Archie Lee

He handled taking a bad penalty that led to the 1st goal and he handled not covering for his D-men that led to goal 4, so he might as well handle the clean-up for petulantly hitting the Flyer late.

Pre-rule, I don’t recall there being an epidemic of players shooting the puck over the glass intentionally, but certainly it was the case that players did it purposefully to end pressure. Today, every player is able to flip a puck out of play at will. I think it would be happening a lot if there was no penalty. Since there is no way to definitively determine intention, this is what we have. Where I agree is on the level of punishment. I have long thought that it is somewhat absurd that an accidental trip or hook or puck over the glass is the same 2 minutes as a violent infraction like charging or boarding or high-sticking (in most instances). I’ve wondered if it would be better to have certain penalties be only one minute. Or maybe “violent” penalties shouldn’t end when a goal is scored (you serve the full 2). Another option I’ve thought of is that maybe a PP that relates to a violent offence shouldn’t start with a faceoff but with the PP team having possession in the offensive zone.

They are on pace for 82 points.

Not sure if this is sarcasm, but Rosen is having a nice year. He has improved his production year over year in the AHL. It’s early in the year, but there are only two players younger than him who are having more productive years in the A.

This starts with the summer of 2023 when we opted to make no appreciable changes to a coaching staff and very young roster that missed the playoffs by one point. Every off-season and trade deadline that you don’t at least get incrementally better, until you are a contender, is a lost opportunity. We had a young coach in Rochester in Peca, who was getting opportunities around the NHL. Rather than make a move to promote him to Buffalo, Adams told him there were no spots. Imagine a GM passing on a young coach who is wanted in NY by a veteran HC like Laviolette, because he has Christie and Ellis, two coaches who, respectfully, were not in demand. Then we opt to do nothing in the player movement period, other than add Clifton and E. Johnson. Then we get to camp and get distracted by the shiniest new toys in Levi and Benson. Neither were ready. I know there are lots who disagree on Benson and think he was the shining light of last season. I saw, and still see, a kid whose value should be soaring as he dominates his junior hockey peers. Right now we should be thrilled with the possibility of either adding Benson in the next 24 months, or moving him in a package for that elusive top line forward. Instead, we have turned him into another struggling pro, as though “he plays a mature game for his age and the offence will come”, is what our goal should be for 18-19 years olds. Since that off-season we are playing catch-up and it doesn’t help that we don’t operate the way normal teams do. The recent failings are still fresh. The Mittelstadt trade. The sham coaching search and staff changes. The buyout of Skinner and failure to use the cap savings, perhaps by design. Quinn being viewed as a near untouchable asset. Kulich now being mismanaged. Levi missing key playing opportunity by being in the NHL. The continued diminishment of asset value that comes from being terrified of moving the wrong young player or prospect. The very notion that we would go into a must win year with the youngest roster in the NHL. It is all quite discouraging.

There was zero reason to stop the rotation. Levi played two good games and one real stinker. UPL had been less up and down, but was hardly “the hot hand”. The Sabres just continually author their own misfortune. Just keep Reimer and send Levi to Rochester like every other normal NHL franchise would have done. Then when injury or poor performance required a recall, you bring up the confident kid who is playing well in the NHL. But we just can’t get out of our own way.

I would say that it means he's not looking to move players who are currently helping us win, he is looking to move prospects and picks for an established player. Where the "prospect" line is drawn is perhaps the question. Is it drawn above or below the young players currently on the NHL squad? More simply, it just means he looking to buy and not sell.

At this time of year, the best we could likely do is the forward equivalent of an Olli Maatta. I don't see us acquiring a top 6 forward now. The time for that was the off-season. The next realistic opportunity will be the deadline. Unfortunately, I think we are in the cycle of being unwilling to trade young assets when their value is high. We then, of course, are unable to negotiate a worthwhile return when their value is low. Waiting for the day when a team will trade us a top-6 forward for our 7th best prospect and a 2nd rd pick, is just going to leave us waiting.

