dudacek

I don't listen to the game on the radio. On TV, Dan provides the requisite level of excitement for an exciting team. I'm enjoying his work. Mule had a rough one last.

@Thorny paid extra attention to Quinn’s positioning tonight. Like I thought, he typically lined up as a left winger for faceoffs and manned the left boards for breakouts and defensive zone coverage. As @Taro T pointed out, he also typically changed for right wingers Okposo and Tuch 🤷

Bring the bug spray. I’ve really liked what this kid is turning into. Even if the offence doesn’t come (I think there’s more there) he’s just been a dog on a bone. Hasn’t even played 100 NHL games yet. Looking forward to seeing where he is after 200. Not against adding, but I don’t think this team needs any upgrades to make the playoffs. Right now they are on a 17/8/3 run over the past 2 months with the current roster. Keep that up and that gets us 99 points. He won a lot of board battles, set up a goal, was +1, had zero giveaways, 1 takeaway, backchecked and forechecked hard, and dominated shot share at nearly 70 per cent on the road against a very good hockey team. It doesn’t really sound like you were watching in a “happy to to be proven wrong” way. Because if you were, there was lots to like about his game tonight. Has been for a few weeks now.

Eichel for Tuch and Krebs was certainly out there.

I think what’s slipping a little through the cracks is the Sabres philosophy of building from within is not likely to change next season, or any season. This is an organization that believes it’s current pattern is not only the path to becoming good, it is also the path to staying good. I don’t really expect them to start making a habit of big-name win-now trades or signings this summer or ever. What I am curious about is whether Adams will eventually be willing to move on from “his guys” the way Darcy wasn’t and Punch wasn’t.

For the record, I don’t care if Comrie gets the backup starts over Anderson, I just want UPL to continue getting most of the starts until he starts costing us games. I would imagine Comrie gets Winnipeg, UPL gets Stl and Min. Probably how I would have done it too, given the compressed schedule.

It’s been a month, but he’s only played 3 games. His last 2 starts were stinkers against bad Chicago and Philadelphia teams.

We know Comrie can be a backup. He was maybe the best backup in the league last year in Winnipeg. We need to know is UPL is a starter and the best way to do that is by letting him keep the crease. If you're giving up on the playoffs 2 games back with with 35 games to go, well, I'm glad you're not running the Sabres. For years, we've been wanting games to mean something in the new year. They still do.

UPL and Comrie are both on 1-way contracts next year. Anderson is not coming back and they aren't bringing in another NHL goalie unless neither backstops the Sabres to wins. Right now UPL is doing that. If it continues, he opens next season as the #1. If he doesn't Comrie gets his shot. We already know Comrie can be a backup.

I'm curious when their bluff is going to be called. No one is paying a Jack Eichel price for Jeff Chychrun. if they were it would have happened. The question is more how long is Arizona willing to wait before taking something less. I only recall one defenceman in recent memory getting that much and Chychrun is not elite. Dougie Hamilton got a mid-first and 2 2nds. Hampus Lindholm got a late 1st, 2 2nds and a B prospect. Each is better than Chychrun The exception was Seth Jones, who got essentially a top 10 pick, a mid-first and a decent prospect. The only reason they got that high pick was because the deal blew up in Chicago's face, and Jones was more highly regarded than Chychrun at the time of the trade.

They've blown 2 points when leading after 2. That's it. Columbus has yet to blow any — largely because they've only been leading 7 times after 2. Five teams have squandered a single point. Then come the Sabres. Perception doesn't match reality. it's not Ken Daneyko's NHL any more and the Sabres protect leads better than most.

We need the win and we need to try. It'snot like we're going to have any other combo than Comrie/UPL to start next season anyway.

Always wondered why nobody ever slapped that moniker on Tage

You want to address the Sabres biggest needs in one fell swoop? Without blowing up our cap, or bringing in guys who don’t fit our window? Matt Savoie, Unprotected 2023 1st, 1 of Mitts, Olofsson, Jokiharju, plus Eric Portillo and either Asplund or a prospect of similar value for Chychrun, Lawson Crouse This assumes the Coyotes focus is maximizing low cost future assets while tanking until their new arena is built. Coyotes aren’t going to get a better asset than Savoie, or a better first than ours to meet their Chychrun demand. The price they pay for 2 premium assets is Crouse. The other 3 pieces should have enough value to make up the difference. We add Bishop if they need to take on fake salary under the cap. I think, given what we know about each franchise’s mindset, the deal has merit for both sides. Thoughts?

