elijah

This will be the first game of the year that turns into a background game, put it on the TV and focus on other things instead of full attention on the game. Missing half the roster including Dahlin, this one will get ugly quick and is the first game of the year I’m fully expecting a brutal beatdown. I have no interest in wasting 3 hours of life solely invested in this one. Going to be an unfortunate week of hockey on the road trip. Optimistically if we can survive the week with 4 points in the 4 games, hopefully we come out on the other end with a (more) healthy lineup and still within striking distance instead of burying ourselves with a 4 game losing streak. Go Sabres

Generally I find myself on the optimistic side of things until it’s too late into the season and the writing on the wall is abundantly clear. This one we dominated the analytics, dominated the third period especially, had a lot of good chances and rung a lot of posts in a night where shots just weren’t falling. They’re still missing 4 guys out of their top 9 and are essentially skating an AHL roster in their absence. I tried sleeping on it, but with this one that stuff just doesn’t matter to me for some reason and feels and sounds like excuses. You’re playing a team among the basement on the NHL, on a back to back where both goalies played, and sitting one of their top players. If you truly want to believe that things have changed, that’s a “must win” game. I don’t care if shots just weren’t falling in this one, I don’t care that they won the analytic battle, I don’t care about the excuses. Getting shut out by a goalie coming in with 5 GAA and .830% is inexcusable. Tage & Dahlin desperately need to show up, all the smoke and rumors about this being unacceptable to them and the dire need to turn it around to keep them happy and here without another rebuild. The brutal fact on the team this season is that the secondary talent and the system has been there, we’re only 5-4-4 with .500 point % BECAUSE of them right now, not in spite of them. The stars need to start being stars, the hustle and secondary play has been there for this team to be successful. I guess there’s not much to do aside from wait and hope they find themselves in a (brutal at that) 4 game road trip. Oh, and let’s get UPL the hell out of a Sabres uniform and never back in one.

Utah is 5th in xGF% at 5v5 and 11th in xG, they’re 10th in xGF% in all situations and again 11th in xG. For those that don’t value analytics, they’re 9-4, in 3rd place in the West and have a +9 goal differential, which is 5th in the entire league. They’re a better version of the ‘22-‘23 Sabres. It’s a fast and extremely talented forward group that can score all over the ice, except they’re more rounded and more analytically (defensively) sound. I understand a lot of the reasons to not trust the Sabres in this thread, but bashing Utah as if they’re some bottom feeder is certainly not one of them EDIT: Just to add, if your counter-argument to this is that they’re unproven and it may just be a hot start — it’s still just that, a hot start. The Sabres took an ugly game that they didn’t belong in against a hot team, top 5 hottest in the league to be exact, and without 5 of their top 12 forwards they overcame a poor performance with mismatched talent all over the ice and forced OT to steal a point. Again, let me repeat they did it with a decimated roster and against a (currently) top 5 team in the league. The OT struggles are getting a bit concerning and frustrating, but it’s like the drought is making a lot of people miss this start for what it is. They’re playing hockey right now that passes the eye test AND the analytic test, they’re on an 88 point pace on the season despite starting 0-3, and they’re 5-1-4 with a 114 point pace in the L10. They’re playing good system hockey, and albeit losing multiple OT games, they’re picking up loser points along the way. This is all while missing over 50% of their roster over various points of the season. Let them keep scrapping and staying afloat in the race, even if that means racking up loser points, and see if they can put it all together and get hot when they finally have what resembles an NHL roster with guys getting healthy. They’ve earned some patience with the start so far this year. EDIT 2: One last edit, they’re also doing all this with Tage and Dahlin (and imo Tuch) playing well below what we’ve come to expect from them and what they’re capable of.

Solid, thanks for the info If anyone else was curious, Friedman said we’re looking at 8+ weeks. Hopefully it’s closer to the 8 than the +

Was there ever a consensus on the length of the Norris injury?

Moved to Charleston a couple years ago, no direct flights back home to Buffalo is extremely unfortunate

Kozak needs to be an NHLer, no more AHL stints You’re getting goaltending and special teams play You’ve now got a list of guys that ‘play the right way,’ between Doan, McLeod, Benson, Kozak, Greenway, Dahlin They’ve played well all year aside from one nasty Bruins game. The Montreal game was good, just ended up on the wrong side of the scoreboard. The Avs and Rangers game were good through 2 periods however they did fall apart in the third. Signs are pointing up and I feel optimistic, can’t wait to get Greenway and Kesselring back. Need some production from Tage and Dahlin, but that should inevitably come. Going to say it out loud, Tuch is mailing it in in my opinion and that needs to stop. He’s still playing well but he’s avoiding scrums and kind of just floating around at times. Hopefully as they keep winning and the contract gets closer that comes to an end. Happy with this one and content with the season so far, Go Sabres

0-3 start and falling to 2-4 is going to make this game feel worse than it was Pretty bad first period but really good compete from there on out, however it was also met with a really good game by their goalie as well. Felt pretty even after the first though. The Red Wings game will feel massive because of the slow start, can’t drop another 2 in a row after already starting 0-3. Desperately need Tage to get going. In a vacuum if you focus on the play this season and only the play this season so far, the doom and gloom doesn’t make sense in my opinion. Taking into account the lackluster offseason, the 14 year drought and the refusal to fire Kevyn Adams, I understand it. However, I’ll choose to be optimistic instead, and I’ve seen 5 good games, the Colorado and New York games included as they played well through the first 2 periods and just fell apart in the third after not seeing results. All in all, I’ve still got hope they can sneak in in a weak year in the East. On to the next.

