PerreaultForever

I suppose this depends on how far you think he might fall and who is picking before you with their need(s). I think generally Reinbacher is projected to go around 10 so maybe not that much to swap places with 10 if you think 11 or 12 (assuming we are 13) will go D. Better to have a plan B. and C. Look at 2nd round D picks AND trade for veteran D. Anyone drafted isn't going to jump right in Power style. They are more likely to be 3ish year later Samuelsson (Borgen) type pathways.

Can't win face offs, can't clear the front of the net, aren't strong enough on opposing sticks and players around the crease. We simply do not have good PK personnel. The turn away angle is interesting and correct. It comes down to size and strength to some extent. There are far too many times that our D come in late or from the side/behind on their check and end up either making no play or checking the player towards or on to our goalie. This is a long standing problem. Dahlin does it far too often. Jokiharju is horrible in this regard. We've had injured goalies from this and just generally been ineffective stopping scoring chances. It's a product of poor positioning and lack of physicality. Most of the PK problem is on the D.

Bruins might be in trouble. Florida has had better goaltending so far (unlike the regular season where Ullmark saved several games), Bergeron is out with his mystery injury/illness (concussion rumours), Krejci looks old, and Florida has been physically dominant (which seems odd given the Bruins history, but this team is not that tough). You beat what Florida is doing by either being REALLY FAST and killing them on the PP, or going into all out physical war and out hitting them and wearing down their thin D. Bruins aren't capable of the first option and aren't doing the second so idk. Sabres fans might get to rejoice, although that might mean Leafs......... Regular season vs. playoffs. Is there ANY point of going for a President's trophy at all? Seems like a no.

Oh ya, amazing how Stone can put up huge minutes coming off of an "injury". Seattle putting up a good fight but wtf, E-Rod threw a big hit. Did he ever hit anybody during his time in Buffalo??? Ex-Sabres doing well in the playoffs is always highly annoying, especially when they were cast off or run out of town and discarded like Montour. A lot of 1-1 series. Once again, playoffs are FUN! There's a lesson in the NJ series though. We are building really similarly to NJ and we don't want to be NJ. We want playoff success do we not? Hope KA is paying attention.

Likely felt winning 2 in a row in Dallas was next to impossible so they want him rested for 2 homes games. Ullmark and Fluery both iffy tonight. Bruins have a good culture, but that didn't translate onto the ice tonight. Quite a few players not up to the level they need to be. Three evened up series. Playoffs be playoffs, gotta love that.

As I've stated many times although a perennial plan is a solid idea you can maintain that plan and make moves to start winning now, especially when you are this close. We have all identified the weak spots, and unless they add people those weak spots will still be there next year.

Because the same holes will be there. There's no D prospect chomping at the bit. the D and possibly goaltending will sink them. PK could be a problem too.

After listening to this it's all just different ways of saying "stay the course". The plan is still future based and not next season based. There will be no major trades and nothing overly significant in free agency. If things go extremely well (injury wise, luck, scheduling etc) they might be slightly better and make the playoffs. If things go badly they'll be on the outside looking in again. Not what I wanted to hear but kind of what I expected. I will be more content if Dahlin signs a long term deal. But what if he is getting tired of the pace, sees a lack of improvement being made by management, and decides to maybe test free agency. What happens to "the plan" then?

NJ went out and got a goalie. That was the main difference they had from the Sabres. If Levi is the real deal and plays most of next year we might get that point total. It looks like NJ might be a quick out though. I'm hoping we build a team that will be a little tougher to beat if and when we get in. You don't "guarantee" it, but you can say it's your goal and set that bar. If you don't make it you make changes.

I don't think he will become Cirelli. If he still improves however he might be comparable to Gourde eventually. One can hope.

I'd be happy if Krebs became Gilmour-like, as long as he stays away from the underage girls.

That might not be the way to look at it though. It's not "accommodating" Mitts it would be looking at what we have and constructing lines that have players that fit together and compliment each other so that the line, as a whole, has maximum effectiveness. Sniper-Playmaker-Power Forward. Cozens moves the puck and gets it onto Thompson's stick who takes the shot while Greenway moves in front to screen the goalie. That was perhaps the idea. Who you play with matters, how you are used matters, the player's size and physicality matters. Injuries set some back as well (eg. Mitts). I think Krebs is compared to Cozens since they came up together as leaders on the Canadian Junior team. Cozens being way above Krebs makes Krebs look like something less. In general the rule still holds. At 21 is when top players usually break out. Thompson's development path was kind of a weird outlier. Probably due to his size and growing into his body and then finding his niche. Mitts on the other hand had to grow physically and mentally and also overcome injuries. Tuch just loves being a Sabre.

It depends on how much money we are talking about. If he is willing to sign a Cozens type contract by all means sign him up now. If he wants more then bridge. Dahlin imo will want 10+ over 8 years. Or hopefully upgrade and make him irrelevant. If Jokiharju isn't bottom pairing (or less) our D won't be good enough.

