Jorcus

No one smashes a stick like Markstrom. That was not even one of his better ones. I think the guy is a wannabe axe murder.

Everybody except Zucker.

Yes the numbers do not come down by playing more games. They only go up. With 23 more games Norris would most likely added enough 20 -22 mph and 18 -20 mph speed bursts to pass or get close to McLoud's numbers in those categories.

Keep in mind the numbers are not normalized for games played or ice time. McLoud played 79 games and Norris played 56. If you added 23 games to Norris totals they would be pretty similar numbers.

How the Sabres finished up on NHL edge. B50 means below 50 % a number is compared to the rest of the league. Other than top speed the comparison is how many times a player skated that fast in MPH. This is a percentile comparison so Byram is in the 91st percentile in terms of the number of times he skated faster than 22 MPH. Top Speed 22+ 20-22 18-20 Benson b50 b50 b50 63 Docker b50 b50 b50 b50 Bryson b50 b50 59 52 Byram 78 91 91 93 Clifton 65 62 61 61 Dahlin 56 B50 70 89 Greenway B50 B50 B50 B50 Kozak 66 64 B50 B50 Krebs 67 64 80 92 Kulich B50 71 83 82 Lafferty 78 88 64 B50 Malenstyn 76 76 77 58 McLeod 82 87 96 99 Norris 98 94 90 78 Peterka 56 71 87 87 Power B50 B50 80 92 Quinn B50 B50 53 62 Sammy 81 88 61 65 Thompson 76 64 79 93 Tuch 65 64 85 78 Zucker 56 51 B50 B50

At the bottom of the data set it shows that Brandan Wadlow used the NHL edge information to generate that report. It will not be in that format on NHL edge. NHL edge does not like to embarrass anyone so if you are below 50% compared to the rest of the NHL they just state that as a comparison. The numbers are there but the comparisons are not for the lower half of the league.

Yes there are some questions about how this data is generated. The main one is how far do you have to skate before a it is recorded as a speed burst? I assume it is close to half the ice. You have to skate unimpeded to generate a good time. One thing to note is they don't normalize for ice time so say your comparing Kozak to Quinn the number of speed bursts will be higher if you have more opportunities to record them. These recordings seem to favor larger long stride players who cover more ground going end to end.

https://edge.nhl.com/en/team/20242025-regular-BUF Over all team stats for the year vs. other teams Top speed below 50th percentile 22 mph plus bursts below 50th percentile 20-22 mph bursts 70th percentile 18-20 mph bursts 96th percentile Top speed is kind of a one off event so it does not mean a whole lot. The league average for 22 mph bursts is 80 times for the whole season we had 61. Thats not that big a deal. As this points out what we do is skate fast often. If you look through the individual stats the speed is in our forward group.

That had to be the longest 2nd period I ever remember. Even before the fight it was really dragging. Syracuse plays a very trappy game and the Amerks were having a lot of trouble with it. Once Kulich blasted home the Power play goal The Crunch had to open up a bit and the Amerks had more ice to work with. To the Amerks credit even though they gave up a lot of shots few were high danger and it's not like either team was giving up breakaways. Levi was good not to give up any soft ones. Crunch had one open net post hit when the got behind Levi but that was it. Amerks needed to clean up own zone exits and offensive zone entries. Took too many off side plays. Still they can skate circles around the Crunch when they can avoid the checks. Hope they keep rolling.

Some random comments about the locker cleanout pressers last week. The newer players seemed much more open, upbeat, and analytical about the season than many of the existing Sabres. I guess the team has not beat it out of them yet. Zucker, Byram, and McCloud all gave open dialog. Tuch and Thompson were some what depressed but made insightful comments. You never really get much out of Dahlin. Power was miserable just did not want to answer questions. Quinn was not a lot better. Peterka spent most of the interview hydrating himself and watching the clock for a flight out of town. Greenway is always spacey in interviews, not a whole lot to say. Sammy was pretty dour but at least he was reflective about his season and where he was during certain periods of it. Maybe I am reading too much into this but I wonder if the Byram trade was as much about offloading Mitts than wanting Byram. I could see that they might not have wanted to pay Casey the money it was going to take to keep him around so when shopping the Byram trade was the best value they came up with. Well they put off the problem until this year and I just think push come to shove if Adams has to chose between Byram and Power he going to choose Power. Another thing that struck me is that they still think Ryan Johnson is the best defensive prospect they have in Rochester, or at least the most NHL ready. The Rochester coaches talk that way as well so maybe he is. The problem is he is just another version of a mobile puck moving defenseman who probably is going to have trouble clearing the front of the net. So what are we going to do with him? I hope they don't see him as a replacement for Byram or Power.

