Taro T

Before getting to the point want to restate (not from the post you quoted, but have said it several times) that yes Adams has not handled the GT well. The point is that Adams gets credit for not just the moves he made but also the ones he didn't. (And on the GT front both for the most part work against him.) As you say, other GMs would've been adding to the core the team was left with. At the end of that summer hat "core" was Dahlin, Skinner, Cozens, Mittelstadt, & possibly Jokiharju and Olofsson. Power would definitely join it, but he wasn't even leaving college at that point. There was no 1st line to speak of and almost no top D pairing. As GA so often states, other GMs would've almost certainly been far more active trying to get a reasonable team now. That almost certainly would've cost them something that has blossomed in the past 2 years. Why is not trading away Thompson not worthy of credit? Said he very likely could've been a piece of a trade to get a C for the present. Didn't say nor imply he could've gotten 1 on his own. That's kind of the point. Somebody else easily could've gone in yet a different direction and the Sabres would've been floundering yet again.

Expecting the Sabres to have that 1st meeting still in their craw and to jump out to an early lead & shift into cruise mode. Expect UPL to get btb wins for possibly the 1st time at this level. (Not expecting a particularly good game from him, but expect the Sabres skaters to be superior enough to the Yotes skaters & backup that it won't matter,)

You sure other GMs wouldn't have seen an underperformed baby giraffe of a 24 yo winger and not wanted to move him in a package for a legit C to man the fort while waiting for Mittelstadt & Cozens to step up to top 6 down the middle? Sure, it's obvious to use him as the centerpiece of the offense today. But was it 2 years ago? Not convinced it was and that's just one example of a move that could've been made that would've set this rebuild even further back.

What's the over/under on # of snowballs hurled at the Fishies tonight? 200, 300, 1,000? If the line stays in triple digits am definitely taking the over.

Have for ~3 years. Styres moved the Kin-ig-hit Hawks there. So, the Pegulas brought an expansion team to Ra-cha-cha & gave them a very creative, original team name. 😉 Though the name didn't change, the colors did. The new version has army green & black as it's main colors rather than the technicolor vomit the other version used to run with.

Yes, we can. Just have to add the adjevtive "playoff" to it. 😉 But we'd better hope Ryan never gets in the playoffs again or that could be toast as well. Matty "Ice" now owns the biggest Super Bowl choke & the biggest regular season choke.

So, they've got the CLT Checkers & the UTI Comets?!? As George Takei would say "oh, my."

Asplund hasn't looked the same since he got sent to the pressbox the 1st time this year. He was playing well before that.

Well AZ is not a deep team. IF Mittelstadt & Olofsson are going to look good together this is the sort of game it has to happen. Pretty sure would prefer having Jost in the middle, but maybe this is the way to keep from having Mitts get the puck to the boards w/ limited options. Jost seems to be pretty good as a forechecker for a bottom 6 guy.

For those of you complaining that there aren't enough Buffalo sports viewing options this evening, well, fret no more. There IS another option available for your viewing pleasure. YOUR Buffalo Bandits take on the Toronto Rock tonight at 7PM. Let's Go Baaan-dittts! Let's Go Baaan-ditttts!

To Harrington's Q. Hopefully not for a long while this year. With the O firing on all cylinders, a steady diet of backups can make playoffs closer to a reality. Either Jost's or Asplund bounces & Mitts slides to his slot.

We can hope, but not expecting it. Would almost have to be Girgensons - Krebs - Olofsson & Mittelstadt - Jost - Okposo because Olofsson would seem to be wasted on a line w/ Girgensons & Jost. (That said, of course it'd be Z-Jost-Victor & Mitts-Krebs-KO should they actually get split.) Don't see Krebs coming out of the lineup tonight.

Vinny sitting is pretty much a given. Q is who joins him? Was going to go off the board & guess Jost. But will stick w/ Asplund. (3rd guess is Olofsson.)

Welcome to my world.

