SHAAAUGHT!!!

Whether you’re elated or deflated about this hiring, I can’t wait to see how Lindy handles Skinner, and what Jeff Skinner shows up for the Sabres next year…

The emergence of Benson makes Krebs redundant on this roster. We only need 1 playmaking, undersized fire plug bouncing in between the middle 6. We don’t need that type of player on the 4th line. I’d like to see him packaged to address grit and toughness for the bottom 6z

Me seeing this announcement and completely unable to contain my joy

Goalies are fickle so I never would go over 4 years, but he’s proven he can handle the starting role given a proper 2 goalie rotation. I’d be fine with, and expect him to be, 4x4

I've seen Joker skate away from too many situations where he should have stood up for himself or his team. Last year he literally flinched when he thought someone was going to grab him. Joker and Bryson are two of the most cowardly defensemen I can remember on this team. Even Soupy would mix it up when he had too.

They did have some really good games early this year (the home game against the Avs was amazing), but followed it up with so many terrible efforts. I think it may be a stretch to blame uncommitted player efforts on a 3 goalie rotation… KO is an amazing human being, and a solid hockey player, but he was not the leader this team needed. If he was, Eichel would have never aligned himself with Kane, and KO would have been named captain years before he was…

Has Donny finally figured it out, or is this dumb luck because Kyle and EJ are gone so he has to use different skaters. The line combos and ice time per player indicate he’s reassessed his players, at least Skinner…

Spot on. I only watched the 10minute summary of this game but I was mad when UPL was run over and no one even pushed the guy around. UPL as a starter, in a proper 2 goalie rotation, has proven himself after the new year. He is the main reason the Sabres have been competitive in these games lately. BB4 is doing exactly what I expected him to do and is looking good doing it. I had a bit of a chuckle this afternoon thinking about all the posters upset about the straight up Mitts-BB4 trade. We finally have a solid top 4 D (yes they aren’t perfect right now, but they should only get better) and people still were upset about trading a perennial 15g/season 2nd/3rd line center that was sub-50% on draws. BB4 is the real deal, hopefully he stays healthy.

No, AHL LD.

I agree and think this is a good thing. Donny’s defensive systems are proven to be HORRIBLE. This is not an opinion, it’s back up by stats and overwhelming observable evidence. See Sabres ‘22-‘23 and ‘23-‘24.

While Mitts improved his play along the boards this year, I think JJP has been the best forward on the boards the past two seasons. He finally got his due this year, but has so much more to give. Mitts is definitely set up for success this year in the playoffs. He’s gonna do really well.

When his face was punched in. He took a while to come back from that and play with confidence again.

TNT and Cozens are both battling injuries this season, and terrible coaching/player management. Mitts is the shiny turd in the toilet bowl this year. It’s hard for me to use this season as a standalone basis to project how a player’s career is going to go. Remember when Girgs was our top scoring forward on a terrible Sabres team? Look at the rest of his career. I think Mitts will do better, but it’s unlikely he will ever be a 30+ goal scorer or an effective 2 way C.

Not sure about that. Byram was a major piece on a cup team, performed exceptionally well, and unfortunately has had a few concussions. The Ave’s already have the best defensemen in the league eating up minutes and they know they will eventually have to pay Byram if he continues his trajectory. The Ave’s also needed forwards badly. The Sabres have their top 2 centers locked up long-term and Casey isn’t the type of bottom 6 center we need. I expect both players will do well on and for their new teams, and both teams will be better for it. Plus this finally gets that 10-ply pretender Joker off this team.

This is a solid take. I think people here overvalued Mitts. Yes he is having a great contract year, but he is not a game changer, or a strong forechecker, or an ace on face offs. I’d much rather have an established 32 year old two-way center that can win face offs on my third line and provide stability and support for the younger forwards. Hopefully this is what GMKA is looking at getting us for next season. Joker and EJ are gone next year, and Muel is in and out of the lineup so I don’t hate this, except for the concussion history. Dahlin is a LD that plays right so we basically need one more RD for next year and we have 2LDs on the 3rd pairing.

Sabres need to just play inspired for the next 20min and get pucks on this goalie. UPL seems a bit tired with these juicy rebounds so it’d be nice if they kept the shot count low for him this period

Color me impressed. I may head to the game tomorrow.

As low as 3x3, but I expect a 3x3.339.

He’s finally in a 2 goalie rotation… At least that’s the reason this season

I get that Skinner scores a lot, but he is a trash hockey player. Watching him on the back check is infuriating.

I’ve liked Greenways game lately

Once tickets start going for under $25 a game I’m going to go and boo every poor effort. Not because it’s my right and not because they aren’t making the playoffs for a 13th year. I’m going to go and boo poor efforts because for some reason this NHL team doesn’t have a coach willing to tell these players their effort isn’t good enough and you should be mad, you should be embarrassed, and if you don’t like it to get your ass back out there and do something about it.

Yeah but he’s giving up some juicy rebounds. Hopefully they can cash in on one of them soon

This might be a correlation vs causation type situation with Bryson. Even in games they won earlier this season I remember Bryson looking pretty bad in a few of them. I didn’t see the last two games he played though. Looks like he is getting significantly more minutes which means the coaches are trusting him more, or just needed him to eat up more minutes with Powers out…