msw2112
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Posts posted by msw2112
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This same roster played lights-out and beat a great Dallas team less than two weeks ago. Last night, they looked completely disjointed and fumbled their way to a loss against a lowly Islanders team. How does the owner of the team factor into explaining this drastic difference in play by the SAME roster?
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I'm familiar with the name, but don't have any idea where the Sabres organization views him as a future prospect. Does anyone here have insight? Is him signing this extension in the KHL a concern? I suppose that if he's playing professional hockey, the Sabres still like him as a prospect, and he'll only be 24 when the KHL deal ends, there still could be a path to Buffalo if the Sabres were interested.
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6 hours ago, SwampD said:
I can, but I can’t believe that once again, the Sabres are the youngest team in league.
Others may disagree, but I think that Zucker, a veteran player with better-than-average talent, has made a positive impact on the team. He is not the player he once was, but he has some gas left in the tank, he knows how to play in all situations, is generally in the right place at the right time, and pretty consistently makes the right play. The Sabres could use a guy like that in the top-6 of the defense corps. Maybe they tried to get that in Clifton, but he's not and never was at Zucker's talent level (relative to his peers). Many here think that the Sabres overpaid for Zucker, but to bring good free agent players to a smaller market and struggling franchise like Buffalo costs a little more, and if you factor that in, it was a good signing. So I guess what I'm saying is that the team could really benefit from a "Zucker-like" player on defense, and factoring in guys like that make the Sabres a little less young.
Pairing this with some of the comments above, how would the team look if they had retained Mittelstadt and signed a "Zucker-like" player on defense (based on experience and talent-level) who was a stay-at-home defensive RHD? As I stated above in an earlier post, Byram has some good skating and puck moving skills, but they team already has that in Dahlin, Power, and to a lesser extent Jokiharju, so perhaps what they really needed was a physical stay-at-home defenseman AND because they team already has a bunch of young, developing players, perhaps what they really needed was a veteran and not another 22 year old.
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19 hours ago, Porous Five Hole said:
I don’t think you’re wrong. Hindsight is huge here.
The concept of having another top four D (with four overall pedigree) for a guy who was expected to be a 3C after the long term extensions to Tage and Cozens made sense at the time. But it turns out that Mitts would have solved our top six problem we have right now. And that’s your point.
There’s certainly a drop off between Byram and whomever would have been in the lineup without him here (Bryson or Gilbert—yikes), but Byram has not proven to be enough to justify the trade so far.
With that said, Byram has played 28 games so far in his Sabres career. He can flip the script. I might be alone, but I’m still optimistic that the Byram trade won’t be something we regret when this team is fully formed.I did not like the Byram trade at the time, and I still don't like it now. Mittelstadt was one of the Sabres' best players and seemed to be ascending. Byram's skill set appeared/appears to be redundant to what we have in Dahlin, Power, and even to a small extent, Jokiharju: good skaters/puck handlers who can move the puck up the ice and possess some offensive skill (Joki far less than Dahlin and Power, of course), but are not particularly physical or "defensive" defensemen. Yes, Dahlin can be physical and is not afraid to mix it up, but he's still a skill player more than a physical player.
But, as the above quoted post correctly states/implies, Byram is a young player (a couple of years younger than Mittelstadt) with a lot of skill and a high draft pedigree who has only played a small number of games with the Sabres, so it's quite possible that he'll become a much more valuable asset in time. Mittelstadt himself is an example of a player with skill and a high draft pedigree that took a few years to get there, and Byrum still has a chance to do that. A little bit off topic, but so do guys like Power, Quinn, Benson, Kulich, etc. who have lots of skill and high draft pedigree but have not yet achieved a status in the league in line with their draft status.
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3 hours ago, nucci said:
Fans don't have to focus on one game at a time, players do.
That's very true. But the comment I responded to said (verbatim) "Destroy the Wings and beat the Panthers...." Are the fans going to "Destroy the Wings" and "beat the Panthers" or are the players? My point was that the Sabres (and not the fans) need to focus on the Wings and not on the game after it. My comment neither stated nor implied that it was the fans who needed to focus on one game at a time.
