In The Buff

A trade is still possible i suppose. Its no secret that Anaheim was heavily interested in Faulk prior to him being traded to St Louis & that Risto would fill a need for them. They're probably 1 of the few teams left that were looking for a RHD that i know of. Idk what would come back tho. Nick Ritchie has been on the outs there & is a former 1st rd pick (which we seem to like to stack up on) but is a LW. Adam Henrique would fill a need on our end & is signed thru 2023. But that in itself could be a negative since by then if everything works out we'll be fine with Mitts & Cozens. But he'd be the only one there i could see helping us now. And even then its questionable/doubtful Anaheim would move him. I thought for sure Risto would be moved out months ago. Now i think its doubtful. If at all it'll be weeks from now when some of our guys come back.

I think for a lot of us the 2C issue is frustrating because #1 it was a self inflicted wound. But #2 it clearly was a need last year & its again this year. And if we're looking at Mitts or Cozens being another year or 2 away from making an impact, you're talking about 3 or 4 seasons of having a glaring need on your team without it being fully addressed. Perhaps thats the plan, moving Mojo around, Mitts, Erod, etc like you guys have suggested. But 3 or 4 seasons of more or less the status quo in that regard is a tough pill to stomach. For a team & a franchise thats been waiting so long as it is.

Can't believe you're actually comparing Reinhart to Ville Leino & making the point that Leino is/was more successful at C than he was. That 1 season was clearly an aberration, not just in the NHL but all the way down to Juniors he only had 2 other good years, 7 years apart. Reinhart was/is 1000% more productive in Juniors & the NHL than Leino was. I can't see faceoff stats from back in Juniors when Reinhart played center, but if he had a Briere & was centering that line, i think its pretty safe to say he wouldve been much more successful than Leino was, so that comparison is just folly. Just saying

Leino? Aka the player whose name should be banned here for all eternity? Or did you mean Reino as in Reinhart? Because if u meant Leino how far back in his youth are we talking about? When he was in Junior A-1 U20 back in Finland? Im guessing (hoping) you meant Reinhart lol

Well thats why i wrote in my question: 'are we just looking to see more of our young guys play". Because that for sure would make sense, hence why i suggested it as being a possible reason lol. But like Brawndo wrote, its not about concussions bcuz others that have had them are playing. Then he said its because we expect more out of Mojo than Okposo & thats why he's not playing. But that seems wrong as well. Could be nothing to it but with Mojo being a fresh addition to our team, you'd think he'd be in there to get some chemistry with his new club. That would be a pretty obvious thing to do right, in preseason? I suppose if he's not in there for this next game it'll be more of a question as to why he's not in there. Risto too

Possible, but doesnt Okposo though too? If that was the case, wouldnt we sit Kyle too?

Idk if its been talked about here tonight, but any guesses as to why Johansson & Risto havent played the last 2 games? Are we just looking to see more of our young guys play, or do you think theres a larger reason? I know its led some people to suggest a trade might be in the works ?

Fwiw: Nylander, acquired in a trade with the Buffalo Sabres for defenseman Henri Jokiharju on July 9, had a goal and an assist and was one of the best players on the ice for the Blackhawks in a 4-3 loss to the Washington Capitals. Jokiharju has played well for the Sabres too, so its looking like a win - win for both clubs with that trade. Although if i were being honest, i wish Nylander had gone scoreless ? Not to say i dont wish him well, but if he turns into a 70 point producer on the Hawks i'll be filled with envy & disgust that it didnt happen when he was here with us!

Well for a preseason game i imagine theres a lot the team can take out of it & learn from & also build off of. Lots of positives & some negatives for sure. Goaltending is gonna be a big question mark that hopefully improves from this game & last year. Whats the deal with the broadcast goal screens tho? Does anyone actually think this looks good?

So i was texting my friend telling him how good we've looked so far & he asks: 'are all of Pittsburgh's starters playing?" Brought me back down to earth just like that ? I know we don't have Risto out there, but Crosby & Malkin is a big part of their offense not playing. I wish they were out there so it'd be more of a test

I was watching it on sabres.com but i switched to a site i used last year from reddit. Picture quality is 720p vs the 480p i was getting on nhl.com/sabres I hate how on the official site they dont allow u to change the quality

Try a different browser, could help

ha that narrowed it down to Asplund, Olofsson, & Oglevie. If i had to bet i'd pick Asplund out of the bunch thanks guys ?

Just turned the stream on & saw we're up 1-0. Any idea who scored for us?

