ship out one of the budding core players in return. There's no way the Sabres are going to be able to pay Dahlin, Power, Skinner, Cozens, and Tage plus Meier and have enough left for depth. (given they all continue playing and improving).

The interesting part about bringing in cap dumps is the Sabres would have to send down current players (who we're mostly pretty happy with right now) to make room on the roster. This would be easier if there were a couple injured players and AHL call-ups playing.

To be fair, Tage is also worth a fraction of his upcoming deal. That fraction is like 7/4, but still a fraction. 🙂

Not poking at the original poster, but sometimes I wonder if people think there are teams out there with 9 20+ goal forwards and a 4th line where they only have 10-15 each.

I take Playoff Run to mean actually playing in the playoffs.

Hmm. TB is at 0.663, so 109 points on that pace for the season. Sabres need 56 points in 35 games, so 26-5-4. TGS would be more like 28-4-3. They better get on it. 🙂

The nice thing about the slump was the other teams around the Sabres weren't playing lights out either. If they all continued playing 7-2-1 hockey like before, the Sabres would be nearly sunk. The Islanders falling down a sandbank helps a lot (1-6-3!) and everyone else is also in the 5-4-1 neighborhood. If this is the case, it's a lot easier than the 98-points an NHL0.600 required. The Sabres clearly *can* make the playoffs at this point. But they're going to have to be better, I believe bubble teams traditionally pick up steam after the All-star break / Trade deadline as the games are perceived to mean more.

Sounds like I'll be maintaining my participation at the "keep an eye on this thread, watch the 10-minute highlights" level. No way I'm gonna start watching full games.

My guess is there are "Anderson" games probably every 6-7 games that are kinda planned out for the rest of the season barring a trade. He might request one if the Sabres chances for the post-season get more tenuous, I suppose, I'm not sure the Sabres would just up and trade him without discussion. UPL has taken the #1 spot with his play for now. I have to think the Sabres will treat the non-Anderson games with a normal rotation between UPL and Comrie. So out of every 10 games, Anderson gets 1-2, Comrie gets 1-2, and UPL gets 7 or so. If Comrie is solid or UPL falters, I'd guess Comrie gets more starts.

Re Jost and Mittelstadt: by draft pedigree, they're pretty similar players (24 and 25, 10th and 8th picks). Casey doesn't have as good numbers, but has played far fewer games due to injury. Do I think Casey will become a 1-2 C? Probably not. Do I think he could be Jost-like? Yes. Would anyone really complain if he became a serviceable middle/bottom-6 winger at this point? I wouldn't, given what else the team has brewing for the top-6. Better question: if Jost was originally a Sabres draft pick and had played the same up to now, how would the fans rank him? My guess is there'd be two guys in the doghouse right now.

If I were going to worry, all this "we're a family stuff" will get in the way of finding better players and coaches. I could easily see keeping a rookie OC for another year on the theory that they're learning. I'm not saying be ruthless, but they may not make the hard decisions. Also if I were going to worry, it sounds like both Knox and Beasley are on the team at least in part because Allen likes them. I hope the staff doesn't weigh that too heavily.

I think you mean 3-of-3, really.

I hope you find the snow, we were looking at Old Forge NY this weekend and there's not enough snow there to do anything. Heinous deckery most foul.

I remember wearing a polo shirt with the goat-head at work in Philly the day after one of those 8-2 or 8-0 drubbings in the playoffs. We had some construction guys in the datacenter that gave me a little good-natured crap about it, lol. I used to wear my navy retro 3rd to the games in Philly when I went too.

Sounds like it was a hockey or maybe careless play, and at least one person involved is a DB.

Have to think this was an ask by Vinnie instead of being in the press box most games. Or the NHL quietly put pressure on the Sabres for skirting the rules with all the loans (I have no proof of that, of course).

I'm not expert, so I don't think it works that way. I think the team would have to fit Bishop's contract under their cap, and they get pro-rated credit for the same amount to bring in a player while he's on LITR. But in this situation, they could just bring in a player with that same space. (I'm not explaining this well, I think) The teams that have exploited this have already had a player on LITR, used up that credit during the season, and then have both players for the playoffs. I think Bishop only helps teams that need to hit the cap floor since he's never going to play again.

I can't see the Sabres realistically being a strong buyer unless things turn around right now. After yesterday, they can only lose 12.5 games for the rest of the season and hit 98 points. I get all the feels of not selling this deadline and making a run at the playoffs, but it's getting so unlikely that not making moves for next year and beyond is foolhardy. I don't disagree with any of your points above, other than I'm not sure what the concept is for #6. It's not like a team is going to magically get a bunch of cap space by trading for Bishop's contract and it's done this year so it won't hinder the Sabres in the furture.

I expected more of this kind of content based on the thread title.

Sounds like a "they'll never expect this!" play call. They won't expect it because it's a lower-chance of success idea.

Probably did the math wrong, lol. I just posted this over in the GDT: the Sabres have 13 losses left for the season to get to 98, 27 wins. Those move around a little for OTLs. So 4 losses per month, give or take.

Every game at this point kinda is at this point. The Sabres only have around 13 losses[0] left this season if they want to be a solid place for the playoffs. [0] 40 games remaining, at 44 points, need 54 more points to be "safe", 27 wins, 13 losses. I'm not counting OTL/SO here.

For better or worse, the Bills are the team to watch, and everyone wants to see Allen hurdle someone. This is pretty fair. It helps that putting Buffalo and Rochester together gets you around 30th in metro area population, with KC, indy, Las Vegas, and Cincinnati. Small market, but not desperately so.

NHL All-star John Scott.