dudacek

Tuch, Zucker and Greenway rejecting free agency to re-sign means they are greedy bastards who dont care about winning. Peterka forcing his way out is proof the team is toxic and nobody wants to be in Buffalo. 🙄

They are not: no Benson, no Kulich, no Power. Of interest is how the Sabres top prospects slid despite good rookie AHL seasons: Östlund from 57 overall to 67 and Helenius from 23 down to 58. Mrtka enters as Buffalos top-ranked prospect at 43. Rosen - an honourable mention last year - is now considered graduated.

6 suits Benson: squat, old school and in defiance of expectations. I need Norris to be fully engaged in being a long-term key Sabre. Silly, but that felt like step in the right direction. Wanted Kess to take 5 or 6 but 8 works. I like that all these numbers are old school. Danforth already the most likable 15 in team history. 😜

I am outraged at the lack of respect shown the leadership of Girgensons and Okposo. The blood sweat and tears on those jerseys were barely dry.

Personally, my premises would be different: 1. Success is defined by how much entertainment (good feeling?) the team generates. That is predominantly fuelled by wins and losses, but also influenced by things like the when and how of those wins and losses, the play of individual players, off-ice news and moves, and interactions with other fans. 2. The further away success feels the lower things get. This isn’t a looking back to my last hit thing. The future and the past matter, but the most important element here is the present. 3. Every season (really, every game) offers a new set of circumstances and a chance at a different outcome. The Sabres are bigger than Adams and Pegula.

So the logic should go something like this? 1. Success is defined as making the playoffs 2. The longer you go without making the playoffs the lower things get 3. The Pegula/Adams combo offers no reason to believe things are going to change Therefore it’s logical that this is the lowest point?

I’m not sure how one can be intellectually dishonest answering what seems to me a purely emotional question. 🤷

You’re not asking me, but I can think of 2 candidates: the most recent was the Krueger bubble fiasco when they lost 18 in a row and a team with Eichel, Reinhart, Hall, Skinner, Dahlin, Montour literally could not score and looked like they may never score again. We started something like 6/26/5 The tank had clearly and unequivocally failed and we were no closer to the playoffs than we were when we were losing on purpose. Every player clearly wanted out as fast as possible and Krueger had nothing but empty platitudes. Utterly painful to watch. The second was the 1986/87 team. I was a teenager who had been drinking the Bowman koolaid for years; the 80 points the previous year was a mirage; there was no way Scotty and all his high picks wasn’t going to bounce back. We went 1/7/2 to start the year, Perreault couldn’t take it and retired and a roster loaded with has-beens like Clark Gillies and Wilf Paiement went on to finish dead last. I was crushed. It was a real wake up call and the end of innocence for my fandom. The Sabres had never been bad in my experience and I don’t know if I ever considered the possibility that they could be.

I think we’ll probably see Zucker, Tage and Dahlin back in the same spots, with Tage being asked to move around more. Norris will be on PP1, I’m just not sure if he’s bumper or in Peterka’s old spot. If he’s in Peterka’s spot Im concerned they’ll make the mistake of Tuch in the bumper again. If they put him in the bumper, I think Kulich might get Peterka’s spot, which makes sense if they’re looking for the guy most able to give what Peterka gave. But part of me thinks they will be giving Quinn every opportunity to be a 30-goal man and Appert will be pushing hard to get him on PP1. Im not expecting them to change their approach much in terms of how they set things up. Me I’d kinda like to see Byram added for motion and Benson for traffic play because the PP Ned’s more passing. I think Quinn has the skill set to be excellent on the PP but he was too unreliable last year. Tuch would not be a PP1 option for me. Something like this with lots of rotation and the low guys setting some things up for below the goal line Quinn. Benson Dahlin. Byram Tage PP2 Tuch Zucker Norris. Kulich Power

Just turned 18 in June.

I think a lot of this is valid, but checkout the video that opens the Benson thread. There is some sick one touch passing under duress going on there. Stuff I see no other Sabre doing, and you know he’s going to get better at it.

Your last note is the important one. If you don’t have the right guy, you have to find the best guy. Cozens didn’t work. Tuch doesn’t. You might have to try a kid with some skills and hope he grows into the role. Norris has the quick touch thing and the shot. I think we may see him there first, even though he’s not a distributor at all. Another option: Norris has proven he can succeed in the Tage slot. Thoughts on moving him there, Tage to the bumper?

I don’t have to imagine, there are song edits and album rearrangements and mashups all over the internet. You don’t know people who say “great book/show/movie, but I hated what they did with the character…”? Or walk into a house or garden and say “what a beautiful spot, you know what would make it even better…” It might not be your thing but it’s just a common manifestation of the creative aspect of human nature.

Speaking for myself — but I don't think it's a stretch to project onto others — of course it's not our job, it's an interest and a form of personal entertainment.

