Jorcus

Miller has a no movement clause so if the nucks need to divorce these two it's Petterson who will go somewhere but they have to do it this year. No way Miller would waive to come here.

I think he can make the team next year. He is the one American I think should be on a no trade list. His plus minus is plus 33 in less than 100 games played which is incredible. He is big and tough.

I think the Washington laughing at us ship has sailed.

I look at this a different way. Unless Zach Benson can get faster and get a harder shot we are seeing all that Zach Benson will ever be. He skates well in short spaces but does not have up and down the ice speed. In that respect he is one of he slowest players on the team. He also has the weakest shot. He does have high end hockey smarts he can rob pucks off others sticks but the more I see him the less I think he will be a top 6 forward any time soon. I just don't know where he fits on this team right now. You might have to wait 3-4 years to hope he gets faster and develops a hockey shot but Is that what we need. We all like that he is one of the few who goes to the front of the net but most goalies see right over the top of him. I know this team needs net front guys but we need big ones who can tip them in. The reality is there are very few players that have NHL level skills in terms of athleticism. We have to keep and coach the ones we have and try to find more. Isn't that what the Bills do? I hope Zach does well, he certainly try's hard. I would not call him a sure thing.

I recommend the Rifftrax version. Watching without commentary is like watching the Sabres and there is only so much of that one can take.

It's not the worst idea top bring in 3 or 4 hitters and at least watch games where we are the tougher bunch. I don't think I want them running our own guys. I don't really want to swap our good players. It's the middle 6 that's the problem. If it were me I would shed Quinn, Benson and Krebs Before I was trading away Cozens and Byram. Replace those three with some big hitters and watch the Ice open up for the other guys. You need another big guy for the back end so out goes Joker or Bryson or both. A little different style and maybe Sammy finds his game clearing space again.

When I saw our third line last night it brought out what this article was saying. I can just see it after the game. Benson and Kulich handing Krebs $20 for a 12 pack because they are not old enough to buy beer. Still we have to throw them out against one of the better teams in the NHL.

There are other options, You could put Bryson, Gilbert, Aube-Kubel or Malenstyn on waivers and if they clear go to Rochester. If they get taken you just go find someone else.

Petterson is a huge long term commitment for a guy who is not as hard edge as what we need. Vancouver wants a D man first so it would have to be Power or Byram in the deal. Also the contract goes to no movement next year so if you want to dump him in 3 years he will have a say in where he would go. It's a big risk, and I don't think it's a fit.

Terrible period by him. First goal started with his pass to no one from behind the net. Gets to rapping his stick on the power play, gets the pass but does not shoot. Fumbles puck away. Can't win a battle in the defense zone.

This is not a national ESPN game. Hulu shows a few games each week that are also on on ESPN+. Watching hockey on Hulu is a bit wonky. The video will trail the voice at times so I have to back out of the stream and go back in to get it synched again.

It's a very insightful article and lines up with the Sabres philosophy of a few years ago during the flat cap era of the NHL. I remember Don Granato talking about how they had to develop players quicker because the salary cap was going make it harder to keep good older players. Adams talked about building a pipeline of talent because in the opinion of that time you were going to have to replace players that you lost to free agency. Add in the loss of revenue to having a crappy team, small market and Covid you pretty much can explain where we are. The article does not touch on one failure of bringing up the prospects too soon and that is loss of eligibility years and control of the contract. A lot of players on this team played games in the NHL a year before they needed to which affects waivers and contracts. In other words to some extent the opposite happened where they have higher numbers of RFA contracts that could end up forcing trades although we are nowhere near that point yet. As far as the disconnect part goes I think that is real. I think they have a bias toward certain players in this org. and are trying to force them to be good until they guy below them finally just outplays them to the point they are going to give in. Peterka vs Quinn, Levi vs UPL, Johnson vs Novikov. There is no absolute balance to having old players vs young. The Predators are the oldest most experienced hockey team in the NHL yet they are no better off than we are right now.

Counter productive. Not going to sign.

Joker certainly has some value. As far as the trade goes it is not as lopsided as it seems. Kakko has become a very slow player on a team that is full of slow players. I am not sure what Seattle thinks they can do with him. Borgen at least gives the Rangers more back end speed. It will be interesting to see if Kakko improves out west but I think for the most of his NHL life he will be a third line winger mostly playing on the defense side of the ice.

