mjd1001

Agree. I'm just hoping Rochester holds onto their playoff spot (looks like they will) and he gets some playoff games with the guys down there, and hopefully they win at least one series again.

I too would LIKE someone on the Sabres to have the ability to 'answer the bell' in those situations, but I don't care that much. There are some who lement fighting leaving the league and some who don't need it at all. Give me end to end hockey with goals, and I don't need it at all. But it is what it is. I was watching the game last night and when the puck dropped, I didn't turn away form the TV. But for Rempe himself, something about him rubs me the wrong way. A couple of dirty hits, doesn't seem to be going out of his way to avoid them. Then he gets in fights...some are a draw, some he losses, and yet he seems to always want to skate by the opponents bench and say something or salute the crowd after a fight. Its like man, you got in a fight you didn't win...the reason you got in that fight is because you dirty hit someone, and after that fight you are going to go yapp at the opponents bench on the way off the ice? To me, not cool.

I don't mind McDermott as coach, I guess I kinda like him. I'm not married to the idea of him being here forever, but I never really was ever on the train of firing him, or even thinking about it. With that said, he is a little strange with the media. At times its like he is trying to be like Bellichick with giving nothing to the media, but he does it his own way trying at time to be SLIGHLTLY more friendly, but its just, I don't know, it comes across as really strange. Back onto Diggs, after listening, reading others opinions, and thinking of the trade, I'm really really good with it. I've posted many times that I want this team to get younger. Before LAST year I thought the Diggs extension was a mistake, and yes, I did post that I didn't want Vonn Miller at all even when he first arrived, and I think last year was the year to move on from Poyer and Hyde, not this year. I prefer a younger/more athletic time. I know, sometimes you need veterans, and if I had my way the football or hockey team I put together would always be a bit too young, but that is what I like. I never liked guys that much who "made their name" with other teams and then were aquired. Yes, your franchise gets attention for that, but for me its just more fun bringing in relative 'unknowns' and having them make their name WITH you....and then I prefer getting rid of players a year too early rather than a year too late. Plus Diggs, I was never a fan of his social media presense. Yeah, I know we can ignore it if we want, but just something about me, I prefer guys/players/stars who stay off of Social media (kinda like Josh Allen) rather than guys who 'build their brand' on it, and always need to have some interaction on it. Just me. To be totally honest, he was a Buffalo Bill but I really didn't like him. I'm going to look forward to watching a younger (if not as good for a year) team play football this year in the Bills. I"m going to look forward to seeing what moves they make in the offseason. Next to winning the Superbowl, the Bills are now in position that makes me the MOST interested I can possibly be in them....The team building/team construction aspect is the most fun thing for me as a fan, certainly a lot more fun than just 'running the vets' back out there year after year.

This may be something I posted in the past, but it came up today again so I'm posting it again. on Espn, Stephen A. Smith. He just yells and yells and yells, how does anyone like that, let a long tolerate it? I hardly watch ESPN anymore, but after the Diggs trade, I turned it on for a few minutes yesterday. Turned off the TV after a couple minutes. So just a few minutes ago, I turn the tv on and because ESPN was on last, it came on right away, and immediately, I have no idea what it was even about, he's just yelling, like on the verge of screaming. How does someone make a career about complaining about things in sports, being angry all the time, and just yelling on tv? I don't get it.

