mjd1001

I was listening to 590 out of Canada a few weeks ago and they were talking about Matthews. They had a female reporter/blogger on who did a story on him. She said she spent time in Arizona where he spends a lot of time (or lives) in the offseason. She spent a lot of time on 2 things....1.) he always has a large 'entourage' with him. Whether that is friends, family, handlers, whoever..he spends his days rarely by himself but with a lot of people with him. 2.) She said he seemed so much happier and relaxed in Arizona at 'home' than he does during the season in Toronto. Now, can that be that he just treats the hockey season seriously and is an intense guy when playing? Maybe. But the vibe of the conversation sure made it seem like he looks forward to being in AZ, NOT in the hockey pressure cooker that is Toronto. If the Leafs start winning more in the post season and are serious, serious cup contenders ever year (making it to at least the conference finals), he MIGHT re-sign with Toronto. Anything other than that, and I think he is gone at the end of his deal.

Maybe, I can't prove it either way, but I would disagree. My opinion is that while the results on the ice are the most important, MOST fans do care (at least somewhat) 'how the sausage is made', as you say. If that wasn't the case, this thread wouldn't be as long as it is....and the only thread that would matter on this forum would be the gameday thread.

But that isn't relevant....because you got not ony Levi, but a first round pick also (a late one yes, but still a first rounder). and you say 'Reinhart to term', what exactly does that mean? He had one year left with the Sabres, and he wasn't going to re-sign here, so that 'term' might only be 1 season. I'd rather have that late first and Levi than Sam for this year..for sure.

It also might not be. That is why we talk about it and follow this thread. So to answer the original post on this....why someone doesn't 'get it', the fact that it might not be....that is why.

If you are making an analogy to the Sabres and how they are playing with Eichel, it doesn't work. What your 'nasty ex is up to' is going to have a direct impact on just how awesome that new person is. What you get for Eichel might be the biggest single factor that determines how good the Sabres get and how fast they get there. And for many of us fans, we enjoy the 'team building' aspect of following a sport just as much as we do watching the games. Thinking of the future, debating possible moves....all of that is just as big for some of us as what happens on the ice with the current product. Just because you 'don't get it' doesn't mean that a lot of us "do get it" and this is a big part of the way we enjoy following the team.

You can't just ignore the schedule either. They have played a pretty easy schedule so far. Take a look at the schedule they are going to be facing from the 2nd week of November through the next 30 days after that..... Wash, Edmonton, Toronto, Pitt, Calgary, Rangers, CBus, Boston, Montreal, Det, Seattle, Fla, and Carolina. 3 back to backs in there and at one point 5 games in 7 days. They have won the games that they had to play, so that is good, but it gets a lot harder between now and the beginning of December.

Many of us wont' be happy, but at this point I don't think there is anything the Sabres can do about it. The have shopped him around for months. At some point, you have to understand the 'item you are selling' is not worth what you THINK it should be worth, but it is worth what someone is willing to pay. The Sabres could have been holding out for a Zegras/Krebs type player, but if no one was giving you that for month and months and months, at some point you have to realize your asset (in its current condition) isn't worth what we all want it to be. If this deal with Vegas is getting ready to go down, Adams should be making one last call to the other teams he talked to and letting them know this is their last chance. Once you decide to deal him, you take the best 'last' offer that anyone makes.

I don't think it is a 'terrible' contract/deal, but I do question how it fits with the team: -$7.5 million isn't bad for a top pair D-man, but is he one? in 2018-2109 he had an incredible statistical season, every other year of his career hasn't come close to it. Do leafs fans and management view him as closer to that 2 peak season? or the rest of his career? Are they paying for a 20 goal player? or what he usually is (5-10 goal player)? -Even if he is worth it, they have very little flexibility in their roster now for the next few years. They are going to have $48 million dollars in cap space tied up in just their top 5 skaters...the same group that has been there and not gotten out of the first round. -D-men don't drop off as much as forward do when they hit age 28...but this contract is going to be giving the leafs a cap hit of $7.5 million on a guy when he is going to not only be in his mid 30's, but will have a LOT of miles on him (I think that will be his 17th full season in the league by the end of that deal). And with a full no-trade that begins right now. I think the dollar figure isn't terribly out of line, but I think that contract and player would fit better on a different team than on the Leafs.

I'm not sure how much ice time is a difference between them, or more of a reflection of the difference in the Roster this year. I like to look at ice time to see just what coaches really think of players..and a couple weeks into the season there are a couple things of note: Defense: -Dahlin lead D-men in Ice time by far, but he is not at Risto levels of ice time, or even close to the league leaders. In fact, the there isn't much of a difference between most D-men in ice time. Granato really does just roll them out there when it is their turn. -Dahlin gets most of the PP ice time, with Bryson and Miller getting a little, no one else really gets any. -Hagg and Pysyk get the most PK ice time, Miller and Bryson get a decent amount too. Only Dahlin and Butcher are not used on the PK much at all. In OT, it is Dahlin and Bryson, and that is really all. Forwards: -No forward has over 17:30 minutes of ice time per game played, so again, Granato so far isn't leaning on anyone heavily, he seems to roll out the lines when it is their turn. Olofsson and Tage lead, but not by that much over the rest. -When you look at PP time, Tage and Olofsson lead there, but there are 8 forwards who get close to even time overall on the PP. -SH? Eakin, Girgensons, Bjork, Okposo, and Caggulia...with a little less for Asplund and Ruotsalanian. No one else. But just like D-mean, overall everyone dressed gets a chance. If you are dressed for a game, no matter for what reason, you are going to get regular ice time. Forwards:

I agree. As of now I see this as an 80 point team, and that is with getting injured players back. Nothing I have seen so far makes me think any differently yet. Of course, 80 points to me is about 15 points better than I thought just a couple weeks ago.