All that aside, I think this Detroit game is an important one. First, the Sabres are suddenly playing well and can play themselves right back into the race. They need to maintain their momentum. Second, unlike Florida, who is a lock to make the playoffs and be a top contender, Detroit is one of the teams that is likely to be competing with the Sabres for a wild card spot, so arguably this could be seen as an early "4 point game." Further, the Sabres laid eggs in a couple of critical Detroit games down the stretch last season, so they need to figure out a way to be successful against that particular team.
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I thought Dahlin was a little bit better last night, but perhaps it's just the rising tide raising all ships. He's still not playing at his peak level.
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1 hour ago, Doohicksie said:
Same. They're 3-2-1 since then which is fine. And now they've won two in a row, one against a 5-1 team. They're trending the right way all of a sudden. Destroy the Wings and beat the Panthers and they could be literally in first place in their division Monday (depending on what other teams do in the meantime).
I know it's early in the season, but I think it's important to focus on one game at a time. Beat Detroit, then start thinking about Florida.
Great effort last night. Hustle wire-to-wire, great goaltending, and effective special teams. The power play did not produce a goal, but the Sabres actually established themselves in the offensive zone, moved the puck around and created some legitimate chances. If they keep doing that, the goals will come. Dahlin is not quite back to his old self, but he seems to be coming along (he was better last night than he's been in other recent games). I was very negative after the Columbus game, and rightfully so, but I'm more than happy to get off the negative train and onto the positive train. The next one against Detroit should be telling. Will they play another great game, or will they lay an egg like they regularly did after a strong performance the last couple of seasons?
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1 hour ago, Doohicksie said:
Your logic is inscrutable.
Sometimes it's necessary to play mind games to pre-justify a poor 2 1/2 hour time investment.
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Dallas is a tough opponent, but in an 82-game regular season, it's not a major upset for any team to beat any other team on a given night. If UPL plays a strong game, the Sabres should be in it and have a chance. The Sabres of the last couple of seasons often would beat a top team, and then lay an egg and lose to a team like Columbus. Considering they already laid that egg last week, I think there's a chance tonight.
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I agree with the fact that Dahlin has had a very slow start to the season and that he doesn't look right. I'm going to go with injury. It's a fact that he missed some of camp and preseason with an injury. Perhaps that injury has lingered.
I don't think it's mental strain due to being named captain. If he was trying to prove himself and prove his worth, he'd be flying all over the ice, hitting with reckless abandon, and making defensive mistakes by trying to do too much and getting out of position. That's definitely not the way he's been playing. He just seems slow and tentative.
I don't think it's Ruff's system. Ruff is a pretty smart coach who has been around the block. He knows how to adapt. He's not Ralph Krueger. I don't think Ruff will try to shoehorn Dahlin into a system that handcuffs him and takes away what makes him great.
I have no idea what the preseason injury was, but if it's a sports hernia, as someone hinted at above, that's a tough one. I've had one. You can play through it, but it's very painful, particularly after you've played and you're no longer warmed up. Sometimes this injury is treated like a groin strain that will heal itself, as the symptoms are the same, but the recovery is not the same. To truly fix it, it takes surgery and a couple of months rest/rehab to come back 100%. Assuming it is an injury with Dahlin, I hope it's not a sports hernia, as the best bet would be to shut him down, have the surgery, and work his way back around the first of the year.
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I'm typically an optimist and a glass-half-full kind of guy. I've been patient with Adams and the slow and deliberate rebuild. I liked Granato, but agreed, by last season's end that it was time for him to go. Ruff wasn't my first choice, but I was OK with the hire. He was my favorite Sabre as a kid and I was a huge fan of when he coached the team the first time. He did some good things as a coach in Dallas and NJ. While not the ideal hire, I thought he was good enough to fix the bad habits that plagued the team the last couple of seasons - slow starts to games, lack of defensive discipline, terrible power play, etc. Slow starts to the season are what doomed the last couple of teams, who played much better later on, but they had fallen too many points behind to recover and make the playoffs. That was supposed to be a major focus this season.
So far, none of the issues have been fixed and they actually look worse. The best lines have been the 3rd and 4th lines, particularly the 3rd line. It's probably not a coincidence that the 3rd line consists of Greenway, McCleod, and Zucker all of whom are veteran players who grew up in OTHER NHL ORGANIZATIONS.
