nfreeman

Now they need to win 2 out of their next 3 — Colorado, AZ and Vegas (and you-know-who is on IR currently and may not be back for the game). @Taro T’s a hater, but he’s got no imagination. My plan to get back to DeLuca .500 by New Year’s will work and the Sabres will be very much in the hunt.

Different eras though. The passing game is a much bigger part of the offense now.

Good call -- he's on the list too. Diggs hasn't been here long enough yet IMHO to supplant Reed, although Diggs' peak is probably higher than Reed's. It's pretty close though -- Reed was a fantastic player.

Oh, I agree that Drury didn't want to be here. He made that clear in his interviews when he was first traded here and by his action in leaving when OSP jerked him around. Nevertheless, he was a great player. I'm not sure I would definitively state that Hall was better than Max, full stop. (I realize that Hall was the MVP once, so my stance on this is probably ridiculous, but still. Max never dogged it anywhere the way Hall did here. And Max was electrifying. He could score it, he could pass it, and he was the fastest guy on the ice at all times. Hall, even at his best, is a strong skater and a decent playmaker but not elite at anything.)

I agree with much of this, and Drury was better than Max, but Max was about a million times better than Hall.

Yes -- Argo was outstanding (as was The Town). Ben A. has such a great touch as director -- it's hard to reconcile with his acting, or at least with his choice of roles.

Butler was so good. He and Takeo Spikes are my 2 all-time "what might've been if not for injury" Bills.

I wouldn't want to mess with JJP-Cozens-Quinn, which is an unstoppable force of nature right now.

I wonder if this means no OBJ. Beasley isn't what they really need, which is a good O-lineman and a good deep threat at WR, but he'll help turn the 2nd-and-10s we've been seeing following Singletary drops into 2nd-and-3s.

He'd need to improve his skating but yes, yes, a thousand time yes. I loved Schoeny. Awesome.

I randomly watched "Gone Baby Gone" on HBO a few days ago. I was surprised at how good it was. Solid A-minus. Casey Affleck is a great actor and Ben is a really good director.

I'd much rather see VO in Skinner's spot than Mitts.

I think the bolded is true regarding this season, but for his 1st 2 seasons, the sins were of omission IMHO. In 2020-21, he didn't upgrade in net and went into the season with Ullmark and Hutton -- even though Hutton was clearly not an NHL goalie at that point and Ullmark was very much unproven. It was even worse in 2021-22 -- despite finishing 2nd-last in goals against the previous year, and losing Ullmark, all KA did was add the elderly Craig Anderson and a bunch of Tokarski-type AHL journeymen. I could be wrong, but I don't remember the Sabres being in on any Matt Murray-type deals in those 2 offseasons where KA was clearly trying to bring in legit goaltending but the deals were vetoed by a goalie with a NTC. Great post, as always, and I largely agree, but with one quibble: KA has been the GM for 166 games now -- 56 in 2020-21, 82 last year and 28 this year. So 3 offseasons and 2+ regular seasons worth of games. I guess I just think at this point, there are very few guys on D or in net that would represent a difference-making upgrade and are available, and, of those, most or all wouldn't be interested in coming here. That may change by the deadline or next offseason, but in the meantime, I'm not interested in committing term to a guy who isn't a real difference-maker.

Well, that was a disappointing home-and-home. They could've gotten to Deluca .500 but instead are a solid 4 games under. Lose another 2 or 3 in a row and the deficit will be impossible to overcome. Their next 5 are: vs LA at Colorado at AZ at Vegas home vs TB That's 4 good teams plus AZ, who they've already lost to this season. If they go 2-3, they'll be 5 under. 1-4 and they're 7 under and the season is over, again, before New Year's. OTOH, if they can deep and go 3-2, they'll be 3 under Deluca .500 with the next 2 at CBJ and home vs Detroit. If they can win those 2, they'd then be 1 under, going into a road game on Dec. 31 vs... Boston! How'd you like to beat the Bruins and have a few pops on NYE knowing that you're starting 2023 at Deluca .500, you've started to beat the good teams and you're very much alive for the playoffs? It could happen.

