dudacek

Not sure if anyone looked “good” but Dahlin and Mitts look skilled. Tage did Tage things, one several players who flashed good and not-so-good elements. Thought Hagg showed some potential as a 3rd pair match for Miller, but Butcher looked shakey. Overall decent effort but not a lot of cohesion.

Allen getting some help from his receivers today, eh @SwampD? Knox and Sanders with terrific catches for TDs.

Many of you have said it: somebody is going to have to step up into that hole and produce some offence for Buffalo. R2 is at the right stage of his development and has the right skillset to be my best bet to capitalize. I can't pick him as our leading scorer, but I think he will be one of them.

I love Cozens and have no doubt that he will be good NHLer for a long time. I am really worried about his coming season. The Sabres desperately need someone to step up as a leader up front. Cozens desperately wants to be that someone. I saw nothing in his NHL game last season to show me he was any more ready for that role than Casey Mittelstadt was when ROR was traded and I am scared that combination of factors will lead to plenty of frustration and a similar result. The lack of insulation and support for Cozens is among Kevyn Adams most questionable moves this summer. Dylan is a talent though, and has pro habits at 20 that Casey did not, which gives me some hope he will overcome.

I think Samuelsson is another player the organization is more high on than the fans are. (Although I am happy to see fan support growing). I think the brass entered camp hoping he was going to make the big team and was prepared to give him every opportunity to do so. I agree that his injury complicates things and may mean he starts in Rochester. He will be a full-time Sabre this year though, sooner, rather than later.

The way Rochester is constructed combined with the organizational philosophy of no blocking, there is almost no way that Quinn won't play in the top six in Rochester from day one. And he's already proven capable of being that 30-40 point guy at that level despite his hernia. So I am going with option two. I also think that the team — contrary to some fans — has left the door open for him to make the NHL roster in training camp, but he will have to earn it. He is one of the players who will be watched most closely in camp. They like him a lot more than you do.

Very happy to see that early in training camp Eakin has been skating with the players who are on the outside looking in.

Sorry if this isn't political enough for this thread, but setting aside the obvious political elements of anthems and Dougie's gesture for a moment, I like them for the theatre. They bring the crowd out of its distracted, mindless buzz and the players out of their pre-game ritual and bind the entire building together for a singular focus. One anthem works better for this than two, but I find those two minutes a great scene-setter that I'd hate to lose.

Small and undrafted, Ruotsalainen has done a pretty good job so far of crafting his career into one of those great underdog stories He scored one point in 34 games as a 19-year-old in SM-liiga, the Finnish elite league. Two years later, his improved play earned him a free agent contract with the Sabres. Two years after that he was in the NHL. Short and not particularly fast, Ruotsalainen is a competitive fireplug who combines hockey sense and body positioning to overcome those shortcomings and spices up the mix with a deadly shot. The Sabres have moved him back to his usual centre position this year after he broke in last year as a winger. https://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=186152 The pandemic season went about as well as could have been expected for R2. He spent the early part leading the Finnish league in scoring, transferred to Rochester where he put up a point per game as a rookie in the 2nd best league in North America, and finished it with a regular shift on the big club in Buffalo. What do you expect from Ruotsalainen this season?

As the losses continue to mount, the hype surrounding the Sabres recent top picks has faded. Dylan Cozens is the exception. Fast, hard-working, physical and fearless, "the Workhorse from Whitehorse" — who slipped out of the top 5 to the Sabres at #7 in 2019 — embodies many of the qualities the fan base is desperately thirsting for. His development curve has pointed straight up as his production increased over three straight WHL seasons and two World Junior championships. His mix of talent, speed, size and effort have earned him universal praise as a sure-fire NHLer, leaving only the question of "how good?" https://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=197770 Cozens blew the doors off the World Junior championships last year with the fifth-most productive tournament in Team Canada history, one point behind Gretzky and Lindros, and graduated directly to the Sabres. Despite earning plaudits for his effort, he hit a wall with the big club, scoring just one goal over his final 29 games, and finishing the season with zero points and a -9 over his final 8 games. What do you expect from Cozens this season?

An American despite the name, Mattias is the son of long-time NHLer Kjell Samuelsson. The Sabres picked him with the 1st pick of the 2nd round in 2018, 32nd overall as a big, stay-at-home shutdown bookend to their flashy first pick Rasmus Dahlin. Samuelsson has been a darling of USA Hockey, serving as the go-to tough-matchup defenceman for his cohort and captain of both the U18 and U20 world championships squads. https://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=196144 Standing 6'4" and weighing in at nearly 230 pounds, he made a smooth jump from college to Rochester last year, easily stepping into their top 4 and scoring at over a 40-point pace. He finished the year as a regular in Buffalo. What do you expect from Samuelsson this season?

