PerreaultForever

On a garbage team with bad linemates and expectations of being a 2C. I'm not sold on Laughton being all that and everything but if you want to add people you need to think of who might actually be a guy we could get as well as just wanting guys. There are better guys but with higher price tags and harder to get.

I'm not sure about him but I disagree. Good on face offs, checks well, kills penalties. I think he'd be a good 3C.

Okay, you can look at it that way, I'm okay with that. So we shall see. Not only did they do what I had advocated for the Sabres, they drafted the guy I wanted in Nate Danielson as well. If they pick Liam Greentree this year, which is a possibility I will be really pissed if those picks pan out in a few years.

Absolutely. Parayko is a guy several of us have been advocating we should try to get (along with Pesce as another similar). I'm a firm believer in the one offensive guy one defensive guy (in simplest terms) pairings on D. Samuelsson was supposed to give us that, maybe he still will, but I'd like another one brought in for sure. Big no to Kevin Hayes. Flyers fans I know absolutely hated him and Torts pointed at him as one of the top "subtractions" needed a year ago. He is notorious for taking nights off and slacking and that is the exact opposite of what we need. If you want a forward like that I'd rather look at Domi or Bertuzzi as examples. Inconsistent as well but at least they give you grind and as Burke used to say "truculence". I wonder if there's a Philly trade possible around Laughton and perhaps Samuelsson on our end with picks and other players/prospects each wants or doesn't? Remember his dad has history there and Flyers like to inbreed. Samuelsson can stay on IR there with Risto 🙂 Sign a free agent D man along with trading Samuelsson for Laughton, we are instantly better.

This is what I mean about Boston culture and is what I wish would come to the Sabres. It's always accountable. It's never whiney or shrugs of idk and it never turns on the fans. It's always personal responsibility in all facets. "I have to be better" and "we have to be better" is the only mantra when they lose. Sabres need this.

On Ruff, I certainly hope so. I imagine Lindy also has a big ego (that's not an insult, it's just saying he believes in himself) and he firmly believes he can be the guy to save Buffalo and thus become a legend and hero forever in the community. If Lindy succeeds this time I suspect he will have a place in this organization until he dies even if it's just honorary. As for Detroit, I'd be surprised if Yzerman stands pat with what he has so it'll be hard to compare everything. He will be making moves which may be good or bad who knows. Remains to be seen if Adams will make big moves or stand (relatively) pat. I personally do not think the current roster (plus prospects) gets us in the playoffs even with Ruff as coach. So for me, the ball is in Adams court. July will be here sooner than we think.

See you are buried in stats and not the reality of the game. A player is just like the team stats and when and at what time matters. You need the stats on ROR's win percentage in key moments, not all time. Beginning of a game, center ice ROR puts his stick down and whatever. End of a game he bears down and gives it his all and then what happens matters. Now maybe if you dug deep you'd find he's not that much better at that time idk for sure, but watching games over the years I see those top notch faceoff guys winning the big ones more often than not. Not everything in a game is equal and not every moment. This is where stats fall apart unless they are very detailed and broken down to all moments, which generally we don't have access to, although I assume teams have guys running them and keeping track. I assume.

Craft breweries in Canada like to play around with Maple Syrup. They're not terrible but they taste pretty weird (the ones I've sampled anyway). I think overall fruity beers are all designed to just cover up the bitterness of the hops.

(sigh) Okay but that's the trouble with stats. This overall averaging pile of numbers blurs the realities of the situation. Face offs are a situational play. They are at times a key situational play that can change a game's outcome. It's not about how many face offs you won all year or even all through a game, it's if you won key face offs at key moments. Examples, you get a PP 20 seconds before a period ends, winning that face off matters a lot. There's a minute to go and you pull the goalie, winning that face off matters a lot. Same in the reverse on the defensive side. You can kill the clock, end the game, take away a final scoring chance, get an empty netter. It all matters a lot. If you want to hyper analyze stats and look at things like percentages when down a goal (or up a goal) in the final minutes with a goalie pulled or other key moments, then you might have something to look at. But just looking at the league and which team won more faceoffs over the year is pretty meaningless because the overall differences are only a few points around that 50/50 mark. It's not about how many faceoffs you win it's about winning the important ones at the important times. That's when teams send out their RORs or whoever is their top faceoff guy. We don't have one.

I agree in general but there's a few points I differ on. First, yes, Yzerman went a different way (and was mocked on this board as having lost it if you remember) but Detroit did improve and they went from behind us to ahead of us and almost made the playoffs. The young guys there are learning from the veterans Yzerman brought in. We shall see if it lasts or has a lasting impact. I disagree on the Kane thing though. We focus in on the "from Buffalo" thing but Detroit was closer to his Chicago area home and the logic to his decision might be simpler than we think. Detroit may have also offered him more money. It could be that simple and have nothing to do with the Buffalo perceptions. But we absolutely do need veterans and leaders, pros, and Adams definitely has to give Ruff the tools he needs. I am expecting a team that looks quite different next year. If it starts the season with the same basic lines and pairings and few if any additions I will start to think Ruff is just going through the motions to pad his retirement and all hope might be lost.

