dudacek

Krebs is also waiver-free, although he's been outplaying the other two recently. Cozens and Power as well, even though neither are actual options. You know somebody's going to get sick or hurt.

So this has worked out better than expected. He’s been OK with both Mitts and Vic, and with Kyle and Zemgus. People were comparing him to Lazar, but I see more skill and vision there. He’s also far more engaged than the reputation he brought with him from Colorado. He’s been a frequent puck hound in the offensive zone and seems responsible in ours. Has been part of a mildly improved PK and has points in 7 of his past 11 games. Much better than Sheahan or Eakin in a similar roster slot and probably an overall upgrade on Asplund and Vinnie too - more skill than the former and better details than the latter, plus he’s a centre. Seemed to be a “why” move at the time, but an underrated pickup by Adams and his team. Fits that mantra of trying to get a bit better every day.

Not disagreeing with this at all. But I do think around here we tend to glom on to details more than big picture. We’re 13/4/2 since we picked up Jost. On a good team, the top players are dangerous most nights, the middle six takes turns supporting them, and the 4th line chips in enough to be useful. That seems to describe the Sabres over the past 6 weeks. Donnie has tweaked the lineup, but I think the big picture success largely outweighs what might be the best thing for some individual players.

Raises the question of the Sabres are required to take him off IR, and, if so, when?

I believe the Granato quote was something like “we will not trade away winning long-term for a win tonight.” That is a far cry from “not ready to compete for a playoff spot”. They will make trades when the right trade becomes available. Don’t get me wrong, I think they need to add another defenceman too. The right defenceman. At the right price. In the meantime, they continue to climb back into the playoff race without a trade, and they will be adding a top-4 defenceman without one in about a week

Really enjoying Dan’s excitement level with an exciting team.

Just need to add my appreciation for Dahlin’s game last night. Not just for the production and the skill, but for the way he left every inch of himself out on the ice. So easy to root for.

I think that rather than wear this group down, it has built them up and given them reason to believe they can overcome any adversity.

Counterpoint: he will not be one of the Sabres 10 best forwards, will not be getting prime ice time ahead of Quinn, Krebs and Peterka and won’t be a good fit in a Girgensons/Jost slot. Are you saying he is the replacement for Hinostroza and that will be best for his development? Or for Mittelstadt or Olofsson and that will make the Sabres a better team? When we picked Savoie I was on board with your train of thought, but it seems to me circumstances have changed. Im skeptical a very young team that will be expecting playoffs is going to add a developmental rookie to shelter. And I’ve not seen enough from Savoie this year to think he’s going to force his way into an unsheltered role.

Randy Sexton recently said in the athletic that Botterill insisted on Tage, which is something Doug Armstrong said at the time of the trade as well. Revisionist history? Sure he did because he was told Kyrou and Thomas were unavailable? I have no idea, but I do know that I never heard the “settled for the 3rd or 5th best prospect” from any source other than pissed off Sabre fans or gloating Blues fans.

I’m a little surprised how quickly the light dimmed for Peyton around here as a prospect, especially given his work ethic and this organization’s recent success developing players. His numbers as a prospect were very much in line with Kulich and Savoie and he’s put up 31 points in 79 Sabres games as a 21-year-old rookie. He’s going to get better and we’re watching it happen.

I watched Krebs some in junior and a lot in Rochester. His recent style of play is not out of character for him at all. He was always a pass-first low-goals player who played with more pace than virtually anyone else around him. The winner last night was right in his wheelhouse as far as the type of offence he’s going to be able to supply: exploding into space to create a lane, then laying the puck perfectly into that lane for a linemate.

Donnie started out his tenure talking about how talented these kids were and how much they cared about each other when there wasn’t a lot of evidence to support it. We found out he was right. Donnie talked about how he wasn’t going to teach these guys how to play safe, he was going to teach these guys offence. We are now the most explosive team in hockey. Donnie has more recently been talking a lot about not focusing on what could or has gone wrong and fighting to not lose, but focusing on what you can do right in order to help the team win. Three blown leads tied up late and won in overtime, against 3 of the hottest teams in the NHL. The guy walks the talk more than any coach I can remember. This team is reflection of its leader.