I agree for the most part. People wanting him to hit, to be a "Chris Pronger" type, thats just not his game. It doesn't matter that he is as big/tall as he is. Most of us know the stats. Hits per 60 minutes...Power is at 1.57 this year. Clifton is a 9.45, Samuelsson 7.7. Dahlin at 5.5 Byram at 5. The Sabres are a team notorious for not hitting and its almost like Power shys away from contact. The top D-men around the league are around 15 hits per 60. But..there are a lot of guys like Power below 2 hits per 60 that are very good D-men. Hampus Lindholm in Boston is 1.8. Pesce and Slavin in Carolina are below 2. Cale Makar is at 1.2. Josi at 1.39. Quinn Hughes at 0.79! So, you don't have to hit to be a very good/great D-man. Is Power any of those guys...No, not yet, but he is still developing his game. So, people see a big body and they want hits. Power just might have the skillset/gamestyle/mentality closer to those guys I listed above, its just that he happens to be that in a much larger/taller body. Hopefully he will turn into a D-man that gets you 10-20 goals, 50+ points, one who makes a great first pass out of the zone, is a very good penalty killer, and is skilled enough offensively to fill in on the Power play (and be effective handling the puck) when Dahlin or Byram are out or need a break. You get a guy like that (which I think is his projection and he is on his way there), then he can be a great D-man without hitting anyone. Would a few more hits be nice? Yeah, at times, but just becaue he is tall that doesn't mean that is who he is, he can be very good without playing that way.

High danger chances...basically right in front of the net. Half way or less from the circles to the goalposts, and between the dots. As of right now, leauge average for shots from there is 593 shots, the Sabres are at 545 shots. So yes, when people say its coaching because they are getting less chances from there, they are near the bottom, but not far away at all from league average. Last year they had 18 less shots than 'league average' from the high danger zone. This year they have 48 less. It would be reasonable to say the increased number of games missed by your top offensive players (Tuch, Skinner, Quinn, Thompson) and the level of their replacements along account for the change in those numbers. Their offensize zone time compared to defensive zone time is almost identical this year compared to last year. HOWEVER, the players part, converting those chances...the league average shooting percentage is 19.7% from the 'high danger' area. The Sabres are at only 14.7%. My point is..lets say the Sabres could change coaches and the same players who converate at 14.7% when they get those shots are not put on position to be there more often (lets say league average.) They would have 48 more shots, at 14.7%, which would (statisticall) equal about 7 more goals for the year. But lets flip it around. Lets say the same coaching staff gets them 'only ' 545 shots from those high danger areas, but they convert at just league average rate (19.7%). That gives them 27 more goals. So to me, this is more on the players than it is the coaces. Last year they converted in those high danger areas at 19.1%. Last year they were 3rd in the leauge in goals, and stil last year they were slightly below average in terms of total shots taken from the high danger areas. The main difference from this year to last year is the rate the players are converting those high danger shots. Whether it's Tage's wrist injury, Tuch being banged up since camp, Cozens regressing...etc. When you dig really deep into analytics, the 'fancy stats', you can come up with numbers to support any point of view you want. My main point is the one thing that doesn't change is simply this...compared to last year, the drop off in goals is due mostly/mainly to players simply not converting on chance this year that they were last year.

Quinn played many times better last game than before.

Nothing wrong with that. Trading a guy who in his mid 20's is coming into his own, leading your team in points, that seems to be liked well by management and his teammates. VS Trading a 30+ year old WR that didn't much much of a difference at all the last 10 games he played, who appears to be getting to the point in his career his skill is sliding and was/is due big contract dollars the next 3-4 years.

If you want to really stretch, Houston gets a guy on the decline, that they either overpay at what? $18m per year? Or the cut him themselves and lost the 2nd rounder they gave up for him. Maybe not this year, but you could have weakened (slightly) an opponent in the conference for the next few years.

It all depends on the money and your internal/analytical analysis. If you think Peterka projects to be a 30 goal scorer for most of his career (he's there now, what will he be in his mid to late 20's?), then you give him the long term deal. You pay more now when you have cap space to save a little bit later when you have a lot of other bigger deals giving you less space under the cap. You shouldn't bridge just because you are 'afraid' to make a mistake. If he is really good, giving him a bridge WOULD be the mistake. Again though, it depends on your internal analysis and what the asking price is. Without knowing those things, its hard to answer. If you don't trust the current managment to make that decision, that is a whole different issue.

