mjd1001

Quinn is playing in some kind of fog. I know he didin't have a concussion, but he seems like someone who had a major concussion and came back way too early. Cozens is just a bad hockey player right now, he hurts more than he helps. He IS usually good at generating his own shots (sometimes good shots) but he is bad at shooting accuracy, bad at neutral zone and defensive zone positioning, bad at faceoffs, bad at setting up his line-mates well and making those on the ice better around him. Right now he's not 'just not performing to expectations', he is actually, legitimately bad.

So, more than enough room to sign Peterka, pay for Skinner's increased cap buyout coming up, probably sign Byrum....AND...is it too late to get ANYTHING of value back for Cozens if you trade him and retain a bit? Also, prepare to overpay for a 2nd line winger if Quinn doesn't snap out of whatever he is in right now.

Its also time for UPL to be healthy and Levi to get some time in Rochester. Since last year and including this year: UPL: 2.62 GAA, .909 save %, team plays at a 91 point pace (not good enough most years but WOULD be in a playoff position this year) Levi: 3.29 GAA, .893 save %, team plays at a 79 point pace.

As of this morning, 8th place in the conference is still only .500 in terms of point percentage. Sabres are at .472. A win last night WOULD have put them at .527 (in sole possession of a playoff spot) They are only 1 point back. After last nights game if feels a lot worse than that. They need Tage and UPL back healthy.

I love doing scoring paces per 82! Jeff Skinner: 14 goals, 14 assists, 28 points, -32, 13:42 ice time per game Dylan Cozens: 14 goals, 18 assists, 32 points, -32, 17:48 ice time per game Jack Quinn: 5 goals (All empty netters!), 19 assists, 24 points, -29, 15:06 ice time per game. Some others: Tage: 56 goals, 36 assists, 92 points, +36, 18:19 ice time per game Tuch: 23 goals, 55 assists, 78 points, +36, 20:01 ice time per game (he kills penalties a lot now too)) Peterka: 36 goals, 46 assists, 82 points, +15, 18:05 ice timer per game McLeod: 27 goals, 27 assists, 54 points, +32, 15:58 ice time per game Zucker: 14 goals, 41 assists, 55 points, +9, 15:08 ice timer per game It is obvious to me the Sabres have a legit 1st line. Now like any other first line in the league they aren't going to score EVERY game, but when they are together, they are playing great. The 3rd line also. Extremely legit 3rd line so far. Many winning teams would be happy with that 3rd line. The issue is the Cozens/Quinn Benson(whoever else) line but especially Cozens and Quinn. When your first line doesn't produce, you can still win games if your 2nd and/or 3rd line step up. You need your 2nd line to get you at least 60 goals, probably more. They aren't even getting half that from their 2nd line. IF the 2nd line would just be meeting their career averages in production, this team might have a few more wins. But its not just their production, that line is also making more defensive mistakes, turning the puck over, and making bad decisions in the neutral zone, probably more than any of the other lines also. "thinking" on ice is not Cozens strong suit...for a week or so he got better, but the last few games he is reverting back to what he normally is, and that isn't good. Last night was Cozens night to step up. Tage is out. You are playing an 'average' team. You are an "A" on this team, supposedly the highest ranking Center without Tage. You are the $7m guy. And what did we get? Barely a whimper. Yeah, the team has a few problems. I'm ready to drive Levi down to Rochester myself and keep him there until the calendar hits 2025, but with UPL hurt, what do you do? But think of it this way: Suppose the Cozens line makes just one less dumb neutral zone or D-zone play every 3-4 games that results in a goal against. That saves you at least 3-4 goals this year so far. Now pretend they are both on mid-20 goal paces (not 30+, just mid 20). That gets you at about 6 more goals (maybe more depending on their linemate) Sprinkle in 6+ goals and take away 3-4 allowed over the course of the season, and you have an extra 1-3 wins likely and are in a lot better shape in the playoff race.

Of course the question is, if who he sold them to would keep them here. That is the key. But if there was another owner that would keep them hear, of course yes, sell them, 100%. He has been the worst owner overseeing the worst stretch by any of the 4 major sports teams in North American in modern history.

