dudacek

First playoff series win for the organization since 2011. The tide has finally turned.

Belleville has probably been the better team when cheating is allowed. There are some incredibly blatant non-calls. Lets finish this.

I don't see Asplund getting pushed out by anyone for quite some time. Character forwards who provide outstanding defence and 25-30 points in a bottom 6 role have jobs on every team as long as they're affordable. The only other player on the team or in the system right now who meets that profile is Girgensons. Unless his game falls off, he should be here until he prices himself out of a job.

Am i correct to conclude you don't invest a lot of time in player interviews?

@Thorny posited that the higher a team is picking in the draft the more likely they would be to cave to consensus. "We can't take him here, the fanbase would kill me." We saw something similar when Forton wanted McAvoy in 2016 and acquiesced to consensus. ***** consensus. Do your homework and take the guy you love. Live and die with what you believe, or fire your staff and take the next available guy on GA's consensus board.

I’m seeing similarities to 2017 this year, where the middle 3rd of the round is intriguing and both Sabres picks could be better than many ahead of them. Vegas won’t be picking in the top 10 next year. Take the pick and grab this year’s Robert Thomas or Nick Suzuki.

As far as the pipeline goes, Portillo, Levi and Johnson are still in it. Next year you are going to see people paying more attention to Rosen, Poltapov, Kisakov, Bloom, Nadeau, Costantini, Huglen, Rousek and others, many of whom could be on the Amerks in 23/24. And 4 shiny new toys will be added in the first 4 picks of the draft. 2021/22/23 that should keep the pipeline gushing for a while.

Make the change and we are in agreement. My issue is that fans treat them like a BPA list. That's why we get things like the mass freak out over Quinn.

The issue is not about the pipeline, its about the Amerks. It's mostly about Peterka and Quinn expected to arrive in the NHL early and Johnson and Portillo staying an unexpected year

The bolded entirely supports my point. Some scouts had Makar as high as 3. Some had him as low as 17. Your board (the consensus) whiffed by having him at 7 because it gave as much weight to the bad scouts as it gave the good ones.

I think you missed my point. The Internet would have melted down if Makar had gone #1 that year. That’s because the internet had put its trust in “the consensus” instead of any smart scouts advocating for Makar.

Started listening to the pod a few weeks ago. Enjoy it. I like Joe. He’s a step up from most of the familiar faces. I’d rather they bring in a new voice than move an old one.

I never perceived that. Considered them a terrible expansion team with terrible management.

I'm interested in all of the lists, but that's really the only one that I invest much care into, because it represents a consensus of what the pros are thinking. Whether you like or hate Button or Scouch or Pronman, or whoever, most of the other lists are the products of one hard-working individual, or a small staff that cant touch the resources of an actual NHL team. And even with McKenzie, his list is an amalgamation of resources that likely have a wide range of credibility. Consensus is a faulty standard when consensus indicates Nolan Patrick is a better prospect than Cale Makar.

Depends on how you define tanking I guess. At its essence, I think it's about that point where a switch flips and an organization is not actively trying to win. If it's defined as being deliberately bad today in order to get better in the future it happens every year, although GMs usually wait until the deadline. Montreal and Philly tanked out the season after their seasons fell apart. Arizona entered the season tanking. If you define it as finishing last at all costs, it's only ever happened twice IMO: Lemieux and McDavid.

Personally, I'd get rid of it; It doesn't seem very effective in preventing tanking (the reason it allegedly exists) or encouraging parity (the reason the draft allegedly exists) But drilling down to the essence of what @SDS said up thread: the NHL sells hope. Does the lottery generally provide more hope or less/ I'd say more, so it will continue.

Is the Vegas pick actually optional? I've never seen it reported that way. It was always "if it's in the top 10 it moves to 2023"

Curious to see how the standards at central scouting compare to those around the league. Has it changed and adapted, or is it just an under-resourced small handful of old boys using methods and systems straight out of 1984. Are they on a level playing field with an NHL scouting staff? How do their results compare? So much fascinating insight in to the field remains out of our hands.

All of this. Was thinking the same thoughts, along with the idea that he could be in line to be one of next year's top Rochester prospects on a roster that is going to be lacking them.

Maybe you go Zemgus and Tage at home and Ras and Alex away? Then when KO moves on, the new captain is chosen out of the other three, with other two getting the As full time.

Listening to Donnie and Kevyn at the end of the year, I think they are going to make his captaincy official. The issue is how does Z fit in? Because I think they'd prefer the As to go to younger leaders, probably Tuch and Dahlin.

John has generally been a pro, and I wish him well. Hope the new guy brings something fresh to the general coverage we get of the Sabres: humour, a storytelling voice, passion, connections, an eye for angles no one else is taking...maybe all of the above. By and large, Sabres media tends to consist too much of familiar takes and echoes of games and post-game pressers — which I now watch first-hand instead. I'd like to see someone leading some fresh conversations.

Krebs was fantastic. Two things stood out for me: You could see the game he tries to play in the NHL work in the AHL because the game is a tad slower. The curls and cutbacks free up open ice and the high risk passes are on the money. He was so much better than he was in December in Rochester; the skill was there then, but tonight he was so much more in sync with the game. Development is real. Belleville was playing dead puck era hockey. They had hands and sticks on everybody all the time and the refs let them. Quinn was a constant target. He didn’t quit or look intimidated, but he didn’t fight through it either. Fitz was clutch. Dell was more lucky than good, but I’ll take it. What the hell happened to Weissbach? He looked more wobbly than I can remember someone looking in a long time. That one might climb into Belleville’s heads. They played the way they had to for 45 minutes but couldn’t hold on. And you’d think the refs aren’t going to be giving them that many favours 2 games in a row.

Well that sucks. At least that gives me a warning

I understand it’s at the Crossroads.