dudacek

Adams has been keeping his powder dry for the right player at the right time. Chychrun is 24 and fills a need, now and 5 years from now. He fits. Recent comps: Alexander Romanov went for pick #13 Hampus Lindholm (pending UFA) for a late 1st and 2 2nds Seth Jones for (more or less) Adam Boqvist and two high 1sts Rasmus Ristolainen for a 1st and a 2nd

Remember when a battered team driving 90 yards late in the final quarter for the go-ahead TD, holding the opposition to a game-tying 51-yard field goal, then marching 48 yards downfield in less than 25 seconds to win the game was something to celebrate? People’s choices are strange to me.

Here’s an interesting statistic from this year, not sure what to make of it. The Sabres currently have the: #1 highest-scoring NHL players from the 2018 and 2016 drafts #5 highest-scoring NHL players from the 2021, 2020 and 2019 drafts. That’s a top 5 producer from 5 of the past 6 drafts and 2 of those players are defencemen.

A bit of context to UPL’s season: 5 good starts, 2 poor, 2 indifferent. https://theahl.com/stats/player/7644 This moment is maybe arriving a little earlier than the brass hoped, but it was always going to happen sometime this year. Ive been looking forward to it, basically since Ullmark walked. The door is open. Let’s see if he can step through and slam it behind him.

Poltapov is now a full-time KHL rookie with 5 goals in 27 games. This is the best place to find prospect stats: https://www.eliteprospects.com/team/53/buffalo-sabres/in-the-system

Missing context: Leinonen is 3.08 GAA and .841 SV% after a couple rough outings playing parts of 8 games with men in Liiga. Against his peers in juniors he is 1.71 and .943 in 7 games.

I wonder why people are so reluctant to believe their eyes. Dude has 34 goals in his past 50 games. That’s 4th in the NHL over that span - only 2 less than McDavid, 1 less than Mathews. More than Robertson and Pastrnak and McKinnon and Tkachuk and Stamkos and Ovechkin and Kucherov and Marner and Crosby and Draisaitl. He’s scoring (and has a great shooting %) because his shot is elite. He’s a star. @Thorny remember a year ago when we were comparing this build to the lockout team and I said maybe Tage could be the Briere and you (correctly) said hold your horses, that Briere was a helluvalot more than a good 2C? It’s happening.

OK, this avatar absolutely has to be the new Islanders logo. Fantastic.

I think you can’t overlook the fact that over the 113 games since Ralph Krueger was fired Tage has yet to plateau - the arrow has continued to go up. In his 25 games from when Ralph was canned until the end of the season: 7 goals, 12 points In his 1st 30 games at centre: 10 goals, 18 points In his 2nd 30 games at centre: 17 goals, 30 points In the 28 games since: 18 goals, 34 points

Not really disagreeing, but at it's heart, this is a "when do you believe" question. Down the stretch last year he put up 15/8/23 in 23 games against Vegas, Colorado, St. Louis, Boston Toronto, Tampa, Florida, Carolina, the Rangers, Nashville, Washington Pittsburgh, Calgary, Edmonton, Minnesota and Dallas. If he gets just a goal and an assist in the next 5 games, does that mean he's not there yet? How many times do we have to see something before it's real?

It doesn't get nastier than what we saw in the AHL playoffs last year. Certainly didn't slow Krebs and Peterka. (I'd add Tuch to your list as someone who's proven in that environment and Okposo and Girgs will be there)

Here's a question we were all scared to broach even a few weeks ago: "What if Tage Thompson can actually fill the role of legit 1st line centre every team needs to be a contender?" Is it something we can talk about yet? The sample size continues to grow. In the calendar year of 2022 Tage now has 33 goals and 62 points in 56 games. In Eichel's best year he had 36 goals and 78 points in 68 games.

People will talk about the team needing to get bigger off and on, which usually devolves into discussions about how important size really is or isn’t. This thread was inspired more though by me realizing how exceptionally big the Sabres core is and what a weapon that can be, and how no one ever really talks about that.

