dudacek

There's a segment in Donnie's presser yesterday when a reporter asked about this. https://www.nhl.com/sabres/video/don-granato-10322/t-277437090/c-12964226

This argument is less persuasive when you look at how much the roster has turned over since the first half of last season. Something like Tuch, Krebs, Mittelstadt, Quinn, Peterka , Samuelsson, Power Lyubushkin, Comrie and Anderson for Bjork, Hayden, Eakin, Caggiula, Ruotsalainen, Pysyk, Hagg, Miller, Butcher, Tokarski and Dell in the lineup that started the season 13/21/7. But that's history now. Let's see who they are this year.

One more. Comrie should get the start. Sounded like Anderson got a say in when/where he played for the final 2 games. Curious to see whether he plays the full game or whether UPL gets some time and another shot. Kinda doubt it. Granato certainly sounded like a coach who had his entire roster pencilled in a month ago.

I don’t think discussions about hockey analytics are as full of arrogant number-crunchers and Neanderthal “you-can’t-measure” heart types as they once were. We’ve done a better job adopting a middle ground. Still, it was very interesting to read an analytics professional fresh off an 8-year stint with the Leafs offer the following: You cannot take two graphs, one showing that one particular player is “good” and one other player is “bad” and let that be the focal point of your analysis. https://theathletic.com/3630588/2022/10/03/charron-what-i-learned-working-in-an-nhl-front-office/ The gist of the article is that the low-hanging fruit has been plucked and NHL minds have already adopted the obvious stuff. The public debate people invest a lot of faith in on message boards is based on far more limited data sets than what the pros have access to. And conversation should not be on who is “bad” and “good” but on isolating specific, meaningful ways players and teams can improve. All this is to say that it’s not always as simple as one player having more blue on his bar chart and one player having more red. When making recommendations with millions of dollars of somebody else’s money on the line, an analyst needs to seek out the right tool for the job. Within our department, there was lots of disagreement on players that usually boiled down to how we weighted a player’s relative strengths or weaknesses. No opinion is totally objective, and some analysts will weigh certain metrics above others. While that doesn’t bring us any closer to having a proper catchall measure similar to baseball’s WAR, I’d argue the collective understanding of hockey isn’t at a point where we can start to do that. Well worth the read, especially when you consider the investment the Sabres are making in this area.

This. Every word. Too many things finally being managed properly, too much young talent on the way not to be good, sooner rather than later. It’s not that hard to improve. Much harder to be great.

I think they can, which is not the same thing as they will. Earlier, I said they need .915ish goaltending from their starter (won’t be Anderson), 60ish points from someone driving a second line (Mitts, Cozens or Tuch) and Owen Power to be a legit top 4 defender (approaching Seider or Ekblad’s rookie level). I’ve heard players (believe it was Thompson and Cozens) say that switch tripped during the second half of last year. The results tend to support that. You seem to not believe it. How do you decide whether it’s actually there or not?

Doubt this affects your position, but pretty sure they were on an above-100-point pace over the final 28 games.

What these combos do is give Donnie a solid first line and a good shutdown line with the flexibility to chase matchups at home and absorb them away. And if Thompson is getting the opposition’s top D pair and Zemgus getting its top forward line, the Cozens and Mitts lines are being put into a position to succeed against whoever their matchups are. Its a manifestation of their game plan this year: speed across 4 lines where opponents can’t match the depth or the pace. Couple that with either Dahlin or Power on the ice for nearly 50 minutes a game and Bryson/Lyubushkin being rather reliable in those times they’re not and we’ve got tools to actually add “strategy” into our repertoire.

@LGR4GM this is what I’m talking about re: “woe is me”. @Taro T‘s post encapsulates what I’m seeing. And from what I read, it seems to be what you are seeing and what many others around here are seeing as well, regardless of how often we debate the degree or the minutiae of it. Of course it’s not across the board, of course past results factor into our trust in what we see.

Top 4 lines and 6 D a good bet to be exactly what we see on opening night.

"Woe is us" is definitely in the eye of the beholder. I think, pretty objectively, this board is clearly more bullish about the Sabres chances than observers are around the NHL - to a significant degree. I agree with you that the culture change has already happened in the room.

