Taro T

It's possible they can. Am expecting that for large stretches they will, but this team has had a LOT of injuries in the Pegula era and until that isn't the case expect we need to expect it will be the case again and that those injuries will put them just below that NHL 0.600 that they need to truly call this season a success. BUT, my pet theory has been that part of the reason for such a seemingly abnormally high rate of mangames lost iisthey've been forced into playing above their talent level and are pushing their bodies to & beyond their limits thus resulting in an inordinate amount of injuries. IF the theory has any merit AND these guys actually have an NHL roster again, we should see a more reasonable amount of injuries. (Girgensons & Hinostroza will break, because that's what they do. But hopefully the rest will be substantially healthier than in the past.) Adams focusing on limiting injuries will also help (and realistically will be a bigger factor). But, if they can stay healthy AND get NHL quality goaltending, the playoffs are possible.

There was enough talent to do it after they got healthy last year. In previous years, rather than doing it as a measure to dictate to the opponent how to play which is what that should be now, it could've been used as a way to mitigate them just getting absolutely collapsed for long stretches. (Limit the damage when you just don't have enough talent.)

Not speaking directly to Granato's system, but in general on the forecheck there aren't W's & a C, there are F1, F2, & F3. F1 takes the body, F2 takes the puck, & F3 stays high in case F1&2 are beat but heads to the net/ open ice lowish when the puck is won & F1 (typically) rotates back up high to now become F3. And the 3 are always in motion. If the 2 F's close to the opponent with the puck are a W & a C, it'll usually (but not always) be the W that becomes F1 & the C becomes F2. The W's spend a bit more time along the boards & usually are better at winning that board battle but not always. (When Eichel & Olofsson were on the same line, Eichel was way better on the boards than Victor. And neither Krebs nor Olofsson being particularly good on the hard forecheck might keep the 2 of them apart.) (Also part of the reason the traditional C Girgensons is so much better at W than C - he's a beast along the boards but has below average vision IMHO.) And, the C will tend to slide to F3 more often than the W's because F3 becomes the C on a transition into their own zone, at least initially, & also because the C usually has the better vision should the puck squirter out of the board scrum. In the other end, yes, that 1st F back becomes the C but at the NHL level because everybody is so fast & also because an NHL goalie will rarely get beat on a clean shot from the blue line the Ws collapse much lower than they do at lower levels of competition. So, if there is a Skinner that was the 1st man back, he can get rotated back to wing usually fairly easily but if Girgensons were the 1st man back, he just stays at C until they've cleared the zone.

Very glad to see he's considering the bolded. Have been advocating for that for a while. And could see the lines being different against the same opponent depending on whether they're home or away.

Of course, the Vegas trip could be the "bring your dad along" trip, in which case the broadcast team would likely go along too to set up a Beyond Blue & Gold or Embedded episode covering the trip.

Didn't say that would be the 2nd line in October, though it might be. Not sure if Mittelstadt's line will get 2nd most 5v5 ice time or 3rd most. But said swap out Krebs for Savoie & that could very well be a line. And again, the Sabres say Krebs is a C. Mitts & Granato have both said Mitts might be a W rather than a C. If Krebs is playing C, he should have a true C on his W to help with the heavy lifting. Just reading the tea leaves.

Would expect that's the Edmonton-Calgary-Vancouver-Seattle trip. The LA - Anaheim - San Jose trip. And though it isn't "West Coast" technically, could see them skipping the Colorado - Phoenix - Vegas trip, though that's just a guess.

Wouldn't be surprised if when the bullets start flying for real that Krebs is centering that 2nd line. Knew Granato would have Jokiharju paired with Power but hoping that flips to Lyubushkin sooner than later. (Presuming both of those RHD play as expected.)

And that's part of the reason Krebs will be better at C than W IMHO. And fully agree that he needs to gain strength to stay at the NHL level. Just not sure that he'll ever be good at W but could see him being good at C. He was very good there in the A.

