mjd1001

I remember a lot of similar talk in baseball like that. I'm sure it happens a lot (don't watch baseball anymore) but it was a big deal in the early 2000's Yankees-Red Sox games. You throw at our guy, it doesn't matter if I can't throw at you because you are a pitcher..I'll throw at YOUR best player. Not sure if it worked, but the logic is, the BEST way to prevent cheap shots taken at your team is to take a shot back...not at the offending guy (who often is likely not going to be missed much) but at one of THEIR best players. If the Sabres had the reputation of responding to cheap shots by taking them at the other teams top guys....you may have the coach of the other team tell them to lay off more than by doing anything else.

I'd be happy with either first or the 2nd. Do the first. If you don't, do the 2nd. I slightly favor the 2nd (takign a shot at one of their top guys). Dropping the gloves with Noesen...does that really do anything to prevent this from happening again? I don't think so. Taking a shot at Hughes every chance you get...THAT will get noticed more. Honestly the more I write this and think about it....if an enforcer for the other team was on the ice and took a shot at one of my players..I'd rather NOT challenge him but right away find who is the most skilled player on the ice for the team and go drop the gloves with him...and when that fight is done on the way to the box yell at the enforcer guy that started it something like "how do you like that response".

I know this gets brough up all the time and I get shot down for bringing it up (probably appropriately)....but, can a 'new' vesion of Empire sports network work, with Pegula owning the Sabres, Bills and Bandits (and Amerks?) They can offer it on cable and/or a subscription app. (could probably make a good $$$ on people from out of town signing up for a few dollars a month) The Sabres and Bills radio shows that are already broadcast on MSG Sabres games. Some Amerks games (if allowed). Bandits games. Do stuff on the new Stadium where Maddy Glab just walks around the job site and shows pictures of beams and concrete, I"m sure people would watch that. Replays of those games, and to fill time "classic" games or any other affordable (cheap) team related proggramming the can do (Broadcast the stuff they have on Youtube). I'm not sure if it can be profitable, but they sure would have access to programming. And it might be a good way to 'advertise" for their teams in the local area too.

What is his definition of a #1 D-man? If he gets the money he wants...and if he gets the ice time (he's over 23 minutes per game now) He's right around 30th in the league in ice time. 2nd on the Sabres in overall ice time, and he gets used both PK and PP. Yeah, in the media he will be #2 to Dahlin, but if he gets used as much as a #1 guy, and gets paid what he wants...isn't that good enough? I don't know, just wondering...

I still don't know if the fight did much to change him. Most things about him were the same before the fight and after: Shots per game, high danger chances, ice time, clutch scoring (or lack of it), hits, usage (PK and PP), his stats on skating speed, 'speed burts'...so many things are the same, or very close before the fight and after the fight. Only one single thing changed in a meaningful way from the year before...his shooting percentage. I mean, is it possible that the fight impacted just his ability to shoot accurately and nothing else? I guess, maybe? Its strange that would be the only measurable impacted: Cozens shooting percentage 2022-23: 14.7% (81 games)) Cozens shooting pre-fight 2023-23: 14.3% (11 games) Cozens shooting post fight: 8.4% (120 games)

A team that is currently in playoff position....the Sabres A team that finished last in the conference the last 2 seasons and now moved up quite a bit vs....the Sabres An improving team with the MOST cap space in the league vs....the Sabres A team that has their defense corp in their prime (top 4 averageng 28 years of age) vs....the Sabres A team whos turnaround is so drastic they went from a -63 goal differential last year, and are positive this year vs...the Sabres Basically, a team that, at least for the moment, looks like they are doing a rebuild textbook perfect vs....the Sabres

I used to think there was some carry-over from the way you finished one season to the beginning of the other. Of course, it would depend on what you did in the offseason, but I THOUGHT if you finished strong at the end of one season, it was at least a sign that your team had turned some kind of corner. This team the last few years though....nope. Prove it to me. I'll even take it one step further...this team during the drought has had GOOD starts and then faded and missed the playoffs. I'm not going to beleilve anything with this team until they can complete a 95+ point, in the playoff season.

I'm OK with the POSSIBILITY that Kulich is 1c next year....I'm just not OK with it being your only plan. If he continues to play at his recent rate of production the rest of this season, and then even takes a step up in camp next year and continues his good play into the season, fine. If he HAS gotten to that level of play then he can be the 1C. The issue is, as others have said, you absolutely cannot rely on it. More often than now with this franchise recently, a short term projection to a very good player doesn't always get to that destination in a straight, upward projected line.

