DarthEbriate

From time to time. Dear, oh dear.

Yup. Also a.k.a. the clone of Lukkonen (for folks who've read the books back in the day).

6K is fine. But K^6? That's where it's at.

Sir! The odds of Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen pulling a Binnington is approximately 3,720 to 1.

^That, Life Day, and Boonta Eve are pretty much the perfect birthdays.

Next order of operations, they need to start purging the team of folks who a) don't want to be there, b) are causing locker room dissent, and c) are not "their" guys. So --- who all do you want from Vancouver? What do you do to acquire them? For example, a really bad idea: Get Vancouver to retain $1M/year on RHD Myers and send us a 1st to take his contract. He'd have to waive his trade list for it to work. Then, pair him with Power to form the tallest D-pair anywhere. And despite being the biggest on the ice, never ice them on a D-zone faceoff. After two years (2024-25) he's off the books as we start needing to spend to the cap on our kids, or buyout the final year of his contract. Note: We should rather do a broken Travis Hamonic (also needs to waive his trade clause) as the RHD than Myers. Both are bad ideas, but ideas are free.

--Goalie Ukko-Pekka has volunteered to lead the Sabre defense. +Good luck.... You're gonna need it.

Goaltending should be able to steal a game to break long losing streaks. So should scoring 4 goals in a game. But right now our defense/goaltending is so out of whack we could easily spiral like we did last year once Ullmark was hurt. Thankfully, this year we don't have Hall or Staal as veterans fully checked out. To the bolded -- This is verging into its own thread: a Bridge to (Friar) Tuch, when we'll be able to hopefully evaluate our forward lines from January-to-Trade Deadline (or Olympic Break if it happens). What do we do in the meantime until Tuch returns to break these losing streaks? I like your thought on a bit more specialization. Get Girgs and Okposo back together. And whether it's Cozens or Eakin may not matter as much as just having a line we can trust to cycle and turn momentum. But I'd tend toward Eakin with the As, and Cozens back with the speed line.

The bad part is 1 and 2 haven't changed from this offseason. And 1 has been a need since Hutton's third month with the franchise (exempting one blip October of games since). And 2 has been a need since drafting Dahlin. He did have a veteran D-man who was his primary partner his rookie year... Bogosian. And since Bogo was traded he's been mostly paired with Risto, Montour, Miller, Joker, and a touch of Borgen and Casey Nelson. None of them are veteran defensive stalwarts.

I think we'll have to see a bunch of mix-and-match to see who gels with whom. (Yes, next year is also going to be a development year like this year... but it'll be easier if we have a real goalie.) Power-Joker would work. I think that has to be a 3rd pair in terms of EV minutes. Joker is solid if unspectacular and he could be great for Power, but it's 2 kids. I'd rather see an older guy for Power to be able lean on (Myers-Tallinder, like). Then probably something like Samuelsson-Bryson and Dahlin-Pysyk/UFA. And it's really got to be a top-4 UFA, but the players available are going to be minimal. Perhaps at the trade deadline we send a 2nd for a veteran rental from an eliminated team. Normally, you'd try to send that vet to a contender, but a top pick in the 2nd round could be enough to sway them to take the pick value, rather than worry about the player's chances at a Cup. Then, you've got 15 games or so to have that vet gel with Dahlin and re-sign. I don't like this proposal very much because that veteran may not sign. Agreed. He doesn't need to sit, but he needs to play fewer minutes. Give Bryson and Miller more PP time. And, regardless of score, roll all three D pairs. The issue now is Dahlin (or team defense) makes a gaffe and it automatically ends up in our net. Then, Dahlin plays more and more as our preferred offensive defenseman and keeps struggling because he's trying to press. Just aim to keep him under 22:00 until he gets consistent with his play.

