GASabresIUFAN

It would be interesting to know how that translates to playoff success.

What’s missing from the offense. I think the answer is more playmaker and more physicality. When I watch this team I keep wondering who is going to set the table for his linemates? We actually have too many shoot first guys. Ruff used to say he wanted a goal scorer, a playmaker, and a physical presence on each of his lines. When I use this model for the Sabres, I don’t see the necessary playmakers or physical players. The first line is two shoot first guys (Skinner and TNT) and Tuch as the playmaker and physical presence. Last season Skinner really worked at setting up his teammates as well as shooting. This season his passing has fallen off and as has his line. Tuch is also not ideally suited to the playmaker role, but he is such a good all-around player it does matter much. A second line of Greenway, Mitts and Cozens has the Ruff balance. Mitts is the playmaker, Cozens the scorer and Greenway the physical presence. That said it’s not a line I like long-term. The new 3rd line is a mess. Krebs was supposed to be a good passer but Donnie had choked off that part of his game. Benson is an unknown as he continues to work hard with minimum results. JJP is the scorer. Quinn is also a shoot first type guy. To my untrained eye, I’d start the O repair by replacing Skinner and Krebs on the roster I’d also try to re-think all the line combos. Last night on the pre-game show they mentioned putting Greenway with Tuch and TNT, creating a huge physical but excellent skating line. Greenway forechecks and goes to the net, Tuch creates and TNT snipes. The new second line matches Cozens and Quinn. Cozens forechecks and plays around the net, Quinn shoots and either Mitts or a new playmaker creates for Cozens and Quinn. I’m actually envisioning Rosen/Benson as the playmaker for this line from the wing. In fact, I think we’d get more from Benson right now if DG asked him to use his hockey IQ to focus more on creating for his linemates. Lastly, the 3rd line combines JJP with Mitts. What this line needs is someone to forecheck and go to the net. Just like getting Greenway at the deadline last year, adding another such player should be a deadline goal this year. The goal of the exercise was to re-imagine the forwards using a KA centric approach by utilizing the assets already in the organization as much as possible, thus recasting Cozens in a more physical role and Benson as a playmaker. Both guys have those traits and it’s not a stretch to place them in those roles. Rosen is also a pass first player and that may help him make the Sabres as early as next year.

The team is defensively better, but I think that is mostly on improved play from UPL over the course of the season. Too bad he and the other goalies weren’t giving us this level of performance early in the year. It might have changed the course of the season. As to Cozens and TNT, beware the career year shooting %. Cozens shot 14.7% last season for a career 8% or less shooter his other seasons. This year he is back to 7.9%. TNT shot 15% and 15.9% the last two seasons. It looked like he had taken a huge scoring step permanently. Alas no. Before his breakout he was an under 10% shooter and he is back down to 9.7%.

The best thing about ESPN+ is that I don't have to record the game. I can turn it on at any time and watch from the beginning. I can usually tell pretty early what team I'm getting. If they get behind 2-0 early, I tend to move on with my day now and go on to some other activity or show to watch. So the pattern this season is to watch the first period, see if they have any legs, and if they do continue to watch. If not, not. Last year, even if they got down 2-0, I'd continue to watch because they had the fight in them to come back. This year not so much/

It wasn’t a serious comment. Relax. Adams’ mantra is they have to want to be here. Well here is home, in Buffalo. However if the team continues to play poorly at home, then isn’t fair to ask whether they want to be there?

Further proof they don’t want to be here. Sorry! It was to easy.

I’m not a Jays fan. I’m a Braves fan and have been one since Hank Aaron’s quest for 715. The Braves stadium is literally across the street from my office. The Braves also have crappy ownership (Liberty Media), but Liberty at least stays out of the way, mostly. Somehow the Braves continue to win.