I won't say everything Adams has done is bad. There was a plan and he put it in motion. The bottom line is he is too married to his players and plan even when it all goes south. The team needs a new set of eyes and an overall vision reset. There is a lot to work with talent wise. At least enough to be respectable but it comes down to having a system to maximize the talent that is here and shore up the weak points. The hiring of Ruff is turning into a big mistake. I can't honestly say I know what his offensive game plan is but no way is it working. On defense they want to hurry out of the zone. When they have 3 good puck moving D men I can see why but it just has not worked. The down side is all this hurry motion tires the team out. Your lucky to get 30 min of good game out of this group. They have to be more efficient. Ruff took the thing that was working well in the second half of last year and broke it. He has also made the power play worse. If there was one thing that needed fixing It was that. The head coach is in charge of the power play not Appert, he just puts in what the coach wants. I blame the owner a lot less than most. A lot of people say's he meddles but other than approving massive money outlays does anyone really know if he is telling the GM and coach what to do? At the end of the day though he is the only one who can change the situation so you can blame him for that. This comes down to utilization. It's what Granato for the most part was good at. Find out what a player can do well and let him do it. I think Lindy is trying to make some of these players into something they are not to fit a system. There are some players that are not as good as we think they are because they can only do certain things. Maybe Lindy can change players into something else. It seems like he has lost the room before he has even started. I don't know if the the assistant coaches are bad or good but It's up to the head coach and GM to decide so they are the ones to blame if it's not working. If the power play was good last year Granato would have been the Sabres coach to start the season. It has to be fixed or the the black hole of this team will just suck more coaches and player's into it. Goaltending was fine under the Granato system at 2nd half of last year. There was a style of defense that boxed out, allowed one shot from outside then cleared all rebounds mostly to the corners where puck possession could be obtained then worked it's way out of the zone. With the hurry out of the zone offense they are giving up a lot of rush chances on turnovers entering the other zone where the players are in not in position to cover. They give up too many rebounds. Some of what made UPL better was Granato's system. Maybe those goaltenders are not special but they can be effective.

It's an interesting Idea and one of the few trades that could actually happen. If Vancouver is going to move him they have to do it this year because the No Movement Clause kicks in next year. We would inherit that along with the 11.5 M salary for 7 more years. I don't think we would fork over Cozens and Byram. Cozens plus might make more sense because of the salary exchange.

Here is a list of people you probably can not get with that pick. or pick and package. We are so screwed the only way to get out of it is keep drafting until there is so much talent on the ice a hamster could coach them. https://www.prohockeyrumors.com/2024/07/players-with-no-move-no-trade-clauses-in-2024-25.html

According to Paul Hamilton the head coach designs the power play, the assistant coach implements it. We can blame Appert but it's Lindy's job to decide who is on it and how it is designed. A lot of things on this team are no better or worse under Lindy than they were under Granato. The good defense that Granato set up during the second half of last year is gone. The Power play is no better. The PK is about the same. No one knows who they are playing with from shift to shift. Who is playing better this year than they did when healthy under Granato? Not that I was totally against Granato getting replaced but the main thing that got him fired was the bad power play and somehow it seems worse than what it was. Talent wise the team is probably a bit better up and down the line up as last year so it's not like we can blame that on the regression. Injuries? Sure missing Dahlin has hut but Thompson, Tuch and Cozens were all playing hurt last year. Maybe come January the team does a U turn like last year but I just don't see it coming. Instead of building upon what was working, the new coach comes in and starts over. Whatever happens this team goes nowhere until that power play gets fixed.

Dustin Tokarski starts for Carolina tonight.

According to Daily Face off Levi gets the goal today.

The trouble is there are no proven number 2 centers you can trade for that are much if any better than Cozens is even in his current extended funk. There are about 8 that are a clear up grade at the position but you are not getting them or they are too old to get. The old guys are Matt Duchene 33, Brock Nelson 33, Evgeni Malkin, 38, John Tavares, 34,. The younger guys who you are not going to pry away are Jack Hughes 23, Logan Cooley 20 and Tim Stutzle 22. The middle age guys Sam Bennett 28, Anthony Cirelli 25 just are not going anywhere. Other than going after Pius Suter (pending UFA) or Pierre Luc Dubois (8.5M) long term. What are you going to do. Everyone says get somebody but I have not seen a realistic idea than makes sense.

One thing you notice when watchin this and other highlight videos is that he scores most of his goals when he is skating toward the net and shooting. He is not a tip in / rebound scoring type. Mostly a rush player. At least so far.

I have noticed a lot of the positioning issues at times. It was bad in the first few games. As the lines settled in it got cleaned up but during this streak it got bad to very bad again. Two players where one should be or worse smashing into each other. A few things to blame it on. Guy's not understanding the system, constant line shuffles, new players in the line up. or some players just not being part of the system. It's probably a little bit of all. I went from a coach who never changed his lines to a coach who will not settle on any line. There has to be a middle some place.

So not only are we losing our players to Palm trees we are now losing our posters?

Levi only gives up 1 goal against 1st place Laval last night. 3-1 Amerks win. They even got a rare power play goal.