He was close to being the hero in game 2 before he turned into the scapegoat. He had a wrister going into the top corner with a minute left before Stolarz made a long stretch with the glove to save it. He got turned around in overtime to let Domi get that winning goal in. If nothing else he seems to be skating faster. Toronto is playing defense first. They do not give up many good looks. It's been like that for awhile. Like most players Cozens is pretty much the same guy who left here.

I don't like that Greenway contract at all. Even without the injuries it seems like a 4M per year for a third to 4th line player might not be the best option.

"And, according to multiple veteran players, the frustration of losing led to some griping over factors that were out of their control." When I think about this statement there are only a handful of current veteran Sabres who could make these statements. Thompson, Tuch, or Dahlin are the obvious 3. Beyond that it would be hard to call many of the players veterans that were here last year to comment about the Levi, Benson and Johnson group. I guess Greenway Clifton or Krebs might be considered veterans. Then there is last year vs this year so some sources may be mixed. A few things to note though. It sounds like in 2 cases the players were being heard about their concerns. Levi and Johnson got sent down. Maybe Benson would of gone back to Jr's if Quinn did not get hurt again. In any case they started to bring players in. The second issue was about the defensive structure this year. I think the players convinced Lindy to go back to the zone defense that Granato used in he second half of last year. We saw a lot more boxing in and less attack and race toward the end of the year. I would take those as positive developments. Now if they can only fix that stupid power play.

No tall buildings and cook your own food, Stay safe Dom.

Yes it would be about Salary cap and I agree that straight up not an even trade. Can't carry a long term 6.1 million guy and keep all our own I don't think.

I brought him up about a month ago because Lou Lamoriello stated he wanted the team to get younger. Hey were a team that wants to get older so it seems like a deal could be worked out. Now Lou is gone and Pulock has a no trade clause so that would be a heavy lift. You probably would have to move Byram or Power because of the cost. If Pulock agreed it would probably be him plus something for either Byram or Power. Certainly an interesting target.

We don't have our 2026 second round pick. There are more teams that have picks 1 2 3 in 2026. Are you looking at the right year? Calgary has the 3 but the one may get taken on a condition. If not they are a team to worry about. The Ducks or Seattle could be players, even Boston but it's a big risk to give up a lottery pick.

So they don't like Lindy's sense of humour.

Hope is a #### strategy. Putting Benson on our top line with Tage screams this to me. Tage deserves better veteran players around him. What other player of Tages quality has to put up with what he did at the end of the year? Benson is a good defense player but that 65 mph shot scares no one. He gets to the front of the net which makes it look like he gets high danger chances but he can't force himself into leveraged positions to make tip ins or redirects. Unless he is able to control his space in front of the net he will never be a high scorer. He is good on his edges but he gets outraced end to end. Unless he is behind the play he is not getting a breakaway. I don't remember him converting one. He is not going anywhere next year unless he gets cross checked in the head which is a big possibility given his height vs a big defenseman. Put him on the 3rd line and the PK. The first line! No way.

The whole Winnipeg crowd shows up in white but the team is wearing its blue jerseys.A signal got crossed somewhere.

I am glad I listened to the interview before I responded to this because My first thought was Tage is one of the guys who has a tendency to play an individual game at times. I don't think it's as much about chasing goals but having the mindset that he has to do it all himself. Part of that comes by playing with younger inexperienced people that he is not familiar with or don't always trust. He was complimentary about Benson and Kulich but I am certain he would rather play with others. He plays best when he is passing more and dangling less. You can tell when things are not going well with Tage, He stops passing the puck. He is one of the better interviews. Very thoughtful player.

I think Toronto has a good chance to make it to the finals. They are a different team this year. The goaltending and defense are so much better than last year. They have enough firepower up front that they can't all be stopped.

One other thing in the profile is Norris is another player with high end speed. He is faster than McCloud.

I was giving examples of players who were traded for with injury histories. You did not like my first two examples so I gave a third where the risk reward was a magnitude higher for Vegas than what Cozens for Norris is. All NHL players are vulnerable to injury. That is the taking chances point. If you don't like Norris or think we gave up too much for him that is one thing. If it's because Adams took a risk on a player with past injuries I would say many other Gm's do. It might work it might not. From what I have read about his shoulder it was the kind of thing was not treated the way it was supposed to be until the last surgery. https://www.nhl.com/news/senators-josh-norris-grateful-to-be-back-after-shoulder-surgeries The following is the type of surgical treatments. We can't only make trades for perfectly healthy people.