dudacek

This thread is a question, not a statement. The answer tonight was “not too bad at all.” I’m going to make a callback to the sentiment “we need more guys like Reaves and less guys like Casey and Victor.” Pretty sure Casey and Victor owned Reaves and his linemates tonight.

Donnie said it’s about pain tolerance. He figures about a week

A quick look at the standings still shows the Sabres struggling to get out of the bottom 10. But games in hand makes that somewhat misleading. In terms of points percentage, they are 17th overall. They basically need to win both their games in hand on the Penguins to move into a tie with them for the final playoff spot in the east. More pragmatically, to get in they need 6 more points in their final 46 games than the Islanders get in their final 41 and 5 more than the Penguins get in their final 44. Winning most of their 4 games in hand on the Rangers and 6 on the Caps pulls them into the picture with those teams as well. The idea that they aren’t in the race right now is just bad math.

People talk a lot about the Sabres goal differential and how it’s a factor of them running up scores late. Another element of that though is the fact that they don’t tend to get blown out. You have to go all the way back to mid-November and the 5-2 loss to Toronto at the tail end of the losing streak to find a game that we weren’t “in.” In all 6 of our losses since then, we were within a goal with 2 1/2 minutes left. 18 “competitive” games in a row is a consistency unheard of around here in a decade.

Probably just as simple as taking advantage of the opportunity created by being in North America. Apparently some kind of paperwork is needed to even attend development camp. However, it does make me wonder whether there’s a possibility that they’re setting him to joinRochester next year, or even this spring after the Swedish league is done.

Just keeping winning. Someone will be the team that falls by the wayside. Make sure it's not us. Speaking of that, New Jersey has basically fallen back to the pack, which I did not expect. They are right there with the Rangers and Caps. Toronto, Boston, Carolina in, Flyer's Bluejackets, Habs out. Nine teams still in the race. A few more likely to be in or out by the end of the month.

If you're talking about comparing the emerging young corps, I don't think there's much of a comparison. Buffalo has better pieces and more of them: Thompson >> Larkin Tuch > Bertuzzi (who is older and a pending UFA) Cozens >> Veleno Mittelstadt ~ Rasmussen Quinn <? Raymond Peterka ~ Berggren Krebs ~ Zadina Savoie ~ Kasper Östlund Kulich Dahlin >? Seider Power > Eidvisson Samuelsson Jokharju < Hronek Johnson ~ Wallinder UPL ? Nedjelkovic Levi ? Cossa I mean you can quibble with some of my off-the-cuff rankings, and who knows how youngsters develop, but it's pretty clear that Buffalo is ahead in terms of emerging talent.

I can’t see it being a 3-goalie rotation. It will be Comrie backing up UPL unless one falters. Adams has been adamant about UPL’s playing time and Comrie is part of the future.

If Portillo is walking, I would have offered him a contract already. UPL/Comrie Levi/??? is firming up as the expected depth chart next year. Personally, I’m comfortable enough with Levi to have a Suchanek/Portillo type 4th in the depth chart, but Adams may prefer someone more like Subban. If Portillo is signing, I doubt Suchanek wants to be behind 3 young goalies.

Do you send down a guy who is on a 7-1 run playing against tough teams as your number one goalie? Of course not. If forced to make the call, I waive my 14th forward — the pending UFA who has played just one game in the last 6 weeks and has no goals and 4 assists in his past 14. But I'm with Inky. I expect they will use IR, or (the threat of?) an Anderson retirement to their advantage. Whatever happens, it's not going to affect a player who's going to be here next year, or our chances in the playoff race.

Rosen had 2/4/6/+7 in 7 games (replays clearly showed he deflected in a 3rd goal, but it appears once IIHF awards a goal it doesn’t change its mind). He was tied for 2nd among Swedish forwards in points and +/- Östlund put up 1/3/4/0 in 7. He got a ton of ice time as a middle six 2-way centre. Kulich was 7/2/9/+10 in 7. He led Czech forwards in goals, points and +/-, was 2nd in the entire tournament for goals and was named (along with Berard and Cooley) to the final all-star team.

Is it really a special hell? Or is it just a way to improve? What if he just makes sure Samuelsson and Dahlin stay healthy? After all, they are 16-5-2 when that’s the case, no matter how bad people say Bryson and Casey are playing.

