dudacek

That's a bit misleading. 24 is definitely a young goalie. UPL is 26 and he is still a young goalie. There are only 4 goalies 26 and younger to have played 40 NHL games this year: Wolf, Dostal, Kochetkov and Ersson. Wolf is the only one to do so at 24.

My perception of the sabres relative to other teams is that they score a higher percentage of their goals by 'snipes'. They aren't a high-volume 'shoot from everywhere 'team, or a 'crash the net for rebounds and deflections' team. They are a 'find some open space from 30 feet and beat the goalie' team. And because they have guys like Tage and JJ moving and shooting the puck, they're relatively successful at scoring goals that way. I don't know how "attacking styles" affects xgf numbers, but they must.

Sorry for the clickbait thread title, but @Stoner has poked holes in his super fan status several times since he bought the team. According to a new Athletic article, this is why he switched: Tim Graham with an Athletic piece on the song's 50th anniversary: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6243478/2025/04/03/terry-pegula-sabres-bills-song/ Nostalgic read for Sabres history buffs.

Article in the Athletic on how many NHL people are expecting this to be a summer of offer sheets. https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6250562/2025/04/03/nhl-free-agency-offer-sheets-offseason/ It contains this snippet: Peterka will draw lots of trade interest this offseason if the Sabres can’t get a new contract finalized. And if he’s not re-signed by July 1, there’s no doubt he would be an enticing offer-sheet candidate. Allan Walsh happens to be his agent, but out of respect for the Sabres, his client and the process, he wouldn’t comment specifically about that situation. “But I have talked to general managers generally about offer sheets this summer, and some general managers have said to me — one in particular (said), ‘My goal this summer is to do an offer sheet,’” Walsh said. The only question to me here is whether JJ is legitimately interested in moving on, or this is just his agent setting the table for Adams to overpay the man.

So much this. What is fundamentally wrong with building a roster next year that should have no room for Jiri Kulich?

Does everyone think we can count on Zucker and McLeod to produce like 2nd-liners next year? On Norris and Greenway to play 70-plus games? On at least 1 of Quinn/Benson/Kulich to graduate to the 50-point-and-a-plus-player plateau? All at the same time? Substitute a 60-point 2C Cozens for Norris and isn’t that pretty much what Adams did this year?

The issue with the forwards is not about the talent, it’s about the composition. It’s not about the ceilings of Kulich, Benson and Quinn, it’s about having all of them in your top 6 at this point in their careers at the same time. Its about applying the same thought process behind the McLeod trade to this roster a few more times. Fingers crossed Norris qualifies. Its the Herb Brooks thing: I’m not looking for the best players, I’m looking for the right players.

This is something that the board still hasn’t quite wrapped its collective head around. None of Quinn, Cozens, Benson and Kulich performed like good top 9 performers this year or provided good value for their role. I know I’ll get pushback on this, but generally speaking, their contributions have been roughly on a tier with those of Peyton Krebs. Look at the numbers. We’ve replaced one of them. Sure they’re young enough to get better, but how many of them, and by how much? Are you willing to take that bet? Again? After this year, I can’t fathom the number of Sabrespacers who seem OK with our forwards.

I'm curious where he's going to settle. Hes going to fall back next year; nearly every one does after having this kind of breakout. The question is what will he typically be over the next 5 years? What I've liked most about McLeod is how often I see him covering and supporting on the backcheck: "oh *****, we're going to get caught.. nope, McLeod is there" On this team it's very noticeable. Tuch and Krebs are the only other ones doing that even half as much as McLeod does.

I've come full circle to the point where this is pretty much all I'm invested in. I mean I'm interested in the stuff away from the games, but I'm not letting myself get invested in the big picture until it actually changes. Even things that I want to see happen — Adams fired, winning the draft lottery — there's no point. We've done things like that before. 32 times happy, 42 not this year — one game at a time, that's how I cope.

Goaltending is so weird. As much of a weak link as he's been this season, he was a strong point last year. It's like after the elite guys, you never know what you're going to get from the next tier. I mean look at Blackwood and Gustafsson and Swayman and Saros. True #1s — such as they exist — don't get traded.

Me neither. I think Cozens desperately wanted to fix the Sabres and I’ll always appreciate that about him.

Meanwhile, what the hell has gotten into Alex Tuch? Goals in 4 straight games and 16 in his last 22? Leads the entire NHL over that latter stretch. Since he and Tage came back from the break after being overlooked for the 4 Nations they are tied for 3rd in NHL goals, one out of first.

The difference tonight was pretty clearly which team had Dylan Cozens 😜 In all seriousness, the bloom has started to come off Cozens in Ottawa after his quick start. Last 9 games his stat line looks pretty Sabresy. He’s got 1 goal and 4 assists, and his goals for % is just 33%.

Goalies look better when the D isn’t giving the other guy easy open looks. Defenders look better when the goalie makes saves. Huh. 🤔