Another player who is surprisingly ineffective on the PP is Alex Tuch. As in "doesn't deserve the ice time he gets" 198 NHL forwards got 100 minutes of PP time last year. Tuch's ranking: Goals: tied with 15 others at 146th Points: tied with 8 others at 124th Goals per 60: 160th Points per 60: 145th This aren't new numbers. He's averaged 4 goals and 10 assists on the PP over the past 3 seasons despite being second in ice time over that period by a wide margin. You could make he argument he's there for tips, entries and retrievals — which he should be good at — but he's not succeeding

And this is where Josh Norris comes in: 61.2% on PP faceoffs last year. He's also effective on the PP in general: he averaged 3 minutes a game last year and his career goals per 60 on the PP is 2.83 These are the Sabres numbers from last year in that stat: Zucker 3.16 Thompson 1.90 Benson 1.70 Peterka 1.61 Krebs 1.46 Tuch 0.95 This. Or maybe Quinn. Bumper is the most unsettled, least effective spot on the unit. it's a spot that some teams utilize to deadly effect. You need quick hands and quick reads to make sudden plays in tight, the ability to find seams and create space, and an accurate shot. Benson can read plays and pass in traffic better than any other forward, but he lacks separation and a killer shot. Quinn has the hand skills, but frequently isn't sudden enough. Still he creates separation and has a deadly wrister. I think you lean into one of those guys, hoping Benson's shot has improved, or Quinn's willingness to get to the net and make good puck decisions has returned.

@Taro T mentions it above, but both he and I have said it before: try Byram in the Peterka spot. The fact of the matter is that the three best passers on the team are probably Dahlin, Byram and Power. Power might be able to do it too, but he tends to slow things down and I think the Sabres PP needs to speed things up. Bo moves his feet and the puck a little faster. (Might also help with entries) Id be curious to see how many high danger shot assists the guys not named Rasmus made to Tage.

I think another big issue is entries. I don't have the stats to back this up (and don't know where to get them), but it feels that the Sabres waste a lot of time regrouping after their attempts to carry the puck in get blunted. They don't like to dump it it in, and those times that they do, they aren't very good at getting the puck back.

I think one thing that needs to be discussed first is exactly why the PP is as bad as it is. I'm going to start with something I discovered that was a bit unexpected: Tage Thompson kinda sucked on the PP and has for some time. I still had this picture in my head of the guy who bombed 20 PPGs three years ago, but that guy has disappeared. Tage dipped to 9 PPG two years ago and just 7 last year, despite buckets of ice time. 60 players had more PP goals, 35 had more shot attempts, 91 had more PP goals per 60, 114 had better PP Shooting %. This is a guy who is top 20 in the league in both shooting percentage and total shots and leads the entire league in ES goals. How does this happen? I think you're on to something with the playmaking issue: they aren't get the puck to Tage in optimal ways.

Power play ice time: The Sabres first PP typically ran out these 4 Dahlin (point) 3:09 per game Peterka (right halfwall) 2:55 Thompson (left halfwall) 2: 54 Zucker (netfront) 2: 52 These guys also got significant minutes Tuch 2:19 Cozens 2:18 Quinn 2:14 These guys got some looks, mostly 2nd unit Power 1:26 Benson 1:25 Kulich 1:25 Byram 1:08 These guys got spot duty Krebs 0:30 McLeod 0:29 Goals: Zucker 11 Thompson 7 Peterka 6 Dahlin 5 Tuch 3 Quinn 3 Benson 3 Points: Zucker 21 Dahlin 21 Peterka 18 Thompson 16 Quinn 13 Tuch 11 Power 6

They scored 43 goals total, and ran at an 18% clip, good for 24th in the league. It was up from the 16.6% pace from the previous year (29th) when they only scored 37. Those numbers seem inexcusable for a team that was 4th in the league with 185 goals at 5-on-5 How do they fix it?

I mean, i liked Nazar as a prospect and can't say I've watched much of him since, but this interests me: Nazar C 5'10" 190, picked 13 2022 NHL Draft Östlund C 5'11" 175, picked 16 2022 NHL Draft Nazar 2024 WJC GP: 7, 0/8/8 Östlund 2024 WJC GP: 7, 3/7/10 Nazar called up this year after a 21-game 11/13/24 run as an AHL rookie Östlund called up this year after a 32-game 17/17/34 run as an AHL rookie And that's where they diverged: Nazar had 26 points in 53 games, Östlund had none in 8. Nazar played PP, with 16 minutes a night on the 2nd line at 43% SAT% and 43.2% xGF% Östlund played 10 minutes a night with Malenstyn and Lafferty at 55% SAT% and 46% xGF% One guy gets millions and is pencilled in for an important NHL role and has his fan base excited, the other guy is expected to spend the entire year in the minors again. There's sometimes a very fine line.

Yep, if a Tuch level core player emerges from the system it will be a surprise: a Brodie Zeimer goes Brandon Hagel kinda thing. He’s got a lot of upside but I generally think a positive result for Mrtka is Myers, Östlund is McLeod. Maybe Helenius can be Derek Roy, but I think that’s probably stretching it.

I think that's a fair if pessimistic take. Helenius, Mrtka, Levi and Östlund for me. I think there are another 10ish that could and the odds say a few of those will. Point is though, they've shot their shot in terms of their post-Eichel rebuild through the kids. The best of the bunch is already on the roster.

Well in terms of Pronman's prospect pool ranking, it's only the past 5 years that matter. Their top picks were 9th, 14th, 13th, 9th and 1st, so I'd say 'yes', but maybe not as much as 14 years would imply: that's one guy picked in the top 8. That said, it's a ranking. 🤷‍♂️