I think it is possible that $ was a factor and that Adams was not positioned to or comfortable with giving Mitts a $6 millionish AAV. He could not possibly sell trading Mitts for futures, so he acquired the best “name-asset” he could.

My view on our pairings hasn’t changed. With what we have, I think the best pairings are: Dahlin/Power Samuelsson/Jokiharju Byram/Clifton I’m not at all hung up on which is the 2nd or 3rd pair.

I’m not great at finding a comparable, but Byram reminds me of Montour when we got him. Byram is, I think, a better player, but like Montour, I’m not sure the fit is right. In FLA the last two seasons, Montour’s primary partners were Staal and Mikkola, a couple of veteran stay at home types who allowed Montour to selectively roam. We really don’t have such a player to pair with Byram. The negative-side of me thinks this eventually ends with Byram being traded for cents on the dollar and then reaching his prime with a team that pairs him with someone who better matches his skillset and turns him loose (as FLA did with Montour). And you know the rest…

Nothing through the first 10 games has changed my view that we are too young and inexperienced and that too many things need to happen that have not consistently happened before, for there to be a realistic expectation that we will make the playoffs. Therefore, my prediction is a finish somewhere between where we finished the last two years (85-90 points, 10-11th in the conference). As with current election polling, I acknowledge that this could be wrong in either direction by 4-5 points and 2-3 positions in the standings. The Panther GDT includes, understandably, a lament about the loss of Reinhart and about what he could mean to our team. Has there ever been a team that in the span of 6 seasons traded 4 star players (I'll call Mitts a star for this purpose), average age 25 (O'Reilly the oldest at 27), for younger or future assets (Tuch being the exception)? Regardless of whether it has been done before, we did it. But we are now the team that needs to acquire a top veteran player or two. This is why, when we have so many young talented players and prospects, we should not be afraid to move some of them for experienced talent. If we cling to our young players and prospects while they sort themselves out, because we are afraid we will trade the kid who breaks out, we risk what is happening this year, with Quinn, Benson, and Kulich combining for 3 points in 22 games. We have positioned ourselves where we won't trade the kids when they are meeting expectations because we need and love them, and we can't trade the kids who are struggling because their value is low. Teams like St. Louis (O'Reilly), Vegas (Eichel), Florida (Reinhart), and Colorado (Mittelstadt), are not afraid to give up meaningful young or future assets to address weaknesses that prevent them from reaching their goals. We seem paralyzed in fear of a mistake.

All of this is reasoned, but doesn’t mean he would not benefit from playing with better linemates. Per MoneyPuck, Cozens, Quinn, Kulich have the worst Corsi/Fenwick %’s on the team. That’s partly on Cozens to be sure (not just blaming his linemates). But, Cozens has basically not played 5v5 without one of Quinn or Kulich; per Dobber Frozen Tools, more than 85% of his even strength shifts have been with one of Quinn or Kulich. Better linemates would not necessarily get Cozens out of his shooting slump. Fans would be more tolerant of the lack of offensive production though, if he was on an effective line that was winning the possession and expected goal battles.

I’m not worried about Dahlin. As he recovers from his pre-season injury, I think he has looked more and more like his old-self. The occasional defensive miscue and undisciplined penalty is part of the package with Dahlin. If and when we become a better, more experienced and veteran team, those incidents will diminish as Dahlin better grasps he doesn’t have to do it all himself. And when they do occur they will hurt us less as we will be better able to recover and respond

You can’t let Barkov walk down Main Street like that. Bob was better than UPL, but Fla played better defensively and was more disciplined.

How much time did he spend in the Yukon this past offseason? In Europe? Training?

Playing at a 100 pt pace after today. We are getting legit 1st line production from Thompson, Tuch, Peterka.

Nice job by Quinn to create some havoc at the crease.

