GASabresIUFAN

Broad Street Bullies over Bobby (Orr, Hull) or Bowman?

Maybe let’s us use Hawerchuk for H when we get there? What Hockey “E”?

I like these C’s Dominator for D, Sabres and NHL.

B for Bobby, Bobby Orr, Bobby Hull? Briere for the Sabres? Bowman for the Sabres or Hockey or Both?

Heard some of this on the NHL Network on XM. Thought it would be fun to nominate players, coaches, things and places for each letter for both the hockey in general and the Sabres. Thegoal is to find the hockey/Sabres person, place or thing that you most associate with that Letter. For people we can use either their first or last name to satisfy the letter. For example Uwe Krupp could be nominated for either U or K. Note: If you feel that you have a better idea then what has previously nomintated, go ahead and nominate something/someone else and we’ll put it to a vote later. For example: Letter A - I nominate “the Aud” for the Sabres and Al Arbor for Hockey in general. For contested choices, I’ll start a poll to get Sabrespace approval . Lets start with A-F. A. The Aud (Sabres); Al Arbour (hockey) B. Briere; Bobby (Hull and Orr) beats out Bowman (Stan and Scotty) Wow! C. Crozier; the Cup D. Dominator; Dominator E. Eichel; Esposito F. The French Connection; The French Connection G. Gare; The Great One H. Housely, Howe I. Imlach; Iginla J. Jeanneret, Johnstown Chiefs K. Knox, Kharlamov (Kurri?) L. Luce (LaFontaine?)/Lemieux (LaFleur, Lidstrom) M. Meehan (Player, GM, Agent) (Miller, Martin (part of French Connection)/Montreal Canadians N. Ted Nolan / Neidermayer O. Organist Norm Wullen / Orr P. Pominville / Potvin or Penguins Q. /Quackenbush (HOFer former Bruin) R. Ramse(a)y / Richard S. Scheonfeld / Stastny (Sutter?) T. Taro Tsujimoto of the Tokyo Katanas (Tenor Joe Byron) / Tretiak U. Uwe Krupp / Norm Ullman (HOFer Red Wings) V. Vanek/Vezina W. Winter Classic / Hayley Wickenheiser X. Y. Yuri Khmylev / Yzerman Z. Zhitnik/Zubov

Our 479 penalty minutes were the 4th lowest number and our 68 penalties was the 6th lowest. Honestly the best way to fix the PK is get better goaltending. An 838 save % on the PK isn’t good enough.

If you look at the discussion in the off-season thread we have discussed that this team needed to improve their offense and their PK to turn their negative goal differential positive. History shows that teams with a positive goal differential almost always make the playoffs. Get the differential to +20 or so and you are talk about a true championship contender. The Sabres were 21st in goals scored (195) last season and 21st in GA (217) last season for a - 22 differential (25th in the NHL). a plus 20 would have put us 9th in differential last season. Our PK was 30th in the NHL at only 74.6%. We allowed the 7th most PP GA. Our 5 on 5 GA was pretty good at only 136; 10th best in the NHL. We also allowed the 2nd most SHG against at 11. The bottom line is that we need to cut down of PP goals against, cut SHGs and find a way to score more goals. KA so far has mostly attacked the goal scoring part of the equation with Hall and Staal, but he really hasn't done anything substantive to upgrade the PK (Eakin seems like a defensive downgrade from Larsson and Rieder a defensive upgrade from Vesey). He hasn't upgraded the starting 6 D, nor has he improved the goaltending that had a nearly league worst 838 save % on the PK.

If we have learned anything from the ROR trade we have learned the following. 1) Teams trading the better player almost always lose the deal 2) If you trade a star, you better have a viable plan B in the organization or an acquisition to replace the departed player in the works (trade/FA). 3) Never make such a deal in desperation because the return will suck (See the Edm Taylor Hall deal and this deal so far). 4) Have a legitimate hockey purpose for the deal, such as rebuilding team needs young assets (Vanek trade) or need a top pairing D and have a top line forward depth to acquire one (Seth Jones deal). So now back to topic. We aren't trading Reinhart. There is also no need to trade him. A) We have the cap to afford his contract. B) Our RW depth is lacking for the next season and losing Reinhart would create a hole that can't readily be repaired. Our RW depth chart beyond Reinhart is suspect. Thompson, KO and Rieder aren't anywhere close to Sam's level as players. Cozens and Quinn maybe viable alternatives in a year or two but they aren't now. Only Hoffman could be a substitute of the remaining UFAs, but do we really want to replace 24 year old Samson with 30 year old Hoffman on a long-term deal? C) Our roster holes or a need for cap space/lower payroll can be accomplished in other ways starting with moving one or more of our RHDs. One of Risto (5.4), Miller (3.875) and Montour (3.85) or Jokiharju (.925) will be moved to their off side next season. Montour struggled last season with such a move and I doubt Miller would fair any better. IMHO (and most other peoples), KA needs to trade at least one of these guys to help upgrade Davidson as the 3rd LHD and/or upgrade Hutton. May not be definitive proof, but it does create a very very strong inference. Wasn't the trade made minutes before the Sabres were required to pay the bonus.

