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Sabres Prospect Challenge September 15-19.


Brawndo

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1 hour ago, Spoonman said:

Anyone have a link ot the Sabres feed (for those of us outside the 716)?  I couldn't find it on HarborCenter Twitter feed, yet.....

I'm running VPN but have you checked their FB page?  https://www.facebook.com/BuffaloSabres/videos/647979853339920

 

Nice anthems.

Edited by Doohickie
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Lukas Rousek postgame interview after the Jersey game:

https://www.nhl.com/sabres/video/lukas-rousek-postgame-91722/t-277437090/c-12786608

Asked how he thought Jiri Kulich did in his first game:  "Good.  Not bad!"  Spoken with a big smile like a proud papa.  You can tell there's a bond already forming between those two. 

I'm also amazed at how good Rousek's English is.  You see players from other countries with interpreters for years.  Rousek came here last year speaking no English and is pretty much conversational now.  You hear some bad syntax here and there but his meaning is very clear and he appears very comfortable speaking in English.

Hell, he's a better interview than Jack already.

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27 minutes ago, Marvin said:

Are Duff, Ray, and Marty more engaged with the tournament's games this year than in recent years, or am I just imagining it because I am more engaged this year than I was since before Krueger was coach?

There are more “awesome” emojis and comparisons to Stanley Cup playoffs game winning goals in the latest game day thread, for a prospects game, than probably half the GDTs last year combined. 

It’s a Sabres Universe thing

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4 hours ago, Thorny said:

It’s a Sabres Universe thing

100%

People are excited and they should be. We have organically grown (free-range, grass-fed) talent with roster players that want to be here. We aren’t trying to cobble a roster together around players who lost their love for the game or who clearly don’t want to play for the organization. We aren’t trying to force a roster to work with near-sighted coaches and managers who are more worried about their jobs than building a future. We aren’t making bad trades or forcing players down awful development paths anymore.

No one expects Buffalo to make the playoffs, but we expect the team to be fun to watch and that’s enough for most of us. For a lot of the past decade the team wasn’t fun to watch.

Part of that was the team itself wasn’t having fun and it showed. The rebirth of Jeff Skinner started when he smiled last year. His iconic ear-to-ear smile that was literally gone from his face for a year+ returned. When I saw that I started to believe.

We have Savoie, Bloom, Kulich, Rosen, Cederqvist, Kozak and Kisakov playing in this prospect challenge as signed prospects. That’s not counting our signed prospects who couldn’t make it: Östlund and Nadeau. Or our AHL players:  Weissbach, Pekar, Rousek or Laaksonen. Or the graduates of Power, Quinn and Peterka and any of our 20+ unsigned prospects. We have our first and three seconds in the next draft.

That is an absolutely insane amount of talent. We aren’t dependent on one player to pan out anymore. If/when this team is ready to push for a playoff position, we have the capital to make trades for missing pieces.

For the first time in a long time it’s a good spot for Buffalo to be.

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5 hours ago, Marvin said:

Are Duff, Ray, and Marty more engaged with the tournament's games this year than in recent years, or am I just imagining it because I am more engaged this year than I was since before Krueger was coach?

I would imagine the organization as a whole wants to convey a more positive and optimistic spin on things and they are either being asked to do this OR they are simply buying in to the general feeling of optimism that can be infectious. 

The fanbase is starved after a decade and we're going to grasp on any sign of forward progress. If (hypothetically) this rebuild fails, it could destroy the team in Buffalo imo. I could be wrong, but I think a lot of fans are at the end of the waiting. I know I am. 

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24 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

I have not been this optimistic about the future of the Sabres in decades. 

Me too. But finally a GM has built this team through the draft. Plus it seems like the scouts are finding talent past round 1.  That’s the key to putting together a great team.

Edited by SabresBillsFan
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4 minutes ago, Zamboni said:

Oh and there will be plenty of negative Nancy’s trying to piss in your Cheerios every step of the way … don’t let ‘em get to your optimism about the future 😂

Yes.   I few of my family members are included in the list negative Nancy’s.  😂 
 

I be in town for the Florida game in October.  I want to leave the building happy.   

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1 hour ago, RochesterExpat said:

100%

People are excited and they should be. We have organically grown (free-range, grass-fed) talent with roster players that want to be here. We aren’t trying to cobble a roster together around players who lost their love for the game or who clearly don’t want to play for the organization. We aren’t trying to force a roster to work with near-sighted coaches and managers who are more worried about their jobs than building a future. We aren’t making bad trades or forcing players down awful development paths anymore.