The only thing I think of beyond his sliding production/age (and I do think that is the main issue) is, why take such a big cap hit this year (over $30 million it appears) if its just him getting older. They could just play him less, not dress him, etc rather than taking that cap hit. I still think there might be some behind the scenes stuff going on (or maybe if they played him less they might be AFRAID he would start doing that?) I guess you can just say this is the 'reset year'. Its not only about the cap hit, but if he's not part of your future, and the 'present' isn't as good as many thing, just move on, do the best you can in 2024, and reset and re-load for 2025.

His play seems to be sliding. Eye test: He was finding holes in zones where Allen hit him, but he wasn't making really any great plays, didn't seem to fool guys or blow by guys as much as he did a year or two ago. Stats: His last 13 games in a row he didn't exceed 100 yards receiving. In those 13 games, 7 of those 13 games, he didn't even get to 50 yards receiving. Age is catching up to him (and if it is, hes not likely to get better next year and likely might get worse) or Allen doesn't want to throw to him as much. You aren't getting rid of Allen so either of those 2 things are bad.

Early reports are the Bills having to take on $31million in cap space due to this. They must have REALLY thought he is on the downside, where his performance can be replaced by a top rookie, or there must REALLY be some problems he is causing with the team. I mean, if his skill is dropping off that fast, you could just bench him/not dress him and not take that cap hit. To take THAT much of a cap hit for a 2nd rounder in 2025, there had to be some serious isssues I would think.

I'm OK with this move. Some are huge fans of Diggs, I really never was. Mostly because I'm not big on the 'diva' WR thing. I get it, social media tweets are just 'playing with the fans', and they can/might mean nothing. To some people its entertaining, I get that, but its not really for me. But as far as play on the field, it looked like the end of the 2022 season, he might have been taking a very slight step back. Last year his performance for sure was starting to slide (to me). If they are projecting that is going to continue to happen, and they are thinking this year is a partial 'reset/retool' year, then I can see them making this move. Its almost like...they are going to take a step back this year, roll the dice with major changes, to prepare next year for the 2nd half of Allens's career here.

Not sure what it means? It just means a player that used to be in the Sabres organization is currently on a very hot run, and maybe has turned the corner into a legit NHL scorer. Many people on this board LIKE to keep track of former members of this team, so I"m not sure why you are questioning what it means be me posting it?

If you look at both the raw numbers and the percentages, they are only a small number (in terms of raw numbers) away form middle-of-the-pack in terms of high danger chances/shots....yet their percentages are WAY off. So, combine chances generated, shots taken, where they are taken from, with shooting percentages....and it is the players not converting that is the vast majoirty of the shortfall, not how often they are in position. If you run the numbers all the way though, and you will see if the players improved their performance (just revert to last year's mean OR be average in the league) and this team would be a lot better.

Alex Nylander scored 2 more last night.. Now with 10 goals in 17 games since traded to Columbus (48 goal pace over 82 games)

Why is Granato bad? Serious question. The results are bad, but when you dig into the metrics....what I see is a team that has improved its defensive zone coverage from last year. A team that GETS good scoring chances from high danger areas, just converts them at the lowest rate in the league (that has nothing to do with coaching, they are getting the chances, they are in position, they just aren't converting them). The thing I see keeping this team out of the playoffs more than anything else is simply the players not coverting shot into goals, getting shots in great areas, 2 on ones, breakaways, and just not converting those chances at anywhere near the rate of most other teams. The coaching staff is not perfect, but the guys are in position to score, how is another coaching staff going to make them better shooters?

