mjd1001

Agree with all of the above. I hate when teams get moved. Ultimately we know its many times more important what the owners want, what the league wants, what 'dollars can be made' to make billionaires even bigger billionaires. If there ever was a 'fans bill of rights', one of the top things on it should be that no fanbase ever loses a team, no team is moved.

I could be ok with Lindy, still not a fan of Kane. The head coach is important. Yes, of course its important. But who is he bringing in with him as assistants may be just as important, or more important. What many are saying here, you want a head coach who is going to set a standard, make a decision to run more up tempo practices. Be a little harder on some guys. Have respect from the guys in the room. I think Ruff does all that, as well as some other coaches. Ultimately I know the head coach is responsible for things, but i also think the power play is run more by the assistant coaches than the head coach (unless the head coach CHOOSES to step in). How the D-man play positionally is more the assistant coaches working with the players, while the head coach oversees everything. The assistant coaches are breaking down video late at night while the head coach is doing the post game press conferences or having one-on-one conversations with the guys. Again, Yes, the head coach does those things too, but I think a great head coach can fail if he doesn't bring in good assistants. I want my head coach to be 'good' in all those things, but I would almost rather he just competent at them, but for him to set the direction for the team, set the tempo, set the expectations, and have good-to-great assistants working on the X's and O's.

I think he took a step back overall this year. I also thin he played better the last 30 games than he did the first half+ of the season. I think he'll be fine, actually I think he'll be really good, just its going to be a gradual, slow grind to get there over the next couple of years.

Maybe someone who is really REALLY into analytics can analyze Cozens a bit more, but to me everything I see comes down to last year him having a higher shooting percentage, this year it reverted to mean (his career average) His ice time, his shots per game....similar. When you look at the NHL edge metrics over the last 3 years...His top skating speed, speed bursts and average skating distance are his strengths and the pretty much the same each year. His offensive zone time is below average and the same each year. Even where he TAKES his shots from is the same each year (compared to the rest of the league he REALLY likes shooting between the faceoff dots and over to the right boards 10-15 feet out), One of the biggest differences in their metrics is shooting percentage. THAT is the one thing that is different. My worry, and my continued worry with him is he really IS playing the same game he always has. This year. Last year, The year before. There is really only one thing that was different than stands out...his shooting percentage JUST last year. When he has ONE very good year, but that one year he has a shooting percentage of almost 15.....while his rookie year was about 7, his 2nd year about 8, this year 9...its hard for me to not think that maybe the 6-9% range is the type of player he really is...and he is a guy that consistently looks to get 200 shots a year for his ice time....200 shots times even 9% gives you 18 goals. He is still young. He can get better in other areas of his game. But every year (including this year and last year) he looks to be a 200 shot guy, EVERY year he takes shots from the same spots on the ice. Unless he goes back to that nearly 15% shooting percentage, hes not going to be a consistent 30 goal guy for you. The only SMALL thing supporting the concussion idea is his shooting percentage was 14.3% (in a small sample size), continuing last years trend, leading up to his concussion. It was after the concussion that it went down to 8.4% for the rest of the year.

Maybe the new owner will move the Sabres to Arizona...

still think that is way too high. As others have said, it should be at, or close to his qualifying offer. 1 year for a bout $1m. That would be about a 20% raise for him, and he hasn't even earned that yet.

I agree for the most part, except for the bolded above. Vegas made good expansion draft picks, they made trades that helped, but they have been pretty awful at drafting young guys. The other than one guy (Nick Suzki who they traded), the most CAREER goals anyone has scored that they drafted is 29 by Cody Glass (and he pretty much is now a bust, or at least 'just another guy'. Of their first and early 2nd round picks you have Glass (borderline bust), Suzuki (the one guy that is ok), Brannstrom (traded to Ottawa, maybe a #7 level D-man), Hague (decent 3rd pair D-man, below average 2nd pair guy), Morozov (couldn't cut it in the AHL so he's back in the AHL), Krebs (who we are talking about now), Korczak (2nd round D-man can't break into NHL going into 5th year), and then none of the guys drafted in the last 4 drafts have any significant NHL time but none of them look like top legit prospects. Yes, Vegas has traded away some picks and has been drafting lower in the first round most of the time, but besides Arizona (who is the worst drafting team by far in the modern era), Vegas might actually be near the top at drafting poorly. The thing they might be good at is sending away those guys they drafted to other teams for stuff of value before the rest of the league knows there isn't much too them.

