PerreaultForever

To clarify, I'm not worried about Power cracking long term. In time he will be a very good D man, the question is only what happens short term if he hits a bump or struggles. Dahlin had his ups and downs as you know, and many people questioned his true value as a #1 overall. imo we did not develop him well and threw too much at him too quickly. He might have it sorted now, but I think it stunted his development a little and he still has some bad habits that I hope he's going to have gotten over this year. The question is who do we go to if Power hits a rough patch.

Well you can say that, but I'd disagree. Quinn still has to prove his value. Beniers had 19:55 in ice time a goal and an assist. The new wingers also both scored. Their problem was in net. McTavish also with 2 points last night. There will be some stiff Calder competition for Power (or Quinn).

They are pretty slick. If and when that day comes they will pivot to "that's how you do it, build with the draft." Adams and Granato will be given huge kudos and I would suspect they will dump on Eichel a little and talk about how he wasn't McDavid. For the time being however they are, as always, Leaf centered and if they keep losing games like they did against Montreal the panic will set in quickly.

TSN guys were going to town mocking this deal playing the "I've never heard of this guy" card a lot telling you they really have stopped paying attention to Buffalo at all.

Grubauer was dreadful. Gibson on the other hand was really good and (you won't want to hear this but) Ullmark was really good too.

I watched a lot of Bruins games that year and he was benched. There was talk of sending him down to Providence but they decided he would learn more from Chara. He was taken off the PK as well. Looking at this 7 year extension for Samuelsson it will be interesting to see how many minutes that pair gets and who will be the PK pairing. Will that be Dahlin as well? I'm not sure how this plays out or how much they will throw at Power. We shall see.

I'm fairly indifferent to this one. What it says to me is this is a long term slow build plan as I suspected and there is absolutely zero pressure on him to start winning this season. The emphasis for this year (and maybe next too) will still be on teaching the kids and changing the culture. Building on the change. Eventually this should pay off, but it will try the patience of the fanbase. Or at least impatient people like me who don't want to keep waiting for NEXT year.

That's quite a commitment to a guy who hasn't really proven himself yet BUT if he is as good as we hope that number will look incredibly good in the latter half of that deal.

I think you are forgetting they added Berekovsky and Bjorkstrand. LWCRW Jaden SchwartzMatty BeniersJordan Eberle Oliver BjorkstrandShane WrightAndré Burakovsky Jared McCann Yanni GourdeBrandon Tanev Ryan DonatoAlexander WennbergMorgan Geekie Joonas Donskoi How is that thinner than the Sabres?

I didn't say he was "eased in" I said he got benched and sat in the stands for a bit. Mostly he was paired with Chara who mentored him every shift and covered up for many of his rookie mistakes. Power doesn't have that sort of veteran partner to settle him down or keep him from cracking under pressure. He will have to carry a heavier load. Hopefully the coaching staff will be right there for him when needed.

In contrast, Seattle has Beniers on their PP. We will see which plan works better I guess.

I'd say he failed the organization. But he's of no concern to me any more. I'd rather he didn't win the Conn Smyth and the cup like ROR but otherwise he's just another player on a team I couldn't care less for and laugh at when they wear the stupid golden helmets. (and I see LA wore stupid silver ones tonight so serves them right to blow the game)

"becomes"?

I would wonder if Power will crack under pressure being a young player with too much put on him too quickly. I think back to McAvoy with Boston and he got benched first year and then slowly brought back in and then paired with Chara to learn and nothing happened instantly. Power doesn't have that veteran rock to pair with and we aren't deep enough to sit him so there's a lot on the kid's shoulders early. We've ruined them before, I hope we do better this time.

I don't believe Sheahan is similar at all. We can disagree on that, but it doesn't invalidate an argument if I have a different evaluation of a player's worth than you do, it just means we disagree. There are no absolute rights and wrongs in these things but you never want to acknowledge that so whatever.

No it isn't. That's the opposite extreme. There is a middle path.

and that's the youngest team WITH Anderson on it.

I do understand the argument, and I'm not opposed to building with the draft at all, but I just think we are relying on a few too many unproven kids at once. We have to learn how to win games as well. I think they have gone too far in one direction. The salary thing is a non issue. 2 years fits perfectly into a structure/plan that will perhaps need more money at that point. There's tons of money left on this team's cap.

and yet Seattle had no interest in bringing him back. I understand the era of Jags is over argument, but I just think that if that guy is better than the guy you have, you get better by adding him and that's it. This is a minor argument over players relative value, and none of them is game changing or overly important, but I think those guys are better than what we have.

That's what I noticed in the preseason game. Cozens looks ready to take a step forward but many times he was left on his own and had nobody to pass to, no play to make, so he just tries to go towards goal on his own and 1 against 2 or 3 got nowhere. It's going to hurt him to not have solid and NHL ready line mates.

Cap hit doesn't matter. They have tons of room. We grab injured goalies just to get to the floor. He's better than Bryson, that's all. We'd be better with him on the bottom pairing but we don't want to be a winning NHL team. We want to be a training ground AHL type team to become a future winning team so whatever.

Oh it's not important, but I remember watching him play 4th line minutes with the Bruins and he was under valued. Has speed and a bit of grit. It's not a point worth arguing but I do think he's better than Sheahan and definitely better than Bjork.

Bruins waived Mike Reilly. He's better than Bryson but whatever. A lot of IFs and maybes on this thing.

idk, I think it's kind of the same as last year. maybe more competitive games, closer games, maybe some moments when everything clicks and they look great but also tons of mistakes, blown games, lapses and bad goals let in at bad times. My biggest fear is still that they are being too slow and patient with the rebuild, with too much faith in prospects, and thus they will miss a moment in time and end up in yet another cycle of losing hockey and lost desire. I still believe getting a real goalie should have been step one and the build should have moved out from there. There's a lot of comparisons being made to the Bills, but the Bills did it right. You get the QB and then you make the other moves. For football it's the QB. For hockey it's the goalie. You don't succeed without great goaltending and great goaltending can overcome a lot of other deficiencies as everyone who lived through the Hasek era knows.