We've also seen the likes of Ryan O'Reilly, Eichel, and Reinhart (and others) succeed and win Stanley Cups with OTHER ORGANIZATIONS. It's hard to believe that these 3 were all Sabres at the same time.
I agree that it's early, anything can happen, hockey is a game of streaks, etc. Edmonton had a terrible start last year and went to Game 7 of the finals. That said, Connor McDavid isn't walking through that door anytime soon....
One more point that folks make is that it takes time for the team to adjust to the new coaching staff/new system. New Jersey has a new coach and is 5-2. Toronto has a new coach and is 3-1. And New Jersey had the same European trip that the Sabres had, so that excuse can be thrown out too. And Columbus, who arguably has less talent than the Sabres and also has a new coach, greatly outplayed the Sabres last night. It wasn't puck luck or bounces, they simply outplayed the Sabres.
So in sum, despite my past positive thoughts about the potential of this team, I'm just not seeing it. I guess you have to give Lindy and the current roster until the trade deadline, but if they're not in the hunt by then, it's probably time to blow it up. I'm sure many here would not even be that patient, but the Sabres are currently not in a position of strength when it comes to the trade market, so I don't think a major deal at this point is realistic.
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2 hours ago, mjd1001 said:
I think I'm in the same place a lot of people I know are....
A game is on TV and nothing else is going on, I watch it. Post to the forum. Complain when they play bad.
But if I have something better to do, I do that.
If I start watching a game and they are losing by 2 goals at the end of the first....then I go to the wife and say "game is bad, want to watch a show"? After the show if the game is still on, I'll check the score...still losing? never tune back in.
Not going to any games, not buying any merchadise.
My approach is somewhat similar. I live in a western time zone, so the games start at 4 PM when I'm at work. I watch the games several hours later, usually after they've ended. When watching, if they are down 2 or more goals, I fast forward until I see them cut it to 1, then I watch and see if they can tie it up or take the lead. Last night, it was typically only a few seconds before I was back on the fast forward button. If the Sabres could play a complete, competitive game, or even dominate a game, I'm willing to invest the time to watch it, but I just can't afford the time for lousy hockey. Watching the game is typically the last thing I do before going to bed, so it sucks going to bed angry and frustrated and could negatively impact my sleep. Sadly, I've gotten to the acceptance phase, so I slept OK last night.
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4 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:
Not sure I've ever had this view of him and truthfully don't recall ppl saying that about him either.
For what it's worth, I DO recall Cozens being projected as an all around player and potential future captain. Coming in, he had a good mix of size (thin but tall and potentially able to fill out as he grew into a man from a teenager), speed, talent, and grit. A skill guy that wasn't afraid to mix it up - which was true until he got his face broken fighting a goon. Good teammate, etc. Cozens still has those qualities, but he obviously needs to gain a lot of discipline and properly learn to apply his talents consistently in a NHL system.
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51 minutes ago, mjd1001 said:
Just a theory here..
Cozens plays "pond hockey" He chases the puck. He's not good when you tell him to be someplace and to stay there. He wants to play like a bunch of teenagers who have never played together. That is who he is. Hard on the puck, but all-gas-no-brakes, even when the situation may call for brakes.
That style doesn't go well in the NHL. When you are playing teams that are well coached, that have players that have practiced and played together for years, they can take advantage of Cozens playing that way.
Now think of the World Championships when he plays for Canada. He may be playing against 'lesser' competition (not as many NHL stars on some teams). But even bigger than that, those teams are thrown together. They get a fraction of the time to practice together compared to what he sees in the NHL. The systems the coaches give them i'm sure are a lot 'looser'.
You can succeed in the World because it is much, much less discipline hockey, simply because the players don't know each other as well and don't get to practice together. Cozens can thrive in that environment. But when he's playing NHL players who are getting paid top dollar to play a very tight and discipline NHL game....Cozens doesn't play against that too well.
I'm sure other NHL teams have advanced scouts watching the Sabres, they see his tendencies, how he is one of the most undiscipline forwards on the team. They take advantage of that and I'm sure they probably have some set plays to work against him. In the Worlds, I don't think that happens, again, not enough time.
I never thought of it that way, but it's a good theory. Thanks for posting!