I'm most of the way there with you. If, IF you got an offer for him or he was requested by another team in a package for something of value, by all means trade him. But if not (and I personally think its likely he won't have too much value to anyone else at this point), might as well just sign him to a low cost deal and let him try to show you something (maybe a summer of training and some new line-mates help). If he doesn't show you any improvement, waive him and off to Rochester he goes. No real harm.

I didn't mind 'better days' or anything about it at Sabres games....But...I think "Sabre Dance" should be, always played when the team is introduced and takes the ice, as well as it should have at least a small part on every Sabres broadcast.

I haven't found the betting odds for who is the next Sabres coach, but I did find the site from when Kreueger was fired in 2022, and the list of the betting odds back then. The moral....don't trust the betting odds: Full article here: https://www.oddsshark.com/nhl/buffalo-sabres-next-head-coach-odds#:~:text=In looking to project what the Sabres will,Rick Tocchet (%2B600) next up on the oddsboard. some highlights from the 2022 article just before Granato was hired: On March 17, the Buffalo Sabres announced that head coach Ralph Krueger had been relieved of his duties. Assistant coach Don Granato will take over on an interim basis for the Sabres, but the chances of him becoming the next permanent coach appear to be slim. Buffalo Sabres Next Head Coach Odds Who Will Be The Next Head Coach Of The Buffalo Sabres? TeamOdds John Tortorella+300 Bruce Boudreau +350 Guy Boucher+400 Gerard Gallant+500 Rick Tocchet+600 Scott Arniel+700 Mike Yeo+800 Claude Julien+900 Mike Babcock+1000 John Stevens+1200 Rod Brind’Amour+1400 Travis Green+1600 Marc Crawford+1800 Steve Ott+2000 Jeff Blashill+2200 Jacques Martin+2500 Glen Gulutzan+2800

I expect them to make the playoffs next year. The D will be one year older/more experienced, and that is important for the youngest D in the league. I've convinced myself Tage's drop off was mostly due to his injury and I expect him to play like the 50 goal scorer he was last season. Hopefully, a new coach will evaluate Krebs, Cousins, Skinner for what they are, not for what the team WANTS them to be and adjust their playing time/position/attitude accordingly. So, does the new Coach get a little bit more out of this team than Granato did? Do they have a slight bit more 'injury luck' than last year? and do they get UPL for the whole year the way he played for the 2nd half of last year? With the D-corp slightly more experienced, and a healthy Tage, You get 2 of those other 3 things I just listed above, they are in the playoffs.

My wife is from NY city with her whole family fans of NY teams.... I lived a few years in Boston and work for a company based there.... and living a lot of years RIGHT on the border with Canada (working with Canadians in our Canadian division), I can say, having probably been forced to talk/hear about teams OTHER than Buffalo teams for a good portion of my life, ONE fanbase is the most intolerable. Yankee fans? They are close but no. Bruins/Red Sox/Patriots fans? Not as bad to me as many make them out to be. Maple Leaf fans? There you go! and for ONE primary reason....They are always the victim. Talk to a Leafs fan vs fans of any other team, and over the long term they will blame the refs for anything that goes wrong for them a LOT more often than any other fanbase. "You know, the league doesn't want the leafs to win, so they make sure the refs are against us" and "We never get any calls you have to know going into the game its the leafs vs the refs and any team they play". "Everyone hates Toronto because they are jealous of us and our history, including the league so we never get the calls." Or, then there is the fans saying "we will get any free agent we want because we are the Toronto Maple leafs, EVERYONE wants to play here". I also liked the "the Sabres deserve what they got for tanking, that was terrible what Buffalo did they don't deserve to win" vs when the leafs obviously tanked for Austin Matthews "Thats just us being smarter than everyone else, it was a good move" Finally, the best one (related to the above...and yes, all fanbases do this but I hear it more from leaf fans)...We should trade a bag of pucks, our 4th rounder in 2026 and our 5th rated prospect for McDavid (or any other Canadian born star in the league)...because you KNOW any players want to play for Toronto, it's their dream! The other team would be smart just to take anything we offer right now, instead of losing them to us for nothing as a free agent". I grew up watching the Leafs on Hockey Night in canada like many others...I liked them. Its hard for me to like a team and for that to change...it is the behavior of Leaf fans that did that for me. I have to admit I still follow them as much as any team other than the Sabres. Part of me deep down still likes them from my childhood, but their hardcore fans...unbearable.

