dudacek

Other journalists and people who like hold journalists accountable do.

In announcing the hiring of Patrick Allvin as his new Canucks GM, Jim Rutherford dropped a nugget about the troubling reality of being out of the playoffs and hard up against the cap. I listened to Vancouver radio today spend a lot of time on what a team like Vancouver could do to fix that (sell overpaid players at discount prices, or pay other teams to take bad players). Then they went on to talk about how hard that is with Cap space at such a premium around the league. I have watched the pains Kevyn Adams has taken to put the Sabres in the best possible place in terms of cap space and have been patiently waiting to see if, and how, he will take advantage of it. 15 NHL teams are too tight against the cap right now to add even 1 minimum wage player and 5 others are close enough that they don't really have much flexibility. The majority of those are using LTIR to comply. The cap isn't going to grow next year. Loading up for a playoff run at the deadline for a Vegas or Tampa or St. Louis, or tearing down in order to launch a rebuild next year for a Philly or Vancouver or Montreal will require finding a partner willing to sell you some space. The Sabres, with $12.6 million in cap space right now and only 11 NHLers under contract for next year are in the best position of any team in the league to take advantage. They aren't alone. Arizona, Columbus and Detroit have certainly put themselves in a similar position and 6 other teams could play that game if they are so inclined. I need to see Adams take advantage of this opportunity and add some picks for other teams junk, or a helpful player that another team can no longer afford at a discount price, or anything at all for laundering another team's big trade. Otherwise, it's an opportunity wasted. What do you think he will, or should, do? https://www.capfriendly.com/

Hope the means Robson gets an appearance. Has a team ever gone 7 goalies deep into their depth chart?

From a logical armchair perspective you are absolutely correct. On the ice, it has been, and will be a different story. I believe Levi is better than, and more highly regarded by Hockey Canada than, conventional wisdom and the hockey Internet would have you believe.

Here's the thing for me: This isn't a case of a more talented kid having to sit behind a less-talented vet because he's not quite ready yet. It's not Hinostroza over Peterka or Quinn. Levi is already head and shoulders above the other 2 guys. He's a better player now. Distant observers don't know that yet, but Hockey Canada does.

It was dirty, but not nasty if you get the distinction, and deserved 2 minutes for interference. Had Hagg done the same thing and Batherson hopped right back up we wouldn't be talking about it. But the NHL seems to care more about the outcome and the optics of a play than the play itself.

Marty said Levi isn't going there to watch and learn.

Follow the Amerks. Not as interesting at the moment due to injuries and call-ups, but they have been entertaining and good for my hopium supply this year.

Did people catch Adams interview on the Levi/Power Team Canada news? All but confirmed without confirming that Power is coming here as soon as Michigan is done.

Just coming to post this. Just in case somebody unplugged @Brawndo 😜 Marty also expects Devon to get the crease for Canada. This excites me way more than it should.

This i am in full agreement with. Ideally, a right-handed Samuelsson clone. Check how well Mule's skillset matches those defensive skills I listed.

I think the first is covered under "winning loose puck battles" (the fact that it doesn't matter whether you do it with brains, quickness or strength is exactly what I'm getting at) Take Rasmus Dahlin for example. While he needs to improve his strength on the puck, he isn't awful at it, and I see him steadily improving in his battle skills. this season, he wins as many as he loses. But he is also very good at getting to pucks first because of his skating and his reads and often outright beats his man as a result in the way you describe. Some see him get worked physically, remember the times he got worked in the past and say "he sucks defensively" I see a guy winning 1/2 of his loose puck battles with his skill and 1/4 of them with his strength and say a 75 per cent success rate is pretty damn good. I include this under "identifying your check" (call it positioning, or playing the system if you'd rather). To continue with Dahlin, I see a guy who does struggle in this area, chasing when should stay at home, or getting caught in no man's land. i think he's improved in this part of the game, but he still has a long way to go. So when people say "he sucks defensively" but they really mean he sucks at identifying his coverage, I totally get that. Saying he sucks defensively overall, however, I think is flat out wrong. It ignores how good he is at the skills @mjd1001 is talking about.

I wish people would be more specific when they talk about defensive skills. I get a sense that sometimes people are laser-focused on one or two attributes while overlooking the wide range of skills that constitute “defence” To me, defensive skills include: Identifying your check Tying up your check Clearing the front of the net Eliminating/blocking passing/shooting lanes Forcing attackers wide Forcing turnovers Winning loose puck battles Evading the forecheck Safely moving the puck out of danger Launching an effective zone exit and probably more. It feels like people like to sum defence up as being “tougher” or “more mobile” when those are tools to augment the above skill set, not prerequisites.

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)