DarthEbriate

Historically, he does bug/defect triage and works only the priority fix, rather than manage the entire deployment, which is his role. His product is under budget. But he’s never reached a milestone and hasn’t deployed a product (to playoffs/market). At some point you’d think the investors would wonder where all their dollars have gone to.

It is intentional, as it generally is more difficult to play against good defensemen with reach. Of course, the keyword is good. I do think you intentionally left Bryson 5'9", Jones 5'11" (one of whom is likely to play 40+ games in Buffalo this season), Johnson 6'1" (who I'm really not sure what the team thinks of at this point beyond he's a good AHLer), Metsa 5'9" (maybe top-pair AHLer next season), and Osburn 6'1" (possibly their best offensive D prospect) off the list. 😇 12 guys at 6'2" or over seems like it'd be above average though.

Something tax-related. The Taxman, Tax Consultant, Tax Collector?

And what to do with Norris? Give him a blonde dye and bowl cut, then grow a mustache, then dye his hair brown and let it get a bit scruffy, and finally grow a full beard. Clad him in denim. Then, unleash him... .. ...on unsuspecting 8-sided shapes, plane hijackers, and under-financed invading armies primarily targeting school buses. And steel yourselves for a whole bunch of Braddock: Missing in Action references this season.

He’d make a good winger for a playmaking center, methinks.

Again, Reinhart’s shot got stronger. Dahlin’s shot got stronger. Power. Krebs. And Gionta won the Sabres internal hardest shot competition in Eichel’s rookie year. As the body matures, you can add power and shave release time off the shot. Benson will become a better shooter as he reaches his early 20s. But the vision, all-around game, and ability to get the pass to the slot is there. His lower speed is the concern, but Reinhart is no speed demon and has been… fine.

This is the way. As a team, tenacity and defensive coverage are the most important efforts. But all is for naught if they get goaltending like last season. If they get 2023-24 Ullmark, AHL 2025 Levi, and down-the-stretch 22-23 Lyon…. Then yes. Playoffs happen. That’s a bunch of If.

Dog days are over now. I’ve decided to reinstate the annual pilgrimage (this year) to Vancouver to see the Sabres. My wife and I will make a 4-day weekend of it. Should be fun. And if the border crossing is smooth … they play in Seattle at 5 pm on that Sunday. The elusive double dip is possible.

If you strike down the Concept of Benson, he will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.

When you combine the overall tenacity, defensive acumen, and most importantly the ability to get passes to shooters/finishers - Benson is the best LW on the roster. Is he ready to be a LW1 and play the most minutes? No, that'd be Zucker (or TNT if they moved him to LW). But, that's on Adams/Pegula and roster construction, not on the coach/lineup construction. If healthy and if either Norris/TNT remain healthy to be said finisher, then Benson will have a 50+ point season, minimum. More importantly, depending on the play of the center, Benson could have an unexpectedly good season.

LCD Soundsystem tonight. Always liked their first iteration as an updated version of a Talking Heads-type group.

I love +/- specifically for this thread title because it combines both mathematical symbols in sequence. It's the perfect stat.

But it's not, really, is it? It's Lindy's final season as a coach. He could step into the front office, I suppose, as an advisor? But he's not coaching anywhere else in the NHL and Appert is already slotted to take over. Adams could get fired if they're a trainwreck, but... he listens to the owner. Jarmo is there, but is he really a threat if he doesn't go full ingratiation mode? Would he want to do that? The Bills are still good and building a stadium and therefore command the attention. It's status quo and trades are hard and why goaltend until Levi is ready for Adams.

Well, +1 is the very least you can be over even. They weren't outscoring the opposition. Just like this past season where they had a top offense 5-on-5 but still finished the year with a negative differential. Terrible defense outdoes good offense. In the case of 2023-24, though, it looks like the underlying concern is loser points. The two teams that made the playoffs as wild cards were the Islanders and Capitals. Experienced defense-first grinding teams that scored less, but got to overtime. That season, the Sabres picked up 6 loser points (and missed the playoffs by 8). Detroit (+4 goal differential) also didn't make it and had 9 loser points, losing the tiebreaker with WSH. Isles -17 goals, but nabbed 16 loser points and the Caps at a gaudy -37 goal differential !!! snuck into the final WC spot tied with Detroit but won the breaker -- had 11 loser points. They had two losses that got them past Detroit. The Sabres had the same number of regulation wins as the Isles and finished 10 points back in the standings. Because of the scoring system, if you keep the game 1-1 it's more advantageous over the length of the season than trying to run-and-gun to 5 goals. If you lose, lose big -- and in all other games, grind it out.

