DarthEbriate

Barnes for Barnaby and Wilson for Warrener (and the pick that became Miller but that was years from becoming anything). Getting Barnes and Warrener for a 4th liner and a 3rd pairing D was fantastic for that '99 run.

He was a pupil of mine Tuuka and Essensa before he turned to evil (and Calgary).

7/12 - Today's puckdoku.com features the Sabres. Leveraging @Zamboni's thread title. I've got Chris Butler, the big-helmet version of Cory Conacher, and Maxim's magical season (whoa on the last one! That was too close.)

To me, a top 10 player at their position in the league is someone I'm not worried about icing in either zone with 0:50 remaining and either up or trailing by 1 and having a good feeling about tying it or keeping my net empty. It's like a top-10 QB in the NFL... you're down by 3 and just got the ball on your 25 yard line and you've got 1 time out and 0:50 on the clock. A top-10 QB you feel good about tying the game and possibly winning in regulation. Other QBs need to get really lucky or you're just praying it isn't a game sealing INT or strip sack. Tage is on my Center Council, but I don't yet grant him the rank of Master. Tage has has only 2 NHL seasons at center (after 4 seasons on the wing). His potential is sky high. He can still take his sound defensive positioning and elevate it into suffocating defense where his reach is deflecting everything, forcing poorer shot angles, and his strength is dominating puck battles to get the puck out of the D-zone. Offensively, yes, he's very, very good. I think he can be a lock in the top 10 by the end of the 2023-24 postseason if he keeps progressing.

Someone took the Immaculate Grid concept from MLB and built an NHL version called puckdoku. puckdoku.com My Sabres line for today's game was Heinze-Satan-Myers. Everybody picked Myers.

Overall a good showing by all involved. @Flashsabre just beat me to calling out that they did scratch an entire Team Hasek as a reward for extended postseasons. That led to a lot of kids getting tons of touches and also looking pretty gassed at times. All these guys would've looked like puck possession studs out there today: Kozak, Kulich, Rosen, Savoie (the Matthew pronunciation), Weissbach, Komarov, and Metsa. Leinonen has now missed both Dev Camps with injury so it's difficult to get excited about him. Ratzlaff looked very good after overplaying the first shot of the tourney. But we didn't get to see a Levi v. Portillo Event like last year to get the excitement going.

But I exited the game without saving so I knew what combination of 27 trades were required to turn VO and UPL and a couple 1sts into Hellebuyck and Bedard.

I'd rather send Levi down to Rochester and roll with UPL and Comrie again than to acquire Gibson for 4 years of continued downward spiral until a buyout. I agree that the best goalie is going to get shelled on very bad teams, but to bring it local: Ullmark had the best numbers on a couple bad Sabres squads. You could see he was the best option even if the occasional Houser came along and had a great game. With Gibson it's constant. The last time he led his team in sv% was 2016-17 (7 seasons ago!) when they were a very good 1st place team with a very sturdy d-corps. Ryan Miller wasn't even on the Ducks yet. And technically, Gibson wasn't the leader that season because our very own Dustin Tokarski had a 5-save appearance and ended the season with 1.00sv% and 0.0 GAA in 10 minutes of game time.

Yeah... I think you're right. It's a good signing for the Amerks. His $475k AHL guarantee should get him to clear waivers at the beginning of the season, but like Fitz last year, if a team has some injuries and knows they're playoff bound, he won't likely clear later in the season.

Gah, no so good news.

I'd have to do some research to check it out, but I also recall the first 2/3 of the season he was obstinate sticking with the starter. But then Granato did start pulling the goalie when necessary as well as taking timeouts. I don't know the game, but he took a timeout and the Sabres responded well by settling down and scoring a goal (they ultimately lost the game anyway). If Granato continues his own progress early this season... maybe they do scratch back to win a game (or get a point or two) in the couple games the starter doesn't have it.

The guy I hope does really well this week is Leinonen. For his and all ours sake.

Granato learned how to take timeouts and how to pull his goalie as the season wore on. I'm not sure you could ever quantify getting points in the standing back by swapping your goalie earlier. Usually you get shelled for 3 before you even consider a goalie change. Even with the Sabres potent offense, you're not going to win every game in which you give up 3 or 4 goals.

