dudacek

I think I really need Cody Eakin to never play another Sabres game after the trade deadline.

We always seem to get worked by the Islanders.

If they do it's because Kevyn or someone else in the front office managed to talk Terry into it. I don't think Terry is too fond of Jack these days.

I wanna go full "Jack Who?" and most of the time I am. But his first night back in Buffalo is going to be painful. it will start out with nice things in the media, but there will be enough fans like @Cal Naughton Jr in the house to give him a less than warm welcome and there will drama over a Terry-mandated half-assed or non-existent salute. And Jack will get red-faced, and his very good team will be on, and he/they will cut through Cody Eakin and Dustin Tokarski and company like the tissue paper they are. Then 10 years of pent-up anger over the unfulfilled promises of Terry Pegula will erupt across Sabre fandom as Jack rubs our faces in what should have been ours. It's going to be ugly.

Always was a strange choice not offer that kid a contract. 14 goals already on the first year of a 3-year, $1.5 million contract and he plays hard.

The 3rd goal against Columbus was so atypical of what I’m used to from Skinner. When Tage reversed up the boards, Skinner’s typical move would have been to go to the net for a pass or a rebound; he’s typically always so focused on scoring goals himself. Instead, he glided into the space Tage created and made himself available for a pass away from the typical scoring zone. Then, instead of firing a shot from the corner - Jeff always shoots any time he’s within 30 feet from the net, regardless of traffic or angle - he slid an immediate pass on the tape to Tuch. It was a cannily crafted and perfectly executed smart hockey play calculated so his teammate could score a goal. Reinhart-esque, or dare I say Krebsian. Entirely contrary to the types of plays he’s been making for the past 2 years that used to drive me nuts about his game. Beautiful to see.

Current struggles aside, is Victor Olofsson a similar asset to Toffoli?

I think the Sabres greatest need is for defencemen who can defend. To my eye, Johnson is better than Faber in that aspect of the game.

I'm not sure what the bold represents in terms of what each man actually does, but I don't think Kevyn Adams has any interest in not having the final say in hockey decisions.

Yes. At least if you mean the infamous suffering comment. it was maybe 5 years later? Post Ehrhoff/Leino free agency failure, when Darcy was basically revealing that Terry had green-lit the tank.

I like how Granato talks about Tage and Tuch. He recognizes their successes but it’s always tempered. He makes sure to always mention that they are at the start of what they can be, and that they have a lot of room to grow and that he expects them to grow.

What needs more more attention was the 4-way pass on the final PP that Petry deflected away from Tuch putting it in the empty net. Krebs opened up for the pass and rocketed it through the slot to Tuch’s stick in the blink of an eye. It was a thing of beauty.

I don’t think the fact Alex Tuch is +8 this year is particularly relevant in answering the question “Is he a good player?” I do think the fact that he is +8 in 15 games on a team that has been outscored by 11 goals over that span, and has done it while generally playing against the other team’s best players is highly relevant in answering the question “How has he been playing?”

I’m not going to get into a situation where it seems like I’m defending +/-; it’s a weak stat for measuring personal success. It’s a good stat for measuring how effective your line was in the role in which it was used. ALL stats are a measure of team success mixing with personal success, tied to usage.

Well said. No team that is serious about winning starts the season without at least one proven capable NHL starter in goal. Despite the fact Anderson and UPL have played well, neither were that at the start of the year, and neither is likely to be that when the year finishes either. I would love to see UPL do his best over the last 40 games to change my mind.

To be clear I’m not either. I said he’s having a season offensively that mirrors what O’Reilly did over his 3 years here. And I think Tage’s performance so far this year might be better than what I perceive to be the weakest season of O’Reilly’s past 10. But he’s got a long way to go to reach the stature O’Reilly has and I would be very surprised if he gets there.

If Ryan O’Reilly goes -10 for the Blues in December and +10 for the same team in January, I’m going to conclude he was likely a more effective player in January. Feel free to laugh and point and call me unsophisticated.

I was approaching this from the opposite direction, checking to see if the numbers supported my memory. Your cherry-picked Tage stat also seems to reflect my memory of him slumping in December. I don’t remember O’Reilly being as good in year 3 and enjoying Tage’s game more this year, Maybe I’m wrong. 🤷

I don’t know man, I’ve always been a big O’Reily booster, but I don’t remember him being h8 self that year. Maybe my memory is putting too much emphasis on the way he finished, but he was -23 that year and I remember his effort falling off badly. Looking at his game log, he finished with 7 points in his last 5 games, but before that he had just 2 goals in 19 games and was -12 over the final 2 months. He also started the year -17 over his first 25 games and we wondered if he was pouting that Eichel got the C over him. Maybe he was real good in the middle?

Yes, to the 1st. That said, Tage this year is better overall than ROR was in year 3.

Alex Tuch’s 17 points in 15 games has him flirting with the top 5 in points per game for NHL RWs Kucherov, Rust(!) and Rantanen are well ahead of the pack. Alex is right there in 6th, with Meier, Marner, Zucarello and Batherson, ahead of stars like Stone and Kane.

If this season is just about development, I should be pissed about Cozens, Samuelsson, Fitzgerald and Krebs (not counting the PP) having some of their worst games of the year. But I think we’ve got ourselves a legitimate front line. Since Jan. 1: Tuch 13 6/10/16 +7 Skinner 15 11/6/17 +1 Thompson 11 3/10/13 -1 Wish there were more teams we could beat with just one line

The bottom 6 needs to be good enough that Cozens, Krebs, Olofsson and Asplund have to earn top 9 ice time, not be gifted it. The first three have been mostly passengers tonight. It’s OK to have a Jankowski and a Hayden as your 13th and 14th forwards. It’s not OK to have Jankowski, Hayden, Eakin and Bjork as 9, 10, 11, and 12. Girgensons, Mitts, Hinostroza and Caggiula are be better than those 4, but we still need to aim higher.

Hope the haters saw the clip Marty just showed of Dahlin’s passing. Multiple difficult, smart plays under pressure against the grain to find the open man. His hands are so good.

Our long pass sure is more effective tonight. Montreal.