I'm not saying the Lucic incident was done to the Sabres because of the owner. I'm saying its possible the owner wanted to move away from the type of players who can/would respond to that. The Lucic incident is just one example...look at the roster construction and the way the franchise went from when he became and owner. Fighting went down across the league over the last 15 years, but the Sabres being a team willing and able to respond seems to have gone down even more than the rest of the league, and it seems the time that happened is about the exact time Pegula took over.

I don't have too much data to support thigs, so just throwing this out there... Maybe Pegula really really wants a skilled team and doesn't want the tougher/enforcer type guys and he set the direction. -When he speaks about him being a fan, he brings up the French connection (nothing wrong with that) and the players he liked....not much ever mentioned about guys like Shoenfeld, Ramsay, Foligno...etc. -During his time as owner, through MANY different GM's, very few tough/physical players were drafted. Maybe the last one that fits that mold was Marcus Foligno, but he was drafted Before Pegula. -Every year they have a chance to bring in guys like that, and again, through multiple GM's, they pass on them almost every year. -A lot of their coaching hires under Pegula are guys who don't seem to demand the 'though' part of the game but rather focused on skill. Not all of them, but certainly some. Again, no idea if it is a direction from the Top, but the lack of 'toughness' and 'accountability' seems to have started the moment he became owner and got his input in building the organization. The sign that all this started was the Miller-Lucic hit...was was just 2 months into the first year he owned the team, if i'm not mistaken.

The New Jersey player. No sabres would go after him, but the linesman did.

Did Quinn get hurt again or just benched? by far and away the least ice time among forwards with about 8 minutes. After looking like he was turning it around he now has only 1 goal and 2 assists in his last 9 games. I'm just not sure if its a benching or something injury related I missed (didn't see the entire game)

For me its not so bad if he told them not to retaliate after the moment was over to try to win the game. I could go either way on that. The issue was the lack of an immediate response. If you didn't see it, all you need to do is skate over to your bench and ask someone on it who did it...or better yet the guys on the bench should be YELLING out the the guys on the ice who did it. Once the moment is over. yeah, try to win the game and don't get sucked into something stupid. But in the moment, that is my issue.

The thing I keep going back to everytime the Sabres have an incident like this (which seems to happen a few times a year), is why doesn't Lindy demand a guy on his roster who can respond. He has spoken extensively since he came back in the offseason, both in an interview with Rob Ray and even when Ray wasn't there, about how having a guy like that is useful. He had MacDermid in New Jersey just for that reason. Why is it every indication is that Ruff likes having a guy or two like that 'in reserve' and has even talkeda bout it, but yet he didn't ask for one on this roster? Its not like he has been a certain type of coach for 20+ years and then just changed this very year with Buffalo.

That answer is the correct answer if you are in a playoff spot or have a legit chance of getting to one. But with the position the Sabres are in....not quite as much.

Its a tough question. Just even with the players you mentioned above, I can make a case for a few of them. No one really clear cut to me unless I can think about it a lot more.

That is the only thing about Tage's game I really am upset with, and I agree with you on the bolded. He plays like a 50 goal scorer when he his healthy, but it seems like whenver he comes back from any injury, it takes a couple weeks before he gets back to where he needs to be. The issue this seems to be happening a lot lately. its a bad time too, since the Holidays in the last 17 games, he has points in 14 of them: 10 goals, 23 points, kinda carrying the team. It seems that almost half of the offense the past month has come from just him and Kulich. If he misses any time, and if so when he does come back it might take his few games to get back to this level...just unfortunate.

Agreed. I do not like fighting in hockey, If I see a well played, end to end game I don't think about fighting anymore...but you should have 1 or 2 guys that can play that game. I know, an enforcer who is decent on the ice is hard to find, but they have had years to find one, its about time.

Is now. With the Sabres, wasn't always the case, as per my previous post. If you still insist on arguing he IS one now, then I obviously didn't do enough to explain my point of view in my previous post.

Yeah, I think we are disagreeing about different things. Again, I'm not saying he isn't a very good passer or he isn't a great player. He is. I was just confronted when I said he wasn't a playmaker when he was with the Sabres, and I stand by him. I'm talking STYLE with the SABRES, not overall ability and not what he is now. Maybe due to coaching, teammates, experience, he HAS become more of a playmaker in Vegas than he was here.

