dudacek

People seem to be ignoring that since UPL got some early call-up yips out of the way, this is exactly what he has done. The league average save % is .906 right now. Since mid-December, UPL's save % is .910. I agree with @PromoTheRobot that UPL has been fine. It would be nice to have better.

Interesting. I would have guessed it was more. To @PromoTheRobot's initial post on getting lit up, and on consistency. Over the past 2 years, Levi Has allowed 2 goals or less 41 times Has allowed 3 goals 11 times Has allowed more than 3 goals 9 times Over the past 2 years, UPL Has allowed 2 goals or less 28 times Has allowed 3 goals 23 times Has allowed more than 3 goals 25 times So if you measure consistency by how often you have a "bad" game, (more than 3 goals), they happen to UPL 33% of the time, Levi 15% of the time. If you want to measure it by how often you "steal" a game, (less than 3 goals), that happens with UPL 37% of the time, Levi 67% of the time. Sure, it's more complicated than that, but generally speaking each goalie has been playing behind a bad defence and the spread in results is far too pronounced to dismiss.

I’m going to have to look this up, but I’m willing to bet Levi has maybe 5 games with a save percentage under .900 in the past 3 or 4 years. UPL has that many in the past 3 or 4 weeks. All goalies get lit up. Consistency is about how often that happens.

Luukkonen has 5 games with a sv % over .940 and 3 more over .923. Since UPL “got good” (mid-December), he is at .910, good for 19th in the league among goalies with 10 or more starts. I think he’s been inconsistent, and I’m not sure he’s the answer, but statistically he has mostly been doing his job.

Is there plenty of evidence to suggest that adding a Luke Schenn level player - or any player for that matter - at the trade deadline is likely to improve the team? Bear with me here, if you look at all the “buyers” at the trade deadline, do most of their records actually show improvement down the stretch? Or do we just fall into accepting the “just do something Darcy” hype?

Michkov's numbers are just crazy in context. He's 17 and pretty much doubling the output of the best 20-year-olds in a league that barely uses 20-year-olds.

And just for fun, a look at the top drafted U20 players in the KHL, plus this year's top prospect: 1. Nikita Grebyonkin (Toronto) 49 9/16/25 +5 7. Matvei Michkov (undrafted) 26 7/6/13 -5 8. Viktor Neuchev (Buffalo) 54 4/8/12 +2 9. Danila Yurov (Minnesota) 55 5/6/11 +5 10. Prokhor Poltapov (Buffalo) 51 5/5/10 +4 12. Nikita Yevseyev (Edmonton) 47 5/2/7 +8 15. Ivan Miroshnichenko (Washington) 22 3/1/4 0 16. Fyodor Svechkov (Nashville) 27 2/2/4 -7 17. Nikita V. Novikov (Buffalo) 59 2/2/4 -1 Other guys in the top 17 were undrafted.

