The Hopium Den: 10 reasons why the Sabres could be better this year

[Night Train]

Score 1 more goal a game 

[dudacek]

1 hour ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

Sadly, they can, as they have proven the last two seasons.  This is the pts trend under Adams leadership - 91, 84, 79.  
 

10 reasons they could continue to regress

1.  The Atlantic division is deeper than ever.  Det, Mon, and Ott are actually improving while the Sabres have regressed

2. Adams traded away another young developing scorer, who has improved each of his 3 NHL season, for two depth players who may or may not have upside.

3.  McLeod is almost certain to regress.  He is a career 11.9% shooter who had a career year last year when shooting 20.9%. 

4.  The goaltending is woefully inadequate.  The save % of our 4 goalies last season were as follows - UPL .887, Levi .872, Georgiev .875, and Lyon.896.  League average last season was .893 in all situations.

5. Norris unlikely to play enough games to adequately replace Cozens.  Norris has never played more than 66 games in a season and has averaged only 47 games a season during his time in the NHL.  Remember he was shutdown after only 3 games last season following the trade from Ottawa.

6. The entire failed coaching staff returns including special teams failure Appert and defensive failure Wilford.  

7.  The team again refuses to spend to the cap and with the cap rising quickly, the Sabres are likely to fall further behind. Remember that teams that don’t spend to the cap rarely make the playoffs.

8.  The defense remains defensively suspect.  Byram, Power, Samuelsson and Bryson are still inept defensively. Kesselring and Timmins maybe upgrades defensively over Joki or Clifton, but neither has ever been a full time top 4 defenseman.  Timmins has averaged less than 16 minutes a night for his career and last season was his first in 6 years as a full time NHLer.  Kesselring played under 18 a night last season and while he did fill in the top 4, as soon as Utah got healthy he was relegated to the 3rd pair.  He did have a solid all around season, but it’s fair to wonder if he is ready to pair with a player as defensively inept as Power for 22 minutes a night.  It’s also fair to question whether the addition of two 3rd pairing D is enough to elevate a group as terrible as the Sabres have been defensively for years. 

9.  I am a big fan of both Benson and Kulich, but Sabres are betting on their continued improvement, plus rebounds from injury prone guys like Quinn and Norris, plus continued success from Zucker and McLeod, to keep the offense working. Also don’t forget we don’t even know who the 9th top 9 forward will be; will it be the injury prone and scoring challenged Greenway or a bet on another young player with 62 games of NHL experience in Josh Doan. That’s a great deal to ask and comes with a high risk of failure.  If the offense regresses, it raises the odds of another regression by the team significantly. 

10.  Kevyn Adams is still the GM.

I understand that the fans here want to have some hope that the 15 years of wandering in the hockey desert as punishment for the “tank” might end this coming season, but honestly we need to temper our expectations for a team put together by GMKA (aka Howdy Doody).

This has no place in the hopium thread.

Plenty of of other places to talk about this.

[GASabresIUFAN]

56 minutes ago, dudacek said:

This has no place in the hopium thread.

Plenty of of other places to talk about this.

I mentioned hope in my post.

[Taro T]

11 hours ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

I mentioned hope in my post.

Yes, you said fans want to hope after providing 10 reasons they shouldn't have any.  Clearly you were taking the tenor of @dudacek's original post to heart.

[PASabreFan]

2 hours ago, Thorny said:

Chance of happening, Likelihood it makes up ground vs other teams

1) 8/10, 4/10

2) 9/10, 2/10

3) 3/10, 7/10

4) 2/10, 8/10

5) 8/10, 9/10

6) 2/10, 2/10

7) 10/10, 1/10

8 ) 10/10, 9/10

9) 7/10, 3/10

10) 9/10, 2/10

I would have expected this post from TaroT.

[Thorny]

2 minutes ago, PASabreFan said:

I would have expected this post from TaroT.

- I’m honoured 

- why? 

[7+6=13]

No Cozens was better than Cozens.  Norris and no Cozens is much better than Cozens.

Kesselring and Timmins are at minimum an improvement defensively and are definitely more physical than who departed.

Doan is an addition with traits that help teams.

Power is one year closer to the age, some of us that are optimistic, feeling like he needed time to reach his potential.

[mjd1001]

51 minutes ago, 7+6=13 said:

No Cozens was better than Cozens.  Norris and no Cozens is much better than Cozens.