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Whenever Cozens plays for Team Canada, he's a star. Why can't he bring that to his play with the Sabres? By all accounts, he's a hard-working kid with speed, skill and a willingness to be a team player. Why can't the Sabres coaches get the most out of him? There's still time, but it's definitely frustrating. And Quinn has been invisible so far this season, from what I've seen.
Also, I agree with the above post about UPL. He has not played particularly well so far this season, but it's a bit early to judge whether he's lived up to the contract after 3 starts. Although he was certainly not a difference maker last night, he was hung out to dry by his defense on multiple occasions last night. On the late goal to tie the game, Power had 2 Pens in the crease area who had a chance to make a play and score the goal and he took out NEITHER of them.
I'm a big Lindy Ruff fan, but so far, nothing appears to have changed from last season. I'm typically patient, but a poor early season record is exactly what cost them the playoffs the last two seasons, so if they don't fix things soon, the streak will extend to 14 years. I think the Sabres should have gone beyond releasing Granato (who I like, but it was time) and they should have cleaned house on all of the assistant coaches too, letting Ruff pick his own guys. Even if Ruff realizes that the assistant coaches are a problem and wants to make a change, who is going to be available mid-season?
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It's truly perplexing. Despite what many on this board like to think, the Sabres do have several offensively talented players on the roster. Certainly more than enough to fill a power play unit (and really enough for 2). High school, junior, and college teams have power plays. Even bottom-tier NHL teams pose some kind of threat on the power play. What's up with the Sabres? I figured that Ruff would get it figured out (perhaps with Appert's help), and maybe he will, but so far, it's absolutely terrible and worse than even last season. I've only seen a couple of games, but in my limited sample size, I have not even seen them establish any semblance of a power play where they a) enter the offensive zone and b) pass the puck around the perimeter, forcing the other team into a defensive position. I'm not even talking about guys moving around, creating chances, getting a guy in front of the next, creating rebounds, etc. Those things are important and were missing last season, but at the very least, they need to start by establishing themselves in the offensive zone with control of the puck.
How a professional hockey club can't even do that is mind boggling.
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54 minutes ago, nfreeman said:
Now you're just being contrary.
Did you watch the game vs Florida? If so, you'd know that Greenie did much more than score a goal.
The FLA game was the only one I've seen so far and Greenway definitely looked good in that game, aside from the goal he scored. If he's played that way all season, that's great. He also had some great games under Granato where he was very effective on the PK and forecheck, but, as stated here, his performance was inconsistent - pretty much like the rest of the team the last couple of seasons. Word beaters some nights, lethargic on others. All teams in all sports have some level of inconsistency, but the Sabres under Granato took it to the extreme. Let's hope that Ruff can coach that out of them. Having only seen one game, I'm not in a good position to assess.
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15 hours ago, ska-T Chitown said:
If you have gmail you can just keep adding a "." at various points of your email address (gmail treats them all the same, but many systems are set up to think they are different!) to keep getting Fubo trials 🙂 That will take care of NHLN and TNT games. Just make sure to cancel because you have to opt for the "pay quarterly" package to get NHLN which could cost you like $300 if you forget!
Beware of ESPN+, they are very good at detecting VPN and not allowing you to watch.
This is a very clever hack that I might use for some of the NHLN games. It's risky, as I could forget to cancel and end up with a large bill, so I might wait to use it until late in the season when there are (hopefully) critical games being played.
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ESPN+ is a great value for out of market games. I'm already paying for YouTubeTV for NFL purposes, and they don't have NHL Network, so I'm out of luck for those handful of games that NHLN broadcasts. Already paying for YTTV, it's not worth it to me to pay for FUBO for a few additional games.
I agree that restricting NHLN to a few cable or streaming services is a bad idea for a league that's trying to increase viewership! Obviously, they're asking too much in rights fees for services to add the channel and that's just silly, as they are competing for viewers' attention. Even leagues like the WNBA are getting very popular these days, so the NHL should fight for turf. This sort of poor decision making for the NHL is anything but new.
