dudacek

Not saying this won't happen, but it has become clear to me that Donnie (in conjunction with Kevyn) aspires to ice a team that other teams adjust their game plans and their lines for, rather than their other way around. His underlying philosophy seems to be that if you are playing at full speed mistakes are inevitable on both sides, and the more skilled team will make less and take advantage of more and his team is designed and coached to be the more skilled. His underlying structure seems to be a swarm/pack mentality in all three zones: surround the puck with layers so there is always a back-up. Hitting seems to be dismissed as a tactic as something prone to slowing players down in transition and taking them out of position

There seems to be something of a consensus around here that Donnie is a very good coach at developing young talent, coupled with questions about whether he has the tactical bench coach ability or the old-school philosophy necessary to get them over the hump. I am skeptical of the ability of this board – myself included - to thoughtfully break down his pluses and minuses on a tactical level. That said, I think it would be negligent to not credit the immense leap taken by the Sabres offence over the past 100 games at least partially to his game-planning, as well as the lack of corresponding improvement on team defence.

But don't worry, Botterill saw that clearly and stepped up to fortify it with solid NHL players like Johansson, Sheary, Vesey, Frolik, Kahun, Lazar, Simmonds and JS Dea. My god that man was a bad GM.

This was put in a back room an willfully forgotten about while UPL was benefiting from 11 games of 4 or more goal more. If only there was a 27-year-old proven #1 with 3 years left on an affordable contract available on a potential buy-low scenario.

My post was an actual question, though and one I’m not sure has been answered: can anyone recall a Sabre saying that about his coach? Nolan was a good response, he was beloved by his players. But it was Comrie’s actual choice of wording that inspired this thread: “Donny is the best coach in the National Hockey League.” I’ve heard players say things like “we love playing for xxx” or “xxx was the best coach I ever played for”. But neither of those things is the same as a current player saying what Comrie said about his current coach - particularly unsolicited; Comrie wasn’t being asked about his coach when he gave that reply. And to be honest his current position on the roster is not much different than Asplund’s. I’m less interested in discussing whether he’s right, than I am in the fact that he said it at all. Doesn’t appear to have struck others the same way it struck me, but I found it unusual.

Does anyone remember a Sabre previously calling their coach the best coach in the NHL?

"Donny is just such an outstanding coach. He does such a great job of trying to help you with the mental side of things, too. That’s 90 percent of the game these days and Donny gets that. He’s really good with the younger players, including myself. He just helps you play your game, play with confidence, play without fear. That’s huge. I think that helps and then just playing your game and you’re not worried about outside noise. They really stress that. That’s part of the organization and the culture here. It’s why I have so much faith in this organization and know it’s in such good hands and I want to be a part of this organization because they get it for sure.” — Tyson Jost “We’re never scared. It doesn’t matter the score of the game or what’s going on in the game, we’re always just going to press. That’s the way we are. We’re an aggressive team, we have a lot of fun doing it. Donny is the best coach in the National Hockey League and we have a lot of fun with him because he trusts us and he gives us full confidence to do what we want to do. We can score with the best of them, so we’re never worried about any game.” — Eric Comrie Comments from a couple of the new guys. Thoughts?

It seems odd to me to be crediting Seattle for doing a good job with goalies while smacking Adams. Craig Anderson .914 (last year .897) Phillip Grubauer .900 (.889) UPL .896 (.917) Martin Jones .892 (.900) Eric Comrie .883 (.920) Sabres have won 27 games this year, the Kraken 30 🤷

This is flat-out wrong. Outside of a relatively small group of Buffalo fans, there is no hype at all.

To be clear, Devon Levi is nowhere near a can’t-miss prospect. He’s a 7th-rounder that “the industry” is very much divided on whether he will even be an NHL goalie, let alone a good one. And this is absolutely the logical and tried-and-true approach anyone should correctly support on principle. Sometimes though you take off your analyst’s hat and your risk management hat, you forget about “industry consensus” and “the concept of a goalie” and the “math” of development, and simply ask yourself: does this kid have what it takes to be a good NHL player? And my answer, with Devon Levi, is unequivocally yes, moreso than any other Sabres prospect outside the first round that I can remember.

