dudacek

I’ve not been shy about criticizing Jeff Skinner the two previous seasons, but I think his selfishness and confounding puck decisions are noticeably down this year, and his engagement level far more consistent. Generally speaking, he was a positive today and has been more often than not this year. Please Donnie, don’t use him in overtime. It’s just not his game in any way, shape or form. The body of work is large enough and the results speak for themselves.

I ***** hate Taylor Hall

JJ has got a jump and a charisma to his game that makes him a treat to watch. But his details are much more in need of refinement than Krebs. I love JJ and don’t want this to be taken as a shot. He’s going to be a good one. We have to remember he’s a full year younger and has played just 25 games on North American rinks.

There are people saying we have to get a centre. Maybe they mean a centre everything else being equal 🤷

If he’s the best player available, absolutely. Expecting him to fill the Eichel-sized hole in the roster, absolutely not.

Logically, it’s Bjork and Ristolainen, but we’ll see. Not sure I want Tuch and Tage together again. Not a lot of chemistry there yet.

Pretty sure he made more direct passes to create good scoring chances than any other Sabre last night: Okposo in the high slot from behind the net, low to high across the grain to Olofsson for a one-timer, and a 60-footer off the left half-wall on the rush to the 2nd trailer. And he got to all three pucks with hustle and well-timed reads. He also created space for his linemates by driving lanes without the puck, and cut off several breakout attempts with good anticipation. There were a few times where his mates got the puck from him, then put their heads down and skated into traffic instead of working the give and go as they should have. He’s smarter, quicker and has better hands than than Lazar already and he hustles just as much. Needs to get stronger.

Neither of us will remember this exchange, but i expect that 10 years from now — assuming Dahlin plays on better teams than he has — Dahlin will be held in higher regard than every one of these guys save Karlsson.

This and the 'Tuch was the sabres best player last night' are more evidence you watch hockey much differently than I do.

Is there going to be a centre where we pick who has a better chance of being a #1 centre than Dylan Cozens? I realize stats aren’t everything, but the only player producing clearly better numbers than the centres we already have did is Savoie Draft year #s Cozens WHL: 68 games, 84 points Mitts USHL: 24/30 HS: 25/64 Krebs WHL: 64/68 Thompson NCAA: 36/32 Savoie WHL: 32/52 Geekie WHL 33/38 Cooley USDP: 20/30 Wright OHL: 22/30 Lambert Liiga: 24/6

Power looks very strong in this area against his peers. Uses his length to protect the puck and his skating to quick-pivot. Then once he shakes loose he skates into space, finds the open man, and puts it on the tape.

JohnHayden quietly had has best game of the year. I was not entertained.

Damn we look as well-coached as a beer league team. No cohesion at all. Krebs skating hard and finding guys. That’s his game.

So much fuss? I don’t think we are even ready yet to acknowledge that his current 2C level of play is sustainable. Players getting dramatically better is not something history has taught us how to deal with. 😀

I would be very surprised if Pekar develops. Average size and speed and skill at the AHL level, and his details aren’t good enough to make it on effort alone.

Tampa won the cup last year with Gorde (54 points, prorated) and Cirelli (33) in their 2/3 holes. The Blues had Schenn (54) and Bozak (38) Can Tage be a Schenn or a Gorde?

You’ve been pretty steady with this position. What would he have to do for you to consider him a legitimate 2C?

Ras now tied for 14th in scoring among NHL defencemen, on par with or ahead of Heiskanen, Hamilton, Werenski, Burns, Chabot, Karlsson, Klingberg, Krug, Letang, Dumba and McAvoy among others.

Tage is currently tied for 36th among NHL centres for points, 29th for ES points and 13th for goals. His stats right now are as good or better than Erikson-Ek, Trochek, Schiefele, Horvat, O’Reilly, Jenner, Suzuki, Carter, Couturier, Barzal and Hischier among other top-6 centres. I think most of us watching think his points have been earned. For those who think his numbers are artificially elevated by usage, he’s 59th in ice time. How long does this have to continue before we decide he is a legitimate top-6 centre?

Lot of uneven play tonight I thought, almost across the board. Effort was there, but also rust and a lack of cohesion. Okposo and Pysyk have been two of our steadiest, but tonight each had one of their least effective games. Peterka and Krebs each showed pieces of why I like them, but neither slipped fully into the NHL groove. Tuch and Tage each did many nice things and a few not-as-nice things, but their chemistry was off as much as it was on. Eakin was good for Eakin, Hayden lost the step he was gaining prior to break and Bjork was a non-factor. UPL looked more like October UPL in the way he was carrying himself. He made a lot of saves, but I also think he was also in the right side of a few Devil whiffs. Prow and Butcher were a disaster together but had some decent moments apart. Happy for Prow, but not looking forward to watching him on a regular basis. Missing Hagg is a big blow for the PK. Adding Bryson and Miller to that is scary. That said, Fitzgerald did not look out of place even if he was probably less effective than his debut. He plays like there is no doubt is his mind that he belongs. Dahlin was our best player, again. I dream of a day when Dahlin and Power bombs to spring Tuch and Peterka become the Sabres identity. Murray was mostly quiet other than that devastating final punch, but the shift or two he got with Tage and Tuch must have been the largest mass of a line ever iced by the Sabres. Like the spirit, hope we see more connectivity tomorrow.

