dudacek

Looks like he’s good enough, and physically ready. He needs to be playing significant minutes and situations, not watching Metsa and Komarov. I’m trepidatious, but I trust Leone more than anyone else on staff.

Interesting. Using this one for a look at radically different forward lines. Minor thing that shouldn’t affect opening night, according to Ruff

Another guy who people need to think about what he was at 22.

Just another reason that this season has a real house of cards feel

I thought overall a lot of the vets looked flat and the PK made Wilkes-Barre look like an NHL team. But being preseason, I was mostly interested in what the new guys did. Georgiev scares me. He looked like he’s thinking more about where his body parts should be than stopping the puck, if that makes any sense? Focused on process as opposed to the game. Mrtka showed his age. His size and skill belongs, and his engagement seems excellent, but his ability to keep up mentally has declined as the speed of the game has increased toward NHL levels. Timmins looked blandly competent. I think he’ll be a better 6 than Clifton, at least for this group. I liked Johnson. Always loved his feet, but his battle was noticeably above his peers. He might be earning his shot. If one of the 6 is injured, playing Bryson ahead of him at this juncture makes no sense to me. Kesselring’s a player. He wants to make a difference and he can. Geertsen can keep up, which is important in his role. Don’t see anything else there yet so I hope he can actually chuck ‘em. Not sure what else he brings, but Danforth seems like a tough little bastard for his size. Looked to me like Doan got benched for the shift after his early penalty. He hunts pucks, locks into his man on the backcheck and moves the puck smartly. Type of guy you like on your line. Norris isn’t really a perimeter guy but he’s kinda flowing through the cracks all the time, more purpose than passion maybe? Got some smarts and some skill. He seems a lot more competent than Cozens.

I was surprised to read they were over 22% after Christmas. Also surprised that they are 4 for 17 in the preseason.

Byram back. Lindy says Samuelsson is feeling good and may be back tomorrow. Power and Benson are close as well and Lindy is clearly expecting them opening net. Greenway on track to resume practice next week. UPL and Kesselring TBD. They are the question marks.

Jeff Skinner might be available. All joking aside, Terry Pegula gave Skinner 8x$9M coming off a 63-point season. That was 11% of the cap at the time. You guys don’t need me to do the math of 11% of a $104M cap. Interesting perspective there.

Seth Appert talks about how he reworked the power play, with the help of Sam Ventura https://www.nhl.com/sabres/news/buffalo-sabres-training-camp-power-play-seth-appert

To be blunt, I don’t think you understand. I was supporting your point, not debating it.

In 2006, Hank Tallinder had 43 hits, Teppo Numminen had 10. The following year Teppo had 37 and Hank 26 (in 47 games) Nick Lidstrom routinely put up 40-something hits a year. Teams need physical defencemen, but idea you need to be physical to play good defence is utter fallacy. Owen Power doesn’t need to punish anybody, he needs to use that reach, those feet and that vision to kill plays.

The Athletics model and the JFresh model both had Peterka in the bottom 10 percent of the league in defence. (Hope I got that right from memory). By my eye test he was no where near Cozens and Quinn in terms of coughing the puck up, but defence in terms of killing plays he didn’t. He was on the ice for more goals against than any Sabres forward and all but 12 other NHL forwards. 77 as opposed to 44 for Benson. And yes he got 2 1/2 minutes more ice time, but those are significant numbers. Hes really good at offence.

Im not trying to minimize Peterka, I just respect Benson’s game so much more as a complement to Tage when it comes to winning hockey. Getting the puck back and keeping it in the offensive end matters.

I think it’s about matchups McLeod Tuch and Zucker you can safely play against top lines, Quinn Kulich and Doan you can’t. Switch Zucker and Quinn and neither looks great against top lines. But I’m good thinking Quinn Kulich and Doan can outplay most 3rd lines.

With the usual “it’s preseason” caveats, I’m curious about our first look at whether or not we have 3 lines this year. As a Benson truther and someone who thinks Tage might have a career year, I feel pretty good about the 1st line but there’s certainly projection there. Tuch McLeod Zucker feels like it might be a safe line 2, but the question remains about how real the latter two were last season. Quinn Doan and Kulich is an intriguing but unproven mix as 3rd line. Sure would nice if we can roll them over

Still do. His name is Mike Ansell. https://www.nhl.com/sabres/team/staff He’s one of 12 coaches employed by the Sabres.

The PDOcast (excellent hockey nerd pod) raving over Benson this morning in their annual preseason “Our Guys” edition, which is basically their take on players poised to show the hockey world how good they are. Fantastic quote on Benson’s size and points production as a teenager leading to terribly superficial and poorly informed hockey takes about his ability. ”It’s like catnip for the guys with the worst takes on hockey you know.” They call Bensons game an “endless loop of winning battles…and making good things happen out of thin air.” I’ve rarely heard such a gushing take on a Sabre player anywhere, let alone from national analysts. Filipovic says his skill set is “made in a lab” to complement a guy like Thompson, with his ability to defend, and get the puck to high-danger areas. Drance called him the most obvious breakout candidate in the NHL.

Taken same year as Power, who got 7x$8.3M Hughes has 93 points in 155 career games, -34 with 44 hits and a 54% shot share Power has 111 points in 242 career games, +8 with 99 hits and a 52% shot share

The Bruins are very much leaning into this. They know they don't have enough skill, so they're trying to forge a path with brawn and defence.

Nope. Only starts if he plays his 9 games in the NHL.

Yep. Somebody posted the team has no depth at the same time people are arguing about how their #10(!) needs to be playing. Questionable as he may be, not many teams missing their #2, #3, and #5 are dressing 6 players better than Bryson

Yes more empty threats and pointing at players safely in the penalty box with two linsemen in between

He's 24 and got beaten out by Mark Jankowski. He was picked in the same draft as Krebs and has played 2 NHL games total. The grass ain't always greener.

I'm surprised no one has brought up the question of: "was camp too hard?" 😜

Recent big UFA deals: Rantanen 8X$12M* Marner 8x$12M* Ehlers 6X$8.5M Bennett 8X$8M* Rough Tuch comparables signed over the past few years under the flat cap: Guentzal 7X$9M* Meier 8x$8.8M Konecny 8x$8.75M Reinhart 8x$8.6M* Stamkos 4x$8M* Buchnevich 6x$8M (*palm tree no-tax contracts) With all the unspent cap in the league.I think Tuch's got a good case for arguing he can get $10M if he goes to UFA next summer. Do people realize there are 17 teams (not Buffalo) that have at least $30M in cap space next summer? Hell, there are seven teams who could add a $10M player to their roster right now. Eichel and McDavid probably aren't going to get to market, so that would put Alex at the top of the pile with Conner, Kempe, Necas and Panarin. Supply and demand, baby.