GASabresIUFAN

We are not ahead of schedule by any means. We are 7 years behind schedule. That said, Kulich and Levi are the only two prospects off limits. To get an Östlund or Savoie, the acquiring team would have to offer some excellent. One place I might look to swap a forward for a D is the LA Kings. They have a logjam of quality RHD prospects like Spence, Faber and Grans. Maybe there is a deal to be had with them? On the NHL front, I'd move on with a top prospect for a young, signed D capable or partnering with Power. As to when, now would be a good time to look at moving some of our capital to help the Sabres.

What plan? I have yet to see a proper plan to address the defense or goaltending. Waiting for Levi isn't a plan. It's hope and prayer. Continually trotting out Bryson, Bush and Clague is a failure not a plan. It's takes guts to be objective and say what your doing isn't working and then take steps to address the issue. KA has known these issues exist for years and has yet to properly address them. It's past time for changes to be made.

So there are 3 first rd forwards on the ICE and this 17 year old forward is by far their leading scorer? Where can we sign up for him?

They don’t have the horses. None of our goaltenders and Bryson, Lyubishkin and Clague would not make the roster of a contending team. It’s also questionable whether Jost, KO or Girgensons would earn a spot on a good team either.

Candle sticks and a seat in the pressbox.

One of KA’s biggest errors this season was not getting Power a Tallinder type player to partner with. This vet would have helped Power open up the offensive side pf his game while also providing leadership to the entire inexperienced D group. Instead he brought in the marginal Lyubushkin.

This thread asks if KA is doing anything. The answer right now is no. The real question, as his team gets pummeled by good teams, is whether KA has the guts to support this team by acquiring the D to help them reach the playoffs. I think the answer is no. He is going to watch how the next 4 games unfold and say (if the team plays well) “I didn’t do anything at the deadline because I didn’t want to disrupt the chemistry of the developing young team” and if they don’t play well, he’ll say “This is a development year and the cost in the trade market was to high to make any substantive moves.”

Tnt’s ascension to super star status and Cozens maturing as he has. While UPL has been slightly better than I thought, he still is a below average NHL goaltender and having him and Comrie man the crease next year will be a mistake. Unfortunately that is exactly what KA is going to do. Sadly I was correct about the defense and goaltending. I felt they weren’t adequate at the end of last season and thought Comrie and Bush were band-aids. I wanted KA to bring in two good stay at home D in the off-season (no I don’t think Bush is any good either) and wanted KA to bring in 2 goaltenders. I acknowledged that he’d like bring back Anderson. With a goals against of over 3.4 per game the team is paying the price for KA not being more aggressive in the off-season to address the obvious issues with the team. NJ aggressively fixed similar issues this past off-season and look where they are now.

Think McCabe or Chris Butler.

Already posted in the prospects thread.

While I posted up thread that the team is still incomplete and therefore we still need to reserve judgment, there are some troubling signs. The PP has gone into the tank and the coaching staff doesn't seem to have an answer. The PK, while better of late, is still bad and has been bad all season. Again the coaching staff doesn't have an answer. Also, I hoped for general improvement as the season progressed and the team got healthy. That hasn't happened. The system continues to leave our vulnerable goaltending out to dry and the coaches have made no adjustments. DG has made some recent line changes, but that hasn't made a difference. Last season the team got better as the season progressed. In fact, in the last 3rd of last season, I'd argue that they were playing better overall hockey than they are right now.

I said before the Toronto game that the next 4 games would be a referendum on the Sabres season. Play well and the playoffs become significantly more likely. Play poorly and the playoffs could easily slip away. Game 1 against Tor, by all accounts, they played awful, especially in the first. If they can move past this and win the next 3, then they stay on track. Sadly, in the last 4 games against playoff teams, our record is 0-4 with 23 goals allowed and only 8 goals for. This is not the type of hockey that will propel a young team to the playoffs. What if particularly awful was getting down 4-0 against both Tor and Car in the first, down 5-0 early in the 3rd to LA, and then allowing 7 straight against Calgary. I don't know if it's a lack of depth on offense, the entire defense, game planning, goaltending, or a combo of all 4, but a team trying to make the playoffs simply can't have these types of long stretches of terrible play.

It's hard to fully judge him when he is coaching with one hand tied behind his back. He is saddled with sub-par goaltending and a 3rd pairing D pairing he can't trust to even play 10 minutes a night. His team is incredibly young and inexperienced, especially on defense where the 22-year-old star has the most NHL games experience in the group. Until he has a complete roster to coach it's hard to fully evaluate him.

It's time to get rid of the 3 headed goalie monster. Either trade Comrie or send down UPL. This will open a roster spot to add depth on defense.

I'm not sure where you got your stats from but I went and looked at the last three drafts and this is what they revealed The average team used 32% of their draft picks on D. The Sabres used 18.5%. Only Edm and the NYR drafted a smaller % than the Sabres. Of the 5 other teams with the most picks (27 to 29 picks), the average number of D taken was over 9 and that represented 33% of the picks taken. The Sabres should have done likewise. They also drafted 2-3 D in the first 2 rounds. Only 5 teams drafted less D than we did including Seattle (4 but only in 2 drafts), and playoffs teams Toronto, Colorado, the NYR and Edm. Except for the NYR, the other 3 had traded away many top picks. The Sabres' 21 drafted forwards were the most by a wide margin and our 78% drafting of forwards was 2nd most behind Edm's 87.5% but they only had 16 picks. The average team drafted 12 forwards. You say I ignore the highly drafted players. I haven't. 50% of our D group needs to be overhauled and we have to go outside the organization to do it because we don't have any ready or near-ready prospects to even look at. Johnson is the closest, and like Samuelsson, Dahlin, and Jokiharju he is a Jbot acquisition. KA has not done nearly enough to bolster our D pipeline and that isn't even debatable at this point.

Devon is saying, “Holy crap, I might be the starter in Buffalo next year.”

And the horse he road in on.

Against bad teams. Our record against good teams in the East is awful. Only one win so far and that was an OT win against Bos.

Omg, we let ROR score twice. Does this team have no shame.

I’m at trivia with my family. Going home to watch IU basketball.

I’m sorry I’m missing this game. Ok not really.

Don’t group me with Eleven. That’s completely unfair. I only complain about things that can get fixed. Eleven is who he is. I do think the blackout rule is stupid. If the games are worth seeing people will go whether they can watch it at home or not. Blacking out a game in Albany NY is even dumber.

That’s not the argument at all. KA has drafted 13 players the last 3 years in the first 3 rounds. 11 forwards, 1 D and 1G. (7.6%). Overall he has drafted 27 players and only 5 D (18.5%) and 4 of the 5 are late round picks. Last I looked D comprise about 33% of a roster. Hard to develop D when you don’t draft any. Hard to develop top 4 D when you only draft one early in the draft over a 3 year period. Going back 5 years is a false flag. Yes those draft picks are in the NHL and they should be by now. Dahlin is D+5, Samuelsson is D+5, Bryson D+6, Jokiharju D+6 , and Clague D+7. None of these guys, except Power, are “recent draft picks.”

Your no fun anymore.

KA invited him up to have a face to face meeting about his future, and oops he was needed because someone got hurt in warm ups.