Kesselring and Timmins are at minimum an improvement defensively and are definitely more physical than who departed.

Doan is an addition with traits that help teams.

Power is one year closer to the age, some of us that are optimistic, feeling like he needed time to reach his potential.

Doan is going to be one of the main things I watch in Camp.

I could see him struggle to make the team and ending up going to Rochester..  I also could see him being a definite top 9 forward that contributes to this team winning.  He is the guy, more so than other players like Helenius, Wahburg, Rosen, and Östlund....that I see the widest range of outcomes from come opening night.

[Thorny]

On 9/13/2025 at 12:44 PM, Thorny said:

- I’m honoured 

- why? 

Ok 

Edit: deleted. silly me for trying to create a discussion point - I should have realized the aim is now a radicalized board and this thread was merely for stating good things that make us feel better and also that can hypothetically happen. 

Edited September 15 by Thorny

[dudacek]

This is nice folo to the first of the 10 reasons (Tage). Don’t think it was posted elsewhere:

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6602800/2025/09/07/tage-thompson-olympics-4-nations/?source=emp_shared_article

“It’s (world championship game winner) one of those things that was an awesome moment and something that I’ll remember forever, but at the same time, I don’t believe it solidifies me. I still think that (I’ve) got to obviously have a great summer and carry it over into the season and use that for the first half of the season as a trial. But I am motivated to help my (Sabres) team win and to make the Olympics.
 

“It definitely will be there. It’s hard not to think about it. But when we get into the grind of the season, not that you forget about it, but it definitely maybe goes to the subconscious or the back of your brain a little bit. Like, I want to be an Olympian, but getting the Sabres back into the playoffs is always at the forefront

[JoeSchmoe]

On 9/13/2025 at 4:16 PM, 7+6=13 said:

No Cozens was better than Cozens.  Norris and no Cozens is much better than Cozens.

This is funny but true.

[GASabresIUFAN]

On 9/13/2025 at 5:28 PM, Thorny said:

Ok 

Edit: deleted. silly me for trying to create a discussion point - I should have realized the aim is now a radicalized board and this thread was merely for stating good things that make us feel better and also that can hypothetically happen. 

It is possible for good things to happen.  

[Pimlach]

24 minutes ago, JoeSchmoe said:

This is funny but true.

We shall see how he does on the Senators. 

[HumanSlinky39]

1) I

2) Don't

3) Really 

4) Care

5) How

6) Just

7) Make

8 ) The 

9 ) Goddamn

10) Playoffs

 

[dudacek]

The PDOcast (excellent hockey nerd pod) raving over Benson this morning in their annual preseason “Our Guys” edition, which is basically their take on players poised to show the hockey world how good they are.

Fantastic quote on Benson’s size and points production as a teenager leading to terribly superficial and poorly informed hockey takes about his ability.

”It’s like catnip for the guys with the worst takes on hockey you know.”

They call Bensons game an “endless loop of winning battles…and making good things happen out of thin air.”

I’ve rarely heard such a gushing take on a Sabre player anywhere, let alone from national analysts.

Filipovic says his skill set is “made in a lab” to complement a guy like Thompson, with his ability to defend, and get the puck to high-danger areas.

Drance called him the most obvious breakout candidate in the NHL.

Edited 1 hour ago by dudacek

[DarthEbriate]

48 minutes ago, dudacek said:

The PDOcast (excellent hockey nerd pod) raving over Benson this morning in their annual preseason “Our Guys” edition, which is basically their take on players poised to show the hockey world how good they are.

Fantastic quote on Benson’s size and points production as a teenager leading to terribly superficial and poorly informed hockey takes about his ability.

”It’s like catnip for the guys with the worst takes on hockey you know.”

They call Bensons game an “endless loop of winning battles…and making good things happen out of thin air.”

I’ve rarely heard such a gushing take on a Sabre player anywhere, let alone from national analysts.

Filipovic says his skill set is “made in a lab” to complement a guy like Thompson, with his ability to defend, and get the puck to high-danger areas.

Drance called him the most obvious breakout candidate in the NHL.

Benson just needs a finisher willing to go to the crease on occasion and float for soft spots (Satan-like) at other times. Between Norris and TNT, he should have a solid season. I figure sometime in the next 5 years, he's going to get one lucky Sabre a big 35+ goal payday that they really aren't worth. It'll be fun.