Dahlin looks to be up on goals since last year but way down on assists. A simple reason he is down on assists? The guys in front of him (that he plays with most often) just aren't shooting as well. Tuch's Shooting percentage is down from over 16% to about 11%. Thompson from about 16% to only near 11% this year. Skinner down from 14.5% last year to about 12% this year. Cozens nearly cut in half from over 14% last year to about 8% this year. The thing is, those guys are getting about the same number of shots per game as last year, and a month or so ago the advanced fancy stats showed that at least with Cozens and Thompson, they were getting shots from the high danger areas (quality chance) about the same as last year. Meaning, Dahlin is getting the pucks up the ice and on to those guys sticks, they just aren't putting them in the net and he is getting less assists because of it. (which also impacts his plus-minus in a negative way). And as for those 'league leaders' and 'Norris candidates' ahead of Dahlin....Quinn Hughes in Vancouver. Makar. Josi. Hedman. What do they have that Dahlin doesn't have? Not any (or many) more goals, but they do have forward on their team that put the puck in the net a lot better than the Sabres forwards, giving them a lot more assists than Dahlin gets. Vancouvers top 4 goal scorers up front average almost 20% shooting percentage between them. Colorado's top 3 guys are at 13.1, 15.8, and 17.7. Tampa's top 4 guys have almost 140 goals between them and are average about 20% shooting. Buffalo? Every single player on the team with at least 10 goals is shooting under 13%. And when you break down the Sabres shooting..."high danger" chances (directly in front of the net), the league besides the Sabres shoots about 20%. The Sabres...14.1%. Colorado? 20.5% Vancouver? 23.4%. So, Dahlin not being near the top of the league in points and assists (along with goals) might just be more of a function of the players he plays with being SO MUCH worse than the rest of the league at putting the puck into the net, even from prime scoring areas. As you said, leading the league in ice time, improving corsi, improving hits, improving blocked shots....if he had the assists that would go with better play up front, he just might be in the Norris converstation this year (and when looking at those numbers, if the Sabres were even AVERAGE at how much they produce from the high danger areas, they would probably be in the playoffs right now.

I beleive that. I also think Granato is a pretty darn good development coach and might be a good coach overall. However, Its hard to know that with what might be going on from the top down. I'll give into the fact that if Granato is back next year and the team starts out terrible, then fine, fire him. But 2 things: Who that is better are you going to get to take the job? And whoever you get to take the job, are they going to be working under less than ideal conditions and will you get the best from them?

Does he have any Pride? He has MORE desire to have rose pedals thrown at his feet by his employees than he does have pride to make tough decisions or put people in place in his organization that will make decisions he doesn't personally like. To be honest, I (and probably most people) have really no idea what kind of owner he is, how involved he is in the 'on the ice' product..any of that. So anything I think/say is little more than a guess. With that said, I am 'guessing' he isn't a good owner and a lot of the issues here are his fault. I get the impression he meddles around the edges a LOT. Erhoff and Ville Leino, it seemed like a lot of smoke he insisted on those signings (I think Erhoff, one of his kids admitted Pegula wanted him, not so much management) and they were overpays. Skinner, I get the impression from a lot of 'chatter', Pegula wanted/was responsible for the trade (not a bad trade) and the extension (not a good extension). The Lafontaine/Ted Black/Tim Murray/ other personal fiascos....if he wasn't responsible for them he was involved. I remember an interview years ago during Bills training camp, he would insist on sitting in on the coaching meetings, he said himself he didn't give his opinion alot but he DID ask a lot of questions (I'm sure the coaches LOVED the owner sitting on on many of their meetings and interrupting with frequent questions about stuff he didn't know about). So yeah.... Does he have the right do do any/all of that? As the owner he sure does. But I'm also guessing it doesn't make a good work environment for many coaches/management guys. Also, with the Sabres it SEEMS he didn't just want decisions run by him, but rather he wanted input into hockey related decisions. And finally, the Kevin Adams hire...I like Adams (still, lets see how I feel in another year or two), but the hire seemed less like the 'best guy for the job' or even the 'best available guy for the job who would take it'...and more like someone Terry was comfortable around...someone who would talk to Terry and give him the attention he thought he wanted or deserved. The saying goes, it starts from the top down. With the Sabres, I really REALLY do feel like Pegula just not being a good owner in a ton of small ways has infected this franchise and that infection has spread over the last decade+. I'm pretty sure he wants to win. But, it seems to me he wants to be comforable with those around him more than winning (he doesn't want any conflict directed toward him and he wants his ego massaged and he wants to feel included). Its almost he would rather lose and have THAT than to win and even think its possible, if only in his own mind, to be told 'get the hell out of our meetings' by those who work for him. One thing I think is true....no owner ever took over a franchise and was owner for this long and had a WORSE impact on the franchise compared to anyone that came before him. Probably true for all of the major north American sports. The speach where he said the goal of the Sabres is nothing else but to win a Stanley cup...and then to follow that with EVERY SINGLE FULL SEASON he was owner of the team to the the worst stretch of not even making the playoffs in the HISTORY of the sport...it is laughable.

