mjd1001

-So Minnesota.....Have only lost 1 of their last 16 game in regulation (and that was a one goal loss to Colorado). -The Kings have the 5th best record in the NHL since the first of the year, and are the best in the West since then. -Look at the last 10 games that every team has played and the most points in their last 10 games are all Western Conference teams up top (Min, L.A. Dallas, Nashville, Vegas) I know the West is a lot weaker than the East this year, but I'm looking forward to the playoff series in the west, just becasue I have NO IDEA at how how it is all going to shake out.

If the players will vote among themselves for who the captain is, then the discussion is kinda moot as there isn't much that can be discussed other than who do we think the players like in the room. However, if it is done by a a hybrid decisions, players in put, coach/gm input, and we as fans are trying to 'figure out' who would be best....I vote for Dahlin. I really don't know if he would handle the role better or worse than Tuch, all I do know for sure is he is on the ice more than any other Sabre (other than the goaltenders in a particular game) so I go with him.

If you use it the right way, being tall/having great reach can be a huge asset on the PK.

Maybe, but here is the key thing to look at. Are the Sabres that team in perpatuity? Or is that just a quick stop on a journey to something else? To me it appears all those things you say may be true, but they aren't a permanent feature of this team, the Sabres may be (have been) there, but SOME of those things are just temporary. I'm fine with that.

I still don't have enough info on Stillman yet, but as far as Joki and Lyubushkin, I think they are 'good enough' bottom 3 d-men. This team needs to add one or two more guy though. Jok and Lyubushkin not only have both been injured, but their play when they come off of their injury (first week or two back) is lacking. But WHEN HEALTHY, they are solid. So the key is to have enough depth that if you have those 2 guys, and they get hurt, you don't rush them back where they are playing at less than 100% and that is when they have bad games.

Other than the fact Greenway wasn't a first round pick, Greenway seems to be the forward version of what Stanley would be on the back end. Tall. Big. Physical. IQ being questionable, not the best passing, some injury issues, not a good skater. I'm not saying it WOULD be a good idea, but for a guy to compete for a spot, might be something to look at, becasue he seems the kind of player Adams and the Scouting staff have taken a shot at in the past. Again, the similarity to Greenway but as a D-man seem very close.

As far as a 'reclamation' project, what does anyone think of Logan Stanley on the backend from Winnipeg? Former first round pick, 24 years old, 6'7" tall and 230 lbs. Hits. Gets PK time. Requested a trade from Winnipeg recently. Has had a few injuries, and has shown 'inconsistent' play. He's from Kitchener so only about 1.5-2 hours away (kinda a local guy) I remember being bored and watching Winnipeg play St. Louis a couple months ago and he stood out as a pretty good player, yet he gets benched every once in a while. Big Physical guy who at one point had enough talent to justify a first round pick, with SOME nhl time. His contract is up but he is an RFA. Might be one guy (not the ONLY guy though) that I'd be happy to see brought in to fight for a roster spot, possibly a 2nd pair spot with some development.

Need at least 1, maybe 2 guys that are '2nd pair' quality if possible. One for the actualy 2nd pair, one for the 3rd pair. In addition, you really have to try to find one, maybe 2 guys who are potentially future NHL guys to put in Rochester. That might be tough to do, but it should be a priority also.

Ever since Dahlin came back from his injury last week, he hasn't looked quite the same.

I really haven't been following the Kings that much but they are doing a LOT better than I thought. I looked back and they played in Buffalo in early December, just coming off an overtime loss to Columbus. The Sabres beat them 6-0. At that time the Kings were 15-17. After that loss to Buffalo, they went on to win 6 of their next 7, and in 34 games since that loss to Buffalo, they have gotten 48 out of 64 possible points (123 point pace). I'm just really suprised at how well they are doing. They have good players, but no superstars (to me at least), yet since Mid December, they are one of the best teams in hockey.

I was, and still am fine with the lack of moves at the deadline. But as you said some things need to be done internally and externally this offseason. They really can't take a 'build from within' approach to the D-unit, because there simply isn't much to build from within to work with. Do you sign Johnson? If yes, is he ready for the NHL? If so is he good enough to be a top 4 guy? Too many "ifs" for me. -Has Comrie been playing still bothered by an injury? Do you think UPL can take a step forward in the offseason. If the answer to those things is "No" then you have to seriously think about goaltending again. -Cozens, Tage, Power, even Peterka and the other young guys....can you convince them to spend more time on video or in Buffalo over the Summer, working on their 2 way game and just learning things they haven't been exposed to yet? -Can you find and add a D-man with talent to be a 2nd pair guy....maybe 2 guys like that, and have them both added to your top 6? In Addition to that, can you find a guy with NHL talent that may need a little work, and have him in Rochester so you at least have ONE more guy in the pipeline? -Can Mitts be your true 2-way center? A guy who can put up 40 or more points and be a top guy in the league at shutting down other teams top lines at the same time? If No, can you find one? It looks like you have your top 2 C's in terms of scoring/production, now I need a guy who is a TRUE shut down guy with SOME offensive talent. I don't need the top free agent on everyone's list to come here, but I do want to see some progress on the above.

