GASabresIUFAN

We laughed at wanting to sign Strauss Mann or Dryden McKay, but there may be openings to fill in Rochester and Cincinnati.

40 games vs 80. Sold out games with adoring fans vs empty arenas. Free education and a legit chance to compete for a championship vs no chance to compete for a championship any time soon.

The off-season gameplan is getting clearer by the day. Power signed, Levi and Portillo staying in school. Johnson’s decision still unknown. After watching the Sabres fight hard, but lose to Carolina and Florida, a couple of things are readily apparent. 1) We need better goaltending. To me this means not even relying on UPL as part of the solution next year. If you want to bring back Anderson as the backup ok, but we need a real starter. 2) We need at least one upgrade on defense, maybe two. We certainly need to begin with a partner for Power, but we also might upgrade the trio of Pysyk, Fitz and Bryson. Matt Dumba should be target no. 1 and signing a vet like Ruuta should be given serious considerstion. 3) Eakin needs to be upgraded as well. DG likes Z and KO in the shutdown role, but also because they can add secondary offense. Getting them a center who can win draws, play 2 way hockey and add some O should be a major priority as well.

Wow. What anger! Kid go back to college. Have fun! Maybe they’ll actually play defense in front of you next fall. Now KA re-sign Anderson, get a vet like Varlamov to pair with him. Keep UPL in Rochester. Also get UPL some D in Rochester. Perfect. Let UPL prove he’s ready. Let’s ride real veteran goaltending to the playoffs. Problems solved.

She wrote You’re so Vain about Mick Jagger.

The forward group is nearly good now despite playing Mr. Give Away (Cody Eakin) each night. We have 8 double digit goal scoring forwards this season with Krebs and Mitts likely to have reached that level had they played a full season. TNT and Skinner are at 30+ with VO and KO knocking on the door of 20. Quinn will probably score 20 next year. However to get good we need to start stopping the puck from going into our net. To make the playoffs we need to become a net positive in goal differential. We are -56 right now. I can see us adding 30-40 goals to our totals assuming continued growth from Cozens and Krebs, healthy years from Tuch and Mitts and reasonable contributions from Quinn and JJP. This would move us from 2.75 gf/gp to 3.25 gf/gp. To make the playoffs we need to drop our 3.5 gaa down to 3.

On the left side certainly, but the field in open on the right and Johnson has some experience on his off-side. I don’t see Bryson, Pysyk or Fitz as a major obstacle to earning a job with the Sabres sooner then later.

I like Asplund. His defensive metrics are excellent. He also seems to play better when teamed with Mitts. However he looks more and more like the 13th utility forward next year. Assuming VO is re-signed, Quinn and JJP make the team, and KA acquires an upgrade over Eakin to center KO and Girgensons and to help get to the cap floor, that makes Asplund the odd man out.

Yes, of course. Lol. I really didn’t think everyone would take my post so seriously. It was a pretty sad coincidence that KA went to 3 games and all of our prospects lost. A series of unfortunate events if you will. I actually agree with Levi’s decision to return. Guys like Hellebuyck and Ryan Miller returned after similar great seasons. It takes a strong kid to defer his pro hockey dream for a year. Everything about Levi indicates he is a very thoughtful and dedicated person. I trust he did what was best for him and his future and he clearly wanted to continue to lead his young NE team. I also have an idea why Portillo and Johnson haven’t signed yet as well. My guess is they want a break from hockey and want to finish the school year. I’d guess that Johnson is close to his degree and might complete it this summer and that Portillo might want to go home to Sweden this summer to be with his family and then join the Amerks in the fall. Huglen was never signing. He is two years behind in his development because of his back injury. He blossomed in the last 1/4 of the season with nearly a pt a game and was elevated to Minn’s top line. He’ll be one of their top forwards next season. Hopefully he’ll build on this season and move up our prospect list. I have him 17th on the list right now. As to R2, I’ve stated elsewhere that I’m disappointed R2 is leaving. However he is likely looking at we are. He sees an NHL roster bursting with young talent. When the season opened R2 had an NHL slot, but 6 months later the development of Quinn and JJP coupled with the acquisitions of Krebs and Tuch basically eliminated his opportunity with the Sabres. However even with all this talent, R2 would be one injury from being back on the roster. Still, he is going to make significantly more money in Switzerland then the AHL and we can’t begrudge someone for doing what they feel what’s best for their future.

For TNT to get a 10 mill contract is going to have to put in 40 goals and add at least 50 assists next season. If that happens, sure pay the guy. I don’t see him hitting those numbers despite the 32 goals ytd. If he puts up 70 points next season we should be thrilled and that will earn him 7.5 for 5 years. VO’s deal is definitely looking like a 4 year 5 mill deal

Here is the good news. This team played two excellent teams tooth and nail for most of a back to back on the road. We lost but we didn't make it easy despite tired legs and some lackadaisical play. Earlier this season, this game would have been 6 - 1 and over after 20 minutes. Now think about what we saw and add more offense from Quinn and JJP, better defense with an upgrade over Pysyk and better goaltending and we get a huge step closer to Carolina and Florida.

For 4 straight years with very good to excellent save% each season? No college team is that consistently good on defense. For the last 3 years he’s had 30 shutouts, only 12 total losses and save% ranging from .924 to 942. He is an excellent college goalie and it isn’t really debatable. I don’t think he is as good as Levi and he might be to small to be an NHLer, but he could be as good as Tokar, Hammond or Dell in the pros.

McKay is an excellent college goalie. He had 4 years with a sub 1.8 gaa and a 930+ save %. He’d be good on any team. He’ll probably be a solid pro as well. His numbers are considerably better then guys like Andrew Hammond or Aaron Dell who carved out solid pro careers including significant NHL time.

Difference in the game was special teams. We gave up 2 PP goals on 2 attempts, while only scoring one on 4 attempts. Their PK was aggressive and forcing quick decisions that lead to mistakes. We sit back and watch teams play with the puck.

He has for a couple of weeks. It looks like a nagging leg injury that seems to have limited the power in his skating.

And playing smart two way hockey. His line has been our best tonight.

I don’t mind it so much. McKay has had a great career and the Hobey is often a career award. McKay had the best career while Levi was the best goalie this season.

Why do we seem to play more back to back games then other fracnhises?

I think you are taking my post much to seriously. That said, everything I posted was accruate.

Really good shift by Mitts. Great support on both ends of the ice and nice job breaking up the Florida rush.

Maybe they should change things up and put Bryson on the PP as a 2nd D to help on the shortie chances.

We are signing Strauss Mann instead

This is not the thread you are looking for.

Eakin has zero hockey IQ.

We should have all known that the Southern Ontario native would have his first game against Toronto in Toronto.