McLeod, Greenway, Zucker, so far, would fit in with the original group of Vegas misfits. I agree that they have become the 2nd line for now. It's early, but, as modest as their current point totals are, we likely shouldn't count on their overall production holding. On a pts per game basis, McLeod and Greenway are on pace to have career years and Zucker to have his best year since 2017-18. If they end up being our 2nd line for the season, we may eventually have a middle-six problem. I think we are stuck with being patient. My hot-take though, going back to my off-season view, is that 2 of Kulich, Benson and Quinn could (should?) have been moved in the offseason in a package for a legit veteran top-six winger. It would have been a risky thing to do for sure, but had we done so we would still have one of them and all of our Rochester forward prospects and others to keep an eye on like Poltapov, Marjala, Richard, Miedema and Zeimer (and a veteran top-six winger). As is, the field is so crowded that I think the collective value of our under age 24 players is tanking.

I'm not suggesting we change existing lines as they're going well. A change in the short-term might not be realistic. If we don't send Kulich down we will have 3 young wingers who are not currently producing much offensively who will nonetheless need playing time. It will do no good to have any of the 3 not playing for extended periods. My point is really that Cozens deserves some slack here. Are you saying you are certain he would be no better playing with Peterka/Tuch or Greenway/Zucker? How good would Thompson or McLeod be playing with 2 of Benson/Kulich/Quinn (not one of them, two of them)? Better than Cozens? Maybe. As good as they have been with their current linemates? Not a chance. Unfortunately, the best opportunity to make a trade was in the summer and that time has now past. There are options though. I think Benson fits in well with Thompson and Tuch. I hate to take Peterka from that line, but perhaps he could rekindle something with Quinn/Cozens. Quinn is supposed to be an effective two way player who plays the game "the right way". Perhaps if he was placed with McLeod and either Zucker or Greenway or with Krebs and either Malenstyn or Lafferty, he would benefit from having some pressure to produce removed from his game and he would do well for now in a more straight ahead defensive focused role. This could allow for a Peterka/Cozens/Zucker line, as an example. With Aube-Kubel coming back, Krebs could play with Cozens. Alternatively, we keep rolling Cozens out with youngsters (maybe even sit Cozens here and there for Krebs) and hope they get it together.

I have no issue with switching the 2nd/3rd line designations of the Cozens and McLeod lines. Calling Cozens the 3rd line centre doesn't exactly solve the "conundrum" though. We could always try something we haven't tried before and give him a couple of veteran wingers to work with for an extended period. Failing that, we should probably just be patient with Cozens and his linemates.

Yes. 1000 x yes. Except, there are not enough roster spots and roles to give all of our young players these realistic opportunities for success. The team we played yesterday is the model. Stankoven stays in junior two years after his draft, then a 1/2 year in the AHL, then a promotion to the NHL, now playing with Hintz and Robertson and thriving. We promote our young players sooner and ask them to thrive and develop while playing with other players equally young and inexperienced (in Cozens case we have consistently asked him to develop and thrive while playing with players younger and less experienced than he).

It’s not denigrating Quinn, Benson and Kulich to say that Cozens would benefit from better linemates. Every player benefits from better linemates. Three wingers on our team who would benefit from better linemates, including a better centre? Quinn, Benson and Kulich. I’m not crapping on Cozens’s linemates. They are in the same situation he is. They are collectively not ready to be a 2nd line on an NHL team with playoff aspirations. It is self-evident that Cozens would have a better opportunity to be consistently successful playing on a stable line with two seasoned and talented veteran players. Name another 23 year old centre on an NHL team with playoff aspirations, who has been assigned 2nd line expectations and who has been given a rotation of 3 wingers, averaged age 20, to play with? Forgive me, I’m sure your intentions are not bad, but this post is grotesque.

Cozens needs better line-mates also. Will be interesting to see what happens when Aube-Kubel is back. Kulich, Quinn, and Benson can’t all play. If we are icing the best line-up, probably two can’t play. I assume Kulich goes back to Rochester. Would like to see Krebs with Cozens. Krebs can help with D-zone face-offs and maybe they develop some chemistry.

I’m not entirely defending Cozens, but, he is playing with a winger who is struggling more than he is and with a 20 yr old rookie. We were protecting a lead through the 2nd half of the game. McLeod is playing well and is playing with two defensively responsible vets. So, not at all surprising that with us leading a close game, McLeod would get more 5v5 time.