That's the question. Does he have a plan? Why has been unable to make the necessary adjustments to the plan to fix the issues we all see on the ice and in the coaching? This goes back to the Adams vs Beane comparison. I know Beane has a plan and I know he will make decisions on that plan He has since day one, but he has been able to adapt on the fly. This season injuries decimated the defense so he went and added Douglas. The offense wasn't doing the job and Dorsey was fired. Adams' in-season adjustments have been callup or Robinson-type acquisitions. The hard thing about Adams is that I compare him, not only to Beane, but also to the Braves' Alex Anthopoulos. When Alex took over the Braves in 2017, the team was mired in losing 4 straight sub-500 seasons) and had just received major penalties from MLB for improper International signings. The Braves won the Division in 2018,(the first of 6 straight) and won the WS in 2021. The 2021 team was amazing in that Anthopoulos retooled the entire outfield mid-season and the team was without 2023 MVP Acuna for more than half the season. He, like Adams, signed his key kids (Acuna, Riley, Albies, Harris) to long-term team-friendly deals, but has also been aggressive in fixing holes in his roster wherever they are. If the Sabres are to succeed with Adams as GM, now that he has his core in place, he needs to take a page from Beane and Anthopoulos, and aggressively fix the holes in this roster. The trade deadline is soon. No time like the present to start being aggressive.

I've decided to relax about the games. I'm not going to worry about the outcome because this season is lost. Instead, I'm going to focus on which players, like Mitts, UPL, and JJP are working to get better and make the team better and hope (there is that dangerous word) that Adams gets a clue and sees that as well. He claims it's about who wants to be here. Right now that looks like a very short list. The other good news is baseball season is about to start, the NHL trade deadline is coming and so is the NFL draft. Lots of places to look for positives. The Amerks are in the playoff chase and Levi is playing well. Maybe the Amerks make a run and give us something to root for and maybe some of our key prospects like Kulich, Levi, and Rosen help fuel that run. I'm applying an attitude from playing golf for the remainder of the hockey season. I look at golf as 18 opportunities to excel. I don't care about my final score. My goal is to try to score a bogey or better on every hole and if not, not. If I hit my drive into the woods, drop finish the hole and move on to the next hole. This way, I enjoy myself and if I have a bridie and a few pars, I feel it's been worth playing. Win or lose at this point, I just want the Sabres to play hard and show the fans they care about getting better. I want UPL to solidify his hold as the No. 1 goalie, and I want the guys I mentioned up thread to continue to play well. I'd also like to see some of the kids get some games here and there.

Possibly overly optimistic about certain players (Mule, JJP, Mitts), but I was correctly harsh on both the RK hire and the Adams hire. I was also wrong on UPL and TNT. Where I was optimistic was on the team’s playoff chances the last two years. In each off-season thread for the last two years, I thought adding proven goaltending and two good defensemen would get us into the playoffs. This year we finally got some D (Clifton, EJ, and Ryan J) and better goaltending (UPL) but it hasn’t been enough. I honestly didn't realize how bad the coaching was last season as the team has played extremely hard for DG since he took over, but apparently, that message has grown stale. Honestly, the DG situation reminds me of Ted Nolan.

True and the team has given us ample ammo to vent about. There are positives that bode well for the future. 1. UPL - This is the biggest shock. I honestly thought he was going to play himself out of the NHL and back to Europe. Outside of yesterday, he has looked like a completely different goalie. If Adams says he saw this coming he’s not telling the truth. If Marty Biron, a good NHL goalie and a very good analyst, didn’t see this coming, no way Adams did. The UPL development has allowed Levi to develop properly in Rochester and turned goaltending from a weakness to a strength. 2. JJP - Quinn’s injury put more pressure on JJP to step up and boy has he. Outside of Mitts, he has been the best Sabres forward all season. His play at Worlds last year hinted that this was coming. The biggest surprise is his scoring. I thought of him as a Mitts type player; pass first, shoot second, but he is showing much more scoring skill than anticipated. I’m looking forward to seeing what is the next step up for him. 3. Casey - He has been improving slowly ever season since being sent to Rochester and the departure of RK. He had already proven he could play create for linemates, play up and down the lineup, play a two-way game and be strong along the boards. Out of necessity he has stepped up this season, improving his center play and goal scoring. He is now the most complete Sabre forward with JJP hot on his tail. 4. Greenway - The big engine that could. As the season has progressed so has Jordan. He is now bringing the offense to go with physical play. He should be a fixture in the top 9 going forward. 5. Clifton - To say he was terrible to start the season would be an understatement. However, over the last 3 months it would be hard to argue against him being our 2nd or 3rd best D. He is as physical as advertised, but his offense and in zone play have really improved. 6. Ryan Johnson - The rookie D has been mostly solid and has earned his PT. He has mostly sound defensively and continues to get more involved offensively. He is an excellent skater and I’m looking forward to seeing how he develops. Can he be a top 4 D for us? 7. Benson - I still disagree with keeping him this season. His lack of O production isn’t really a surprise given his size, age and inexperience. That said his hockey IQ is off the charts as is his heart and effort. If we could put his mind and heart into Thompson or Cozens they would literally be unstoppable. After an off-season of working in the weight room and watching film, don’t be surprised if he blossoms into a 20-25 goal weapon next season.

