dudacek

Marty said Levi isn't going there to watch and learn.

Follow the Amerks. Not as interesting at the moment due to injuries and call-ups, but they have been entertaining and good for my hopium supply this year.

Did people catch Adams interview on the Levi/Power Team Canada news? All but confirmed without confirming that Power is coming here as soon as Michigan is done.

Just coming to post this. Just in case somebody unplugged @Brawndo 😜 Marty also expects Devon to get the crease for Canada. This excites me way more than it should.

This i am in full agreement with. Ideally, a right-handed Samuelsson clone. Check how well Mule's skillset matches those defensive skills I listed.

I think the first is covered under "winning loose puck battles" (the fact that it doesn't matter whether you do it with brains, quickness or strength is exactly what I'm getting at) Take Rasmus Dahlin for example. While he needs to improve his strength on the puck, he isn't awful at it, and I see him steadily improving in his battle skills. this season, he wins as many as he loses. But he is also very good at getting to pucks first because of his skating and his reads and often outright beats his man as a result in the way you describe. Some see him get worked physically, remember the times he got worked in the past and say "he sucks defensively" I see a guy winning 1/2 of his loose puck battles with his skill and 1/4 of them with his strength and say a 75 per cent success rate is pretty damn good. I include this under "identifying your check" (call it positioning, or playing the system if you'd rather). To continue with Dahlin, I see a guy who does struggle in this area, chasing when should stay at home, or getting caught in no man's land. i think he's improved in this part of the game, but he still has a long way to go. So when people say "he sucks defensively" but they really mean he sucks at identifying his coverage, I totally get that. Saying he sucks defensively overall, however, I think is flat out wrong. It ignores how good he is at the skills @mjd1001 is talking about.

I wish people would be more specific when they talk about defensive skills. I get a sense that sometimes people are laser-focused on one or two attributes while overlooking the wide range of skills that constitute “defence” To me, defensive skills include: Identifying your check Tying up your check Clearing the front of the net Eliminating/blocking passing/shooting lanes Forcing attackers wide Forcing turnovers Winning loose puck battles Evading the forecheck Safely moving the puck out of danger Launching an effective zone exit and probably more. It feels like people like to sum defence up as being “tougher” or “more mobile” when those are tools to augment the above skill set, not prerequisites.

Hinostroza, Caggiula and Miller might be slight upgrades at the bottom of the roster but nothing major. But when Okposo slides in for Bjork and we will have our top 9 intact for the first time all season. And there's still that pesky little issue of the AHLer and the ECHLer in net. Donnie's pressers might be the most entertaining part of the Sabres season. Hope he has the goods when winning becomes the priority because he is a good man, a smart man, and such an easy guy to root for.

We tend to forget that there’s always someone hurt and usually more than one. We’re also not used to a roster where there is not a huge gap in talent from F1 and F10, and guys any where in the top 9 are in danger of losing their spots if they don’t perform. Im looking forward to that kind of roster competition. For sake of discussion: Mitts Skinner Cozens Tuch Thompson Olofsson as the starting point for three balanced lines. Krebs can crack the top 9 by being the best complement to one of those pairs, being an injury replacement for one of those players, or by outright beating any of those players out. Same thing for Kyle, Girgs, Asplund, Quinn and Peterka. It’s a great thing because having 12 guys potentially able to play in the top 9 provides both a safety net for injuries and bad play and an incentive for good play because there is a legit competitor gunning for your job. Unlike say Eichel and Reinhart, the six I built the top 9 with aren't so far ahead of the next batch they are guaranteed those spots if they aren’t earning them with their play. Also, it’s a lineup with a lot of versatility and flexibility. With the exception of Skinner and maybe Mitts, all 12 are capable of playing multiple positions and roles. After years of struggling to put together 2 lines with worth watching on any given night, I’m very hopeful we’ll have a team next year that should usually have 3, and if all goes well, might even have 4.

"It alll --- fault! File his incompetent ass!" after a game that close and filled with competitive drama and athletic brilliance is baffling to me.

This could work for a year.