Samuelsson is going to join the team soon and he's going to become the #1 lockdown guy by default. Samuelsson-Jokiharju is not going to be ready for that pressure. Dahlin and Power will both need established top-4 guys, too, if that's how they're going to be deployed. It's exciting to think about the defense 2 years from now: Dahlin, Power, Joker, Samuelsson. That's cool. They'll also all still be 24 and under, meaning still not even as experienced as Hagg and Bryson are today. They'll all still be unfinished D, not yet into their prime.

This is the way. GM Sheevyn said no blocking the young folk... and there's no blocking. This is the way. But! The change of scenery Dahlin needs is the same this entire new core needs: 1) a goalie they can trust and, 2) talent equal to what's being asked of their role. We're letting Dahlin play #1 minutes. That's fine if his #2 is capable of that. Pysyk is a good player, a steady, smart/savvy player. He's a great match for Dahlin, really. He's not a top-pairing D. He's a career 3rd pairing guy who's played a lot at forward because he is a smart/savvy player. Dahlin's other options are Joker (who is also a kid and might someday be a top-4, but right now should be a 3rd pair), Miller (career 3rd pair), and Butcher (7th). And if Dahlin switches... Hagg (3rd pair, maybe 2nd with a fantastic partner), and Bryson (3rd pair). The question goes to roster construction: Do you think Detroit was worried about blocking Seider when they acquired Leddy (still capable of being a 1st-pair)? No. They went out and got someone to play with Seider at the top. And if Seider wasn't ready, then he would be getting 3rd pairing minutes. (Detroit also got a young, trending up goalie in Nedeljkovic.) The worry now is --- who are we getting this offseason to support Dahlin? And will we need another one for Power?

Absolutely. Players play better when they have confidence in their goalie. The past few seasons this team has looked remarkably better when they've had Ullmark or Anderson in net. And even with Toker to an extent -- they at least have faith in the Toke. But when it's Hutton or Dell... it all goes to hell. GM Sheevyn should have claimed Nedeljkovic off waivers. Hutton had been on the downward trend every single year, with vision issues, and was not good early last year. Then you've got two young on-the-rise goalies in Ullmark and Nedeljkovic and you can decide which one to keep based on performance. Don't worry about blocking UPL... if he ends up blocked then you have 3 on-the-rise goalies and can trade for assets. Instead, Sheevyn kept Hutton and moved Johansson (which, by accounts from PHam or Vogl, one of the writers... was terrible in practices last season as he was in games. His confidence was busted) and then lost Ullmark. And it's all AHL-level since because a 40-year old goalie must not be the plan. That's where is offseason had to have an NHL-caliber goalie acquired via trade.

Me, personally? No. I'm a Sabre. I like looking to the future and to the past and I like a lot of the Sabres prospects. And when it comes to sports, I'm pretty patient because it's simply recreation. But the downside of that choice: the Kraken likely make the playoffs this year because their division is weaker... and they have goaltending in the near and foreseeable future. They will definitely be able to draw UFAs despite the sky high cost of living because there's no sales tax. They'll likely have to sell off some rentals early on to bolster their draft stockpiles because they have no pipeline -- the result being that they likely have an initial good run in years 1-3 years and then maybe are a middling franchise in years 3-6. Beyond that is dependent on their drafting.

The placeholder has to only be this year. Otherwise the RFAs will start to come due and not sign long-term, or will sign short-term qualifying offers to get out, or demand trades. Because at a certain point they know you don't want to win as a franchise. And then you haven't changed the culture at all -- you've just ruined the next core.

Why wait until an intermission? Do that fake MLB starter routine where you get the opposition to commit to all lefties...then bam... put in the real starting pitcher. We could swap Dell in at the first whistle.

