dudacek

Pretty much everything everyone was saying about the Bills proved true. Roster turnover/injuries on defence a concern. Offence will be by committee Any team that has Josh Allen will always be in it.

The Sabres name being dropped is almost certainly as a lever elsewhere. Giordano might be a good “coach” for our young guys, but he’s not good enough to play in our starting 6. Looks like another Erik Johnson and would probably be as helpful. Any player signing here this season to collect a pay cheque while plotting a move elsewhere can go ***** himself. Any GM happily signing such a player can do the same.

What is kinda crazy is seeing how Krebs is actually ahead in his development compared to Tage and Casey coming off their ELCs, and how Asplund wasnt far off either coming off his. Asplund scored 10 goals over 2 years on his 2nd contract and fell out of the league. Casey put up 10 on his in just 41 COVID games Tage? He scored 93 goals over his 3 years on what has to be the biggest bargain 2nd contract in modern Sabres history. I see no way in hell Krebs develops anywhere close to the way Tage did, but maybe it is a little premature to dismiss him as another Asplund in the making.

Maybe this isn’t that unusual. Coming off his ELC and a ***** 9-point NHL season, Casey Mittelstadt signed a $875K 1-year deal one week before the start of training camp. Meanwhile, 2 months earlier, coming off his ELC and a ***** 1-game NHL season, Tage Thompson signed a 3-year deal with a $1.4 AAV. And a year later, coming off 11 points in 28 COVID season games, Rasmus Asplund signed a 2-year deal for $865K AAV 6 weeks before training camp. Those are the only 3 comparables of Adams’ career. The track record shows the holdup here may actually be Adams standing firm on the QA for one-year deal, but dangling more for term. Maybe the new Dad who once said he wants to raise a family in Buffalo is looking for security and the GM actually does believe in Krebs and is hoping for another Tage-type win, meaning this is a trickier negotiation than it appears.

I realize this is in “who cares?” file for most of you, but I am really puzzled with what is going on with his contract. The player has virtually no leverage here: he’s coming off a 4-goal season and on paper has slipped off the starting roster. He can’t afford to miss one second of camp. Shouldnt he just be taking whatever he’s offered and concentrating on impressing his new coach? Is this about just waiting until the last minute in the hopes of squeezing out an extra couple hundred grand? Or is there something else going on?

Agree wholeheartedly with the bold. Not sure goals-for are the best way to measure the success of the 3rd line. RAV was successful because Drury/Grier got best offensive lines and Briere got the best defensive lines, leaving them to typically feast on bottom-half players where their defensive flaws were less critical. That's why this whole discussion really hinges on Lindy and how he chooses to deploy his forwards. Hecht/Briere/Dumont. Benson/Thompson/Zucker Grier/Drury/Kotalik Greenway/Cozens/Tuch Vanek/Roy/Afinogenov Peterka/McLeod/Quinn Mair/Gaustad/Pominville Malenstyn/Lafferty/Krebs No need to point out how or why you'd change the combos around, or why these ones are wrong, just trying to point out in very general terms one way Linday could get 50 or 60 goals from his 3rd line, mirroring the type of setup he used 20 years ago.

You guys may get a different impression if you listen because it wasn’t directly specified. But my very clear impression is that members of the Adams executive are talking off-the-record that they know their jobs are on the line. It’s not so much an ultimatum as the simple truth everyone around here would agree with: they’ve had enough time to turn this thing around and it needs to happen now or they deserve to be fired. Basically, they aren’t idiots and they understand that’s the reality of pro sports.

Very roughly: 32 teams times 6 forwards equals 192, so statistically “3rd-line” goal scorers finished between 193 and 288 in scoring. So a low-end 3rd-liner puts up about 9 goals and a high-end about 14. Obviously there’s all kinds of ways you can describe a 3rd-line based on team composition (Vanek Afinogenov Roy were 2, 5, 9 in goals, but even 7-8-9 on that team combined for 54) but 35 looks like as good as any a break-even point for today’s 7-8-9 scoring forwards. It’s actually an interesting exercise. A “4th-liner” produces between 5 and 9 A “2nd-liner” 15 and 24 And 24 and above was 1st-line production Off the top of my head I’d say 35 goals is 1st-line production, but only 22 players put that up; that’s not even one per team.

Elliotte Friedman back with a monster podcast previewing the new year for every team. His Buffalo segment was very pointed: “They’ve talked a lot about this internally, if they don’t go to the playoffs this year, there could be big consequences. Everyone understands there are no excuses this season. ”You’re looking at a lot of other players and you’re saying guys, it’s not good enough to talk about it.” ”There’s too much talent on this team.”