As you said about Bergeron, I'd love the Sabres coach to just get an iso camera on him and have the Sabres forwards study him. Show how he can sometimes NOT go for the hit or NOT be too aggressive and those things allow him to maintain positinion. Show them how he uses his stick to make plays, but yet not get called for penalties. Krebs. I forgot about Krebs. I think he has gotten better lately, but still not that good, as the first month of the season he may have been the worst forward in the league in terms of being a liability away from the puck. Again, he seems to be getting better, but he still loses more than half of his battles for loose pucks, and honestly I have seen too many times where he is a step behind an eventual goal scorer and just can't catch up to even get a stuck on him. He's getting better again, but his limitations on size and speed (maybe not even top end speed but his acceleration) will mean he may never be a great 2-way guy. If he works on his positioning and reaction he can still get better though. VO, honestly I don't think he is as bad as everyone says. Is he good? No, but his giveaways in the D-zone and him chasing the puck and leaving opposing players open isn't as bad as others. As you said, he may not be willing to engage and he doesn't go to the boards and take the puck away from others, but I don't see him 'give up his spot' that much. He isn't an asset in the D-zone, but I also don't see him as a huge, mistake making liability.

I agree with you on that. Honestly, I am happy with Cozens overall, I think he is putting up more points and goals than I thought possible. I thought he would max out as a 20-25 goal, 50-60 point guy. He's better than that. My point is that is D-zone and neutral zone coverage is awful. But that might be a good thing because that is easier to 'fix' (or at least improve) compred to trying to 'teach' someone to score. As I said in my original post, some people like to think of Cozens as a good 'two-way' guy, and that isn't true. Aggressive skating and willingness to follow up a hit/check doesn't mean he is a good 2 way guy, far from it. Cozens needs to get better, but his game just may not lend itself ever to being that 2-way shutdown center. The Sabres may need to find someone else to fill that role.

Fletcher being out is a good thing, but they have to change their whole organizational philosophy. If you get rid of the GM but ownership/scouting/other management doesn't do a 360 on how they want to build a team, it won't change much.

Maybe he is getting better. I posted in another thread about Cozens, that Cozens is the bigger issue. Quinn, through the entire year, I have noticed a lot. Again, maybe he is getting better, I 'casually' watch the Sabres games (probably see 50-60% of the entire game) but I do focus on the goals allowed. Either way, as he gains experience and hopefully a little size, he will be better on loose pucks because, over the entire year, he has cost the Sabres goals. The low hanging fruit is Cozens and Tage though. If they could get even to 'average' in terms of D-zone coverage, that would be a big impact for the team.

He loses a lot of puck battles on the boards. Again, I have not watched every single minute of every sabres games, but in the D-zone when I watch replays of goals allowed, a lot of times (A few goals a month it seems), I post on this board that the puck was on the boards with Quinn and a player from the other team, Quinn loses the battle and the puck goes out to the eventual goal scorer. Maybe his positioning is better than Peterka or Cozens, but Quinn does lose a lot of costly battles.

Everyone seems to want to think a D-man would have made the difference. I STILL see the D-zone coverage by the Forwards as the biggest issue this team has when allowing goals. I am not a coach, never played anything close to high level hockey, but I see D-men, even the 3rd pair guys, doing "OK" with their coverage. I do NOT see forwards holding their position in the D-zone though. When a D-man goes to the boards, I often don't see a Forward drop down into coverage. I see forwards vacting their spot to chase pucks when D-men are already there. The D-men aren't perfect, but it is often the forwards, the Forward most of us LIKE (Tage, Cozens, the young guys like Quinn and Petera) who are a bigger issue. A trade for a D-man isn't going to fix that. Experience will. Those guys getting older will. Those guys WANTING to watch video and put the mental work in will. But that will take time.

Dylan Cozens. He is worth his new contract. He looks like he can be a regular 30 goal scorer. He has a great attitude. He will forecheck and hit. He is very likeable. But we shouldn't confuse wanting to hit people and being aggressive on the forecheck with being a good 2 way player. More often than not, he is bad, and I mean BAD with D-zone coverage. If I wanted to really rub people the wrong way, I'd say his D-zone coverage and his D-zone "IQ" is the foward equivilant of what Risto is/was. Cozens can still learn and grow, but this offseason the coaches need to flood him with videos of his own play and someone like Bergeron and have him improve that part of his game. I have watched replays of goals allowed most of this season and posted about a lot of them. Often times, it is Cozens that is over-aggressive in his own zone and leaves spots open where the goals are scored from. He either has no idea who his guy is most of the time, or just can't control his urge to chase the puck. Patrice Bergeron is the gold standard for Defensive forwards. He is almost always in position. He doesn't leave his spot to chase a hit. He will often times give up a big hit for a much smaller one if it means he can stay on his feet and get back into the play. I have seen him often times use his stick instead of making a hit, again so he can get back into the play that .5 seconds faster. Cozens is the opposite of that. AGAIN, Cozens is having a good year and he is definitley a key to this team winning going forward, but he has a LOT Of work to do without the puck in the neutral zone or his own zone without the puck. Almost every other forward on this team has better positioning than he does. Its not just one game, it is most games.

