Taro T

Expect his is currently pencilled in as the backup next year. No clue who the starter will be. Unless it's Levi (and that's a stretch) he isn't in this organization at present.

Well, after getting spanked by the B's they came back with a very good game against the Bolts and with a little bit of puck luck could've beat McDavid and company too. Let's see how Saturday goes before burying them.

Yep. Goals 2-4 against were all essentially the same thing. Forward gets the puck deep on the D and then passes back to the slot where the D are too deep to defend and the F hasn't filled that space. The 7th - 10th goals were uglier and lack of effort/smart play, but those other 3 above just were killers and the Sabres didn't seem to adjust to it until the Stars were content to sit back on their lead.

Agree with your expectation of what the F lineup will look like next year except expect Jost will be the 4C. Flip Lyubushkin and Johnson and you've got the D nailed too. (But am really hoping that "budget signing" is an actual 4D.)

Am more frustrated with the Rosen pick but understand how they felt with Levi and Portillo in the wings that they didn't want to spend the draft capital on Cossa or the other one that went high (Wahl, Wahlstrom). Really wanted THAT pick used on a goalie. The Leininen pick will be a good referendum on their goalie modeling. They said he was far and away the guy they thought was the best in that draft class. If he isn't, time to rework that model.

Yup. Organizationally this team had holes everywhere when Adams took over. They're getting to the point where there are significantly fewer holes. Am hoping D is a focus of this draft, but am more hoping that the 4D this team really needs and 1 more true NHL depth D-man gets found this summer. Get that and have a legit #1G and this team can do some serious damage.

Good on Peterka. He was the only one that seemed to have come to play last night. Hopefully he can do something with having gotten promoted back to the Kids Line.

Very much disagree with this take. Everything he has said has given indications that he not only wants to be here but wants to be a leader here as well. (Doubt he ends up one, but you can never have too much leadership/ buy-in in the room.) Expected he'd be a 60 point player this year. October and November blew that up. But fully expect him to be a 60 point player next year.

Actually there is an excuse. Dahlin, Samuelsson, and Power are a VERY solid core to the D. And they were expected to be here now at the lastest. As D are the slowest to develop (or at least are slower than F's for the vast majority), the need for additional lower pairing D has been and should be getting addressed through the trade and FA markets. The C depth, when this plan was developed and started getting implemented was non-existant. Adams knew Eichel and Reinhart were going away. Mittelstadt was viewed as the 1 C, Cozens was in his 2nd year, Thompson was about to enter his 1st year as a C, and Asplund was the other hopeful C that they had. (Not including Ruotsalainen as he was probably going to be a W if he ever made it successfully at the NHL. With the recent drafting, they not only have not just 1 but likely 2 legit #1 D on the roster and with all the C's they've drafted when combined with the emergence of Thompson, they not only are in decent shape at C, they're pretty well set there. Yes, try to get more high end D now, but they have the top 1/2 of the D pretty well set for the future and they look like they should have the F's pretty well set moving forward. So, now, fix G - would love to see them draft this year or next whoever is the top Russian G prospect because those guys significantly are stocking the top of the NHL goaltending heirarichy. Hopefully they get a D-man or 2 in those top 3 picks, bu they should be looking at bringing in the best talent they can regardless of position as they have been doing. This team had essentially no pipeline 4 years ago. They now have a very good F prospect pool and with Levi a reasonable G prospect pool. (It's the current pool that leaves a lot to be desired.) Expecting they start focusing a bit more on D now but maybe that's just hoping.

Personally expect you are underselling that. Honestly believe winning everything is the goal next year. Though truly doubt they will publicly say that.

True, but in fairness to Dunleavy, listened to him a bit during the Aisles game and he was much better than he typically is for TV & Radio coverage games. He painted a decent picture of the action and also didn't go off into the weeds of stuff unrelated to the play while the clock was actually counting down. So, he can do an old style broadcast, but somebody he reports to doesn't want him to do that for TV is what seems to be the situation.

Which is why Saturday could actually see them end this 3 game losing streak. Would expect it far more than a repeat of tonight.

Probably the Athletic which sets their model up to go off the past 3 seasons rather than just the current one or a shorter timeframe to determine a baseline for a particular team. Considering the Sabres were hot death 2 years ago and much more fun but still not good over the full 82 last year, kind of surprised they even have the Sabres chances as being that good.

What a stinker that one was. Peterka was the only player that had a reasonably good game, out of 18 skaters and 1 goalie, only getting 1 guy playing reasonably well is awful. Yes Greenway had 2 points, but good Lord, his passing was attrocious. Won't single anyone else out (and only singled him out to point out that sometimes scoring doesn't mean you played well), but could single them all out. So incredibly frustrating that they quit the final 10 minutes. This team never quit last year nor this year until 1 week ago against the Bruins. That's twice in 1 week. For all the talk of Dahlin, or Cozens, or Thompson, or whomever as the Captain next year; there is only 1 player on this entire roster (well besides a goalie and possibly Bryson &/or Clague) that wasn't involved in either game. THAT is the guy that should be the next Captain.

