Curt

I hope Joker gets it going. I’ve been disappointed this season. I don’t think Anderson comes as a #3/coach. He wants to play games, that’s why he is here. He doesn’t live in Buffalo and his family isn’t in Buffalo. If he isn’t going to be able to play games somewhere, I think will retire to Florida.

Comparing contracts in this manner is not predictive. You need to look at what was happening with those players when they signed those deals.

He really did do all those things. He cross checked Rackell so hard he knocked him on his a**. I’ve been really impressed with his physicality. Dont get me wrong. I don’t think he is the next Ryan Getzlaf, but I think he is going to be able to use his combo of strength and soft hands to win puck battles, protect the puck and give himself time to make plays.

Thoughts from tonight’s game: -Dahlin is just so much more assertive than he was a few months ago. It’s just remarkable. -Samuelsson is going to be a core part of this team moving forward. I just know it. -Thompson is not getting lucky this season. He has a high shooting percentage because his shot is lethal. -Mittelstadt was finishing body checks on Crosby, throwing reverse checks on Jeff Carter, and cross checking the hell out of Rackell in OT. He has a thick frame and he looks strong to me. I think he will be fine. I think he has figured out that his path to being a good NHL player involves a lot more backchecking, board work, and puck protection than stick handling through three defenders. -Cozens was calling Thompson “Thomer” after his goal. Solid nickname. -I’ve not liked Jokiharju that much recently, but he was pretty good tonight. -I’m not that worried about losing Olofsson if he ends up getting traded. -Anderson can come back next season if he wants to.

I agree. I’m actually liking how Mitts is looking. Obviously takes some time to get up to full speed, but I think he looks stronger.

Hodgson was living up to expectations, but suffered from an autoimmune disease that forced him to retire.

I think that their plan is for Cozens to be that guy.

I think it’s pretty normal. Button has several C’s ranked lower than they generally are. We’ll see I guess.

Not really, 23% chance that someone 11-16 wins a lottery spot. EDIT: Oh, I see what you meant. Yes, very difficult for them to drop to 10th.

The schadenfreude is strong in this one.

Yeah, I think weight/muscle mass is commonly part of it, I think part of it is also coordination of those long limbs and their long sweeping movements, as opposed to the compact shorter movements of smaller players. Ekblad also had some injury issues that might have prevented him from blossoming sooner.

Certainly

I have a theory (I think many people agree) that tall/long limbed players (6’3” Dahlin, 6’4” Ekblad, 6’6” Hedman) take longer to develop into their best selves than more compact/smaller players (5’10” Hughes, 5’11 Makar and Fox).

If the plan is for Mueller and Fitz to go down for the AHL playoffs, then Power will be one of 7. That seems about right.

If the offers were not good, I can understand holding on to players for the purposes of not upsetting a positive locker room atmosphere. I would have liked to see them act as a salary cap laundromat on a deal or two, but it doesn’t seem like any deals like that really went down with any teams.

Where does the 3 years come from? Dahlin is 1.5 years younger than Makar. Also, Dahlin is not going to get to where Makar is now. I just don’t see any way that he becomes that offensively dynamic, could be better defensively though.

Yes, in the NHL, just when you think that there is no hope of someone doing something foolish (trading a 2nd for rental Miller, for example) another GM goes out and does something that makes you think, “well.....maybe”.

So, why is it that those players that are good at scoring goals don’t teach teammates how to better at it? Job security? I’m sure that they do. Some people are just better at certain things than others.

@PASabreFan You don’t need to come out and say that the Sabres are “good” now. I don’t know exactly how good they will be next season. You can say that the pressure is off or opponents aren’t trying that hard. Maybe there is a little truth to that. All I know is that in years past, when there was “less pressure than a preseason game”, the Sabres still played f’ng terrible, and right now they aren’t playing terrible. In addition, many of the young players who should be key contributors going forward are showing progression and showing that they care. Seeing that has got to be a lot more encouraging than seeing the team play terribly. If you feel the same inside watching this team in March vs the past few years in March, then I think your insides might be broken.

Severson would be perfect. I think he would be extremely expensive. I don’t think that a lot of people realize how good he is because he is a defensive defenseman on a bad team. Although I recall hearing recently that he wanted to stay in NJ and was interested in working on an extension with them.

I’m sure Zemgus would have a market, but they aren’t trading him right now.

Linus Ullmark was a 6th round pick. Olofsson was a 7th. Sometimes they turn into players. Its better than not having a 6th.

I could squint hard and kind of see your point if it was clear that the Sabres were actually unwilling to spend anything more than the salary cap floor. But they are like $5-6M over the cap floor right now. I just don’t believe that Butcher prohibited them from doing something different in goal. I think it’s pretty clear that the Sabres’ goal for the season was not to get the very best goaltending that they could (at least after Ullmark was no longer an option). They wanted to get passable goaltending that was good in the locker room, on short term.

I always assumed that Quinn would wear 22, since he has already worn it, and Power would wear 25, the number he has worn for team Canada.

He probably is dealing with some sort of nagging injury. I don’t think we should be too concerned.