I think we need to see improvement from at least 2 of these 6: Krebs, Jost, Mitts, VO, Quinn and Peterka. You can accept two or three of them playing at a 3rd-line level, but not all of them. (Despite the fact we can apparently win with all of them) Cozens is the only player we’ve got who has thrived under 2nd line usage. Okposo and Girgensons have been good in bottom six usage. Krebs and Jost have looked good with them, less so away from them.

Anderson has put up his numbers playing once a week against weaker teams. He will get action if one of the others falters, but the plan was pretty clear and the future may have arrived.

The plan seems to have always been Anderson as a mentor and someone to hold the fort while we transition to next year’s Comrie/UPL battery. Unless Comrie outplays UPL enough to grab 2/3s of the starts, meaning UPL goes down to get playing time, I suspect you’re right. Remember, we’re only a few months from adding Levi into the picture. Im sure Anderson signed being fully aware of the plan.

Sabres Live with Duffer and Marty daily. Maintenance Day with Yerdon and Lysowski every Monday is usually worthwhile.

Jeff Marek had an interesting observation on our goalies. Starts since Comrie went down UPL: @was, @Bos, @Veg @Col, @Pit, @tor, Det, SJ, Cbs, Col, TB, Stl Anderson: @Det, @ari @Ott, @Mon, LA, Pit, NJ Donnie has deployed Upie like a full-fledged #1: a majority of the games and virtually all the tough ones.

This raises an interesting question: Who would you rather have on your 3rd line? A guy who plays like a 2nd liner half the time and is replacement level the other half? (not arguing Casey is this guy) Or a guy who is consistently neutral?

Is there anyone around here doing that? I don’t think even @GASabresIUFAN sees top 6 potential there now. The debates are 2: Is/can this guy be a useful NHL player? Do I want this guy on my team?

A few have said it, but I can’t disagree with you more on this. He had 4 points last night. Not one of them was a freebie. Not one of them happens if an average player was on the ice in his place. He did that, including the winning goal, in Washington, against an engaged Alex Ovechkin. He’s had 8 games of 3 or more points, including 3 hat-tricks and 2 6-point games. His goals are almost never tap-ins or lucky bounces. He has taken over more games this year than any player outside McDavid.

I think our points are more in line than you may realize. I was partly talking about fan expectations in my post, but moreso I was talking about player expectations. Casey is undergoing a process where he first realized he wasn’t going to be an NHL player training like he did in juniors, then realizing he wasn’t going to be a star playing like he did in juniors. As @Taro T has done a good job explaining, he has adjusted his approach. He just has more to learn and more adjustments to make. He’s only played 231 NHL games. The next step - the one that is underway this year - is realizing that he isn’t going to be a star, period, and figuring out how he is just going to be a useful player. I brought Jost into the equation because he comes from a similar place as Casey, and is a year ahead of him on that curve. I can guarantee Avs fans were making similar posts to yours about Jost two years ago.

Player 1 is 24, was a top 10 pick and makes $2.5 million He’s scored 9 points and been a -4 in the past 17 games mostly on the 3rd line. Player 2 is 24, was a top 10 pick and makes $2.0 million He’s scored 7 points and been a +/-0 in the past 17 games mostly on the 3rd line. We like Tyson Jost because he seems to have realized that while he’s not going to be the top 6 player he had hoped to become, he is good enough to play in the NHL and can contribute in a specific role. We don’t like Casey Mittelstadt because we are judging him in the context of being the top 6 player he had hoped to become. He is good enough to be an NHL player, but is still figuring out his role. Expectations are certainly at play here and need to be readjusted.

The stuff above about Granato’s belief in Casey is bang on, IMO. He believes in his talent and his work ethic and is determined that if he perseveres the payoff will come. He’s using the same template that paid off for Cozens and Thompson and Tuch and Dahlin. To me, the difference is Casey just isn’t as good at hockey as the other 4.

@Taro T this needs to be in here:

He had a pretty good game last night. He got flak on the Milano goal, but that was more about Mule making a bad pinch and Dahlin not rotating out behind him quickly enough. He and Jost had some of that Krebs line puckhound buzz going on on the forecheck. Consistency is the main issue, so a game or two isn't going to sway many takes.