I don't know if its available, but I'd like to see what the Sabres spend on assistant coaches and development coaches compared to the rest of the league as well. I don't know but I'm guessing that is something they rank very low in also. I can ALMOST excuse the lack of roster spending, seeing where they are in their development and how young the team is. But, when you have a young/rebuilding roster, that is the EXACT time it makes sense to bump up your scouting/develpment staff. Pegula doesn't seem to want to do that.

Guys drafted in his range in the first round 15th-20th overall....tend to be busts, or at most marginal NHL players at close to a rate of 50%. It wouldn't be a surprise if he was just that. Now, there are some cases where guys take a while to develop..they get to a certain age and all of a sudden, seemingly out of no-where, it all clicks. But usually you would see signs of that. 20 career goals in 215 career games, and 46 assists....its a little bit worrysome. That is 7.5 goals and 17.5 assists, 25 points over 82 games. Almost 3 full years in the NHL, a cup of coffee in the 4th year. I don't know, it COULD still happen for him but right now I'm not hopeful. Here is the bottom line for me. If it DOES click for him, I don't want it to happen while continuing to give him time on this roster. I think whatever ice time he would get here, its time to give it to someone 'better' right now. Now, I'll contradict most of what I said and say you sigh him. Why? I highly doubt you get anything of value for him in a trade. So you sign him, let him try to blow you away in camp. If he does and EARNS a spot on the roster, great! if he doesn't down to Rochester he goes. If he gets picked up on waivers on the way to Roch, well, you didn't want him up here anyway.

Agree. And as I mentioned in a different post, having a choice of goalies including Schmid, Allen, Vanecek, and Daws. All 4 of them with a save percentage below .900 and GAA above 3.00 this year. Oh, and your top D-man and your top 3 forwards all missing significant time with injuries this year. Everyone wants to say he's bad because the team did bad this year without Brunette. To me...No Brunette on one hand...or the other hand being your top D-man missing almost the entire year, Jack Hughes missing 20 games, and Timo Meier and Hischier missing time also, PLUS no decent goatending.

I agree with almost everything you said except for the fast part. Is he? Serious question. My bad memories of him this year are of a turnover in the offensive zone, and him simply not being able to catch back up to players who are carrying the puck when he is chasing them from behind. Not just once, but multiple times. On the backcheck, he seems to be that 1 step too slow to catch up to anyone. I just don't see speed. The NHL edge data shows him as being mid pack in terms of top speed (54th percentile), above average in speed bursts between 18-20 and 20-22mph (70 and 61 percentile) but well below average in terms of 22mph+ bursts (he's only had 1 all year and is listed as 'below 50'). I guess the 'stats' say he is average to 'slightly' above average, but in practice he doesn't catch people from behind often on the backcheck.

That is what I am thinking, what is his value? Sure, if he brings in something of value trade him, but I HIGHLY doubt he brings in something of value. You might almost be better giving him a contract, keeping him around and seeing if he is one of those 'late developers', a lottery ticket that at one point was talented enough to be picked in the first round. I don't think he has much value in a trade.

