dudacek

Agree with every word.

So you're talking 3 games though, one of which was a .938 SV% in a loss to Ottawa. Really the only stinker was the Chicago game. He wasn't good against Philly, but the guys in front of them were terrible. Maybe he's been a little rusty. Not debating your point at all, but am I the only one who was shocked to see the shot count last night? From my recliner that sure didn't feel like 27 shots in the 3rd.

We've been told this. It might be true. But do we know it? You've got to go back to the 8-game losing streak to find the last time he was being used like more than a backup. He lost 3 times in 5 days: .900, .844, .933 SV%, the latter was over 25 minutes in relief of Comrie. There were two games over 4 nights in late November, both of them over .930. And then .944 and .981 this week against the Leafs and the Panthers. Might be time to give it a shot.

This. As sporadic as the Sabres can be defensively, I've seen Robin Lehner and Linus Ullmark make more saves behind much worse teams. They've all had their moments, but none of them have made a difference at enough times in enough games.

That's what I would do based on what the other 2 have served up. If it's Comrie or Luukkonen, it would feel like a forced attempt to get one of those guys to run with it.

Just so I'm clear, as much as i love Devon Levi, I do not expect him to step in and own the crease from day 1. He almost ceertainly will have to pay some dues. But....😁 Isn't the table set kinda perfectly for him getting a shot after signing, taking the crease in a way the three-headed monster has not, and riding a wave all the way into the playoffs? If hacks like Steve Penney, Andrew Hammond and Patrick Lalime can catch lightning in a bottle, why not our best prospect since Ryan Miller?

If you’re making the playoffs out of this logjam, this is the type of game you win.

20? Im pretty sure that’s Reid during spring break in Grade 9

Way off topic, but Krebs is really coming into his own lately. Kid competes hard. Donnie’s rewarding him too. Over the past month he’s moved into the 2nd tier of forwards in ice time, along with Kyle, Mitts and Cozens in the 15-16 minute range, just behind the Tage line.

Yeah, most people don't, but why is this? Every time we play them, they are doing ***** like this, Dirtiest, most entitled group of players in the league, IMO.

Good. Dirty scumbag play from a dirty scumbag player on a dirty scumbag team.

Those two assists he got last night could have been the work of Dale Hawerchuk. So good! And he's been making those plays all year. Pre-Granato he was such a selfish player, whether he scoring goals or not. And even when he tried to pass, it frequently looked weak and off-target. I don't remember ever seeing a veteran player improve his playmaking the way he has.

I stand corrected.

Didn’t get enough props in this thread. Are we starting to take him for granted already? Dude was money. Three prime opportunities, three ice-cold kills. Next goal will make him the first Sabre in like 15 years to hit 40, and just the 3rd since Lafontaine and Mogilny were in their prime nearly 30 years ago.

The one I’m thinking of was in the Winnipeg game: Tuch driving hard down the the right wing, Skinner finding him with a Josh Allen laser, and Tuch sweeping it back against the grain to Tage in the high slot. Fooled Helly so badly he was almost in the corner. I think that game was as good as the Sabres have played all year; 60 minutes of utter domination in terms of flow of play. Biggest moment? I think the OT in Boston was special. Still feeling the high from last night too. Something about beating a bully.

I ***** hate Tampa. The way this game ended? That, I liked.

These posts suppose the ultimate goal is “make the playoffs and see what happens.” The ultimate goal is being in contention for an extended period. The two are not mutually exclusive - not even close - but where they don’t overlap, Adams is going to firmly stick with the latter. Which doesn’t mean he’s not interested in making moves, it just means they won’t be of the Ryan O’Reilly for futures variety.

To my mind, this was the primary focus of this season. Identify them and lock them up, then fill in the missing pieces. The Samuelsson Cozens and Tage contracts confirmed they are considered core. You know Dahlin and Power will join them, but for how long, and at what price? You've got 3 more years of Tuch and 4 more of Skinner. How many other "core" pieces do we need? How many of them are already here? How much more time does he need in order to answer those questions? Who is on the market? What's the price? How long will it take to close a deal? Are those discussions underway? These are the "Adams" things I'm most interested in. Upgrading Clague/Bryson — while necessary in my view — is mostly inconsequential to the big picture.

GA is smart guy and I totally get why he feels the way he does. But it's been pretty clear since the summer of 2021 that Adams has a plan and that plan is focused on putting his young players through a crucible of learning by doing. It does not involve adding mercenaries in a desperate bid to make the playoffs this year. He's like the dad who's packed up the family in the car, mapped out a route, and is driving cross-country to Disneyland. Encouraging him to take shortcuts and repeatedly asking "Are we there yet?" isn't going to change a thing. Like you, I am very curious to see where he goes once we finally have the Magic Kingdom in sight and it's time to take the car off the freeway and into the park. I feel like I have no idea how close Adams thinks we are.

When I watched them play live I walked away liking Benson’s game, but it looked to me like Savoie was the driver of the duo. It was just one game and may have not been representative, but Savoie was about getting pucks, Benson about getting open for them.

Objectively, their plan to develop talent in-house has resulted in huge performance jumps from a bunch of key players. Objectively, they have a boatload of younger players capable of making similar jumps coming up behind them to further advance the team. Objectively, moving a thoroughly gutted, last-place team into a playoff bubble team in a season and a half represents significant progress. Objectively, Adams has to look at where the team is and conclude their plan — setting the team up for long-term success through a stable, consistent positive culture and responsible incremental improvement — appears to actually be unfolding on, or possibly ahead of schedule.

Why does this take guts? Doesnt it take more guts to stick to your plan/principles in the face of pressure to do otherwise?

If they Sabres pick 20 picks over 2 years and 4 of them are defencemen and the Bruins make 10 picks over the same period and 3 of them are defenceman, the Sabres have still added more defencemen to their pipeline. The way you are using percentages is irrelevant. Putting aside the numbers for a second, and look at what Buffalo has actually done compared to its rivals over your chosen time period. Boston: Lohrei, Brunet, Mast, Gallagher, Edward Toronto: Niemela, Villeneuve, Rindell, Fusco Tampa: Gill, Schmidt, Gagne, Pelenkov, Thompson, Powell Florida: Alscher, Jansen, Lukashevich, Hache, Benning, Uens, Puutio Detroit: Eidvinsson, Buim, Wallinder, Sebrango, Johansson, Mathurin, Plandowski, Viro, Cotton Ottawa: Sanderson, Kleven, Nordberg, Hamara, Donovan, Roger, Waller, Romeo Montreal: Guhle, Mailloux, Hutson, Engstrom, Tourigny, Nurmi, Kostenko, Trudeau, Sobelev Buffalo: Power, Lindgren, Komarov, Novikov, Lyckasen It seems to me you’re investing a lot of angst over the Sabres being short a Tyler Kleven or two. If you said some of those teams have better odds of adding future Jacob Brysons, I’d say “probably.” If you said you’d take any of the other groups of drafted blueliners ahead of the Sabres’ group, I’d say you’re lying.

That part he said about the Sabres development coaches being around the Ice constantly — more than any other team he can think of ever - was pretty revelatory about how the Sabres are doing business. I think back to how the Sabres gutted their hockey department, decimating the scouting staff. The hockey department is back up to a similar complement to where it was prior to the purge, but a lot of the scouts were replaced by analytics guys and development coaches.

This is not this year's Leafs. Very curious to see how we match up. They schooled us in the fall.