Drag0nDan

He wanted out before that. He made this a him vs. Them thing to force their hand and honestly I'm glad hes gone. They're probably no closer to being a good competitive team than they were during his tenure, but they also don't seem much worse either.

I paid to boo his ass. And his on ice body language alone made it worth it. When he turned it over and threw it out of the zone on a power play, the crowd went wild and that was the moment I knew that he was completely rattled. The presser was just the cherry on top!

I booed. Trade demands, the way he dragged the team with the injury thing... he was messy. Came off entitled and got his way. Boo!!! Now we know booing worked, and hes all rattled?! Oh man I can't wait to boo even harder next year!

What are they learning in the AHL at this point?

Francouz would be my #1 - He just seems to have been consistently pretty good across 4 leagues. https://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=115982 However... I'm sure other teams who aren't buffalo have noticed this as well so i think his market will be pretty good. I think Husso is a free agent in 2022, but we'll probably pay him more than anyone else. I'm a bit reluctant to sign blues backups after hutton though. Even if Husso has looked really good this year. Varlamov is an interesting thought - they almost have to move him to re-tool.

Bjork needs to play more physically too. He's not a big guy but if he wants to make this team next year he needs to forecheck with some authority, fight through traffic, get to dirty areas. I doubt we'll see it so i hope he's an extra skater next year. Hayden seems to have really low hockey IQ in the offensive zone, and i truly think he's only playing because he's alright in his own end unlike eakin and bjork.

Washington drafts a lot of goalies with a lot more draft capital. A lot of the big contributors for colorado - Rantanen, Mackinnon, Makar, Landeskog were all top 10 guys. You tend to not go goalie that high in the draft. They also used a top 10 pick for Varlamov in 2012 who was their starter for like 7 years. Then It was Grubauer for a 2nd. Now Kuemper for a 1st. They brought in Francouz. Different strategies for sure, but Colorado is still always willing to use assets for goalies. They just don't want to bother with the draft when they can trust their pro scouting to make good decisions. And I'd be willing to overpay, especially for Francouz.

TB has Vasilevskiy. NYR have Shesterkin. STL has Husso/Binnington. MIN has Kahkonen. NSH has Saros. ANH has Gibson. Vancouver has Demko. WPG has Hellebuyck. CBJ has Merzlikins/Korpisalo. DAL has Oettinger. PHI has Hart. Plenty of teams have drafted and developed goalies to play where they're drafted.

I personally love watching them dump it in, gain control on the wall and then pass it to a blank spot of ice, or the opponent. Makes me think at 34, never having played hockey, that i still have a shot!

Its tough to use a career average for a player in his early 20s who was getting ice time on the 4th line the majority of time. Obviously he's improved as well, but its hard to score when your linemates don't ever put the puck on your stick in position to score. That and the RK style which basically lowered every shooters % below the mean (minus reinhart - who was boosted with 10 PP goals).

Tuch and thompson almost scored on a 2 on 1. Then CBJ scored like 4 seconds later on a 2 on 1 after buffalo tried to change on the fly. I mean - technically. The last goal the net was very empty, but Anderson was on the ice 😉

I probably wouldn't trade him for anything in the draft. A different type of NHLer though and I'd probably listen.

I thought after yesterday bjork deserved a day in the press box. Hayden is also pretty terrible.

I wonder what Brock did to prompt that response

It's still very difficult to be optimistic about the sabres. There are some good young players for sure, but it remains to be seen if there's enough glue to actually be a good team. Why not though? They literally splurge on nothing. Get a starter and carry UPL. Best man wins.

Doug Whaley had many of the same issues IMO. Brought in Watkins, karlos williams, Kouandjo, Henderson - then some of the guys who just weren't leaders or buy in guys like Gilmore Dareus and Mario Williams. Between guys coming in with prior issues, and just general paycheck guys it was not set up for sustained success.

If Craig wants to come back I'd have him. Especially with weird taxi squad rules in place. Can do a lot worse for 750k... as we've seen...

There were some good players exposed. Domi, Namestnikov, Drouin, Duchene/Johansen, Voracek, Vanacek(who they traded back for a 2nd round pick), and Tarasenko. Honestly - they were like 1 season further along and teams were able to plan more effectively than the Vegas one. Teams also incented them heavily to take certian players which looking back was not wise. Anaheim - to keep vatanen gave them theodore to take stoner. Columbus - Gave up a ton to make them take Karlsson. Korpisalo and Anderson were who they protected. Florida - Marchessault and Smith for a 5th round pick. Minnesota - Tuch and Haula for a 3rd round pick. Protect Dumba. Islanders - Brannstrom a 2nd and others to take Berube. Brannstrom was the trade chip for Mark Stone. They wanted to protect nelson and Dehan. Winnipeg - Sent them the first they used on suzuki. That was the chip to get Pacioretty. Some serious mistakes were made there.

This is the way.

bush league move. And I've honestly seen enough to never see him play again.

The bills make money... I'm not really sure the Sabres have during this entire stretch. It's hard to justify millions of dollars in training staff, equipment, facilities - when it is hitting an already negative bottom line. The stadium itself is probably among the worst facilities in the league as well.

I mean... hes 4th on the team in scoring. 2nd in even strength assists. The majority of his ice time has been played with girgs, murray, and cozens - not the thompsons, skinners, and tuchs of the team. I'm not saying extend the guy but this season, he has NOT been the problem.

I'm sure there's a chart out there for it - but it felt like under RK all the shots were coming outside the slot... leading to lower shooting %s. Probably somewhat true - but we can still hope that levi turns into a stud. If that's the case then the trade was definitely worth it.

The problem to me this year: Goaltending obviously Injuries just causing constant lineup shuffling Power play - Olofssons regression has been brutal. Good to see they're trying some new combinations with all the lineup changes. Bottom 6 - they don't need to score a ton but they aren't controlling play at all Defense - Inconsistencies from Dahlin on down. Some of the guys have been flat out bad. Prow was terrible, Hagg has been pretty poor, butcher is brutal in his own end The Bills Tommy Sweeney missed all of the 2020 season with Covid as well.

Well Okposo is a sunk cost at this point. He was a poor signing and did not provide return on investment in relation to his contract. However he's played fine this year in the middle 6. He's spent time with a lot of players, but his most common linemates have been cozens and girgensons and he's 4th on the team in scoring. I suppose you could trade girgensons but I find him to be a fine bottom 6 winger. He can play center in a pinch, plays PK, can play PP in a pinch if you want a wall/net guy with the 2nd unit. He's chipped in 7 goals too.