This is an older article (about 1.5 years old) but it brought up some of the issues we are talking about here: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/21/sports-fans-are-being-sidelined-as-rsns-fight-the-decay-of-pay-tv.html Some highlights: Comcast stopped carrying Altitude Sports, the regional network that owns broadcast rights for both teams, because the two sides couldn’t reach a carriage agreement. Comcast said at the time that more than 95% of its customers watched the equivalent of less than one game per week.“My friends and family used to be so passionate, but now that you can’t watch, you’re not as in tune with what’s going on,” Wieger said. “You’re not as excited. You’re not as engaged.” Comcast wants to sell its RSNs. Comcast shut down its NBC Sports Northwest RSN on Sept. 30, after losing the broadcast rights to air games from the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers. AT&T considered selling theirs before agreeing to merge WarnerMedia with Discovery earlier this year. There’s also the future of fandom. If fewer people are exposed to local sports because they’re no longer available on their bundle and consumers can’t find them outside of pay-TV, younger audiences may have little interest in going to games or buying hats and jerseys. Warning signs are already present. Research shows that younger Americans are far less likely than their parents to watch live sports. “Forget the actual teams and regional sports networks, it’s not going to be good for the sport or the leagues,” said Michael Schreiber, CEO of Playfly Sports, a sports marketing and media company. “The trick is maintaining high exposure of live games across the U.S. at the same time as creating new, innovative ways to access the content.” The biggest obstacle for a streaming service is affordability. Based on contracts with pay-TV operators, Sinclair would be forced to charge much more for a direct-to-consumer product than the amount that Comcast, DirecTV and Dish pay the company. One industry insider told CNBC the typical rate for a consumer would be five times higher. Last month, Comcast dropped MSG Network from its Xfinity channel lineup, claiming that viewership was “virtually non-existent.”“We don’t believe that our customers should have to pay the millions of dollars in fees that MSG is demanding for some of the most expensive sports content in the country with extremely low viewership in our markets,” Comcast said in a statement. “Almost 95% of all customers who received MSG over the past year did not watch more than 10 of the approximately 240 games it broadcast.”

Except the post I reacted was about where the Sabres would be in the standings if they didn't have their 8 game losing streak. So the very nature of what that post was about is where they would be relative to OTHER TEAMS. And by the way, that 8 game losing streak was against 'other teams', whether they make the playoffs or not is dependant on 'other teams'. The logic of saying what if the Sabres did this or didn't do that only matters if you recognize the existence of other teams. The Sabres playing in a 'league of one team', wouldn't be very exciting for many of us...and in all honesty, would make for a very boring message board.

But then what would happen if Pittsburgh also didn't have their 7 game losing streak and a seperate 6 game streak? Ottawa had a 7 game losing streak also. Washington and the Islanders also had a 6 game losing streak, Detroit a 6 game losing streak twice. I guess my point is a loss is a loss, the order doesn't matter. And if it DOES matter the order (a streak can compound itself), then the same thing applies to other teams. If instead of a losing streak, you 'give' the Sabres half the available points, then do the same with the other teams around you with their multi-week streaks, and you end up in about the same place in the standings.

My thoughts have only changed slightly. This team gets hot and cold, a 2-3 game win streak will get them right back into it, and if you can get back into it, you are never out. As of January when we started talking about this more, I thought they could make it but I put the odds at less than 50% then. 3 months later I'm still at the same place. After the last 2 games is it less likely? Yes, but its still possible. Its why they play the games and why we watch the games.

No. Tage had a 'career' year last year, so that would have applied now. Cozens and Dahlin are young and of an age where they are still developing. Skinner has been 'consistent' under any coach other than Krueger. Tuch and Mitts, can they 'backslide'? sure, but I don't think that woudl have a huge impact on the team because I dont' think they will fall down that far. Improvement in Cozens and Dahlin, (especially Cozens D-zone play), improvement in Quinn, Power, and Peterka....should MORE than offset any 'backsliding off of a career year'. Statistically, maybe Cozens and Dahlin will backslide, maybe they won't. But they bott (along with Paterka and Quinn) should get better in other parts of their game. Dahlin has been really solid this year, but Quinn, Peterka, Powers and Cozens all have had issues in their own end or when defending that they can get better with as they get more experience. So even if they get worse statistically (which isn't a sure thing) you would think their overall game should get better.

From what I read about him, and the little I have seen so far, this may be true. He can be a regular on the team on a lower line and have a role against certain teams, but I have to still be convniced he can be a 15+ minute player every night and be effective.

Plus Dahlin didn't look exactly 100% to me last game. Hopefull he'll be back to 100% tonight, but if you have less than a 100% Dahlin, no Stillman or Sameulsson....could be a long night on the back end.