Interesting to look at what the Sabres picks have done compared to the other 1st-round forwards taken last year: Cooley 30 15/28/43 +27 (NCAA) Wright 7 6/8/14 +2 (OHL) Gauthier 25 14/13/27 -3 (NCAA) Kasper 44 8/13/21 +9 (SWE Div.1) Savoie 46 24/39/63 +37 (WHL) Geekie 48 24/27/51 +32 (WHL) Nazar 3 1/0/1 +3 (NCAA) McGroarty 29 10/14/24 +1 (NCAA) Lekkerimaki 29 3/6/9 -4 (SWE Div.2) Östlund 33 8/17/25 +9 (SWE Div.2) Kemmel 38 11/2/13 -17 (FIN Div.1) Ohgren 30 10/7/17 +15 (SWE Div.2) Gaucher 38 20/21/41 +35 (QHL) Snuggerud 31 19/23/42 +26 (NCAA) Mesar 36 16/20/36 -4 (OHL) Bystedt 37 5/11/16 +4 (SWE Div.1) Kulich 37 11/15/26 -4 (AHL) Lambert 10 8/8/16 +9 (WHL) Howard 27 4/6/10 -14 (NCAA) Looks to me like Snuggerud is the guy that has probably opened the most eyes, but after that Kulich and Östlund might be the next 2 in terms of improving their stock. Kulich has played against the toughest competition. Mesar (0 points, 1 game) Lambert (3 in 14) and Wright (4 in 5) are the only ones besides Kulich to spend time in the AHL. His numbers are outright better than what Kasper and Bystedt have done in the next-highest league. They are also roughly in line with what Chytil and Puljujarvi did as AHL 18-year-olds, ahead of Fiala and Byfield and just behind William Nylander. Among 18-year-olds who played roughly a half-season or more, his points/per game is fifth overall since 2000. Östlund is top 25 overall in points/game in the Allsvensken, 1st among U22 players at age 18. He is now clearly a step above the Euros who were rated around him (Lambert, Lekkerimaki, Ohgren, Kemmel). Among 18-year-olds who played roughly a half-season or more, his points/per game is sixth overall in the Allsvensken since 2000, behind Elias Pettersson, Filip Forsberg, William Karlsson, everybody's favourite Patrik Berglund, and just behind William Nylander. Savoie has not taken a leap but appears to be hanging on to the status he had on draft day: the draft's 3rd-best offence generator, after Wright and Cooley. I know it's a product of playing on a stacked junior team, but that +37 in 46 games still makes me smile. Based almost entirely on this season, my draft might look something like this today: Cooley Wright Kasper Savoie, Snuggerud Östlund, Kulich, Nazar, Slavkovsky, Gauthier Bystedt, McGroarty, Ohgren Gaucher, Geekie, Kemmel Lekkerimaki Mesar, Lambert Howard I don't think it's a stretch to say there is a good chance we nabbed 3 of the year's top 10 forwards.

Tampa and Boston remain a tough hill to climb, but the Leafs as a soft team that can’t play defence has become wishful thinking these days, and this just cements that. Heres hoping their goalies let them down.

Not saying this won't happen, but it has become clear to me that Donnie (in conjunction with Kevyn) aspires to ice a team that other teams adjust their game plans and their lines for, rather than their other way around. His underlying philosophy seems to be that if you are playing at full speed mistakes are inevitable on both sides, and the more skilled team will make less and take advantage of more and his team is designed and coached to be the more skilled. His underlying structure seems to be a swarm/pack mentality in all three zones: surround the puck with layers so there is always a back-up. Hitting seems to be dismissed as a tactic as something prone to slowing players down in transition and taking them out of position

There seems to be something of a consensus around here that Donnie is a very good coach at developing young talent, coupled with questions about whether he has the tactical bench coach ability or the old-school philosophy necessary to get them over the hump. I am skeptical of the ability of this board – myself included - to thoughtfully break down his pluses and minuses on a tactical level. That said, I think it would be negligent to not credit the immense leap taken by the Sabres offence over the past 100 games at least partially to his game-planning, as well as the lack of corresponding improvement on team defence.

But don't worry, Botterill saw that clearly and stepped up to fortify it with solid NHL players like Johansson, Sheary, Vesey, Frolik, Kahun, Lazar, Simmonds and JS Dea. My god that man was a bad GM.

This was put in a back room an willfully forgotten about while UPL was benefiting from 11 games of 4 or more goal more. If only there was a 27-year-old proven #1 with 3 years left on an affordable contract available on a potential buy-low scenario.

My post was an actual question, though and one I’m not sure has been answered: can anyone recall a Sabre saying that about his coach? Nolan was a good response, he was beloved by his players. But it was Comrie’s actual choice of wording that inspired this thread: “Donny is the best coach in the National Hockey League.” I’ve heard players say things like “we love playing for xxx” or “xxx was the best coach I ever played for”. But neither of those things is the same as a current player saying what Comrie said about his current coach - particularly unsolicited; Comrie wasn’t being asked about his coach when he gave that reply. And to be honest his current position on the roster is not much different than Asplund’s. I’m less interested in discussing whether he’s right, than I am in the fact that he said it at all. Doesn’t appear to have struck others the same way it struck me, but I found it unusual.

Does anyone remember a Sabre previously calling their coach the best coach in the NHL?

