GDT: 4/5/2022, Hurricanes @ Sabres, 7pm on ESPN+ 📺 WGR 📻

[LGR4GM]

9 minutes ago, SwampD said:

I was just going to respond. I don’t understand people wanting to replace Bryson. He’s not perfect. Nobody is, but he makes so many plays that go unnoticed because of how cleanly they happen. Someone described it perfectly a few games ago, “you have puck, I’m taking it.”

And you are right about Tuch in the offensive zone. He is frustrating sometimes. Where other guys lose the puck because they try to stick handle too much (Cozens), Tuch just flings it to no one for no reason sometimes.

I understand it perfectly. He's short

Of course if we draft Jiricek and Rinzel in 3 years our defense will be massive so I'm not worried

[jsb]

I think I've just entered the Twilight Zone, Bryson is good and Tuch sucks. 😀😀

 

[SwampD]

5 minutes ago, jsb said:

I think I've just entered the Twilight Zone, Bryson is good and Tuch sucks. 😀😀

 

Definitely not saying that. I just think that Bryson’s play has been a net positive recently.

[dudacek]

35 minutes ago, jsb said:

1. Please find replacements for Bryson, Fitzgerald and Butcher. Power will replace 1 but on the left side. The right side gets caved in to often.
2. It was interesting how a couple of the Carolina players commented on the Sabres speed during interviews. When was the last time we've heard that??
3. Okposo and Girgensons are just plain and simply warriors
4. To me for Cozens to take the next step he needs to cut back on his turnovers. Otherwise he's slowly but surely becoming a player.
5. Dahlin is just special. No more needs to be said. He seems like a good locker room guy and he leads while on the ice. What may be scary is there is still a lot of room to improve in his game. 
6. Vegas currently out of wild card, Detroit won, as much as I'd like to see us continue to win, I still want a top 8 and top 16 draft pick
7. On this current 17 game streak if this was a year long trend we'd be 13th in GF and 20th in GA. Both are trending up.

I was noticing the same thing, because I went into the game thinking the Canes were among the fastest teams in the league and at times we outskated them.

Tage, Olofsson, Girgensons and suprisingly Okposo are all pretty fast

Skinner isn't real fast in a straight line, but he's quick and such a great skater

Tuch, Asplund, Cozens, Krebs, and Hinostroza are flat out fast

Mitts ain't fast but he's playing fast.

And the latter is becoming a calling card for our team, not just being fast, but playing fast. Even (especially?) the fast guys.

Edited April 6, 2022 by dudacek

[Doohickie]

36 minutes ago, jsb said:

To me for Cozens to take the next step he needs to cut back on his turnovers. Otherwise he's slowly but surely becoming a player.

I remember saying similar things about Mitts.  And Tage.  I think it's something you have to attempt and fail before you can do it and succeed.

37 minutes ago, jsb said:

On this current 17 game streak if this was a year long trend we'd be 13th in GF and 20th in GA. Both are trending up.

....and 1.35 PPG, resolving to 111 points over a full season- solid playoff rate.

[Doohickie]

39 minutes ago, jsb said:

Please find replacements for Bryson, Fitzgerald and Butcher. Power will replace 1 but on the left side. The right side gets caved in to often.

For Bryson in particular I tend to agree with @LGR4GM and @SwampD:

33 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

Jacob Bryson was pretty good last night, I noticed him exiting the zone or keep plays alive often. His defensive zone coverage is pretty solid even with his size limitations. He's the type of 6/7 defender good teams have. 

26 minutes ago, SwampD said:

I was just going to respond. I don’t understand people wanting to replace Bryson. He’s not perfect. Nobody is, but he makes so many plays that go unnoticed because of how cleanly they happen. Someone described it perfectly a few games ago, “you have puck, I’m taking it.”

Fitzgerald is still growing, imo.  I think he plays best when paired with Muel; they played together in the A and tend to play well off each other.  I can see them being a very good shutdown pairing if Fitz continues to develop.

Butcher.... just scares me.