My friend @Taro T once pointed out to me that I was once one of the most positive voices on the board and that over the last few years, I’ve become quite negative. For that, I apologize. I am not, in general, a negative person. I am quite the opposite. However I looked at my posts recently and I have let my frustration and anger with Adams and the Sabres grow to the point that it’s ruined my enjoyment of watching the team. Not that the frustration is misplaced. However, it’s ruined the game for me, so it’s time to take a step back. Time to concentrate on the Braves and fantasy baseball. What makes me so frustrated is how different the management of the two Pegula teams are. Beane fires Dorsey and then trades for Douglas. He swings for the fences on occasion with the Diggs trade and with Von Miller (he missed here). He moves up and down the draft to get the players and assets he needs. He is proactive with his team and I have no doubt in my mind is that he’ll find a way out of the cap issues this season and Bills will be younger and probably better next year. The Bills missed the playoffs from 2000-2016 (17 straight seasons). Beane and McDermott arrive, and they make the playoffs in year 1 and 5 of 6 seasons with 4 straight division championships. I compare that to Adams who is reactive, takes little to no risk, and therefore has nothing to show for his efforts but his job. Like Beane, he correctly cleaned out the old core. Like Beane he drafted well, but that’s where the comparison ends. Since the clean-out, he hasn’t made one proactive move, and his reactive moves have borne little to no fruit. If Beane was the Sabres GM. He would have acquired a quality goaltender as soon as Ullmark walked. He would have added defense in trade last season as soon as we were down 2-3 starters on D and he’d have fired the assist coach in charge of our special teams this year. All that said, the Sabres have a ton of assets to work with, but it’s time for Adams to step up and learn from Beane. This will be the 13th season without playoffs in a league where 50% of the teams make the playoffs every year. If there is a 14th year, Adams will be gone. So taking a step back and just looking at the organization there are things I like still. 1) Goaltending - a source of weakness since Ullmark left, could be a strength as early as next season, assuming UPL can continue to perform at this year’s level and Levi can make the jump back to the NHL. He is currently playing very well at Rochester. 2) Defense - Dahlin is currently the only top 4 D on this roster. R Johnson may be that someday, but that someday is not today. Clifton, Samuelsson, and Jokiharju are all 3rd pairing guys. Power, although, young and talented and being paid to be a top 4 D, isn’t there yet either. As a unit, they are just ok. I think the pieces will fit better if Joki is traded and upgrade by a legit top 4 RHD. The good news is that Mule is better than he played this year, Clifton has been good in 2024 and Power and R Johnson have more to give. The question is when (if?) they reach their potential. 3) Forwards - An outsider looking at the Sabres has to wonder how a team that played with such spirit last season; playing hard from the opening puck drop until the final horn blew, completely lost their edge. On paper this may be the most talented roster the Sabres have fielded on offense since 2006. There are 6 Sabres forwards capable of scoring 30+ goals a season in the NHL in TNT, Tuch, Skinner, Cozens, Quinn, and JJP. Mitts and Greenway have 20+ goal potential. Benson’s upside is hard to gauge at this point, but 25g, 65 pts seems reasonable. So where did the offense go? Bad coaching? Injuries? Lack of effort? Why also won’t they commit to two-way play? Once these talented guys figure out the effort questions and the 2-way play question, the sky is still the limit for this team. 4) The pipeline. On paper, we have one of the deepest pipelines in the NHL. We have 4-5 top-notch forwards (even without Benson) and at least 2-4 future NHL D headlines by Strbak and Novikov (not including R Johnson). We also have a top 10 pick in the upcoming draft. Honestly, the roster is close to being a playoff roster. If Adams brings back the entire top 9 I outlined above, I doubt we’d have much room to complain based on talent. But the question for me is what would Beane do if he were the Sabres' GM. First, he’d probably fire the entire coaching staff. He certainly would get rid of the assistants except Bales who has done a good job, especially with UPL. Second, he’d probably find a way to trade Skinner to save the cap and change locker room. He made similar moves when he arrived with Bills. He would also dump all ineffective players including KO, Z, Krebs, Bryson etc… Third, he’d trade this year’s no. 1 pick (and other assets) for the proven D he needs (like he did for Diggs). I can then see him trading our 2nd rd pick and other picks to move up in the draft to grab a player he likes who has slipped on draft day like Kincaid last year. Lastly, he’d probably add a veteran goalie as insurance if UPL backslides or Levi isn’t ready. Beane likes to pair rookies in rotation with vets. This is easier in the NFL but works with goalies as well since Levi can easily be returned to Rochester if he isn’t ready even next season.