The biggest problem I have with Ruff is not that he is not good, but rather if he is here it is likely something that Pegula wants....and to me the biggest problem with this team is Pegula having input on coaches, staff, draft, trades, FA, and he isn't good at that. To me Ruff being here is not getting the BEST guy, but the guy Pegula wants. I'm not 100% in on Ruff, but he's not as bad as some are making him out to be. The arguments against him I keep reading are his good year last year was a result of Brunette, and without him this year the team wasn't as good. Maybe that is part of it, but this year is not all on Lindy, in fact, there are points to say he did a decent job this year with some really bad circumstances in Jersey: This year, He had that team in contention (near .500 and in the race) with his Stars either not playing or coming back from injuries. Hughes, Timo Meier and Hischier missed games, their best D-man was out just about the entire year (Hamilton). If you look at the production of Hughes, Hischier, and Timo Meier, they have been more productive than the Sabres top 3 guys (Tage, and whoever other 2 you want), yet those NJ guys missed more games due to injury than any of the Sabres top guys (those top guys missed over 100 games combined, with Hughes, the most important, missing 20) They fired Ruff as a way to see if they could salvage the season, got most of their key injured forwards back and playing after he was gone, and they performed worse after he got fired. Yes, with Lindy as coach, the team was better with no credible goaltender, ravaged by key injuries, than they were AFTER he left when they got healthier. And all of this was with his GM not getting him a goaltender, their goaltending is worse than what Granato had with the Sabres. Give Ruff UPL level goaltending and that team is SO much better, possibly in the playoffs even with them being wrecked by injuries. I don't think they are going to go with Ruff, but I don't think hes as bad as some here are saying as if the game has 'totally passed him by' Lindy may not be the BEST choice, but if he were hired its no a disaster. The key would be his assistants. Let him bring in who he wants, and let Pegula PAY for who he wants. If he (or ANYONE else) has to bring on a staff on a tight budget or is given this years staff, anyone is in trouble.

Another interesting one, Florida vs Toronto. If Toronto wins, they assure themselves of playing Florida. If Toronto loses, then there is a chance they could play Boston in round one. If I'm Toronto, I might rather face Boston rather than Florida, but to do that, I need to lose to Florida for that chance of facing Boston.

Its an entertainment business. Some fans only care about winning, hardcore hockey all the time. Other fans just want the entertainment/nostalgic aspect of it (bring back Ted Nolan, Bring back Lindy). Other fans are someplace in the middle. Guess, what, they are ALL fans. You are probably like me, someplace in between those 2 categories...wanting the team to win, but also wanting to feel good about the people involved as much as winning. Nothing wrong with that, I think that is the press conference we got today, a little bit for the hardcore fan who is pissed at everything, and a little bit for the casual fan who wants to feel good about things.

For those of us who rally think Pegula is involved in more than he should be, how much of Adams press conference today was him taking credit/blame for things that were ultimately Pegula's wishes? How much of it was Adams being the mouthpiece/bulletproof vest for Pegula? Maybe Adams is an awful GM, but I still think it starts from the top with Pegula, as other have said, he had input into contracts, free agent moves, sits in on meetings...basically everything EXCEPT showing up when a press conference might have the tone of something that would bruise his ego a bit. If Adams is in over his head, it might be because Terry wants someone who will do the day to day of the job, but someone who will still be his yes man. Not many other people will take that job. I still think Adams (or any GM) is partially the Wizard of Oz that is there to distract us from the man behind the curtain (Pegula).

First, I think you are incorrect about me being incorrect. How they exit the zone and their ability to play offense is impacted minimally by their positioning in the Defensive zone. In my examples, it may actually support my point. If ANY forward, including Cozens, is covering the slot (as per my example) he would be available more readily to take a pass out of the corner from a D-man and head up ice...rather than when they just start vacating zones and chasing the puck, being a step behind the other team and the other team having possession. Next, I think I have been in the past, and was in my post saying Cozens was the worst offender but other forwards were offenders just as well. With that in mind, not sure why you are pointing out to me this isn't about Dylan Cozens? If you play a better 'half court' defensive (hockey version of it) not only will you be better in your own zone giving up less chances to the other team, but doing just that might actually HELP your breakouts and your offensive chances. I wasn't going that far to make that point, I was simply saying the forwards having their heads on in their own zone was/is the issue, and you don't need to 'pull back' on what you do in the neutral zone or offensive zone to fix that.