I'm not saying he didn't make the players around him better, but to me that's different than being a playmaker. A playmaker to me, as I described above for how we are having this discussion, is somebody who is going to look to set up his teammates first. Eichel made his teammates better because of his overall skill, not because he was a playmaker-set up my linemates first guy. He drew attention due to his overall ability and that opened things up fro them. And I'm not saying he was bad at passing. He was good but he wasn't always a.. get to the net and distribute type of guy. When he played for the Sabres, his game was he carried the puck into the zone, he controled the zone entries. But then, as we had many discussions on this forum years ago, he would cross the blue line with speed, then SLOW down and look to pass the puck to his wingers to set up the offense in the zone. When he did get the puck later deeper into the zone (even strength or on the PP) after the offense was set up, he would get to the slot and he would take more shots than he would pass. I'm pretty sure he had a good number more goals than he did primary assists. To me that is the sign of a good overall player, but not what we are discussing as a 'playmaker'. I understand all of your points but again... Maybe it's semantics... When I'm talking about a playmaker I'm talking about somebody like Adam Oates... Or Backstrom in Washington... Guys whose first thought was get the puck to my wingers at all costs in a great position before they would even consider shooting. Look at how Dubois is playing with Washington this year. When you watch him play, he sometimes skates the puck through or across the slot, not even looking at the net but looking to see who he can pass to. THAT is a playmaker. Or of course McKinnon...he shoots and scores a lot when on the rush, but when they have things set in the offensive zone, his game is to draw defenders toward him and then find the open linemate. That is another good example of a playmaker. (Jack Hughes and Barkov are 2 others I think of with this style of play also) Eichel may have made his wingers better because of his pure talent... But his mentality was that not that is he distributing playmaker. He was more balanced. Sorry.

When he was with the Sabres... He put up a lot of points one year but I wouldn't call him a world-class playmaker then. He's become more of a pass first player with Vegas than he was with the sabres. He's gotten better as he's matured. I'm sorry but his time in Buffalo, he was more of a balanced player. When he set up other players... It was less about him having great vision and looking to pass first and making pinpoint passes, rather than it was about him drawing attention as the best overall player on the ice and taking advantage of that. I remember he would often carry the puck into the offensive zone and slow down, looking to pass the puck as he just crossed the blue line. But once he got in close to the net, he was not always looking 'pass first'. When I think of the word 'playmaker', I think of someone who gets the puck closer to the net, and then looks to set up linemates. Eichel was almost the opposite with the Sabres...he would 'distribute' after crossing the blue line, but the closer he got to the net, the more he looked to shoot. That is my memory of him with the Sabres.

Last year I would have said Mitts. This year...I assume we are talking about forwards otherwise I would probably say Dahlin. I don't see a player on this team as a pure playmaking forward. When I think of players that make great passes, an occasional one by Tuch or Thompson comes to mind, but neither of those guys are pure playmakers. They might actually be shoot-first players who happen to have the ability to make a nice pass every once in a while which is the only reason I remember them. I can't even remember when they had a good playmaker. Reinhart maybe? Vanek had good vision and involved his teammates but he was more of a shoot-first guy. Eichel I guess? No one really stands out on this team in recent memory. Is Tuch a good playmaker from the wing and that is one of the reasons why Thompson is their best goal scorer because he plays with Tuch? I'm really at a loss here for thinking of anyone this team has, or has had, that is a legit good playmaker.

I guess its up to the coach and how you structure lines, and how well the players work together. But if you can structure lines a certain way....or have players play in 'non traditional' rolls, then I guess it doesn't really matter if you are a center or winger, so maybe this conversation is a moot point, just giving us something to talk about. But, then again, I DO think of defensive responsibilities. At least with the Sabres under Granato and Ruff, the person assigned to Center in the defensive zone is the one who covers the center of the ice, while the wingers seem to be the ones going to the boards. Maybe the roll of Center vs Wing in the modern NHL matters a lot for defensive zone assignments...a moderate amount for neutral zone play, and matters the least for offensive zone play?

I'm just going on the Center being more important on making the better choice, because historically I think the Center has more zone entries than the wingers do and the Center has more time with the puck in the offensive zone than the wingers do. I know I read someplace, on Twitter on on here, that someone posted something to that effect, and I think it makes sense. So, I was just going on the idea that the guy in the position that has the puck more often (usually the center) I want as the one that makes the best decisions.