dudacek
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Posts posted by dudacek
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Out: Muckler, Muni, Svoboda, Ledyard, Barnaby, Boughner, Fuhr and Dumont
Promoted: May and Hasek
In is a group that emerged from the ashes of a DFL finish to come in at second overall in the league.
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The latest from Kris Baker. Sam's not exactly pouting down there:
http://www.sabrespro...mieux-tips.html
WHL Sam Reinhart posted a goal off a partial breakaway and added two assists as Kootenay skated to a 4-2 triumph at Lethbridge. As expected, Reinhart has been a step ahead of the opposition en route to collecting 10 points (3+7) in his first four games. The ICE, who are a perfect 4-0 since their captain was returned from Buffalo, will look to keep the good times rolling on Wednesday when they battle Medicine Hat.
I think the team was dead last when he went down.
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To be fair, I didn't think he had the hands he showed since I posted that last December. He's hard to peg. I'm curious if he's more finisher than playmaker.
I think that's right. One-on-one with the goalie or d-man is the only time we see any trickery.
Brind'Amour is a good comparison, but I still prefer the one to Ryan Kesler.
How long to Zemgus starts dominating the face-off dot? I have no doubt it will happen.
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Some of it has to be on Nolan and the coaching staff. But a large portion of the blame has to be leveled at the players. I also think Murray is saying what he has to to make it look like the Sabres are trying to win. I think Murray architected this team very carefully so that it would not be better than last year. The lack of effort is what has surprised me so far. Lack of effort is mostly on the players. I think the team is right where he wants it to be. We'll see what happens when trades start. If Murray trades for players that can help now or if he trades for future players and draft picks that will pretty much give a clue as to what his plan was.
I disagree with the bolded. I think Murray put together a team that he thought would finish with between 60 and 70 points and be far more competitive than it has been. I think Nolan (and Gionta and Gorges) was supposed to make sure the players got that message.
I think the message has failed to sink in, largely because the overall perception of "suffering" and "Tank for McDavid" that Darcy and Ted Black created (with Pegula's blessing IMO) and the media and the fans have too fully embraced.
I think Nolan deserves to take some of the blame because he has not made the team play to its full potential.
But I think the blame rests mostly with Pegula for failing to send the message he expects his team to be better.
The McDavid-or-bust psychology is a crutch that the less-competitive players are finding very difficult to overcome.
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Interesting quotes by Tim Murray from Harrington's article in the BN this morning.
http://www.buffalone...murray-20141116
“I believe we’re better than we were last year and we haven’t played better,” he said. “Is it too many new guys? Are we playing our worst hockey of the year now versus going forward? I don’t know the answer. We’ll see.”
As for Ted Nolan & Co, Murray was hardly effusive in praise of the job being done. He said he gave Nolan “carte blanche” to hire assistants last summer after initially offering some suggestions. Then Murray got to the heart of the matter.
“Have they got the most out of these players? I don’t think they have. Do they think they have? I don’t believe that either. I don’t go to Teddy every day and say, ‘You’re OK.’ I don’t steer clear, but I’m not micromanaging him or his staff. He got the staff he wanted, and I’m going to let them do their jobs. At the end of the day, we’ll see what kind of development there is.”
I believe on paper, the team should be better than last year too.
Hodgson, Foligno, Gionta, Stewart, Meszaros, Benoit and Moulson are all significantly worse that they have shown in the past. Girgensons and maybe Myers are the only ones showing improvement.
How much of that rests on the coach?
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Here's deal: we win the lottery, one of the teams below is picking second.
Is there anything Arizona could do to make you swap picks?
Colorado?
Columbus?
Florida?
Edmonton?
Carolina?
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What happened to that Marcus Foligno? That kid was a joy to watch.
Whenever a defence man gets embarrassed, and fans call for his head, like Myers against the Blues, I think of the Mayday goal and Ray Bourque.
It can happen to the best of them.
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Ok, I know I'm drunk, but I don't think I imagined that one.
I'll check back tomorrow.
Stick it Leaves!x!
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The question was core, so Girgs and Myers.
Other guys can play roles, but I demand at least eight new faces next year.
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Drane, keep it together man.
Freeman is not wrong and the board is a better place with you here.
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Could be the Dabres best performance od the year and if not it is certainly the most ineteraintians
And I ama not oging to fix they typos because I an drunk,
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Gone are Plante, Smehlik, Quinn, Rigas, Khymylev (sorry Josie) Zhitnik and Pominville (apologies to the entire Case family).
Promoted to the finals are Miller, Campbell, Brown and Peca.
Brian Campbell is a cool dude, but it is a travesty he outlasted Pominville.
It's not Jason's fault Lindy named him captain of Darcy's Darlings.
Curtis Brown is an interesting choice, but I always liked him and given the relatively weak group he was with probably the right one.
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"The Plan"
At any given time, any of the 30 NHL teams can execute the Sabres plan and be successful. Just sell off all veteran assets for draft picks...stock up...and cross your fingers.
That is all the Sabres have done, and in cases of real teams, Chicago could probably sell off their roster for 3x the quality picks the Sabres have and start from scratch at the same spot.
Hope....isn't a plan. It's a coping mechanism.
Of course, any team can do it. Some have, although very few have as thoroughly and deliberately as the Sabres have. Call it a ###### plan if you want, but it is still a plan. This is the "suffering" part.