Quinn and Cozens so far this year...2 guys that I think most thought of would give you 20+ goals and decent hopes for 30. At least 50+ goals between them was a decent expectation going into the season.... Between both of them combined: 35 games played. 4 goals (one being an empty netter) 78 shots. That is a 5.1% shooting percentage. -13.

This game just reinforces that the only two potential difference makers on this team seem to be Tage and UPL... And that's when UPL isn't having a bad game. Levi isn't ready. It's not just tonight's game but he hasn't made many good saves all year. I'm trying to hold on to the hope that Cozens is just very streaky, but he doesn't seem to be any kind of a difference maker at all for what he's getting paid. It's hard to comprehend how him and Tage could be getting paid basically the same thing.

good point, but with Skinner and a little hindsight, maybe its not just him: -Brindamour took over in Carolina coaching in 2018, it was the offseason he took over that Carolina decided to trade him to Buffalo. It looks like Brindamour wanted nothing to do with Skinner. -After ONE good season with Housley, Krueger took over and he wanted nothing to do with Skinnner as we all know. -Skinner did pretty good under Granato, then Ruff took over and the Sabres (possibly with input from Ruff) wanted nothing to do with Skinner, to the extent of an expensive buyout. -He goes to Edmonton. It took to the 4th game of the season for his ice time to be cut below 15 minutes per game and have him mostly off the first 2 lines. The last 2 games he's averaged right around 10 minutes (or under) of ice time. It appears over most of his career, many of his coaches have a VERY short leash with him and are quick to cut his ice time down, or downright want him no-where near their team. Krueger didn't want him at all on his team, nor Brindamour, Nor Ruff, and after 1 month in Edmonton he's getting the same treatment there.

They may have seen the first part of that cliff: -0 goals in his last 13 games for the Sabres last year (really bad for a guy whos only job is to score goals.) -no goals in 32 of his last 36 games with the Sabres. I would have been good with them giving him another year at the time of the buyout....Looks like the team was correct and I was wrong on that one.

Thats interesting, I don't have facebook so nothing loads, but is it a current pictures? Is he taking a trip with the team?

I got flooded on Bluesky this morning with a bunch of Buffalo Bills posts directly from them. Sabres have an account, but still nothing from them. Kinda odd that the Bills are posting a lot on there but zero from the Sabres.

Not that anyone follows my posts, but if you look back at the last year, I was really hard on both Krebs and Cozens, Krebs in particular. I thought he was a bad player, not useless as a 'person but useless as an NHL hockey player, I said over and over he brought nothing of value to the team and I wouldn't have even brought him back for the league minimum. This year I actually LIKE his game. He makes a bad mistake once or twice a week, but almost every other aspect of his game he is much better. He seems to be skating 'harder' and he is by far the best faceoff guy on this team. Its not a small sample size either, he's taken over 100 and he is at over 56%. Now that doesn't mean he is a crucial piece to this team winning a ton more games. Its not lost on me that he is only getting 12 minutes of ice time per game, if he took a huge leap forward the coaches would see that and give him more ice time. But we talked on this forum before the season started, with Lindy Ruff here, would there be any players that just play better because they respond to him or players that for no reason other than him don't respond well? I think Krebs is one who is responding well.

I'm hoping that might be true. I have said that I think Cozens could function well as the 'net front presense' (along with Greenway) on the PP. Just have those 2 guys stand there, make the opposing team worry about them, have them provide a screen, and when there are rebounds have them knock the puck in the net. You don't need a super accurate shot for that, just decent hands and tenacity. I'd like to see them use Cozens more that way. Like you said, new coach, new ideas. Between who he has coached and coached against, there probably isn't much Lindy hasn't seen.

He doesn't function well on the powerplay though, that isn't his game. He gets plenty of PP time, but even in his 30 goal year, he had only 5 PP goals. Every other year of his career, he has only had 1 or 2 for the entire season.

https://bsky.app/profile/joeyerdon.bsky.social/post/3layvankm322k It appears Jordan Greenway vanished from the ice surface. He was out there earlier… https://bsky.app/profile/billhoppe.bsky.social/post/3layvtblmyc2c Sabres stretchin’. Jordan Greenway left the session. https://bsky.app/profile/llysowski.bsky.social/post/3layvcv46oc2s Jordan Greenway left the ice in the middle of practice. We'll ask Lindy Ruff about it afterwards.