Josh Doan looks like a real middle 6 piece, I wish I knew that at the time of the JJP trade The hustle and effort from Doan, Benson and McLeod tonight was terrific. Need to see more of that, from more players and more consistently Benson brings it every night, it’ll be nice to have him back. Greenway does similarly in a less skilled way, he’ll be very much welcomed as well. Not saying that Greenway is a game breaker by any means, but he’s criminally underrated in what he does contribute

The lines aren’t even posted in the thread yet, terrific way to signal we’re hitting all time lows with this organization

I fear the recent barrage of optimistic analytic models have gotten through to me. Sucks to see the biggest offseason addition out for game 1, but here’s to hoping they let the optimism live on. Go Sabres!

Benson - Norris - Thompson Zucker - McLeod - Tuch Quinn - Kulich - Doan Seems that those will be the opening night lines IMO from preseason so far. I don’t think I love the Quinn Kulich Doan, I’d rather shelter Kulich a little more still

I’m not sure I love the Rust idea, or even understand the love for it. Sure, he replaces the offense that we lost in JJP. But he also brings right back the horrible defensive void that we thought we were righting the ship on while trading Peterka. I know we’re hungry for an offseason that says we tried and are trying to compete, but simply adding a big name for the sake of adding a big name doesn’t exactly accomplish that. This team vitally needs to get better at defensive team hockey, and I would argue the forwards are the biggest culprit. It was nice to add defensemen that seem like they’ll help, but going out and adding a veteran version of Peterka just to do so feels like it’s 1 step forward and 2 steps back I’d love and am clamoring for another middle 6 guy, and I’m also worried about the goals and offense we’re losing with Peterka. But you need to add one responsibly, and not just add one for the hell of it IMO

Hopefully there’s something big coming today and this story is just out there to get buried quickly Then again, it’d be kind of fitting for this to be the biggest Sabres news to come out on a July 1

Pipedream would be to trade Byram for Bolduc ++, then sign Gavrikov and Jake Allen Reality will be Adams backed himself in a corner and keeps Byram now and signs a Tanner Jeannott and AHL level goalie that we’re supposed to believe are a 2nd-3rd line forward and a capable 1B goalie

We’re complaining about this trade too? A big RHD that’s strong analytically, a need on the team, for us to dump Clifton’s cap and attach a 2nd? Adams made a solid trade here but I guess there’s just no winning when you’re staring down year 15

This was before the Clifton trade, $3.3M for Clifton to $1.1M for Timmins cleared up that extra little bit Banished forever

$88M cap floor, Sabres are at $77M. That’s before signing McLeod and Byram (if he doesn’t get traded). Assume $5M and $8M and that puts you at $90M. If there’s truly an internal cap and Adams is holding Byram now, we’re looking at our roster already Tage - Norris - Tuch Benson - Kulich - Zucker Greenway - McLeod - Quinn Kozak - Krebs - Doan Dahlin - Byram Power - Kesserling JBD - Samuelsson I liked the Peterka trade in theory of more moves coming. If this is it, not great Kevyn, not great EDIT: Forgot about Kozak ($1M), Levi ($1.5M) and JBD ($1M). That puts you at $93.5M and pushing the actual cap. Trying to give Adams the benefit of the doubt this offseason with the Jarmo hiring, but it’s looking like another not great offseason at this moment

Forget the Sabres future, this Byram trade needs to be knocked out of the park if for nothing else but Thorny’s well being I don’t post or contribute much but I have been scrolling the board since about 2018ish, and this reaction might be the strongest one I’ve ever seen here lol

People heard the buzz names all offseason from the media and the rumors, names and picks surrounding Peterka and instantly reacted negatively because these weren’t familiar names You subtracted a great offensive player (a surplus on this team) who severely lacked defense (the main issue on this team) and added two guys that play responsible defense, most significantly finally adding a Power partner that we’ve needed for years. The value is probably a little lacking in what we were expecting, but the team got better. Consider me a fan of the trade

My favorite part was when he said they have a plan in place and are executing it. Kind of comical he’s done not a single thing addressing the roster all off-season and got in front of a mic and said he’s executing on his plan

Would love them to trade it ++ for a top 4 defensemen or a top 6 forward That being said I think everyone knows they’re standing pat and making the pick

Philly traded for Zegras Dallas resigned Duchene and traded Marchment Anaheim traded Zegras and traded for Kreider Seattle traded for Marchment Rangers traded Kreider

Connor Murphy + 25th Overall sounds good to me Sounds even better if Adams then trades one of 9th or 25th for another player

He’s another left handed guy but Niko Mikkola would look nice next to Owen Power Holding down 20 minutes per night with positive xGA% and a positive +/- (by double digits) over the past few years, he’s also 6’6” and big. Little bit of everything for all the different fans personal preference