Which is 1 way to look at it. But given 3 points, seems rather cursory. 1. He brought the Sabres backoffice into the analytics era. And with that he seems to have nailed 3 draft picks (only 1 of which was a "no brainer" that it sure seems there were 2 options that both would've been excellent & the one he chose is more of what the Sabres need) & has a lot of others looking promising. 2. That "simply wait" has resulted in an Art Ross/ Rocket Richard challenger, a Norris challenger, a ridiculously young line that is playing like a true 2nd line & MIGHT grow into a 2nd 1st line, the best defensive D-man since McKee who still has a ceiling of Ramsey (no guarantee whatsoever on that), & a blue liner Calder challenger. (Plus 2/3's of that kid line are also Calder challengers.) Pretty nice package to wait for. 3. One of those replacement pieces is their top RW. Going beyond "simply wait" MIGHT have resulted in one or more of those pieces going out the door for a piece that could help this bunch "win now."

Hopefully. But he is still officially on IR. He, Bryson, Jokiharju, & Comrie are all officially on IR. Though since he & Comrie have both been there over 7 days and have been getting some practice in, all they need is the medical staff's blessing & Pilut & UPL are Ra-cha-cha bound. (Guess Pilut could get a reprieve until either Henri or Bryson is back too.) What Lyubushkin needs are the guards that McKee had on his skates. No more broken ankles. Easy peasy. 😉

Eye test & analytics both agree he has been dreadful on the PK (among other situations). Hoping last night was the beginning of a turn around for him, but not very hopeful.

You're expecting Levi to be the #1 moving forward as of this spring? Would be awesome if it happens. But it seems rather optimistic.

Yes & no. When they're healthy, they seem to pressure well & limit chances. But, w/ pressure comes the inevitable breakdown. They haven't had good enough goaltending to stop enough of those breakdowns. With a real goalie, like them playing the style they do. But w/out a goalie that can bail them out, they need to play more passive & hope they can block shots & clear rebounds from shots originating from the outside.

For all the wrangling back & forth on wishing the Sabres would make a "REAL" move this season. They aren't going to do it unless it makes a ton of sense for the future. The playoffs THIS year, though we all want to see it, is NOT the goal. It won't be frowned on should they sneak in, far from it, but it isn't THE goal. The Canes won their division in '05-'06, just 1 point behind the Conference leading Sens w/ 112 points. (Both just ahead of the Sabres.) Know what they did the season before that? Missed the playoffs w/ 76 points. That was 11th in the East and would've tied for 12th in the West. They were 23rd out of 30. The season before that? Dead spanking last with 61 points. Granted there was no season for '04-'05, but that puts this season's Sabres basically in line w/ where those Canes would've been this year. And really believe that w/ what the Sabres have now, the goal next year is going to be not just playoffs but Stanley Cup with only support pieces* added to what they currently have. Sure they'd like to have playoffs this year, both for the experience plus the goosing of the STH base that would accompany it. But they aren't going to sacrifice 1 iota of what they think THIS crew can become though experience AND the addition of kids that should be ready to step up too next year. Also, expect we might see almost none of Kulich, Rousek, Rosen, etc start the year on the big club but expect they'll get injury callups & then push some of whomever starts the year on the 3rd & 4th lines out the door. Have given lip service to the "Adams is following the Canes" model. But holy cow, amazing how similar the results are between the 2 at similar points in their rebuilds. Even though it seems the Canes were older than the Sabres at comparable points. But that SHOULD just make staying high end that much more doable. * - There may be a starting goalie brought in if Comrie doesn't pan out, but he'd be Hussoesque, not Bobrovskyesque.

Bryson to IR. Power still listed as 1 of the 23.

If they can stay out of the box, yes. 2-3 PKs per game should be weatherable. 6 per consistently, not a chance.

Expect it to be Hinostroza. At his age, he isn't "developing." The more interesting Q is which one of those sit when Okposo is back? Or do they go off the board w/ Jost?

Did something to a leg or his groin in the "dynamic warmup" portion of the pregame. He wasn't ruled out until just a few minutes before gametime. So, w/ 4 guys "close" to being able to play but not actually able to play and only 3 spare skaters, they dressed 17. Old time hockey.

The "wasn't" should've been "was." Oops.