Good.

I was very glad to hear about this contract. I think it sets the market for Samson

Actually we were good at that last year. 4th lowest in the league if I remember correctly.

Joker is a guy who puts up 5g and 25a in a few years and someone will say wow I did think he added that much to the offense. He has the defense down and as he matures the offense will follow. He is going to be a core piece this group long term.

How is the driver?

@MODO Hockey I don’t disagree that the tools are there for a good power play. In fact the tools before adding hall are good enough for a top 5 PP, except we don’t have one. Part of the problem is our Left Wall Obie is a pass first guy and the PP QB. That’s OK, but he needs to shoot more. Also the puck movement is slow and often telegraphed. This gives the PK time to adjust and time to collapse of VO and others. IMHO moving the puck quicker East/West, Hi to low, with the goal of getting the PK out of position will create more and better shooting lanes and hopefully more goals.

Yes, when camp starts and we can see where he stands

I'd love to move on from Hutton, but with MAF off the market, their isn't much out there. Cap wise we'd have move someone to take on Kuemper, Raanta or MAF and still have most of the hit on Hutton even if we demote him. An upgrade just seems unlikely at this point. So the choice is keep what we got, try to get the best 3rd string we can and pray Hutton rebounds or somehow get lucky and someone wants Hutton as part of a bigger deal. Option A seems like the most likely option right now.

Not even as a 3rd string goalie. You can probably get him for 700K sent him Rochester and if an injury occurs at least you have a real NHL goalie to come in.

The real question on goaltending is who is legitimately available for us to upgrade Hutton, or is this a forlorn hope. Lehner is having shoulder surgery and should (but may not be) ready for camp. This seems to take MAF off the market for now. Kuemper or Ranta are probably available as the Yotes need to cut payroll, but there are teams, like Carolina and Chicago, that maybe more desperate for goaltending then we are. If Carolina went hard after Kuemper, would you be interested in Reimer or Mrazek as Ullmark's No. 2 or is that just more Hutton. Any interest in Jimmy Howard who has suffered behind a horrible D in Det for the last 2 years. I might take a flier on him to share the AHL net to mentor UPL with a promise of a chance to beat out Hutton in camp.

The goalie rules are different then the D or Forward rules. No 40 game requirement, nor does the player have to be on the NHL roster. Johansson is an RFA at the end of this deal and therefore we can expose him and protect Ullmark if we choose. https://www.nhl.com/news/seattle-kraken-2021-nhl-expansion-draft-rules-same-as-vegas-golden-knights-followed/c-302586918 A++ for effort, except we want this Adams administration to be more successful then John Adams' administration.

I very well could be wrong, but I don't remember Risto continuing in the Chara style of play after a short stint. The season was so forgettable that I could have just lost interest late and didn't remember him continuing in the Chara role.

... and then they stopped. One rule of life is keeping doing what's working. I remember the experiment as well and still wonder why they stopped. Jack is at the Ovie position, but now with Hall here, I think he'll have less playmaking obligations and more freedom to shoot.

Here is the good news going forward. The PP has Eichel, Hall, Reinhart, VO, Skinner, Risto, Montour, Miller, Dahlin, and maybe Cozens to choose from. That's to much talent for the PP to stink. I think most of the PP issues stems from coaching and a lack of creativity. We know this collection of players can be excellent on the PP. We saw it work during the PH period. One issue seems to puck movement. When the PH Sabres were great on the PP they moved the puck East/West very quickly and kept the Pk off balance. We seem to have lost that waiting for VO to unleash "The Shot" or Jack to make a play. Things are just to stagnant. As I mentioned above I'd like the coaches to try guys in different roles to see if things click. I'd like to see Jack in the Ovie role or Risto in the Chara role. We need to create more chaos and keep the PK off balance. However, because we have Risto, Miller, Dahlin and Montour, all with good to excellent PP skills, I'd like to see two D on both power plays to hopefully cut down on the breakaways going the other way.

I proposed KO on the second line a few days ago and everyone said he is to old and slow to play that role. I agree with you. I think he'd be fine. He has some experience with high end players and I can see him in a kind of enforcer role keeping others from taking liberties on Staal and Skinner.

We still have 3 key RFAs to re-sign (who all filled for arbitration) plus others like Mitts to re-sign. Do we upgrade the goaltending? Do we find a better 3rd LHD then Davidsson? What will it cost to upgrade these two slots and how can we get it done? I also don't like the idea of another season of Montour playing as an LHD. With the Bonus overage from last year, I also think KA needs to move some payroll. I'm thrilled that we are playing with a budget as low as 72 mill, but now we are up against the cap again and I suspect KA will want 3-5 mill of maneuvering room during the season. I wonder how much Miller or Montour are worth right now in the trade market.

I'd love for them to try Risto in the role Boston used Chara for many years. If my memory serves, the B actually had Chara play from the net to the area between the faceoff circles to use his big body and strength to cause chaos in front of the net. In most seasons with the B's Chara would score 8-11 PP goals a year. Many around the net. I'd also like to see Jack used more like Ovie. Now that we have Hall to distribute the puck, Jack can freelance some to look for open lanes for his blistering shot.