dudacek

Yeah, I think Helenius got a bit of a wake-up call as the calibre of play, but his wingers were sharp. It will be interesting see who has another gear (for Cbus too) now that they've shaken off the rust.

Sabres looked faster and more skilled and didn't allow much at all. Kulich stood out for me, which should be expected.

🤣 Dammit, beat me to it. Nothing like September to put our teams chances in the most hopeful light. Life as a Sabres fan. (Insert Lucy football gif here)

These were certainly good plays and the game was well-called. The Bills were good and they didnt need to be anything more. The Fins were not.

Lysowski with some interesting insight into Ty Tullio, the other guy in the Savoie trade. Says he developed a staph infection in his hand early last year, which really hampered his ability to handle the puck and shoot. Apparently the kid has a bit of a chip on his shoulder that he was tossed aside by the Oilers and Lance expects him to play a little angry. His game is apparently in-your-face and he is another one of these guys (like Zeimer, Poltapov and Wahlberg, albeit with a lower ceiling) that has some potential to develop into a bottom 6 role player. I'm interested in seeing what he brings this weekend.

I thought my daughter nailed it: in a lot of ways, the Bills were pretty neutral; the Dolphins shot themselves in the foot early and often and appeared to have given up before half-time. Their play calling and body language on the last drive of the first-half was god-awful and it stayed that way.

Not saying this is what you're doing here at all, but your post sparked this thought: i read a lot of posts saying "Stop gifting NHL roles to prospects" "I'm tired of Buffalo rushing their kids, slow cook 'em" and "make these guys earn their spots" And I read a lot of posts implying "if he's any good, he'd be here by now. He's probably a bust." From where I sit Rosen was drafted as an undersized skill player who needed to get bigger and better defensively and learn how to play against men. So when we see him spend his 19 and 20 year old seasons adding 20 pounds, improving his defensive play and outproducing all but 2 of his peers in the AHL, shouldn't we tend to think the kid is pretty much on track in terms of how we'd hope he'd develop? (I say this even though I also tend to think he's probably not going to make it, at least as a guy who matters) This post is more what I was referring to. Ideally, this season he takes another step in the AHL, sees some time in Buffalo, and moves into Zucker's role next year. It's just as likely it takes one more year, or doesn't happen at all.

I don't know that Lindy will be OK with JJ's D on the top line. I mean, you might be right and it seems like a lot of people are just assuming that it's 77's spot to lose, but with Skinner and Olofsson gone and the new bottom 6, he might be our weakest defender among the forwards.

I'm actually leaning more toward Tage. He's the most Malkin like and benefits from a forechecking, get-to-the-net guy.

Stuff like this is not irrelevant, but it doesn't matter nearly as much as the way a guy plays. Rosen doesn't strike me as scared or particularly weak, but he's not strong either and not assertive enough in using his skill for my liking.

Malkin. Zucker talked about it in his introductory presser, where he politely suggested he's got the game to do it again playing with the Sabres most talented players and implied that his totals dropped last year because he was on the 3rd line. Pretty well-spoken guy https://www.nhl.com/sabres/video/zucker-introductory-press-6356483972112 I must have missed the talk on the ES scoring earlier. It is interesting in the context of that being Skinner's biggest strength.

Another interesting number from a player I think most of us are discounting: Did we know that 2 years ago Jason Zucker finished 26th in the entire NHL with 25 even-strength goals? Some of his peers: Skinner 27, Matthews 27, Matt Tkachuk 26, Guentzel 25, Eichel 25, Crosby 24, Kucherov 22 Sure would be nice if the old fella had another one of those in his holster.

People wonder why some of of us are so high on Quinn. Points/60 Minutes, 2023-24 (Min. 20 GP) 1. Connor McDavid - 3.50 2. Nathan MacKinnon - 3.41 3. Nikita Kucherov - 3.06 4. Auston Matthews - 2.95 5. Jack Quinn - 2.93 6. David Pastrnak - 2.88 Of course it is small sample size, but it's 27 games, not 6. And it's coming off 2 serious injuries.

