Practice Lines 1/18/26; Konsta Helenius will make debut tomorrow against Carolina

[Brawndo]

That second line

 

Edited January 18 by Brawndo

[Brawndo]

 

[pastajoe]

I was hoping that they’d sit Krebs after his boneheaded penalty. 😡

[Carmel Corn]

1 minute ago, Brawndo said:

 

I’m starting to feel this organization deliberately lies to its fanbase.  How can you do from day to day to week to week?  Our medical staff is either cheap and/or incompetent.  This doesn’t take away from the fact that Norris is made of glass.  I am awaiting the next update to be that Norris will be placed on IR next.

[Taro T]

2 minutes ago, Brawndo said:

 

They need another top 6 C, to allow Norris to essentially be their Stone.  The guy they can't rely on being there (though pretty sure Stone is there this year) who adds a ton when he actually is available.

Those thoughts on bringing in Thomas sound very good.  Hoping they can find a way to get that one done.

[dudacek]

12 minutes ago, pastajoe said:

I was hoping that they’d sit Krebs after his boneheaded penalty. 😡

I wonder how many times a penalty was not called on similar plays during last night’s game?

Argue whether it was or wasn’t a penalty, all you want; the play had no bearing on creating or preventing an unfair advantage, or hurting an opponent, and is almost never called in that type of situation.

It was the definition of ticky-tack.

Edited January 18 by dudacek

[pastajoe]

11 minutes ago, dudacek said:

I wonder how many times a penalty was not called on similar plays during last night’s game?

Argue whether it was or wasn’t a penalty, all you want; the play had no bearing on creating or preventing an unfair advantage, or hurting an opponent, and is almost never called in that type of situation.

It was the definition of ticky-tack.

As Lindy said, you can’t give the refs a reason to call a late penalty. Krebs is the latest of the late penalties committed by the Sabres. Time to send the players a message.

[Taro T]

17 minutes ago, dudacek said:

I wonder how many times a penalty was not called on similar plays during last night’s game?

Argue whether it was or wasn’t a penalty, all you want; the play had no bearing on creating or preventing an unfair advantage, or hurting an opponent, and is almost never called in that type of situation.

It was the definition of ticky-tack.

THAT ref was calling anything he saw that was close to hooking.  He was doing it all game.  Just Krebs bad luck that the 2 refs locations weren't swapped at the time.  The other guy let hooks far worse than that go.

Don't know, but wouldn't be surprised if he didn't get flack in his last review for letting an egregious hook go.  He was making a point of calling it.  And it likely bit the Sabres in the arse.

[LGR4GM]

9 minutes ago, pastajoe said:

As Lindy said, you can’t give the refs a reason to call a late penalty. Krebs is the latest of the late penalties committed by the Sabres. Time to send the players a message.

Krebs is a Lindy favorite, he's not doing ***** to him. 

[LGR4GM]

1 hour ago, Brawndo said:

That second line

 

That 2nd line might be able to keep up with Carolinas forechecking. Curious to see Helenius. 

[dudacek]

12 minutes ago, pastajoe said:

As Lindy said, you can’t give the refs a reason to call a late penalty. Krebs is the latest of the late penalties committed by the Sabres. Time to send the players a message.

Just because he’s right in principle doesn’t make the penalty “boneheaded” or the call any less bad.

Krebs is a +3 in penalties taken/drawn. The Sabres are 8th in the league in net penalties and 4th in PP goals allowed; taking bad penalties has not been a big issue for this team where the coach needs to “send a message” by benching a high-effort player.

[nfreeman]

41 minutes ago, Brawndo said:

 

I'll say it again:  trading Cozens -- a valuable asset -- for Norris in light of his injury history and big contract was a terrible move, and frankly a firing offense for KA.

We've seen enough to know that the likelihood of Norris staying healthy for an entire season -- and, more importantly, a playoff run -- is approximately zero.

[That Aud Smell]

9 minutes ago, nfreeman said:

 

I'll say it again:  trading Cozens -- a valuable asset -- for Norris in light of his injury history and big contract was a terrible move, and frankly a firing offense for KA.

We've seen enough to know that the likelihood of Norris staying healthy for an entire season -- and, more importantly, a playoff run -- is approximately zero.

lol - what?

getting cozen off this roster was, in and of itself, an improvement.

[triumph_communes]

12 minutes ago, nfreeman said:

 

I'll say it again:  trading Cozens -- a valuable asset -- for Norris in light of his injury history and big contract was a terrible move, and frankly a firing offense for KA.

We've seen enough to know that the likelihood of Norris staying healthy for an entire season -- and, more importantly, a playoff run -- is approximately zero.

