Curt

Can’t say for sure, as I never saw either play. ? I understand your viewpoint though, even if I don’t agree. To me, it’s not just scoring vs D with Dahlin though. He also excels at moving the puck out of the D zone, which is one of the very most important aspects of playing D to me. It prevents the opposition from establishing control in the zone in the first place.

Maybe not too unpopular, I honestly wasn’t sure how many would push back. I think you have to weight the offensive and defensive contributions of a player equally. One goal scored is just as good as one goal prevented and vice versa.

Overall. He makes consistently good plays in the defensive zone also. The occasional gaffes negate some of that good work, but the impression that they leave on the brain is greater than the actual affect on the ice. IMO

Possible unpopular opinion: Dahlin has been and will continue to be the Sabres best defenseman this season.

I would say this is generally true.

Ok. You tell me what 18/19 yr old D was better. Also, coaches absolutely did play teenage defensemen 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 years ago. I would say probably even more often than they do today.

Reinhart looked absolutely terrible during his 9 game tryout at age 18/19. He could barely stay on his feet against NHL opposition. I’m barely being hyperbolic here. Many were very worried about his future prospects after watching those 9 games. If your expectation for Dahlin was that he would immediately be one of the top 5 D in the league as a teen then, yes adjust your expectations. He is in fact ONLY the best teenage D of the past 30 years.

He put up over 0.5 pts/gm as an 18 yr old NHL D. He is currently at over 1 pt/gm as a 19 yr old NHL D. He is performing at a level that I have never seen from a teenage D. Let’s not nit pick our good players to death. Of course he isn’t perfect. Almost no player is. However, I think it’s pretty silly to decide that Dahlin won’t every be a plus defender. Did I mention that he is 19? Maybe, maybe he will get better.

During the playoffs it’s completely gone. Absolutely no one fights during the playoffs.

He is the editor/writer for a popular Sabres fan blog site. DieByTheBlade, their SB Nation site. You can take from the charts what you want I guess. It’s just Risto’s CF%, xGF%, and TOI for the games do far this season. On a game by game basis, they don’t mean much. It’s pretty early still.

Erik Karlsson plays fine defense. Only his first few years in the league was he bad. Dahlin is also not a bad defender. He should be getting more mins. Also, bring/keeping the puck in the offensive end is a great defensive tactic.

This a staple of the Sabres over the past couple years. Not starting games/periods with intensity, and letting the foot off the gas a bit at the end of them. Its a mental thing that hopefully Krueger can work on.

I’m sympathetic to that view. I’d rather see Casey at C in Rochester than moved over to wing in the NHL. I still think he can have a decent future as an NHL C. He needs patience, even though the fan base has little left. It’s not his fault that Buffalo has been bad for a long time. It doesn’t change his development.

Yeah, it’s true that Buffalo needs adequate C’s, but that fact that you are tired of waiting for a 20 yr old to figure it out does not mean that he isn’t going to be able to play a good 2/3C after further development. It sounded as if you were passing premature judgment on the kid’s future simply because you have grown impatient with him.

This is a You problem. He is 20.

Yes, I’m a little concerned that the 1st line isn’t doing so well at 5 on 5, both in terms of goals, goal differential and Corsi.

Agreed. I have faith that Eichel/Dahlin will be able to adjust and find an open Skinner/Reino near the net/slot if PKs start to sag off of them.

Well, I’ve heard that there is no way that Sobotka can play in the top 6, so I guess this is one way of keeping in line with at. ?

Taro already said that the improved player movement to create passing lanes was a change. The only thing you two disagree about is whether there has been a change in the formation. The basic PP formation (umbrella or 1-3-1) has been the same. Their execution seems to have improved greatly. The addition of Olofsson to the opposite circle is no small part of that, as he adds a shooting threat from there that was sorely lacking.

Context matters. It’s a RFA contract signed several years ago VS a UFA contract just signed. The contract has definitely gotten better over the years.

The contract is fine, but it’s not amazing. He is the highest paid D on the roster.

Out of the 2, Laine is probably the one most likely to make great improvements. It sounds crazy but Laine is actually 3 years younger than Olofsson.

Or the backup plan just worked out great! Either way, I’m not complaining.

Didn’t mean to imply that they weren’t playing hard. I was more so talking about going into a “defensive shell”. Did they seem to do that at all before it was 4-0? I don’t hate it so much with a 4 goal lead, as opposed to 2.

I don’t like that they have been consistently packing it in with 3rd period leads. I don’t think that’s going to be a successful strategy agains good teams very often. One of my few complaints thus far.