Taro T

To the bolded, to a certain extent, but not entirely. Yes, his play picked up after Levi spit the bit vs the BJ's. It absolutely did. (But have NOT argued it is because of it.) And, the pattern of his play picking up after there is no legit competition for him for the starter's role and taliling off when there is legit competition has shown through in 3 consecutive seasons. And this year, his play has since fallen off even without legit competition for the starter's net while Levi has been in Ra-cha-cha and a guy nobody confuses for a starter is his primary backup. As to your claim that there has been no "legitimate" competition for the starter's role, have you not seen how Levi has played when called up late in the past 2 seasons nor the drop off in UPL's performance at that same time? Have made NO claim that there is causation there. But the correlation is strong. And that correlation flies in the face of the OP's post declaring that UPL is at his best when there is competition for the starter's net. Is his play tailing when he isn't the defacto pure #1 due to causation? Don't know. It could simply be UPL gets burnt out late in the year and can't get himself into mental game shape until a couple/few weeks into the season or something else. But the correlation is there. Could go on with a lot of nuance about expectations for him, but have stated it all before several times and simply don't have the time, nor energy, nor desire to rewrite it all. (And no, have no expectation that you or anybody else would remember what one particular poster on an anonymous message board has written likely months ago. Merely stating why there is little (though some) chance that my participation in this particular line of dicussion will continue.) (Cliff notes version: he has improved significantly in several areas physically since first playing in the NHL; he's picked up on the mental side of it too but nowhere near to the same degree. Can he continue to improve those aspects as well? Yes. Will he / will he enough to be a legit starter in this league when he has a legit 1B goalie paired with him &/or when the team is playing "important" games on a consistent basis? No f'n clue, and though there is hope he does, and do expect him to improve at that further, wouldn't have a mortgage payment riding on it.)

Interesting take, and you may be onto something there. One minor issue with this take though is that it is literally the exact same coaches that can't get the players to play in a disciplined manner are the same ones who were teaching them to play undisciplined the previous 2+ seasons. (Even Appert, who wasn't in Buffalo was teaching Granato's systems in Ra-cha-cha.) The players consistently do things that create issues with getting out of their own end and also getting into the offensive zone. They consistently leave themselves down a man in puck battles along the boards. They consistently still do the (in the manner in which they do it) incredibly inane dropback pass when attempting to enter the offensive zone on the PP. There are several other things that they consistently do poorly. The X's and O's of what actually get implemented on the ice are not good and IMHO that comes down coaching. MAYBE it is the players simply can't grasp these concepts but it's not like these aren't concepts they were taught prior to playing for the Sabres the prior 2-3 years. They should be able to get them. And some of the things that the players end up doing that work are completely on the players seeing what they're given and taking it. In the Pens game, there was one PP entry that IIRC Dahlin had where he skated the puck into the Pens zone because it was there for him and there were LITERALLY 2 Sabres still inside the faceoff circles down by UPL when the puck was IN the offensive zone. They've been coached to do the LOOOOOOOONG drop back pass so often that 2 of the Sabres on the PP were over 100' behind the play when the puck was in the offensive zone. And if you were watching at home, you had no idea that just happened because there's no way of knowing where guys that are out of the camera's eye are on the ice.

You do have one part of this correct - thought not giving Ullmark a longer than 1 year deal was a mistake (understandable due to the uncertainty of the state of the entire world at the time, but still a mistake) and hated that he left. You are completely mistaken though in your understanding of my views on UPL. The post you take issue with was dealing with 1 particular aspect of his play - and that is that he has not, contrary to the post that one was responding to, played better when having competition for the starter's role. He's actually played at his best when there has been no legit challenger to him. If you disagree wtih that, then go ahead and provide examples to the contrary. THAT is the ENTIRETY of what the post you take issue with referred to. That you make it into something it is not is on you.

Matt Ellis 100% was a problem. Under Appert the team will at least on occassion move Thompson around and also move the puck down low on occassion. But he uses the same assinine entries (or non-entries to be more accurate) that Ellis was a master of designing.

When has UPL ever played better when being pushed? Last year he was so bad in the preseason that he entered the year a distant 3rd on the depth chart which is right where he's ended the previous season. If not for injuries, he might never have gotten a chance. He didn't take his game to the level that got him his recent contract until Levi had become an after thought. And then at the end of the year when Levi was back in the mix again, his play fell off. Not claiming it was causation, but there was definitely correlation. And as alluded to above, in the season prior, after Levi was signed, UPL played his way into the 3rd goalie role. When there's been legit competition for the starter's job, UPL has tended to spit the bit. It's when the net is his and there is no competition for the role that he's played his best in past seasons. This year he didn't really start to play well until after Levi had the really bad game (against the BJ's IIRC). He played his best 2 games of the year right after that and continued to play well enough after that that with the sparse game schedule he never really had to miss a start until the crease was his. And by then Levi was playing maybe 1 game every 2 weeks and was no competition. UPL's worst early season game came against Moe-ray-all when Levi had finally gotten some regular usage again and then when Levi got sent down, UPL's game picked up again. UPL seemed to go into his slump not when he didn't have competition any longer, but when Dahlin was out for an extended period.