Johnson is a potential injury call up for sure. Up and down from Rochester is the way it should be and probably will be. He's in the mix. I just hope he keeps working and improving and has to earn his spot competitively. I doubt Ruff has 8 D up in Buffalo all year. If he had that in New Jersey I imagine it was because of the Dougie Hamilton injury and he wasn't set on who the replacement was. Also one of their D is a tough guy/fighter I think so he'd not be an every gamer either.

Stats are a funny thing. There are many factors that go in to many things and correlating face offs with wins would be an extremely difficult argument to isolate accurately without considering all the other factors that go into wins. But there are simple things that just make sense. You win a face off, you have the puck. That's a good thing. What you do with it after that is a whole other set of issues and data. Hence, face offs matter.

I know most of you guys hate Marchand, but maybe you can respect this:

They dug down, but keep in mind Dallas was not as good. Different type of play but it was a lot like Boston Florida in that Boston dug down but Florida wasn't as good. Both series could still be over in 6. But all 4 series into game 7s would be excellent entertainment.

I have noticed some over valuing of him around here. Not sure anyone puts him in the top 4 but they definitely think he's more NHL ready than I do. It will be interesting to see which D Ruff values most and how he pairs them up. There could be some changes as some adapt to his system and structure and some have more trouble with it.

That would make more sense than paying Samuelsson to not play but makes no sense to me either. The whole keep them on the roster thing they did with Granato has to end. Young guys need to play and learn and work to get back. They do not need to sit around and watch. I can run you a comparable (since I'm familiar with them) on how the Bruins sent Lohrei down multiple times all year. Every time he started to struggle a little or someone else was healthy they didn't send Lohrei to the press box. they sent him to Providence. On a real hockey team your NHL practice time should not be more valuable than your AHL game time (and practice). If Johnson is good enough to beat someone out of the line up he should get that opportunity (like Lohrei over Gryzlek) but if he's not, he should be in Rochester.

So you're arguing against the fact that a face off win on the PP gives you an extra 20-30 seconds of power play time in the O zone?

A face off win on the PP saves you 20-30 seconds. It matters.

So you're going to pay your #7 D over 4 million dollars? That in no way works. You have to trade him then. You ready to do that?

Tuch, and a small difference, but also a move in the right direction and a shift in tone. I think.

"In over their heads" to me is a strange way to look at it but maybe we aren't too far apart, we maybe just word things differently. To me it's a lack of continuity and veteran leadership. Adams plan is that this group (himself included I think) learn from their mistakes and eventually get it. How that is supposed to happen I have no idea. So you have a bad team, and you tank. You start there. You have absolutely nothing left because you stripped it all away to tank. That's your start and then you build with a hotshot superstar and his tandem bike partner. What else does Murray do? He gets a competitive 2 way center in ROR, a tough D man in Bogo, a big young goalie projected to be good in Lehner, a power forward in need of a new start in Evander Kane (as a side note it is funny to see Evander Kane mentioned as a player style we need in the playoff thread). All of that seems logical and are things we talk about now that they are gone. But it doesn't work. He traded away picks, drafted poorly and failed to fill out the roster. Most importantly coaching fails. So what do we do? We blame the players. We start again. JBot sees we have no D. He tries to get a whole bunch of them but none of it comes together under horrible rookie coaches. He signs another big shot forward. His drafting is better, but not great. Once again we blame the players AND the coaches. So Adams tears it down and starts again. Now we have so many young prospects we don't know what to do with them and finally a veteran coach, but still little to no veteran leadership. I know I've left things out but there's a lot and I've typed enough for now. The main point being that everything currently being advocated for has already been tried over the Pegula era except hiring a competent veteran coach. Now we have that. So, MAYBE, it can finally get going in the right direction. If this fails, I truly have no ideas other then to say it's the water. Ya'll be best to move.

Yes it is. and it's not always appropriate. But whatever. Stand on the ground you want to.

It's not complicated.

I didn't scapegoat anybody. Stop making stuff up to make your points. If Okposo isn't that guy (and he isn't) then he shouldn't have been named captain just cause he was what? Likeable? Old? It was just one of many dumb things this franchise has done. He was a bad captain, simple as that. The lack of good veteran leadership on this team is a huge issue. Huge. imo the "plan" is dumb unless it has in fact just been a difference of opinion on timelines and Adams is set to shift things this off season. If they do not make moves and give Ruff what he will need to win it'll be goodbye Adams and get ready to start again. I do laugh in general at the "inadequate from a talent standpoint" argument that I see now and again which gets juxtaposed against the how great Quinn and Benson and Peterka and Thompson etc. are. We have more first round drafted players than ANY other NHL team. We have a ton of young talent. Compare them to Boston. They have Pasternak. Offensive superstar. An aging Marchand and who as high end offensive talent? DeBrusk maybe? That's about it. Zacha is middling. Coyle is a good 2 way forward but he's no offensive star. That's it. Way less "talent" than the Sabres, and yet.....................................