I posted most of that infor elsewhere on the site yesterday. Off the top of my head: Cozens, Asplund, Clague and Jost RFAs this summer, Okposo Girgs Anderson Hinostroza UFAs Dahlin, Power, Mitts, Joki, Bryson, UPL RFAs the following off-season, Boosh, Olofsson, Comrie UFAs Tuch is at least 3 years away from needing a new deal.

Tuch would be getting 8 or 9 if he was signing a deal this summer. The fact that he's outplaying his contract shouldn't and won't matter to Cozens agent. Agreed and he will get less. That said, Hughes signed his deal a year and a half ago, coming off seasons of 21 and 31 points. He fnished that year, his 3rd with 56 points in 49 games. Cozens will be coming off his 2nd and 3rd seasons of 37 and 70-ish points and is the same draft as Hughes. His agent will definitely be using Hughes as a comparable to start negotiations. You can find comparables up thread. Forwards with similar age and pedigree and worse production are all signing long-term for at least $7 million.

I'd offer Jost a choice: 1 year on his QA, which is more than he's worth, but something we can easily afford, or term (2 or 3 years) for a pay cut. Girgs, I'd have to do a deeper dive into comparables, but memory tells me he's slightly overpaid. 2 years, $2 million AAV sounds ballpark off the top of my head. Gives him a bit of premium based on his on his status as assistant captain.

I think Dylan is going to want the Hughes contract and settle for something between that and Thompson. The positive is that I am reasonably certain he will wants to sign for term and ultimately will.

Athletic ran an analytics-based look at that. Based on them dumping everybody they should in exchange for futures, they found the team could improve its Berard odds from the current 4% to a whopping 5%. 😂 Hurts to be a Canuck fan. *** To your point, I think we are starting to see a healthy Lyubushkin can be every bit as effective as Luke Schenn. Not interested in investing what would probably be a top 40 pick on a rental to play 16 minutes a night for 20 games. The trade made more sense when we didn’t have healthy defence core.

The team that might deserve some more attention is Florida. Pretty sure that’s a team very few expected the Sabres to be ahead of come year-end. I think the Rangers are pretty safe. I can see Washington or PIttsburgh holding or fading and I think the Islanders aren’t good but have hope with Sorokin, but I can very much see the Panthers going on a run as well. Five teams for 2 spots in my mind.

Not next year they don’t They will have about $30-34 million to re-sign or replace Cozens, Jost, Girgensons, Okposo, Asplund and Clague. It’s the following summer where it gets interesting with Power, Dahlin, Mittelstadt, Jokiharju, Krebs and UPL as RFAs and Olofsson, Lyubushkin and Comrie UFAs.

This I mostly agree with. I think you are talking about types of players and roster construction to improve what I called “structure” and “consistency.” My point was simply that the Sabres can now hang with everyone in terms of raw speed and skill, they get beat on the details.

D- zone they generally stack both wingers to the slot side of the circle. O-zone they typically lineup the wingers on their off-wing (when they aren’t getting Skinner or Okposo to take the draw). Like I said earlier, I don’t really think it’s too important the way the Sabres play. As far as the line-numbering thing goes, the pre-game depth chart rarely reflects the order they play the lines, or the amount of ice time they get. My best guess is that it’s a loose interpretation of how likely each line is to score. Okposo wasn’t a 4th line winger when he was on the LOG line and he certainly wasn’t last year when he was scoring 20 goals. But he got that label and it’s stuck. I think most people tend to base it whatever they have the most personal familiarity with, as opposed to what their coach actually does.

Why do they list Okposo on the 4th line all the time too, even when he’s skating 15 minutes a night? All I know is I see Quinn lining up on the left regularly for faceoffs and I usually see him on the left boards when they break out of our zone. IMO it’s moot any way since the Sabres are constantly rotating on the attack and generally play an F1 system on the forecheck and the backcheck.

Talent is talent, IMO. How it’s applied is another story. I think the kids are going to continue to improve defensively just like they are improving offensively. Krebs, Cozens, Peterka, Quinn and Power are fast enough, smart enough, competitive enough and diligent enough that they will become much better at defending as their bodies grow and their brains adapt.