I thought I heard lower body the other day also....not on an official report, but someone said 'lower body' during the game when he got hurt

Agree. Levi needs to play. But right now its clear UPL is the better goaltender at the moment. As you said you can move Levi up and down...but even take that out of it, Its not like Levi has been much better than Reimer in the small sample size this year. Reimer save% in his 2 games .864. Levi .870. Both awful in a small sample size, but I would say both are likely to be somewhat better with more work. I've had a couple people disagree with me on this, but Levi to me does not look good at all this year. On the goals he has allowed, he has kicked out some big time rebounds, he isn't tracking the puck well (he sometimes goes to the wrong side of the net when the puck is behind the net, it happened last night), and he is letting bad goals in. I know these are NHL shooters, but when you see the shooter, the shot is not screened, you have time to set for the shot AND there is no one trailing or on the other side to worry about, you need to make those saves. He didn't do that last night on the 2nd goal and he's allowed some softies in during other games. He needs more work. -He needs experience working with Pro D-men and knowing how to communicate with them and understanding what they will do. -He needs experience tracking the play from the net, learning how to follow the puck and anticipate where it might go. -He needs experience knowing what angles to take or how much to come out of the net to challenge guys with pro level shots That is game-level experience you can't really get in practice or learn by watching film. He isn't doing that on the bench, he CAN be doing that in Rochester. If he can go to Rochester, play another 30-50 pro games this year, he will be a much better goalie for it. Going back to the 80's on that one, I was a little kid. I barely remember but I was thinking more of the Barrasso/Cloutier combo later in the 80's. I didn't look up the numbers, but I throught those 2 did somewhat of a 50-30 split (on average) over the course of a few years.

Agreed. Those 3 guys are potentially very good/great puck movers, which is an under-rated aspect of defensive zone play. When the puck is in your own zone, get to the puck quickly (skating), control the puck (hands) make carry the puck out of the zone (Skating) or make a good break-out pass (passing).....well needless to say getting the puck out of your zone effectively is good defense in itself. They all have that ability, I am thinking/hoping they will get better with the above and make less mistakes with continued experience.

I'm happy overall with the Defensive unit. Clifton and Bryston or Samuelsson (or someone else) can be my 3rd pair getting 13-15 minutes even strength ice time per game. If one or 2 of them could kill penalties, even the better. Dahlin, Power, and Byrum are fine/really good in the top 4. Now just get one more guy to fill in. I don't care who plays with who, I dont' care if you move them around. I think they are close to having a quality NHL defensive core.

They are a positive in goal differential. In the past 3 years, 88% of teams in the east that had a positive goal differential by the end of the season made the playoffs. They are top 10 in the league in goals. Goaltending has been an issue, but UPL seems like he is starting to come around. The next week+ games are very winnable, If this team plays how they should and Tage comes back, things should be fine.

I forgot about Johnson. He was up and down, but he did have some good games last year. I wonder how well he is playing in Rochester? You have 'depth' here right now, but if Johnson is playing well, I wouldn't mind seeing him up here. Maybe more as a replacement for Jokiharju than Samuelsson though, in terms of style.

I have come to accept that Cozens is not going to be a consistent 30+ goal guy. When you look back at his stats over his career, he has wild swings, and I mean WILD swings in his shooting percentage. Yes, all goal scorers are hot and cold, but they may fluctuate a few percentage points year to year or month to month within a year. Cozens will go from 15% for one month, then he'll shoot 3-4% for 2 full months, before being back up to above 10%. I think when you accept that is who he is, it becomes easier to deal with. Personally I'm pretty sure we are going to see stretches of him this year where people will think and say "he's back!" and "he is well worth his contract!", only to be followed by a month or two, or maybe a future full season where he gives off vibes like he did for the first month. He has no consistency at all to his game. The hope is he gets 'hot' when the Sabres are entering the playoffs.

Anything that is an improvement from the production they have been giving you will be welcome obviously. For me, a good team should expect 50 goals at least from your 2nd line....60 is what you really aim for. That group is far from that still unless they really light things up.

The officials I dont think are anti-Buffalo. I just think they are so bad sometime, and when you make so many mistakes odd say that some games those mistakes will go against one team more than the other.