Falls under the category of coaching. Appert and Wilford should be punted into the sun.

That would be a very Sabry move. Still not sure though why he wasn't promoted back when he left for the Rags. If Ruff wants him, would be ok with the move. But this team absolutely needs to either let Ruff choose his coaching staff or bring in somebody like Gallant who will. (And there isn't a chance in heck that Gallant would ever even get interviewed to come here.) Have absolutely no idea what sort of moves will be made this off-season. As much as the fans want Adams gone, would be mildly surprised should that happen. And if Adams is back, expect they'd try to bring in a mid-to-late-ish 20 top 4 D-man that is either stay at home or 2 way (basically bringing in the guy Samuelsson or Jokiharju were supposed to be by now). Also expect that Johnson will be either the 6 or 7 with Henri and either Gilbert or Bryson gone (and the other the 8). Expect they'll likely try to keep the F's fairly unchanged though don't see any way Aube Kubel comes back. Would expect that Kulich gets that roster spot. If they can't re-sign Greenway and Zucker then there are 2 other spots that they look to improve via vets; but Zucker is their best W and Greenway brings something nobody else skirting the top 6 can bring. IF they revamp the coaching staff, that could work, but once again they'd be operating with a very narrow margin of error. Personally, would like to see more changes in the roster as well as the coaching ranks, but not really expecting them.

To this kid's view, the team's key problems remain the key problems from last season. 1. The team is still too young. Yes, the youth is talented but too large a portion of the top 6 F's and too large a portion of the D and too large a portion of the legit goaltending are still learning how to be professionals. This issue was addressed with the bottom 6 F's and the whole group for the most part is a year closer to their primes which is why this team even after a rough start had enough talent to at least tease to a playoff spot at Thanksgiving. But their margin for error/injury remained perilously thin and as we saw with the loss of Greenway and the even more important loss of Dahlin for ~3 weeks combined with STs still being woefully non-special (in the good way sense, they've been VERY special in a non-exemplary manner) that margin once again was too thin. 2. The entire coaching staff below Ruff, with the POSSIBLE exception of Bales, is in way over their collective heads and should not be coaching at this level. It was frustrating that the only move they made was demoting Ellis and replacing him with Appert and in hindsight those that were saying they didn't see Ruff's Brunette on staff (and other complaints about the coaching staff) were right. Know it won't happen, but would like to see the entire cadre of assistant coaches (again, am on the fence about canning Bales, so maybe keep him for "continuity's sake) canned as soon as this season is over and they should be putting together a list of who they're planning on calling in to restaff this crew right now so as soon as they're available they can be hired. Improved coaching would go a LONG way towards helping these kids mature. And, considering the GM was a part of a SC winning team, am mildly surprised that he's never (at least as far as we know) tried to bring in a guy like the one that IMHO was the key (along with crazy good injury luck that spring) to them getting their names on Lord Stanley's Chalice. This team flat out doesn't have a Justin Williams. That vet in his prime or just past it that is in the top 6 because he belongs there and flat out hates to lose and will do whatever it takes to give his team their best chance to win. Williams was IMHO a dirty player (and Habs fans certainly would say that) but he also flat out hated to lose and he was a key piece, again IMHO, to getting the rest of his teammates to do what they needed to win that year. That guy isn't a Sabre and we haven't seen one on the roster during the Pegulas' ownership tenure except for the 1 guy that they couldn't wait to move out of town because apparently he's a pretty lousy driver (especially when ripped). Even more than finding another top 4D man (which they still need) and an improved coaching staff (which they still need), they need that leader that simply hates to lose. They aren't going to be able to bring a Mark Messier to town, but a Williams needs to happen. Ruff usually has them ready to play. But they simply aren't able to keep it going the entire game on far too many occassions.