Guys, I meant 3C as in the 3rd-best centre, who usually gets the 3rd-most ice-time. Its not a commentary on linemates or situations. I sometimes forget this board consistently referred to Okposo last season as a 4RW despite the fact he was top 6 in ice time and among the NHL’s top 30 highest scoring RWs.

Not sure exactly when the switch happened, but Peyton Krebs has looked good since he got moved in between KO and Z. Over the past month he’s got 3 goals and 3 assists in 12 games and leads the team with a 58% Corsi and an on-ice ES goal% of 78%! He’s only been on the ice for 2 ES goals against total. He’s cut the giveaways to 3 over that span and matched that with 3 takeaways. He’s playing 13 minutes a game, is starting to kill penalties and even leads all forwards with 19 hits. He’s passing the eye test as well, looking like a real hound on the forecheck and the back check. He’s still only 21 and just 92 games into his NHL career. Will Thompson/Cozens/Krebs emerge as a 1-2-3 centre spine of a contender?

I think his better play (and the drop in play of Quinn and Peterka) has roughly coincided with when Donnie started giving the harder matchups to the Cozens line instead of the Mitts line. Not sure when the switch happened, but Casey has 10 points in his past 12 games, 8 of them at even strength. He’s also a +2 and sporting a 55.2 % Corsi. Maybe he’s not a good 2nd liner, but he is a good 3rd liner.

Moved into 18th overall in points tonight, 15th in points percentage. 12/4/2 since Mule returned. 16/5/2 overall with 23 in the lineup. That’s a .739 win percentage, which would be good for #2 in the league.

This thread is a question, not a statement. The answer tonight was “not too bad at all.” I’m going to make a callback to the sentiment “we need more guys like Reaves and less guys like Casey and Victor.” Pretty sure Casey and Victor owned Reaves and his linemates tonight.

Donnie said it’s about pain tolerance. He figures about a week

A quick look at the standings still shows the Sabres struggling to get out of the bottom 10. But games in hand makes that somewhat misleading. In terms of points percentage, they are 17th overall. They basically need to win both their games in hand on the Penguins to move into a tie with them for the final playoff spot in the east. More pragmatically, to get in they need 6 more points in their final 46 games than the Islanders get in their final 41 and 5 more than the Penguins get in their final 44. Winning most of their 4 games in hand on the Rangers and 6 on the Caps pulls them into the picture with those teams as well. The idea that they aren’t in the race right now is just bad math.

People talk a lot about the Sabres goal differential and how it’s a factor of them running up scores late. Another element of that though is the fact that they don’t tend to get blown out. You have to go all the way back to mid-November and the 5-2 loss to Toronto at the tail end of the losing streak to find a game that we weren’t “in.” In all 6 of our losses since then, we were within a goal with 2 1/2 minutes left. 18 “competitive” games in a row is a consistency unheard of around here in a decade.

Probably just as simple as taking advantage of the opportunity created by being in North America. Apparently some kind of paperwork is needed to even attend development camp. However, it does make me wonder whether there’s a possibility that they’re setting him to joinRochester next year, or even this spring after the Swedish league is done.

Just keeping winning. Someone will be the team that falls by the wayside. Make sure it's not us. Speaking of that, New Jersey has basically fallen back to the pack, which I did not expect. They are right there with the Rangers and Caps. Toronto, Boston, Carolina in, Flyer's Bluejackets, Habs out. Nine teams still in the race. A few more likely to be in or out by the end of the month.

If you're talking about comparing the emerging young corps, I don't think there's much of a comparison. Buffalo has better pieces and more of them: Thompson >> Larkin Tuch > Bertuzzi (who is older and a pending UFA) Cozens >> Veleno Mittelstadt ~ Rasmussen Quinn <? Raymond Peterka ~ Berggren Krebs ~ Zadina Savoie ~ Kasper Östlund Kulich Dahlin >? Seider Power > Eidvisson Samuelsson Jokharju < Hronek Johnson ~ Wallinder UPL ? Nedjelkovic Levi ? Cossa I mean you can quibble with some of my off-the-cuff rankings, and who knows how youngsters develop, but it's pretty clear that Buffalo is ahead in terms of emerging talent.

I can’t see it being a 3-goalie rotation. It will be Comrie backing up UPL unless one falters. Adams has been adamant about UPL’s playing time and Comrie is part of the future.