420p? Looks more like 160p to me lol You see video game tournaments streamed in 1080p with no exceptions. Why they don't at least do 720p for an NHL Prospects Tourney is beyond me. Only thing negative about a 3-0 Sabres lead at the end of the 1st. These guys looked good, scary good :P

20k? Dayum, I was hoping it'd be a lot more! At least in the millions ? I agree, 2020 is gonna be a great offseason for us. We'll have our core in place, our young prospects will have another year of seasoning & a few of the bad contracts or players will be gone with a bunch of cap space for Botts to play with. We'll have the opportunity to really upgrade our roster. Which in turn should let us field the best roster we've had here in many years. It's just funny because here we are saying again: 'the following year we'll be better'. Seems every year my friends laugh at me for saying that again & again about the Bills & Sabres. "Next year guys, next year." But it really is true in this case. Compete for the playoffs this year. Compete for the Cup next one!

Stanley Cup here we come boys!

I'm not really sold on the names they mentioned to bring in per se, more on the names mentioned to move out. Getting rid of Scandy & Hunwick would open up im guessing $5-7 mil & with that we could bring in a solid player back imo. I'm not an analytics nut but i do see their value & i dont think we'd really miss those 2 guys if they werent here. I don't think Claesson or Read are the answer, but based on their analytics in comparison to those 2, you'd arguably get the same or better results from someone other than those 2 guys for a fraction of the cost. Just an interesting idea imo, if we're not gonna seriously upgrade the position with a longer term solution. I agree just like everyone here that we need a 2c/3c, as well as some RW depth. And i've heard Boyle's name mentioned for months now & he'd come cheap & could help. Perhaps Jbots is waiting for his Risto trade & thats why we havent seen Boyle brought in. Or perhaps he's just not interested in him or vice versa. I do find it curious as to why we havent brought him in by now. Since we havent im inclined to think it wont happen. The names you mentioned I'd say no thanks to as well. Other than the last 3 they're generally the same type of players Claesson or Read are but at different positions. Grantue i havent looked at their analytics to compare, thats just too much work tbh. Lindberg or Aberg would probably be the only ones i might consider. Lindberg being the only one with any faceoff experience & Aberg for putting up a modest amount of goals in the past. It just seems like Botts is in a holding pattern til other things he's working behind the scenes materialize or not. But hey at least you had some other Sabres content to read today. Such a critical offseason & i'm always starving for more content this time of year ?

Hey guys, i came across this article today & thought i'd post it here for any of those who might find it interesting. It is a long offseason so if you're like me anything Sabres related is worth a look. Some interesting comments on Sobokta & Scandella & Hunwick & possible PTO targets for JBotts to pursue. The last PTO we made was signing Cody Goloubef back in 2017. Anyone know who that is? I don't haha. While that didn't quite make an impact, i gotta say the writer made some good suggestions that could & they won't break the bank either. Happy reading! https://thehockeywriters.com/sabres-pto-targets-2019/

We haven't made him to be one. It's that he was one, prior to the coaching change in Chicago where Coach Q left & Colliton came in. He was playing 20-25 minutes a night with Duncan Keith & then almost immediately after the coaching change had his ice time diminish. So 1 coach felt he was good enough to play with Keith, the other didnt. One is Joel Quenneville, the other Jeremy Colliton. Who should we believe had a better handle on who Jokiharju was as a player? Not surprising that lots of fans are hoping Coach Q's evaluation was the right one, especially given his experience & success as a head coach. But fans here aren't just making him out to be a top 4 dman from thin air. There is good reason to hope he can be that in the future, as always time will tell.

Yep. I like the addition of Johansson but thats kind of what i was thinking myself. Canes got a great deal there. Really hope Mojo stays healthy, otherwise i'll look back to this & get even more depressed lol.

Good writeups today. I appreciate all the time & detail in your posts & i largely agree with everything you said. With the exception of pairing Risto with Dahlin. I think our D pairings require balance & with that i think you want to have Dahlin paired with a solid defensive minded player who can cover for him. You'd want to give Dahlin the freedom to take his offensive chances since thats where he dazzles. If they were together I wouldn't want Dahlin to curtail his offensive game for the sake of covering for Risto, since Risto is known for being out of position & being overzealous (in a good way imo) with checking the opposition & taking chances of his own. I'd much rather see Montour up there or Bogo if he were healthy or even McCabe although i dont see McCabe as a 1st pairing obviously. Maybe 1 day Borgen or Johnson can play with Dahlin. But while having Dahlin & Risto together sounds appealing, across the league from what i've seen the best pairings are those that have balance. Besides from what i already stated, putting Risto on the 2nd pair may help Risto's game as well. Playing less minutes against easier competition (for lack of a better word), may be just what the doctor ordered with his game. And would give our pairings (hate to say it again), more balance down the lineup for that 1, 2 punch. Regardless its fun to think about how everything will fit together as in years past it felt like we were playing 3 card Monte with trying to find something that would work. We now have some actual NHL'ers on our roster & its gonna be interesting to see with HCRK does with them.

Or he's got balls, balls that now John Scott will never forget what they smell like.

I've heard Brian Boyle's name being mentioned lately. Perhaps thats Bott's answer for help down the middle