I’m sort of between option 2 and option 3. If we get to New Year’s and the Sabres or five or six below Deluca .500, and goaltending and defense depth are still major issues, and activity has occurred around the league involving those positions, I will firmly be in option 3 territory. He will not have done enough to help the team, pretty much by definition.

Starting to get classic Buffalo sports weekend vibes with the Sabres getting swept and exposed by Pittsburgh. Rescue us Josh and Stefon!

Oh goody. You've graced us with yet another pointless, small-minded and unnecessary shot at other posters that is neither clever nor witty. How superior of you. Mitts did what nobody else has been able to do lately: shut down TT's line. In all seriousness, I really think Mitts just does not understand the time and space that are available to him in NHL games. Time after time tonight I watched him fight hard for pucks but move the wrong way. He doesn't move towards open space. He moves towards traffic. I want to see VO with TT and Tuch next game. Otherwise we'll see the top line get shut out again. Dude.

The suspension is a bummer, but as others noted in the GDT, it's about time the Sabres inflicted some punishment for taking liberties with their goalie. Danny Gare, a somewhat comparable player to Skinner, would've done the same thing.

I really don’t think AZ will do a deal that doesn’t bring back a first rounder in 2023.

IMHO, Mitts' money maker is his hands. When he has time and space, he can make a very nice pass or deke a goalie and finish. The problem is that the rest of his game doesn't give rise to enough opportunities for him to have the puck with time and space. I think he needs 2 linemates who play a good forecheck/possession game and he needs more experience to develop that part of his game. At present he doesn't seem to know where to go in the O-zone -- unlike someone like Quinn, who always seems to be in the right spot -- and with linemates who don't compensate for this weakness, the result is that when Mitts is on the ice and the puck goes into the O-zone, the opponents have a ridiculously easy time getting it back out and going the other way. Hockey IQ seems like a difficult thing to develop, so I'm kinda skeptical, but I also want to give him some time. His NHL career to date has been managed by terrible coaching for the first few years, then missing most of last year with injury.

Excellent post, as always, by @Taro T. I don't think TT-like development for Mitts is realistic but it's still quite possible that he could develop into a quality 3C or third-line winger. Mitts is under contract at a reasonable $2.5MM cap hit this year and next. That gives the Sabres plenty of time to try to develop him and make a decision on him. No one is going to give them anything for him in trade, so it's not like they are passing up good assets by hanging on to him. By the end of this year, they'll have more info on him, as well as on Asplund, Krebs and the other young forwards in the system (Savoie, Kulich, Rosen, Rousek, Cedarquist, etc.) and their viability as NHL players next year. We'll see.

I agree that if KA throws enough assets at someone, he can get a goalie. That still leaves 2 key questions though: - is that goalie an upgrade over what they have now? - does that goalie want to be here? If the answer to either of those questions is "no," then KA isn't interested -- and I'd guess that the answer to one of those questions has been "no" in just about every situation. Now, if the Sabres get to Deluca .500, start filling the arena and keep winning 9-4 games against crappy teams and losing 6-5 games to cup contenders, I can see a good goalie who previously didn't want to be here changing his mind, since the Sabres would be a playoff bubble team that offers a goalie plenty of scoring support and an exciting arena. But I don't think we are there yet.

You mean ppl?

It's not a small risk. Bob turns 35 in September, so you'd be taking on his age 35, 36 and 37 seasons. They have cap space now, but that's before Cozens and Dahlin get what will presumably be big contracts. Most importantly, he appears to be in decline, possibly steep decline. His SV% for the last 7 years is .921%. In the last 3 full seasons, it was .900, .906 and .913, and .880 in 13 games this season.

They are 2 games under Deluca .500 and about to play home-and-home vs Pittsburgh, which has won 3 in a row and are 8-1-1 in their last 10. Pittsburgh is 9th in the NHL in goals for but middling in goals against. If the Sabres can sweep a good, experienced, well-balanced, mentally tough team led by an all-time great who is still one of the best players in the NHL and get to Deluca .500 -- it will officially be ON. OTOH, if they lose both, they'll be back to 4 games under and the playoffs will get a bit harder to imagine. UPL -- here is opportunity.