dudacek

Hinostroza, Caggiula and Miller might be slight upgrades at the bottom of the roster but nothing major. But when Okposo slides in for Bjork and we will have our top 9 intact for the first time all season. And there's still that pesky little issue of the AHLer and the ECHLer in net. Donnie's pressers might be the most entertaining part of the Sabres season. Hope he has the goods when winning becomes the priority because he is a good man, a smart man, and such an easy guy to root for.

We tend to forget that there’s always someone hurt and usually more than one. We’re also not used to a roster where there is not a huge gap in talent from F1 and F10, and guys any where in the top 9 are in danger of losing their spots if they don’t perform. Im looking forward to that kind of roster competition. For sake of discussion: Mitts Skinner Cozens Tuch Thompson Olofsson as the starting point for three balanced lines. Krebs can crack the top 9 by being the best complement to one of those pairs, being an injury replacement for one of those players, or by outright beating any of those players out. Same thing for Kyle, Girgs, Asplund, Quinn and Peterka. It’s a great thing because having 12 guys potentially able to play in the top 9 provides both a safety net for injuries and bad play and an incentive for good play because there is a legit competitor gunning for your job. Unlike say Eichel and Reinhart, the six I built the top 9 with aren't so far ahead of the next batch they are guaranteed those spots if they aren’t earning them with their play. Also, it’s a lineup with a lot of versatility and flexibility. With the exception of Skinner and maybe Mitts, all 12 are capable of playing multiple positions and roles. After years of struggling to put together 2 lines with worth watching on any given night, I’m very hopeful we’ll have a team next year that should usually have 3, and if all goes well, might even have 4.

"It alll --- fault! File his incompetent ass!" after a game that close and filled with competitive drama and athletic brilliance is baffling to me.

This could work for a year.

In junior, Cozens was a .75 goals to every assist player, Krebs: .3 goals to every assist. Krebs got more assists per game, but not by an overwhelming margin. They both look like centres who can play wing in a pinch to me. Mittelstadt has been .8 goals to 1 assist in the NHL, after being more like .7 in college. Thompson has been pretty much 1 for 1 as a pro and in college. Never liked the idea of Casey as a winger but we haven’t seen much of it. And Tage has certainly been far better as a centre. I want them all to play centre, but I think the Sabres foresee them becoming 4 of their best 6 forwards. I can’t see any of them on the 4th line beyond next season. It’s an ice-time question and will become a salary cap necessity. All 4 should be getting 15 minutes with good linemates. Good problem to have if it happens, but it is one reason why I’m not burning for the Sabres to take a centre with their first pick.

Has anyone ever put together 8 consecutive quarters of playoff football better than Josh just did? Not rhetorically, but seriously? Sad that performance doesn't get a chance to be remembered that way.

No And that’s pretty similar to the price for Jack Eichel. I like Jeff Chychrun, but he’s no Jack Eichel. If Arizona gets that, wow.

That’s why you should be happy we have Dahlin and hopeful we can get more players with his skill and character.

I struggle to see how Laaksonen is going to get much PP time on a team that already has Dahlin and Power. I don’t want to see him with Matty, because I hope Mule is the guy we send out there against the other team’s top forwards and hope to never see Laaksonen in that situation. Finally, when I hear puck moving, I don’t equate that with offence. I envision a guy who can sidestep the forecheck and turn the play up-ice in transition through skating or passing. Dahlin is fantastic at this. From what I’ve seen, it is the strength of Ryan Johnson’s game. For all his skill on the offensive blueline, Laaksonen is not a defensive zone puck-mover. He’s actually pretty bad at it. Honestly, the Sabre his game reminds me of most is Will Butcher.

And apparently you’ll weigh a half-dozen games more than the other 35. Spinning this into a “Dahlin didn’t start to play good until the season was out of reach” is weak. Turning a string of losses largely due to a stretch of some of the worst goaltending we’ve seen in a decade into somehow being Dahlin’s fault is weak. Conflating a handful of embarrassing gaffs and a bunch of knee-jerk hysterical posts to a fair, cogent take on his overall performance to start the year is weak. For the record, Dahlin was -3 with 10 points in 14 November games.

