dudacek

It's certainly what put the Lightning ahead of us. If I remember correctly, they were top 5 in both special teams and a minus team at even strength.

Ok that's weird, because when grabbed those numbers, I was surprised, because I remembered them as better as well. Not sure what I did wrong, Edit: Figured it out. The numbers I posted were from the playoffs, not the regular season. Will adjust my earlier post.

I'm really interested in seeing how the Sabres newfound speed manifests itself on the ice NHL edge stats (top speed/bursts over 20 mph) as a league percentile Peterka 59/92 Thompson 82/74 Tuch 85/77 vs Knies >50/69 Matthews 60/76 Marner >50/>50 Benson >50/>50 Cozens 85/78 Quinn >50/>50 vs McMann 95/84 Nylander 54/84 Domi 64/74 Zucker >50/>50 McLeod 97/99 Greenway >50/>50 vs Paccioretty >50/>50 Tavares 56/73 Holmberg 63/69 Malenstyn 97/97 Lafferty 93/96 Aube-Kubel 94/93 vs Lorentz 60/>50 Kampf 70/67 Reaves 52/>50 Dahlin >50/>50 Jokiharju >50/>50 vs Reilly 70/69 Tanev >50/>50 Byram 86/>50 Power >50/>50 vs McCabe >50/>50 Ekman-Larsson 83/>50 Samuelsson 59/>50 Clifton >50/>50 vs Benoit 66/>50 Liljegren >50/>50 Last year's Leafs had average team speed, the Sabres below average. One thing to consider is how fast the players are and how fast a team plays are not necessarily the same thing.

He doesn’t give off the captain’s vibe. But the fact that he has consistently been one of the youngest players on his team over that period probably has a lot to do with that.

Tage has started slow in each of the past 3 years. Be nice if that changes. He’s looked very..self-possessed? ..in the preseason. Controlled, business-like and capable. I’ve made no secret of the fact I think this guy is a pro - a shut-up-and-get-it-done son of an old school minor-league player turned coach, with a proven history of over-coming adversity. The tools are obvious. I think he’s going to bounce back quite nicely.

People always talk like it's weird that captains get traded, or like its something particular to the Sabres. I'd think it's probably more unusual when a captain retires with his team.

The main objective should be getting the Sabres ready to sweep New jersey.

The thing with Boston (and Tampa and Toronto) is that they are good teams but they have an aura about being some sort of insurmountable obstacle, which simply isn’t true. It’s the inverse of the Sabres. It isn’t necessarily true, but believing it helps make it true. The truth of sports and life is everybody dies some day. This, so much.

After dumping on Rosen a last night, he was much better tonight; asserting his talent and making more plays, although he passed off on a few opportunities he should have wired. As the winner showed, the shot is top-tier. Östlund was quieter after an outstanding game against the Pens, but still good. Well, quieter until the OT at least 😁 That was one of the prettier goals we’ll see this year. It should not go unremarked that each came up big at clutch time. I found it very impressive that a team with no NHLers and about 10 players with 2 or less years pro so thoroughly outplayed the rosters they did over the past 2 games. It’s basically been our 25-50 versus the opponents’ 15-40 - guys with basically no NHL shots this year against the guys fighting for the Sens and Pens 8-10 last spots. They skated fast, they limited chances and they worked.

Near as I can see, since Adams has become a GM, 4 GMs in addition to Adams, have traded a prospect they personally picked in the 1st-round: Tom Fitzgerald traded Alex Holtz and Shakir Muhkamadulin Bill Armstrong traded Conor Geekie Kevin Chevaldayoff traded Rutger McGroarty (because he had to) Kyle Dubas traded Brayden Yager (for McGroarty) EDIT, missed one Vegas' McCrimmon traded David Edstrom the last pick in the 2023 1st round

And the legend of the Bs grows some more.

Tuch is the only letter-holder not on a long-term deal. Power is the only one on a long-term deal not to get a letter.

Adams has had 8 1st rounders and 9 2nds over 5 drafts. He’s traded 2 of those picks (2nd rounders for Malenstyn and Greenway) and one of the prospects he’s taken with them (Savoie). 1st-rounders Benson, Power and Quinn and 2nd-rounder Peterka are with the team. 1st-rounders Helenius, Östlund, Kulich, Rosen and 2nd-rounders Kleber, Wahlberg, Strbak, Leinonen, Poltapov and Kisakov are still in the system. He also traded Botterill high pick Mittelstadt, keeping UPL, Dahlin, Samuelsson, Cozens and Johnson

All right, I’m out. 15 years on this site and I finally got something right. Time to step aside and build a house in Minnesota.

Doesn't mean anything other than the Sabres are largely irrelevant and the prognosticators are lazy.

I've listened to and read a lot of league-wide preseason talk. As far as the greater NHL media and fanbase goes, the Sabres are among the league's biggest afterthoughts. They're neither a bubble team, nor a disaster waiting to happen, and they certainly aren't a playoff team. They are just a consensus not-really-worth-thinking-about non-story that the talking heads quickly skip over. For the most part, I'm not even hearing any serious dives into their strengths and weaknesses, more of a "not really worth our time." I'd sum up the consensus as this: "Buffalo? Eh, they weren't good last year and didn't do anything exciting this summer to improve. I mean cutting Jeff Skinner, how is that going to help? And recycling Lindy Ruff (insert eye roll here)? I'm sick of waiting for them to break through. They never have and I've given up thinking that they ever will."

No Johnson, and he wasn't part of practice line combos I saw elsewhere. Wonder if he's nursing something. 13 forwards listed. I suspect Neuchev will be coming in. Kisakov's out.

The discrepancy comes because Pominville was an older draft pick.

Mersch was not re-signed. Prow and Murray (and Jobst?) were wearing As yesterday.

You keep saying this. I’m not going to look it up again, but he was something like 2nd or 3rd in scoring among all U21 AHL players. His production was not pedestrian. If you’re comparing to that 06 team, Jason Pominville had 34 points in 73 AHL games at the same stage of his career (Rosen had 50 in 67) and has a similar profile as a player in terms of strengths and weaknesses.

Exactly, in approach at least. In skill Östlund is right up there too, but he is constantly around the puck.

Context there was Hamilton asked "Lindy don't you think Dahlin tends to put too much on his shoulders, how can you make sure that doesn't happen?" More interesting to me was Lindy specifically mentioning Thompson, Tuch, Cozens and Samuelsson as guys who are setting the tone. Your As are in that group, and Lindy's weird track record makes me wonder if all 4 might get letters. As far as I'm concerned, Dahlin as captain has been written in stone for a year.

I'm sure he was disappointed his buddy Kulich was headed to Prague and he wasn't

That game was exactly why I’m highly skeptical of Rosen. There was a no-look one-touch pass he made with his back hand under pressure from behind the net, and another blink-and-you-miss-the release rocket he pinged off the post through traffic that showcased high-end NHL skill. And he was painfully diligent defensively, consistently circling back high and trying to stay in the right side of the puck. But the vast majority of the game he was just circling and waiting; he’s never demanding the puck or going out if his way to get it. The kid has real NHL skill and he doesn’t seem to get bullied out there, his game is just so quiet.

I would imagine Leone wanted to evaluate how adept his troops were at bringing a game home. New coach, that was very much the bulk of his team out there.