GASabresIUFAN

Jack stoned by UPL

A well deserved goal. The Sabres have played a solid game and didn’t deserve a regulation loss.

Berglund followed by Hall a close 2nd. Berglund acted like a child and quit on the team (and himself). Hall is second. He scammed Adams and the Sabres for a $8 mill deal and a NMC then literally gave the team zero effort. Adams get most of the blame for letting it happen, but Hall and his agent scammed the Sabres.

Why wouldn’t they sign Miedema this off-season? The Sabres need more players upfront with size. The only prospect in the A with similar size is Wahlberg.

I said that earlier in the thread and you can smell the decomposing franchise all the from PEI to Atlanta.

I’m feeling much better about getting a top 3 pick. I’m interested in Misa, Martone, and Desnoyers.

This team’s obsession for 14 years with offensive D has ultimately cost us McNabb, McCabe, Zadorov and Borgen. Just stupid.

Every time I see McNabb, who is playing his 806th NHL game today, I’m reminded of how terrible a GM Murray was as well. How much better would this rebuild have gone had we kept McNabb, an excellent stay at home defender?

You have to understand that something is work in order to fix it. Adams response to giving up an average 4 goals a game is "remain calm all is well."

Thank you sir may I have another? I was thinking more like lying dead face down in the gutter, but grabbing ankles works.

No he was referring to Star Trek. The previous poster was “Q”, named for Pickard’s nemesis from Star Trek. In the show, Q introduced Pickard to the Borg who turned Pickard into Locutus. Please accept my apology if you knew this already.

The crazy thing is we are actually in the same position as we were two years ago. We have a good offense (2 years ago was a great offense), but terrible defense and goaltending. Adams response to this situation two years ago was a decision to bring in a backup goalie (Comrie) while hoping one of his goalies of the future (UPL or Levi) emerged and a couple of depth D in Clifton and Erik Johnson. The offense up, the defense still stunk and the team failed again, despite UPL playing his butt off. This time he needs to invest in 2 the very least 2 good top 4 D.

https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/44237201/nhl-buffalo-sabres-playoff-drought-draft-free-agency-kevyn-adams Article long on rehash and short on objective ideas to fix the team, other than an agent saying Terry needs to spend more. Most interesting note was a discussion of Adams failure to capitalize on the good season a couple of years ago by not making the correct acquisitions on defense and in goal to take the next step. While this is something we have discussed, it does crystalize the failures of this current regime.

I'm not saying Byram is good defensively. Far from it, but unlike Power he is working to get better and is willing to hit someone. I think we can retain him at a smaller cap hit than Power and I think he's a better player right now and will be in the near future. My vision for the Sabres is to find two capable stay at home D that can skate 20-22 minutes a game. One to pair with Dahlin to form a reliable top pair and free Dahlin to activate more offensively. The second will pair with Byram to form a reasonable second pair. I envision a Tallinder type player helping to mentor Byram. After that, it won't much matter what is on the third pair as long as they are reasonable defensively and add some energy.

No. I'm not pissing away another season waiting for him to get a clue. Even if he somewhat figures out how to improve positionally, his lack of willingness to engage physically will keep him a defensively liability. We have Dahlin and we can re-sign Byram. Sometimes you just have to move on from a player regardless of their draft status.

Ultimately the key to the offseason is getting out from under Power and Samuelsson. I've been talking about the disaster that is Power for months and finally people are seeing what has been evident all-season, the guy simply can't play defense. He is Risto 2.0 except Risto was actually willing to hit someone. Risto only now is beginning to figure out how to be a defenseman. Are we really willing to wait 6 more years for Power to figure it out?

It was me. It was when the mid-season contract projections came out. My comments then were keeping Cozens, Samuelsson and Power while trying to re-up JJP, Quinn, Byram and McLeod could be a cap disaster. We’d remain a terrible team but one at or near the cap. Doesn’t sound like a smart plan. Trading Cozens for Norris did nothing to alleviate the situation. We need to buyout Samuelson and trade Power or Byram to clear the proper cap room to fix the defense.

Just when I thought the Sabres couldn’t sink any lower, they did. I watch part of the game and was so disgusted I turned it off. Samuelsson needs to be trade or bought out. Power needs to be traded this off-season as well. He is literally useless as a defender. I’d love to see bench the $8 million man. The only players I saw last night that played at all like they give a crap were Norris, TNT and Benson.

The stink.

I don’t necessarily disagree. I wrote how I think Adams views the roster. Before the Norris trade we had arguably one true center (McLeod) and two guys masquerading as centers (Cozens and TNT) with a rookie Kulich filling in at center as needed. After the Norris trade we have two real centers plus TNT and Kulich playing center as needed. Where I disagree with you is I think Kulich is best suited to play center long-term, but O wouldn’t be un-happy if we acquired another experienced top 9 center.

Adams. Tuch and TNT are under contract and are our best forwards. Adams acquired Norris and McLeod. He just re-signed Zucker and stated that JJP is a core player who isn’t on the trade market. Kulich is also one of Adams key draftees and truthfully his play this season has earned him an opportunity next year. I’d say as long as Adams remains GM those 7 will certainly (barring injury) be in the top 9 next fall.

It's kind of nice to be arguing that we have 4 possible legit centers for 3 jobs. It's kinda of a nice problem to have. This breads flexibility. The next HC (Ruff or someone else) can mix and match to see which combos are affective. Personally, I like TNT on the wing. Right now 7 of the top 9 forwards heading into next season are locked in with TNT, Tuch, JJP, Zucker, Kulich, Norris, and McLeod. Beyond them are Greenway, Quinn, Benson and possibly Rosen fighting for the last 2 jobs in the top 9.

The play last night on the game winning goal kind of sealed it for me. He is clearly a high motor player that the Sabres need more of. Cozens doesn't make that play.

Doesn't that apply to Tage (and most other NHLers)? Tage played all of 17 games in 2019/20 and spent the rest of the year on IR He was injured some in 2020-21 He missed 11 games last season to injury and missed games this season as well. Norris is on pace to play 74 games this season. Hopefully this is the beginning of a healthy trend for him.

I agree.