PerreaultForever

Yes, from what I saw in the games Fitzgerald played up here I didn't see much difference in terms of ranking. They are different, but I see a lot of flaws in Jokiharju's game and do not think he is a top pairing guy. 5/6 at best.

I hope so too, but I don't think you are. Some people here have put a LOT of faith in Mitts based on a tiny body of work in a late season few games. I doubt he ever amounts to anything substantial, but I was wrong about Tage so I hope I'm wrong here too.

Power Dahlin Jokiharju Fitzgerald Pysek Miller Bryson Prow Butcher Each grouping about equal. Not ranking the Rochester guys who haven't played up this year. Just haven't seen them. Power isn't the best yet, but he will be. Eventual Norris trophy winner, hopefully as a Sabre.

I am being optimistic. Yes, you need as many as possible at all positions, but you can't have that, so if you end up with too many at one position that's when you deal.

I agree with this. I certainly hope they are not tanking AGAIN next year but I wouldn't put anything past this ownership.

Again, my focus was on the pairing of them, not on Dahlin specifically. The two teams cited were for a recent comparison and nothing more. Comparing the way Boston - as a team - played Tampa, to the way we - as a team - played Tampa is a very telling comparison and difference. It accentuates our deficiencies. Deficiencies that will haunt us, even if we get offensively competitive in the future. I really don't know why you can't see that. Question. Do you think being first on the Sabres with hits is very meaningful? We, as a team have the least hits per game in the league. That's a fact. https://www.statmuse.com/nhl/ask/what-team-has-most-hits-per-game and add to that the simple fact most nights teams don't bother playing physical with us because they simply don't have to. You might not realize this sine you didn't play hockey, but being physical is hard. Really hard. It's hard demanding work and wears you out. You only do it when you have to. WE, are an incredibly soft team. The last sentences, the bolded ones, we agree on, and that was the point I was making. The Dahlin Jokiharju pairing is NOT a good pairing imo. and definitely not a good PK pairing, and that's what I said.

personally I've never liked all star games and haven't watched one since I was a teenager. Pointless.

2023 as well? Oh man, I hope the master plan isn't tanking for Bedard. I mean he is going to be a hell of a player but no more , just no more.

Fair enough.

Ya, I was referring to the pairing of the two of them as well but LGR4GM always takes it to the silly extreme and thinks any time you talk about controlling or clearing the front of the net you're advocating 80s hockey and talking Larry Playfair or something. The simple recent comparison is Boston-Tampa vs. Buffalo-Tampa. Against us they owned the slot and the front are in general and scored at will. Boston, on the other hand controlled the front of the net and shut them down. They have smooth skaters like Grezlyck and Reilly, but they also added Forbert to Carlo (and McAvoy is big and strong too) as they see the need. Joker and Dahlin is not a good pairing imo and it's a terrible PK one.

He's a playmaker. Not good on the wall, not good back checking. Not really a sniper either. Don't see it myself. If you want to go that way Cozens makes a better winger, but I like him where he is. I still see him as a ROR type down the road.

ideally I'd want a solid veteran core to lead and let the kids grow around (and slowly displace) but given where we were at, and needing to dismantle the so called core I don't really know if there was another way for Adams to do this. More stability is definitely needed, but it might take time.

I agree. Hayden's a 4th line role player and we need those. We need a few more. Wish we'd never thrown Lazar away. I'd rather he was on this roster than Bjork. Fourth line in Boston is solid with him on it. I firmly believe we don't have enough muscle on the roster to protect our young players and unlike Adams I would have added some this year like when Zach McEwen was waived and picked up by Philly for example. Keep opposition teams honest while the kids develop properly.

hehe okay fair enough. I didn't mean to say Granato was the problem. I was talking about Adams words vs. actions. I don't think he's terrible, but I do think those veteran coaches are better. If we'd hired one of them and kept Granato as an assistant I'd be happier.

Move which one to wing? Mitts or Wright? To me Wright is your future Bergeron so he would become (in time) your number one C. Then Tage, then Cozens and Krebs. Mitts as a winger maybe, but for me he doesn't really fit and the team as whole could be better by getting a different kind of player for him. Just to be clear not suggesting trading him for picks or prospects. Talking about for a here and now player if that situation did occur which I doubt it will. Well ya, I meant when those guys are ready and on the team. I'm being optimistic and seeing Mitts as the 5th best center in that list.

