PerreaultForever

Cozens. He will be here a long time and captain this team, mark my words.

In fairness though I don't think there are many regular season games where any teams come at you every period for 3 full periods. They usually fluctuate and have off and on periods. We want to start faster I think and try to get ahead (that's the plan anyway) and we do run out of gas. But I also think we run around and panic under pressure in the 3rd. I'm thinking it's a work in progress sort of thing. I feel we are seeing more effort than in the past years so I am hopeful that it keeps improving.

I'd like to put in a vote for Power Bryson. I'm starting to love the way he plays and think he could be an unexpected piece of the puzzle. Of the veteran Jags I'm ditching Hagg, Butcher and Miller but maybe keeping Pysyk for a few more years. RHD, nothing special, but a little tougher and a little more reliable and consistent. Now for the big one, I'd consider trading Dahlin. I'm starting to convince myself that he is indeed thick as a post and since he hasn't had good D ingrained into him so it's instinctive, whenever the game picks up tempo and he has to react and think he gets confused, hesitates and makes big mistakes. He's fine when we have the puck and when he controls the rush, good even, but in his own end under pressure he's like a deer in the headlights. Not sure this is fixable so I'd entertain the idea of ditching him if a good trade was out there. If not, I'm hoping with Power and Samuelson and maybe somebody else we can decrease his late game minutes and minutes in general. joker I just don't know. Wait and see what he brings when he returns. He could imo go either way. What this roster really still needs is a new Bill Hajt, Jay McKee or Mike Ramsey.

Still better than last year, but they do seem to have trouble especially in the 3rd if the other teams kicks it up a gear like Pittsburgh did. They panic under pressure.

You're avoiding that. Tough is tough, what's to define? Are they tough enough? No, emphatically they are not. Disagree? Haven't watched enough to be definitive. At this moment Savoie would be the better/higher pick. Both imo will be NHL players. Either would improve the Sabres but if both were there I'd take Savoie before Geekie. Time for you to go watch some dreaded Zdeno Chara highlight reels. (and of course it doesn't, big guys can just be giraffes, don't be obtuse)

Lighten up buddy. Its an amusing anecdote from playing actual hockey. If you'd been on the ice back then as a scrawny teen like I was you'd get it. Pity we lost ex Sabre Ron Roscoe at the time as he was too good for high school hockey. Now he was tough. and if you thought Marty McSorley was tough, you should have met his relatives. Crazy the lot of them. Not my point. Please stop.

Nice to finally have a hockey team again isn't it? Now we can spend our time on pointless arguments about size and attitude. Question: Is the current Sabres roster (players and prospects all) in your opinion big enough? or tough enough if you want to get picayune and separate that. Cause that is the real question. You know my answer, what's yours?

Can't disagree with any of this. Also think Cozens needs to keep getting stronger (which I think he will) not because he is soft or weak but because of the style he plays demands it.

Seemed like every game of their's I've seen had Swayman in it and I know they shocked the announcers by playing Swayman back to back last 2 games before their little break here. Swayman definitely seems to be #1 of the two.

lol, that is really weird to me. You have some fine looking toilets wherever you live................. Farm boys that's what we need. One year we were pretty good in high school hockey and won the city (Hamilton) championship. Went on to play the provincial regionals and met this team from the rural area around Hagersville and all these guys were freaking huge. Arms like our thighs from pitching those hay bails I guess. We were far more skilled and fast but they just pummeled us. They were all built like brick sh*thouses. Marty McSorley country.

Oh ya, we definitely have a long way to go, and everything depends on the Rochester guys becoming at least decent NHL players but I think the tear down and futility pointlessness aspect is over. There's no more reliance on one star savior, it's a TEAM concept now and that imo is a better approach. Adams I think has successfully torn down the old rotting structure and now we are pouring concrete and starting to build it back up. As long as they keep adding piece by piece and don't rush it we will finally be a real hockey team again.

You're purposely ignoring my comment So yes, obviously genetics is only one thing and not a guarantee, it's a combination of things. There are always exceptions to every rule but overall you can tell but you have to look at the whole package, you have to consider EVERYTHING and if you have players ranked similar in skills, I'm taking the bigger meaner ones cause we need more of that.

Mitts is soft as butter.

Exactly. Forsberg is a great example. He was strong and powerful.

The ship is righted, it still needs sails and a full crew........... We are at least pointed in the right direction.

Oh come on, there's all kinds of ways to project their future "size". I worked with Dave Andreychuk's dad, for example. One look at "Big Julie" and you knew Dave was going to be "Big Dave". (At this age he is the spitting image of his father too). This is why you hire scouts as well as analysts. Go meet the families, watch how they train, look at their work habits etc etc all of which aids you in your projections of who and what they will become.

You get a sense of which they will go though even at that age. Mitts for example. You're drafting him you know he isn't going to be "big". Arguing this is, I agree, "stupid".

Yes, we might be trending in the right direction but to this point he's not wrong. We do need to get bigger.

Yup, agreed in full. Back to Rochester when Mitts comes back.

Especially in the 3rd. When the intensity picks up he looks a step behind and even confused. I'm starting to think that theory that he is a really slow thinker might have some merit.

I think the state of team now indicates that the old core was rotten as some of us suspected for years. The ship finally seems to be righted.

I think you're dead wrong on this. I want them to play the full season in Rochester. We can call them up end of the year for look sees but that's about it. They are fixing this team and the culture, but we need to be patient and go with this. There are 2 mistakes they can make now and shouldn't. 1. calling up young guys now rather than letting them develop properly and 2. the Murray trade away your picks and prospects for now route. Big NO to both.

Don't take offense at this, but I really wish you'd stop equating height with size. When I talk about size (and I think this holds for most people) I'm talking about shoulders, chest, muscle mass. Overall body not height. Now many big guys are also tall, but that's not the main criteria. As we used to say back in the olden days guys built like a brick sh*thouse.

Personally, I'm putting VO back with Tage and going Skinner Mitts Tuch. I just see that as a better fit, and although Skinner has been ok with Tage's line, I think the original VO Tage Asplund line was better. I would caution the Mitts excitement though. I need to see it before I'm convinced he's actually a top center. The body of work is quite small at this point. not yet.

Linus doesn't inspire confidence now. Just ask the Bruins who have barely used him so far. I personally wouldn't call him up . Development development development.