ska-T Palmtown

Sure. But being stronger won't make Cozens a more accurate shooter. It won't make him a better passer. It won't prevent him from turning into instead of away from a defender when he has the puck along the boards or near the blue line. It won't keep him from chasing the puck in the D-zone like an over exuberant golden retriever trying to catch a rabbit he never quite will. I think Benson is great, he plays hockey in such a savvy and smart way. I'd clone him. Twice. But he is, at his young 19, less than a 1/2 point per game player. We need Cozens to be way more than that. I'd love to see Benson track down the D-man, stick lift, steal the puck, whirl it to Cozens and not have Cozens fire it either 2 ft wide or right smack into the goalie. I can dream, I guess.

Yeah, cozens looks a little lanky, for sure. There is no denying Benson has really great hockey instincts - not sure how that is relevant to the Cozens "boy-man body" discussion. While I was having myself a little think, as you so thoughtfully suggested, I also recalled watching how often Benson gets pushed down, pushed around, and knocked over. And I am a huge Benson fan - I love what he brings to the team. I just think the discussion over the physique of the upper body of a hockey player is sorta silly considering the current best hockey player on the planet also looks like he needs a spot to get just bar out of the cradle. Does Cozens looks skinny or lanky? Yup. Will bench pressing 350 lbs help him not shoot the puck right into the goalie's crest or not make horrific passing choices or suddenly make him able to cover the spots on the ice in the D-zone where he needs to? Nope. I don't seem to recall all this odd critique of his body when he was scoring 30. If he was still putting 30 goals in the net (which he did as an even younger more skinny version of himself) - not one peep would be uttered. It is not McDavid's or Crosby's bulging biceps or magical dancing pectorals that make them so hard to get off the puck - it is the fact that they can squat a school bus and they know how to play with leverage. Cozens' problem is not his "concave chest" but the way he is currently processing and seeing the game. It is in his on-ice decision making skills. I'd take a smart quick hockey player (like Benson) over a body builder any day.

I think he had bitten off more than he could chew previously and his dance partners kinda gave him a break. For some reason, this chap thought he would teach the scrappy young kid a lesson. I guess he did?

JJP is a second round pick, no?

I think there is a huge misconception around NHL 1st round draft picks. Outside of Dahlin/Power/Eichel/Reinhart, I think our highest recent pick is 8th? Something like 1/4 or fewer of 8th overall picks ever go on to score 300 points or more in their NHL career. Quinn's 128 games and 63 points is already inching him close to the 50% mark for 8th overall picks Jiri Kulich was drafted 28th overall ... 12.7% chance to score 300 points. Heck, he has only a 50/50 chance to ever play 100 games. Isak Rosen - 14th overall and still only 21; it is straight up silly to say he has "no first round potential" when 300 games and 300 points are 60% and 26% respectively. I think Eichel and Reinhart were the right choices - I mean, they are very good players - you can't even say they failed while they were here. The Sabres just could not hang on to them. **If they had been dumpster fires while they were here, then magically found their careers after leaving I could agree with "we don't get credit for them, but they weren't so I don't.** For perspective, 300 games is shy of 4 full seasons. Most of the guys you list are just wee lads, some playing their first pro year on NA ice.

Honestly, if I was a good hockey player, I would want to protect myself against ending up in Buffalo these days, too 😞

I think it is something like 1/3 of the league has some sort of NTC?

Thank god for the Western Conference: Montreal and Anaheim could pass us ...

OK, so facing meh teams that in a terrible funk does not work ... maybe if they play a team that is like on an 8 game win streak?

Icing? eff me.

98 mph? good god.

well, they seem to be losing it 2-1, so

why did they wait until the third to try?

power goal ...

***** off ...

I could at least tolerate it if they played like this more

I agree with both - lol. I don't think "The Fight" changed his stats drastically, but I will agree that he plays more timid now.

Not wrong. At least he used confident skating the puck up the ice and in the o-zone ... now he looks pretty bad everywhere.

sabres outhit the jets 28-15 - still lost Also outhit Utah 39-9 ... got smoked.

can you imagine how pissed a player would be about getting traded to this team?!?!?

i think now that Lindy took the filter off - it will take some of these guys a few weeks to adjust. Power looks shook.

oh no

"fumble fvcks the puck" pure poetry! Edit: what the absolute sh1t? the word that 3.14 used keeps getting auto-edited out of MY post!?!? Is swearing some sort of skill one unlocks as they climb the ranks of 'spacers?

You won't get around the story a certain sector of this forum wants to tell themselves about big tough hockey players 🤷‍♀️

Sure. Laugh all you want - if you don't think it is a real issue, that tells me all I will ever need to know about you. Call it whatever you want, but constant talk about how to be a "real man" is not useful to a society that already sees too many issues with male violence and the male gender's inability to deal with real human emotions in an open, honest, and healthy way.