Drag0nDan

They played a lot better after the first. But the passing was just off all night, turnover city, passes in skates. They were disruptive to anything we tried to do in the neutral zone, and zone entry was an issue all night. Power played really badly. So did Skinner. Thought Anderson was mostly fine. The other goalie played really well to get that shutout.

I meant serious as in off roster IR.

Assuming he clears waivers, he's likely the first call up if the team suffers a serious injury to a forward.

Whats he made like 6 million in his career? I don't think he's going to throw money down the drain.

At the end of the day - they claimed jost... who was not part of the plans earlier in the year. He has essentially taken hinostrozas job, so he's become somewhat expendable.

So... Dahlin has... a shot? maybe? Pastnak should get in. Vasilevsky should be the goalie. I'd guess matthews - which gives them no d-men on the actual all star team. I don't think any of this matters 🙂

Makes sense to me - he might even clear waivers. 9 teams have available cap to sign him without doing other stuff first, and one of them is buffalo (https://www.spotrac.com/nhl/cap/). If Krebs or Jost were hurt, asplund is first off the bench. If it were olofsson or mitts, maybe it'd be Hino? Personally I'd like to get asplund off the bench in general, but as long as olofsson and mitts are here they're gonna play i think. Seems like no one has cap space too, so its going to be a limited market for rentals without moving stuff back. That and everyone and their mother seems to have some level of NMC, NTC,M-NTC these days.

Playing with fire though giving up that much space to Dahlin. You'd have to have your other 3 players trying to prevent cozens and skinner from cross crease dunks to tuch on the same side, and one wrong move sets up dahlin for a 1 timer in the slot.

Seems about right - He seems a natural fit next to Lybushkin. Joker and power have played well together when joker has been available. Dahlin and Sammy seem to have some chemistry as a pair of lefties and make it work. The remaining guys just... Bryson has played freaking terrible this year, but he's also had 0 consistency. Clague stunk it up at first but hes finding his way. Fitzgerald is bad, and no one can convince me otherwise. Pilut can pass and seems a good skater but he can't get the puck out of the zone consistently and seems to second guess when to pressure people at the blue line - he also seems to have that same power allergy to shooting :-).

He was noticeably huge when i sat behind the net a few weeks ago. You cannot teach that kind of size, he just needs to figure out how to use it better and just generally how to play with more ownership. Dictate what you want people to do - it takes time. It's like catching in baseball - you can hit well and teams won't put you behind the plate if you can't call a game for the pitching. There's communication, there's reps, there's just... learning that speed.

Hey now, we're all friends here.

Different players need different metrics too. I don't need an xGF metric to see what my eyes tell me in that tage has a nasty shot, and some dirty dangles. He can shoot, create space, and deke the goalie. Thats a star player. But if you wanted to evaluate Krebs, or Mittelstadt utilizing analytics. This is a nice piece of data to have them digest when they re-watch their games. Your xGF is low because... your corsi is low because... and what pieces of your game you can improve upon to clean it up.

Offensively, he could shoot a little. He can't be useful on a PP though because he was a giveaway machine. His stretch passes constantly hit people in the skates, or miss them entirely. And he was always reacting to where people ARE not where they are going to be, or where he thinks they should be. Just too reactionary. Defensively, a lot of the same problems. No trust in his teammates or pairing, constantly chasing, and doesn't put pucks where they should be going. He holds it too much in the zone, chases hits, etc. 0 Points is Lybushkin level though. This means he isn't shooting (27 shots in 26 games would mean a career low pace), and the stretch passes are coming from his line mate. I think he's playing with Provorov so that makes some sense - Provorov is a better passer and shooter.

Justify the trade most likely.

Bryson is caught out of position too much. Fitz seems a touch slow, and his stick always seems to fall out of his hands. Pilut isn't a great defenseman at taking the puck away, but he moves it OK for the most part. He was better in this one at challenging forwards a bit more on zone entry. He at least seems to be the best fit from a style perspective. The key i think to him and dahlin working together so well is - it isn't just one of them that plays on their off side exclusively. They fluidly kind of move to either side and both play each side pretty well.

Poor goaltending and too many defensemen missing. It was nice to see them get the W without Power out there, but any extended absence will be tough to overcome with the guys they have.

Only way they can is if they make up the ground with an equally long winning streak, especially against Eastern conference opponents ahead of them in the standings.

I notice it with Tage zone exits sometimes too though - 2 guys going for the puck and neither of them seems to want it. And i know the answer is they're trying to get open for a pass... it makes sense. They just occasionally bungle it into a scoring chance against, and good teams don't do that nearly as frequently as buffalo. It's system, and chemistry. You vacate a space to do something, assuming your teammate will fill, and they don't.

Hayden Bjork and Eakin. Played like 150 games for the sabres last year.... 2 are in the AHL, and one is in... Switzerland? Throw in some more games for Jankowski, Murray, Caggiula. The amount of pure AHL talent that played here last year is a bit stunning. Sheahan is in Rochester who i like more than everyone else above. Not to mention Hinostroza. People will get banged up but I'm interested to see where people slot in during those absences.

If he played Center I could see him back in the lineup.

I don't know that he would "still suck" as a wing.

I'm not taking asplund out again. As for Quinn and JJP, whenever their legs seem to lag - thats when you sit them for a game or two to put hino in the lineup for some extra juice.

My pick. He doesn't take crap from people and i think someones going to lay out a linemate and he's going to drop them.

Cozens looks like a major upgrade from last years cozens. Quinn/JJP/full season Tuch/Krebs are a lot of upgrades over... Hayden, Eakin, Bjork, Caggiula, Jankowski etc. And this is with 3 defensemen out with injuries.

This!! They're playing cross ice passes, so put a good passer down low and crash the net. Set up a play to do that and force them to adjust - set up cozens or tuch in front of the net for 1 timers, then have the wall guys crash for rebounds. If they adjust then you can pass to thompson for the one-timer or one-touch cross ice pass. Puck needs to move faster, and they need to use the space behind the crease to open some passing lanes.