[inkman]

17 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

I understand it perfectly. He's short

Of course if we draft Jiricek and Rinzel in 3 years our defense will be massive so I'm not worried

 

7 minutes ago, SwampD said:

Definitely not saying that. I just think that Bryson’s play has been a net positive recently.

I’m not Bryson’s biggest fan but if he’s gonna be in the lineup, I’d much rather see him on PP2 than Joki.  Henri has been somewhere near awful on the PP.  

[Doohickie]

Just now, inkman said:

Henri has been somewhere near awful on the PP.  

He does the most basic play when QBing the power play from on top.  Nothing fancy.  Dahlin brings the fancy.  You may be right:  Bryson might be able to bring the fancy too.  And Bryson may be our fastest Dman so when the inevitable keep at the blue line fails he can get back quickly to snuff out a shorthanded rush.

[Doohickie]

34 minutes ago, SwampD said:

And you are right about Tuch in the offensive zone. He is frustrating sometimes. Where other guys lose the puck because they try to stick handle too much (Cozens), Tuch just flings it to no one for no reason sometimes.

Tuch is size and positioning.  He's not playmaking.  Not sure lately but someone said that fancystats show that when he's on the ice, it tilts toward the Sabres offensive zone.  He's a north-south player with little subtlety or nuance.

[PromoTheRobot]

So did I miss anything?

[That Aud Smell]

12 hours ago, HumanSlinky39 said:

This is becoming a pretty damn good team.

There's an amusing account in unofficial Sabres Twitterland who had a thread last night about how the Sabres should be permitted to replace the last-qualifying-team from the east in the playoffs. Mostly for the lulz. But there's a kernel of truth there as well.

12 hours ago, JohnC said:

In the radio postgame show it was noted that in the past 17 games the Sabres' record is 10-4-3. That impressive record was mostly against top tier teams. 

3 games over @deluca67.500 will do nicely, especially given the quality of competition.

44 minutes ago, Flashsabre said:

Mitts was lighting it up to end last year and looked like he was blossoming.

He got destroyed by injuries this season but looks like he is back to that end of last season level.

Major Knock on Wood, but if he can have a healthy season next year I fully expect a major breakout.

Started with "Granato has made Thompson into a very good top-6 NHL centre - holy crap!"

Moved into "Dahlin is really coming around ... holy sh1t - Dahlin is awesome!"

Now reveling in "Mittelstadt is an effing BEAST on the puck and may become a PPG player or close to it."

Seriously. This team is good.

 

[PromoTheRobot]

On 4/5/2022 at 9:50 AM, bg17 said:

Saw them in DC Friday night. Super fun. I love the new album. 

Joywave were great last night. Best part was last singer Daniel Armbruster doing a "Let's Go Buffalo" chant before the final song...in Boston! 😂

 

 

 

Edited April 6, 2022 by PromoTheRobot

[dudacek]

14 minutes ago, inkman said:

 

I’m not Bryson’s biggest fan but if he’s gonna be in the lineup, I’d much rather see him on PP2 than Joki.  Henri has been somewhere near awful on the PP.  

Not defending Henri (his being on the PP is about development), but Bryson is not a better option IMO.

It's easy to see the way Bryson skates and handles the puck and confuse that with offence. He has no shot that I've seen, or ability to make quick passes.

Dude has less than 20 points in 100 NHL games. When was the last time you remember him creating a great scoring chance?

This discussion becomes moot anyway come next week, when we get a power surge.

Edited April 6, 2022 by dudacek

[That Aud Smell]

5 minutes ago, The Ghost of Yuri said:

Tuch is size and positioning.  He's not playmaking.  Not sure lately but someone said that fancystats show that when he's on the ice, it tilts toward the Sabres offensive zone.  He's a north-south player with little subtlety or nuance.

It can be challenging at times to have the top line have 2 average/less than average passers on it. Skinner is definitely a below average passer, imo.

I think I heard Granato speak to how that line is a bit of an anomaly: No pure playmaker on it. Just three guys who hound the puck, want the puck, and more times than not shoot the puck.

[Doohickie]

3 minutes ago, That Aud Smell said:

Skinner is definitely a below average passer, imo.

I disagree there, but even if you're right, Skinner brings a unique skillset to the top line.