I think the defense got better this year, but without going into the stats (I like looking at basic/big picture stats but more rely on what I see in association with those stats), I think the improvement started right about January 1 of this year. The bigger thing to me is, the way I think they needed to improve defensively, and the way that I did notice they DID starting in January, should have nothing to do with offensive chances or production. This teams biggest weakness is/was coverage in the defensive zone...the 'half court' defense. Last year, and for a good part of this year, the forwards on this team would have ZERO idea what to do in their own zone. I am hard on Cozens because I think he is the biggest offender, but there are others. The defensemen seem to play where they 'should' play in D-zone coverage, but the forwards either just float around or do whatever they want to do. Now again, this may not may not be reflected in the stats you are bringing up, its just an opinion....but when you do watch the replays of the goals allowed by this team, or just watching the game and you see a big save made by UPL to prevent a goal, more often than not that seems to be (or at least WAS) caused by forwards just being awful. I have stated this many times, but for sake of discussion I will use Cozens as an example. The puck is in the Sabres zone, the other team has control of it. The D-men are down low either engaging in a puck battle when the puck comes to their side, or covering a spot on the ice near UPL. The wingers are covering the side boards or the opposing wingers half way up the boards. Cozens SHOULD be guarding the slot. But what would happen often, for some reason, Cozens just takes off and runs to the boards to chase the puck, often times when a Sabres player is already there....the puck squirts free, now the entire center of the ice, the slot area in front of UPL where Cozens SHOULD be is wide open...the opposing center or a D-man walk into it, puck on their stick, with time to either pick a corner of the net, pass to someone else who is open, or use the D-men and often times Cozens himself as a screen...and there is your goal against. Now, as I said, the team is not perfect, but a switch was flipped right around January 1 of this year and they got a lot better. Cozens is still the biggest offender (why I think and beg for him to be a winger, he can chase the puck all he wants on the boards in the D-zone as a winger without causing damage), but other forwards have done it too. My main point is...this is an area they have improved on, and they can continue to improve on, and it should have little impact on their offensive zone chances. Play run and gun all you want...your D-zone coverage I mentioned above only matters when the opposing team already has control in your own zone. Again, I'm not sure if the stats support what I see above, I'd be interested to see if there is a difference in quality chances allowed with Cozens on the ice vs Tage on the ice (Tage actually does NOT make those mistakes that much in the D-zone) or to see if there is a difference in chances from early in the year to post January....but...this is my contribution to the discussion.

As with many things, there is a bit of a middle ground and a lot of 'it depends'. Of the players you mentioned, I'm very confident Thompson, Tuch, Peterka, UPL and Dahlin can be part of that core. Barring another Injury, I think Tage gets 50 next year and Dahlin is one of the top 10 D-men in the league. Power I am just as confident with, but I think he's a year or two away. Byrum, Levi, Quinn are hopeful, but too early to tell. Cozens, I'm really down on right now. He is young, he can turn it round, but at the moment, I'm thinking he is closer to a 15-20 goal scorer that is poor defensively and hurts you in your own zone.....rather than a 30 goal scorer that is a good 2 way player. They are playing for the 2nd of those 2 things, if he is the first, thats not a good player you want to rely on at all. I really want him as a winger all year next year, and for the team, management, coaches to not think of him as a player that will be a net positive unless he proves it again.

Cooper probably was a bit of an outlier, and he has proven to be a good coach. But it probably helped him 'ease' into the league when his first full season, he had a Stamkos in the prime years of his career, Kucherov entering the league, a young Alex Killorn who was already a good and productive 2 way player, Hedman with a few years experience approaching norris trophy level play, Martin St. Louis still scoring at a nearly 40 goal per 82 pace, and Ben Bishop giving you Vezina level goaltending (he was a finalist), oh, and you had the 2nd and 3rd place guys in rookie of the year voting (Palat and Johnson) Again, Cooper is a great coach, but he was eased into the league with probably the best scorer at the time (Well, Stamkos and Ovi were neck and neck then), a HOF player still producing and a great leader at the top of your roster, great goaltending, a guy who was turning into the best D-man in the league, and 3 high talented rookies at the bottom or our roster.