GASabresIUFAN

What’s disingenuous is that there is no experience at the position. Yes Kozak and Kulich have limited NHL experience, but TNT has 442 games, McLeod 292, Norris 239 and Krebs 290. Lafferty has 343. We could have a spine of TNT, Norris, McLeod and Krebs of next year without utilizing Kulich or Kozak. That’s plenty of experience. I’m sorry, we have the 9th best offense in the NHL. Despite some of our forwards being mediocre or poor 2 way players, they aren’t the issue with this team. The problems are the defense and goaltending. I understand wanting Adams gone (I’m in that camp), but even a new GM isn’t going to delete the entire roster and start again. Pegula isn’t going to hire someone who wants to try rebuild 4.0. Dahlin and a top 10 offense is a good place to start building a competitive team. Fix the defense and goaltending and create a competitive team. Fire the coaching staff and hopefully the new staff fixes the special teams.

That’s a little bit disingenuous. Kozak and Kulich were callups and Norris was a deadline acquisition (who admittedly promptly got hurt). That said Kozak, Kulich and Norris have played 168 games this season between the NHL and AHL. I have zero issue with the idea of Kozak being a 4th liner next season, Kulich in the top 6 and Norris giving us 60 games. We have enough other “centers” with Krebs, Lafferty and Thompson plus McLeod to have flexibility when injuries occur. In fact, this flexibility reminds me of Hecht, Drury, Connolly, Roy, Briere and Gaustad, who all could play center or wing as needed (although Gaustad was pretty much only a center). In 2005/06 Gaustad and Roy were moving up from the AHL. Roy had 49 games of NHL experience and Gaustad 1. Hecht, Drury, Connolly and Briere were all trade acquisitions like TNT, McLeod, Norris and Krebs. In 2005/6 - Connolly, Briere, and Hecht all missed significant time with injury. The biggest differences between that team and this one is 05/06 had Miller (an NHL rookie) in net and McKee, Tallinder and Lydman (an off-season acquisition) on defense.

9th worst team in the NHL. Yeah! Need to go 5-1-0 in the last 6 to match last year's level of "success.."

The Bruins have Jokiharju and were playing their backup goalie. Their D was like watching the Sabres. Terrible positioning. Terrible decision making and terrible in zone processing. Kulich, Thompson and Benson look like the real deal. I love watching Benson dig out pucks in the corner and look for Thompson. Such a pleasure to watch someone who actually know how to play hockey and gives the requisite effort.

These are exceptions. Historically, the higher the pick in the first rd the better the player, especially in the top 15.

No question on an NHL level, but organizationally would you rather take away from another failed season a top 4 pick or a top 10 pick? All winning right now does is f’up our draft position and convince TP and Howdy Doody to run it back one more time. To make it even worse, the more counting stats the RFAs pick up, the bigger their next contract. This is one time where winning hurt more than it helps.

Because they aren’t good defensemen. They literally have no idea how to in zone defense. They can’t kill penalties. I don’t know how else or how many times I have to say this, outside of Dahlin no one in our D group is capable of playing solid consistent defense. It may be the worst group of “defensemen” in the NHL. We need to flush the lines and re-think how we approach the defense, otherwise it won’t matter how many goals we score or how well our goalies play; this team will remain a loser picking 8th.

7-3 in our last 10, winners of 3 straight just in time to F-up our draft status and again pick 8th. This is also going to give Adams and Pegula the false impression that the team is on the right track.

For this team to win the goalie needs to stand on his head. That's what UPL did last year. That's what Levi did when he joined the team after college and that is what Reimer is doing of late. FIx the defense, fix the team.

A teenage girl wants to go to a hockey game with her dad. I’d have been buying tickets and making dinner reservations as soon as the conversation had ended. Those moments are precious. Grab them with both hands. May I suggest in the future to take her on college visit trips. My daughters say they were some of the most fun we had. We did the standard tour stuff, but we also tried to something fun on campus. At an IU visit we saw a basketball game or a football game, at Miami of Ohio we saw a D1 hockey game. At Florida St they have a student circus. You get the idea.

And stupid.

