Doohickie

My condolences.

Look at who was brought in from outside the organization this year... McLeod, Zucker, Lafferty, Aube-Kubel, Malenstyn, Gilbert Mcleod was brought in for the long term potentially as a middle six center. Plays fast and smart. Zucker was brought in as competent veteran leadership and exceeded expectations I think. Lafferty, Aube-Kubel & Malenstyn were brought in strictly to flesh out the fourth line with competent NHLers. For an AHLer to make the they needed to beat one of those guys out. They were essentially short term JAGs, but not liabilities like past Sabres JAGs have been. They're not blocking the young talent, but they are setting the bar at an acceptable level for a younger player to cross over to the NHL. Gilbert was strictly a depth acquisition, but one that provided some grit and toughness. Reimer was the new Craig Anderson type of goalie: Can still play but brought in to help goalie development. If those guys were brought in at Lindy's suggestion, that's the kind of roster building I want to see. Each guy brought something that Lindy wanted. That's a different kind of shopping than I would expect Kevyn to do on his one. I think McLeod and Zucker were probably on a list of maybe 5 named players that Lindy gave Kevyn and said, Get a coupla these guys, this roster needs that. He probably said for the fourth line he wanted a combination of speed, size and grit and Kevyn brought that in. Gilbert was largely inconsequential but was there when the Sabres needed him. I think Lindy told Kevyn: Give me a tough stay-at-home guy and Kevyn did that. Reimer was a good backup but I don't think he was as good as Anderson, especially from the mentor perspective (but maybe he was... I don't know). It's Kevyn pulling the trigger and making the acquisition but Lindy telling him what to acquire. Based on this year's crop, I can't complain. Lindy is ordering the parts and Kevyn is his procurement office.

I can see it: Let's say Lindy is in charge of roster makeup, identifying needs/roster holes, and giving Adams a shopping list. Adams job as GM, then is to fill those holes with the closest thing he can get that meets Lindy's requirements. Adams handles the contracting, cap control, etc., the business side of the equation, and Lindy manages the roster. To some extent, isn't that the McD-Beane dynamic?

My hope was that Kevyn would also be that kind of person. I think we've seen he doesn't really know how to properly steer Pegula, or maybe he hasn't found the right partner (or perhaps he has in Ruff and we'll see that in the coming season.... rose colored glasses scenario)

You might compare that crew to the team VGK obtained in the expansion draft. Everyone was "second best" but with a good system and a good coach they went all the way to the SC finals in year one.

Again?

I'm pretty sure he's available, at least according to Wiki: "His involvement with the Nunavik hockey program ended in 2017." Do you really thing he's interested in the step down from Nunavik youth to the Sabres? Why not? They're already on the payroll.

Do you even Sabre, bro?

Only if they don't want to be here.

The bear commercials were great. I miss the days when they showed the local commercials during the out of market games. And that fish commercial: "We were biting this morning.... we were biting this morning."

Especially special teams. Realistically with better-than-average special teams we're in the playoffs right now.

Muel's problem isn't how much we pay him. It's his ability to stay healthy. I hate that he's spent so much time in IR, but when he's healthy he's fine.

I think Benson is already a good two-way player, and putting him on a very offensively minded line is just good line construction. Let Tage Tage and let Benson cover for him which he's pretty good at already (and Tage is okay backchecking too, just saying having a player like Benson around let's him concentrate on the offense more).

fify

I like the idea of lines 1A, 1B, 1C (or possibly 2A, 2B, 2C depending on how you look at it). At the end of the season we had Benson - Kulich - Tage JJP - McLeod - Quinn Zucker - Krebs - Tuch I think all those lines could be a top scoring line... though whichever one Tage is on is probably going to be the top, top scoring line. My point is that rather than having one line that is clearly the best, balance the skill mix (and to a lesser extent the skill level) to get three lines that an opponent can't contain (maybe one, maybe even two, but not all three). To that end, Benson is the forechecker, the pot stirrer, the physical pest on that line. Out of the other two, I think I'd swap McLeod and Krebs so that on the JJP line, Krebs is that pot stirrer, and then on the other line, Tuch is (although he's more of just a big physical presence than a pot stirrer type). If a coach wanted to balance the top three lines, then yeah, Benson is a top line guy with a specialized role in that line. It matters not if he doesn't score a ton, as long as he's disrupting the opposition defense and enabling the his linemates to score.

Different but similar effect: Both guys are best when they get opponents off their game. Remember all the penalties Skinner drew? That's what I'm talking about. He was more psy-ops though; Benson is more physical distraction, and Benson's game is more consistent. If he can get to the point where he's chipping in 20-25 goals but his linemates are scoring 30-40, he'll be a great first liner.

Nah. Even if he's not scoring big points, he takes the focus off Tage, giving Tage more room to maneuver. When Tage was clicking with Skinner it was a similar dynamic, it's just that Skinner was a more adept scorer. But that will come for Benson.

He's a current top 6 forward already.

I wouldn't sleep on Tage next season. I bet he comes out flying.

Especially his reaction to the question about how was it to come to the "Oh Woe Is Me Buffalo Sabres" and he basically said to stop yer whinin'.

Because then it can’t be used as an excuse at season’s end get out of here with your iron-clad logic It can't be team mandated under the NHLPA contract, can it? They can voluntarily work out on their own but the team can't mandate it?

Looked for an appropriate "victory song" for tonight's win. I believe I found the perfect song to sum up this whole season. I urge you to actually listen to it; it's quite pathetic.

EDIT: NO F-N GOAL.