dudacek

They are comparing to 2019, the last pre-COVID season. Numbers are way up already over last year, despite the Bills effect: 13,634 compared to 9,997. https://theathletic.com/3973879/2022/12/07/nhl-attendance-stadium-tickets/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/193749/regular-season-home-attendance-of-national-hockey-league-teams-in-2010/ 1st link is paywalled.

The Deluca .500 reference is interesting because the gap between the Sabres and many of their rivals is about loser points. PIttsburgh, Florida and Washington have 4, Detroit and the Rangers 5. The Sabres just 1.

Seeing quite a few posts about the Sabres blowing too many leads since the Detroit and Tampa games. They are a perfect 9-0-0 when leading after 2 periods, tied with Winnipeg and the Islanders. Dallas is 12-0-0, Boston 13-0-0, Columbus 3-0-0. In general, NHL teams don’t protect leads like they used to. In fact, teams have blown 2nd intermission leads 50 times already this year. Toronto, PIttsburgh and Vancouver have done it 4 times each. League is changing. https://www.nhl.com/stats/teams?report=leadingtrailing&reportType=season&seasonFrom=20222023&seasonTo=20222023&gameType=2&filter=gamesPlayed,gte,1&sort=winPctLeadPeriod2&page=0&pageSize=50

Glad to see recognition and discussion of the “bite-size” approach to building a team. Adams and Granato were very clear a year ago they were focused first on developing hockey players, and Granato was very clear that his primary mission was teaching offence. The team has been a top-5 offence all year. How do you think the young players have been developing? I don’t begrudge your frustrations. I share many of your questions. But I’m enjoying this team. And I trust the process.

I’ve been watching him a lot this year because I seem to be in the minority as a supporter. I have seen the coverage lapses others do, usually a result of stepping up to attack a puck or puck-carrier at an inopportune time. I also see many, many times where those decisions have blunted a rush, or kept in a puck. Yes, he can make risky passes, but overall he’s solid in transition; his good breakouts far outnumber his bad ones Not sure others notice how good a stick checker he is. Matched up 1-on-1 he separates man from puck very well despite his size and snuffs out rushes on a consistent basis. Henri Jokiharju is no star, but he is a capable NHL defenceman, well-suited to the modern style of play and a 4/5 slot on any NHL roster.

Granato gave us good insight into their thought process this week when he said one of the biggest mistakes he observed as a pro scout was a tendency for teams to move on from young players before fully figuring out what they have. We don't fully know the "how" or the "how long" but we do know that the team is committed to giving people the opportunity to reach their potential. And, by and large, it's working. I mean Adams may not agree, but I'm confirming a ton of ***** this season about players they've been watching for a season and a half: Rasmus Dahlin and Tage Thompson are stars and true building block players Jeff Skinner still has it as a top 6 forward and Alex Tuch is definitely one as well Casey Mittelstadt is not Victor Olofsson is a luxury player Henri Jokiharju is a mid-roster player, Jacob Bryson is not UPL is not the answer I might have suspected a lot of these things before, but now I feel like I know and I didn't last year. Still more data needed on Comrie, Peterka, Krebs, Quinn, Cozens, Mule and Power (but my god are the returns looking good on the last 3). But maybe we're closer to the tipping point than we think. We did get Marek's remark last week that there is a feeling around the league that the Sabres have identified their core and are ready to start building around it. The holes on this team are becoming pretty obvious and we do have the ammunition to fill them. I hope that ammunition gets used judiciously, by targeting the right pieces, even if it means watching 6-5 games for remainder of the season. In the meantime, this team continues to be both frustrating and promising, and surprisingly fun to watch.

Is this deliberately disingenuous? In the past 2 months Tage Thompson and Mattias Samuelsson chose to be here for 7 years each, giving up 6 and 3 UFA years respectively. This summer Vinnie Hinostroza, Eric Comrie, Craig Anderson and Ilya Lyubushkin who were unrestricted free agents who could have gone anywhere else chose to be here. Kyle Okposo and Jeff Skinner signed as unrestricted free agents who could have gone anywhere else and chose to be here. Zemgus Girgensons and Victor Olofsson each chose term here instead of walking to unrestricted status and bolting at the first opportunity. Casey Fitzgerald could have walked out of college into free agency like Cal Petersen did, but chose to be here. Literally half the roster, by their actions, chose to be here.

Quibble over the 6D and the starting goalie if you’d like, but that might be the most attractive top-to-bottom overall lineup they’ve put on the ice since Lindy was coach.

40 of the NHL's top 50 scorers right now were drafted before 2015. Four of the top 50 are 22 or less. Not sure those numbers are saying what people think they are.

