dudacek

That snippet has prepared me for the most contrived, hipster list ever.

How I'd rank 'em, in terms of how useful they are (assumed healthy) at the moment VO Mitts Thompson Tuch Asplund KO Girgs Skinner Cozens Caggiula R2 Hinostroza Bjork Eakin Hayden But really there isn't much separation between VO and Tuch, Asplund and Skinner, or Cozens and Eakin, in terms of tiers

I can already picture the scene in March when the Amerks get called up. Krebs grabs a tray and heads into the lunchroom. Cozens smiles an eager smile and slides over on his bench to make room. Krebs refuses to make eye contact, strides past, and plunks himself down two tables over between Jack and JJ, to laughter and high-fives. Cozens face sags. He turns back to his plate. Anders Bjork says "hey Dilly, is this seat taken?"

Fatty's game was never built for playoff marches.

Can someone please calculate the odds of: A) the Sabres being in a playoff race; B) None of Power, Quinn, Krebs, Peterka or Samuelsson being good enough to help that team; and C) Eakin, Hagg, Butcher, Hinostroza and the rest of the Legion of JAG being indispensable parts?

Don't you want guys like Power and Krebs playing in the playoff run, if we're in one?

The bold is the crux of our disagreement entirely. You're saying if we are in the race, then the JAGs MUST be key. I'm saying NFW, it's Cody Eakin. There is no way replacing him with Krebs is going to cost us a playoff spot.

Wouldn't it then also a bad course not to re-sign these guys in the off-season? "Cody and Robert were in the trenches with me during our glorious run to a 1st-round knockout. I can't believe Adams isn't bringing the band back. What's this Power kid ever done? Our GM clearly doesn't want to win."

Of course the way he's been playing lately matters. And it's right to be concerned. What isn't right is to say UPL is ***** and will always be ***** based on a couple dozen AHL games.

The Sabres players know what Adams is doing. He's had the "honest conversations" Their job is to get better every day. That same mandate will apply pre- and post-deadline, to both the Legion of JAG and the Blinding Light Brigade. Selling off JAGs to make space for core prospects who are ready doesn't send the wrong message. This isn't Jason Botterill ignoring centre ice as the season slips away. If Adams can get a 3rd-rounder for Eakin and in the process create a spot for Krebs to get into a playoff run, he is also staying true to that mandate. He's certainly making making the team better in the long run, and very likely making it better in the now.

Do you really think trading the likes of Eakin and Hagg at the deadline and replacing them with Krebs and Power is going send a bad message to Dahlin and Cozens?

This is interesting to me. I thought Boucher was a bad pick, but I do want to see why a team that picked Brady Tkachuk, Shane Pinto, Jake Sanderson and Tim Stutzle the three previous years are going to be bad.

You can’t talk about sell-off in the abstract. If we trade Hinostroza, Butcher, Miller and Eakin for futures and replace them with Quinn, Power, Samuelsson and Krebs, haven’t we actually made our team better for the playoffs? The only pending FAs on this roster you could actually trade and realistically make this team worse are Anderson and Olofsson.

I’m pretty sure Mitts was 4 to 6 weeks and Joki 2 weeks more than that, no?

People, UPL was great for his entire last season of 54 games as a junior prior to hip surgery. Since then he played 23 mostly good games in the ECHL, 13 mostly good games in Finland, and 24 mostly bad games in Rochester through 2 years of COVID. How about we let him play 50 in Rochester this year, and see where he is at at then before we make any judgements?

If Cozens is really hurt, they should be calling up 2 guys. Shouldn't hit the road with the bare minimum.

This is an "extra body for the road" move. They only have 12 healthy forwards.

Love Dawson Mercer. Can't say he was on my radar much before the draft, but watching him since, kid is relentless.

I think my choice of words maybe put more weight on that phrase than intended. What I meant was I don’t think it’s a stretch to say coaches have looked at top-heavy rosters and said “the rest of you guys just don’t screw it up, play ‘em even and let our skill guys win” On the contrary, I think it’s common. What’s is usual is Donnie telling his whole roster to go for it.

Don’t get me wrong, because I’ve been banging the goalie drum too, but so far Adams has been winning his bet. No NHL team enters the season thinking they have three capable NHL goalies. Adams bet he could find two from Tokarski UPL Dell and Anderson. So far he has. Now I remain skeptical the Toker/Andy combo will keep this up. But any team losing their #1 for an extended period will be nervous. As long as the 1st 2 hold up, I’m not going to be too hard on him for his #3. Lots of teams have a Dell/UPL combo as their depth.

I wonder how much of it is mindset? It’s not like the Sabres are riding a hot stick or two. The balance this year is amazing. No one has more than 5 goals, but 8 guys - Cozens, Bjork, Asplund, Thompson, Skinner, Olofsson, Okposo, Girgensons - have 3 or more. 4 more (Caggiula, Eakin, Dahlin and R2) have 2. Not many teams end a season with a dozen 10 goal scorers, but that’s what the Sabres have been doing so far. To me, it’s the biggest change and it will be interesting to see how well it can be sustained. The Jack teams were all Jack-centric. No one expected the other guys to score and for huge stretches of the year they didn’t. Donnie expects the other guys to score. Maybe for the first time in a long time they are expecting it of themselves, and that makes a difference?

Last year’s offence with Sam Reinhart, Taylor Hall and Jack Eichel paced for 196 goals over 82 games, good for 28th in the league. This year’s offence, with Rasmus Asplund, Tage Thompson and the Legion of JAG is currently 14th in the NHL, pacing for 246 goals, easily the most by a Sabre team since the Vanek-led Sabres put up 245 in 2010-11. How?

Often neglected in this conversation as well is the play of those who went ahead of Quinn. Lafreniere and Stutzle are hardly lighting it up. Sanderson is still in college. Nothing Holtz has done puts him above where Jack is, same with Byfield. My point is not that Quinn is better or worse, it’s that this is a small portion of a dozen long careers. A few months from now maybe Lundell has 14 points in 41 NHL games and both Panther fans are pushing for him to get sent down. Maybe Holtz has pumped in 14 more NHL goals. It’s a long game. Quinn’s our guy. So far, so good.

That’s settled then.

I think last night was the first they’ve showed legitimate chemistry. Not shocking, sometimes chemistry takes time. The winning goal was a play Skinner blows throughout a game on a regular basis. That’s why most coaches don’t have him out there in that situation. Donnie is playing a longer game. Best back-to-back games Jeff has played in years.