As with many things, it is hard to view this in a vacuum. Its not for me so much who should be here or not in a binary fashion, but it has to do with what type of player are they going to be next year and how much will they cost? Who can go. -Comrie. He can/should be gone. I wanted to like him as a backup, but its just not there. -Krebs. I don't think they will 'give up' on him yet, but I wasn't a fan of him when he got here, a BRIEF moment I liked his play a month or so ago, but he isn't bringing much now. If he is back, he has to show a lot in camp. I wouldn't be upset if he was moved in a trade though. -Jost. If he is back as an AHL guy fine, but he seems to be bringing less now than he did when he arrived. -VO. I like him. I like if you use him the right way where he can score you 20-30. The Sabres are NOT committed to putting him in that situation, so as much as I think he is blamed for being worse than he is, there really isn't a spot here anymore. -Bryson/Jokiharju. I think Jokiharju is slightly better, but I think you pick ONE of them as a 3rd pair guy, and you move on from the other. Who will/should be here but you need more: -Tage. I think he's playing hurt, but you need him to give you 40, maybe 50 goals. Get healthy -Skinner. He's not good defensively, but I have yet to have anyone show me how he is a liability (meaning he CAUSES goals against) more than many other forwards on this team. With that said, if he is giving you 25 goals a year, I'm not getting rid of him until someone else currently not on the team can replace those 25+ goals. -Cozens. He has gotten to be much less of a liability in his own zone over the last few months, but for what you are paying him he needs to guarantee you 25 goals a year, hopefully closer to 30+ and he has to be a guy that at SOME points shows he is a top player on this team, not just a 'good complimentary' one. -Power/Bryam/Benson. They are really young. Just be a little bit better each year from the previous year. Can't regress at all if this team is going to be good. -Greenway. Yeah he brings something different than most other players on this team, but if he is going to spend ANY time on even a 2nd line, I need 15-20 goals out of him. If he can't give you that, he needs to be a 3rd/4th liner. -Samuelsson. I still am not sure exactly how good he is, but I need 70+ games out of him to find out. Finally, guys that other people seem to not like but I have no problem with (with respect to their performance vs their pay/roll) -Tuch, Zemgus, Quinn, Peterka, UPL, Dahlin, Clifton. They are all fine.

The people wanting him out of town continues to baffle me. He is a good to great forchecker, he is one of the faster skaters on the team. He does not make glaring errors in his own zone leading to goals, AND he scores as much (actually statistically at a higher rate) than most 4th liners in the league. He's a 4th liner, and a very good one.

Yeah, as many have said you need both. If you give me the choice of 95 point team with gutsy scrappers, or a 95 point team of fast skating, goal scoring guys, I'll take the latter. For pure entertainment value, I strongly prefer the 6-5 win over a 3-1 win (even if the 6-5 win is a bit sloppy). But again, to GET to be that 95 point team you probably want a balace of both.

I still think he is playing hurt, as others have said. I also think, and have said a few times, that if he doesn't do anything silly and actually manages to heal up in the offseason, I think hes good for close to 50 goals next year.