dudacek

Seemed to me like Donnie deliberately had Krebs out against McDavid on multiple occasions. That, in and of itself, was not necessarily a bad thing. I’m thinking of how well Cozens did in that slot a year ago. But Krebs with Victor and JJ on his wings 😬 Casey Mittlestadt was very good tonight. I want he and Cozens to become the thing they are becoming. If we’ve got a dozen good efforts left in the tank, we can’t afford to waste them on games where we come up with no points. We don’t have the goalies to steal those points back. Huge decision on who gets the call in the crease tomorrow. Could be season-deciding.

Don’t disagree. The thing with Quinn is that I think he will be able move himself and the puck around in a way the top unit current lacks.

Can’t wait until a confident Quinn graduates to a top unit. That kid can pass and shoot, and is dangerous from so many areas.

^^^ Red flag, bull

Kinda depends on where the roster goes next year. Tage, Cozens, Krebs, Tuch Skinner Quinn Peterka, Greenway and Girgensons will be taking 9 forward spots. If Mitts, Olofsson, Jost and Okposo are back, there's no room for him, unless you want him in the role Hinostroza and Asplund had this year. But if Mitts or Vic is moved for D help, I can certainly see him getting a shot in a JJ/Quinn/Krebs role while one of those guys moves up the pecking order. It's another one of the reasons I see Vic probably being moved. Top 10 picks frequently make the NHL in D2 years, especially when they are producing the way Savoie has during the past few months.

Tuch was a year ahead of Greenway in upstate NY minor hockey and the USNDP, and a year or two ahead of him with the Wild, so I'm not sure they ever played together, but their paths probably crossed given their similar backgrounds.

Arizona has moved to very near the top of my list of teams I don’t want to get Bedard.

I’d like to see Savoie in Rochester this April, like we saw with Sam Reinhart. Not going to happen because Winnipeg is probably going to the Memorial Cup.

Pretty sure Skinner hasn’t had any stretches like that this year. (Yes, I remember the Krueger era)

I think Dan has done a very good job with his cadence this year. Having better material on the ice to work with has certainly had a role.

There have been whispers Johnson is going to sign. But all this really confirms is that no one offered a 2nd round pick for him. The Sabres get a late 2nd as compensation if he walks.

Further evidence that what you did last game doesn't seem to matter much to Donnie when he's deciding who sits.

Only thing to pay attention to about runs is that they don't tend to last. It might be more about last run wins. As far as the Sabres go, they haven't played particularly well lately. They are going to need to play better.

Asking JohnC specifically because he has been very steadfast in saying Adams was not interested in that type of trade. But always interested in other points of view. Mine mirrors yours in this case.

Someone will use the same logic we used in acquiring Greenway when paying a similar price for Vic: he’s done it before and he’s not really in a position right now to maximize what he does best. And they will be right to do so. He will score 30 goals and 60 points if he is playing 5-on-5 with a Jack Eichel and being the undisputed trigger man in the power play. I like Vic. I just like Jack Quinn better and, on this team, need a player like the concept of Jordan Greenway more.

There’s a scene in the Ryan Miller night Embedded video where Jim Corsi talks about the circumstances in Buffalo when Miller was drafted: Recent 1st-round draft picks Biron and Noronen in the system and the best goalie of all time between the pipes. If Portillo wasn’t interested in signing because of Levi and UPL, kinda glad he’s in LA

If I was building a team from scratch, I’d actively look for guys like Zemgus on my fourth line. Big and fast, hard-to-play against, relentless on the cycle, diligent on the backcheck, versatile, kills penalties, can be trusted against other team’s top lines, shows up every day, sets a good example: he ticks most of the boxes. Hope he is re-signed.

I don’t think it was mean-spirited, just, as I said, tone-deaf. To the kid, a professional hockey journalist making that joke about a 10-year-old to thousands on social media is going to feel considerably different than Dad making that joke to Uncle Brian at the church picnic.

Yes, he has over 4 games. Before he got sent down Vinnie was on a stretch of 0 goals and 4 assists in 17 games. He doesn’t play special teams. And let’s not pretend he’s great on the forecheck or in his own zone either. Over the long haul, Victor is the better hockey player.

My god, there are a lot of interesting forwards this year. So many that you will definitely regret passing on one or two if you reach for a defenceman with the 1st pick.

@JohnC wondering what you think of Adams admitting he had a serious offer on the table for Chychrun. Shows serious interest in an upgrade beyond a Lyubushkin, no?

Hoping they end up with 2 defencemen out of the draft’s top 50, which will completely change the complexion of our prospect pool. Picture adding Lian Bichsel (18th last year) and Tristan Luneau (53rd) to Johnson, Lindgren, Komarov and Novikov; suddenly the pipeline has options. The interesting thing is, this draft is so forward heavy that the best defencemen (Reinbacher and Pellikka according to McKenzie) are ranked down around where we could be picking. That might be fortuitous, but it might also mean they go higher than they’re ranked due to teams wanting defencemen, forcing us to go forward with our top pick.

I’m thinking Greenway probably gets to start alongside Casey and Dylan. It fits development-wise with the idea that Granato thinking he has upside and the skill set to play with more talented players. And it fits tactically, in that he makes our second line much harder to play against in both zones.

I gotta agree with this. Granato’s already demonstrated his pecking order and it’s not like this is the 1st time VO has hit a drought.

Not disagreeing, but VO too often flunks the eye test too. Im sure there are Brian Burke types who won’t want anything to do with him. Fortunately, you are right, there are other guys who will be desperately needing a finisher who will be willing to ignore the rest: 25 goals are 25 goals. Im kinda expecting a trade or trades that move out VO and move in a Jokiharju-level defenceman. And by Jokiharju-level, I mean somebody relatively young and relatively anonymous who’s probably more capable than the average fan gives him credit for and has room to grow. Think of Lydman when we got him from Calgary, except probably younger. Or they trade VO for a Ryan Johnson level D prospect and acquire a vet free agent to bridge us until that player and Johnson arrive.