dudacek

You speak of the first bolded like it is a switch that can just be turned on, and of the 2nd bolded as if the plan isn’t obvious. Management has consistently preached an identity: play fast, be fearless, don’t quit. And a plan: form a young core that cares for each other and grows and develops together into something that can be good long term. They haven’t deviated from that and by and large the players seem to be bought in. The plan is to build a deep centre spine featuring three of Krebs, Cozens, Mittelstadt and Thompson and 2 strong defence pairs anchored by Power and Dahlin. Short-term they will be supported on the wings by Tuch, Olofsson, Skinner, Okposo, Asplund and Girgensons, supplemented and/or replaced by Quinn, Peterka, Rosen, Poltapov and one of the guys currently listed at centre, with Bryson, Jokiharju, Samuelsson and Johnson providing similar support now and for the future on defence. In goal, they think UPL can be the guy, and they have Levi and Portillo as insurance. They know they can’t count on all those guys to hit, so they have covered their bases with 4 1sts and 4 2nds over the next two drafts, including at least 1 more top 10 pick. And they have maximized the amount of cap space they have available over the next few years so they have the ability to lock up the hits, replace the misses, and acquire pieces to fill in the gaps. They have also overhauled their scouting, development and analytics teams in order to make sure they get the most out of their assets. You complain about the constant changing of plans yet you seem ready to toss this one out before it is even a half-season deep, or most of its major components have yet to hit their 22nd birthday. You might not like it, but there absolutely is a plan. It’s going to take at least 2 or 3 years to get any sense of whether it is a good plan, or if Adams has the chops to pull it off, or if Terry has the patience to let him.

Nothing on JJ? He missed a number of shifts on either side of the intermission, came back for one, and disappeared for the rest of the night.

This whole conversation started because I said that we are a better team than our record shows. That's all. Loosely speaking, there are three levels of NHL players: Elite players who can drive play and need to be accounted for every shift. Solid players who can play with, or hold their own against the above. Role players capable of helping in limited situations. Of course they need to add better players to the ones that compiled this record. The difference between us seems to be that I see upgrades in the system. I count Power, Tuch and Mittelstadt among those players because i see them as 2nd-level players who have not played for us this year and will be replacing 3rd-level players. I have my fingers crossed UPL is not a mirage and can also be a 2nd-level player who will be replacing a 3rd-level player, or worse I don't think it is unreasonable to think some of Krebs, Quinn, Peterka and Samuelsson can upgrade the JAGs on our 3rd level. These players have not been on the team that has compiled our current record, I stand by them being enough to make us a better team. Why you seem to be reading that as me thinking that bringing them in is all that needs to be done I'm not sure.

Never mind the injuries, never mind the kids who aren't here yet. We have had NHL goaltending (from an unproven prospect and a past-his-prime veteran) for exactly 14 games. In those games, we are 6/6/2.

I don't know what you've been watching if you aren't seeing a significant drop-off when Prow is in for Bryson or Dell for Anderson, or an obvious boost when Jokiharju came in for Butcher or Tuch for Bjork. Interchangeable is Bjork for Caggiula

I don't know why you keep coming back to this. All teams deal with injury troubles. Most teams do not have multiple key players hurt the entire year. It's not the same thing.

What about Mittelstadt and Tuch scoring 40 instead of Murray and Eakin's 15? What about Luukkonen's .915 SP over Tokarksi's .900? Krebs, Quinn and Peterka's talent in depth roles, or more over Bjork, Hayden and Jankowski? Samuelsson's physicality over Butcher's butchering? Cozens? Dahlin? I see so many opportunities for in-house improvement.

@Thorny, what you aren't acknowledging is that I'm not talking about 2 players right now, I'm talking about 10 players next year. And those players have not been missing a handful of games. With the exception of Jokiharju's 1/2-season, they've been absent virtually the entire season. I did a quick scan of the division and found 2 teams with key players missing for the majority of the season: Kucherov and Price. One team has collapsed, the other is the Stanley Cup champ. Boston and Toronto can't get their "two players of choice" back the same way the Sabres would because they haven't been missing them the same way. If your argument is we will be a better team with those 10 players in the lineup but not enough to be anything more than the bottom 5 team we are now, that's a fair argument. I disagree, but I understand it. I think there is an avenue of improvement by plugging the majority of those 10 players into the majority of next year's games. Some won't be upgrades over the guys they replace, some might be 10 per cent upgrades. An average of 2 per cent per player over 10 players, to my mind, could add up to a significant improvement.

I disagree. There is a huge gap between Mittelstadt and Eakin, Tuch and Murray, Jokiharju and Fitzgerald and Anderson and Dell. Also, when you have 10 'real' NHLers, losing 4 or 5 of them affects you more than when you have 16 or 18.

What teams have been without 3 of their projected 1st-liners virtually the entire year, a 4th for half the year, and has had a 5th obviously limited for most of the year by injury?

