Jorcus

No one from that draft class is in this tournament.

Can you say ratings?

I think it depends on the player and what kind of system he is being brought into. I am not advocating to bring Levi up now. Let him finish his season in The AHL and roll to wherever the playoffs take them. Notable exception to AHL experience is Andrei Vasilevskiy who played 37 games for Syracuse. Now he was going up to the strong Tampa Bay team that could help him some but he always had a good GAA. Bobrovsky never played in the AHL unless you count his 2 years with the Flyers as being his training ground. Oettinger played 44 before getting steady NHL time but went back for 10 more games after a few years. So every guy is different and playing a steady number 1 roll on a good team can't hurt. Levi is good for now but next fall it's should just be about how he is playing and not how many AHL games he has.

I did a little math on Devon Levi with the Amerks. This is per games played. Last year percent of games won percent of games won or tied Levi 61% 77% All others 47% 60% This year Levi 71% 80% All others 52% 60%

The thing about that season though is he was 20-21 years old when it happened. So it was natural to expect some growth in his play. I honestly think there is more to him than what we are seeing and that is why there is so much interest in an overpaid center with bad current play and numbers. We often gush on Benson or Kulich but will either of them put up 30 next season? Benson with the benefit of 2 full years of NHL experience under his belt? It could happen and I know he is a good defensive player but it's hard to score goals in the NHL and the guys that can do it get paid. In retrospect the Cozens contract was rushed but I do think there is some circumstances behind the numbers in this season and last. I think there are three main aspects to his game physical, mental, and positional. As you have well pointed out many times Cozens is not playing his position well. The question becomes does he know what he is supposed to be doing or is it all on him just ignoring instruction and free lancing to the point of failure? It's always hard to tell from an outside perspective but it is also something that can improve. You also have to trust who is on the ice with you to know they are doing what they are supposed to do so you can do what you are supposed to do. This kind of brings up the mental aspect of the game. Maybe he just can't process it well enough to do the things he is supposed to do. It's another element that is hard to see without being in the room and know how he is being coached. It is possible he can only play the game a certain way and if you try to make him into something else it is beyond his mental ability. When right I think the physical side of the game is what attracts people to him. The more I look at NHL players and try to determine who can play in this league or not few can play without the speed, strength, or shooting ability. Cozens does not have the hardest of shots but it is not the worst. When he is skating well he has the speed and when he is healthy he does have the strength to up end a D man. The problem is none of that is true right now. Just looking at this season in the first month of the year he was skating well and creating a lot of chances for himself. His shots were not going in but the open attempts were there. Numbers wise he was kind of treading water, not producing too much but not giving up a ton. He was that way through October and November, then sometime during the streak the wheels just came off. Was it an undisclosed injury? The constant line switching? Loss of focus? I have no idea but he has been really bad since mid to late December. He seems slower, his puck handling is bad, rarely wins battles on the wall among other things. I think in the last two games he may have started to come back around. Maybe it's physical and after 2 weeks of rest he comes back to at least something better than he is now. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Amerks went from a decent team to a very good team when Levi was put in goal. I don't know if one coach is better than the other.

One shinning example of being a below average player on a really bad team can make you look better than you are. You get power play time you don't deserve, You get goals in garbage time. Even with that he only ended up with 30 points. It's weird the current team is way better talent wise than that pile of garbage yet we are almost in the same place.

I think Mikko has hit the post or crossbar about 5 times in those games. I can't believe Carolina does not have a plan in place to keep him. That would be crazy if they have to give him up.

Wow, Detroit's Lyon is pulled 3 min. Into game after giving up 2 goals.

In the meantime paying Don Granato. I guess that is one reason why so many coaches are recycled.

Just wondering if the the so called "league" is reacting the same way to Brady Tkachuk for not reacting for Hartman's assault on Tim Stuzle. He is the captain and he was standing right there. Not that lets Sammy off the hook but I don't see the same outrage by the media over that.

Many of the regional sports networks are in financial difficulty. My guess is the reason for this is the ability to watch games through non authorized streaming. Unless there is a crackdown to stop that there is no way starting a new one makes sense. Even the NBA is losing viewership. Not sure what it would take to plug that leaky dam bit unless they do it will just get worse.

Younger is good for awhile. I can't put my finger on exactly when, but it jumps the shark at some point. It gets a lot more crude as time goes on. Enjoy the good episodes. A show we are watching on Paramount + is So Help Me Todd. If you can get by the unrealistic courtroom stuff everything else is great. Very funny show with interesting characters. Only 2 seasons were made but really well written.