You don’t bring up an offensive creator and staple him to the 4th line. It looks like Kozak is day to day. Krebs or Lafferty can take over the 4th line center duties. I suspect Östlund will center the 3rd line possibly between Zucker and Quinn

@Thorner and I finally agreed that Natural Stat Trick was using empty net situations in their EV calculation which IMHO is wrong. The Sabres are +3 differential at EV (5 on 5, 4 on 4 & 3 on 3) (175 gf/172 ga). Our 169 5 on 5 goals is 3rd most in the NHL and our 175 EV goals are also 3rd. EV scoring is not our issue. EV goaltending and defense is a huge issue. We have allowed the 8th most goals against at EV. The Sabres are -45 when short handed (53 ga & 8 shgf) (7th worst net PK) The Sabres are +31 on the PP (39 for with 8 shorties allowed) (8th worst net PP) The Sabres are also - 10 in empty net situations ( 6 on 5 or 5 on 6) (19gf vs 29ga), although 22 of the 29 have been empty net goals scored against while we had our goalie pulled. Clearly we are having trouble keeping in zone offensive possession when trying for goals when behind late in games. Where this team sucks is on special teams. We also take too many penalties (224 times short handed 4th most in the NHL) while only drawing 213 Power Plays. Also our goaltending has been significantly below league average in save % 5 on 5 and on special teams. Solutions 1. Fire all the coaches. The EV offense improved year over year, but everything else still stinks or regressed. 2. Add better D and goalies. This should help the PK and EV defense.

I’m not tossing his time in Buffalo, but it’s a more accurate to compare this season to his prior career before Buffalo. Before coming to Buffalo his career shooting % is 11.9 not 14.2. Comparing this season to this season plus prior seasons skews the data. You don’t compare things to themselves.

Actually it’s nearly double his career number. The average you are utilizing includes this season which inflates his prior performance. In his 3+ years in Edm he averaged 11.9. There is no way he replicates his puck luck going forward.

I’d like to thank Cozens for all his efforts in helping the Sabres sweep the Sens.

Just some stats on Östlund this season. Noah has 35 points in 43 games including 18 goals and is a +20. 4 PPG and 3 SHG. That is a stellar rookie campaign in the A and for a 1st NA season. But that only tells part of the tale. In his 1st 12 games in NA, Noah had 1g 0a with a +1 In the next 31 games he scored 17g 17a + 19. In his last 7 games he added 7g 5a +12 This is someone who is improving game by game and rapidly before our eyes. I downgraded him on my prospect list for the slow start. I am thrilled to be proven wrong about this young player. He is probably the best prospect in our system at this point. https://theahl.com/stats/player/10157 (Östlund game log)

I loath Adams as a GM, but...... McLeod for Savoie is working out so far. (Please don't shoot the messenger). One more year in the A for sure, but then after that I can see him challenging for an NHL roster spot.

We weren't discussing Byram, nor did I bring up his injury history. The Sabres acquired Norris and within 3 games of arrival he was already hurt and is likely to miss the remainder of the season. This will mark his 5th straight season in a 5 year career in the NHL without playing a full season. Sure it's possible that he now goes on to play 80+ for the next 7 years, but how likely is that given his history?

LOL. Why on G-d's green earth would we trade an eilte two way defender for a 45-50 point winger making 7.5 a year for the next 7 years on a new contract. That contract is almost as stupid as the one given Power. I wouldn't even trade Power for Lafreniere.

Defense rests! Well said.

Have the Sabres shut down Norris for the season yet? What are the odds that we get more than 60 games a season from Norris? How long until he gets the Skinner buyout?

That’s perfectly fine. Score 20 and drive opponents crazy. Sign me up.

In the broadcast last night they talk about Lindy playing guys he trusts at the end of games. Quinn was on the ice at the end of the game last night.

We need drivers of offense. Östlund is that kind of player. If we stick him with guy like TNT and Norris, he'll be their playmaker. He's kind of a smaller version of Tuch, but I'd argue a little more pass first. In his draft year when Noah played with shoot first players like fellow 1st rd forwards Lekkerimaki and Ohgren, Östlund lead that team in assists with 33 (only 9 goals).