ska-T Palmtown

Which would put him 9th on the Sabres in points; 2 ahead of Benson and 1 behind DCoz. The minus 8 gets him third worst - ahead of Peterka and Quinn. Don't get me wrong, I am not sad he is not here and I don't think he is the reason the Sabres suck again, but - yeah, there is no but.

^^the comment 🤣🤣 Edit: Lamar did it against <checks notes> the Giants? Josh did it in the playoffs 🤷‍♂️

I'd say there are some pretty big boobs (in the colloquial "jester" sense) around here, but I'd have to include myself so I won't go there 🙂

Buuuuuuuuuuut - If I am reading that right, we WON vs the fancy stats. We scored 0.92 goals ABOVE expected while Toronto was 0.09 BELOW. Woo!

claws are out tonight on Sabrespace ... this is better than those Real Housewives reunion shows that ... uh ... my wife watches! 🍿

At least maybe Quinn is not the problem? 🤷‍♂️

but i keep getting told if we out-hit we will be better: Imagine having to be Marty and sit there and pretend you are not watching hot garbage...that man deserves an Emmy.

So the offense guy can hold the D-man's stick? BS.

Sorry man, I am with the others. I feel broken. I will continue to "follow" the team - I can't help it ... but if other opportunities present themselves to do things that are not as likely to end in disappointment, I will take them.

Wild claim him from ... the Wild? Like, was he wandering around in the woods and they found him? lol

I mean, we have established that no one wants Risto 2.0, so I am fine with Power "working up to it" ... but like - has anyone seen any steps?

I am genuinely shocked they can't get one single ex-player to come in for a weekend and show him how it's done. JFC - pay Pronger $1M for one month to come in and beat the piss outta Power until he snaps and eats Pronger's spleen on the ice ... something. ANYTHING.

That is an extremely legit concern at this point based on the plays he makes on the ice. He could be book smart but still not able to process the pro game quickly enough when on the ice. He appears to have the athleticism to do things, he just chooses to do them in the wrong order or at the wrong time. Infuriating, honestly. As a person with little-to-no appreciable physical gifts, I get so mad when I see people with physical talent waste it! 🤣 All the non-game stuff means nothing if you can't put it all together when it counts. The Bills drafted some QB years ago who aced some wonderlic test or whatever ... terrible in the game.

@Sidc3000 - I thought the original report speculated it was to help cover the $500M overage on the Bills' new palace?

The optimist in me hopes he would never do that. That voice says things like "he's a kid in real slump and he can't find his way out" and other crap. The realist thinks he is having A LOT of trouble playing responsible hockey and his brain is not processing the game fast enough leading to the dreaded "thinking" on the ice. I am not convinced he sees the game well enough to be counted on as a 2C. The angry little troll in me wants to smack him upside the head and yell "if you are not going to contribute on the score sheet, at least skate super friggin' hard and try to keep the other team off it, too!!" He's gotta know that he has a fairly heavy contract and given Adams' reluctance to "lose" another trade, that makes a Cozens trade fairly unlikely. And his agent better be telling him that the worse he plays, the LESS Buffalo will get for him, reducing his odds of getting traded even further. Trying hard is a win-win; Sabres probably do better meaning it might be fun to play here again, his trade value goes up meaning KA might trade him for a decent offer if the rest of the team continues to suck.

I would not be shocked at all if his agent refused to even TALK about wasting a single UFA year in the current hockey hellhole known as Buffalo. He has probably been telling Joker since he arrived "I'll get you out. There will be a file in the cake!" With little-to-no prospect of resigning him, unless they are in a playoff spot come trade deadline, I'd wager he is out of here.

I am in love with the fact that TB #90 hurt himself ... skating? lol - hope for me, yet!

Occasionally? Risto's most famous move was chasing a hit so badly that he took himself of the play. We don't need that. But Power needs to learn how to use his size. This is year 3, the "I couldn't hit in peewee cuz i was too big and they called me for penalties" crap needs to end.

Can the mods update the motif in here with a few palm trees to help stem the attrition? (I would not mind if they did something about my taxes too, honestly)

Sure. But being stronger won't make Cozens a more accurate shooter. It won't make him a better passer. It won't prevent him from turning into instead of away from a defender when he has the puck along the boards or near the blue line. It won't keep him from chasing the puck in the D-zone like an over exuberant golden retriever trying to catch a rabbit he never quite will. I think Benson is great, he plays hockey in such a savvy and smart way. I'd clone him. Twice. But he is, at his young 19, less than a 1/2 point per game player. We need Cozens to be way more than that. I'd love to see Benson track down the D-man, stick lift, steal the puck, whirl it to Cozens and not have Cozens fire it either 2 ft wide or right smack into the goalie. I can dream, I guess.

Yeah, cozens looks a little lanky, for sure. There is no denying Benson has really great hockey instincts - not sure how that is relevant to the Cozens "boy-man body" discussion. While I was having myself a little think, as you so thoughtfully suggested, I also recalled watching how often Benson gets pushed down, pushed around, and knocked over. And I am a huge Benson fan - I love what he brings to the team. I just think the discussion over the physique of the upper body of a hockey player is sorta silly considering the current best hockey player on the planet also looks like he needs a spot to get just bar out of the cradle. Does Cozens looks skinny or lanky? Yup. Will bench pressing 350 lbs help him not shoot the puck right into the goalie's crest or not make horrific passing choices or suddenly make him able to cover the spots on the ice in the D-zone where he needs to? Nope. I don't seem to recall all this odd critique of his body when he was scoring 30. If he was still putting 30 goals in the net (which he did as an even younger more skinny version of himself) - not one peep would be uttered. It is not McDavid's or Crosby's bulging biceps or magical dancing pectorals that make them so hard to get off the puck - it is the fact that they can squat a school bus and they know how to play with leverage. Cozens' problem is not his "concave chest" but the way he is currently processing and seeing the game. It is in his on-ice decision making skills. I'd take a smart quick hockey player (like Benson) over a body builder any day.

I think he had bitten off more than he could chew previously and his dance partners kinda gave him a break. For some reason, this chap thought he would teach the scrappy young kid a lesson. I guess he did?

JJP is a second round pick, no?

I think there is a huge misconception around NHL 1st round draft picks. Outside of Dahlin/Power/Eichel/Reinhart, I think our highest recent pick is 8th? Something like 1/4 or fewer of 8th overall picks ever go on to score 300 points or more in their NHL career. Quinn's 128 games and 63 points is already inching him close to the 50% mark for 8th overall picks Jiri Kulich was drafted 28th overall ... 12.7% chance to score 300 points. Heck, he has only a 50/50 chance to ever play 100 games. Isak Rosen - 14th overall and still only 21; it is straight up silly to say he has "no first round potential" when 300 games and 300 points are 60% and 26% respectively. I think Eichel and Reinhart were the right choices - I mean, they are very good players - you can't even say they failed while they were here. The Sabres just could not hang on to them. **If they had been dumpster fires while they were here, then magically found their careers after leaving I could agree with "we don't get credit for them, but they weren't so I don't.** For perspective, 300 games is shy of 4 full seasons. Most of the guys you list are just wee lads, some playing their first pro year on NA ice.

Honestly, if I was a good hockey player, I would want to protect myself against ending up in Buffalo these days, too 😞