I see the line as: 

• Tage- good all around player, has size, can control the puck, pass and shoot at a near-elite level.
• Skinner- creates chaos that his linemates understand but other teams have trouble containing.  A finisher around the net.  A puck hound at both ends of the ice.
• Tuch- a big body with a straightforward, simple game.  Doesn't need to be high skill on this line, just needs to tilt the ice toward offense.

I think the weakest link is Tuch who is more of a 3rd/4th line player in terms of style.  But as long as the line works, don't mess with it.  When the line falters, though, put Tuch on Krebs' wing (they seem to work well together) and bring Olofsson up to this line.  DG has already done this at times. 

[LGR4GM]

30 minutes ago, The Ghost of Yuri said:

For Bryson in particular I tend to agree with @LGR4GM and @SwampD:

Fitzgerald is still growing, imo.  I think he plays best when paired with Muel; they played together in the A and tend to play well off each other.  I can see them being a very good shutdown pairing if Fitz continues to develop.

Butcher.... just scares me.

idk how much more Fitz's game will grow, he's 25 already

[That Aud Smell]

Just now, The Ghost of Yuri said:

I think the weakest link is Tuch who is more of a 3rd/4th line player in terms of style. 

I don't get this at all. He's our best fundamental #fancystats player while dealing with among the highest quality of competition the team faces. I can understand not seeing him as your RW1, but placing outside the top-6 seems a bit much. Unless, of course, we're into that "top 9" scheme and he's getting as much ice time as the other top 9 lines.

[WildCard]

10-4-3 since March 1st, that's a 110 point pace over a full season.

[Doohickie]

11 minutes ago, That Aud Smell said:

I don't get this at all. He's our best fundamental #fancystats player while dealing with among the highest quality of competition the team faces. I can understand not seeing him as your RW1, but placing outside the top-6 seems a bit much. Unless, of course, we're into that "top 9" scheme and he's getting as much ice time as the other top 9 lines.

I don't disagree with you at all.  I purposely said 3/4 "style" because I think he does belong in the top six but he is not as skilled as a typical top six player.  His statistics say he's fundamentally good, but to my eye I just don't see it; he appears to me far less skilled than his linemates.  He contributes more through effort than skill.  It may be recency bias on my part though; he was running at a PPG pace early on and has slowed down lately.

6 minutes ago, WildCard said:

10-4-3 since March 1st, that's a 110 point pace over a full season.

Mostly against teams in the playoff race too.  That's probably the biggest cause of optimism to me.  It shows the Sabres can hang with the Big Dogs even if they're not quite one of the Big Dogs themselves, at least not yet.

[That Aud Smell]

1 minute ago, The Ghost of Yuri said:

I don't disagree with you at all.  I purposely said 3/4 "style" because I think he does belong in the top six but he is not as skilled as a typical top six player.  His statistics say he's fundamentally good, but to my eye I just don't see it; he appears to me far less skilled than his linemates.  He contributes more through effort than skill.  It may be recency bias on my part though; he was running at a PPG pace early on and has slowed down lately.

I gotchu. He does have a sort of brutal efficiency.

[PromoTheRobot]

12 minutes ago, WildCard said:

10-4-3 since March 1st, that's a 110 point pace over a full season.

Maybe the Sabres can finally crack #25 in Mike Harrington's weekly NHL power poll?

[Norcal]

24 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

Maybe the Sabres can finally crack #25 in Mike Harrington's weekly NHL power poll?

Hahaha Harrington has a weekly NHL power poll???? 🤣🤣

[Doohickie]

35 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

Maybe the Sabres can finally crack #25 in Mike Harrington's weekly NHL power poll?

The Hockey Guy has them at 21

 

[Norcal]

32 minutes ago, The Ghost of Yuri said:

The Hockey Guy has them at 21

 

Does this guy have a job or is this it?

He's pretty thorough in his explanations. I like him. 

[Zamboni]

1 hour ago, WildCard said:

10-4-3 since March 1st, that's a 110 point pace over a full season.

All while having Swiss cheese in net most nights. Impressive.

Most impressive.