erickompositör72

Sobotka is neither of them, but they were both effective cogs in a spectacular machine

So far this season, he absolutely is a second line player. Will that continue? We'll see. If Krueger can make Sobotka into a player as effective as a Hecht or a Gaustad, then he should stay on that line. It's just too early to tell if he will remain that effective.

I'll play devil's advocate (out of sincerity, not as an exercise): The laudable performance of Jojo's line makes me worry that tweaking it has just as much of a chance at messing it up, even if Sobotka's replacement is, on paper, a "better player" Sometimes line chemistry works in strange ways. It might be a secret formula Krueger has come up with, and I'm all about "if it ain't broken, don't fix it" I'm also curious if more definitive stats exist that prove Sobotka is "holding the line back," as many here assert. I don't think a stat showing him as "dull" necessarily proves this; the other two may need some "dullness" to even out their line. (and "dull" doesn't really mean anything in a strategic sense; it could actually point towards successful execution of a strategy. Goes back to Krueger's "you don't know what he's been asked to do")

Stay on topic, guys. Clearly, the best use of this thread would be to complain about the ROR trade.

Who'd have thought. I doubt that's what JBotts had in mind when he acquired Vesey. Just goes to show... "clean slate," looking at a player with fresh eyes & without bias of previous utilization- that's what a real coach does.

I'm sure plenty of people are- quietly to themselves, maybe to their wives (me included)... they just don't dare say it on here ?

I don't know... I feel he's about 1/10 as strong on the puck as anyone on that line...

They gave him practically an entire season after that! That's a lot of rope

I can't wait to watch other teams give all sorts of "looks" to try to shut our PP down, and us owning every single one of them in a different way ? I can't remember ever being so excited for a Sabres PP

Really? Unless I'm misunderstanding... Jack and VO have much better shots That's the beauty of our PP. We can win every aspect of it.

Teams are going to start covering Olofsson more on our PP, and then Jack will start cashing in

Mogilny's team record is due to be broken

He could break 40

This. Way too soon to be saying "time to put ERod in for Vesey" RKrug (there's a new one ? ) has seen something in him, and he deserves more than 3 games to make it happen. Let them continue their chemistry development. That line has scored goals! Same goes for Sobotka. That line has potential. Let them really gel and see what they can do.

Not going to name names, but some people on here are bewilderingly contradictory. I've seen the same posters say things like: it wasn't totally Phil's fault, the team didn't have enough talent this year's roster isn't really any better/different than last year's Krueger might be better, but he has a better roster Some of you guys make my head spin

Says a lot that he was JBotts's guy even before he hired Housley. Looks like JBotts knows what he's doing. So happy that we'll be seeing an end to "JBotts is an awful GM" posts!

He released a pretty nasty head-hunter last game, if I remember correctly

White gloves at practice- debut of 50th anniversary jersey!!!

Counterpoint: Remember how we were making excuses for Housley's team two years ago? "They need time for the new system to click" ...etc They've played RK's system for a few weeks. Imagine when they all really start to "click." This is exciting

Right. We were spoiled by Eichel, who is regularly referred to as "an athletic freak of nature"

I don't know what Housley was like in the locker room or at practice, but from interviews, "cerebral" is not the term I'd use to describe him personally. He never struck me as that bright. Now, he may have stolen someone's playbook and stuck by it, and that playbook may be considered a "cerebral" system, but... Rigid seems appropriate, though.

I understand your perspective, but it also slightly comes across as a solution in search of a problem. All the decisions made led to a win. I don't care who was on the ice- the decisions made by RK led to us dominate the game.

I mean, look at this, we have a team that gets KO breakaways!

I'm still convinced this team could have looked like this the 1st half of 2019 with a real coach. I'm excited about this team.

this is where we all lose our minds