Things no one is considering: McLeod as this team's Jochen Hecht. Krebs as its Jochen Hecht Greenway as its Mike Grier Benson as Thompson's set-up man Krebs in the top 6 Quinn not in the top 6 Krebs Quinn and Peterka as a Roy Max Vanek-style 3rd line. Benson Cozens Greenway or Benson Cozens Tuch as match-up "2nd" line Zucker scoring 25-30 riding shotgun with Tage just like when he rode shotgun with Malkin McLeod as the 4th-line centre Thompson and Tuch on separate lines Cozens on the wing Cozens as the net-front guy on the PP Lafferty or Malenstyn as the physical presence on a line with 2 scorers Kulich as the "missing top 6 forward" Rosen making the team over Krebs or Aube-Kubel, and playing in a middle-six role. There's a lot of ways Lindy could surprise us What do you expect a 3rd line to score? 35 seems pretty average to me.

One think I like about Zucker McLeod and Greenway is that I consider each of them to be capable 3rd-liners. The idea that you've got complementary skills — a lightning-fast transition skater and carrier in McLeod, a behemoth in Greenway, and pesky forechecker who can finish in Zucker — all of whom are responsible without the puck is a bonus. But the idea of having real 3rd-liners on the 3rd line has been foreign to the Sabres. That' said, I'm 100% with @PerreaultForever, throw out what Granato taught you, Lindy is not likely to do what people are expecting.

Bouchard and Dobson are relevant comparables: at 20 Dobson 34 1/6/7 Bouchard AHL Byram 30 5/12/17 at 21 Dobson 46 3/11/14 Bouchard 14 2/3/5 Byram 42 10/14/24 at 22 Dobson 80 13/38/51 Bouchard 81 12/31/43 Byram 73 11/18/29 Byram is already on his bridge contract. He signed it off a concussion-hampered season where he was pacing close to 20 goals and 50 points without significant power play time.

Byram is interesting on 2 levels and you can’t really discuss one without the other: was this a good trade philosophically? And is he a good player? This is both the lost-in-his-own-zone 46.5 percent Corsi player over 18 Sabre games that @Thorny and @GASabresIUFAN consistently worry about, and the guy who led his team at +15 in 20 playoff games as the #3D on a Stanley Cup winner that Kevyn Adams targeted. I need the season to start.

For me, Dahlin's excellence on his off-side is a factor, but generally this is a great way of looking at it. The most obvious one is the best NHL team of all-time, the late '70s Canadiens. I'm certainly not going to argue Dahlin Byram Power is Robinson Lapointe Savard — the habs trio were literally all top 10 defencemen at their peak — but the types of games actually kinda parallel. Savard/Power the big smooth calm guy who played the game from a rocking chair, Lapointe/Byram as the fiery boom/bust pace guy, and Robinson Dahlin as the elite, complete, tick all the boxes type. The more recent example was the Predators squad that had Josi, Ellis, Ekholm and Weber/Subban. Right now the one that pops initially is Vegas with Pietrangelo, Hanifin and Theodore Here's another way of looking at it: top 3 of the recent finalists and cup winners: Forsling, Ekblad, Montour; Ekholm, Bouchard, Nurse; Makar, Toews, Byram; Hedman, Sergachev, McDonough

No names but Marty says he was down at the arena today and the place was packed with players getting ready - enough that 2 locker rooms were being used to accommodate them.

If you’re saying in a cap world you need to spread resources around more, that’s an interesting point. The counterargument may be that high-end defenceman play more and cost less. The Sabres model seems to match up best with the Vegas model.

Byram played nearly 22 minutes a game for Buffalo. Casey played just over 18. Byram can be an high-end fallback to Dahlin and Power, just like Casey was to Cozens and Thompson. Byram can bring unusual skill to the 3rd pair in the same way Casey did to the 3rd line. Byram alongside Dahlin is better than Jokiharju beside Dahlin in the same manner Ehlers would be preferable to Zucker alongside Tage.

