PerreaultForever

So why has the coaching staff not got them to commit to defense this preseason and thus have them ready for the season? The rhetoric was offense is harder so teach that first, but now it's supposed to be go time and push for the playoffs so where's the second part, the D system? Are we instead still teaching offense? Is the playoff rhetoric false? Is it just another development year for them but they don't want to say? It just feels wrong.

Which is proof that preseason is in fact meaningless. Coyotes play a heavier game with better defense. Will they be any good? idk. Just saying.

Exactly, it's all about the quick outlet pass and quick transition. I get that, but it doesn't work well against that choked off middle of the ice or what some refer to as the 1-3-1 and it doesn't work against a strong aggressive forecheck unless you move it out SO FAST you beat the forecheck and they are chasing. This only happens with crap teams that aren't good at it. So what I'm saying is that it isn't a defensive system at all. It's a system that believes if you move it out fast enough and then possess it, you don't need defense, and that philosophy is inherently flawed.

Correct, but if there is too much talent, then it does in fact fall on the coaching/system does it not? 10 games is fair. I said the same thing in the game thread, but if it's the same at that point, coaching does become the issue. Obviously, one has to look at Eichel. Virtually no defensive play here on a team with no defense. Goes to Vegas and everyone predicts he will fight with Cassidy but no, he becomes a complete two way player and wins the cup. Ponder that and ask yourself why? I do not have the answer, but there does seem to be something wrong with the entire franchise and it's philosophy here. It was never like this before Pegula.

The record only matters in relation to what the competition is doing. Most likely we need to be better than that because we are in a strong division but it's hard to say. We have to win the division rival games most of all, and also not give them loser in OT points. But it doesn't matter. We are out of step. It's a copycat league and a lot of teams have moved to heavier forecheck first and shutdown hockey copying Florida as well as a shift to big D and choke everything off Vegas style. We want to play wide open guns blazing offense and have no defensive system in place at all. Everybody goes left and we go right so why would anybody think that would work?

Poitras. Okay, it'll be Bedard, but watch out for Poitras, he is the real deal.

Which is why I said 10 games BUT I just don't see any indicators that it's going to be different this time. I see glaring weaknesses that will be exploited.

So your home opener is supposed to be where you come out with your best hockey right? Right? Isn't it? I mean you always hear "it's hard to win that first game in their home opener", but I guess not if it's the Sabres. I went into this hoping it would be different this year but it just wasn't. I will be blunt. The entire coaching staff needs to be fired. They have no defensive system, still have a lousy PK, and there's simply zero improvement in system terms. A team with this much offensive talent should simply be better at D by now but they are not. We are EASY to play against. Management blew it. I look at 2 teams and one of them has Mike Peca and one of them considered him not worthy. He played the right way, and lo and behold surprise surprise they played the game the right way and they won easily. Huge mistake was made here. He should be on our staff teaching these idiots how to play 2 way hockey since Granato clearly cannot. Benson is not ready. He should go back to junior. Power, at this point, is nowhere near ready to get the kind of money we just signed him for. Not yet at least. He too is being rushed. Levi is not ready. I was skeptical from day 1 about this plan but it's clearly insane. Kid has potential but imo he looks like he needs 1-2 solid AHL years of development before he's ready to assume a back up role, not even a starting role. This goaltending plan is insanity. I did like that we showed a little physicality and didn't back down. This was new and pleased me but that's about it. Otherwise, same old garbage and it will be a long long year. (I'd add unless things change, but why would they? There's zero sign that anything's different.) I'm going to give it 10 full games all the same. After that, if we're still crap you'll see a lot less of me here. I just feel like a broken record (for the kids a record is a music source that spins around and around and plays your songs. We used to buy them and spin them on what we called a turntable, which wasn't a table turning but just another disc on a motor and this made sound. We owned them and there was no algorithm dictating our lives. A broken record implied the music would be stuck and not move forward just spinning around and around and around and the same skipping noise repeating repeating repeating until you stopped it). Why the F does it never change?

Heck of a lot of money for a second year guy. It's risky but likely to be okay. With all that money spent on D you'd think we'd be better at it though.