It’s not really about violence though. The crucial factor here is how our best players are huge and are starting to take advantage of that. The complaint from other team’s is going to be “we can’t penetrate past those octopi when they defend and we can’t take the puck away from those redwoods when they attack.”

I think this is overly focused on the mistake of conflating size with beating people up. Mule, Tage, Dahlin, Power, Tuch - every single player uses his size to physically dominate a majority of opponents. I’m talking about forcing turnovers, protecting pucks, winning battles and making plays. Their size is making them hockey players who are very hard to play against. 1-on-1 they are creating difficult matchups for opposing coaches.

Seems to me there is still a perception out there (and by that, I mean on Sabrespace) that the Sabres aren’t big enough. I think people need to look a bit closer at the trees. Our best centre is 6’7 225 pounds Our best winger is 6’4 220 Our best defenceman is 6’3 210 Our 2nd best is 6’6 220 Our shutdown blueliner is 6’4 230 I defy you to find another team with a core that physically imposing. And they all can skate. Add Lyubushkin Cozens Okposo and Girgensons on the next tier, couple it with the roster’s speed, 4-line depth and attacking style and this is a team that is built wear you down. I don’t think their 3rd period success so far this year is a coincidence.

So one of Quinn/Krebs/Asplund/Peterka/Hinostroza is so significantly less effective than the others that a rotation is going to cost the team points in the standings? Not buying it. Also not buying the concept that whoever "played the worst in the last game" is the one who should be be sitting out. Never mind how that is impossible to quantify (for exhibit A, I give you the reviews of Krebs' game versus Detroit), it's also completely myopic. I am very happy our team chooses to focus on the big picture. And this is coming from a fan who never wants to see Asplund in the press box.

Skates definitely. Shins guards and elbow pads. A jock strap for sure.

Team we got schooled by last year, twice, so definitely a measuring stick. Not overly worried about Pilut/Fitzy as a 3rd pair against this particular lineup. Hope we can say the same about Bryson and Boosh in the top 4. Kinda expecting Tage and Skinner to break out a bit. Tage is certainly looking the part the past 2 games.

How many NHL players can match Tuch’s combination of speed and strength? Asking a serious question here. His physical dominance versus the Canucks battered blueline was something to behold. We still get posters worrying about the Sabres size, but it was an eye-opener watching Thompson Tuch Power Samuelsson and Dahlin live and seeing how there was no one Vancouver had capable of physically cancelling out any of them on a purely athletic level. Like you are getting down to our 6th guy before they could literally find a match, and I am including Tyler Myers in that.

Private MRIs are available in B.C. I would be stunned if the Leafs and Senators do not have access to quick MRIs

Donnie likes to talk about Power’s ability to process and adapt. The adjustment from game 1 (where he tried to do too much) to game 5 (where he does what will work) has been remarkable IMO. I suspect we’ll see what he was trying to do in game 1 again, but working, as the season progresses, as he keeps figuring out what works. Power is going to be really good and a lot faster than you think.

Levi clearly with the most intriguing stat line of all the players in the system. Ryan Johnson with 5 assists in 6 games for the Gophers. Topias Leinonen with a terrible .840 sv% in 8 Liiga games. Lots of interesting early season numbers here: https://www.eliteprospects.com/team/53/buffalo-sabres/in-the-system

I suspect the proper lens for the next few weeks will be how they survive without Mule and Jokiharju. There’s going to be a heavy load on the shoulders of Bryson and Power.

This is from a regular Hockey Night in Canada feature called "After Hours" which runs every Saturday night after the regular NHL double-header. It usually features a live, in-depth chat with a player or executive tied to the games of the evening, whose appearance is scheduled well in advance. They just happened to hit the jackpot with Rutherford at this particular point of the season. It's all the media out here is talking about this morning. Related, the feeling in the building was people crazy fed up with their franchise Saturday. It got nasty in the third. We had Canuck players arguing loudly with each other on the ice, the fans booing the in-house media team for trying to get them to start a singalong, and two guys in my section tearing off their jerseys and tossing them on the ice to the cheers of everyone else around them. Never experienced anything like it.