PerreaultForever

Have you also counted all his giveaways and missed (or rather in his case the right word might be declined or avoided) checks?

Yup. Big hole at center now. Doubt they fix it but we shall see. The suggested line up at the top will not get us any closer to the playoffs. Might take us further away. I mean Girgs? Girgs? Re-signing Girgs? f me.

First couple games he was loose and free and playing wide open. They had him in that PP spot as well. Like an adrenalin rush. Then it's back to the routine and learning what the coach wants and this coach don't know what he wants on D but overall like you say, back to normal.

You also have to factor in that if the opponent gets up early they often take the foot off the gas so our game gets "better" as a result of that as well. The book was written early in the season - get an early lead and then shut 'em down for a relatively easy win. It has backfired on a few as we had a few comebacks but overall games are over or near over after the first. It's on the coaching and the type of team we have built. We do not have a hard working earn every opportunity kind of team. We have a high end talent team that has a tendency to do the minimum required. We underachieve and we definitely lack in the work ethic department.

Kulich is an unproven prospect. He's of no value until he is (in the NHL) Levi has promise but is not NHL ready. Will he be? Maybe. Maybe not. Tuch is fine. Inconsistent, but a decent 2nd or 3rd line winger (he is not really a top line guy and Sabres ask too much of him imo) Krebs is a marginal NHLer. Virtually no value imo. Östlund like Kulich has no value until he does. I really don't like his size and question if he can ever play in the NHL. Greenway is a weird guy. idk if his heart isn't in it. Maybe he is good at hockey but doesn't really like hockey? idk but he puzzles me. At moment he looks like a solid power forward, at other moments he is a nasty bottom ender, at others he seems completely unengaged and just floats. I can't figure him out and I guess that's why Minnesota gave up on him. I'm not sure how he affects the locker room (if at all) but he has inconsistency issues to say the least. But a 2nd is no big deal there. meanwhile Reinhart scores buckets of goals for Florida and Eichel wins a cup, so go on believing we won those trades if you want to. The Risto trade can't be used to judge anything. Adams did good there since we'd broken Risto big time and Fletcher was an idiot. You get a steal now and again. We won that one for sure. BUT, it also does mean that we never replaced him with a solid defensive D man. We need that guy. Samuelsson appears to be too fragile for that role. So again, no, Parayko isn't WORTH that, but I'd still do it if that's what it took because we would be that much better and better NOW not in 5 years. If you can get a Pesce or someone in free agency even better, but we don't have a history of doing that so a trade seems the only way we get better without waiting longer. Heck if we overpay for Parayko with nothing from the roster then we can maybe flip Samuelsson over to Philly for a different first rounder since they like to do that sort of thing and we can burn them again. They might want that for the familial connection. We have a losing team that is constructed poorly. There is pretty much nobody or nothing we have that I wouldn't consider in trade scenarios to change the make up and look of this team. Staying the course just won't get it done (at least for several years).

Well first off, although they were picked in the first round, that doesn't mean they have that value now. You can pick wrong. But that's a different argument. At the moment they are not on our roster. Is Parayko worth 3 first rounders? No, he's not. But would Parayko make our D a whole lot better absolutely, so I'm willing to over pay. If Savoie is just another Nylander (ours not the Leafs) it's not an overpay. If he's better it is an overpay but if we win and make the playoffs I don't care how good he is for them, cause we are a playoff team again. If we can get a guy like that for less great. We probably should have tried to get Peeke off Columbus (cause he's been a physical shot blocking machine for Boston so far) for next to nothing or some other defenders but status quo just won't get it done. We do not have those guys and we need them. Back to Tkachuk though, he's definitely worth that package if not more. Good NHL players are good NHL players and they are hard to just get. You can see with Eichel and Reinhart we LOST those trades. It's time we became that team that dumps picks and prospects for true NHL players instead of just being a farm team for others.

No not misread. I looked at both trades, Parayko and Tkachuk. The thread title is about Tkachuk after all.

Probably true - unless your post goads him into it. Always people who prefer to critique the posters rather than the team that is their true source of frustration. Always easy to give out some version of "you're an idiot" electronically. The bottom line I'm getting at, if it wasn't obvious, is the team needs change and improvement. I'd be willing to do whatever it takes to make that happen for next year. If it's true that free agents won't come here it's even more urgent to make a trade happen with whatever it takes. Tkachuk's are leaders. Brady is a punk, but he's a talented punk and he'd change the culture with his level of compete. The team has a lot of needs, but guys with high compete levels are the key above all else. It would be infectious.

You don't like winning? In all seriousness, you wouldn't consider overpays now? You wouldn't move non roster players to make the on ice team better? You just want to believe and keep waiting? What would you do differently?