I agree and why would it be done while the team is on a 4 game win streak? Just crazy talk.

I think this pairing has worked out very well. As much as Dahlin helps out Byram, Byram helps out Dahlin. Dahlin is a high risk vs reward type player in the offensive zone. He will often go deep in the corners or skate into different positions to help create offense. Byram is fast enough and smart enough to help stem counter attacks when they occur. On the other hand Dahlin is stronger in front of and behind the net. Because he is disruptive enough it allows Byram to get puck possession and help break back out of the zone. In a pre game interview on Saturday Byram was talking about how much he is working on the defensive side of game. I think you can see him growing into a very good all around player. I will take his long passing game breaking out of the zone over Dahlin's. He just has more touch where Dahlin kind of just rips it sometimes. I guess better too hard than too soft. The other thing to keep in mind is they not often on the ice with the top line. I think they have been using that pair to cover the 2nd or third line unless there comes a point in the game where the Sabres are behind then they are swapped to press on offence. I don't think Byram is going to sign a long term deal but at lest we should have a couple of years to give him a reason to stay.

Also Winnipeg is one of the hardest places to fly back to Europe from but that is also true for a number of other cities.

Looking at the wording of the question and the time frame I think I can come up with most of the 16 players that said Buffalo is number 1 on their no trade list. To be number 1 on the no trade list for a player it almost has to be something personal. It's not about the area it's the team or the coach that makes you pick Buffalo over Winnipeg or Ottawa etc. For the most part it's going to be ex players that don't want to come back and we have a lot of them. Jack Eichel, Sam Reinhardt, Linus Ullmark, Nikita Zadorov, Jeff Skinner, Evander Kane, Will Carrier, JT Compher, Brandon Montour, Jake McCabe, Tyler Myers, Brayden McNabb. Somehow Girgensons has a no trade clause. Nick Foligno has one but may not hate on us. When you get past that group you are probably looking at Ruff haters mostly from the Devils or maybe Benn from Dallas. Possibly Pat Kane. Maybe a Toronto player. I am sure we are on most no trade lists but to be number 1 on a list would be more about how you were treated by the team or the coach in the past.

Reading some of the Avalanche board comments one kind of stuck out. Mitts is an East West player on a North South team. For better or worse we are a North South team right now. Unless we change the systems back to Granato days I don't see what he is going to do here. The other issue is the toughness factor. We are still a soft team and he does nothing to improve that. Players don't return so shortly after trades so I would not expect him to return. We need another tough right winger to replace Quinn. We need a solid Right handed D man to take Sammy's place. If you have to trade Cuz to get one of those things I am open to ideas. I don't see how Mitts moves this team forward.

I don't see why this team can not play in third period defensive style. They pretty much did it the second half of last year. I thought they did a pretty fair job of it last night. It's more about puck puck possession and limiting chances. For most of the night they were making smart plays getting the pucks deep in the opposition corners then using speed to get to the puck. For the most part they only sent 1 forward deep in the 3rd. The last thing you want to do is run and gun with the Blue Jackets. I did feel there were some errors though. With 8 min left in the game Dahlin goes deep in the corner to fight for a puck. I think Peterka now has to cover the blue line. It's not ideal defense for that time and score. After the Blue Jackets scored on the next shift the Sabres did become more aggressive and Dahlin and Joker both made trips below the opponents goal line. There are only a few forwards on this team I trust to hold the blue line and when you are protecting a lead it becomes more important to think about plays like that. All in all they played a good game. Speed is the tool they have to use.

I thought he played ok. The line looked out out of sync at times but they tried to be responsible on the D side of the ice. He made a few good passes in the O zone. At least once he poked a puck off a stick out of the zone defending. Had one or 2 good looks at a goal but that was about it. He got run over at lest once but no glaring errors.

The Benjamin Button's of hockey

Kind of interesting comparison to the Tage hit the other night when The Wilds Hartman takes a face off against Ottawa's best center in Stutzle and hits him with an upward slash then crashes his head to the Ice. I don't see where there was big response from Ottawa. They were way ahead during the game and Hartman was challenging other players like Harmonic to fight before this, but no one took him up on it. A preventative fight could have saved that ugly play from happening. Well Hartman gets 10 games off which he deserves.

We should have to sent our toughest player out to confront the Devils.

Yes, the fact he had no one to convert his passes led to the Skinner trade and the following overpayment for a contract. Whoever Skinners agent was should be in the sports agents hall of fame for putting a gun to our head for that one.

One thing that points to being a center is that he is not bad on the face offs. Even though he is 45% that is pretty good for a rookie. He has very quick hands on the dot.