Many people are too firmly in the territory of “goalies are voodoo” and are throwing up their hands at ever counting on any goalie to be good. Many others are still living in the fading archetype of a goalie needing to be a 6’5” mountain of a shot-blocker. What is actually happening is that we are at the edge of a sea change in how the position is being played, a sea change that is creating the uncertainty we are watching as goalies adapt or die. NHL offences have solved the Robin Lehners of the world by shifting attacks away from the create-traffic-and-crash-the-crease tactics those monsters were spawned to thwart. Instead they are using speed and lateral movement to create holes and forcing goalies to move and make saves again. The best goalies of tomorrow won’t be behemoths who square up and give you nowhere to shoot, they will be quick thinkers, able to diagnose where the puck is going, and even better athletes, quick enough to get there. The best goalie in the NHL right now is a 6’1” 189-pound New York Ranger who meets that description to a “T”. As does the 6’0” 190-pound Devon Levi. Watch him play. Levi is not as successful as he is because “it’s college”. He’s as successful as he is because he’s that good.

It’s more about Quinn Krebs Peterka Power Samuelsson getting 200 NHL games under their belts and acquiring/developing a legitimate #1 goalie.

Sure there will be bumps. But Devon Levi will be better than you are willing to let yourself believe, sooner than you are willing to let yourself believe, for longer than you are willing to let yourself believe. He is as inevitable as a Bogosian injury, a chin-high Zhitnik slapshot or Rob Ray butchering the English language.

I don’t think there has ever been a Sabres prospect I have more confidence in exceeding his industry ranking than Devon Levi.

Chychrun has been out there forever with no one stepping up to meet the ask. Yotes have decided the time is now to make the deal; the price isn't going to go up in June or next March. They have an offer in the table that they might have to take if no one beats it, but they are trying their damnedest to get someone to beat it — or the current leader to up their offer — before they pull the trigger. All this noise is coming from them. Somebody is sitting there waiting quietly, calling their bluff.

It's nice that this team doesn't quit. They were still coming until the bitter end. Too bad they started 15 minutes late. This looked a lot like the Dallas game against another premier team. The major difference was we didn't have Anderson saving our ***** during the sleepy start. I saw enough to know that we've got the pieces to play with these teams, we just haven't quite figured out how to do it from start to finish, shift to shift. We're still learning how to win, Carolina already knows how. Individually, I really hope whatever is bothering Mule heals up over the break. We won't survive an extended stretch of this version of him. And that was the closest NHL facsimile of the Jack Quinn I watched in Rochester. Can't wait until he breaks through. See you all in a week, where I to be returning with a healthy Tage to enjoy the rest of the ride.

Power

Reminds me of the Bruins and Panthers games: 2 teams that have mocked us for years. Let’s bump our record above .500

It’s the forum that’s changed -where you communicate, what and who hears it. Lines have been blurred about what is and should be private and public. The Hull Tweet above is a good example of this. A generation ago, people would have freely debated his merits as a hockey player and a human being in cafes, pubs and lunch rooms. Very few would done so in front of his grandson. I suspect very few did so considering they were doing it in front of his grandson, and most who did were only doing so because there would never be any personal repercussion.

Cozens is exactly the type of kid you could trust to do it and you could trust for it not to carry issues with him or his teammates, now or later.

And he apparently rubbed Hockey Canada the wrong way by trying to force himself into exceptional status a few years back. Not that Hockey Canada would ever be governed by anything other than the utmost integrity. When I saw Savoie live he was used like a standard 1st-line centre on a deep team. Regular shift, top PP. He played with Benson a top prospect for this year’s draft.

Sure, not arguing this at all, but he wasn’t asking who the worst draft picks were, he was asking if there was a worse player that we drafted and signed than Pekar? There may have been, but there weren’t many. Pekar is not good and certainly was not a better player than Nylander, as ineffective as Alex was.

Is there anything in the world stopping us from paying Dylan $20 million next year, then an 8-year, $48 million extension? Somebody get Sam Ventura on the phone now!

Great point. Why not? Sure would be a great way to weaponize cap space.

That’s not exactly what’s happening here. That’s what they’re being paid. What they are worth on the recent market is more like a $7 million defenceman and an $8 million winger.