Well, Winnipeg isn't quite the same as they were and have a different coach. I have not watched them all year aside from when they played Buffalo and Boston (and maybe I saw them play Seattle, don't remember) but in this game they looked more like a playoff ready team than Vegas. Can they sustain it? I have no idea, but Vegas will clearly have to be better than this. My most hated team is (and always has been) Toronto. There's no bias on Jack. It comes from years of watching him. I said numerous times over the years when he was here that he didn't elevate for big games, floated at times, let others do the heavy lifting, etc. It's not a new thing. (I said the same things about his buddy Reinhart too and that is also proving true). jack is, and always has been a lazy prima donna and so far in his career that has not changed one bit. I'm a happy man after game 1. All 8 teams that I wanted to win or expected to win won. Even the ultimate longshot Kraken. Everything could of course still change.

Well yes and no. In a cap league you can only pay so many before you run out of cash. You do not want to be Toronto where you cannot put a bottom roster together without a little LTIR voodoo on deadline deals. You also likely don't get the luxury of a team like Tampa (who gets cheaper signings because of the state tax laws) or like Boston (who just seem to get hometown discounts because players love it there). You'll have to overpay initially to get free agents because of the (recent) history and it'll take time and winning seasons before players (outside of those drafted) want to be here. Our main prospects are offensive types and if they pan out those type of players generally want more money than 2 way role players. It'll be hard to sign everyone in time. A new problem for this team for sure, but it'll happen if they keep drafting well. You can only ride rookie contracts for so long.

Winnipeg has a lot of grit and good goaltending. Do not underestimate their ability to pull an upset. Also, there are players who elevate come playoff time (Winnipeg has some of those) and Jack does not seem to be built in that way. He is VERY similar to Austin Matthews in that regard. But really, we all know why Vegas isn't a top team any more. They traded away Alex Tuch. I suspect Dahlin will want 10 million plus with maximum term.

"That's Kraken hockey baby!"

True, but we will have to dump BIG money at Dahlin and later Power. We can still easily end up with too much talent that wants to be paid. Hopefully KA extrapolates his cap properly and balances things out. I still think some "talent" will have to be moved out for low cost grit.

This is true, but although we have Power and Dahlin the D will have to be improved as a whole. If Levi is a star we will have that covered as well, but stylistically there are similarities. KA has to look at Tampa's history and build a tougher bottom 6 to go with the top 6 offense. Guess we really won't know if we have playoff guys or guys who become invisible (like some of the leafs) until we actually make the playoffs. Hopefully this'll be next year.

When I turned on the Leafs broadcast so much pregame hype and the darlings of the Canadian sports media were shining again. This is the year! Then they played the game............... Leafs be Leafs. Nothing new. Their best players were McCabe and O'Reilly. Guys they brought in at the deadline. Their "stars" got invisible as they always do come crunch time. Tampa thumped them with solid playoff hockey. Series isn't over though, Tampa's D depth is in question and if Hedman and Chernak can't play at close to 100% this thing can still shift. This game shows my fear for the Sabres plans too. Leafs are a high octane, offense team that love to play a puck possession game. This is what we are building AT THIS POINT. I have to hope KA watches this and realizes he's going to need a different make up to the team as a whole than he has building now. When we make the playoffs (finally) I don't want to be a decade of first round exits. I want a team that'll do some damage and eventually win the cup(s). Now back to watching Eichel (lose?) and maybe the Kraken.

Although they will say it, I don't want to hear about how proud they are of this year, how bright the future is, how the plan is working. I don't want to hear about 3-5 years, or the word development, or anything about steps and progress. I want to hear one simple sentence, Our goal next season is to make the playoffs. Anything less should be considered failure. That's the spot to set the bar and they need to make the moves needed to make that happen. It's time for this team to make losing unacceptable.

Lucky? idk. They were built for the playoffs and they played playoff hockey. The game had ebbs and flows and at times one side or the other dominated. Minnesota looked more beat near the end and if it had gone another period I think they'd have lost, but their PK saved them and they grabbed their opportunities. This should be a good heated series. On the Dumba hit, it was arguably SLIGHTLY late, but it's hard to time hits perfectly as a D man. Hit was shoulder to shoulder, not head, he basically wiped him out in a solid playoff hit. We could use some of that. Refs made the correct call reviewing and dropping the major. On the Canes, I've never hated them as a Sabres fan. I don't hate Brindamour either. Outstanding coach. Passionate guy. That team plays a solid 2 way system and will be hard to beat. They have fast offense but also can play tight checking hockey. We need to be more like them. I think I might be the only guy I know who felt LA has a solid chance in their series. They are also more built for the playoffs and have solid 2 way checking players that can shut down or at least limit offensive opponents. More balanced in the way they are rebuilding. At this point, their rebuild plan/strategy is looking pretty sound. It's the same for me every year. Game one of the playoffs reminds me of how good playoff hockey is and the regular season gets forgotten as a warm up to real hockey. Love this stuff.

This Minn Dallas game is a marathon. Playoff hockey is a wonderful thing. I imagine all you western New Yorkers are all tucked in and dreaming of VO trades so I will just say that was a great hockey game.

I saw him get belted by Clifton on one play. That's Clifton, Conor Clifton.............Sabre hit leader in 2023/24 (a man can dream)

but but but......................he rescues animals.................................. idk, Nick Foligno had nothing but praise for Torts and Nick is a leader and a stand up guy from a solid lineage. There are other examples of players who also liked Torts a lot. He is abrasive, he does not tolerate slack, but I think his persona to the media gives people the wrong idea about his coaching. I wonder how Risto feels these days?