thewookie1

How I see it is that the 1st line is broken and just can’t seem to find the sauce from last season. Part of it is obviously Tage’s injuries and confidence problems this season. The other major factor was the team’s attempt to play better in the 200ft game which anyone with eyes can see Thompson and Tuch have been grinding through to varying success while Skinner rarely gives it the time of day. Unless playing a specific team like Montreal or Carolina. When Thompson, Tuch and Skinner were told to play with reckless abandon, it worked in part because Skinner thrives on pure chaos even if it’s a double edged sword. When they decided to scale back from recklessness to opportunity driven; that line crashed like the 1929 stock exchange. In my opinion this is why they look so out of sync nowadays and coupled with Tage having little confidence you have a recipe for disaster. Tuch could either be injured and/or suffering from the same slowness Dahlin had under Krueger which was hesitation through overthinking. But he’s not just thinking about the other team and strategies; he also has to figure out what Mr. Chaos is planning. We saw tonight Tuch throw a puck to Skinner who turned off for a change; how often does Skinner not overrun his shift time and play well over his line shift into another’s shift? How often does Skinner make crazy spin passes or behind the back drop passes? In an offensive first system you are looking for them from a reward over risk system whereas our more defensive system switches it to a risk reward system. Thompson and Tuch have to both play offense while trying to predict Skinner’s chaos in order to try and prevent rushes against us. However both have failed for the most part at guessing Skinner as have most players on either side, it’s how he scores goals. It’s part of the reason I want him dealt, possibly for Couture, but just in general to allow some semblance of consistency in strategy to return. Skinner is a great fastball pitcher who has no other pitch at his disposal. He’ll blow balls by batters but anyone with the skill to catch up will clean his clock regularly. Additionally he can’t be used in other situations like most pitchers.

I don't get the Cozens coasting line.... in OT you want to actively conserve energy on defense unless there's an opportunity. If you go crazy with your skating all you'll do is put yourself in a far worse situation of a 3v2. Skinner's issue is he takes that approach 95% of the time regardless of circumstances.

Then again, part of my bias for Krebs is that I have talked to him twice at Bills gams What...... WTF? Boston and Philly are physical sure, but the rest don't hold a candle to the Western Conference's physicality

I'm honestly kinda curious as to why exactly; he annoys me at times but I've never had immense feelings good or bad with him.

Then you don't live here and have to see it everywhere. That is mostly the case however the number of times we've had the national games get called by the other team's crew is rather annoying. More so during the NBC days when we'd play Philly it particular.

nah, I ain't trading Power or Dahlin

They tend to be anti-Buffalo to begin with; just like any other national broadcast has been. The Bills, even being a constant playoff team endless catches flak on national TV because its Buffalo so that's nothing new really.

The worst part about this trade is we won't get the opportunity to sign Mitts so he can regress aggressively like everything else that happens here.

Not sure why Skinner just suddenly turned to change

Do love how they never show us the angle we all wanted to see

Perhaps they'll be trading a dman too

Isn't a great trade in a vacuum but I'll give it a chance. Going to miss Mitts though

My guess would be any other defenseman outside of Dahlin, Power and Byram become trade assets besides R. Johnson who'd be our cheapest dman with a bridge more than likely.

If he can return to his playoff form, we will have a Stanley Cup winning Top Pairing Defenseman to play with Dahlin for years to come. Otherwise we just dumped our finally solid Mitts for the defensive version of Tim Connelly. To me this trade tells me either or both of Jokiharju and Muel are going to be moved out.

Just dissatisfied, didn’t have any interest in Byram from the start for Mitts and that’s all we ended up doing. Yay, another skinny defenseman with little physical presence and who’s been a in perpetual nosedive since his rookie season. then the Bills just ripped out my heart so I’m just numb atm

And yet we still beat them at great frequency

Respected around the league Dealt with the media through tough times Worked his ass off Played a fatherly/big brother role for most of the team I'm not going to tie his leadership and captaincy to the team's success.

Olofsson, E. Johnson, Okposo and Girgs are all moved Comrie might get moved Sabres likely look to acquire a bottom 6 player seeing as Top 4 D and Top 6 Forwards with any term aren't usually available at the deadline.

That's why I mentioned his agent being the one pushing it

I honestly don't think he's the one who told them not to salute the fans. The guy has been a model citizen and a warrior for this team for 7+ years, I'm not going to place the Sabres' failures on one guy who certainly didn't glide through unscathed. He's worked hard and nearly died during his time here.

I understand; its more based on the Blues' fans reactions to different Toronto offers. Many of the analytics guys on Twitter mention that he's a super Defensive Dman with little offensive driving ability yet still is very effective at zone exits. His contract is dreadful however. I just want to find a player that can upgrade the roster while not trading away a guy like Cozens or Power like so many here seem obsessed over. Endlessly cycling through young players isn't going to achieve anything aside from disappointment.

They mentioned that they (Levi's agent) made it rather clear they didn't want Buffalo signing any vet to keep Levi out of the NHL. While not exactly something I want to hear it makes sense that Adams wouldn't want yet another college goalie to jump ship. This talk was around when we signed Tokarski and Cooley to NHL contracts because they said Adams was toeing a fine line. Frankly it strikes me as Levi's agent more than Levi himself being behind all of it. Levi seems to honestly love competing and breaking expectations and seeing as there was no issues when we sent him to Rochester eventually; I'd imagine Levi himself put his foot down or the agent finally backed off. The great fun of hockey politics....

One of the TSN or ESPN stated this earlier this year that Levi was to be given a legitimate chance to be the team's starter as per the agent agreement.

Okposo has been a great trooper and I hope we have some kind of job for him after his retirement but as long as it isn't Boston or Toronto I'll look forward to rooting for him.

Who here would trade Muel, Savoie and a Protected 24 1st for Parayko ?