Adams has been keeping his powder dry for the right player at the right time. Chychrun is 24 and fills a need, now and 5 years from now. He fits. Recent comps: Alexander Romanov went for pick #13 Hampus Lindholm (pending UFA) for a late 1st and 2 2nds Seth Jones for (more or less) Adam Boqvist and two high 1sts Rasmus Ristolainen for a 1st and a 2nd

Remember when a battered team driving 90 yards late in the final quarter for the go-ahead TD, holding the opposition to a game-tying 51-yard field goal, then marching 48 yards downfield in less than 25 seconds to win the game was something to celebrate? People’s choices are strange to me.

Here’s an interesting statistic from this year, not sure what to make of it. The Sabres currently have the: #1 highest-scoring NHL players from the 2018 and 2016 drafts #5 highest-scoring NHL players from the 2021, 2020 and 2019 drafts. That’s a top 5 producer from 5 of the past 6 drafts and 2 of those players are defencemen.

A bit of context to UPL’s season: 5 good starts, 2 poor, 2 indifferent. https://theahl.com/stats/player/7644 This moment is maybe arriving a little earlier than the brass hoped, but it was always going to happen sometime this year. Ive been looking forward to it, basically since Ullmark walked. The door is open. Let’s see if he can step through and slam it behind him.

Poltapov is now a full-time KHL rookie with 5 goals in 27 games. This is the best place to find prospect stats: https://www.eliteprospects.com/team/53/buffalo-sabres/in-the-system

Missing context: Leinonen is 3.08 GAA and .841 SV% after a couple rough outings playing parts of 8 games with men in Liiga. Against his peers in juniors he is 1.71 and .943 in 7 games.

I wonder why people are so reluctant to believe their eyes. Dude has 34 goals in his past 50 games. That’s 4th in the NHL over that span - only 2 less than McDavid, 1 less than Mathews. More than Robertson and Pastrnak and McKinnon and Tkachuk and Stamkos and Ovechkin and Kucherov and Marner and Crosby and Draisaitl. He’s scoring (and has a great shooting %) because his shot is elite. He’s a star. @Thorny remember a year ago when we were comparing this build to the lockout team and I said maybe Tage could be the Briere and you (correctly) said hold your horses, that Briere was a helluvalot more than a good 2C? It’s happening.

OK, this avatar absolutely has to be the new Islanders logo. Fantastic.

I think you can’t overlook the fact that over the 113 games since Ralph Krueger was fired Tage has yet to plateau - the arrow has continued to go up. In his 25 games from when Ralph was canned until the end of the season: 7 goals, 12 points In his 1st 30 games at centre: 10 goals, 18 points In his 2nd 30 games at centre: 17 goals, 30 points In the 28 games since: 18 goals, 34 points

Not really disagreeing, but at it's heart, this is a "when do you believe" question. Down the stretch last year he put up 15/8/23 in 23 games against Vegas, Colorado, St. Louis, Boston Toronto, Tampa, Florida, Carolina, the Rangers, Nashville, Washington Pittsburgh, Calgary, Edmonton, Minnesota and Dallas. If he gets just a goal and an assist in the next 5 games, does that mean he's not there yet? How many times do we have to see something before it's real?

It doesn't get nastier than what we saw in the AHL playoffs last year. Certainly didn't slow Krebs and Peterka. (I'd add Tuch to your list as someone who's proven in that environment and Okposo and Girgs will be there)

Here's a question we were all scared to broach even a few weeks ago: "What if Tage Thompson can actually fill the role of legit 1st line centre every team needs to be a contender?" Is it something we can talk about yet? The sample size continues to grow. In the calendar year of 2022 Tage now has 33 goals and 62 points in 56 games. In Eichel's best year he had 36 goals and 78 points in 68 games.

People will talk about the team needing to get bigger off and on, which usually devolves into discussions about how important size really is or isn’t. This thread was inspired more though by me realizing how exceptionally big the Sabres core is and what a weapon that can be, and how no one ever really talks about that.

It’s not really about violence though. The crucial factor here is how our best players are huge and are starting to take advantage of that. The complaint from other team’s is going to be “we can’t penetrate past those octopi when they defend and we can’t take the puck away from those redwoods when they attack.”

I think this is overly focused on the mistake of conflating size with beating people up. Mule, Tage, Dahlin, Power, Tuch - every single player uses his size to physically dominate a majority of opponents. I’m talking about forcing turnovers, protecting pucks, winning battles and making plays. Their size is making them hockey players who are very hard to play against. 1-on-1 they are creating difficult matchups for opposing coaches.

Seems to me there is still a perception out there (and by that, I mean on Sabrespace) that the Sabres aren’t big enough. I think people need to look a bit closer at the trees. Our best centre is 6’7 225 pounds Our best winger is 6’4 220 Our best defenceman is 6’3 210 Our 2nd best is 6’6 220 Our shutdown blueliner is 6’4 230 I defy you to find another team with a core that physically imposing. And they all can skate. Add Lyubushkin Cozens Okposo and Girgensons on the next tier, couple it with the roster’s speed, 4-line depth and attacking style and this is a team that is built wear you down. I don’t think their 3rd period success so far this year is a coincidence.