dudacek

I have no idea. I'm not well-versed enough in PK strategy to offer a tactical breakdown as to why it's failing. I also don't know who is responsible for those tactics and what else he is succeeding/failing in. Certainly gets underplayed around here as an issue though.

I think we both think Comrie was signed last summer because Adams thought that was the "best"move available to him given market circumstances. If I'm reading you correctly, where we differ is that I think Adams "targeted" him and, you think he "settled".

I don't that's the case any more based on his play this year. Don't see him as top 4, but he's an emerged as an every day player and shown signs there might be more in there.

So this is what people mean by not taking winning seriously?

I think it's pretty clear the team is grooming Dahlin to be the captain and would be surprised if it's someone else.

If you're reading this as another mindless rant of "that idiot Adams should have acquired Husso" (or Jack Campbell) you're reading it wrong. It was simply a reference to other goalies who were available on the market last summer. Do you think Adams expected this Eric Comrie when he signed him, or do you think he expected more from him?

With this, you’ve improved your 4-7 spots by effectively adding a real top 4 defenceman. That #4 also insulates you from an injury to your top 3, because you know Joki is capable of playing top 4 minutes in a way a Bryson and Lyubushkin can’t. Meanwhile, pushing Joki down to the 3rd pair significantly improves that pair. You also may have improved the corps even more with the very real possibility Johnson is an upgrade on Stillman and Bryson, and may even be on par with Lyubushkin or Jokiharju. That means you could have two guys out and still run your 7/8 guys in your bottom pair without losing much there. And Bryson is still under contract, and whatever you think of his ability, he certainly represents better depth than our #9 right now (Davies?) Given the possibility of a bump from Power next year as well, and this might be all that’s necessary, assuming the fresh #4 is a good add.

I don’t get what people mean by needing to see “serious commitment to winning”. Because I don’t think most of them define “serious commitment” as in overpaying for free agents, or trading Matt Savoie’s for Patrick Kane’s. I don’t think playing JJ Peterka this year instead signing David Perron represents not being committed to winning. It represents an attempt at smart long-term player development and cap management I don’t think signing Eric Comrie instead of Ville Husso or Jack Campbell represents not being committed to winning. It represents a poor reading of Eric Comrie’s ability. I don’t think trading a 2nd-round pick for Jordan Greenway represents not being committed. It represents dealing from a position of depth (picks/young players) to address a flaw on the NHL roster. Same with trading for Stillman. I don’t think Granato’s offence-first system represents not being committed. It represents their philosophy on how to make this team better. You can’t fall back on the excuse of “oh, it’s a development year” if the team doesnt show any development. I can accept the results this year because there clearly was development. I’m not sure how we can show continued development next year without making the playoffs. Not upgrading the goaltending won’t mean they aren’t “committed,” it will mean that they think UPL, Comrie and Levi will be good enough to win. If the Sabres don’t improve next year, it won’t mean they weren’t committed to winning, it will mean they miscalculated about how to get there. It will mean the guys they are counting on to improve them: Krebs, Quinn, Peterka, Power, Samuelsson, UPL, Greenway, Stillman, and whatever other adds they might make between now and October didn’t do what was expected of them.. Not improving next year wouldn't mean they werent committed, it would mean they were wrong.

I’m thinking what’s more likely though is that we trade for a blueline version of Greenway: I’m talking a younger veteran who some team may have to move on from for cap reasons, and our team sees as having some untapped potential. One guy that immediately sticks out is Will Borgen. I mean not sure if he’s available, but he fits the profile of the type of guy I could see them shopping for.

Brawndo has pitched Damon Severson on here before as a UFA, which is someone I’d take a look at, RD, just 28 and he’s a solid top 4 guy who could around a while. It will probably take a big contract though. I don’t like Matt Dumba as much, but he is also available and fits the same profile. More defence-first guys include Carson Soucy, Scott Mayfield and Radko Gudas. One guy I might kick the tires on as more of a stop-gap James Patrick/Teppo pickup is Eric Johnson: Stanley Cup ring, RD, former 1st overall pick - might be a good guy for Power to lean on.

JJ Peterka was fantastic tonight. One of the few times this year I've seen the player I watched close out the season in Rochester last year. Quinn was very good as well. Not often this year you could say Dylan Cozens was the 3rd-best player on his line, but that was the case tonight. Jokiharju was consistently breaking up the plays and getting the puck out. Lyubushkin was a force. Samuelsson was the good Mule. Jost and Mitts were hard on pucks. Lots of good efforts from guys who can be hit and miss tonight.

I guess that's to each his own, but I think in general most of the fanbase will not be forgiving if they miss the playoffs next year.

I wonder what the issue has been for Lindgren — slipped in the draft, requested a trade, has had kind of a disappointing season. Wonder if there's something going on off-ice?

Yes, that's exactly what I said. While you've been trying to define success and failure by some sort of point total since the off-season (which is fine), I've been pretty consistent that I just wanted to see the team get better. Tonight, to my eyes, the team got better.