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Obviously, Florida has a great team, as they just won the Stanley Cup, but I see a guy like Matthew Tkachuk being able to put a team on his back and will it to victory. Not only does he have offensive talent, but he has grit, determination, and leadership skills. The guy would put his shoulder through a brick wall to win and the rest of the guys would follow along. (The Sabres once had a player drive a truck into a brick wall at Tim Horton's, but I digress.) I'd see Tkachuk having the quality more than Matthews, but your point is taken. A prolific scorer like Matthews can make up for the loss of other scorers. Gabriel Landeskog may be a better all around player than anyone the Sabres have and was his team's captain, but guys like McKinnon and Makar kept Colorado in the mix even when Landeskog was out for an entire season. I just don't see anyone on the Sabres able to do that. Dahlin would be the closest they have (very talented, can score goals, has ability at both ends, plays with grit and determination), but he's not quite to that level of veteran leadership. Perhaps he'll take the next step with Ruff behind the bench, another year of seasoning, and the C on his chest.
I can't speak a lot to the bottom 6 of Toronto, Boston, or even Tampa, but I think that Tampa has done reasonably well with injuries to guys like Stamkos, Kucherov and others in recent seasons because they have other guys who have stepped up. They have a lot of really good players on the roster (Stamkos, Kucherov, Point, Hedman, Vasilevskiy, Hagel, etc.) so that if one or two of them are out, the others can step up. Their top guys are aging and their window may be closing, but the point remains the same (and they made the playoffs last year). I don't think the Sabres have enough of those players on the current roster. I hope a) that we don't have to find out; and b) that if we do have to find out, that I'm proven wrong.
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17 minutes ago, Thorner said:
2 isn’t an option, it never is.
To make the playoffs you succeed in spite of injuries not because you avoided them
I'm saying that for THIS team, they need to stay healthy to make the playoffs. I don't think the Sabres have the organizational depth to overcome significant injuries. A team like Colorado or Tampa might be able to do that, but not this Sabres team. I don't think there are enough veteran players of the kind to "carry the team on their back" and while there's a lot of talent in the pipeline, but they're kids that are not physically and mentally ready for the NHL. I'm not saying that staying healthy is an option they can elect, it's not, so I agree with you 100% on that. It's mostly luck and to an extent training (training might help prevent frequent soft-tissue injuries, but can't prevent broken broken bones from a slash or crash into the boards). If they have good luck on injuries and buy what Lindy is selling (consistent effort, no days off, attention to detail), I believe they make the playoffs.
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On 9/27/2024 at 6:15 PM, That Aud Smell said:
I regret coming off as condescending. Your perspectives here are genuinely perplexing to me.
I merely believe that Pegula is choosing to save some money on an off-the-ice expense, and to me, it's not a big deal if he does that, as long as it doesn't impact the product on the ice. I can see why someone would disagree with my perspective or opinion, but I'm not sure why it would be perplexing to you or why I would need to "have my head examined" for having that opinion. I understand that comment was a joke and hyperbole, but I don't see it as appropriate, given the tone of the conversation. I can tell from your writing that you are a well-educated guy (I'm making an assumption that you are, in fact, a guy), so I can't see why you'd find it that perplexing that someone would have the perspective that I have on this topic. It's not that complex. While it may be different from your perspective, it's not an extreme or outlandish opinion to have.
All this said, I'm not big into message board wars. We can agree to disagree on this one topic and I'd suspect we probably agree on most others. Go Sabres.
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Two things have to happen for the Sabres to make the playoffs:
1. Buy into Ruff
2. Stay relatively healthy
They've been very close to the playoffs the last 2 seasons, and only missed by 1 point two years ago. And that's with Granato's "no accountability" leadership. With even a middling power play, and good goaltending in October, November, and December, last year's team would have made the playoffs. Both of those things are within reach. They have plenty of talent on the power play and I've got to think Ruff will use it better than Granato did last year. As to the goaltending, no Comrie this year. UPL appears to be for real and Levi has a lot more professional experience under his belt and should be better (and won't be relied on to be the savior).
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6 hours ago, That Aud Smell said:
It’s a joke. Hyperbole meant to suggest that I think your way of thinking on these matters is … highly unusual.
In other threads, sure.
In my opinion, my way of thinking is ... logical. And some of your responses are ... condescending. But to each his own. Have a great weekend and go Sabres.
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Kulich sent to Rochester
in The Aud Club
Posted · Edited by msw2112
Looks like he would have been sitting with Benson coming back, so better that he get ice time in Rochester, than sitting in Buffalo. He'll be back. I wish they could do the same for Levi, but with Reimer being claimed, there's nobody else to serve as UPL's backup.