Doohickie

Oh... I think it was Kowalski that was the top name now that I think about it. My surname is also a place name ("one from...") but it's not terribly widespread so I'll just keep it to myself.

Yeah I saw that. To be honest he will be great for a young, rebuilding team, kind of like our Zucker.

If he's still a little sore, give Crevier some of his 2D 5-on-5 minutes.

I think it's actually *the* most common surname in Poland and if I remember correctly it derives from a trade (like Smith or Cooper or something). So maybe not related at all.

Some entertaining hockey last night. Good to see real hockey again.

So has the Sabres official policy flipped? Are they now over-reporting the severity of injuries instead of saying they are no big deal and then the player is out for months?

I mean, yeah, we need the rain but this much? All at once? Sheesh.

I see Norris and Tage being "co-centers" on that line.

According to Fairburn the lines are Norris - Tage - Doan Benson - Östlund - Quinn Krebs - McLeod - Helenius Kulich/Danforth - Carrick - Malenstyn Which tells me Kulich isn't 100% yet.

When did Adams decide to trade Eichel? 😉 Before Skinner fell of the table, Skinner - Tage - Tuch was pretty dangerous. I thought that would be our first line forever.

I want to see what the bottom 6 looks like. I'd like to see Kulich up on the third line.

Crevier will make a believer out of you. I think he will fill the 2D roll every bit as well as Muel and there may even be some competition for Muel to regain his spot when he returns.

Preczactly. When a team is successful, their top players want to get paid. For some that means they will move on. The organization needs to replenish that top player's contributions by other means, often by promotion of younger, cap-controlled players. This is what the Sabres did in the offseason. In the case of Byram, it was by bringing in Zellweger and Crevier. In the case of Tuch, it was by giving his time to younger players already on the team and in the middle of their climb to their ceiling. Quinn is almost there. Helenius/Kulich/Östlund played a total of 81 games last year. Quinn is ripe to seize a more prominent role, and the other three can backfill Quinn output provided in a supporting role. Looking at their output last year and multiplying by three yields an increase of just about what Tuch produced. Östlund will be this year's Quinn, the player that comes into his own. Kulich will be this year's Östlund; his medical issues set him back but he will return to being a high end NHL regular. And Helenius will bring youthful energy already tempered by his time playing against grown men on his Finnish Liiga team. With growth there will be the occasional setback, but trend will be upward for all these players.

Did you even watch the preseason? He's one of the few players on the team that looked like he was in midseason form already.

You're too pessimistic. Toronto is still a train wreck defensively, Detroit is at loggerheads with their star forward, and the NYC area teams are no closer to figuring things out than the Sabres are (and they're in a different division anyway).

Nah. He's on injury away from a team ponying up for Helly. Not Buffalo though. It has to be a team that has a really good goalie that feels like they will go nowhere without him. The Sabres trio got the team to 109 points last year and I think Jarmo is not alarmingly uncomfortable with the prospect of seeing who gets hot.

So I guess they'll line up something like this: Forwards 19 Peyton Krebs - 72 Tage Thompson - 91 Josh Doan 71 Ryan McLeod - 9 Josh Norris - 94 Konsta Helenius 6 Zach Benson - 86 Noah Östlund - 22 Jack Quinn 20 Jiri Kulich - 10 Sam Carrick - 29 Beck Malenstyn Extra: 15 Justin Danforth, 48 Tyson Kozak Defense 26 Rasmus Dahlin - 46 Louis Crevier 25 Owen Power - 8 Olen Zellweger 73 Zach Metsa - 24 Matt Grzelcyk Goalies 92 Colten Ellis 1 Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen 34 Alex Lyon Lindy's first line tinker will be to swap Krebs and Kulich if Kulich is good for the minutes.

Timmins? What happened to him?

I will say this about losing Byram: Zellweger + Crevier will prove to be > Byram + Kesselring (or Bryson or whoever). The weak link is now Timmins and he's not half bad. They're replacing a 9 and a 4 with two 8s. I can see where the forward lines will be a little scrambly in the beginning without Tuch. He did play a lot of all purpose minutes that will be tough to fill, but that will eventually get sorted and I think it will be at worst a break even proposition as far as the forward ranks go.

...just like when they hard Marner.

Did Josh Allen injure his knee in fourth quarter vs. Chargers? | Buffalo Rumblings https://www.buffalorumblings.com/buffalo-bills-injuries/141496/did-josh-allen-injure-his-knee-in-fourth-quarter-vs-chargers