In junior, Cozens was a .75 goals to every assist player, Krebs: .3 goals to every assist. Krebs got more assists per game, but not by an overwhelming margin. They both look like centres who can play wing in a pinch to me. Mittelstadt has been .8 goals to 1 assist in the NHL, after being more like .7 in college. Thompson has been pretty much 1 for 1 as a pro and in college. Never liked the idea of Casey as a winger but we haven’t seen much of it. And Tage has certainly been far better as a centre. I want them all to play centre, but I think the Sabres foresee them becoming 4 of their best 6 forwards. I can’t see any of them on the 4th line beyond next season. It’s an ice-time question and will become a salary cap necessity. All 4 should be getting 15 minutes with good linemates. Good problem to have if it happens, but it is one reason why I’m not burning for the Sabres to take a centre with their first pick.

Has anyone ever put together 8 consecutive quarters of playoff football better than Josh just did? Not rhetorically, but seriously? Sad that performance doesn't get a chance to be remembered that way.

No And that’s pretty similar to the price for Jack Eichel. I like Jeff Chychrun, but he’s no Jack Eichel. If Arizona gets that, wow.

That’s why you should be happy we have Dahlin and hopeful we can get more players with his skill and character.

I struggle to see how Laaksonen is going to get much PP time on a team that already has Dahlin and Power. I don’t want to see him with Matty, because I hope Mule is the guy we send out there against the other team’s top forwards and hope to never see Laaksonen in that situation. Finally, when I hear puck moving, I don’t equate that with offence. I envision a guy who can sidestep the forecheck and turn the play up-ice in transition through skating or passing. Dahlin is fantastic at this. From what I’ve seen, it is the strength of Ryan Johnson’s game. For all his skill on the offensive blueline, Laaksonen is not a defensive zone puck-mover. He’s actually pretty bad at it. Honestly, the Sabre his game reminds me of most is Will Butcher.

And apparently you’ll weigh a half-dozen games more than the other 35. Spinning this into a “Dahlin didn’t start to play good until the season was out of reach” is weak. Turning a string of losses largely due to a stretch of some of the worst goaltending we’ve seen in a decade into somehow being Dahlin’s fault is weak. Conflating a handful of embarrassing gaffs and a bunch of knee-jerk hysterical posts to a fair, cogent take on his overall performance to start the year is weak. For the record, Dahlin was -3 with 10 points in 14 November games.

Sometimes I think people forget how bad last year’s team was and how many key veterans from the start of last year were dumped and replaced by mostly JAGs Eichel -> Hinostroza Reinhart -> Hayden Hall -> Caggiula Staal -> Jankowski Ristolainen -> Pysyk McCabe -> Hagg Montour -> Butcher Ullmark -> Anderson Hutton -> Dell The fact that this team has moved ahead of 4 teams in the standings and is in within 4 points of 5 others is amazing to me, considering the obvious downgrade in talent. That’s pretty much entirely on Granato and what he’s done with the talent that stayed and was being squandered by the previous regime. Tuch is really the first fresh bullet that’s starting to reverse the talent drain.

He’s going to let it happen organically. But organically should start happening next year. If the kids continue to grow, we should not be in the race for a lottery ball. Even if he sticks with Anderson and UPL. (For the record, he should not)

Is there an opposite of rose-coloured glasses? *****-coloured? Many in this board still have them on when they watch Dahlin.

He had a quiet December that included a 5-game pointless streak, but has bounced back with 4 goals and 10 points in his past 8. At the half-way point of the season, he leads the Sabres, tied with Ryan O’Reilly for 87th in the NHL in points, 55th in goals. Pacing for 28 goals and 56 points. 28 goals would mark the 3rd-highest total by Sabre in 10 years, behind Eichel’s 36 and Skinner’s 40. Has he changed any minds?

Hot take. Devon is going to outplay the Euro-scrubs, get a game and never give up the crease. He’s coming home with a medal. This will be his mainstream coming-out party and he will be signing his first pro contract shortly afterwards.

The right side needs to be addressed the summer, but I think we do that by taking a RD high and acquiring a good veteran. If a Nylander for Jokiharju type trade is out there, sure, but I don’t think it’s something we have to go looking hard for. Not in a rush to “fix” our crowded left side. Too many unhatched chickens. I expect Johnson to get the Jake McCabe treatment: signed this year, get a taste, Rochester next year. Power, Dahlin, Bryson and Samuelsson will be 4 of our 7 next year. Some will occasionally play on their off-side. Maybe someone shows he’s good at it. It will be the summer of 2023 at the earliest before we have to make a decision based on crowd control.

Wait, are you saying the numbers aren’t really that bad because both starting goalies and the 1C have been out pretty much the whole year? 😳