it's not just a 4th liner he's ripping on, but a symbol of the failed leadership on this team from the GM that re-signed, to the coach that keeps playing him, to the example he fails to set on the ice. By the way, Z ranks 343 in NHL forwards in pts of forwards who have played 37 or more games. 343! Only Nick Deslauriers and Ross Johnston have fewer points and they are tied with 3 assists for the season. Krebs is 315th with 10 pts in his 53 games. (at least he's a +4)

I think this team and its management have already given the one-finger salute to the fans.

.... and the Messiah will get here too.

Kevyn Adams and Don Granato

What does my post about Skinner have to do with TP unless TP tells KA that he can’t trade Skinner under any circumstances?

I just realized the Sabres had a game scheduled last night. I’m almost sorry I missed it. Another sterling effort I see.

I think that will come down to how Levi plays in Rochester for the rest of the year and how much budget does TP give to KA to spend. If he gives substantial contracts to Mitts and UPL, then his ability to spend in other areas may be limited by the team budget rather than the cap. If Levi plays well and if we have limited funds, KA will go for the cheaper Levi option as the backup. He may do that anyway to insure internal competition.

The question to him is do you want to collect $9 mill on a playoff team or one that continually plays for a top-10 draft pick without actually getting better? The NMC, depending on how it's written, doesn't prevent a trade but allows the player to have some or most of the control over where he goes. Just ask Patrick Berglund or Taylor Hall. This is Skinner's 14th year in the NHL and he has never suited up in a playoff game. He is 31 (32 in May) and has 3 years left on his deal. He is getting the $27 million whether he stays or goes, but it's time to say, Jeff, why don't you go to a contender and try to get yourself a ring because the Sabres may still be 2-3 years away from contending. If we find the right taker (Det?, Tor?) there is a good chance he'll accept the opportunity. Most players want to win. As they get closer to the end of their careers, that desire tends to grow because the number of opportunities to win shrinks. Jeff, thank you for your efforts here in Buffalo, but it's time to move on.

It is a little ironic that the google translator of his name (If I’m reading earlier posts correctly) would fit in so well with the limerick.

Barzal is way overpaid. That said, honestly Mitts has better talent to play with (on paper). Still, it's a great comparison. I have long argued that 100K per point is a starting point for a forward's contract. Mitts has cooled down a little of late, but he could still finish close to 70 points, thus 6.5 to 7 is the likely starting point for a long-term deal.

Well, they went to the net against LA and got rewarded. Why did it take so long this season for the players to do exactly what they knew they were supposed to do?

First, Adams needs to know his budget from TP before re-signing UPL and Mitts. He also wants to see how the season plays out. Both key RFAs have arbitration rights giving them some leverage in the negotiations. Therefore, it's in their interest to let things play out as well especially as they are having breakout seasons. I believe both players have 2 seasons left before becoming UFAs.

Can’t wait for KA to give out another big contract for a player with one good year. There is no doubt UPL is having a great year, but he isn’t anywhere close to an Ullmark comparison. Ullmark was good in the AHL and was good for 3 years in the NHL before he walked. UPL was bad in the minors and bad in the NHL for the last 3 years before this season. This is a guy you give a 3 year bridge deal too. Make sure that he is actually good before committing long-term especially with Levi in the organization. Think Cal Petersen and his terrible contract. The Sabres can’t afford anymore 1 year wonders like Cozens, Power, and Mule.