What we do need to do is sign free agents like Tanner Jeannot. We could use a guy or two like that, then you can take Hayden out. Thought Hayden played pretty good tonight by the way.

Well that was a pretty good game. maybe their best game this year. It was clearly a trap game for Nashville. I saw part of their previous game against Colorado and they were much better in that but we played pretty good basic simple positionally sound hockey for a change. Nice to see. Only thing I didn't like was Dahlin and Joker trying to kill the penalty. Those two get dominated by physical teams in the net front area and they got an easy greasy goal as a result. Still say we need some defensive D men to go with these guys. But hey, nothing to really complain about. A pleasant surprise and an enjoyable evening for a change.

You missed my point. I'm saying that if we got Wright, you now have Wright Cozens Tage Krebs so I'd move Mitts out for toughness in some form. I think Tage has shown he is a center and I want him to stay there. Just work on his face offs. I keep Wright in junior for the final year where we let him build his size and maturity and be ready for the year after. Rushing kids is never a good idea. I'm speeding up the rebuild by doing it properly.

I'm not sure where or how he fits in. I want some big physical bruisers on the D to go with the puck movers. We're going to have top notch D men what we need is complementary partners to go with them. But depth is good, and who knows which one emerges as the best. Can't have too many imo.

If we landed Wright, I'm trading Mitts. If we can. Wright stays in the OHL.

Ya, that'd be clever, sit the only guy on the team with any toughness against what is probably the toughest team in the league right now. idk if they will take us seriously, but if they do, and they play their physical game, this will not go well.

Funny, I remember back earlier in the year when we were set to play the Rags you said they were rubbish (forget the exact word you used so feel free to claim it didn't mean rubbish if you like) and we would beat them. Vancouver's in a bubble? Sure why not, it's all an illusion.............. You can make excuses every year and every year they are different and yet the sad sack story still goes on. Don't stop believin' good buddy.

Oh no, I've always felt his words were a crock of sh@t. I think I was one of the first to say this was a tank year. I called it a "clever tank" or a disguised tank, as unlike the last one some people at least initially thought this wasn't a tank. I think the old core had to go. He had no choice in that matter. Optics were what they were, but Reinhart wasn't going to sign long term (unless maybe they backed up the money truck and dumped it out but they weren't going to do that), I personally think the early Jack wants out rumours were true and the surgery thing was just a pile of spin. he wanted out and that was a good way (they thought) to make it acceptable. The Risto deal was actually a pretty solid hockey trade. Flyers management is dumb. This is being shown this year. Their fans are not happy. We won that one. Goaltending was completely botched though. He thought he could sign Ullmark to hold the fort until UPL was totally ready. That's obvious. He blew it. Granato? idk There were experienced good coaches available. He went with the cheap untried easy choice. I think he's a decent teacher. Not sure he's an NHL head coach. Certainly scratching my head over line combinations lately. So what do you want me to say? He won 1 trade. The other ones won't be known until the future. He lost on the goalie. He's done nothing with free agents. Drafting, we shall see.

“For me, it isn’t about giving an exact timeline, it’s more about setting players up for success,” Adams said. “Putting them in a position to grow, learn, develop now, but then also making sure that when they become Buffalo Sabres they’re set up for success.” How is going into a season with no decent goalie setting them up for success? “What we do expect is that we are going to continue to learn, get better, push each other on and off the ice to be the best we can be. If we do that then the timeline of success will take care of itself. We are more focused on today, getting better, how do we improve individually and collectively, and when you have that type of mindset it can be really powerful.” So where's the improvement? We're worse. Nowhere in there does he say bear with us, we're going to tank for Wright and then start to bring guys up and get better. Lots of people were excited about Granato believing that late season rally would carry over. It has not. Not at all. meanwhile Gallant, Boudreau, not too shabby in their new homes are they? You measure the team by what they do ON THE ICE NOW, and not by some promises of the future. We've had those for over a decade. RIGHT NOW this team is worse than last year. It is a joke of a hockey team. You can list any excuses you want, but that's the fact. They suck.

Well, the funny thing about that is if you go back to last year you'll see quite a few people talking about how hard that realigned division was and how it'd be better when we get back to our normal division.