dudacek

IMO, developmental year is as much about forcing Tuch and Tage and Ras and Mitts to play lead roles as it is giving JJ and Power and Quinn and Krebs ice time instead of adding Chiarots and Perrons and Copps. By my quick count we are 5/7/1 against the league’s top 5 teams and 7/2/2 against the 5 worst. Against the conference rivals we needed to beat to get in: 4/5/1 against Pit, NYI, and Fla, 6/3/1 against Det, Was and Ott.

Or sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. Good response otherwise.

Are these the kind of games people were talking about last spring when they said they needed to see them play well against good teams in games that mattered? That was a playoff-style match against a very good hockey team and we kept coming. Somebody up-thread talked about Donnie never adjusting, others have talked about him not coaching to win. Rolling the top 4 D, benching the kids late, coming back with Levi, Mitts to line 1, Tage to Cozens wing, Power and Dahlin to attack, Joki and Mule to defend, using his pressers to re-iterate his belief in his players.... In the past 2 weeks he's put on a clinic: wins over the Rangers, Devils and Canes on a 6/1/1 run, and the much-maligned D has allowed less than 3 goals against per game during that span.

It won't be enough to make the playoffs, but Granato has a chance to be the first coach to match or even pass the record of Lindy Ruff's last full season with the team: 89 points. As is, it's already the best season since then. Also, back to Deluca .500

He was actually next: 37 %, if memory serves.

Today was the closest I've seen Casey look to the player that had us all so excited during the Buffalo World Juniors: a puck hound and playmaker. It's not lost on me that it was happening between the team's two best wingers. Nor is it lost that it happened against perhaps the NHL's best defence corps. It's looking more and more like Granato has fixed another one.

I'm starting to see a player that more matches the concept: Not necessarily the banger that some were hoping for, but the responsible, strong-on-pucks guy who goes to the net and backchecks with purpose.

Or maybe they had always intended to play Levi and gave him the day off to rest. I’m glad they are trying to give him as much action as possible. He’s the one we need to see more of.

He’s played 20 games and has been sub .880 for 10 of them. What kinda sample size do you need? Granato: Making things easier on Tage with his injury, spreading the wealth over 2 lines by breaking up Tuch and Tage.

Jack Quinn has a tiny sample size, but he is the Sabres best all-time out of players with multiple attempts. Quinn 3/4 75% Tuch 3/6 50% Thompson 7/15 46.7% Dahlin 1/3 33.3% Girgensons 4/14 28.6 Olofsson 2/9 22.2 Mittelstadt 3/14 21.4 No other Sabre has scored a shootout goal for Buffalo. Skinner is 0/1, Peterka is 0/2, Cozens 0/3. Skinner is 6 for 36 lifetime (16.7%) All-time, the leader over a reasonable sample size is Kotalik Kotalik 18/36 50% Gerbe 4/9 44.4% Briere 8/18 44.4% Afinogenov 6/14 42.9% Boyes 5/12 41.7% Overall, NHL shooters generally score 1 out of every 3 attempts.

I’d feel a lot better about adding Kulich to the big club next year if we didn’t already have Tuch, Skinner, Quinn, Mitts, Peterka and Olofsson on the wings, and a team already in need of more physical strength and defensive aptitude. Especially if the player he’s replacing is Okposo. Let’s wait until we’ve seen Jack and JJ make a jump, what Greenway can bring, and what the market is for Olofsson before we add even more offence-first and inexperienced players.

For some reason, UPL has been able backstop the Sabres to a 97-point pace this year. Sometimes he’s been good, other times he’s been terrible. Over the past month (8 appearances), he’s had 3 starts of .923 or better, 4 of .897 or worse and a perfect 23 minutes of relief. Flip a coin.

Please god, dump that kid in the west. Last thing we need is him plugged into Detroit or Montreal for the next 15 years.

Been a lot of talk about Power and Dahlin extending early this summer instead of waiting until the following summer when their deals expire. I wonder if Casey will be offered a similar opportunity? Recent comparable might be Filip Chytil who just signed a 4-year, 4.4 AAV deal. (UPL, Krebs and Jokiharju are the others in the same situation.)

Overlooked in all the other fireworks last night, that was a pretty cowardly run Wallman took at Mittelstadt. Dropped his gloves and skated into the pile toward an unprepared skill guy who wasn’t watching him and started chucking them.

Nice finds. That last one is the only one that surprises me (for the reasons you state) but actually it generally fits with the way the team is coached. They are a team that hangs on to the puck and tends to keep moving it until they find openings, rather than bang pucks “at the net” and “up and out”. And they are skilled enough to make it work. Their defensive strategy is to skate forward: attack the puck carrier, and rotate support in behind the checker. Their struggles come from the support not getting there, possibly through inexperienced reads.

I’m probably selling Dom short. But I am surprised you guys think that was a bad goal: right-handed shot, one-timer from the left dot, uncovered, off a no-look pass? That’s the 2nd-toughest save in the game IMO. I just watched it again. Perron put it right under the bar. And it’s not like he doesn’t have a history of scoring goals like that.

Leads all rookies in that stat. And to emphasize that, most of the other guys atop the rookie leaderboard are minus players despite playing far fewer and much easier minutes. The only other notable rookie who is a double digit plus is Beniers, who, IMO, is Power’s only reasonable competition for the award.

9 assists in his past six games, +4

Just for the record: Ellis: Forwards. 14 seasons of pro hockey as a player, maybe half of that in the NHL. Moved over to the academy of hockey when he retired, then spent half a season in the Sabres front office before moving in as an interim assistant when Krueger was fired and never leaving. Wilford: Defence. 14 seasons of pro hockey as a player in the minors and Europe. Became an AHL assistant immediately after retiring, spending 6 seasons with the Ducks minor league affiliate, before being promoted to the big club for four more. Known for helping develop the Ducks blueline including guys like Montour, Theodore, Manson, Fowler and Lindholm. Moved directly from there to Granato’s Buffalo staff. Bales: Goalies. Spent 9 years playing minor pro in North America followed with another 9 in Europe. Started as a development coach for Pittsburgh shortly after retiring, promoted to goalie coach after 2 years. Spent 4 years working with Fleury and others, winning 2 cups, then spent 2 years in Carolina. Came to Buffalo when offered status as a full assistant, rather than just goalie, and spent the past 4 years here. Christie: General. 10 years is a minor pro player, some of it under Granato, then moving directly into 20 years as the winningest head coach in ECHL history, interrupted by 2 as an AHL assistant. Also spent a lot of his ECHL time doubling as a director of hockey ops. On the surface, Bales and Wilford are well-credentialed, Matt Ellis is a relative neophyte as a coach, and Christie is an unusual choice and probably a Granato crony. I’m not really sure what his role is.

LOL, he finally got a taste of what the Sabres defence is capable of. First was the kinda goal we’ve seen beat UPL and Comrie many times this year and the 2nd he was screened, but he also completely misread (guessed?). The other 4 I doubt Dom could have stopped. Be interesting to see how he responds.

Poor decision-making? He’s just outside the top 50 for assists in the entire NHL. He’s got 1 less than Point, Matthews and Kopitar. Since Jan. 1 he has 29 assists in 43 games. That’s tied for 22nd. I don’t think all those decisions have been poor.

And Dahlin for most of the same period, and for a shorter period, Tuch

Be nice if he could actually score a few to round out his game. He's getting chances and his hands are good enough, it just looks like he’s in his own head.