DarthEbriate

They’ll all be a year older, right? 😇

Ottawa’s opening shift was exactly what you’d expect from a team wanting to reset the tone. And … who is on the PP again?

And he’s defensively positionally sound as a center. The Quinnaissance begins!

Adams cackles…. A second line of JJP - Östlund - Quinn opening night next season? Done!

Sabres woke up in the final 5 minutes.

Woohoo! JJP and Quinn with excellent passes to each other

They want to make the playoffs.

Can you imagine a new owner retaining Adams?

One nice thing about Ottawa: they play with pace and pressure.

Quinn! A terrible, lollygagging, hesitation pass at the blue line causing JJP to go offside!

Yup. Offside.

Most teams only challenge when they know they’re going to win it.

Quinn! A pass!

That was pretty. Also, who knew it was allowed to do a one-touch pass on the power play? Not Muel. Because he’s never seen it in practice.

I hope he's the next Tim Schaller (he of the career season high of 23 points in college).

From Pegula's perspective we already won because they didn't have to pay ROR that $7.5M signing bonus.

6'4" 205# shoots left Finished 2nd in scoring (points leader scored one more point and played in 9 fewer games) on a .500ish Brown team. A quick perusal of "top 2025 NCAA free agents available" lists... he's not on them.

True. And I love Benson. But maybe Chychrun's addition means they don't have to rely on Stillman, Bryson, and Clague down the stretch and get two more points that season and sneak into the playoffs. Then, last year's offseason looks quite a bit different. No Bryson. Probably don't need EJ and Clifton; just one of them. And you can roll Chychrun/Dahlin for 24 minutes a night all season.

That'd be fun. I would hope for Cozens' sake he got his goal and assist first before attempting the ol' Howe Hat. Maybe someone could get him to go at the opening faceoff Kotkaniemi-style? Then, just pummel him and incite the entire Sabres roster into a 9-1 run to picking 8th overall.

To the bolded: I don't see them wanting Byram at all. Their left side is set with Chychrun and Sandin (cheaper than Byram will be and been excellent for them), and Carlson still has a couple seasons of elite PP play left in him I'd imagine. When Kulich/Norris are in the lineup, lately TNT is RW1 and Tuch is RW2. I don't think that's a weakness.

Flashbacks to Savoie being too high a price to pay for Chychrun. But then, you don't pay Power as much because he's 3D (shorter term/prove it), and then you trade Mitts for a forward or a defensive D to pair with Power instead of the redundant Byrum move. Ripples in the pond.

Luukkonen has been overcommitting and sliding outside his posts too much this season; he has to clean that up. Reimer played great against WPG and earned another start.

Gilbert didn't dress in Ottawa's last game, but if you're Ottawa do you dress him in the manner of "playing the old team"? They certainly don't need him as intimidation/deterrent against the Sabres.

Tage has taken 10 or more faceoffs only five times in the last 30 games. Kulich/Norris have been 1C and McLeod has been the 2C since 12/31/24. Now, with a coaching change, maybe Tage shifts back to center, but Ruff has him skating on the wing this year.

At the moment, McLeod is the 1C for every game Norris doesn't play through 2030 (unless Norris is moved before his NTC kicks in and say... Helenius... hits as a 1C). ----- Re: the points discussion, what would we be thinking to offer McLeod if he and Cozens had had their PP roles reversed. McLeod likely has more points if he has 140 PP minutes this season, with the bulk of it on PP1. (Cozens only managed 2-2-4 in all those PP minutes.)