Drag0nDan

I mean - he doesn't backcheck at all, not much forecheck, doesn't do much on the walls, isn't a very good passer in neutral zone, and he's streaky as hell. He has a good shot, and the one-timer on the power play can be great - but he's the person most targeted in our power play to pressure since he gives it up more than tage or dahlin. I can do without that player in my bottom 6.

I mean... are they really trading a (presumed) vezina trophy winner who has 2 years left at 5M per?

You can always put Skinner over there. His one-timer isn't as effective, but he's better on the walls and harder to take the puck from and a far better skater. You have tage on the one timer side and skinner is more of your, on net from the opposite dot so cozens and tuch can crash. You also have dahlin up top. Other option is probably mitts? But i think he probably centers PP2 with some combo of greenway, krebs, Quinn, JJP, or Skinner.

If it gets us to the playoffs - its worth it. He would put up better numbers than either of the goalies we had, and if we struggled to score or were out of the playoff picture come playoff time, he's likely to fetch you back something like 70 or 80 cents on the dollar. Maybe you get a top contenders first rounder back for your lottery pick or something. Assuming he helps end the playoff drought, then it's worth it for the rental. And to me, Levi is off the table. He's the future in net and I'm not signing a 10M per year goalie to block his path - i do at the same time want to be upgraded for 2023-2024 because he'll be a rookie and its unfair to ask him to carry the team for 50+ starts.

Leafs have had Rielly on a team friendly deal for pretty much the entire duration of his time there. But depth wise... they have the 3rd and 4th highest paid centers in the league (with like no term left either), 4th highest paid winger in Marner. They have Matthews and Nylander coming up on FA, then Tavares and Marner after that. I'm just hoping Matthews leaves and the team falls apart. Because we all know they're going to overpay some players in FA to keep up and it will go terribly.

I think rosen is fairly ahead of most of the other wingers drafted around his position - Most are playing in juniors. Having come from a different type of game I would actually say he's adjusted quite well to a narrower patch of ice. I'm not opposed to trading him, as pieces will have to be moved if you want to bring in any new players through trades.

Not wrong there - I just think Thompson is still growing as a center and wouldn't want to move him from his position to accommodate mittelstadt.

I don't see knocking a healthy thompson off line 1 (he's our best scorer), and out of position (he's our best center). They seemed to do it out of necessity to avoid hits. I like what Mitts was doing there at the end of the year, and he was playing with more confidence for sure. Just not playing with olofsson seemed to help him at times earlier in the year though.

Quinn sees the ice a lot better than i thought, and has a pretty nice shot. Good enough skater right now, and JJP is fast as hell and drives to the net. He needs work on the all-around game, but i can't say i wasn't impressed with him. This is like... year 1 - of them learning the NHL game. They disappeared for stretches, need to work on conditioning for backskating to help break up some of the easy crap we give up in the high slot. But thats honestly an issue for all 4 lines.

I'm sure goalies were just lining up to play for Buffalo...

As ineffective as he was, i still liked watching him play more than olofsson.

They're the "in the hunt" team at like 7-8 with 2 games left in the NFL. They need to win both, and some stuff to happen to get there, but its not out of the realm of possibility. I think winning 7 straight, and 9 straight overall is not going to happen. Pittsburgh winning 5 straight is also very unlikely, especially for a sub .500 team on the road with 3 road games left. Florida's streaky, and the islanders are really dependent on solid goaltending and getting ahead early. A lot to happen but id say for buffalo to have any semblance of a chance, we need at least 5 wins and probably 11 points - with the Florida one being extra since we're chasing them. Even with all that happening it'd still be very much a long shot.

I mean it truly is not that hard to back-check. But the 2 on 1s, the turnovers... its just so frustrating to watch. I watch a d-man go pressure a guy at the blue line and its like you are literally surrendering a 2x1. The thing is, they were doing this before too, the goalies were just occasionally making some saves. The last few games the goaltending has just been absolutely pathetic.

There's a few reasons though... Anyone whos worth a DAMN in the NHL has some level of no trade clause. So now you're limited on who you can even get. When you know you are going to be bad, why be both expensive and bad? Season ticket sales are low Single game ticket sales are low - the product was devalued for years that people expect to be able to go to a game for 10-20 dollars The balance sheet has been red for years, and they're trying to be at least somewhat profitable.

Didn't they just extend tage and cozens? Taylor Hall before that

I counted his AHL games as... "pro" but yeah. LOT of minutes for a young group.

Power is 20, and a rookie. Muel is 23 with about 150 starts. Their best hockey is likely in front of them. I agree - should not pencil them into spots and limit what you're doing with the roster because you want Muel on the first pairing - etc.

Just put a big clock on the ice and set a timer. Start it when the player touches the puck. Pucks gotta be in the back of the net by... i dunno 5 seconds?

Put him out there for shootouts! He can't be worse than UPL right?

I like Depeche mode but their tickets are insane! they're like the most expensive one out there save maybe taylor swift.

I think the challenge is... we need to stop some of the bleeding on PKs. Some of that is cleaned up with better goaltending, but a lot of that is defensemen.

I love the idea of starting a player in his first professional start - against the best team in the league, and one of the best regular season teams ever assembled. It's like a guaranteed win.

I'm texting anderson every game day morning from here on out... "how ya feeeeeeelin?" Gotta have this one. And honestly - they might need to win on sunday.

They're not out of it - but they need to put a serious run together. I'd wager they need... 24 out of 32 points to feel good about their chances. 20 would be bare minimum.

Lybushkin has struggled all low integrating into our tempo. He seems to be playing a bit looser now, but for a while he was reluctant to do much of anything when exiting the zone, and never knew what to do with the puck when he had it in the offensive zone.