Sometimes I think people forget how bad last year’s team was and how many key veterans from the start of last year were dumped and replaced by mostly JAGs Eichel -> Hinostroza Reinhart -> Hayden Hall -> Caggiula Staal -> Jankowski Ristolainen -> Pysyk McCabe -> Hagg Montour -> Butcher Ullmark -> Anderson Hutton -> Dell The fact that this team has moved ahead of 4 teams in the standings and is in within 4 points of 5 others is amazing to me, considering the obvious downgrade in talent. That’s pretty much entirely on Granato and what he’s done with the talent that stayed and was being squandered by the previous regime. Tuch is really the first fresh bullet that’s starting to reverse the talent drain.

He’s going to let it happen organically. But organically should start happening next year. If the kids continue to grow, we should not be in the race for a lottery ball. Even if he sticks with Anderson and UPL. (For the record, he should not)

Is there an opposite of rose-coloured glasses? *****-coloured? Many in this board still have them on when they watch Dahlin.

He had a quiet December that included a 5-game pointless streak, but has bounced back with 4 goals and 10 points in his past 8. At the half-way point of the season, he leads the Sabres, tied with Ryan O’Reilly for 87th in the NHL in points, 55th in goals. Pacing for 28 goals and 56 points. 28 goals would mark the 3rd-highest total by Sabre in 10 years, behind Eichel’s 36 and Skinner’s 40. Has he changed any minds?

Hot take. Devon is going to outplay the Euro-scrubs, get a game and never give up the crease. He’s coming home with a medal. This will be his mainstream coming-out party and he will be signing his first pro contract shortly afterwards.

The right side needs to be addressed the summer, but I think we do that by taking a RD high and acquiring a good veteran. If a Nylander for Jokiharju type trade is out there, sure, but I don’t think it’s something we have to go looking hard for. Not in a rush to “fix” our crowded left side. Too many unhatched chickens. I expect Johnson to get the Jake McCabe treatment: signed this year, get a taste, Rochester next year. Power, Dahlin, Bryson and Samuelsson will be 4 of our 7 next year. Some will occasionally play on their off-side. Maybe someone shows he’s good at it. It will be the summer of 2023 at the earliest before we have to make a decision based on crowd control.

Wait, are you saying the numbers aren’t really that bad because both starting goalies and the 1C have been out pretty much the whole year? 😳

Leclair, what a great comparable. Good 20 goal 45 point power winger in his first 3 seasons, traded at 25, turns into a 90-point all-star. We can only dream.

There are players who find that sweet spot of both reaching the right place in both experience and role at the right time. I put a lot of stock into that old saying about an NHL player needing at least 200 games before you start to see what he is. Tuch just played his 264th. He has also never been used in the manner he’s being used right now. In Vegas he was utilized as a middle-six, 2nd-unit foot soldier. I mean it’s absolutely a small sample size and we shouldn’t expect it to continue. But right player, right place, right time does happen (see Briere, Daniel). Aren’t analytics supposed to be about uncovering unlocked potential and giving it the right key? We can only hope. Right now, I’m just enjoying watching him play.

So can I get excited about Tuch yet? He’s got 3 goals and 7 assists in 9 games. He’s killing penalties and playing the PP. He’s 10th among NHL RWs in TOI and 8th in P/G. He’s somehow managed to be a +5 on this team And, to the eye test, whatever line he’s on has been our best pretty much every night. He’s fast and he wins battle and he makes good decisions with or without the puck. Is he going to be a better player here than he’s shown so far in his career? Can he be a legitimate 1st line power forward?

19th in the league in ES goals right now, 32 in goals overall.

Both of those totals have been earned. To me, Skinner’s signature move the past two years was trying to twist and shimmy through a defender then turning over the puck. This year, the shimmy works more and when it doesn’t work he keeps battling and often reclaims the puck. And moves it where it needs to go. His neutral zone play on the first goal was a case in point. You can credit better linemates if you want, but I see more consistent effort and smarter play. Tage’s game is so much more direct and forceful. When he starts dancing, it’s with purpose. Where he used to try to play with finesse, now it’s about power. Full credit to both players for making the changes they needed to make. More credit to Donnie for telling them what they needed to do and giving them the opportunity to do it.

In the wake of Lebrun floating the first rounder request for Miller, people shouldn’t get their hopes up. Brandon Montour, who was a similar player, except better, on a slightly cheaper contract, netted a late 3rd.

Flyers looked like we did during the last days of Krueger. Under the radar, but I thought Cozens had a fantastic game.