Yes. He was waived yesterday. We should know by lunchtime if he cleared, but nobody wants Subban to be their backup, so he'll clear.

There are enough of these out there by now - analytics and otherwise - to show that we are perceived as very much a lottery team. Basically, we are generally considered better than the Coyotes, Hawks and Canadiens, and are right there at the bottom of the next tier with the Flyers, Sharks and Kraken. More or less, take last year’s standings and add ‘didn’t do much to get better, while Detroit, Ottawa and New Jersey did.” “When it feels like you are surrounded by idiots, it probably means the idiot is you” I say ***** ‘em. Go Sabres

I’ve certainly missed the bold. Might be talking past each other a bit here though because I do believe the organization does not expect to get 50 games from Anderson and hopes/expects him to be surpassed by Comrie (or even UPL) over the course of the season. i just think there’s going to be an initial deference to Anderson where he’ll get game one and a degree of influence over how often he plays beyond that, as long as he plays well - kinda like he was used down the stretch last year, where he played 3 out of every 5 games and won 2 out 3. That situation will change once his play or his body breaks down and his battery mate outperforms him. The job will be there for Comrie to take and I think most involved expect him to take it. I just don’t think it’s been given to him yet. The preseason play has no relevance to my line of thinking at all; it’s how I think the organization approached the start of camp, based on what I heard from Adams and Granato. Im mildly pleased you heard differently - pleased because I don’t think Anderson earned game 1 starter with his play last year; and mildly because even if you’re wrong I suspect the question to become moot relatively quickly. And if it doesn’t that means Anderson plays better than I think he will.

Hope you’re right. The vibe I get from Adams and Donnie is that Anderson will be the starter opening night.

Tischke is the muscle. He’s fine as an AHL 6, IMO. And Laaksonen is serviceable as a 5. Think of them as Mike Weber and Jason Woolley. Priskie Clague and Davies should be legit top 4 AHL D. Sure they’ll lean to the O side, but they’re all potentially better both ways than Ethan Prow who was the #1 last year after Mule and Fitzy got called up, and will be the other guy in the top 4. If Pilut gets sent down, the D could be very good. Of course injuries will change that. I agree that a steady guy like Alt would be a good addition.

What I’m seeing as the pecking order right now, italics are guys on the bubble to be in the starting lineup Forward Thompson Tuch Skinner Olofsson Mittelstadt Cozens Okposo Girgensons Asplund Hinostroza Quinn Krebs Peterka Sheahan Bjork Malone Defence Dahlin Power Jokiharju Samuelsson Lyubushkin Bryson Pilut Fitzpatrick Priskie Davies Clague Goalie Anderson Comrie Luukkonnen Subban

Had not heard talk of that before. It would explain the injuries and their unwillingness to commit to him; they’ve made all-in self-improvers a clear priority. Be nice if last season was a wake-up call and the new culture is rubbing off. More games like that and I’ll be coming over to your side. He got better, but the first he was producing turnovers faster than Pilsbury

Yes, I clearly miscounted. Unless one of them surprises, your 8 cuts are the first wave of veteran call-ups. And that leave us with Pilut, Fitzpatrick and probably one of Krebs Peterka Quinn and Hinostroza sitting if we ever have a healthy 23-man roster. And undefeated in a Sabre uniform. Looking forward to watching him live in Victoria in a few weeks and on TV leading Canada to World junior gold this Christmas.

So who is still around? Quinn Peterka Krebs Sheehan Bjork Malone Clague Davies Priskie Pilot Subban UPL…? Six more cuts to go?

Quinn and Power are going to make our team better. So, in a different way, is Ilya Lyubushkin. Man is exactly like advertised. UPL not ready to accept Rochester. More please.

Olofsson makes it interesting with some weak clears there, but Tage unselfish to finish it.

Too bad. UPL has deserved the shutout Bit of a jailbreak that shift, tough to cover with the extra man.

He's improved every period I've watched him. Showing he can play with other good players.

Vinnie Hinostroza is not a JAG