triumph_communes

Mittelstadt is finally turning around. Trading him would be a huge mistake for any of the buy-low options he might garner.

Canada is so hopeless holy *****. The PM can wear blackface a decade ago and get re-elected, but a hockey coach allegedly said a slur a decade ago and he's immediately punished? Do Canadians really put up with these wackos?

I don't want a pugilist. I want somebody who makes opposing defenders get weak in the knees while he's forechecking. One game ago we had Montour with the best forechecking pressure out of one of our forwards all year turn into a fortuitous bounce--- and he doesn't even play forward. Skinner confuses defenders into mistakes, but nobody is causing any defender to tense up. Reinhart and Oloffson on Jack's wing especially.

Isn't it so cute when he huffs up?

Miller has been our weakest defender. Scandella has shown lately he would be missed if he left. Only getting a bottom-6 guy for that though

This conversation is why I want Reinhart traded ?We can use a different type of player with his cap-hit/value. Cozens is a big body talent, he will be helpful as he grows up. Kane was a hot-head and didn't help himself at all. All our other forwards have been small or play small. Girgensons and Larsson aren't big hitters.

In a close game or a playoff game, I believe it is the coach's position to bitch out the refs. Not the players. I may be a minority.

Sucks cause the game was 1 goal apart when it happened, the whistle wasn't blown on the ice, and they were on a PP to tie it up, so a response would've been monumentally stupid. This is where I miss having Lindy Ruff though-- you know that guy would've jumped onto the ice if the ref turned his back. He's an assistant for NYR-- can't we poach him?

Getting sick of Tampa getting away with murder game after game. In a fair world, Kucherov would still be suspended for as long as Sobotka is out, and Cernak would've been ejected in preparation for his long hiatus. But no, refs gonna ref. Special teams is a PROBLEM. They feel good that they are passing around, but don't recognize they aren't ever being dangerous. Same kinds of issues they have on 5v5 for stretches. But this game felt more like a goalie problem. Vasi made nearly every breakaway save. Hutton let them all in. Sucks, goalie problems are very difficult to fix, especially when you're up to the cap.

Will Montour get more than 11 minutes?

Surprised he beat out Oglevie. Dea was a Wilkes-Barre guy for Botterill though

He is an elite talent. His talent makes up for his hockey IQ at times, but he still appears to be learning the game. His attitude was always what has been holding him back though, and he's maturing. That's going a long way. Oh, and his wingers. He needs Skinner back.

No suspension for Kucherov, Sobotka still out. The DoPS is just a circus.

Defense is generally good, even when they get run over. Offense is good enough, but is awful when the playcalling is awful. Hopefully, Allen calling his own plays can fix the latter. Daboll learning to trust the run helps too. I think they need some new receivers and a replacement for Gore before the offense can get to a 'good' status.

Tampa's defense is a lot better. So is their PP. The team hasn't addressed those issues yet, but they did outplay Tampa in both games overseas despite the outcome.

Good forechecker. Team needs that. Doesn’t seem to have lost all ability to try to make passes that eventually score goals except on accident like some of our fourth liners.

this is the prospects thread. You’re posting as if it’s the roster thread.

hmmm. Nashville would buy Turris out before they retain more than 2 million. But something is going on in that locker room. Turris would be much more useful than Okposo, even if it sticks with us longer: Turris (33% retained) + Granlund (9.75AAV) for Okposo + Scandella (10.0AAV)

Eh, he's a unique player. More valuable to a team than a Vesey, who can easily go invisible for entire games. Bennet is no top-6 talent, or a winger to slide up and down a top-9, but he plays a heavy game that makes any line following him up happy the other team had fear struck in them, and that's an element this Sabres team really lacks. Not that I'd give up much for him, or have him as the main target of any trade, but I think anyone is silly if they don't think he'd be a major addition to our 3rd line.

Ya'll getting way too invested in being angry if your sarcasm radar couldn't pick that up.

There were no contradictions. Our only long-term defender before Botterill was Guhle. Ignoring Dahlin, now we have Joki, Montour, Pilut, Laaksonen, Samuelsson, Johnson... Our only top-6 forwards on term before Botterill were Eichel, Reinhart, ROR, Okposo lol, and Nylander??. Now we've swapped ROR with Skinner, and added Mittelstadt (who is at least a top-6 LW, if you think less you are crazy biased), Cozens (future ROR replacement) and Tage (huge framed forwards ALWAYS TAKE LONGER TO DEVELOP). Oh, don't forget Ristolainen has been made completely redundant as has been shopped for over a year now to fix the forward position. Yes, we need forwards. One Top-6 quality guy long-term would be nice, especially since half of what we have is too young to help today. But we need depth guys more than anything. And Murray left him with little to none. Funny to argue against a guy working with cap hell, turning over the roster 10+ players each season so far, and a bad aura players love to talk to the press about.

Ugh, I hope he somehow makes it through. Botterill can't get hung out to dry on a trade just to save a guy like Gilmour though.

Don't understand what this crazy strong 'need' for top-6 players is when we already will have: Eichel, Skinner, Reinhart, Mittelstadt, and Cozens locked up for the next decade. That's room for one top-6 player. And that's assuming guys like Tage can't fill that role in a year or two. We need solid 3rd liners, and that's what Asplund and Pekar are. We need a solid goalie, and we have 6K in the ranks. We need defenders even sooner since only Dahlin+Joki are long-term locks, and we have a handful of them. I don't get how anyone can look at our pipeline and be stressed. I think its just impatience. Rome wasn't built in a day, and Murray did Botterill almost no favors building up a propsect pool. Ok cool, he got us 3rd liner Asplund and 3rd liner PP specialist Olofsson with a 7th round gamble. Otherwise he traded all his lottery tickets away and picked a lot of the wrong guys, especially with all the 2nd round picks that amounted to nothing in the end.

The right Sam!

That's where you're wrong, kiddo!