dudacek

Sorry if this was already discussed and I missed it, but the Athletic is reporting Dylan Cozens came in to camp 12 pounds heavier this year. If he kept his speed, that’s got to help in the role he’s being asked to play. With the additions of Lafferty and McLeod, is there a team with more size and speed up the middle than Sabres? Not a rhetorical question: we know all 4 are over 6’2 and among the top 20 per cent of NHL skaters.

Craig Rivet says the Sabres should easily get 45 wins and with “a bit of swagger” could really take off. Stable goaltending, best defence corps in 15 years, loves the rebuilt bottom six and team speed, and thinks Lindy is exactly what these players need.

The Östlund take is interesting. From what I saw in the preseason, he does seem to be a better skater, passer and playmaker than Kulich.

Do you think that also means they are the 4 looming cuts to get to 23?

No, you’re right Dan. Jeff Skinner is the devil.

If I remember correctly, one was the breakthrough Carolina squad after they traded Skinner. Who was the other?

I can’t choose. Benson has most battle and hockey IQ and JJ the most raw skill. Quinn is a close 2nd in both categories. I will be shocked if all 3 don’t have long careers as at least top 6 wingers. Any of them can be more than that.

This I would tend to agree with.

Ah, I've found when people react unexpectedly it often is a result of poorly chosen words. In this case, the phrase I used was "with excellence", not "of excellence". Easy to read over, or misinterpret even if read correctly. i should have written "Johnson is the only departure who had any sort of track record of playing with excellent players on an excellent team."

I find this post as bizarre as @GASabresIUFAN's I looked at @mjd1001's list of players who left and came in and the first thing that I noticed was that most of the players coming in had experience with winning programs and most of the people who left didn't. I shared that, along with the suggestion that I kinda doubt it was meaningful. There's no argument being presented or data being skewed. It was a simple offhand reaction to the opening post. System? Skinner is better than Aube-Kubel? What the heck are you talking about?

Swayman must be losing sleep over that one.

The Athletic preview article in another thread says Tage made a dramatic improvement in his defensive analytics last year.

That piece sure seems to point fingers at last year’s coaching staff for breaking what didn’t need fixing while trying to fix what did.

The Sabres have never telegraphed their starting lineup as clearly as they have this season.

The PDO podcast has its “Our Guys” pod up, which is basically the guys Drance and Filopovic see as players of all levels who will be way better this year than the public perceives them to be. First up among the young players category is our favourite teenage carnie, Zachary Ruben Benson. Their verdict is much like many of ours: the size don’t matter, great skill and a capital D-O-G dog. They can’t picture a better fit for Lindy Ruff 2022/23 Devils style of hockey - they also like the other moves the Sabres made for exactly that reason - and are actually predicting stardom in his future. If listening to 2 well-informed out-of-market hockey nerds drool over a Sabre is your thing, a highly recommended listen.

I was referring to the six missing opening night players (Krebs (likely), Okposo, Zemgus, Mitts, Skinner, VO) in the opening post. So entirely accurate. 😘

I've talked a bit about this roster maybe reaching critical mass in terms of talent and age. I've never really fully bought into the "guys who know how to win" thing but if it's real i wonder if reached a point where it could make a difference. Zucker played beside Crosby, McLeod with McDavid. Byram and Aube-Kubel won a cup with Colorado. Lafferty was also with the Penguins and was part of the Vancouver turnaround last year. Johnson is the only departure who had any sort of track record with excellence. Five of the six departing forwards had never played a playoff game.

I said it earlier, September is the height of hopium season. No matter what actually happened over the summer, we’ve all had enough time to convince ourselves it could work. Lindy opened the door a little more than many off-season moves might have, and a pretty much perfect pre-season has kept it there. I very much doubt we would have seen that number in mid-July, or will if we open the year at 3 and 4.

These are both solid arguments. It kinda hinges on the expectations of Reimer: if he and the team are OK with basically being an afterthought for the time being then it might work. I think we're overthinking this a little too much. Every team with 2 NHL goalies waives its 3G. You only keep a 3rd if you've got a lot of uncertainty and/or he's a valued but not-ready prospect you don't want to lose. If Levi is ready, waive Reimer. If he's not, send down Levi.

I want Luukkonen and Levi to mimic the Ullmark Swayman model and the 3rd goalie question to be as relevant as it was in the days of Miller and Hasek. I think that's what the Sabres want too. I think Reimer is aware of that. Which makes me think that if any team wanted Reimer on a $1M deal to be their #2, they could have signed him this summer, so the Sabres are probably reasonably comfortable waiving him in the flood of goalies getting waived this week. Boston claiming him wouldn't bother me at all. Effectively it probably means he will become a Sabre (Amerk) again as soon as Swayman signs. If either UPL or Levi goes down short-term the other will be capable of carrying the load even without Reimer. Long-term and they would have to spend some of that draft capital on another Reimer.

By "how will it work?" I meant how would they use the trio? They just gave UPL a 5-year deal, safe to say they expect he'll get at least half the starts. So you basically think they will stash Reimer in the press box and make Levi the #2 to start? Where each ends up depends on whether Levi sinks or swims? That's certainly possible.

Why do you think they will do this? And how do you think it will work?

The Sabres have proceeded the entire camp as if Levi is ahead Reimer. In fact, Levi has been sharing play time equally with Luukkonen, exclusively with the “real team” - the team the Sabres have been explicitly been preparing for game 1, right down to the lines and the defence pairings. In fact, I’m drawing a blank: did Reimer get any pre-season action at all? Levi has also, by all accounts, played well - or at least done nothing that should lead someone to believe he has “lost” a training camp battle. The Sabres signed Reimer with one of 2 plans in mind, either: a) he was supposed to hold the fort as the NHL backup while Levi maximized his playing time and developed, or b) he was supposed provide an excellent insurance policy as the team’s #3 if one of the presumptive duo stumbled due to poor play or misadventure. Whatever the preferred plan was (and they’re behaving like it was B) the Sabres had a pretty good idea on how they were going to handle the waiver wire when Reimer was signed, and I’ve seen nothing that’s happened that should have altered their plan. Whatever happens was probably the plan all along.

These 7 forwards are expected to be everyday players in Tampa: Paul, Atkinson, Girgensons, Sheary, Glendening, Ylonen and Chaffee.

They’re talking now like the cap is still artificially low because of the COVID advance the players got. Without that, current revenue streams dictate a $100M cap right now. I still hold out some faint hope that if the current top six doesn’t play like $7M players they’ll make a move with that money, and if they do play like $7M players, they’ll use it on their own. I have no reason to actually think that, but it’s September and my hopium is is usually at its highest levels this time of year.