I forget who it was but he took a solid check to the shoulder and seemed to be holding his arm. Tried to come back but one shift and was gone. He's had upper body stuff all last year so hard to say but it's shoulder or ribs or something like that. Probably just a good bruise. Bruins were all D. Their O was pretty bad though so I suspect that's how they play all year. Vancouver trouncing Edmonton has to be the shocker of the night. Cap issue?

If Benson plays well in game 1 and VO doesn't I would bet they move Benson up and Jost comes in on line 3 while VO sits.

This is true, but just for the record, Clifton stayed in the line up after they got Orlov. They had Forbert out (probably partly fake for cap reasons) and entering the playoffs it was him or Gryzlyk for the last spot and they switched it a few games. The system is a problem though and imo Granato didn't change much in that regard. We've gone through many an average defender coming here and getting much worse and then afterwards playing solidly for other (and better) teams. Scandella, Bogo, Miller for example all became garbage here but all were picked up and have played roles for other teams. With that consistent outcome you have to consider the system(s) here over the players as the problem. Fingers crossed that Clifton isn't the next in the list.

Clifton with Johnson is probably a good idea. Clifton certainly hasn't learned (?) how we play yet and imo it's a failure by the coaching staff to play him enough in preseason and get him fully integrated. Either that or he just can't make the adjustment cause things were so different in Boston. Pairing him with another guy more used to a shall we say traditional style will be good as he figures out his new teammates. The lines are pretty much what you'd expect keeping continuity with last season.

Crosby whined to the refs. That's what created the hate. He does it a lot less now but for years he'd whine about every little thing. If you weren't a fan, it created the hate, or at least the dislike. Bedard? idk, the league (and the tv networks) love superstars so they elevate a new big name in a new season. They will switch storylines to whoever does big things this year as long as they can put a face on it. I guarantee you this year the thing that will really irritate everyone here the most is how much attention Eichel will get. It'll be a LOT.

I think that's likely the case. The agent looks at career earnings and makes an argument for a 5 year deal where Dahlin can then make more over the entire career when he gets the next deal. So the Sabres try hard for 10.5 but in the end give in to 11 to get the 8 years. That's the trouble with twitter, any negotiations or phone calls for trades or any little thing get "leaked" as breaking news and everybody goes crazy right away.

It's a lot of money. I hope he lives up to it.

Honestly I think Jones is just about even with UPL so not worth the bother. He is incredibly inconsistent.

All those Detroit games would seem to indicate that they think we will be in a dogfight with them for the playoffs. No way they would have picked up 4 Detroit Buffalo games in the last few years prior. Vegas, well, that night's storyline is pretty obvious.

BUT will they still be a "wagon" without Bryson????

I got nothing more to say about the goaltending but regarding the D I'm not sure they have it right in terms of the pairings. They seem to be very concerned with the right/left aspect and myself, I think they should focus more on the players styles and how they combine. To me we should have stuck with the Dahlin-Samuelson pairing, gone Power-Clifton and then Joker-Johnson. If Clifton continues to not fit you swap Joker and Cliffy as he has played his off side often as well. To me, Dahlin needs a stability guy and Clifton isn't that guy. We have 2 guys who both like to jump into the rush and both get caught. Really don't think this will work.

Zboril, Fleury and maybe even Ahcan are all better than Bryson. Not that that is saying much.

Bruins waive Zboril officially making that draft the worst in their history (if that wasn't already obvious). (side note, while he's not good, he's better than Bryson)

I suppose, but when they do something stupid do we really just give it a pass and say well I griped about that earlier so it's fine now. It's just not. I don't know what it is, but this team seems set on trying to redefine what hockey is and has absolutely no understanding of defense at all. The Bryson move makes it seem like this is a choice, Goaltending, ever since KA took over is just ridiculous.

He was working through the injury/recovery. Arguably he is bad, but I think Tampa will want a veteran who they can use and then cast away when the big guy comes back. Wouldn't be the first washed up vet that team has gotten mileage out of. It's what they do.

Also, we ditched Lybushkin, and when they traded for him they said Stillman added some grit and so, although both are mediocre at best, we have taken what little toughness we had on the back end and tossed it away in favour of a little guy who should be a career AHL player and nothing more. Keeping the 3 goalies is also insane. Can they really not make up their mind??? We are simply not making progress here.