Different style of play, but see him being similar to Briere in that my expectation is he remains a C but ends up best playing w/ a W that knows how to play the C position and helps get the job done by committee. At his size, just don't see him doing well trying to outmuscle somebody along the boards.

You mind showing us where in the initial post (or any of the subsequent ones either for that matter) that he responded to it was ever stated that UPL would be brought up to play 20 games over the course of the year? And, it is likely that they'd rather have him getting 60 games in the A than 40 in the NHL. BUT if he outplayed Anderson AND Comrie falters to Huttonesque play, you really think they're going to tell Okposo, Dahlin, Tuch, Cozens, et al. that it's better for UPL & them for him to stay in the A after earning a callup than for him to bounce up and help them stay in the playoff hunt? And BTW, this is ALL assuming that UPL's ONE good game is necessarily sustainable. Not a given at present. But it would be great if it is.

Victor Goalofsson would like to say 'hi.' 😉 Really believe leaguewide there will be significantly more guys drafted at the tailend of the '21 draft that end up having legit solid NHL careers than from most years because in many ways scouting that year will turn out to have been as much of a crapshoot (or more in certain ways) than it was in the '80s. Wouldn't be surprised to still see more late rounders make it from this year's draft than in typical years either as the D-1 baseline is flawed for many of the guys drafted this past summer.

Nope. Perreault is one of the very few that didn't get traded. Death, taxes, & the Sabres trading away their captain are 3 things you can count on. 😉

Playing 40 games ISN'T really backing him up. It's platooning. And expect he'd get way more out of 40 NHL games than 60 AHL games. It's likely moot anyway as UPL probably isn't there yet. (Thus the IF in the OP.)

Pretty sure we & the Sabres are all expecting that. But if he ends up Hutton, a platoon with an actual capable UPL would be superior to watching Anderson slowly fail over 40 games. (And if he ends up Hutton AND UPL is the same we saw last year, Anderson's last year will NOT be pretty.)

The Sabres prospect heavy roster primarily outplayed the Caps prospect heavy roster & deserved the W. Depends if Comrie can handle 55 games or only 40.

Savoie is going to be fun in a year or 2. Motor never stops.

Nice writeup. The things that stood out to me was UPL playing great in the SO. He played well in the 1st 60 but was really at another level in the SO. Was pleased with his game. IF he can play like this, Mr. Anderson might find himself an Amerk. Would not have expected to even entertain that possibility based on his play last year. Would love to be wrong about him. Kozak isn't going back to Junior. Kulich really could get a handful of games in the NHL this year. Pilut started slow but played well overall. Still think he's one of the 8 come October.

Should've been 6-4 then. Caps broadcast called it 5-3. 4-3 for the OT win & apparently 1 more for the SO win.

Sure, why not. They're 1-0 already. 104-0 baby!

Don't forget both had very good to HoF level GTing & above average D to go w/ those roll 4 line squads. If Comrie can get there, it just might work. 😉

It was one of Krueger's keys. Granato must've learned that from him. Ducks.

You telling the couple of thousand people that paid a couple hundred to sit in what were premium seats that they now won't be able to see anything but the Bills sideline? Other than that, it's a brilliant solution.

Easy solution. Don't read Bills forums for 24 hours after a loss. It's not like they've been Meccas of objectivity after losses in prior years. And complaining that forcing 300 lb men to stay in the sun for 3 over hours with only a 15 minute break when it's almost 90 with 70%+ humidity, no air movement, and no shade shortly after noon is a tragedy waiting to happen isn't making excuses for the loss. The league made changes to what's acceptable in training camp & practices after the Korey Stringer tragedy. Are they going to wait for another tragedy before they make additional tweaks? Something as simple as either pushing the game start back to 4PM or letting the players into the locker rooms after each Q could prevent the sunstrokes we saw. As for the game, it was a perfect storm of injuries, weather, & execution and even with all that they were within 4 seconds of either half from winning. Can't wait for the Ravens game.

What's really annoying is coming hard the 2 previous plays both resulted in negative yardage.