I think VO could very easily be a Sabre through February and get moved to a Western team needing scoring for a playoff push at the deadline (as Quinn will be back). And in the meantime, you simply rely on Greenway and Clifton being in the lineup, plus everyone's general increase in defensive acumen by being older and more aware of it.

There's still a good chance they trade UPL. But he showed some poise last season, particularly early. He stayed vertical instead of leaning forward. With better defensive structure around him, he might benefit quite well from simply being big and being consistent in his positioning. He doesn't need to steal games like Levi will, but he just can't blow the games where the offense is doing just fine. I think they waive Comrie and roll with the kids. If UPL can just be good-backup level and hit .900+ for 34 games, that's probably enough for Levi to handle the rest of the season. But if the Sabres do roll these 2 kids... I think they'll fade down the stretch, rather than ramp it up as the season progresses. Edit: Which means you're looking to pick up the veteran goalie to make a playoff run.

The team will play better defense as a unit this season. Greenway in the lineup for Olofsson (unless VO remains to cover for Quinn and PP time) and swapping Bryson's games out for Clifton. With everyone else gaining a year of knowledge, cohesion, and the realization that offense-only will only get you through January. But yes... there's no Craig Anderson security blanket. If UPL doesn't take a good step forward and Levi gets injured for any amount of time... we're picking top 12 again. And that will feel like a failure (even if 2024-25 is a meteoric NJD 22-23 rise).

I doubt it. His cap hit is $863k, there's very little financial savings to put him on LTIR. Plus, you want him back during the regular season and getting back into his groove before the playoffs. Unlike with Stone, where you can give him his surgery in-season and know that the recovery timeline meshes nicely with him coming back rested and ready (and practicing for a month) come playoff time on a prove player; with Quinn you want him working off all the rust in March and April.

You could do a trade, but I envision this after camp: Samuelsson - Dahlin (2 LHD) Power - Clifton Lyubushkin - Jokiharju (2 RHD) Stillman - E.Johnson ROC: R.Johnson - Prow Bryson - Cecconi Novikov - Metsa (AHL) Davies, Jandric (AHL), Savoie (AHL)

I think it definitely gives them a boost the next 2 seasons. Wil that be enough against Toronto, Florida, Tampa, Buffalo, and Ottawa? And Boston if Bergeron/Krejci come back? Beyond that, I think it could easily become a detriment and quickly.

Dubas' moves say he was brought in and told, "You will not rebuild. Make a run with Crosby/Malkin/Letang." He's going to crash and burn it and get fired when they finally do concede to rebuild. They say it's quite a thing to see. We can all get our popcorn to watch.

Copp is a good 3C. Compher is a good 3C. Larkin is a low-end 1C/very good 2C. If you get each of them playing at the level of a 2C, then you're in good shape. That's like the Sabres rolling something like Peca-Brown-Barnes at center. Kasper waiting in the background... That's not bad. But... to have those 3 all signed forever at $20M? That's... that's probably going to turn out pretty bad. Or at least pretty buyout-y.

I do hope this doesn't stop them from bringing back Malone. As long as his legs are still functional.

Seriously... Houser is the Sabres best goalie of the past 5 seasons. Still no love for him. And, yes, I checked. No relation to Logan Cooley, the Golden Gopher who is very much not signing with the Arizona semi-pro franchise anytime soon.

One on the one hand I get what Pittsburgh is doing. Crosby and Malkin and Letang are all around for a few more years so go out and bolster with Reilly Smith and Graves and such. On the other hand, do they not see the writing and injuries on the wall? Anyhoo, they didn't make the playoffs last season and they're not going to this year. Hey Pittsburgh. Your time has passed; this decade is our decade. So you should give us all of your drugs.

With McLeod and other better FO/PK specialists available, I don't know that this makes a ton of sense. Jost has familiarity with the team and wants to be here, yes. And he is a center if horrid on faceoffs. I think a 3C/W could have been found that better fit the team's needs. All that said, this is a guy who has the skill and speed to move up the lineup for a short time (Quinn/Skinner). He's got useful flexibility, if not a dominant skill, particularly in an area they need.