triumph_communes

I believe our philosophy and talent on the middle/bottom 6 for the last few years being off has been a huge part of the problem, but the philosophy being first. When they have no puck possession, don't forecheck hard, and don't forecheck quickly, then defenders can rest. It doesn't matter if Lazar is a sub-par NHL player, if he is getting out there every shift and forcing defenders to get dog tired, he is softening them up lategame for the top lines to take advantage. If their strategy is to fail to carry the puck into the zone and barely move the puck around, then we are playing into the other team's comfort zone and simultaneously making it harder on our top lines. Get me some speedy grinders and who cares if they don't score. It'll boost the production out of the other lines. Put Skinner on a 4th line and defenders will never have an easy shift since they'll always have to be looking behind their back for his such awkward playstyle. I wouldn't get hung up on how many points some veteran bottom-6 NHL player made. The question I want to know is do other team's defenders groan if they have to play against them. Now you can argue whether they need to be physical or fast, but we've had neither in our middle-6 for years (if you call the GLO line a 2nd line like they were honestly deployed). Now I see serious offensive threats on three lines and the third line with speedy Rieder and Okposo who has a real shot to worry about and the body to be in dangerous positions. If you just rely on talent to have an effective bottom-6, you'll never have an effective bottom-6. That's where you need culture to get the most out of those guys. It's a team game. When players don't trust each other then every player plays 30% worse than they are capable of, at least. That's what bad culture gets you. Yes, you can still try to 'out talent' that gap, but how did no Bills team of the 90s reinforce to you that excessive talent still didn't matter when push comes to shove? And hockey playoffs are 7-game series. Teams don't fluke their way through. Talent first teams always drop out of the second round. We paid top dollar for talent. We sucked for a decade to draft the rest. We have the talent where it's needed. The game changer now will be culture, to ensure we get the most out of the other 40% of icetime, which will translate into helping the other 60% when they're working hard.

I had mentioned originally Cozens looked tired more than anything, and understandably so. His wear down started in the finals of WJC. Krueger also just made it clear he made the team full time. He must have looked better in practices since then

I watched him play

R2 isn’t good. Shiny new toy syndrome. Tweener just like Smith

On paper, the points you make may seem plausible. In two scrimmages it was clear that Cozens was struggling to keep up physically against AHL players, Skinner was killing all the momentum Staal and Reinhart would build, Thompson was a good fit, and Mittelstadt is a renewed hope. and the coaches got to see a whole lot more than we did in the scrimmage.

You’re missing the part where Diggs wasn’t brought in until the room had transformed. McDermott also brought in people like Benjamin who went nowhere because it wasn’t there yet. Skinner is more like Dareus

I like being in an area where nobody knows what hockey is and being blacked out of TWO markets who are both many hours away At least we don’t play those teams this year

Lindy Ruff had Thomas Vanek as a playoff healthy scratch because he didn’t believe he was trying hard enough. He came out years later and made Vanek cry right after the offer sheet because he thought he was the MVP for the team. Now, in hindsight we all would have taken those four first rounders that turned into 1OA picks, but don’t let that undermine the original point here. We haven’t had a good coach in Buffalo since Ruff Human factors matter. That is why ‘trust the process’ works. That is why McDermott was hired, and had all the leeway to buyout contracts of star players who didn’t fit the system. Took him three years to turn around the team and now we can pick up ‘cancer players’ and turn their angst into a weapon. Look what San Jose has done with Evander Kane— nothing we could get out of him here, or in Winnipeg. Why? They had such a strong room Krueger is a hire of a similar fashion- maybe not the best tactical mind, but his attention to human factors will revive the team and get more out of his players than they’ve been giving his predecessors. The tactical part of the game is for the assistant coaches. I don’t see this team making strides until Steve Smith is replaced, but that’s another fight for another day. Skinner isn’t listening. We should first all be happy there’s 6 players capable to play in front of him. Second, ‘trust the process’. Third, Skinner has been through this exact same charade on other teams, and he put up points with grinders. Let’s do some simple math: 40 goals with Eichel or 30 goals on the third line. Meanwhile Eichel can turn any winger into 30 goals, whereas that same player on their own may make 10 on the third line. Skinner on the third line has the team 10 goals ahead. I’ll pick option 2 every time Driving the coach out of town because a known charlatan isn’t living up to his contract? You must have not been paying any attention to the Bills and shame on you if you’d rather bring the Ryan brothers back

Our owners have every reason to ‘trust the process’ and this is Kruegers attempt to enforce that. We were so thin last year he had to play Skinner in a second line since we had no third line to speak of. Now we have players and prospects and Skinner can figure it out at 10 min a night or he will waive his NMC. There’s vets in the room that the youth look up to more than Skinner and he’s losing the others.

