PerreaultForever

I don't think so. People on this board are die hard fans but the public ticket buyers are less committed and it takes more to win them back. But they also have to provide more colourful marketing promoting a new era. This is why I think Kane signing helps things lot. Whether he's good or not you can use him as a marketing tool. People need to believe it's not the same old same old.

You're not going to see fans back until they win. Too many years of next year next year and failed promise. They have to show it on the ice. If/when they do the building will fill up again.

I personally haven't learned a lot. It all looks similar to last year imo. Reading all the comments above I agree with most of them although maybe some are a little overly optimistic. Biro? That seems like a reach. Benson's good, but he has to go back to junior. Be patient. He is part of the future (not the present). Levi looked ready. He looked ready last year. The question is can he hold up for a full season plus? Power sophomore slump? Highly possible. Certainly hasn't looked great so far but him slumping might still be better than average. idk. Wait and see. About Tuch Cliffy and Johnson not playing I wouldn't worry. I think Tuch had a minor ding but mostly I think it's because they know exactly what those guys are want to see who fills out the last spot(s). Pairings will matter and I think end of preseason we will get the glimpse. Mitts at 3C does seem likely and viable. He does look pretty good. Krebs on the other hand not so much. Still interested to know what the Greenway plan is. A little concerned over the PK plan. An area that was not good last year. Thompson on PK? Reach and speed, counter attack, but what about those face offs? Not sure how this plays out. Overall still have the same concerns as before. Lack of (good) D depth, goaltending question (durability and good back up), ability to hold up to physicality, PK and overall team defense. Far too early to see what the final line up is and how it plays, but right now change from last year rests solely on Levi.

If this team is going to decide who makes the roster based on who gets their feelings most hurt it has zero chance of success. There can only be one rationale. Be the best and you play. End of story. Having said that, juniors still eligible to be the best in junior have to accept that. It's the smarter thing to do.

Yes, and I've said, he's very skilled and likely has a future in the NHL Better than I expected, but he's 18 and small. I do not think it'll go well. If I'm the Sabres I tell him we have big plans for him but right now are sending him back to junior and also put him on a serious strength/weight/diet training program. Go win a junior championship or something, play in the worlds, maybe come back end of the year for a taste of NHL playoffs (?) but not yet. Don't rush it, do it properly.

Wasn't on a Bruins board in 2003. Didn't have a clue about any of their draft picks. Only been paying closer attention to them over this time period because Sabres have been so damn depressing. Still, only partly familiar with their prospects (few of them as there are). I will tell you what though, this kid Poitras looks like the real deal and might fill their void sooner than people think. He's 19 and chances are the Bruins will send him down because of it. Also bet if he was on the Sabres people here would be saying he has to be on the roster. He's that good too.

Says 159 ibs online but doesn't matter. Point is he isn't ready. Skilled yes, ready to play in the NHL no.

Zach Benson is 18 years old and 159 lbs sopping wet. Come back to earth.

I honestly do not think anyone would claim UPL. Comrie is a tiny maybe for a team like Tampa but people grossly overvalue UPL's worth around here.

I think Fitz was a bit of a surprise. They fully expected him to clear but the timing with Florida having D injuries was bad. Personally, at that point, I would have sent Bryson down but it was no big deal. They're all fringe D men at best. Just different skill sets.

What are you talking about? They gave him all last season to prove himself. Waiving players is what all decent teams have to do. Get used to it. We will lose some marginal talent if we keep getting better. Fact of life. He won't get us anything in trade because teams know we have to waive him. You're just too used to us being so bad we pick up waiver players instead of discarding them.

I think this is a Canadians aren't allowed to watch the Sabres game. Probably for the best. That is one garbage D we have set up there.

I said end of last season we'd be lucky to get a 2nd for Olofsson, more likely a 3rd. I stand by that. Bryson gets us nothing. He's waiver material. I have no idea what Hellebuyck's price is but a fairly solid rumour out of Philly was 2 firsts or equivalent for Hart. It is a high price tag and what I really wanted was a solid back up for Levi. KA is putting too much all in on Levi imo. I'm not sure on his waiver status but if Bussi (Bruins) becomes available I would snap him up in a heartbeat. He looked incredible in his debut this year after a very good AHL year last year. Don't know who else might be available. Vladar maybe? UPL ain't it though.

Maybe I got the numbers wrong but I thought that was Power on the 2nd goal. Agree on UPL. He's just awkward.

Pretty sure the idea was to get the required number of preseason games done as quickly as possible and allow for full practices and assessment with all players other days. Otherwise, especially at the start, you have too many guys in the press box or having a night off. Training camps are pretty squished and I think shorter than they used to be back in the day.

