Curt

Can’t even do that, unless he waives his NMC. He has to be protected.

Yeah, in a similar way to how +/- stinks. It tells you a little bit, but only a fraction of the whole story.

It depends on what “advanced” stats you are talking about. The most commonly used possession metrics are also just measurements of things that actually happened. Shots for/against in this case. It kind of removes the goalie performance from +/-.

You have Jokiharju as a better offensive player than any of Risto, Montour, and Miller? I think Montour is best at getting the puck into offensive zone and Risto is the best actually playing in the offensive zone.

We’ve know since free agency who they had on the roster. Its not very good, especially with Girgensons out, although I’m not so confident as you that Eakin is going to play like a borderline NHLer. But mostly, yes, those bottom 6 veterans are not very good. I’ve said it many times. The offensive upside of the bottom 6 is heavily dependent upon whether any of the young guys can come in and provide a spark. Cozens, Mitts, Routsalainen I don’t have a good feeling for what that second bottom 6 line will be Skinner-someone-someone. Seems like the players have been shifting a lot day-to-day.

Cozens is at RW with Eakin today, but Okposo is taking the day off from practice. I would expect that if he was practicing today, Okposo would in that spot, as he has been every other day.

Shouldn’t it be Reider-Eakin-Okposo? Hasn't than been a line basically every day of training camp? With Girgs instead of Reider before he got hurt.

Honestly, no. Not really. I don’t think so. If the goal is to predict what the opening night lineup will be, I think just looking at the practice lines every day is a much better indicator of where these guys stand with the coaches. The game was important in the sense that the players need to play. Shake off any rust, get used to game speed. There is no preseason. They need this for practice. Also, didn’t say that the game was meaningless. It’s more that the game is one day out of an entire training camp, and the things that we saw from a player from our view may not have even been the same things that the coaching staff was looking for from that player.

I’m not saying that it means nothing at all, but it’s a training camp intrasquad game. It’s one game, a large portion of the players are not going 100% and half the guys on the ice are non-NHLers. It’s just not that representative of how these guys will be in an actual NHL game. So I think that anyone who is making meaningful changes to how they view players, based upon watching this, is doing it wrong.

I know these games are the first Sabres hockey that we have seen in 10 months, so they feel like they must be super important and mean a lot, but I would caution against giving too much weight to a training camp intrasquad scrimmage.

I think you are reading way too much into it. They can’t send down Ullmark. He would never make it through waivers. Some other team would grab him. Plus, Ullmark has been the team’s best goalie two years running, why would his job be at risk?

Is this where the party is?

It’s fine to disagree with Ralph’s lines. Just wanted make the point that it’s not about maximizing Skinner’s goal total, and it’s not about Skinner’s salary either. It’s about maximizing the team as a whole.

Ugh! I’m ok with playing Skinner down the lineup to try creating a 3rd line that can score, but I don’t think Skinner-Lazar-Sheahan is it. I think Skinner needs a little more.

Just curious. How have you come about forming your very assured and precise evaluation of exactly what roles Eakin can and can not fill? You watched him and you thought he wasn’t putting in effort? I didn’t really feel that way.

Yeah, probably only Jack can get Skinner back to being a 40 goal winger, but is the objective of the season to get Skinner 40 goals? No, the objective is to be as good of a team as possible. If Skinner can score over 20 goals on a 3rd line, while the top 2 lines are also doing very well, then the Sabres are most likely in great shape. Don’t take this as a guarantee that they can create a 3rd line that can do that, it’s not. I haven’t even really watched Eakin play.

Yeah, I’m sure he will play wherever the coach puts him. My question was, can he play WELL on a 3rd line? I disagree with the bolded. The answer to that question is without doubt, next to Jack. The more appropriate question is, where can Skinner be played to make the TEAM most effective? Not just how to maximize Skinner’s individual goal total.

The Rangers’ Anthony DeAngelo always needs the drama. He seems like a very annoying person to be around. https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/news/rangers-tony-de-angelo-throws-tantrum-after-twitter-bans-donald-trump-013126739.html

Just to clarify on this. Trump did try to Tweet from POTUS and TeamTrump accounts, but Twitter deleted the tweets and temp suspended the latter account. Tweeting from a different account to get around suspension is not allowed.

I agree. Even if it’s so that Trump goes down in history as the only President twice impeached (at least I think that’s true). There needs to be some action taken in response to this treasonous behavior. It’s disappointing enough that nothing is going to happen for at least a week, it looks like.

Peterka went back to play for his club team. He wasn’t going to make the Sabres and he had somewhere else to be where he is playing actual games.

If Skinner isn't up to 2nd line we're sunk plain and simple so it doesn't matter. So, I take this to mean that you do not believe there is any possible configuration of lines in which Skinner plays well on line 3? The only reason that I put out this post is because Skinner skated with the 3rd line in camp yesterday.

My lines if Skinner is off the top 6: Hall-Eichel-Thompson Olofsson-Staal-Reinhart Skinner-Eakin-Cozens Reider-Lazar-Okposo I can get on board with Skinner on a 3rd line, but he needs some talent to play off of.

Sure, kinda. Larsson could play defense, keep the puck in the zone and shovel it somewhere around the net. I think ideally you would want someone with more speed, and offensive talent though.

I totally agree with this. No idea if Cozens is ready to do that at the NHL level though. Skinner is at his best when he can suddenly pounce into position and grab a scoring chance from chaos. He isn’t really a sniper who you set up for one timers. He doesn’t necessarily need a great playmaker to set him up. He just needs someone who can help cover for him defensively, get the puck around the net and create a bit of a mess. Skinner will clean it up.