On a somewhat related note, the fanbase might have to deal with this being a different type of team going forward than what we all though we were getting years ago. After Eichel is dealt, this may be a team with no superstar, no guy who will compete for MVP...no one in the top 10 in scoring. It looks like the prospect pool of forwards now may have some really good players in it, but a lot of them might be the hard working/two way guys with talent to put in 20-30 goals, not 40-50. And your 'elite' talent is on the Blue line (Dahlin, Power).

So my question is what happens to Quennville and Cheveldayoff?

No, he gets the surgery with the shorter recovery time, and ends up playing a few games late this season to show he is healthy.

I'm just thinking if the team that traded him less than a year later got a lot more than the Sabres did in return, a lot of the fanbase here would be very upset. It certainly would be a topic of discussion for a while.

Anyone ever consider this nightmare scenario? -Sabres Trade Eichel ( Calgary, Anaheim, where-ever) and get a bit less than they would normally because he is injured. -Eichel goes to that team, plays until the end of this season and plays very well. -That team, whoever they are, then turns around and flips a proven HEALTHY Eichel to the Vegas, the Rangers, or Boston, or someone else in the offseason when THOSE teams had both the chance to see him play and had a chance to clear some cap space. -The nightmare scenario for Sabres fans would be if something like that happened, the team that 'flips' Eichel ends up getting a lot more in return than what they gave up. I don't think it is likely, but I also don't want to 100% rule out a situation like that. I guess that is the one reason I am glad Adams is holding on for a big return and not just 'giving in' to what is currently out there.

Without getting too far into advanced stats (because I am not schooled in them all that well), look at some basic stats so far, supporting what a lot of posters have said: -Shooting percentage the Sabres are pretty much median/league average. With the 'talent' that this team has, one might think over the course of a whole season they would be below average, so some basic thinking says over the whole season the offense will be slightly less effective than it has been now. -Save percentage. Both goalies in limited starts are near the top of the league. If they revert to the middle of the league (or their career save percentage) the Sabres would have allowed about 6 more goals so far this season (1 per game). Averages make one think they will allow more goals going forward. Does that mean the team will fall back to being the worst in the league? No. Does it mean that some individual players can't play BETTER than they are now as the season goes on? No. What it does likely mean is that this team will not maintain the torrid pace they are on. At this moment I still think they are going to be about an 80 point team.

For me it's not a light switch whether they are good or not, how I think of them as a process. At the start of the season before the opener I thought they would be a 65 to 70 point team. Last week I had bumped that up to 75, now I'm thinking they have a chance at being an 80 point team. As the winter lose throughout the season, evaluations change, but right now I'm hoping for an 80 point team. Is that good? I don't know. If they go on this Western road trip and lose four in a row I'll be thinking they're back to a 70 point team. I don't think that'll happen though.

Don't take the opinion of a handful of posters and paint the broad brush about the entire board. And by the way, even if the entire board had that opinion, that's what this is for, a message board to talk about things. It gets tiresome when people start complaining about other people's opinions on a message board. That's what a message board is for, discussion right? Just because someone doesn't believe with you there's no need to get exasperated about other people's opinions. With that said, anytime there is a star player that leaves your team, most of us are going to want to see how well he does on the new team. For me it's going to be tough to make a judgment until we at least get to the 20 game mark. At that point I'll check and look in on Sam a little more because it's just too small the sample size now to have anything other than a wild opinion... At least for me personally.

I think the issue where he might be coming from... Not sure but my guess, is something that I also agree with. The Sabres have not said anything publicly since the first press conference that we spoke about. However, Eichel has had his agent or agents out there doing radio interviews, and openly talking to some of these so-called hockey insiders. If the Sabres are doing the same thing, they are being much more quiet about it. Eichel and his camp are being much more public about talking about the situation.

As of now, so far so good for being down 2 goals. They seem to be getting 'out-talented' but again not outworked.

They are looking like a 65-70 point team. The thing is they do have a lot of young guys who should be getting better as the season progresses, but on the other hand I don't think they have much in the AHL that will be on its way up soon that will turn things around quickly.

Maybe it is for the hockey games if there are a lot of viewers? Like I said, we pay more for a better connection, I have a brand new (less than one year old) router that cost over $200....and everything else we stream is solid. Just once the games start, it lags, and about every 5-10 minutes it totally locks up and I have to back out of the stream and go back into it to get it to restart. Even other ESPN plus programs are fine, just the live stream hockey games. I wish I knew why or how to fix it.

I have been having a hard time with it watching NHL games. The quality is awful. And I don't mean just resolution, I mean the feed freezing, and stuttering. It seems to only happen during games too. If I watch an 'old' game it is fine. If I watch one of the other programs on it it is fine. And we have a very good connection with our TV and good internet service (all other streaming services are crystal clear in 4k when available.) For some reason when I try to watch a game on ESPN plus, the quality just goes way down.

As with most things, it depends on what you define "good" as. Playoffs? I'd need to see them in a playoff position/contention well into the second half of the season. An 90 point team that misses the playoffs? Lets see them keep up a good pace for 20-25 games to get me there. A 75-80 point team (basically a team that finishes better than the expectations of the pundits and most fans before the season started)...well get 3 points in the next 3 games and I'm just about there at that point.

He's on a much better winning team. As others have said two games is much too short of a time to make a judgment. If we get to the 40 game mark of the season and he is on the third line with only about 20-25 points on the season, then we can start to have a legitimate conversation about how good he is again in a different environment. But at this point of the season the conversation can be had but there's not much to support it. But it's way too early for that and not enough time for him to accumulate some points.