French Collection

FU Kane.

Hounding the puck well, lots of pressure.

Bruins come back to win 3-2.

What would support that structure would be a couple of vets (maybe the 4D) that hold the rest accountable. “Hey kid, you’ve got to pay the price on that play in order to get the puck out” “Don’t chase, that will leave a hole they will exploit.” Is Ryan McDonagh still a 4D? He’s 34 but has a winning pedigree and leadership qualities. He’s the type I’m looking for to partner with Power. McDonagh at 29 years old.

Detroit off to a good start vs Bruins, 2-0 after the first.

Ok thanks. They have their own 7th, I guess. If this guy is undrafted they should invite him to those camps again. He may be a candidate for Cincinnati.

I wonder if Tomas Suchanek gets drafted this summer. He attended the Sabres development and rookie camps this past year. He turns 20 in April. 6’2, decent numbers in the WHL. He has performed well internationally for Czechia. He could be worth using the 7th round pick they got for Asplund.

Shot totals have been lower due to trying to make the perfect play. There are some good shooters on this team, fire the puck! If they know they will be firing the puck then the linemates need to be crashing the net for rebounds. Similar to golf, there are no pictures on the scorecard.

Europe is a good place to stash one or two of them. A lot of NHL goalies are coming from there now. Let them develop over there for 3-4 years post draft and then decide which one(s) deserve a contract and some N.Am. exposure. They would have a few years of pro hockey on their resumes as well.

Luke Fox from Sportsnet notes that TNT and Elias Pettersson lead the NHL with 14 posts/crossbars hit this season.

It is just so unpredictable at this point. They could come out with their hair on fire, score a few early, and play on to a win.

I feel like Craig Anderson is a young guy.

I would much prefer Saros but Demko could be a fallback idea. He would come cheaper after a down year. Canucks are weird, may take less than his value if the package intrigues them.

That’s OK about Levi. There is enough pressure from the Buffalo fan base, he doesn’t need extra attention. Probably a heavy dose of size bias from reporters. Let all of these guys eat crow when he becomes a star.

First star of the game too. Mats Lindgren with an assist in Red Deer’s win. Olivier Nadeau with an assist for Gatineau.

I believe that once he is sent back to junior hockey he could only come back on emergency recall, multiple forward injuries, and it would be short term.

I listened to Seth Appert on Sabres Live yesterday. He said that Rosen was playing as good or better than Kulich, he just wasn’t getting rewarded with as many points. Maybe this is a coach trying to pump a prospect’s tires but he said Rosen was denied points with like 8 shots off of posts in the past few games. There is hope yet.

Pretty quick transition, I hope he gets the job full time.

From a management perspective, if he plays 10 or more games it burns a year off of his ELC, which means they lose a year of cost control. They probably don’t do that if he is not good enough.

He can play up to 9 games before they decide whether to keep him up or send him back to the WHL. They could drag those 9 games out by having him as part of a rotation. How he performs in practice and in those 9 games would determine if he is good enough to stay. While I don’t really recommend it, the Kraken scratched Shane Wright about a dozen games while giving him spot duty. They then sent him to the AHL for a 5 game conditioning stint. All of this kept him around until the WJ Championship where he was loaned to Team Canada. He was sent back to junior in early January. He wasn’t ready so they delayed his return to junior. He barely got any games in between October and December so you wonder how he developed. Practicing with NHLers is worth something but that was a different path for him. Savoie good be good enough to stick.

I think KO is gone so picking up a solid vet to pair with Power could fill the leadership void. Even better would be a vet that has been on a winning team.

Well, we are obviously going to finish the season with this roster. DG is not going anywhere, KA likes his development model. I hope they realize they need help with team D and special teams and make the necessary changes to the staff this summer. Many teams will be in cap hell and KA needs to take advantage of his cap space to improve. These are not examples of the Sabres needs but guys like Pacioretty and Leddy were given away just to be cap compliant. Sometimes the sender even sweetens the pot with a draft pick. KA has not weaponized the cap space at all. I have been on that horse for a while but I don’t know why not. The cap squeeze is not upon them yet and he doesn’t need to take on long term deals. Even around the trade deadline, they did not broker any trades to get a pick or two. Looking at what the needs are, I think going hard after Saros and finding a partner for Power should be the priorities. Trotz loves his goalies so I hope Askarov is ready and that Saros wants a change. #3-4 Dmen will be available, I don’t care if they are a bit older. KA seems to want younger guys with term but the new guy could replace the experience/leadership of KO. A bonus would be a guy from a team that has had deep runs

Greenway and Stillman are in the teams average age, similar to Asplund so I doubt there was much change.

Olivier Nadeau continues his good play in the Q. 2 goals last night in a win to bring his season totals to 19G & 19A in 26 games for Gatineau. A full season at that pace would put him in the top 10 in league scoring. Rochester will be a good spot for him next year.

A lot of the goals last night were scored by Stars getting between the D and the forward playing low in support of them. There is definitely room for improvement from Cozens and Krebs. Bergeron is the best and would be who these guys emulate. Offense needs to flow from creativity, they have a lot of this in them. Defense needs to be taught and requires discipline. VO is another huge liability in the D zone, poor body position and not willing to engage. They need to find a balance to get to the next level.