dudacek

It will be really intriguing to see how the Bruins stack up this year. I think the "Best team in regular season history" was a bit of a mirage, but that's relative; they still made the playoffs by 44 points. Their goaltending remains strong, their defence corps is deep with two studs, and they are very well-coached. But they've also lost a 3rd of their team, including their captain and best centre: Hall, Foligno, Clifton, Nosek, Orlov, Bertuzzi, Hathaway, Bergeron and probably Krecji and replaced them with the likes of Lucic and van Reimsdyk. Their forward group is a mess; It's hard to picture a team boasting Zacha/Coyle/Geekie as their top 3 down the middle challenging for anything, and their bottom 6 is a mix of fringe guys and has-beens. And re-signing Frederic and Swayman should put them at or over the cap. On paper, they look like a bubble team, but I will believe when I see it.

Such a relief to not have to respect a Bruin any more.

Both Luongo trades were for players not picks. You might be thinking of Schneider, who was traded for pick 9, the highest return for any goalie post-lockout Darcy Kuemper went for a late 1st and prospect Conor Timmins (4 years removed from being the 32nd overall pick). Next year's 1st and Ryan Johnson is technically 2 1st-rounders and probably similar to Hart's value in the current market, in my opinion.

Fighting fires?

Donnie said as much. “Guys that have been with us as a coaching staff by the end of the year had 162 opportunities to grow and that’s more than enough for me.”

I don’t think he means happy, more like he thinks people will move goalposts and say things like “well, it was never really the plan to contend this year” or “it was always about Levi maturing, and when Benson gets here” or some such. At least that’s how I’ve been reading him. He thinks the plan of building from within isn’t so much about building a winner, it’s about Adams managing expectations and building job security. He might be right. 🤷 I don’t really give a ***** as long as the team continues to improve like it has.

Well, Pimlach and Thorny and I won’t be for 3. 🤷 Plenty is a little hard to quantify, but I’m not seeing it.

How would you compare your confidence in Levi to your confidence in Anderson? We missed by one point with Anderson and I have high confidence Levi can replace his 26 games and supply another 26 at that level. I think the experience gained and the pieces added over the 82 games last year will make a difference over the 82 games this year. I think Clifton and Johnson improve the weakest part of last year’s depth chart (PK, defensive depth) while also adding to those characteristics (experience, defence, edge) the team was lacking. I also think it is highly unlikely the forwards will be able to repeat the scoring totals and the good health they had last year and I think the confidence in Levi needs to be buttressed with a better insurance policy. I think they should be a playoff team as currently constructed. I also think more can and should be done.

Great post. I read elsewhere on here today that the Sabres are putting out the vibe that “now’s not the time, we’re still a year or two away” and I don’t see that all. Those who are buying into Adams by and large see the pieces of a playoff team assembled right now. If they cough up an 86-point year, no one is going to be OK with that, and Adams knows it.

Seems to me after hashing the issue to death that the Venn diagram of goalies better than UPL, available, and at a price acceptable to Adams is very small. Or maybe he’s just trying to wait somebody out, or he’s got something he wants to do, but it’s held up by another shoe that has to fall around the league first. Who knows? It’s dead out there and we’re just basically trying to fill the vaccuum.

He pretty much outright said he wasn't going to acquire a goalie if he didn't believe that goalie was better than what we had. Now you have to assume a big part of that is posturing toward other GMs, but another one is that he may feel better about his trio than we do. And I'd say the same goes for Victor as the Quinn replacement. the league has moved into waiting mode and he seems content to wait it out. He's got a lot of depth in most spots and the flexibility to make a move or 2 if the dominoes start to fall. But hes done a good job of making it seem like he doesn't have to make a move.

I think ideally most fans wanted: a goalie to share the load with Levi 1 top 4 defenceman defensive depth plus maybe someone to take faceoffs, then Quinn got hurt and it opened another spot there. Seems to me like there's still work to be done.

That's an interesting and sweeping take. I think we're an extremely soulful and bruised fanbase divided between those eager to embrace reasons for joy and those reluctant to do so because they've been fooled before.

Yes there are. Did you think that was one?

You keep living in that world of your own making. Doesnt seem like a fun place, but to each his own.

Those blackouts are starting to affect your memory.

I got that. Mostly just pushing back against the idea that Comrie might be better. I mean he might be, but the numbers suggest he’s been equally bad, just for longer.

I liked Borgen and Guhle certainly fits even though I always thought he was kinda overrated. So basically since then.

Comrie is 28, and has 22 wins and a .897 sv% of in 47 career NHL starts. UPL is 24, and has 20 wins and a sv% of .898 in 46 career NHL starts. Why would you roll the dice on either?

Bader sucks even when I like what his model says.

Pretty hard to debate private numbers or any conclusions being drawn from them. (Not doubting your sources exist). Conventional stats disagree. And I’m not debating whether or not UPL needs to be upgraded. In my opinion, he should be.

He played 9 NHL games in 21/22 and his AHL sv% was .900 (in 33 games). It's not hard to find many goalies who were worse. If you're going to dismiss his .917 in 9 NHL games in 21/22, not sure why you're making a big deal about his barely cracking the top 50 .898 in his 9 AHL games in 22/23 Clearly a guy who went 40/33/12 overall the past 2 years is "one of the very worst goalies in whatever league he's played in for about 5 straight seasons now". I mean if you want to really get specific, 5 years ago, he was literally voted the best goalie in his league. No point discussing this further. Your statement was wrong, but if you want to continue to double down on it be my guest

UPL has been very mediocre and inconsistent, but “very worst” is hyperbole. In 21/22 he put up a .917 sv% in the NHL. Over the past 2 years he’s 21/17/6 in the AHL and 19/16/6 in the NHL. Last year in the AHL his sv% barely cracked the top 50, but it wasn’t far behind well-rated peers like Akira Schmid and Piotr Kotchekov. And there were 25 guys who played at least 15 games and had worse, in some cases significantly worse. Im not arguing your main point, his numbers aren’t promising. I just don’t want the bold to become gospel around here, because it’s not true.

Minus Mule’s stint, it feels like it’s been a long while since the Amerks had any D prospects worth watching. These two right now are possibly no better than 12/13 on the depth chart (9 NHL guys and the tweeners Clague and Davies). There’s a chance they may get lost in the crowd, but Appert has proven to be a coach who plays the kids so I doubt it. Johnson played 4 full years in college and Novikov was full-time in the KHL. They should be a lot more prepared for the AHL than most rookies and may not be that far away from the NHL. It will be very interesting to see where they are come spring.

I watched assistant coach Dan Girardi on Spitting Chiclets in a video that sounded like it was done just before Free Agency. He sure talked like the Sabres had a good young core 4 on the blueline. I mean, he praised the other 3 more, but it sure sounded like Henri was a valued piece.