Guess I’m higher on Joki than most then. He’s not the most physical in our own zone but I think he and Dahlin are our best at fast break outs that turn into offense (as opposed to slow predictable break outs that go nowhere)

With so many back to backs I can see big rotations with the bottom 6

The D pairings are set. I think there will be more balance to their minutes than traditionally. Miller and Joki arguably are the best pairing some nights. Montour is best on the right, it was his off hand he struggled with— not every defense can just switch and righties are rarely asked to do so. I look forward to when the game is on the line and Dahlin-Joki are out there to maximize offense.

Lots of narratives going on here I think fans have a hard time disassociating cap hit and prospect status with the player.

I want to see Skinner-Mittelstadt-Lazar Rieder-Eakin-Okposo idc if it’s just a scrimmage, Mittelstadt and Okposo are skating faster than they had in two years. Cozens couldn’t keep up. Skinner was slacking off and has already been demoted to the bottom 6 three days before the season starts, and the only player he would replace is Oloffson who wasn’t slacking off

I don’t know how to upgrade our goaltending without losing a needed asset. Nobody wants our bad contracts and otherwise our players are too good to lose or not good enough to bother. And trading away a 2nd round pick for a rental goalie is hard to swallow when the rest of the team is still untested. but not upgrading our backup does appear to be the downfall we are going to have

If we had time, I’d like to see: Hall-Staal-Reinhart (they’d be better) Skinner-Eichel-Thompson (Teams will have to choose whether to match up the above line or Eichel) Oloffson-Mittelstadt-Okposo Rieder-Eakin-Lazar but I don’t think this is tried for personnel reasons (I think Jack/Taylor are tied together for better or worse. And being #2 would drive Eichel out of town.)

I like Thompson on the top line. I think he creates chaos with his long reach for Hall/Eichel to feast on. And he has a killer shot if he’s ever fed. Better option than Oloffson Staal/Reinhart looked much much better with Oloffson on their wing, even if Oloffson was mostly forgettable. That duo has chemistry I thought Mittelstadt looked much improved and if he keeps it up, playing LW with Staal/Reinhart would be interesting if they’ll take him off center. I’m less concerned about replacing Staal in a year now Skinner looks liability level bad. I won’t be surprised if he’s benched after the first couple of games. Ugly situation for the GM Cozens did nothing to show he deserves a tryout. I bet the kid is exhausted, but he was being manhandled out there. Quinn had a great pass Ruotsolainen simply isn’t good enough for NHL I think Eakin/Rieder/Sheehan are going to be better than many are expecting. Okposo is a lock at 3RW and that will be fine, I see more offense out of him than last year with Larry/Girgs. Lazar makes the team over Ruotsolainen. Hutton did nothing to show any confidence in him is going to be restored. Trading for a backup is going to be necessary for this team to take a step forward, I hope the GM doesn’t sit trying to make the best deal too long. Girgensons on IR I think gives him the cap space to make this move now.

I don’t think other teams match up against the Bills as good as the Colts did. It’s all shootouts from here on out

Link please?

Dahlin is still magical. Montour i thought was invisible Hall is really good Thompson is a puck magnet. Yes he’s still dangling, but he’s always on the puck so I think it’s okay. Standout player of the game, though Hall feeding him was a big part of it I thought Ruotsolainen was really struggling to keep up on that line and was a weak link Jokiharju/Miller may be our third pairing, but I easily thought it was the best out there tonight Reinhart had the puck a good amount, but I was not impressed by Skinner or Staal in the slightest. Think it’ll be a big growing year for Reinhart, not deferring to Jack like he has for so long I felt like Okposo was skating faster than he has for us. Would be great if he steps it up. Mittelstadt seemed faster too Reider/Eakin showed some finish, something we’ve been lacking in our previous bottom 6 players.

Will they play Mittelstadt over Lazar/Reider on a 4th line? If he doesn’t play NHL where would he play

I can see 1RW being a rotational position since Oloffson isn’t going to handle the crazy minutes that line is going to get all by himself. Thompson, Cozens, etc. rotating in here and there

The tone of the article being heavily against its usage. Mumtiple state governors banning its usage for anything but RA and threatening to revoke medical licenses on any doctors who do otherwise. Mainstream news constantly downplaying the treatment in every news briefing despite Trump brining it up

That’s fair. Doesn’t mean he can’t figure it out. I think he’s in the rug he situation to do so. The arrogance that Housley has that he could develop him himself was his downfall.

Yeah but once you add more factors the p values turn to junk. And they don’t share how these models all do this. Or they do like the RAPM guy and say the stats don’t really say much at the end of the day except for the far outliers, and even then only sometimes like the curious case of Marco Scandella who got older, same teammates, new coach, worst player in the league into the best one off season.