dudacek

Quinn sets up Byfield for a great chance on his first shift. And then sets up Guhle for the first goal.

Peterka and Cozens with glorious chances on the opening shift.

I would be very surprised and disappointed if the system changed at all 5-on-5. Ralph put too much emphasis on teaching it last year and made too many references to the players needing to be able to play it without thinking. I think the off-season was about acquiring forwards to better fit the system, not forwards that will allow him to change the system. Teaching a new system in a short camp for an abbreviated season would hurt our playoff chances more than not adding a goalie, IMO, No. You don’t understand that he’s changed. Things are going to be different this time. 😜

Agreed. I think there has been a tendency around the internet to dismiss the Sabres defence corps going into the season as “bad” when they objectively weren’t according to the measurables. Also, player for player, the Sabres D stacks up pretty well against the other bluelines in the division. Justin Schultz and Brendan Dillon are not clearly better than Jake McCabe and Brandon Montour. Neither are Mike Matheson and Cody Ceci, or Thomas Hickey and Adam Pelech. Yes, we do need Dahlin to take a step to match with the Carlsons and Letangs

Me too. Again, he plays centre the entire run-up and gets shifted at the last minute? Even with the bad decisions he made with the puck against the Russians, I want my coach to have more faith in his choices.

The rosters are larger than 20. Not sure if it’s 21 or 22. Twitter can ***** off. Quinn did nothing against the Russians to deserve a benching.

We need to add people like Toby Rieder and Cody Eakin and Eric Staal and Taylor Hall. The goalie thing hangs out there, but you have to like the fact Adams actually targeted obvious areas of need in the off-season and pulled the trigger.

I’ve seen a few different scenarios out there, so I am going to wait until game time. But staying with the same lineup for a full week of practice then throwing the entire roster into a blender after a win over the 2nd seeded team seems odd, to say the least.

I think the Rangers will roll with Shesterkin to start, but GAs point stands: this is a division full of question marks in goal. Rask skipped the bubble, Varlamov isnt a top tier goalie. None of the others have much of a track record. i also think the Carter Hutton situation might be a bit overstated. Don’t get me wrong, I am concerned, I just don’t think backup goalie will matter as much as some think. if Ullmark takes a step.

Knight wasn’t good, but the US defence coughed up the puck and just plain got beat too much, and their big guns - Sanderson and York - weren’t exempt from that. Johnson was better in those areas than most, but didn’t have much of an impact on the game.

I am in agreement that Casey's problem is primarily his inability to play the style of game he played as a teenager against NHL competition. I don't think the only possible remedy is another full season in the minors. You're dismissing that Casey has already played 35 games in the minors in order to work on his problems and has had plenty of off-ice time to analyze and mitigate his issues. I would hope the team has been actively working with him in those areas most needing work. I also think his issues with pace and puck battles are tied (not exclusive to, but tied) to a lack of commitment to fitness. I'm not sure how it will manifest, but I am sure the the time off will have altered the playing field between players. Some players will be better, and others worse depending on how they used the break. Casey has always had the physical gifts to play in the league. How has he maximized them? How will he utilize them?

I'd settle for minus the baby fat.

Personally, i don't think people bash Housley enough for where Mitts is. He coddled and shielded him throughout his rookie year when he should have been teaching and challenging. It took Ralph less than a month to figure out Casey wasn't ready and another month to convince Botterill. People seem to love Chris Taylor, so maybe he did start Casey on the right path last year, even if Taylor's firing wouldn't seem to reflect that. It's been nearly a year since Casey played hockey; that's plenty of time to rethink and refocus his approach to the game and decide he's going to be a pro. I'm open to the possibility that he has, and can force his way on to the roster, even though I'm not counting on it. More than anything else he needs to play.

Suzuki, Mercer and Tomasino have been the low men on the totem, so one of them will be elevated, but I'm not sure that any fit in Dach's spot. The "easiest" guy to move in there if they don't want to disrupt the lineup much would be Connor Zary. The "right" guy in terms of loading up the first line would be elevating Byfield (who was excellent last night) from the 4th.

His AHL production at 21 last season translated to just under 28 NHLe, which was negligibly better than the 25 real NHL points he put up at 20. At 21 R2 was just over 26 NHLe in Liiga I mean LGR is right on Mitt's, his problem is the fact that his game did not develop one iota over his first 100 NHL games. He left the NHL at the same level he arrived.

i have no idea, having seen R2 play only in last year's training camp. But I love the question, because R2 is a full year older than Casey, and their 21-year-old seasons were statistically almost identical using NHLe.

It just clicked with me why we disagree so vehemently on Reinhart. I tend to watch a game as a series of odd-man situations created and prevented, you tend to watch it a series of 1-on-1 encounters won and lost.

Pretty close: https://www.capfriendly.com/faq#102c What is a 10.2(c) player? A player becomes a free agent when their contract expires on July 1 after the last League Year of their contract. A player who does not meet the UFA requirements or the Group 2 RFA requirements displayed in the table above, and has been issued a qualifying offer, is designated a 10.2(c) player. The player is only eligible to negotiate and sign a contract with the club that holds their signing rights. They are ineligible to negotiate a contract (offer sheet) with any other club. They are also ineligible for arbitration. If the player does not receive a qualifying offer by June 25th at 5:00pm ET, they immediately become a UFA Its basically because he signed as a teenager and his contract expired before he had played three years pro.

This is what I saw too. I’ll add that any disappointment in Cozens was on offence; he made some bad decisions and passes. Defensively, he was strong. He remains hard on the puck with a good motor. That said his possession game was excellent and he probably had Canada’s best scoring chance, streaking in late off the bench, where he shot high. I thought Cozens and Dach both were guilty of wanting to do too much on their own instead of letting the puck do the work for them. Quinn looked much more in tune with a give and go or a cycle game, but as a line they looked like they were still developing chemistry. Despite this, they consistently pinned the 2nd best team in the tourney in its own zone. Once they click, they look like they will eat weaker defencemen alive. (Another guy the oldsters might appreciate as a Quinn comparison is Steve Larmer.)

Casey fell into a rare category where he could not be offer sheeted. He could only be signed by the Sabres.

Cozens takes the face off in the D zone with the Russian goalie pulled. On the right side.

Dach injured

Hasn’t stood out, but I’ve liked his game. He doesn’t carry the puck much, but he seems to be reliable. Always sticking his nose in there and he goes to the right places in both ends. No errors and a couple decent chances. Definitely belongs.

Askarov out and Drysdale scores with a wrister from the blueline on the backup. 1-0 Canada.

Quinn takes a penalty as he and Cozens tag-team with an aggressive forecheck.