JoeSchmoe

Zorba the Greek. Herb Alpert and The Tijuana Brass https://youtu.be/_Rz5Z5t4B7g

I just thought I'd break out the discussion of signing prospects early instead of embedding this in another player signing thread. Here's the risk / reward. Scenario A- Wait to sign you're prospects until you're absolutely sure on what you have. This is safer, but the downside is you're going to have to pay so much for top talent that you're going to run into cap trouble before long. Scenario B- Sign your prospects early before they're fully developed. This way, you're hoping to save in the long run. The downside is if you guess wrong, you risk being stuck with a bad contract on an underperforming player. I think if a team were to follow Scenario A more often, it would be very difficult to field a team deep enough to be the very best out of 32 teams. I think you can be good, but never great. If a team followed Scenario B more often, there's more of a variation. A team that locks a lot of young talent early that underperforms can be bad for many years. On the flip side, a team with a good GM that can assemble a large stable of underpaid talent has a real chance to be great. Almost every cup winning team over the last bunch of years has had their top players on team friendly deals. I really don't think you can win the cup when paying all your players what they're truly worth. On that note, I am happy to see the team locking up all their players that they believe in as soon as they can, as cheap as they can. Especially in Buffalo, which is sometimes a harder sell to veteran players.

Did I miss if there were any updates from last year? Are they still doing individual songs? Are there going to be any updates?

The look on his face after scoring the EN goal kind of told the story of his game tonight. I'd still like him to be up with the Sabres for two reasons: 1. I'd like him practicing against NHL'ers. I think he can learn more from this than being in the AHL, even if he has to sit a game once in a while. 2. Having him in Roch increases the chance we'll see Bjork in the lineup. PLEASE- no more Bjork. Edit: inky said JJP should go to Roch, but the quotes were lost.

Not a solution when listening on the radio (unless they're playing Toronto 🙃).

This is not even close to being true. Sure, he had lost a step, but as someone who listens on the radio often (two kids playing travel hockey out of town), I could completely follow the game until the very end. He was great! Last season, maybe because it was his last year, I think he upped his game a notch. Maybe it was just that the team was more exciting too.

They should just get Dan and Duff to switch jobs. I think I might like Dan more in the Duff position. Duff is a little on the dry side. Dan has a little bit more personality from what I've noticed, but he just can't call a game that's suitable to listen to on the radio. I think Duff is quite good at calling a game.

At that time, I assumed the puck was cleared. No idea the Sabres were even still attacking. No idea there was a shot. Nothing. They were talking about the last scoring chance even though the Sabres were still on the attack.

I like Dan as a personality, but listening to him on the radio is just terrible. As one example of many, during Biro's 2nd goal last night, I had no idea what was going on. No idea whatsoever. I just heard a goal horn. It's almost not even worth listening to. I hope he could stay on as a host or some other capacity though, because he is a likeable guy.

If only this guy were a true national level coverage guy. I'd put him up on a pedestal as a guy that actually does his homework.

Preseason or not, is this the quietest GDT ever? 😁

Though you posted the PPG stats, with the possible exception of the Blues, the top lines on all those teams are way better than ours. I'm good running without a traditional 4th line myself. In the 1998 Olympics, Team Canada tried to run a traditional 4th line. It completely backfired, and they lost to Hasek and the Czechs in the semis (lost the Bronze medal game to the Finns too). Since then they've gone with the model of outgunning the other team with their scoring depth on all 4 lines and Canada hasn't looked back since. I think our pipeline is shaping up to allow us to do the same. Again, I didn't realize when I started this thread how far in the minority I was in thinking this, but personally I'd like them to run with the Team Canada model if they can, and not keep a kid down who can score (i.e. JJP this year, possibly Savoie, Kulich, etc next year), just because we need a plumber line.

He's a good guy and always worked really hard even in years when the rest of the team wasn't. But to be a cup contender, we're going to need better than 45th percentile guys on our 4th line given our lack of elite 1st line talent. I'd say we want top 20% at least on lines 2 through 4, since I don't see the 1st line getting much better than the 30-40th percentile.

You're missing the point. We have no MacKinnon. We have no Rantanen or Kadri. We haven't a Kucherov or Stamkos either. What we lack on our 1st line needs to be made up further down the lineup. Girgs level production on the 4th line will not win us a championship. I'll add to the above by saying neither team referenced could afford to do any better on the 4th line.

If this team is to win a cup, it won't be by running a traditional 4th line. We will win with depth scoring across all four lines... Our 1st line simply isn't strong enough to carry the team.

Given the chance, many high end guys can kill penalties, just as well as a 4th liner, they just don't. This is because coaches would rather have their JAGs expend that energy, to rest the high end guys for scoring.

Given the talent pool we've accumulated, we have the potential to ice 2nd line calibre guys on our 4th line (of course they would see more minutes than a traditional 4th line). I see Z holding up a lineup spot for some of those truly talented players. I know many here wouldn't want to deviate away from the traditional 4th line formula of crashing, banging, and low event hockey. But if we're ever going to win a cup, it won't be on the back of a high flying 1st line (a la Edmonton, Toronto, Boston, etc)... We just don't have the McDavid's, Matthew's, Marchard's, Kucherov's to do it. Instead, it will be because of our superior depth. Part of that will be our 4th line scoring a lot more than their 4th line. We won't be doing it by icing a line where the mentality is "We might not score a lot, but you're not going to score a lot either".

I like the sentiment, but he's 28. Please tell me the Sabres make the playoffs long before he hits retirement age. 🙈

My best lineup this year has Skinner, TNT, Tuch, Krebs, Cozens, Quinn, JJP, Mitts, Oloffson, Hino, Okposo, and Asplund. Girgs and Sheehan are depth guys. And likely needed in case of injury. Of course we waive Bjork. With more talent likely to emerge next year (Savoie, Kulich(?), and dare I say the "kid" from South Buffalo), I think we will win more without him.

I'd say the latest evidence is that Okposo carried the checking line but if you've got numbers that say otherwise, let's see'em.

I guess I'm in the minority here. I like Z's effort, but I just don't think he's very good. Yes, he got uncharacteristically hot at the beginning of last year, but for the most part, he's been a large part of the umpteen seasons with no playoffs. Let's load up on skill guys and let them kill penalties... Like the Bruins. And then when we're not shorthanded, our 4th line will seriously outscore their 4th line.

With the log jam on forward, I have him as my 13th man with JJP in the starting lineup, Bjork waived, and Sheahan sent down for call up in case of injury. Would he take a 13th man job given his leadership role? We kind of need him for depth until we get a few more of the young prospects ready. I feel he's about the last of the JAGs that have made us suck for so long. It's fun seeing him throw the odd hit, but it's not fun watching him blow the number of scoring chances he blows.

GUARANTEED - If the Sabres do as well as what we're thinking they will, the know-it-alls at the Athletic et al will come up with the numbers to show how they saw this coming all along.

This is how I care about rankings.

Let's make a positive example out of the first national reporter that looks at the team with a similar lens as we do. All these guys are lazy. Going into 2005, there were many positive signs with our depth chart that were missed by everyone (the emergence of Miller, Pommer, Roy, Vanek, etc in the minors) plus an already decent core (Drury, Briere, etc). I feel like this year is similar... Maybe a bit earlier in the process though.