It's hard to recall a Sabres 1st-rounder, let alone a top 10 pick, being dismissed as quickly by the Sabres fanbase as Quinn has been. Despite being a two-way play driver and the highest goal-scorer available in the entire 2020 draft, Quinn was not a centre, and was not as hyped as 2 or 3 centres still on the board when it came time for the Sabres to pick at #8 overall. The Sabres Twitterverse erupted in anger when they passed on Marco Rossi to take him and the fire was stoked when players like Anton Lundell, Cole Perfetti and Seth Jarvis put up flashier numbers post-draft. Quinn is a multi-tool winger with decent size and skating and good athleticism, hands, vision and work ethic. https://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=208510 Quinn's development was truncated after the draft by the pandemic. He made one of the more stacked Team Canada WJC rosters in recent memory in a checking role, putting up respectable point totals and not being on the ice for an even-strength goal against. He then played as an under-ager in Rochester and was reportedly starting to come on after some early struggles, before being shelved due to surgery for a nagging hernia. The Sabres experimented with him at centre to end his season in Rochester, something that has carried over to training camp this year. What do you expect from Quinn this season?

I'm better meatballs

I’m looking forward to this season. I look to that old saying about it always being darkest before the dawn; this year is when we start seeing glimmers of the dawn.

So I take it that's a 'yes' to condescending?

Here? as in the post @Pimlach was quoting? It's in his post. In depth? I started a thread and made a whole bunch of posts I'm sure people are already tired of and I'm not going to repeat. Your post comes across as incredibly condescending to me. Please let me know if I'm reading it wrong.

Criticisms of Adams are not exonerations of Eichel, at least not from me. I hope that is not your perception of my position.

Not sure exactly what you are looking for, but lots of info in here, from yesterday and today:

I saw it on Twitter. One of the reporter's feeds. I think Lysowski?

Probably not. It could be something like a team gets to protect X number of prospects and you get your pick of the rest, I suppose. Wasn't really focused on the specifics, more just the value.

I think Skinner's greatest strength and his greatest weakness is his tendency to freelance. He can be a hard guy to build chemistry with because he's not predictable and he doesn't play give and go hockey. I think Cozens will get frustrated playing with him. R2 seems to me to be much more unflappable and structured in his game, much more likely to do the right thing regardless of what Jeff is up to and provide a stable platform that Jeff can bounce off. Also, his shot and Jeff's ability to rebound would seem to combine together offensively better than a Cozens or Mitts looking to set Jeff up to snipe only to find he's not where they expected him to be. I'm not as familiar with Hinostoza's game, but I do expect him to be pretty responsible defensively and use his speed to force the kind of turnovers Jeff can feast off of, while meshing well with R2's stability and providing more offence than guys like Lazar and Sheahan.

Basically what Weave said value-wise with conditionals to cover the boom or bust factor: A young player, a prospect or pick equivalent to a top 10-20 pick (Krebs, Turcotte, Zary) A prospect or pick equivalent to a late first/early second (Elvenes, Perreault) A cap equalizing veteran with some value on the ice, or as an asset to be flipped (Smith, Quick) A conditional prospect or pick equivalent to a top 10-20 pick for the Sabres if Jack comes back as Jack A conditional prospect or pick equivalent to a top 10-20 pick for the other team if Jack doesn't come back Net result would be something like Turcotte and Quick for Jack if he busts; Turcotte Quick, Kupari and a 1st if he booms; Turcotte, Quick and Kupari if he breaks even. It balances out the risk.

My preferred mix in terms of chemistry, in no particular order: Skinner Ruotsalainen Hinostroza Bjork Cozens Olofsson Asplund Mittelstadt Thompson Caggiula Girgensons Okposo Could flip Bjork and Hino, but what I like is each line has some speed, some responsibility and some finish (except the fourth), and they are all balanced. Probably the best thing there is no Eakin 😁

To clarify, that was me ordering the lines and they didn't all practice together. Two of them were on blue squad and two on gold.

Anyone want to talk about what's happening on the ice? Day one line combos: Skinner Cozens Olofsson Bjork Mittelstadt Thompson Caggiula Girgensons Okposo Asplund Ruotsalainen Hinostroza