Looking at the latter half of the top 10 in some recent drafts to see where taking “the next best centre” rather than “BPA” got you or may have got you. 2008: 6 Filatov, 7 Wilson, 8 Boedker, 9 Bailey, 10 Hodgson -> 14 Zach Boychuk 16 Joe Colborne Winger Josh Bailey was the best of the bunch at 9, reaching for a centre from outside the top 10 would have got you a bust 2009: 6 Ekman-Larsson, 7 Kadri, 8 Glennie, 9 Cowen, 10 Paajarvi -> 16 Peter Holland Kadri was the right pick at 7, Glennie a horrible reach at 8, reaching outside the top 10 would have been another bust 2010: 6 Connolly, 7 Skinner, 8 Burmistrov, 9 Granlund, 10 McIlrath -> 14 Schwartz Burmistrov was a horrible pick. Granlund and Schwartz would have been fine, but ironically ended up as wingers. 2011: 6 Zibanejad 7 Schiefele 8 Couturier 9 Hamilton 10 Brodin -> 15 JT Miller Great year for picking or even reaching for a centre. Miller is clearly better than the 4 guys who went before him. 2012: 6 Lindholm, 7 Dumba 8 Pouliot 9 Trouba 10 Koekkoek -> 12 Girgorenko 13 Faksa Terrible year for centres, one top 6 centre in the entire draft, Hertl at 17. 2013: 6 Monahan 7 Nurse 8 Ristolainen, 9 Horvat, 10 Nicushkin -> 12 Domi 14 Wennberg Both centres picked were reasonable value, reaching for either of the next 2 wasn’t going to solve your C problem 2014: 6 Virtanen, 7 Fleury, 8 Nylander, 9 Ehlers, 10 Ritchie -> 16 Larkin This was the year to reach. Larkin likely should have been a top 5 pick 2015: 6 Zacha 7 Provorov 8 Werenski 9 Meier 10 Rantanen -> 16 Barzal Given the strength of this draft, Strome at 3 and Zacha were clear reaches, but Barzal should have been top 10 2016: 6 Tkachuk, 7 Keller, 8 Nylander, 9 Sergachev, 10 Jost -> 11 Brown, 12 McLeod Jost Brown McLeod with McAvoy and Chychrun still on the board make this a poster child of centre reaching. 2017: 6 Glass, 7 Anderson, 8 Mittelstadt, 9 Rasmussen, 10 Tippett -> 11 Villardi, 12 Necas 13 Suzuki Just a bizarre draft for centres - 8 of the 1st 11 picks were centres, but just 2 of those 8 (Hischier and Pettersson) are now proven NHLers. Meanwhile, 5 more centres went between 12 and 21 and all of them are good NHLers. *** Over that entire decade-long stretch, 3 1Cs taken between picks 6 and 10 and all 3 were taken in the same year. Meanwhile, just one outright bust, Scott Glennie. Looks like Barzal and Larkin were the only centre “reaches” who teams would have been right to reach for. It will be interesting to see if anyone emerges from the mess of 2017. The top 3 centres from 2018 look like reaches (Kotkaniemi, Hayton, Delandrea). Zegras looks very promising from 2019.

If your concern is projecting roster spots down the road, 2 years from now, you’ve got 5 players potentially tracking for 4 centre spots, 10 players tracking for 8 winger spots, 5 tracking for 3 LD spots and 2 for 3 RD spots. Based on need, RD is the clear preference. If you are concerned about slotting players into their proper roles on the roster, LD is the only position we are good enough, or deep enough, at to even consider passing on BPA. In my opinion, we have 4 centres (Tage, Mitts, Cozens, Krebs) 4 wingers (Tuch, Olofsson, Quinn, Peterka) and 5 defencemen (Dahlin, Power, Samuelsson, Johnson, Jokiharju) who have shown signs of being top 6 forwards/top 4 defencemen. Maybe Rosen should be included given his draft pedigree, but I haven’t seen it yet. Power, Dahlin and maybe Cozens are the only ones who have given us reason to believe they might be first-liners and none of them are that yet. We have talent coming at every position except right D. We need elite talent at every position except left D. Take the best player available. Years until UFA: Thompson 3 Ruotsalainen 3 Mittelstadt 4 Cozens 6 Krebs 7 Olofsson 2 Okposo 2 Girgensons 2 Bjork 3 Asplund 3 Murray 4 Tuch 5 Skinner 6 Quinn 6 Peterka 7 Rosen 8 Poltapov 8 Kisakov 8 Bryson 3 Dahlin 4 Samuelsson 6 Johnson 7 Power 8 Fitzgerald 3 Jokiharju 4

In the 1st 2 rounds, we don’t pass on a more highly ranked player because of position. For example, if our top tier is Wright, Savoie, Kemmel, Nemec and Cooley, and Kemmel is there where we pick at 8, we don’t go for Geekie over Kemmel. All things being equal you take the centre and avoid the LHD, but the need is overstated. The Sabres have 4 1st-round centres from the past 6 drafts - more than pretty much any NHL team. Given the fact we will likely have 4 top 40 picks, I would be surprised if we don’t emerge with 1 or 2 centres this year but you have to take what the draft gives you.

Also, the line that caught my attention was that anyone who exits protocol won’t be returning for at least 3 months because they won’t be tested again in that period.

So this means the Sabres who went into protocol Sunday might be eligible to return as early as Friday and the ones from before Christmas could even be eligible tonight?