This is something they've been doing for the STHers since the lockdown. The very 1st one was Zoom only and had Mittelstadt and Skinner as the players that were taking questions from the crowd. They tend to have ~3 per season with 2 of them having players taking Q's and the last one of the year having Adams taking Q's (once by himself, once with Granato, and once with Ruff). No idea how they choose which players take the Q's. It seems to be a mix of fan favorites (Peterka & Quinn; Dahlin & Tuch) and newer guys (Power & Comrie; Greenway & Benson; Levi & Robinson). Girgensons did one as well at a Fan Fest along with Power. Sometimes they ask for Q's in advance and sometimes they take all the Q's live from the audience and once or twice it's been a fairly even mix. They're supposed to be nice little events where the fans get to interact (however marginally) with the players. Somebody mentioned that the Sabres media didn't make a big deal of it; pretty sure they never do because it isn't an event open to the general public. This one was extremely uneventful as almost all the Q's were submitted in advance and were of the "get to know the players as people better" type rather than "state of the team" type though there were a couple from that line as well. Nothing mentioned was noteworthy. Did come away with the impression that the team is still rather tight though it sounded like the older newer guys aren't necessarily in as tight primarily because the older guys have different interests outside the rink than the younger guys have. It also seems that the guys in the room have more faith in themselves being able to right the ship than the bulk of the fans have. Though the fans may have soured on it, these guys still seem to be drinking the Kool-Aid. For those wondering if Byram would rather be somewhere else, he certainly didn't come across as wanting out.

JFC, the preseason and in-season B&GI's are ALWAYS Duff/Dunleavy moderating Q's for 2-3 players. It is the late/end of season B&GI's that have Adams w/or w/out the HC too. Great job Chloe getting people bent out of shape about something that is standard practice and has been since they started these back during the lockdown.

Ruff said after the Caps game that the reason Thompson was on the wing was due to some injury he's playing through. So not likely we see Tage at C until that's better.

Just beat the mother ####ing Aisles Otters. Worry about the other 58 points they need out of the last 82 after that game. One game at a time. Win the next one. Doubt they'll get the 60 they need. (But, 56 could actually get it done the East is so bad. And doubt they'll get that either.) There's a reason they play 'em. And after watching the Bills let players get about $8MM worth of incentives in the last RS game, we know ownership isn't that worried about penny pinching (at least not for that toy of theirs). How about spending some of that $6MM in cap space they got from punting Skinner to Neptune so the next time Dahlin's back goes out they don't end up losing an additional 10 games waiting for him to recover? Such a frustrating franchise. And to Joe Buscalia's musings last night, no, 87 points for a full season won't get them into the playoffs.

Going for 3 in a row. Bills playing, so nobody really cares. But ...

Didn't notice this mentioned elsewhere, feel free to merge it with another thread. Depending upon how close he is to 100% this'll help stop the bleeding. https://www.wivb.com/sports/buffalo-sabres/sabres-injuries-d-rasmus-dahlin-set-to-return-f-jordan-greenway-to-have-surgery/

Have said for a long time that Adams (after the obligatory single kick at the can while Eichel was still here flamed out) has been building a team on Dahlin's timeline. They expect the team to be a true contender in ~2 years. Personally, do believe they thought they'd put together a team that could make the playoffs this year; it wasn't going to do anything should it get there, but simply getting there would've been a victory in itself. And this team was, on a points %age basis IN a playoff spot on Thanksgiving. And that was with Dahlin being at only ~75% the 1st 2-1/2 - 3 weeks. This team without the guy they are building around is NOT good enough as we have been watching since the 2nd minute of the 3rd period of the Avs game. Stinks that Cozens, Quinn, and to a lesser degree Samuelsson have all been disappointments this year. Had they not all underperformed significantly, maybe the team would've been in a less tenuous spot when Dahlin went out &/or maybe they could've kept from falling off the face of the hockey map when Dahlin went out. Am quite frustrated, because do not expect them to make any major moves this year (the season still MIGHT be saved with 1 more top 4 D-man and 1 more top 6 F (ideally a C, but even a W would help)) unless Adams can make a deal that doesn't take away from that squad 2 years from now. The other frustrating thing is depending upon just exactly what the back injury Dahlin has, we may never see him give the Sabres more than 60 games of the Norris caliber D-man he can be when he's on his game. Which kind of blows up that whole "build a team to support Dahlin at his very best through his very best years" plan. Am fairly well resigned to Adams surviving the debacle this season is turning into. Though have a modicum of hope that Ruff will be able to assemble a legit non "developmental" coaching staff for next season. The other modicum of hope is that the PP is so truly horrific still that Seth Appert will be history after this season rather than the heir apparent. It isn't a coincidence that this team has been terrible since Dahlin went out. The "grizzled veterans" available to step up to help fill his shoes are 3rd pairing guys. The 2 guys that are here that will be good top 4 D-men are both too darn young to pick up the slack of being the #1 when there's only 1 other legit top 4 D-man on the roster. Won't accept that this team has absolutely no chance of making the playoffs this year, but they need a minor miracle now and definitely need the 95%+ Dahlin back to even make that minor miracle possible. (Of course, they were one of the worst teams in the league and dead last in their division in the '97 portion of the '97-'98 season but they they turned on the afterburners and didn't look back for a full calendar year. So, in the season of miracles, maybe they can happen.)