JoeSchmoe

I feel like the big difference between Skinner now and when he was scoring is his shot. He's got a little pea shooter going right now. I find he still gets the puck to the dangerous areas, but can't finish because his shot sucks.

Where's Olofsson?

Most of our players are on the upslope of their learning curves. Assuming we resign our FA's, here's where our core guys for next year are... Cozens, Samuelson, and Dahlin are very low on their respective learning curves for their ages at their positions. They have a LOT of room to get better. Mittelstadt, Thompson, Aspland, Ruots, Bjork, Borgen, Bryson, and Joki are all on thr upward slope. Reinhart, Eichel, Risto, McCabe, and Skinner, Girgs are all at their peak ages. The only player at thr drop off is Okposo. With goaltending we could be good.

The Sabres aren't using their speed like they do when they're most successful. Especially once they get to the blue line they seem to be slowing it down Ralph style.

My question was what place they'd be in the North (w Granato / wo Krueger... pick your flavour) not the East (aka Division of Death). I ask this as a Canadian that has to listen to how awesome the Leafs are this year 24/7.

You don't think higher based on quality of completion and no RK? Keep in mind that going by last year's records, the Oilers would be the top team in the North with a .585 pt%. Comparing them against the East teams records from last year, they would be 6th, behind NYI that was .588.

What place is this team on right now if we had Granato the whole year and we're playing in the North Division?

By my count, Hamilton is in Reinhart's head.

This article stinks. Someone needs to throw that expected goals for stat straight down the toilet. 💩 Somehow, the Sabres' weak outside shots under Krueger taken by Hall, Skinner, et al seem to fool the algorithm that we should have been scoring more. No way. We weren't scoring because the shots all sucked. Before, our slow attack and/or dump and chance allowed the entire opposing team to get back to their zone to defend... Which caused a crap load of weak scoring chances. Now we're actually getting the puck and players to the slot and the high danger areas, and often doing so with numbers. But somehow our XGF didn't change much at all?!?!

Or just play the stick game on their top players. Marchand might want his ankles for the playoffs! 🤪

I thought if he's still under contract as an assistant next year (sorry, I don't know his status), he can't walk away to become a HC unless the Sabres give permission to do so. Is that right?

I just watched his goals again. I didn't see anything out of the ordinary. I'd say the answer is probably the most obvious answer... he just doesn't like the people posing the questions.

I thought Reinhart was being a total jerk. I get that you don't like them personally, but there are a lot of fans tuning in to hear something better than that. Deal with it off camera instead.

Haha! Thanks. 😇

I think the general feel is that Granato is doing way better than could be expected given the team he has to work with... And the chances of finding a guy that could do even better than what we've seen so far is very low. There's still a bunch of games left to continue to evaluate.

Don't you want to give Granato any credit for taking a shell of a lineup and having them compete well against some of the best teams in the league? I realistically don't think any available coach could have done better.

The elephant the room is that Granato's team lost 18 in a row prior to him taking the team.

He's at the age of decline, but can we sign Nick Foligno to the FA1 spot above for decent term and price? I'm thinking he could be the mentor Staal never was. Maybe his dad would talk him into taking a team friendly contract???

Skinner Eichel Reinhart FA1 Cozens Olofsson Asplund Mittelstadt Thompson Ruots Girgs Bjork Scratch:Okposo, FA2 -FA1 is a defensively responsible playmaker that can PK. -FA2 is the grit guy that gets limited starts. -Ruots and Bjork fill in on lines 1-3 for injuries -Peterka starts the year in ROC and either him or Quinn replace Girgs at the trade deadline IF ready

This is the best quote I've read since regularly visiting this site. Thanks for this. It really keeps things in perspective.

In my opinion, Granato is as good as it gets for this team. I'm curious, who you think might be better, and why? If Trotz was available, that would probably be a good answer. Besides him, I'm not sure if I know any coaches on the market with a long track record of taking a roster, and making it better. Though I don't have all the data in front of me, I'd say all of their successes have come at times when they're working with world class rosters. Maybe not... What do you think?

Do you know how many crummy Sabre teams made heroic runs in March/April only to suck again in October? I think it's different this time than all the years you're talking about. In those cases, you just saw a not too bad veteran team getting hot. In this case, you see a coach taking a long list of seemingly dead prospects, and turning them into legit NHL players in a matter of weeks... and doing so with a depleted veteran core.

And the risk of Eakin and the other washed up vets going back to getting prime minutes.

Spotted somewhere just outside Winnipeg...

If I'm Jack at home watching this I'm not going to want any part of being traded.