"A lot" is a relative term. Tuch, Dahlin, Skinner (can't believe I wrote that), Zemgus, Kyle... and now they've added Greenway and Jost. Am I missing anyone? Thompson, Mitts, Jokiharju, Boosh and Vic might be "vets," but they are what 250 games into their NHL careers? And how many of those games have been tough games against good players? And Power, Mule, Quinn, Krebs, Peterka, Cozens — they're NHL babies. Conservatively, at least half of our lineup is still learning and it's games like this week that are teaching them.

I think it was you who posting elsewhere about responding to the previous game and seeing what they are made of? To me, that was a better response than if they had cakewalked their way to 4-1 victory. That was a playoff-style game against a playoff team where absolutely nothing came easy and they had to fight for every square inch of ice for more than 60 minutes. And they did. Might have been the best defensive effort we've seen against a good, engaged team all season. I was kinda pissed at Donnie after the Dallas game, but when he says you have to learn something from nights like that and use it, he's right. I still like this team and I like where we're headed.

I assume this in reference to the stick he put on Zibanejad's hip that didn't impede Zibanejad in the slightest, but he clamped down on in order to draw attention to in the hope of creating a penalty? That sort of "stick foul"that happened 27 other times in the 3rd period but was ignored but was called this time because it's the NHL? You're going to blame the loss on Dahlin because of that? Terrible take.

I think past two games was evidence that the problem with the defence is not so much the ability of the defencemen as it is the structure around them. Jokiharju and Lyubushkin looked outstanding tonight. In my opinion that's largely because the structure and the effort around them was strong and allowed them to succeed. UPL looked good tonight, in part, because of the same reasons. @Marvin has been banging this drum recently and Donnie used to talk about a lot last year: defence can be taught a lot more easily than offence. This year they learned they can score goals and make plays with the best of them. With the proper coaching and dedication, why can't they learn to defend the way they did tonight on a regular basis?

This raises some good questions. Its obvious that Granato and Adams have adopted a pretty steadfast approach in terms of how they want to manage the psychology of the team in order to shake off the malaise of the past decade. Does that approach only take us so far? Will adjustments be needed? When? Was Dallas an example of when they should adjust, or a test of their resolve? Talking strictly people management here, not hockey tactics.

Dahlin is a true one now, but he certainly wasn’t two years ago. I said this before, but this board glosses over the flaws of Samuelsson and Power in their slots in a way it does not with Jokiharju and Lyubushkin. Mule and Owen flash being good 2/3s but they are not yet good, consistent ones.

See others have addressed the space issue, so I’ll add that with space come opportunity, which is what young goalies need more that anything. These guys not only need a team, they need to play regularly for that team in order to develop. What teams tend to try to do is a version of this: the 24-year-old moves up to the big club, the 22-year-old moves into a prominent role with the minor league team, the 20-year-old plays in college or Europe and you pick another one to move in behind them. If you’ve got 3 20-year-olds it’s going to be hard to to sign and develop them all. Doesnt mean you can’t pick them and only sign the best of them 2 years later though. Another thing is the quality of goalies available in the draft. The Sabres hinted the reason they reached on Leinonen last year was the lack of goalies available who had NHL potential. In the 4th and 5th rounds you want to be picking a guy with some NHL potential and you literally might think the best goalies left do not have that potential. This will slowly gain momentum until it is fixed. The Sabres play the way they do by choice. They also have a history of overreaction: have they overreacted to the extreme defend mode of Ralph by adopting an extreme attack mode under Donnie. Will that ultimately prove his downfall, or is it part of a process and a slow course correction is coming?

Agree with the size bias, but this isn’t the only chart Levi ranks well-down on. He seems to have as many skeptics as fans. And these aren’t reporters, what I like about the Hockey News list is it comes from polling hockey executives and scouts. As usual, the polling is done around the WJC and gets coloured through that lens. Levi is going to prove a lot of hockey people wrong.

The other thing is that it’s been a long time - 2015 - since a goalie was moved for even as much as a first. NHL GMs seem very untrusting and gunshy these days when it comes to trading for goalies.

Been having the goalie conversation with a Canuck fan buddy, who is buying in to the current hype in this market that the Canucks could get 2 1sts and a top prospect for Thatcher Demko. Was trying to burst his bubble so I looked up the best-ever returns in a goalie trade in the last decade or more: Roberto Luongo for Jacob Markstrom and Shawn Matthias Ryan Miller for the 25th pick and Will Carrier (roughly) Martin Jones (!) for the 13th pick and Sean Kuraly Robin Lehner for the 21st pick Corey Schneider for the 9th pick Could not find another deal that netted a 1st-round value. So goalies rarely cost too much - just once have they ever netted a Savoie quality prospect, and that was straight across, Schnieder for Bo Horvat Luongo and Miller were elite Saros-quality goalies when they moved. The other three were younger and generally considered emerging studs.

Hockey News Future Watch is out. Sabres are ranked as the 4th best pool behind New Jersey, Anaheim and Detroit. Our top 5 prospects are: Kulich (15th overall) Savoie (28) Östlund (55) Rosen (73) Luukkonen (NR) Levi was our 7th-ranked prospect and also failed to crack the top 100 overall. I counted 6 goalies in the top 100, with Wallstedt as the highest-ranked at #8 overall. Johnson was 6, Poltapov 8, Kisakov 9 and Portillo 10