Goals allowed, with rank in league and goal differential shown 2024-25 287 (29th) -22 2023-24 243 (11th) +1 2022-23 297 (26th) -4 2021-22 287 (25th) -58 2020-21 196 (T-29th) -62 2019-20 215 (T-20th) with EDM -22 (EDM was +8)

That's why it is so important to sign Bryson. The swap of JBD for Timmins needed to be counterbalanced.

The most important thing about the Levi contract is he is RFA (arbitration eligible) at the end of the term. If he's on the best potential path, threr's still a chance to lock him up long-term (if he wants to be here, obviously). If Adams is still GM in 2027 (which frankly, even I find hard to believe and I love suspending my disbelief), it's a chance to trade Levi for another AHL-level goalie with 1 year of term before going RFA.

Cheapskate failchildren sportsball owners who are looking to sell the team blow up 40% of (an admittedly somewhat poorly-constructed, and definitely underperforming) roster in order to save even more money.

So... we're doing the 3-headed goalie monster again? Waiving Lyon and losing quite possibly our best goalie before game 5 of the season?

Tuch and Levi, primary offspring of the Eichwalker-Samidala Trade Tree family, leaders of the Rebellion and the destruction winning of two Death Stars Cups. The storybook ending is still possible as we get to the Original Trilogy years.

For starters, and I'll say it even when he's winning Vezinas for the Sabres... it's right there in his surname. But the reason he's been poorly regarded as a product is that his performance was awful and he had some injuries along the way. If you look at Leinonen's years in the lower Liiga circuits, he's never dominating. There are a few blips of .900+, but it's rare. Ullmark (in SHL, but a 6th round pick) by comparison got into the .900s early in his J18-J20 life and stayed there, whether playing for Modo in the SHL or at the lower levels. Leinonen finally had a good (not great) season last year, but it was in Allsvenskan - 2nd tier level. His Liiga career thus far is an awful 1-10-4 with .844 sv% and 3.90 GAA. Leinonen could still become great, but he has a long way to go. For direct comparison, Niklas Kokko - the 2nd goalie taken in the 2022 draft (17 picks later by SEA) has +.900 % in almost every league he's been in (Mestis, Liiga - in 34 games, and .913 in 33 AHL games last season). His performance is that of a top goalie chosen in a draft.

Another spin on... what's the worst that could happen? Remember, no LTIR will be used because that would mean you could bring in another player (and his salary), which isn't happening. Note: This "worst that could happen" is feasible, I think, by... December 1st. Benson - McLeod - Tuch Zucker - Kulich - Thompson Krebs - Östlund - Doan Malenstyn - Danforth - Rosén IR: Norris (UBI), Greenway (UBI), Quinn (LBI) Lost to waivers: Kozak Dahlin - Kesselring Byram - Timmins Bryson - Johnson IR: Samuelsson (UBI), Power (LBI) Lost to waivers: Jones Levi UPL Lost to waivers: Lyon

I do wonder how much money Key Bank provides for the stadium name, the home and now the road decal per season. Is it enough to pay for Greenway? Only Benson? Skinner's continuing payout? Does a road decal cover a goaltender?

At this point, Benson is going to get better by being challenged by NHL-caliber defenders. He doesn’t need to work on defense at the AHL level. He doesn’t need to create chances for AHL-level finishers. Should he be LW1? Nope. But that’s the franchise’s fault, not his. Let Benson cook. Every team in the playoffs last season would’ve taken Benson on their playoff roster in a heartbeat. Minnesota would’ve put him on their 4th line because he’s short and they don’t like short kids getting schooled by Eichel and Hertl. But they should’ve offered the farm for Cozens and watched a taller kid get schooled by Eichel and Hertl.