Garbage. Fast wide open hockey from two teams that prefer to play wide open hockey but that's not how you beat the Leafs. I was not impressed with anybody on the Sabres. UPL was garbage. I see zero progression from last year. It's time to move on from Olofsson. Garbage. Power looked like his age making several mistakes and showing he still has learning to do. Kisikov needs to learn to shoot not just pass. Maybe that's a Russian training thing, always playing for the absolutely perfect shot. idk, but he has learning to do. I think we threw one hit in the entire game and got a bs penalty for it. They didn't throw any either. Soft hockey on both sides. Honestly, two games now, I'm seeing troubling signs of same old problems, but it is early and these are iffy line ups. Wait to see how we look with Clifton, Johnson, and more regulars before worrying.

Ya, he's a definite homer on penalty calls in the season and favours his team heavily but he has praised a lot of Buffalo guys last year as well as this year. Both of them pretty much are in the camp that Buffalo and Ottawa and maybe Detroit are all on the rise and will give the Bruins trouble. They did a whole thing on Levi and his potential end of last year. This game they were lauding Benson repeatedly. He did sound off though. I just assumed he hadn't bothered to learn all the preseason player names but maybe he's not well. idk. Sophia looked good in the intermission though so who cares 🙂

So this is our turn to roll out the weakest line up possible. Won't be much of a game with this group.

Some bad hockey on display there but you can see the Bruins prospect cupboard is empty empty empty. Pretty much hack and whack all night long from them. So you can't take away much from this but a few things: 1. Levi was very good. Lots of traffic in front as their low skill line up just did basic drive the net and hack and we often let them but he stood his ground and controlled the puck well. Very promising. 2. Benson is very skilled. He looks like a high schooler, but there is no doubt he is very skilled. 3. We will have to be better in front of our own net. The old problem that does not seem to have gone away. If this was a higher skilled team we were facing we could have been in trouble. That's about it. Funny to hear the Lucic boos (or was that Looch? 🙂 ) Build the animosity back. I like it.

True, and I'm no doctor, but these days these athletes seem to recover from these things. Marchand had double hip surgery last year and he seems fine. No reason Kane can't do the same. Look, if we signed him I personally wouldn't expect anything spectacular. But 20 goals, 50 points, maybe. To me it's more about the marketing and the perception. Turning the page from loser to compete. Becoming a place where players want to be rather than having them add us to their 10 team no trade list. I really thing it's an opportunity to turn the page on every level. All depends on Kane though. He'd have to be into it.

Wow, something in Canada (besides maple syrup) that is cheaper in Canada than the U.S. Sportsnet + costs me $200/year Canadian and I get every team and every game. I always thought we overpaid for services up here. Guess not. (NFL football on the other hand is crap up here unless you still have cable tv)

It is definitely on sportsnet+ and will almost certainly be the NESN feed. Sportsnet seems to favour NESN feeds. You don't get a choice of feeds but what I like here on the west coast is all the games can be restarted in delay so it starts at 4 pacific time, I get home at 5 or 6 I can start the game from the beginning or even watch it later as I often do. See every game that way no matter what I'm doing. Sabres should win easily, this is a very sparse Bruins roster. GAME ROSTER: Forwards: John Beecher, Jesper Boqvist, Alex Chiasson, John Farinacci, Danton Heinen, Trevor Kuntar, Jakub Lauko, Milan Lucic, Marc McLaughlin, Jayson Megna, Georgii Merkulov, Oskar Steen, Luke Toporowski Defensemen: Frederic Brunet, Brandon Carlo, Jackson Edward, Matt Grzelcyk, Mason Lohrei, Ryan Mast, Ian Mitchell Goaltenders: Michael DiPietro, Kyle Keyser

I didn't disagree with the rest but this is a key assumption. It is possible to have an incredibly healthy year for a team, and then those teams usually have good years, but in this NH, pretty much everybody has a stretch or two of injury adversity and depth determines how well they weather that storm. We faltered badly last year with a few D injuries and then Thompson's injury slowed him a fair bit as well. So are we deep enough this year that's the question for me. idk. maybe. Certainly not in goal.

All of that's true but it's just not going to be easy. We could be a better team than last year and end up with less points. How we do in the close ones might be the difference. We cannot afford to lose too many of the OT/SOs and can't give too many divisional opponents those loser points. Closing games out and holding leads will be vital to our final standings. My concern I suppose is I can see things being so close this year that we will see tight playoff style serious hockey earlier than usual and that will be tough. Some of our opponents are built better for that than we are at this time. I think it will be an interesting season.

Well that is a realistic conservative/safe analysis. There's no denying we are rolling the dice on Levi. He could be great, but he is a rookie and could need several years to get it right so saying he will be "average at best" is a safe position. If he's great we can become the surprise team. The D is slightly improved but the defense won't be better unless the forwards play better D and our team system gets them to play better D. No signs yet that that'll happen. If it does, offense might suffer though. But yes, at this stage it's hard to predict if/when young players will improve and by how much. The competition will also matter. I'm watching Ottawa/Toronto right now and Ottawa looks pretty good. Winning 3-2 and Matthews=Marner are playing. Just a preseason game I know, but Ottawa does look improved. It won't be easy to move up the division standings.