It's an overpay but maybe it's an overpay I'd make because it would make the current NHL roster better right away. I think it's time to consider one or more overpay deals to make the on ice team better as we have lots of assets around the edges to use. I would definitely trade those 3 things for Tkachuk and then I'd name him captain when he got off the plane. For Tkachuk I'd consider it. I would however offer Byram, Kulich and Savoie and or a 1st rounder first. The more I see of Byram the less I like him. Power still has more upside and now he will look like a hockey player after the puck in the mouth 🙂

idk but I heard Ru Paul is becoming the new frakking king (queen?) I kid you not. Maybe he/she could buy the Sabres.

I totally agree with you on Byram. He is like what they already have and he does not have the strength needed. I prefer a D that plays more D but Adams seems to think it's all about speed and puck movement and not about defending. He just shuffled issues around with what was available. Now we have a hole at center. I mean think about it, our top center is a converted winger. He's fine on the offensive side of things but he doesn't defend well overall. Number two is an underachiever in Cozens who is playing at a 3 or 4 C level this year. I hope he will bounce back, but he's not a top line guy for sure. After that it's just garbage. We really need TWO centers minimum imo. He shouldn't.

at this point? It's been at this point for 13 years.

and that's all she wrote. Pretty much the same as all season. Super slow start leads to a loss. Not enough net front presence until the very end. They have to bring that urgency in the first period so they can avoid this crap. That's on Granato. Quinn was a turnover machine today. Just terrible. Cost us 2 goals and numerous lost chances. Bad rookie hockey. Looks like Lucas Raymond is coming into his own for Detroit. I don't see them making the playoffs though. They might be the one point out team this year. We are not a good hockey team. End of story.

Early on they got unexpectedly great goaltending from Ersson. He's burnt out at this point and without the goaltending they have fallen apart. Ultimately the Carter Hart situation has sunk them more than anything else. Really, if you also look at New Jersey's fall this year, the World Junior rape charges have had a major impact on their teams. I don't think that is a coincidence. It may not have cost seasons, but it definitely cost games, and that's enough to change a team's fate.

"a little high" isn't exactly against it. Most Buffalo contracts are "a little high". They don't get discounts from people who want to be here.

I forgot about this one. Thanks for the memories. Watching the way Barnaby gets up there's some "fake" going on there too. Reminds me of Nick Cousins this year in a game. That is the perfect comparison. Nick Cousins is the new Barnaby. As far as the Rempe thing goes the fight wasn't staged. It was real payback. What may have been instructed though was for Lazar to go first (with Vesey) and thus make sure Rempe would be done for the night if it didn't go well. the other 3 pairings were probably just "I guess we pair off too" but none of them were really engaged. This discussion will definitely come up in the future if the Sabres get any good. We will be in those New jersey shoes and then the debate on Sabrespace will rage for real. Book it. It's coming.

I agree about Power, but I think everyone (including you) was onboard with the Samuelsson deal and he looked like a solid pairing partner for Dahlin and/or a solid defensive D man. Nobody knew he was made of glass at the time so I can't fault Adams on that one. It was a solid contract for what we thought we had. We get the benefit of hindsight, GM's don't.

I've never liked him, but you can't beat his compete and leadership. I think they went into a slight funk with the Guentzel trade. Thought management had given up on them so why bother, but he's got them out of it and I think it was all him. imo they are now the favourite for that last wildcard. Bruins Panthers game was a playoff type game. Excellent hockey game top to bottom. Like every other year I can't wait for real playoff hockey. As of now it's also Vegas Edmonton first round or rather Eichel McDavid first round 🙂 and that too will be great entertainment and somebody going down early.

You get more strength and control when your dominant hand is higher on the stick. Your shot has control from the right hand (dominant hand for this discussion) but your strength comes from the extension on the left side of the body. Think of it like in a fight, you might throw more right hand punches but that left hook can be lethal if you put your body into it properly. Pretty sure it also evolved for the ability to throw a bodycheck leading from the right and with your right shoulder (you free up your dominant hand in close as well without losing your stick right away in close contact or a scrum). If you are throwing a check from your stick blade side you have a good chance of crosschecking, getting your stick in the feet of the opponent or even breaking the blade. Most solid body checks are going to be thrown from the dominant (non stick) side of the body.

Most likely. Penguins continue their tear. In any event we will miss and end up roughly where we were.

Penguins hold on and now have the last wildcard spot. For the moment.

No, the elements are different as you say, but to the original comment you made : It's still goaltending, specialty teams, and inconsistent efforts (urgency if you prefer) and that will combine together to likely leave us just about exactly where we were last year. I think it will be f'n hilarious if we miss by one point again after another late season push. Total deja vu.

is this not exactly the same as last year?

Oh ya, I get that, but I'd still say the QB is the thing that has truly made Buffalo what they are. If you swapped QBs the Steelers were probably the better team. You might disagree as a Bills fan, but I think if you asked 100 people the majority consensus would be that the QB made the difference. It was the same for pretty much all the playoffs and superbowl. Very different sport to hockey in terms of player importance. Goalie is the only possible comparable but even then not really. idk, I do agree Sabres need a real GM and a good veteran coach though and I think we agree on that part.