Digger

Rosen looked pretty impressive to me (when we drafted him anyway) with some high end skills. It's great that he's getting more ice time now with Mora. Hopefully that helps with his confidence and development. It's really disappointing that we did not get to see a full WJC with him to see how he would play game to game against his peers. Patience with this pick.

Yes agreed. Hockey needs more than just a couple of great players to have sustainable success. The Oilers are a great example with Draisaitl and McDavid in the top 3 scoring race but the team not being balanced with adequate defense and goal-tending. In hindsight we did better with Hasek as our star goalie and an average team.

Maybe just trying to please the players after pulling out of the 2022 Olympics. At least in February players are near their best compared with September from the past Canada Cups.

Good I support that. I really would like to see the best players from each country play. There's a new generation of players in the NHL since we last had an Olympics with NHL players. Should be much better than what they are planning for the 2022 Olympics (making the best of a crappy situation).

I found a schedule for anyone else looking for it https://www.hockeycanada.ca/en-ca/team-canada/men/olympics/2022/stats/schedule Canada first plays Feb 10th (Thursday) against Germany. USA same day against China. USA vs Canada on the Friday, Feb 11th.

@inkman well done with the proper use of the word craw as I learned from @nfreeman in another thread. Sorry, couldn't resist.😏 Thanks for posting the Amerks game updates. Much appreciated.

I love what Levi is accomplishing this season and hope he continues on a quick progression to the NHL Sabres. I would be happy to see both Levi and Portillo signed at the end of their seasons. But playing in the AHL is a natural progression for their development so it would seem reasonable to expect them to share the games in Rochester. It should be a higher level of competition (closer to the NHL) for both of them. As for playing for the Sabres, look at the last two seasons. We have had so many injuries that we've had to go to our ECHL goalies. It's likely that one or both will get some games unless we all of a sudden stop having injuries. While they are developing we will see what UPL can do and we will need a veteran that can be a reliable option.

That's the deep thought of the day but i have to admit that I usually just throw away the kernels that don't pop.

Greenway is 4G, 9A, in 33 games. Marcus Foligno caught my attention. 17G, 10A, for 27Pts in 39 games, $3.1M. He's having a great year. Miss having him on the Sabres.

I was out for a drive and heard the news on the radio by a DJ that said Johnny Fever was one of the reasons he went into radio. WKRP in Cincinnati - Howard Hesseman for those that remember.

Maybe Butcher will be better at wing than defense. Doubtful but you never know.

Too soon to tell in my opinion. I don't have any complaints with Cozens to date. He's a long ways from his peak years and I don't buy that the team plans to make him a 3rd line shut down center. It's part of his development and training sure but that's not the end goal in my opinion. Look at who went ahead of Cozens and Zegras in that draft. Hughes (1), Kakko (2), Dach (3), Byram (4), Turcotte (5), Seider (6), Cozens (7), Broberg (8), Zegras (9). Some are some pretty good players in the list and others have been slower to develop. You can argue that maybe we could have drafted someone better but there are certainly teams that wish they would have taken Cozens too.

Maybe it's just me but eventually you just feel like the team should say Mercy, we forfeit the game. I was hoping for a better game tonight against a team that we should beat but lots of "stuff" piling up right now.

Agreed. I respect all the comments but in the long run Eichel will not be remembered as a great Sabre (insert multiple names of former Sabres that left a great impression on the organization and on us as Sabre fans).

Finally, no one is blocking the kids...............wait where are the kids? Quick sign a kid. Anyone remember when we brought Marty Biron up from the QMJHL to play for the Sabres in an emergency? He was not ready and did not play well but at least we had an option. Need one of Levi or Portillo to sign and turn pro in the off-season. Assuming Anderson plays I hope that he's ready and doesn't aggravate any injury. Sucks having to rush him back in.

and they all pretty much performed above their skill level (AHL at best) until McKee dropped out with a staph infection in his leg and missed game 7.

That's a beautiful goal. Puck on a string. Nicer than the one he scored against the Sabres.

I swear that I heard a reporter say the other day that a player on another team had both an upper body and lower body injury keeping him out of the lineup, so instead of UBI / LBI it would need to be TBI.....total body injury. 😄

What do the stats add up to for the season with the Sabres? The only player that I've really missed seeing this season so far is Mittelstadt just because it was (and is) a great year for us to see what he is (without Eichel and Reinhart taking the ice time). He was hurt right off the start of the season so I would think his conditioning would be at it's highest (and therefore no a factor in the injury). Anderson is disappointing too but as an older goalie it was predictable that he may need some downtime. Biggest frustration for me has been the secrecy in what the injury is UBI / LBI and the amount of time expected for recovery (day to day / week to week / month to month). I know they say they keep it secret so that other players don't target the injury when a player returns but the truth is most likely that all the players know and it's just the fans left in the dark guessing.

I agree with those that have suggested the Rochester Americans. When the Sabres struggle it's enjoyable to see that talent and skill coming. I hope that they can have a meaningful playoff this season. The NCAA and Sabres Prospect Pool threads follow our developing prospects too.

Not a bad deal for Eric Staal. Play in the Olympics at the end of his career which should be a good experience and if he plays well he will get one more chance in the NHL to play for the Cup.

It's interesting to me to see the varied opinions on our young centers. Mittelstadt, Thompson, Cozens, Krebs. If there's anything that we should take from this season (using Thompson as the example) is that we will need to wait and see how these guys develop before we try to cement them into lines 1 through 4. These guys all still have quite a bit of upside before reaching their NHL peak. Granato does say that he is trying some of the guys at wing for when he needs to shorten the bench in a tight game and needs the skill in the top 6. I think that Mitts will get a turn to play with Tuch when he's back up to speed (same as Thompson and Cozens did). Quinn, Peterka will get a chance later this season for a few games anyway to show that they can handle the NHL. Patience and lets see how they develop and who has the best chemistry going into 2022-23.

Sad but true. This is not a great looking roster for Canada. Maybe someday we will get to see the best of the best for each country play in a tournament. It's overdue in my opinion.

It's just the ask for Chychrun. I would think there's zero chance that Florida offers up that much or that Arizona could get that big of a haul from any team. I find it surprising that he's on the market but I suppose if they are fishing for a home-run it's not a bad idea to see what's out there. No I don't want to trade Dahlin at this point regardless. I want to see another season to see where we are at with him. I doubt that his value goes down and it will most likely go up. Let's see where we are at next year's trade deadline or off season before giving up on him.

Usually comes down to the same conditions with these contracts. They were worried that they would lose Nurse to FA and Defense were all signing nice big contracts last off season. They also say that the Oilers need to overpay to keep their stars in Edmonton. Most Sabres fans wanted Skinner signed at the time (but most thought the contract was too much after it was signed). Buyers remorse. Ristolainen will get to be a FA this offseason. It will be fun to see where he signs and for how much. Maybe he'll sign a short term low dollar contract to see if he can finally sign with a winner.