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I think there's a world of difference between being down psychologically because you know this year is shot, and having a permanently damaged psyche that ruins future seasons. The former can be very real. But the latter? Not even remotely convinced. Why? Because looking at history, it's amazing how quickly a seemingly permanent "culture" of losing turns around when a few star players show up. It's likewise amazing how a winning culture becomes a losing one when star players exit.
I agree. Tough times test people's mettle and some come out the other side better for the experience.
I look at this season as a crucible showing us which players are worth keeping and which ones need to go.
Darcy/Lindy circa 2007-2013......and X/X..X/X...X/X....2013-?????????????
It doesn't tie into Hodgson...he was a loser from day #1.
We went from "Sole Reason for Existance is to Win Multiple Stanley Cups!!!"
to:
"Look at this pretty paper where we have all kinds of draft picks who will probably not be ready for 5 years....but golly, gee!, maybe someday we will be good!!"
There is 10x more excitement for a Fkng Doughnut shop and sports bar than an NHL franchise. All this from a guy who said had zero interest in real estate development.
I disagree with this being Pegula's mindset. He believes acquiring and developing a core of emerging young talent is the best way to make this team a contender for a long time. There are no guarantees, but he does care, he does have a plan and so far he is sticking to it. It's the hockey fan equivalent of Juno Beach, but it is the price he has elected to pay.
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Stafford has had this air of "this too will someday pass" pained endurance for two or three years now.
He's gritting his teeth, not complaining and waiting to be traded or free agency.
Ennis is doing what Ennis does, mindlessly push forward flailing for the fun he used to have playing hockey.
Hodgson has been coddled and told he's special his entire life. He has no idea how to cope.
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Hasn't it already been blown up?
Isn't this the darkest hour before dawn?
Please tell me it is.
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I guess you didn't listen to the interviews of Kyle Williams, Fred Jackson, and Eric Wood, before the past 5 day implosion.
You see it now with Ted Nolan.
Part of being a winner is "efficiency". When you know you are being set up to fail, by your team president who goes on the radio for 18 months telling you how great it is to finish last, and your season ticket holders get sent out a brochure showing you how great it is to get rid of veterans for draft picks, and an owner who has taken his identity to selling doughnuts over playoff tickets......any reasonable person....especially someone of blood and guts who will die for valor......is going to give you a big old FU at a certain point.
I've mailed it in posting the past 2 years. I used to love doing research and stats backing up points. It doesn't matter anyomre. Why should I work my ass off on a team and fanbase that doesn't give a sh!t? I used to get people complaining about how long my posts were years ago. Not anymore.....because there is nothing left to say.
Hell yeah. If as fans, we know this year is meaningless, how the hell can you expect the players not to be feeling it?
It shows most with the guys who don't have "it" like Hodgson and Stewart and even good people like Gionta and Moulson are affected.
This, even more than talent is why we are as bad as we are. Subconsciously, they not only expect to lose, they think they are supposed to.
To my mind, this is what makes Girgensons so special. He just keeps plowing forward.
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Bailey certainly fits that second-round boom or bust profile. And to reference the above, it's not likely to happen, but the kid's top end is Bobby Ryan.
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I'd been on a high school ski trip and rushed into my grandfather's house with the game half over to discover what Perreault had done. And then I watched Gretzky.
Didn't get to see the Sabres much out here back then and that game really stuck in my head.
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Marchand, Krecji, Lucic and Bergeron — sometimes you can make hay after the first.
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From his Wikipedia entry:
Hodgson played at the major junior level for four seasons with the Brampton Battalion of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL). After being selected 10th overall in the 2008 NHL Entry Draft by the Canucks, Hodgson won the William Hanley Trophy (OHL's most sportsmanlike player), Red Tilson Trophy (OHL player of the year) and the CHL Player of the Year Award, as well as First Team All-Star honours for the 2008–09 season. While training in the 2009 off-season, Hodgson suffered a back injury that required a year for him to fully recover. In 2010–11, he played his professional rookie season with the Canucks' minor league affiliate, the Manitoba Moose of the American Hockey League(AHL). The season also marked his debut at the NHL level with the Canucks and he went on to participate in the team's run to the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals. During his rookieseason the subsequent year, Hodgson was dealt to the Buffalo Sabres at the 2012 trade deadline.
Hodgson has represented Canada at two International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF)—sanctioned events, winning gold and leading tournament scoring at both—the 2008 IIHF World U18 Championships and 2009 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships. In 2007, he won a gold medal with Ontario at the Canada Games.
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Yeah, I'm real curious about USA's plans for Bailey.
Production-wise he seems an obvious choice, but they will be working off a ghost roster that he's not on.
Who is he going to knock off a top six role? And if he can't do that, can he play a bottom six role?
I'm thinking of the thought process that kept Bobby Ryan off the Olympic team.
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Not completely disagreeing, but Hodgson and Moulson each scored 20 last year on an equally bad team coached by Ted Nolan
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I'm on the Hodgson must go bandwagon too, but I gotta say I am stumped at his lack of production.
He's not good defensively, and he's not good enough offensively to compensate for his lack of defence.
But the guy is a 20-goal scorer. So are Moulson and Stewart.
Gionta's lack of production you can chalk up to being over the hill, but the other three?
These four look like they aren't going to hit 20 combined.
Why?
2014 - 2015 Sabres Prospects
in The Aud Club
Posted
Sincere question:
2015 first/Reinhart/Fasching
Carrier/Grigorenko/Armia
Baptiste/Compher/Bailey
Deslauriers/Larsson/Lemieux
Is there an NHL organization in the league with a better prospect depth chart?