French Collection

It has been said by others, the national level media think a big splash in UFA or trades is the primary method of improvement. The Sabres have chosen to grow from within and that doesn’t generate attention. Just win and these same guys will be singing the praises of draft and develop.

Definitely part of the leadership group. Id like to be a fly on the wall and listen to the dressing room conversations.

I don’t gamble much but I take the over. The only thing I can see preventing that is the goaltending falling apart.

Things will need to be bad, injury wise, to have Bjork in the lineup. Maybe a stint in the AHL gets him to get some confidence back so he can contribute a little bit when asked to do so.

Let everyone think the Sabres will be near the bottom again. We can get the last laugh if they get in the playoff race. I’ve said before that the bottom of our division will all improve which will erode points from the top teams, closing the gap for the playoffs. I don’t see eight 100 point teams in the east. Boston, Pittsburgh and Washington are all a year closer to the end. Marchand, McAvoy and Backstrom are slated to miss a lot of games.

As a LH shooter I’ve always preferred watching LH players. Not by a wide margin but it just fits my eye better. The old PP days of Eichel, OK, Risto, Pommer and Reinhart was hard to watch as I wanted a LH option. I don’t want the pendulum to swing too far the other way. TT, Quinn, Savoie and Cozens should have a say in PP roles in the future.

A healthy season will get him to raise his numbers. I think 30G 30A is achievable. I think Quinn will provide another scoring threat that could erode VO’s PP time but I believe there will be three scoring lines so even strength goals go up.

DG is from Chicago, so that would be my guess.

Pre season games will be a better evaluation tool for those three than a rookie tournament. I feel for the fans who want to see the top end guys but they have done very well at the AHL level and Power’s NHL stint was good. It looks like the Sabres are having auditions to fill out Rochester and Cincinnati, with so many free agents.

I’m excited to see Savoie skate, this year’s shiny new toy. Kulich is one to watch, showed well at World Juniors. Lindgren may surprise people. I did a bit of research on the free agents at this camp. Here are a few that I think may do well. Declan McDonnell is a Buffalo native playing in the OHL. He was a 7th rounder of Tampa Bay in 2020. He was a point per game player last season. Nolan Burke seems like a late bloomer, the 20 year old hasn’t done much at the junior level until this past season. He put up 34 goals for Sarnia in the OHL. 6’1” centre. Emmett Sproule is a 21 year old forward who put up 86 pts in 65 games with Peterborough of the OHL. Spencer Sova was at Development Camp in July. He is an undrafted ‘04 OHL Dman. He had 28 points in 64 games with the Erie Otters of the OHL. Tomas Suchanek is a 19 year old goalie with Tri City of the WHL. He put up decent numbers on a bad team last season. He had a great showing at the World Juniors with Czechia.

I thought he had shoulder surgery and was out until December.

I expect him to pot 25 goals. I like him with TT, cleaning up rebounds and buzzing around the other team’s net while TT plays keep away. He is not a pest of Marchand’s style but he draws attention, penalties and keeps opponents off balance. I think his PP time will drop a bit to let the young guns get their feet wet. There are more options on PP with shooters like TT, VO, Quinn and KO. Playmakers like Mitts, and Krebs. Big bodies like Tuch and Cozens. There is a place for him on one of the units but DG has more options.

I went to the PGA Championship in Chicago in ‘99 and was also blown away after spending an hour in the front row of the driving range. I was a pretty good golfer but these guys were hitting it solid almost every shot. I watched Furyk closely because of his quirky swing. He was hitting a 5 iron 180-190 yards which was close to my distance with the same club. The difference was all of his shots travelled that far and were all within 5 yards left or right of his target. My comparable accuracy was 4-5 out of 10.

I really liked this video. I’m not a fancy stats guy but Goals saved above expected seems like a good stat. It fairly accurately showed which goalies had good seasons. Comrie gives me hope, he was solid according to these numbers. Can he do it for 50 games? UPL was OK in his limited time.

Boosh had 197 hits last season. Contrast that with Quinn Hughes who had 19.

I don’t know if he’ll be 2nd or 3rd pairing but he will be a PK mainstay and keep other teams honest with a physical game and a shutdown mentality. He is relatively new to the NHL game and should keep improving with the rest of the team. I like the corsi numbers despite the D zone starts, sounds like he wins puck battles and gets it up to the forwards. I am looking forward to see how he fits with DG and the Dmen

I too would like a Brad May. These guys are almost like unicorns now. We had Marcus Foligno and he was a good fit. Fitz will drop the gloves but he may not dress many games. Who knows, maybe Mule’s wires cross and he destroys someone, ending this conversation and other teams thinking they can push the Sabres around.

She has been the Queen for all of my life and then some. She was a steadying presence for us in the Commonwealth for a long time. RIP.

I drove through Quinn’s hometown of Cobden yesterday. I expect him to make the team, have a significant impact (20g 25A) and get his hometown to put up a sign with his picture in a Sabres uniform.

Perreault’s electrifying game, Barasso’s Cup winning ability and progressing beyond a Myers’ like rookie season.

Duffer and Marty made a funny reference to the Queen’s Gambit chess series on yesterday’s podcast. She lays in bed at night and plays chess on the ceiling. They said DG does the same but with line combinations. It will be interesting to see what he tries in the pre season in order to find chemistry.

Coyotes claim to have their best ticket revenue season ever. Ticket prices are above league average and they have sold quite a few. The new formula, smaller rink and higher prices. Bettman must be proud.

Giving him the same AAV as Tkachuk would’ve been a good move politically. Stutzle will probably produce more, but Tkachuk is the heart and soul of the team as well as a productive player. Good deal for Stutzle, he will still be near his prime when he hits UFA, not a 31 year old who magically pulls one more good season out of his hat to get another big deal.

I would add Clague in that battle, he has NHL experience.

Scrub! I’ll have you know I was on the second line of my house league midget team in 1980.