Porous Five Hole

The Amerks are now 5-1-1

I hope he is doing alright. I appreciated his posts.

I’m not tryna start an argument, but this wasn’t an issue down the stretch last season. Injuries are fluky.

Someone else mentioned it, but the Bruins are paper tigers. Their season started with wins over the Hawks X 2, Preds, Sharks, Kings, and Ducks. Hardly a murderers row or Vezina contenders.

A dub is a dub. Don’t give it more thought than that, because the team isn’t. We’re into Cincinnati.

You’re asking the right question out loud. Hard to say from my view, but I don’t think there’s an appreciable difference between Kulich & Benson this season. Plus Rousek may be ready as well. If the Sabres didn’t have options, I might think otherwise. But the sliding of Benson one year makes the most sense to me given the stable of prospects available.

I have to remind myself that some of these guys are still at an age where they could be in college if they weren’t an athlete. Shane is 22 and was 21 at the time of the bets. Like a lot of us, I was a dumb dumb at that age and had to learn from my mistakes. There’s no doubt he knew better, but I did some dumb stuff in college when I knew better too.

While this is true, that doesn’t mean it’s best for the individual player’s development. Players get better when they play with better players than they are. Benson isn’t going to find that in Wenatchee The interesting question is, is it worth a year off of his ELC? Ultimately I agree with you that it is not.

This explains everything as to why he wasn’t signed in the offseason.

For all the hot takes in this thread, the Amerks have started 3-1-1 without their starting goalie

Maybe, but the nfl has lots of draft day trades and they’re not all in the same room.

Spencer Knight sighting

Yzerman has been the GM of Detroit for 4.5 years and has zero playoff appearances. How long does he get? However long that is, should then be the litmus test for GMKA then, right?

Now we're in the driving board

Well 💩 I didn’t know that. Thank you.

I think you’ll see Benson’s minutes and PP time will dwindle. He is a smart player, but he doesn’t have an NHL body yet and it will wear him down over time. Like Freeman said, a lot could change in two weeks. An injury or a clearing of UPL’s roster spot could change things. Another option is to send him to Junior’s and recall him later in the year if the league is too easy for him.

One thought I had…the Bills offense scored two fourth quarter touchdowns while running the two minute offense. Maybe Buffalo should come out of the gate in the hurry up K-Gun style offense on Thursday?

With the injuries on the defensive side of the ball, there’s legitimate reason to wonder if this is a playoff team. But I believe they are. The Bills will be favored to win each of their remaining home games and if the script follows, that’s nine wins. Cinci looks vulnerable, Phili is underwhelming so far despite their record, the Bills have won in KC the last two years, the Chargers aren’t good, and the Bills have been great against Miami in the McD era. Find a road win or two and let’s gooooo in January.

Savoie’s two week conditioning stint ends on Nov 5. The Sabres play eight games between now and then. Assuming Benson is healthy enough to play at some point this week, his nine game showcase will end about that time. My friendly wager is that Benson goes back to juniors and Savoie will get his nine game look.

Cooley or Houser will go to Jacksonville once Toker is back.

The Amerks are home on Wednesday 🤔

If he had value, don’t you think he would have been moved by now?

I ask the question because if UPL is in the Sabres long-term plans, then they are criminally negligent for how they’re handling his continued development. The team practices 2-3/week depending on how many games they play that week. That’s UPL’s ice time right now. GMKA said last year that UPL has to play to develop. If he is not in the long-term plan, what is he still doing here taking up a roster spot? Not to mention the Amerks starter (Tokarski) hasn’t played yet due to injury. The Amerks could actually use a good goalie right now (and not give up 40 shots a night, among other things).

At this point, having a third goalie in the mix isn’t accomplishing anything. I realize UPL is on a one way deal so he’s making his NHL salary regardless of where he plays…but he’s not developing any further in the press box. Is it time to risk a waiver claim and send him down?

Duff’s in Niagara Falls will do the trick.