Seattle built a high-effort, high-energy roster (which makes sense because you're not getting too many top-line guys in an expansion draft). And the goaltending was garbage to start the season (sound familiar?). But since Gourde and Blackwell got back from their injuries (and yes, Borgen has played a few games now, though he's still #7)... they've started to resemble the type of team that GM Sheevyn/HC Meatballs want us to resemble. The difference is that Seattle has a bunch of middle-six high-effort guys with NHL-level goalies and we're icing several bottom-six high-effort guys with our AHL-level goalies. TL;DR: In the last couple weeks Seattle has done really well against a solid schedule: Caps (W), Canes (W), Lightning (L), Panthers (W), Sabres --- one of these is not like the others (W), Red Wings (SOL), Oilers (W).

Yes, but the options are 2022, 2023, never, and never. And the most likely options are 2024, 2025, 2026, and 2027. Next year (2022-2023), we're likely to be breaking in two rookie defensemen (Power/Samuelsson) and up to an entire line of rookie forwards (Quinn, JJP, Krebs). There will be gaffes and growing pains aplenty, regardless of the goaltending. Another year (2023-2024) and we'll truly start to see the fruits of the Power-rebuild and Eichel/Reinhart/Risto reset in earnest. But in 2023-2024 TB should still be good (Vasilevskiy); TOR will still be good (their core is only now getting into their prime); FLA will still be good (Ekblad in his prime, Knight still getting better); and BOS is only then likely to see a downturn in the top line as Bergeron and Marchand age. 2024-2025 is where we can realistically start saying this new core is going to be good. But by then, will Okposo be gone? Will Dahlin re-sign or be traded in that final season as a rental (or sign and trade)? Will Skinner have been bought out? Will Cozens be a Dylan Larkin or a stud 2-way Bergeron? (At only 23 years old and starting his second contract, he'll likely trend toward the former for the moment.) Will Levi or Portillo be in the NHL yet, will UPL be an average NHL starter? And lest we forget, Detroit and Ottawa have been tanking almost as long as we have, and Detroit is a year ahead of us (they got a serviceable goalie and the veteran D in Leddy this year to go with their two rookie Calder-types). They'll likely be on the upswing, too. My thought is that the poll needs to be looking further ahead and not so far as never.

While that stinks for the Bundesrepublik, it's good for the Amerks.

It's been longer than 8 years already. But 3022 is beyond a reasonable time limit. It is the same answer as Never. The site that is Buffalo will likely still be a human settlement at that time on account of location, but it's unlikely to be called Buffalo. The NHL won't exist then. Ice hockey may or may not be a sport. 1000 years is a long time. (A long time.)

Putting on my assessment-writing helmet.... This poll is flawed. "Never. Playoffs for losers.." and "3022" are not valid distracters. The objective of the question is to ask what is the timeline with this newfound core, correct? The New Dahlin-Cozens-Quinn/JJP-Power Generation. 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026. Those are your appropriate options.

Olofsson is clearly still nursing whatever it injury it is. I'd try to get him back with Asplund and Mitts while he works through it. Teams certainly aren't overly worried about matching our lines, but they are targeting TT as the 1C. Let Skinner-Thompson-?? (probably Hinostroza) take the tougher assignments for a bit until Olofsson's sufficiently healed to take a slapshot consistently. The other thing is... I get the signing of Jankowski. I applaud it. But it should have happened as soon as Olofsson got hurt and they elected to play R2 at wing in the bottom six instead of center/wing in the top 6. Now, Jankowski and Mitts both debut/appear in the same game and the Jankowski signing makes little sense. Eakin had looked good between Girgs/Okposo and Cozens is starting to look consistently like a fine hockey player.) The best thing about Ryan Miller when he was on his game was that he was already in position. All those shots we hate (example: Skinner, last night) that land right in the goalie's crest... Miller took soooo many shots in the crest because he already there. Dell makes the routine look wild and the wild look like goals against if the shot is on net.

Shades of Geoff Sanderson right there.

GM Sheevyn is up to "Execute Order 72". Still looking for a single NHL-caliber starting goaltender to be added to the roster (who hadn't already planned to retire -- if briefly). (And no, Levi doesn't count until he leaves college.)

We're a fun team to watch when we visit your barn.