Thorny Posted August 30, 2018 Report Share Posted August 30, 2018 18 hours ago, dudacek said: Interesting quote from Davis Payne that echoes what we’ve seen from Housley and Botterill: “Our message all along has been backend out and we're adding some real good pieces, we're bringing some guys back in our lineup that missed significant time last year," Payne said. "I think that's just going to allow us to get the puck quicker, transition quicker, and play the fast game that we want to play." Dahlin, of course, but they are clearly counting on Bogo and McCabe to boost the back line. You wonder what that means for Pilut, Nelson and Guhle. Whenever I see this, I want to be able to ask: "Do you think it is a smart strategy to count on those players to fill a significant role (as is the case with Bogo) when they have shown a definite inability to stay in the lineup, for going on several years now? What makes you confident things will be different?" I suppose we can only assume Bogosian's recent surgery is what is providing the confidence. 2 hours ago, GASabresIUFAN said: So does everyone. Jbot said Dahlin is going to be on the left side, despite playing right in Sweden. Called that from the beginning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randall Flagg Posted August 30, 2018 Report Share Posted August 30, 2018 I'm still bummed about the state of our defense, but the volume of moves to help our forward group makes it acceptable/understandable (along with the low number of defensemen changing hands overall this offseason). And hey, they were actually in the top half of the league in preventing shot attempts and scoring chances. But I'll be real sad if two of Hunwick, Beaulieu, and Nelson are playing opening night. We just need to hope that Dahlin is enough to improve the transition aspect of the defense. Maybe Guhle has developed this summer and is ready for full time duty. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dudacek Posted August 30, 2018 Report Share Posted August 30, 2018 (edited) I’m not sold on our D either, but I think we are underestimating the potential improvement. Falk, Gorges, Antipin and Beaulieu were four of our top eight defencemen. Three are gone - not just from the Sabres, but from the NHL - and the fourth seems to be barely hanging on to his roster spot. I know the difficulty people have with including Bogosian in this equation, but even with that, I’m not sure how anyone can objectively say that Dahlin, Bogosian, Guhle/Pilut/Hunwick aren’t an upgrade over the group we dressed for most of last year, both in our second pair, and in our overall ability to move the puck. Edited August 30, 2018 by dudacek Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randall Flagg Posted August 31, 2018 Report Share Posted August 31, 2018 (edited) 1 hour ago, dudacek said: I’m not sold on our D either, but I think we are underestimating the potential improvement. Falk, Gorges, Antipin and Beaulieu were four of our top eight defencemen. Three are gone - not just from the Sabres, but from the NHL - and the fourth seems to be barely hanging on to his roster spot. I know the difficulty people have with including Bogosian in this equation, but even with that, I’m not sure how anyone can objectively say that Dahlin, Bogosian, Guhle/Pilut/Hunwick aren’t an upgrade over the group we dressed for most of last year, both in our second pair, and in our overall ability to move the puck. A valid take, but the counterpoint is that some of us remember the best Bogosian we've ever seen as not a good hockey player relative to league average defensemen, haven't seen that in three years, and have no reason to expect to see him for long stretches of time, and that Guhle, underneath the speed, was one of the worst defensemen I watched on the team last season in terms of first passes and statistically in terms of zone entries allowed when I was still counting those. I mentioned it in several GDTs but at NHL speed that kids passes were regularly missing by 10 feet. Pilut is intriguing but unknown, and Hunwick apparently wasn't worth a tiny amount of cap space, in fact, was so bad at that cap hit that a team traded an 18 goal winger for a 4th rounder just to get him out of the franchise. Through this lens, with a lineup of players we've all seen before with varying degrees of meh-to-disgust plus a rookie, well, most of us were looking for more insulation for that rookie. i think there's a 90% chance that either Dahlin is playing with Bogosian or we have Bogosian on a shutdown pair with Scandella, and both of those options are gross. But Rome wasn't built in a day Edited August 31, 2018 by Randall Flagg 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dudacek Posted August 31, 2018 Report Share Posted August 31, 2018 (edited) Largely agree with you on Guhle and in that I wish the team did more. Disagree on the degree of Bogosian's ineptitude, but that's well-travelled ground. And maybe I put far too much emphasis on the relative ability of this group to play the game Housley wants, on the improvement health and maturity will bring, and — particularly — on the upgrade Dahlin is going to provide. I mean, I expect him to have his ups and downs, but I don't expect him to need any more help than Scandella. But I just keep coming back to this depth chart switch from the group that was actually on the ice last year, and it looks more talented to me. And it is definitely much more capable of moving the puck: Ristolainen = Ristolainen Scandella = Scandella Dahlin > McCabe Bogosian > Beaulieu McCabe > Falk Nelson > Antipin Hunwick ? Gorges Beaulieu > Tennyson Guhle ? Nelson Pilut ? Guhle Edited August 31, 2018 by dudacek Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nfreeman Posted August 31, 2018 Report Share Posted August 31, 2018 There’s also the mystical synergy that sweeps through a team when an extra-terrestrial defenseman who floats like a butterfly and makes plays like Lidstrom and Kronwall on D and Bobby Freaking Orr when he has the puck joins the team and takes over. Just sayin’. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thorny Posted August 31, 2018 Report Share Posted August 31, 2018 4 hours ago, dudacek said: Largely agree with you on Guhle and in that I wish the team did more. Disagree on the degree of Bogosian's ineptitude, but that's well-travelled ground. And maybe I put far too much emphasis on the relative ability of this group to play the game Housley wants, on the improvement health and maturity will bring, and — particularly — on the upgrade Dahlin is going to provide. I mean, I expect him to have his ups and downs, but I don't expect him to need any more help than Scandella. But I just keep coming back to this depth chart switch from the group that was actually on the ice last year, and it looks more talented to me. And it is definitely much more capable of moving the puck: Ristolainen = Ristolainen Scandella = Scandella Dahlin > McCabe Bogosian > Beaulieu McCabe > Falk Nelson > Antipin Hunwick ? Gorges Beaulieu > Tennyson Guhle ? Nelson Pilut ? Guhle Agree mostly, but Antipin was better than Nelson. Our RHD scares me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bob_sauve28 Posted September 10, 2018 Report Share Posted September 10, 2018 I was surprised to Guhle still in the prospects game. Is this a bad sign? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randall Flagg Posted September 10, 2018 Report Share Posted September 10, 2018 18 minutes ago, bob_sauve28 said: I was surprised to Guhle still in the prospects game. Is this a bad sign? He's a D drafted only 3 years ago, not a big deal. He's 21 for the entirety of 18-19 and might make the team full time this year But don't expect a guarantee that he's a top 4 guy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dudacek Posted September 10, 2018 Report Share Posted September 10, 2018 Guhle only played in one game. Didn’t stand out. Wouldnt read much into either of the above. I do think that if the season started today he would be in Rochester, but the brass legitimately hopes he will change that situation in camp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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