dudacek

Can’t they just do a paper transaction where he stays with the team but is ineligible to play?

Tied for 5th in points Been on the ice for 2 goals for and 2 against 2nd best Corsi on the team Best expected goals for on the team. Charged with 1 giveaway. 2 games played, one tight win, one tight loss. Yes, he’s clearly “played his way off the team”. Dude’s an anchor. The numbers don’t lie. 🙄

A moment many have been waiting for. Guess Sheahan’s healthy. Wonder if he stays with the team for the road trip regardless.

There’s no I in dudacek . 😜

Asplund Mittlestadt Olofsson was a good unit back when Donnie was an interim coach. Asplund generally makes life easier for his linemates. Benching Krebs in Alberta would be a distinctly un-Donnie move. Moreso Calgary than Edmonton, but still. Really dislike talk of “demotion”, particularly on a team built like ours. This isn’t Pittsburgh or Edmonton. Line construction for us about matchups and chemistry, not a reward-based heirarchy.

Good observations. Where I might disagree is your thought that Tage is being tapped and paid to anchor their first line. I think the proper role is 2C and the contract reflects that. The issue is the roster right now demands him to be a 1C.

.937 save percentage over two opening weekend AHL games. 1 ES goal against so far.

Found it. It was an Athletic piece from March. Actually Buffalo was 3rd from bottom at $347 “based on the average cost of four non-premium tickets, two beers, two sodas, four hot dogs, two souvenir hats (as a proxy for merch buying) and parking.” Average NHL price was $463. Florida and Arizona were the two rinks cheaper than the Sabres. The Leafs topped the charts at $698. https://theathletic.com/3200274/2022/03/23/florida-panthers-remain-the-nhls-best-deal-for-fans-but-the-others-may-surprise-you/

Just read a piece where the Sabres were right down at the bottom of the league. It was an article where they lumped in parking and concessions and ticket prices and I’m pretty sure Buffalo was the second -lowest out of the 32 teams.

Regardless of who you cheer for, Bills Chiefs continues to be the pinnacle of football as athleticism and entertainment. Just a treat to watch. I said the same after 13 seconds. If you can’t appreciate the way they play, you’re not a sports fan.

I think Krebs and Jokiharju have moved into that territory where any mistakes they make are going to be magnified because some fans have become fixated on a certain type of mistake each player makes too often, rather than the whole picture of their games. Krebs’ expected goals for is one thing being overlooked. Jokiharju not being on the ice for a goal against yet (+4) is another. Krebs made the best pass of the game to set up Dahlin in game one. Jokiharju sprang Tuch with a beauty in game 2. People are choosing not to talk about these plays. Instead, they talk about a pass to Krebs’ feet that a forechecking forward pounced on, or Jokiharju not being good enough to cover for Power’s yips. Both players have things to work on. Neither has been bad.

This is what I’ve seen as well, in terms of deployment strategy. Olofsson isn’t getting Tage and Skinner the entries or the turnovers. Mitts is working hard and getting to the right spaces, he just isn’t making plays or connecting with Tuch. Not sure how soon Donnie mixes it up, but his early plan hasn’t worked.

The better team won today. The gap was noticeably closer than it has been. Lots of things that need to be worked on. Don’t think passion was one of them.

I wanna see Mule and Ras give Tkachuk a bit of his own

Brandon Montour played 24 minutes for them in the opener and their bottom pairing is 2 guys who shouldn’t be in the NHL. And without Marchment and Duclair, they are 2 lines up front, not 3. They had 3 guys skate less than 10 minutes in the opener and 3 more less than 12. This is a team with no depth. Their best players remain studs though and they toyed with us last year.

UPL looked like the man. Forward lines looked fast, balanced and deep. Pilut is elite at this level.

Haven’t figured out my own, but this has to be @DarthEbriate’s

If Hasek’s not top 10 there has to be a Euro bias going on. Perreault and Hawerchuk for sure and Lafontaine as well. Housley and Andreychuk are in the Hall of Fame, Martin and Mogilny should be; not sure if any make this list.

The Athletic has started a new project ranking and profiling the NHL’s best players of the modern era, which coincides with expansion. Criteria is anyone who has played 400 NHL games since 1967. https://theathletic.com/3550299/2022/10/14/nhl99-ranking-the-greatest-players-in-modern-nhl-history/ Gretzky has already been crowned #1, they are counting down the rest of the top 100, starting this week with 100 Marc-Andre Fleury, 99 Kris Letang, 98 Guy Lapointe, 97 Henrik Zetterberg and 96 Johnny Bucyk. Im curious which Sabres people think belong on the list and where?

Random observations before reading the thread: The team certainly wasn’t itself to start - a little overwrought maybe? But it got better as the game went on. My patience for the Dunleavy complaints is going to go away in a hurry if I am forced to listen more play by play team’s like Ottawa. No excitement, no insight no humour, no stories - nothing but catering to the pre-existing Ottawa narrative and pretending it wasn’t vanishing before their eyes. The preseason whipping boys, Krebs and Jokiharju, both had solid games and Peterka justified the organization’s faith in him. Power looked like he wasn’t quite ready for the speed tonight and Quinn was overmatched. Tuch made some good plays and Mitts was dialed in and working, but that line had no chemistry at all. Skinner Tage Olofsson were…OK? The first two can do more. I did like a lot of the details in Victor’s game tonight though, how he was doing things beyond being a shooter. Boosh is going to hurt us at times with his aggressiveness, but please don’t change. The dude is a beast. Exactly as advertised and what our group needed. The power play - particularly the first unit - was way out of sync. Our entries were terrible. Dylan Cozens looked real good. I like how he’s going to be an integral part of the PK. Asplund looked good at centre and his line was solid. I’ve been saying we can win some games because our bottom six is going to be better than the opponent’s and that held true tonight. Anderson certainly played like a number one. His ability to read the play continues to be stellar. Pretty even game. Ottawa made more mistakes than we did, but we’re capable of better than we saw tonight. Tougher test Saturday. Hope you guys enjoyed it.

The contract extension? Not sure if I'm reading your post correctly, but the opposite was true if you listened to Donnie and Adams. Donnie said he didn't really want the distraction, but sure, I'll sign, this is where I want to be. Adams said extending Donnie was something he wanted and stressed with Pegula as part of his own extension. As soon as his was signed, he approached Donnie. Now, I believe their contract lengths match. I think his expectation is simply to "get better." They remain focused on the process rather than the results, which they believe will come if they stick to the process. He's saying winning tonight isn't the highest priority. It's not the same thing, and he's not implying it is. he knows the plan is focused on being great in the future rather than good now.

I actually like the fact he’s been handed a leadership role on his line. Hope he runs with it. He’s looked ready. Tonight they’ll be playing mostly against guys like Pinto, Motte, Kastelic, Watson, Holden and Brannstrom, so I sure as heck hope not. Asplund and Tage will be seeing a lot of Norris and Stutzle. And this kind of deployment will be the case more nights than not.

Not about Dahlin in particular (Coaching certainly was an issue with his development IMO), but I am of an opinion that ups and downs are inevitable with new players and rather than stunting development, they are necessary for development. I don’t think you need to avoid ups and downs if you are developing players, you need to ensure they happen in appropriate amounts and leverage them for improvement. I’d rather Quinn and Power make their mistakes now rather than later in order to accelerate their development. It’s the USNDP method that has proven to be extraordinarily successful. Thread topic maybe?

I’ve said it a few times: Power has the skill set to become an absolutely elite penalty killer; his poise and reads will eventually be elite and his range unmatched.

Throwing him to the wolves again against the team that usually put up 6 or 7 against us last year 😉