Did I mention COVID? I'd be surprised if there are 5 teams that have a group of players coming as good as the 6 I cited. We don't have any idea on the impact of the rookies. Craig Anderson has a .922 SV%. We spent 6 weeks after he went down with Tokarksi's .903, Subban's .876 and Dell's .872. Is that enough context? Was Casey Mittelstadt projected to be the team's #1 centre this year, or not? Do you not think upgrading 10 players is significant talent boost? Mitts > Eakin Tuch > Murray Jokiharju > Fitzgerald Anderson > Subban Luukkonen > Dell Power > Butcher Samuelsson > Prow Krebs > Jankowski Quinn > Hayden Peterka > Bjork We both agree the Sabres aren't good now, we should agree there are better players coming. What exactly are you arguing?

I'm not making excuses or suggesting the following players are lifesavers, but we haven't seen anything close to next year's roster together in Buffalo this year: The Sabres have played 34 games Luukkonen 8 Anderson 6 Jokiharju 18 Tuch 3 Mittelstadt 4 Power 0 Samuelsson 0 Krebs 3 Quinn 0 Peterka 2 We've been missing our projected 1G, 1C, 1RW, and 1RD for most of the year, as well as watching our 1LW struggle with an injury that has robbed him of his shot. And we've got 5 prospects who are tearing it up at lower levels and look very close. We have more talent than we've seen.

Prow may have had the worst 4 shifts to start a game by a Sabre D since MA Gragnani, and Donnie was not happy. No surprise there. Murray is interesting. Is this just to help the Amerks out over the weekend, or is it more permanent with a many as 5 fresh forwards (Krebs, Tuch, Bjork, Okposo, Caggiula) available for Tuesday's game? Murray wasn't good last night and seemed to be a prime example of the hesitancy Donnie was so upset with.

Who do you want, Schuldt? As of yesterday, Samuelsson and Davidson were still out.

Kaese (with a K) is my age and is from my part of the world. Next high school over. I remember thinking it was a such a huge deal when I was teen and he got drafted by the Sabres. Ended up building and operating a golf course not 10 minutes from where I grew up.

A fantastic effort tonight, squandered in a mediocre Sabre performance, and virtually unnoticed by a jaded fan base. Donnie at least appreciated what he brought, and has been bringing. https://www.nhl.com/sabres/news/buffalo-sabres-san-jose-sharks-recap-highlights-rasmus-dahling/c-329539882

I don’t think the perception many have that Dahlin is soft, stupid and lacking passion is anything close to being correct.

Nick Ritchie is slow, lazy and not that smart. Not a player I have any interest in.

Yes, I saw that. I am sure that Morreale's report is exactly what Michigan told him. It is entirely possible that none of these reports are contradictory. A) A source from Power's camp told Friedman that Power will go if they want him B) A source from Hockey Canada told Friedman that they want him. C) Power and Michigan have talked about whether or not he can go D) Hockey Canada has not asked Power to go yet, but intends to and expects to, and that he will say yes. It is also possible that Friedman's information is more up-to-date on the situation than Morreale's or that Friedman is making things up. We will find out soon.

No, Dreger and Wheeler did. And they specified that it was the long list of players Team Canada was considering as opposed to players who were going. Not aimed at you specifically, and not forgiving shoddy reporting, but I think part of the issue people have with media is the telephone game that occurs after something gets reported. Friedman’s exact quote for reference check when the future announcement comes down. ”After the Channel One Cup in Russia last month, Canadians Jason Demers and Eric Fehr signed KHL contracts. So assume they will be part of the Olympic team if they wish. Include those on AHL-only contracts like Devan Dubnyk, Cody Franson and Josh Ho-Sang. There is some question about whether or not players on two-way deals will be allowed to go. Others to watch: I’m betting a request goes out for Mason McTavish to gauge his interest. Same for Eric Staal and Cole Perfetti. I wondered about Patrick Marleau, but have heard he is not on the long list as a possibility. Owen Power is going.” https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/article/32-thoughts-nhl-faces-tight-scheduling-finish-season-time/ And the Athletic: Owen Power will join Team Canada's Olympic men's hockey team for the upcoming games in Beijing, China, The Athletic's Corey Pronman has confirmed. Power is the first name announced to Team Canada's roster since the NHL said it would be pulling out of the Olympics on Dec. 22 https://theathletic.com/news/owen-power-to-join-canadas-olympic-team-cole-perfetti-eric-staal-among-those-on-long-list-source/dNZEmWE0Buvw/

I thought the Amerks looked bad and Quinn was worse. Frustrating game. The fight was the product of Quinn targeted all game. Whacked and pushed and scraped from every faceoff even before the puck was dropped. Glad he didn’t back down from it. Disappointed no one made the Crunch back off 2 periods earlier.

Bryson was apparently “back in the building” today but not expected to play tomorrow, according to Marty and Duffer on the radio today. They also said Samuelsson and Malone in the minors are not yet cleared to return. Once a a player has been released from COVID protocol he won’t be returned for a minimum of 90 days. Tokarski, Cozens, Skinner, Jankowski, Girgensons and Hinostroza have all cleared, although Tokarski isn’t officially cleared to play.

Bryson went on Dec. 29 Fitzgerald and Okposo on Monday Tuch, Bjork and Krebs Yesterday Minimum of 5 day stay

Friedman and Pronman both reported he is going, no caveat.

I would say Nylander is the antithesis of a Brian Burke type player. And that sarcasm on the internet is generally a bad idea.