No one expects Buffalo to make the playoffs, but we expect the team to be fun to watch and that’s enough for most of us. For a lot of the past decade the team wasn’t fun to watch.

Part of that was the team itself wasn’t having fun and it showed. The rebirth of Jeff Skinner started when he smiled last year. His iconic ear-to-ear smile that was literally gone from his face for a year+ returned. When I saw that I started to believe.

We have Savoie, Bloom, Kulich, Rosen, Cederqvist, Kozak and Kisakov playing in this prospect challenge as signed prospects. That’s not counting our signed prospects who couldn’t make it: Östlund and Nadeau. Or our AHL players:  Weissbach, Pekar, Rousek or Laaksonen. Or the graduates of Power, Quinn and Peterka and any of our 20+ unsigned prospects. We have our first and three seconds in the next draft.

That is an absolutely insane amount of talent. We aren’t dependent on one player to pan out anymore. If/when this team is ready to push for a playoff position, we have the capital to make trades for missing pieces.

For the first time in a long time it’s a good spot for Buffalo to be.

All great points.  I went back three years to see the roster from the 2019 prospects challenge.  The forward comparison isn’t even close.  
https://sabresdigitalpressbox.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/2019-sabres-prospects-challenge-roster.pdf

 

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1 hour ago, PerreaultForever said:

I would imagine the organization as a whole wants to convey a more positive and optimistic spin on things and they are either being asked to do this OR they are simply buying in to the general feeling of optimism that can be infectious. 

The fanbase is starved after a decade and we're going to grasp on any sign of forward progress. If (hypothetically) this rebuild fails, it could destroy the team in Buffalo imo. I could be wrong, but I think a lot of fans are at the end of the waiting. I know I am. 

Buffalo fans endured the Bills being absolutely horrible for 20 years.. Buffalo fans bounce back. I suspect like all fans.  I can't speak for those fans, but I know I looked at Amerks season tickets today... soooooo

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2 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

I would imagine the organization as a whole wants to convey a more positive and optimistic spin on things and they are either being asked to do this OR they are simply buying in to the general feeling of optimism that can be infectious. 

The fanbase is starved after a decade and we're going to grasp on any sign of forward progress. If (hypothetically) this rebuild fails, it could destroy the team in Buffalo imo. I could be wrong, but I think a lot of fans are at the end of the waiting. I know I am. 

I've been following Dan Dunleavy on Twitter and he is genuinely excited about the coming season.  Same for Marty.  They're seeing the same things we are, and from much closer up.  Of course they're geeked up.

1 hour ago, SabresBillsFan said:

finally a GM has built this team through the draft.

And really, it didn't take that long.

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14 minutes ago, Doohickie said:

And really, it didn't take that long.

You rush a miracle rebuild man you get rotten miracles rebuilds. Chocolate coating makes it go down easier.

It's been extra long because it's been reset with 3 GMs and each one gets a chance to enact the vision they want. (The drafting this time around looks better thus far, though it's still way too early to say.)

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3 hours ago, SabresBillsFan said:

Me too. But finally a GM has built this team through the draft. Plus it seems like the scouts are finding talent past round 1.  That’s the key to putting together a great team.

I'm excited about what the data-driven hockey "nerds" will be able to come up with this year. The Sabres seem to have drafted well and things seem to be coming along nicely, but Adams has build a very impressive hockey department with Karmanos, Ventura, Galamini, and Barlowe. People around the hockey who follow this type of stuff closely say it's a incredible talented staff the Sabres have assembled.

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6 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

It's not really built through the draft though is it? not YET. All the picks from trading the big 3 will build through the draft but at this point it's still mostly JBot's team. 

Kinda more like the cream of JBot's draft picks more than his team, no?

I mean only Dahlin Skinner, Mitts and Jokiharju actually were acquired by Botts and played a full season for him. When I think of Botterill's team, I think of guys like Hutton, Montour, Miller, Sheahy, Johansson, Berglund, Sobotka, Frolik, Vesey, Kahun, Pouliot, Josefson, Jordan Nolan, Zach Redmond — space filler after space filler.

I count 12 Adams acquisitions 10 Botterill (Samuelsson, Asplund, Thompson, Cozens, Bryson, UPL were the others) 3 Murray (Okposo, Olofsson, Fitzgerald) and 1 Darcy (Girgensons) among the guys expected to play this year.

Edited by dudacek
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