dudacek

Olofsson might have been the teams best forward in October; he was doing more than being the lethal perimeter shooter he was initially. Since he got hurt his shot has utterly disappeared, whether through injury, confidence or both. And he’s brought little to nothing else. I think he’ll bounce back, but I’m not sure if he fits what we’re building and I’m open to offers. Players like Asplund are always going to go through droughts, but he needs to do more without the puck. Hope he’s back, still like him in the role he played with Mitts last year and Tuch/VO early on. Wish he’d kill more penalties. Counting down the days until Eakin is gone. He was better to start the year, but is fully back to his space-filling ways. Bjork has a contract that might mean he’s back, but he shouldn’t be. Hustle without purpose. He is where plays go to die. Hayden has hands of stone. I like his strength on the puck and respect his effort, but we deserve better. Butcher is another filler who should not be back.

You haven’t. Probably the main reason I asked. 😁

So a post about the mindset of fanbase more than the mindset of the team. Speaking only for myself, I think this year is a convergence of a hockey rebuild philosophy with the financial needs of the larger Pegula empire. But I certainly don’t buy into the idea that progress (measured, amongst other factors, by wins) is irrelevant. A hockey rebuild would benefit from more wins next year, but a business rebuild is desperate for it. So I expect a better team next year and action taken toward that goal. Which leads me to the other part of my post: what are some real world examples of the kinds of moves do you think the Sabres can and should be making?

Really? I was sure we declined to offer him a contract.

I’m curious what kind of moves the Sabres could be making that they won’t be making that you think they should be making? Would you be interested in a move like the Tyler Toffoli trade? Dvorak? Nate Schmidt? Should Adams be in the Jeff Chychrun market? Why do you think the Sabres don’t care if they are better or not next year? Please don’t take this as a “there’s no goalies worth playing the price for” post. I’m genuinely interested.

If no one wants him for a bag of pucks, please bench him. Id rather watch anyone else.

I think I really need Cody Eakin to never play another Sabres game after the trade deadline.

We always seem to get worked by the Islanders.

If they do it's because Kevyn or someone else in the front office managed to talk Terry into it. I don't think Terry is too fond of Jack these days.

I wanna go full "Jack Who?" and most of the time I am. But his first night back in Buffalo is going to be painful. it will start out with nice things in the media, but there will be enough fans like @Cal Naughton Jr in the house to give him a less than warm welcome and there will drama over a Terry-mandated half-assed or non-existent salute. And Jack will get red-faced, and his very good team will be on, and he/they will cut through Cody Eakin and Dustin Tokarski and company like the tissue paper they are. Then 10 years of pent-up anger over the unfulfilled promises of Terry Pegula will erupt across Sabre fandom as Jack rubs our faces in what should have been ours. It's going to be ugly.

Always was a strange choice not offer that kid a contract. 14 goals already on the first year of a 3-year, $1.5 million contract and he plays hard.

The 3rd goal against Columbus was so atypical of what I’m used to from Skinner. When Tage reversed up the boards, Skinner’s typical move would have been to go to the net for a pass or a rebound; he’s typically always so focused on scoring goals himself. Instead, he glided into the space Tage created and made himself available for a pass away from the typical scoring zone. Then, instead of firing a shot from the corner - Jeff always shoots any time he’s within 30 feet from the net, regardless of traffic or angle - he slid an immediate pass on the tape to Tuch. It was a cannily crafted and perfectly executed smart hockey play calculated so his teammate could score a goal. Reinhart-esque, or dare I say Krebsian. Entirely contrary to the types of plays he’s been making for the past 2 years that used to drive me nuts about his game. Beautiful to see.

Current struggles aside, is Victor Olofsson a similar asset to Toffoli?

I think the Sabres greatest need is for defencemen who can defend. To my eye, Johnson is better than Faber in that aspect of the game.

I'm not sure what the bold represents in terms of what each man actually does, but I don't think Kevyn Adams has any interest in not having the final say in hockey decisions.

Yes. At least if you mean the infamous suffering comment. it was maybe 5 years later? Post Ehrhoff/Leino free agency failure, when Darcy was basically revealing that Terry had green-lit the tank.

I like how Granato talks about Tage and Tuch. He recognizes their successes but it’s always tempered. He makes sure to always mention that they are at the start of what they can be, and that they have a lot of room to grow and that he expects them to grow.

What needs more more attention was the 4-way pass on the final PP that Petry deflected away from Tuch putting it in the empty net. Krebs opened up for the pass and rocketed it through the slot to Tuch’s stick in the blink of an eye. It was a thing of beauty.

I don’t think the fact Alex Tuch is +8 this year is particularly relevant in answering the question “Is he a good player?” I do think the fact that he is +8 in 15 games on a team that has been outscored by 11 goals over that span, and has done it while generally playing against the other team’s best players is highly relevant in answering the question “How has he been playing?”

I’m not going to get into a situation where it seems like I’m defending +/-; it’s a weak stat for measuring personal success. It’s a good stat for measuring how effective your line was in the role in which it was used. ALL stats are a measure of team success mixing with personal success, tied to usage.

Well said. No team that is serious about winning starts the season without at least one proven capable NHL starter in goal. Despite the fact Anderson and UPL have played well, neither were that at the start of the year, and neither is likely to be that when the year finishes either. I would love to see UPL do his best over the last 40 games to change my mind.

To be clear I’m not either. I said he’s having a season offensively that mirrors what O’Reilly did over his 3 years here. And I think Tage’s performance so far this year might be better than what I perceive to be the weakest season of O’Reilly’s past 10. But he’s got a long way to go to reach the stature O’Reilly has and I would be very surprised if he gets there.

If Ryan O’Reilly goes -10 for the Blues in December and +10 for the same team in January, I’m going to conclude he was likely a more effective player in January. Feel free to laugh and point and call me unsophisticated.

I was approaching this from the opposite direction, checking to see if the numbers supported my memory. Your cherry-picked Tage stat also seems to reflect my memory of him slumping in December. I don’t remember O’Reilly being as good in year 3 and enjoying Tage’s game more this year, Maybe I’m wrong. 🤷

I don’t know man, I’ve always been a big O’Reily booster, but I don’t remember him being h8 self that year. Maybe my memory is putting too much emphasis on the way he finished, but he was -23 that year and I remember his effort falling off badly. Looking at his game log, he finished with 7 points in his last 5 games, but before that he had just 2 goals in 19 games and was -12 over the final 2 months. He also started the year -17 over his first 25 games and we wondered if he was pouting that Eichel got the C over him. Maybe he was real good in the middle?