"Donny is just such an outstanding coach. He does such a great job of trying to help you with the mental side of things, too. That’s 90 percent of the game these days and Donny gets that. He’s really good with the younger players, including myself. He just helps you play your game, play with confidence, play without fear. That’s huge. I think that helps and then just playing your game and you’re not worried about outside noise. They really stress that. That’s part of the organization and the culture here. It’s why I have so much faith in this organization and know it’s in such good hands and I want to be a part of this organization because they get it for sure.” — Tyson Jost “We’re never scared. It doesn’t matter the score of the game or what’s going on in the game, we’re always just going to press. That’s the way we are. We’re an aggressive team, we have a lot of fun doing it. Donny is the best coach in the National Hockey League and we have a lot of fun with him because he trusts us and he gives us full confidence to do what we want to do. We can score with the best of them, so we’re never worried about any game.” — Eric Comrie Comments from a couple of the new guys. Thoughts?

It seems odd to me to be crediting Seattle for doing a good job with goalies while smacking Adams. Craig Anderson .914 (last year .897) Phillip Grubauer .900 (.889) UPL .896 (.917) Martin Jones .892 (.900) Eric Comrie .883 (.920) Sabres have won 27 games this year, the Kraken 30 🤷

This is flat-out wrong. Outside of a relatively small group of Buffalo fans, there is no hype at all.

To be clear, Devon Levi is nowhere near a can’t-miss prospect. He’s a 7th-rounder that “the industry” is very much divided on whether he will even be an NHL goalie, let alone a good one. And this is absolutely the logical and tried-and-true approach anyone should correctly support on principle. Sometimes though you take off your analyst’s hat and your risk management hat, you forget about “industry consensus” and “the concept of a goalie” and the “math” of development, and simply ask yourself: does this kid have what it takes to be a good NHL player? And my answer, with Devon Levi, is unequivocally yes, moreso than any other Sabres prospect outside the first round that I can remember.

Many people are too firmly in the territory of “goalies are voodoo” and are throwing up their hands at ever counting on any goalie to be good. Many others are still living in the fading archetype of a goalie needing to be a 6’5” mountain of a shot-blocker. What is actually happening is that we are at the edge of a sea change in how the position is being played, a sea change that is creating the uncertainty we are watching as goalies adapt or die. NHL offences have solved the Robin Lehners of the world by shifting attacks away from the create-traffic-and-crash-the-crease tactics those monsters were spawned to thwart. Instead they are using speed and lateral movement to create holes and forcing goalies to move and make saves again. The best goalies of tomorrow won’t be behemoths who square up and give you nowhere to shoot, they will be quick thinkers, able to diagnose where the puck is going, and even better athletes, quick enough to get there. The best goalie in the NHL right now is a 6’1” 189-pound New York Ranger who meets that description to a “T”. As does the 6’0” 190-pound Devon Levi. Watch him play. Levi is not as successful as he is because “it’s college”. He’s as successful as he is because he’s that good.

It’s more about Quinn Krebs Peterka Power Samuelsson getting 200 NHL games under their belts and acquiring/developing a legitimate #1 goalie.

Sure there will be bumps. But Devon Levi will be better than you are willing to let yourself believe, sooner than you are willing to let yourself believe, for longer than you are willing to let yourself believe. He is as inevitable as a Bogosian injury, a chin-high Zhitnik slapshot or Rob Ray butchering the English language.

I don’t think there has ever been a Sabres prospect I have more confidence in exceeding his industry ranking than Devon Levi.

Chychrun has been out there forever with no one stepping up to meet the ask. Yotes have decided the time is now to make the deal; the price isn't going to go up in June or next March. They have an offer in the table that they might have to take if no one beats it, but they are trying their damnedest to get someone to beat it — or the current leader to up their offer — before they pull the trigger. All this noise is coming from them. Somebody is sitting there waiting quietly, calling their bluff.

It's nice that this team doesn't quit. They were still coming until the bitter end. Too bad they started 15 minutes late. This looked a lot like the Dallas game against another premier team. The major difference was we didn't have Anderson saving our ***** during the sleepy start. I saw enough to know that we've got the pieces to play with these teams, we just haven't quite figured out how to do it from start to finish, shift to shift. We're still learning how to win, Carolina already knows how. Individually, I really hope whatever is bothering Mule heals up over the break. We won't survive an extended stretch of this version of him. And that was the closest NHL facsimile of the Jack Quinn I watched in Rochester. Can't wait until he breaks through. See you all in a week, where I to be returning with a healthy Tage to enjoy the rest of the ride.