Pending camp developments, and trying to apply Lindy's tendencies, this is my forward lineup: "Top line" One thing that hasn't got a ton of attention around here is the improvement Tage made in his own zone last year. He's no longer a liability, and, in terms of overall possession, he was the Sabres most effective forward. I'm going to use him as straight up 1C, and be comfortable with him lining up against either the other team's top checkers, or their strongest lines. In order to do that he not only needs wingers with offensive chemistry, he also needs them to be reliable in their own zone. Tuch is a no-brainer on one side of that kind of line, He's probably our best 2-way forward, he's got a rare size/speed combination for winning matchups, and he has proven chemistry with Tage. Ideally, I want the LW to have the skill to keep up with them and the brains to exploit and complement their physical tools. I want that guy to be on the right side of the puck for them, get pucks to them and then get to the net to convert the chances they will create. The more I think about it, the more obvious it is that guy is Benson. Yes, I realize it's more "concept of Benson" than actual Benson at this point, but the fit is too perfect and the player too good at defying doubters not to give it a chance. "Scoring line" This is your Roy/Afinogenov/Vanek combo, the line you are constantly sending out against 3rd pairings in order to skate and skill them into the ground. Peterka/Cozens/Quinn has proven chemistry and enough experience under their belts to take the next step. They're pace-setters and dangerous counter-attackers and should be able to embarrass slow-footed defenders and reignite some of the rush magic last year's team lost. Peterka fits better here than on the first line because his lack of defence won't hurt as much as it might with Tuch and Thompson, and his offence elevates the danger quotient of Quinn and Cozens in a way no other player on the roster can. Two years ago we could see the potential this trio had to score a lot of goals. Now they should be advanced enough to turn potential into reality. "Matchup line" I like the idea of a line that can turn a shift into a non-event, basically disrupt the other team's rhythm and force them to spin their wheels. I also like the idea of a line that can set a tone, by beating the opposition to pucks all over the ice, finishing their checks and creating frustration, even against upper echelon opponents. A line that can both be a checking line and energy line would be a valuable tool. Their histories suggest McLeod between Lafferty and Malenstyn could be that line, setting the tone with a forecheck or bringing that one-goal lead home in the third. There's a ton of speed and a nice mix of responsibility and edge. "Options" Lindy's interview from the summer really stuck with me, about how what he wanted his lineup is to have tools, players he can tap for specific roles and situations. A Krebs/Zucker/Greenway line could be exactly that. You've got three guys who you can trust defensively: a versatile, high-energy guy with some playmaking skill, a forechecker with some finish, and a leviathan. Together, they can be a pretty decent bottom six line you can roll out every 4th shift if that's what the game calls for. Individually, you've got 3 different types of players you can tap to move up the lineup when one of the other 3 lines needs something different in a particular situation, or on a particular night. I'm not ignoring Aube-Kubel, he can and would be rotated in as a 4th "option" with a 4th skillset. He starts in the press box partly because he's probably the 13th-best forward and partly because of how I structured the 1st 3 lines. I'm expecting wide variations in game-to-game deployments and ice time under Lindy, a more basketball-style approach to bench coaching based on matchups and situations, as opposed to the Granato preference of locking in 4 lines and trying to stick with them for stretches. I think we may see a lot of games were Lindy starts with the idea of 3 preferred lines then substitutes in the options depending on what he's seeing.

To me Thompson is the obvious 3rd. Guy takes personal responsibility and has fought through a *****-ton of adversity without ever complaining or giving up. Self-made guy who has committed to the city and the franchise and a good example to the younger guys. He’s also one of the senior guys in terms of age, games played and games played in Buffalo. Also doesn’t hurt that he is the biggest offensive threat and probably has a ton of influence with the younger forwards.

In a perfect world we hire the next Bill Zito, who quickly flips Adams mistakes for better players, convinces Pegula to spend wisely and turns things around quickly, the way @Thorny wishes Adams would have. In the real world, Pegula probably either botches the hire, or gets in his way and we get to repeat these conversations for another 4 years as the new guy muddles his way through, and more and more fantastic fans like @Weave and @Wyldnwoody44 just get too tired or angry to invest themselves any more.

@Taro T Look at the ages. https://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/leagues/seasons/teams/0000352009.html https://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/leagues/seasons/teams/0000552014.html Some of the best teams of the cap era didn’t look too much different than this Sabres team before they started to emerge: a group of young players getting good at the same time. This team had 99 points after missing the playoffs the previous 9 years in a row. (Oddly enough their biggest off-season moves were trading their talented young 2C for a talented young defenceman and dumping Jeff Skinner) https://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/leagues/seasons/teams/0009792019.html Pointing this out leads to me being called a Pegula/Adams apologist, but the plan is proven to work IF YOU PICK THE RIGHT PLAYERS. Adams needs to prove he did.

Agreed. I think Murray, Jobst and Dunne are probably top 9, but Wahlberg, Rosen, Kulich, Östlund, Helenius should join them and Tullio, Kozak and the Russians could be in the mix. Am I missing anybody? Kisakov and Kozak really need to step up or risk becoming irrelevant.

This. College guys are never in camp. Euros under contract to a European team rarely are. What's really interesting about this team is how many of them will be playing for the Amerks this year. Meidema, Ponocha, Brunet and the goalies will be headed back to junior. The rest will be Amerks or their ECHL affiliate. It's kinda unheard of.

Plus Johnson, who I guess makes sense but I could have seen excused, and Chevaldayoff who I'd completely forgotten about. Wonder if he'll do something to get noticed. Feels like we haven't had that type of prospect in a long time.

Pretty much everyone we'd expect, no?

It was. Of particular interest was Lindy’s success with puck-moving defencemen, arguably the strongest element of this team and one accompanied by a large degree of uncertainty. I can add that I took a look at how Lindy used his defence 2 years ago when the Devils took their huge leap and discovered that his top 5 got within 2 minutes of each other and his #6 was used much more sparingly. Last year was kinda similar, except injuries factored in, so it was more a 4/2 split when Hamilton was unavailable. A lot of their drop last year can be traced back to losing their best guy for most of the year and replacing 2 of their top 5 with rookies, even though they were talented rookies. Im curious how having a prime Dahlin - something I don’t believe Lindy has ever had - factors.

plenty of bad people and bad owners have won when the stars aligned for them. Just like teams have won with bad goalies, or without franchise centres, or overwhelming speed or toughness. There is no magic formula, it’s all about lining up as many pieces as possible in your favour and then executing while getting the proper bounces. Pegula it appears will always be an anchor, therefore you need a GM who can manage Pegula in the way Beane and McDermott apparently can and Murray and Botterill could not. Kevyn’s ability to get along with Pegula should not be discounted as a plus, and neither should his seeming ability to install a working environment that his employees seem to like despite Pegula’s capricious ownership. But all that is wasted if he lacks the ability to acquire and develop talent on and off the ice.

Just another reason to suspect that there is indeed a multi-year on the table for Krebs for more and he has to decide whether its in his best interest to bet on himself and take the qualifier like Mittelstadt did, or go for security and take the term like Tage did.

How do you decide whether such things are there or not, if not by wins?