quill

Even though I think Benson is a little overrated by some people on this board, I love the way he hustles out there 100% of the time. He's quicker than just about anyone to a loose puck, he sets up players with some excellent passes, he's tough for his size, he's got good vision for the game, and his stamina is up there with the best. On the same token, he just can't seem to finish on enough of the opportunities he gets to score, and he's often flat on the ice which takes him out of the play for too long. Just the same, with the right coaching, I think there's a chance that he could develop into somewhat of a Theo Fleury type player. Maybe. Hopefully.

Peterka is worth whatever it will take to keep him here.

The biggest gripe any of the players should have had for the last year is the fact that they never had a legit number one goalie. No wonder they were so inconsistent. When you're skating your hearts out and the goalie can't keep you in a game by making the big save, then it's only human nature that their play will start to reflect their frustration. I like Lindy okay but over the last bunch of years if Adams had gotten this team the most important thing any good hockey team needs, a real number one goalie, Don Granato would most likely still be coaching this team and the Sabres would have already been in the playoffs. No goalie + not enough decent veterans = no playoffs, especially the no goalie part. We need a legit goalie and Adams has failed time and time again to get us one.

The answer is to listen to your heart and do what it's telling you to do.

Player development is fine and important, but not when the majority of players on the team are always in the development stage year after year. Every year for the last 14 years the average age of our players has been about 25.5 years of age on 8 of those years and about 26.5 years of age on the other 6 years. When a team is the youngest team for a year or two and then develops into an older, wiser, better team, that is great, but when our team is almost always the youngest team year after year for 14 years in a row it's no wonder why we never get better. Add to that our chronic goal tending problems and it's easy to see why we are the habitual poster child for bottom dwellers in the NHL

If UPL was 22 or 23 years old, I'd say he would just need more time to develop before ruling him out, but he's 26 and at this point it looks like he's done about as much developing as he's going to do. He just doesn't have any consistency, nor does it look like he has enough hockey smarts. He is simply unreliable.

He probably won't make us any worse. We need someone a heck of a lot better, and more predictable, than Levi to make us better.

I don't know if Lindy should stay or not, I like him, but I do think that there isn't a head coach in the NHL who could've worked miracles with a team that has no goalie.

The only thing that needs to be understood is the fact that this team needs a solid number one goalie. Period. Not that James Reimer could do what he's been doing for an entire season, but he has made the point obvious that the missing ingredient of this team over the last bunch of years is a good goalie. Without a solid number one, it's hard on the players and next to impossible for the coaches.

With the exception of the last month Cozens was with us, when he finally started to play hockey, he was a non factor and I don't miss him one bit. Not that I'm making any correlation, but coincidentally, when Cozens was shipped out, Quinn turned on the jets and hasn't slowed down.

If anything, get rid of Samuelsson for another d-man just like Clifton. Clifton was a bull out there tonight.

Excellent game for the most part and great job by Reimer. Once again the Sabres are proving at the end of the season to be the best team not to make the playoffs, and any first place team in the East is breathing a huge sigh of relief for it. How unfortunate that is for us.

AFAIC, Power can go if we get enough for him, but Byram is quickly turning into the 2nd most talented defenseman we have when it comes to his ability to skate the puck from end to end, and he isn't afraid to get his hands a little dirty, unlike Power. Byram has gotten better and better all season long.

Imagine how disappointing it will be for Alex Ovechkin that UPL most likely won't be playing tomorrow.

Will management ever wake up and realize that we will never in a million years go anywhere until we have a legit number one goalie? Whoever takes over for Adams should do whatever it takes to put a consistently solid goalie on this team even if it means having a barn sale to get someone. There is nothing that takes the air out of a team of players more than having a goaltender who stinks half the time. No wonder our skaters often get so deflated out there.