I guess we shall see how Lindy utilizes them and whether it works. I won’t agree with the limitations some are already drawing around player deployment until I see it fail. I would put Byram on the right wall opposite Tage on the top PP and keep Power as the QB of PP2. Failing that, I’d run Byram in that spot on PP2. Regardless of his PP deployment, I think people are seriously dismissing what he can bring 5-on-5. He’s been one of the NHL’s more productive defencemen at even-strength in Colorado even playing on the 3rd pair with Jack Johnson. He looked good with Dahlin to my eyes. The idea of pairing him with Mule on pair 2 is intriguing to me as their skill sets seem quite complementary. Combining him with Power away from the other team’s 1st line seems like an intriguing risk/reward experiment. The idea of having one of he, Power or Dahlin on the ice at all times - and often 2 of them - should create match-ups Lindy can exploit. And I fully expect Lindy to be constantly mixing and matching from game to game and within games. The idea that the 3 pairings on the lineup sheet will be rolling over is false. Some of you seem to see Byram as an Olofsson type who needs to be sheltered and spotted to maximize his value, and who has little value outside an offensive specialist role. I think he’s better and more rounded than that.. He’s no more redundant in a 3D role than Mitts is as a 3C. All the same arguments apply. Maybe he’s not the player I think he is, and if that’s the case I’ll be eating crow. But I’ve liked the player for a long time, and I’m looking forward to seeing what he brings under Lindy.

I think most of us have a tendency to react to the board as a singular entity and make observations to the whole based on the whole. Not precise enough I suppose, but the only thing I really see as an issue there is when it results in people having 2 different conversations, where one is speaking to or about Sabrespace while the other is speaking g to or about the other poster.

I think there is a good chance the Sabres are better off this year with what Byram/McLeod add than what Casey would have added. But I also think we’re in the minority and don’t blame the skeptics for disagreeing.

Am I the only one who liked Casey, but also thinks his contribution has been overstated? Cozens scored the same number of goals as Casey and had similar xGoals and a very similar Corsi in notably tougher minutes. Cozens had 10 fewer assists, but 3 more primary assists and a +13 advantage in penalties taken/drawn. And he brought more speed and edge. The perception here seems to be Dylan was ***** and Casey was great, but is that more about relative to expectation than actual play?

Pegula is saving $1.9M for one year on this deal. This is how most people seem to see it: The Sabres don't have enough talent up front The Sabres had enough talent on the blueline Mitts was one of the few Sabres who played well last year Casey Mittelstadt is better than Bo Byram This is how I see it: The Sabres had 3 top 6 centres The Sabres had 3 top 4 defencemen The Sabres wanted to get faster and harder to play against Peak Bo Byram is more talented and valuable than peak Casey Mittelstadt I think it was a risky deal, but i have no problem seeing the why.

Interesting (paywall) read on everyone’s favourite 2nd-rounder Topias Leinonen. https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5744228/2024/09/04/sabres-ukko-pekka-luukkonen-topias-leinonen/ Basically explained last season’s washout - stress fracture in his foot that wiped out his summer training, pre-season reinjury, broken hand, Liiga team that didn’t trust him enough to use him, poor play in the handful of games he got in. Basically, it was a wasted year of development. He’s slimmed down considerably this summer and is set to play Swedish 2nd division for a team that lost its starter in a small town with coaching the Sabres trust. Goalie development coach Kotyk says they saw the skill they liked about him at development camp and a fire to reclaim his career path. Compares him to UPL and the adversity he went through. It will be interesting to see if he can put himself back on the radar, because last year was about as bad as it could have been.

Uncontrollable audio feed? Constantly behind the play? I like where this thread went.

Tage is golfing in Arizona "getting to know" Zucker. Tuch is showing Krebsie how to bottle-feed his newborn. And Ras is on the phone with Okie asking about whether it's OK to text your teammates before training camp. Cozens and Byram are bow hunting for bighorn sheep in the southwestern Rockies. The season doesn't wrap up until next Thursday, but they promised to come home early if they bagged their limit. UPL and Joker are with their wives at the Venice Film Festival. They're going to stop in Ibiza for a few days once that's over, but they should probably be here in time for training camp. Levi is on the phone with his agent demanding to know what he's going to do about Reimer. Mule is trying to figure out how to explain his waterskiing injury to Lindy. Power is shopping for drapes with his fiance. Quinn and Peterka are getting shooting and stickhandling lesson over Zoom from Matt Ellis. Malenstyn and Aube-Kubel are skating with the Canisius College team, wondering when they're going to meet their new teammates and a little uncertain about whether or not they're at the right rink. Benson would have been here Saturday to join them, but the Labour Day weekend is peak time in the carny industry and he promised his dad he'd help get the tilt-a-whirl operating properly before they pack up for the Okanagan road trip. Those Peachland crowds can be tough.