Nah

[dudacek]

9 minutes ago, nfreeman said:

 

I'll say it again:  trading Cozens -- a valuable asset -- for Norris in light of his injury history and big contract was a terrible move, and frankly a firing offense for KA.

We've seen enough to know that the likelihood of Norris staying healthy for an entire season -- and, more importantly, a playoff run -- is approximately zero.

Id still make the trade.

The Sabres were 24/31/6 .443 points % and 29th in the league when they made the trade.

Since, they are 38/24/6 .603, and 11th in the league.

Not all down to this trade of course, but a pretty big sample size and a very big difference.

Can't argue with results.

[#freejame]

54 minutes ago, Carmel Corn said:

I’m starting to feel this organization deliberately lies to its fanbase.  How can you do from day to day to week to week?  Our medical staff is either cheap and/or incompetent.  This doesn’t take away from the fact that Norris is made of glass.  I am awaiting the next update to be that Norris will be placed on IR next.

The NHL needs to entirely change the way it reports injuries. There were murmurs gambling would change the designations but that’s obviously not the case 

[#freejame]

Östlund has been really sharp since coming up, but I’m still expecting a breakout game for him that earns him some spotlight around the league. Helenius might beat him to it though. Very confident in both being top 6 

[Demoted]

1 hour ago, Brawndo said:

 

Finally get our best goalie back.

[Archie Lee]

52 minutes ago, That Aud Smell said:

lol - what?

getting cozen off this roster was, in and of itself, an improvement.

Cozens is quietly having a solid season.  The plus minus is rough, but he has 14 goals and 35 points in 47 games (24 goal, 61 point pace).  He is 53% at the face-off dot, which would lead the Sabres.  Per MoneyPuck, of the 100 forwards who have played 800 minutes or more this season, Cozens is 10th in Corsi (over 60%), 4th in hits (127), and 25th in score-adjusted expected goal %.  I understand that he had a rough couple of years in Buffalo, but he is clearly a more than useful NHL player.  

[That Aud Smell]

7 minutes ago, Archie Lee said:

Cozens is quietly having a solid season.  The plus minus is rough, but he has 14 goals and 35 points in 47 games (24 goal, 61 point pace).  He is 53% at the face-off dot, which would lead the Sabres.  Per MoneyPuck, of the 100 forwards who have played 800 minutes or more this season, Cozens is 10th in Corsi (over 60%), 4th in hits (127), and 25th in score-adjusted expected goal %.  I understand that he had a rough couple of years in Buffalo, but he is clearly a more than useful NHL player.  

Glad to hear that, I guess.

I peeked at his on ice fancy stats at Natural Stat Trick. It looks like he’s a positive player for them.

He was in a drain circling downward spiral here. He had to go.

[Crusader1969]

2 hours ago, Taro T said:

They need another top 6 C, to allow Norris to essentially be their Stone.  The guy they can't rely on being there (though pretty sure Stone is there this year) who adds a ton when he actually is available.

Those thoughts on bringing in Thomas sound very good.  Hoping they can find a way to get that one done.

Yes Thomas would be great and I suppose you could drop McLeod to the 4th line but you can't weaken the D to bring him in 

 

[Night Train]

Excited to see him. Go Sabres ! 

[nfreeman]

1 hour ago, That Aud Smell said:

lol - what?

getting cozen off this roster was, in and of itself, an improvement.

 

1 hour ago, dudacek said:

Id still make the trade.

The Sabres were 24/31/6 .443 points % and 29th in the league when they made the trade.

Since, they are 38/24/6 .603, and 11th in the league.

Not all down to this trade of course, but a pretty big sample size and a very big difference.

Can't argue with results.

Well, @Archie Lee has provided numbers upthread supporting the position that Cozens is a decent-to-good player, but even if he isn't, and even if the Sabres are better without him -- my point is simply that he had real value as a trade chip, which KA squandered on a guy whose body is not built to take an NHL pounding and who is going to eat up $8MM per year in cap space for this year and 4 more afterwards.

[PromoTheRobot]

2 hours ago, Carmel Corn said:

I’m starting to feel this organization deliberately lies to its fanbase.  How can you do from day to day to week to week?  Our medical staff is either cheap and/or incompetent.  This doesn’t take away from the fact that Norris is made of glass.  I am awaiting the next update to be that Norris will be placed on IR next.

Yes. That's it exactly. 🙄  

[JohnC]

2 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

Krebs is a Lindy favorite, he's not doing ***** to him. 

Lindy moved Krebs from the first line to the fourth line. A role that he is better suited. And to Krebs credit, although most people would agree that Krebs is not a first line player, he played reasonably well in that higher role while assigned to it.