Drag0nDan

Why is the sound quality on MSG similar to what you would get watching a high school game? Like everything about this team is so low budget.

I just feel like we brought up too many young kids too early, and now you have one thats... "ready" (200ish AHL games over 3 years, 22 years old) and we as fans are reluctant to promote him because the team is too young. I guess my thought and point is that... kulich and rosen shouldn't be blocked because other young players were brought up and the team floundered. Every team has a spot for younger players to come up, and they usually don't end up on the top 6 wing.

Instead of having a "shutdown 4th line" that doesn't shut anyone down, why not have a young player line of skill players? Kulich rosen and quinn for example.

I assume at the price point its at that its something like... beef bologna type of thing. Freeze it in a loaf form, boil it for a while in some beef "jus" to give it the roast beef flavor. The only way to get meat that cheap is to use the garbage.

Interesting thought on johnson actually, i've completely forgotten about him. The hard part of the sabres roster view is that of a very young team, which makes us all reluctant to promote players. But every good team has some unheralded dude whos like 25 and paid like nothing. Johnson was probably elevated too soon last year (one of the themes of this org is not creating depth to let players develop), but he's a defense first defenseman, who last year had the same 7 points as Samuelsson... while on the ice 7 minutes less per game. He'll be 24 next year, and the only blocking I see is byrum (if you extend byrum, probably trade johnson since he's not going to make the club with 4 lefties under contract). Interested to see if he's at all included in plans for the 3rd pairing. Probably not since we have Samuelsson stuck here indefinitely.

Well here is... what's available at the store for Buffalo this offseason specific to defensemen: RHD - Free agents (UFA and RFA) who have played 40 games this season: RHD - Players with no contract clauses (Former sabres highlighted in Yellow) who have played 40 games this season

Yeah, i'm not really about chasing lottery picks this year. I'm not saying trade a top 5 pick either - even in weaker drafts this is the best position to finding star players. Trading a top 5 pick when you aren't close to anything resembling playoff hockey, is a bit too short-sighted even at this stage of team construction. I'd like to see more of a commitment to team defense. Making things more difficult for our opponents between the blue lines, and in the high slot.

Parking in front of the net watching his linemates get swallowed up on the walls is... something 🙂

Murray was by far the most invisible member of the line too.

I think the one of the biggest gripes i have with the team is their softness, so its good to see some fight in a lost season.

Going from 11-9-1 (1.1 points per game and an 89-90 points season) to 11-19-4 (.76 points per game and a 62-63 point season) ended the season before Christmas. It's hard to judge progress of players on a team that lost their season so early, you want to stay professional and show drive and initiative, but there's always going to be dips in player quality when you have to play ~50 games with no shot at playoffs. They are not quite a top 10 scoring team, but they are a bottom 5 team when it comes to allowing goals. The defensemen have been poor, the goaltending has been among the worst in the league, and the forwards haven't done enough in their roles from top to bottom. This is a football team that doesn't block and tackle, and it shows in the types of goals they give up. UPL is 3rd in the league in goalie starts, and i cannot for the life of me understand why. 15 starts with a SV% under 85. That's a level of inconsistency that you can't win with. I already believe his extension is bad, but he's looking like a backup goalie to me. I'm not sure if Levi is the answer but if he's not given every chance in the offseason to earn this spot I just see the same stuff happening.

Korpisalo really kept boston in it too, as well as the post. I thought power had a nice game on both sides of the ice. Malenstyn brought some needed juice, same with zucker greenway and tuch.

The 2nd goal was a mistake by Muel, but he played that absolutely terribly.

Similar number of NHL games for Dahlin and... i don't think i had quite as many gripes as i do with power, but dahlin wasn't looking particularly good. I seem to remember Dahlin being sloppy in the zone and making a ton of mental mistakes. Dahlin after that 200ish games improved a lot. He's faster, shiftier, more confident, more structured, more communicative etc. So a lot changes in the 22-24 age years. He didn't have this wholly contact averse game that power has though either. I don't see the extra gear in power's game at times, like i don't know if he's just slow or tentative. Like he never is bringing full speed or power to his game. You also can't be this soft as a hockey defenseman.

I'd lump Krebs, Samuelsson, Clifton, and lafferty (i've seen enough) in on that going into next season.

We signed taylor hall as a result of eichel essentially asking them to do something or he was going public with a trade request. After his injury and subsequent flame out by hall, he still wanted to be traded. He wanted the ADR surgery, and i think adams was opposed simply because he didn't want him to further damage his value. They tried rehab and it didn't work - if he had made any commitment to the franchise at that point i'm sure he would've been allowed to get whatever surgery he wanted. Then Eichel went public with the whole - they wont let me get surgery debacle.

He was literally breaking other players on the team when he played with them - i think he had to go.

Ruff is on a 2 year deal as well, so I kind of always assumed it was a 2 year plan. If it works and the team can make it to the playoffs in year 2, adams gets another couple of years to build and ruff maybe moves into the front office somewhere. If it doesn't work, then they have a fresh balance sheet and both are gone along with hopefully a bunch of other coaches and front office folks.

Jokiharju is a UFA so he's gone. I'd be open to moving on from pretty much everyone but Dahlin. Power's 22 so i'd also say its tough to give up on him - and elite puck movers are harder to come by. Byram was the swap from mittelstadt but he's a RFA and definitely valuable to teams around the league. If you can get out of samuelsson's contract, do it. He's an absolute JAG and i see no reason to be committed to someone like him long-term. Seen enough bryson, jokiharju and clifton too. Scouts and GM's have watched him play enough to know... there's a reason he's available.

So that'd be tuch, jjp, quinn, benson, zucker, greenway? Right now anyway.

HAHAHAHA i know the stats don't say who "won", but this guy gets absolutely smashed every time he fights!

There really is no shortage of random defenseman to include. I've seen enough of joker, samuelsson, bryson, clifton... lets see some new faces back there.

Yeah, i think this is pretty much roughly the price for a 20G scoring winger.

The shooting % is a bit higher though. They haven't really done much to inspire our trust though.

That's another issue entirely - so many L-NTC's on the type of deals that Buffalo would need to be bringing on. So you're looking at a player who had their RFA years bought out, which is unlikely as most teams that signed these guys did so with the plan to keep them in the fold.