Scary, isn't it.

You betcha. Doing our normal - stop at UP on the way there then off to the nosebleeds. Granato loves him some Olofsson. Very interested to see what the 2nd line does. Hopefully Comrie can play well and get us 2 good games in a row from him.

The Yotes are nuts. They'll never be able to use him in the playoffs this ... wait ... well, nevermind. ;)

Yes he had, but in large part because he didn't want to be a true "full time" hockey player. He thought, correctly, that it'd be easier for him to attend McGill law school playing for the Voyagers than playing for the Habs.

Nope. Let them flame out like the tire fire all things Boston should be. Then bring him in and see how good a Dryden impression he can muster.

Nope. They do it much different that the NHL does and don't follow it nearly as closely. But stuff like signing bonuses get paid up front and then get charged across the enitre life of the contract, provided the player plays out the full contract for that team he signed with. If he gets cut, traded, or retired then any monies he's already been paid that didn't count against the cap have to go against the cap to get the team back to being charged for actual monies it is out. Thus the term "dead cap." Which is cap space the team can't use in the current season because it already paid that money out previously. And what players count against the cap vary year by year with the annual charge being a proration of bonuses over the life of the contract plus the annual salary the player gets in that year. And because cap hits can vary year to year is why contracts can be renegiated before they expire. (Realize that this likely misses many fine points of NFL contracts, but it gives the jist of how they work.) NHL contracts work much differently. Though actual salary in any given year can vary, the cap hit is the total value to be earned over the life of the contract divided by the length of the contract. Except in rare cases, performance bonuses aren't allowed and things such as signing bonuses only effect the timing of when the player gets paid in that particular season with the bonus but does not affect his salary for other seasons covered by the contract. And because contracts hit the cap as AAV and not more complexly is why contracts can't be renegotiated during the deal. It would make the cap way too complex to implement without going to the essentially fictional cap that the NFL has. (Teams there can effectively exceed the cap for years before finally biting the bullet and absorbing huge dead cap hits for 1-2 years, sinking to the bottom of the league just once and then getting their stud QB of the future and doing it all over again.)

The team is pretty much set for their top 3 D now and for the foreseeable future. If they get a legit #4 via FA or trade, they then have 3 legit 3rd pairing D-men on the roster and they have 2 tweeners and Johnson to backfill those. They have the capspace to grab another 4/5 guy in addition to the aforementioned 4. Bring that body or 2 in house and they can easily wait for the Russian D-men, Jonhson, &/or that kid they drafted last year to be ready to step up. They don't have to find guys to fill out th top of the roster and with Dahlin & Power both able to play 25+ minutes and Samuelsson 23, they can afford to even have a Bryson or Clague filling in provided it isn't for 1 of the top 3. But with 1 extra D-man brought in the 1st injury replacement is Stillman and if they find another guy too, then the injury replacement becomes the new guy, Lyubushkin, or Jokiharju. That is pretty deep and it doesn't cost much at all to get there.

Welcome the #### back.

The team has 7 skaters on the roster 6'3" or bigger and 2 more that are 6'2". There are only 5 guys that are listd at 5'11" or shorter and only 2 of those (Skinner and Jost) will be here beyond the next season. (Hinostroza won't be resigned and is a spare anyway. Olofsson is not likely long for this team and is the 1 F that plays small. And Bryson is finally a spare when healthy and likely doen't fit in beyond next season. Kulich seems to play bigger than his 5'11" and Savoie is tremendously talented. This team can handle having a few smaller guys on the ice when literally 1/2 of the players dressing when they're all healthy are at least 6'2". This is not a small team.

Provided the goaltending improves, the team doesn't need saviors. They have a strong top 2 lines, solid to excellent 1-3, and the lesser pieces for the most part are solid and still have a lot of room to grow. A 1G, whether through internal or external route, and a 4 on D, and maybe some extra depth to supplement the kids and keep them from getting deployed into roles they aren't ready for and this team is a legit contender, not just a WC team. Do expect the D-man brought in, but doubt we see much in the way of depth brought in especially if Johnson signs because they have some kids that aren't in the NHL now that could probably play there today if necessary and with a new D-man plus Johnson, they'll be 6-7 true NHLers deep at D with 3-4 tweeners backing them up. The wild card is the biggest need goaltending. Can see them rolling with Comrie and UPL with Levi on the farm, but unless 1 or both really pick up their game it will still be hit or miss. Really hoping they get it right, but untill they actually do get it right, that's the 1 spot that they haven't shown an ability to fix for today.

Was told the starter got ill mid-game, thus the need for the switch. Lucky stinking Pens.