dudacek

it stands to reason that the best way to develop prospects is to challenge them. I don't see WHL competition doing that for Benson (or Savoie), so the challenges there would have to come mostly outside of game situations: practice, off-ice habits, etcetera. So it really comes down to coaching, and environment, doesn't it?

Oh, thank god! Corey Pronman says this guy is better than Isak Rosen! (Sorry, Pronman's last half-assed batch of redrafts are where he officially jumped the shark for me)

Sabres played down to Philly and teams like them too often last year. UPL has a history of stepping back after stepping up. Time for a statement on both fronts.

Well if people think something about UPL’s body language encouraged the Sabres to get outshot 18-4 by New Jersey, I guess you could also postulate that something about his body language encouraged them to score lots of goals in most of his starts. Look, UPL lets in too many goals and has for most of his 49 NHL games. But the certitude some fans have that what he was in September of 2022 is all he ever was or will be drives me nuts. I don’t have high hopes for the kid, but I hope he stuffs it in these “fan’s” faces in much the same way Quinn and Mittelstadt have. That amount of hatred dumped on any Buffalo Sabre who just seems to show up and work hard doesn’t seem very “Buffalo” to me.

Also, with Comrie getting injured again, and Tokarski not healthy either, we sure are fortunate Adams kept 3 goalies and didn’t lose anybody to waivers, aren’t we? 😘

Not interested in debating Old Man Pete’s merits, especially with someone who is so obviously a UPL truther. But to the bold I have to ask: how do you explain the Sabres being 19/12/4 over the past calendar year with him in net? 35 games is not a small sample size. Especially for people who buried UPL two years ago for his 35-game year in Rochester.

Rosen and Kulich last year were not hurt in the slightest playing against men as scrawny underagers last year. They sucked to start, got better and have emerged as 1st-liners so far this year at that level. Another parallel might be Kisakov, who was really scrawny and overmatched as an underager in the AHL last year, produced little and sat a lot. He's a point per game so far this year. Benson is ahead of all these guys as a hockey player. My point is there is no single right path or wrong path to develop, or ruin a prospect, no matter what hockey culture will tell you. They're individuals. Do what's best for each one. This version of the Sabres seems to have a pretty good handle on it.

Grier played with Drury most of the time, against tough opponents The "4th line" was Gaustad and a cast of thousands. Some of the guys you said, for sure, but that team had 11 "top six" forwards: Hecht Dumont Briere Afinogenov Roy Vanek Drury Grier Connoly Kotalik Pominville. Briere Connolly and Hecht missed a lot games.

Wait, people actually pay the guy who reported this? If you think the Sabres deserved to win that game if they had adequate goaltending Im not going to change your mind.

I’m reading this as the Sabres played bad because they didn’t like UPL’s body language, therefore it’s his fault they lost, even if his play wasn’t directly responsible for any goals against. It’s the sort of thing that’s impossible to quantify, but it sounds like a lot of projecting to me.

You can’t be serious. They were outshot 17-4 in the 3rd period. The goals against were Grade A chances. The only reason the score was close was because Vanecek couldn’t stop a beachball

So far this season the Sabres are tied for 12th in goals against. In my view, untimely defensive breakdowns and the not enough timely scoring, especially on the PP are the reasons the Sabres have lost more games than they’ve won. Goaltending hasn’t won them any games, but it hasn’t cost them any either.

I’m not really arguing with you. Except to say there is one defence: that we get good goaltending from the trio Adams decided to go with.

I have not seen physicality as an issue at all so far this season. We’ve seen a number of highlight reel hits, a handful of fights and guys standing up for each other on a consistent basis. Johnson/Clifton/Greenway for Bryson/Clague/Pilut/Hinostroza/Asplund has made a difference. Dahlin, Samuelsson and Cozens have taken steps in this area. Can’t say anyone has pushed us around. Tampa, the Islanders and the Sens all tried and failed. The games that have gotten rough are actually the games we’ve won.

All this

Nothing official. From the way he reacted and moved I was thinking groin, but some were pointing to a Devil falling on him just before that sequence…?

Adams is on record as saying we’ve got 3 good goaltenders. He didn’t get another one because he thought the choices available to him didn’t help the team. He thought Comrie was a better choice than Vanecek. There’s not much else to say about this. He’s right or he’s wrong and the way the season plays out will determine which. Ullmark is not a Bruin because Adams didn’t want him or thought he was a blocker, he’s a Bruin because he got a better offer. Again, that’s an Adams valuation. As far as Vanecek goes, Dahlin and Peterka beat him clean with wristers from above the circle and Cozens scored from the goal line. I don’t think he - or goalies like him - were the answer, at least not as a guy you count on for 40+ games. Devils fans seem to agree.

Best linemates Peterka and Vic have had all season, no more excuses there. The Thompson line was good in pre-season. Due for a refresher course on how good Benson can be.

Love the way Granato has developed the young talent and the team’s trend line under his leadership. I think he’s a smart hockey mind and a good human being. For me at least, he’s successfully managed expectations and instilled hope. But I agree that the point of my earlier post doesn’t apply when it comes to him. He has yet prove himself as a capable NHL coach and if the season plays out as it has started, I’d fire him too.

Watching Lindy Ruff Friday got me pondering the ridiculous percentage of competent coaches who get fired in pro sports. I mean, all of them do, right? Sure, there are obviously overmatched coaches who deserve to get fired, but I wonder if they outnumber the capable coaches who get fired simply because the owner is petty, or unrealistic, or the customer demands a sacrifice and the owner thinks the business is better off listening. ”It’s about winning” is true, but it’s also kinda silly when you think of the context it’s used in sometimes. If it’s the sole barometer, an “average” coach is .500. Those guys get fired all the time. If it’s about “winning it all’ 95% of coaches fail each year. And the few that succeed quickly become failures too. It’s just an odd profession because we all think it’s about teaching, and tactics, and leadership, when actually it’s mostly about your ability to continually sell hope and manage expectations. I’m kinda tempted to get into a discussion about what the culture enveloping pro coaching says about the culture of sports fandom - and culture in general - but that’s a little deeper than I’m ready for right now. But I can say this with a reasonable amount of certainty though: Whoever replaces McDermott will almost certainly be less successful; the analytics on that are undeniable.

Did we know that Comrie has allowed 3 or less in 7 of his last nine, going 6/2/1 in the process? He stats over that stretch aren’t terrific largely because one of the 2 losses was the 10-4 Dallas debacle.

Would be nice if this becomes a thing (Buffalo News): Through seven games, Thompson’s line with Greenway and Cozens on the wings has controlled 65.57% of the shot attempts and 76.4% of the expected goals share at 5-on-5, according to Natural Stat Trick. They’ve earned 11 high-danger scoring chances in those situations and, as impressive, they’ve only allowed four while often skating against the other team’s top players. “You mention top line, and the key is to not have a top line,” Granato explained. “The key is to have top lines. With Mittelstadt, Tuch and Skinner, you have that. I say that because we aren’t the ones to decide who our top line is. It’s the other team and who they are matching against. Are they matching against the Thompson line or are they matching against the Mittelstadt line? Their top defensemen, their top checking line. We’ve seen that alter a bit, which means that you’ve got two top lines – two lines that preoccupy the opponent. “I’ve talked about the importance of that and the importance of offensive depth for that reason. If we can get that going better, that’s a very, very powerful thing that we have not yet gotten to the point where we can. That’s a bit of an initiative for us, to move in that direction.”

It’s not a great parallel because he signed at the end of the year, rather than making the team at the beginning of the year. So the year he burned was about getting to his 2nd contract quicker, not UFA quicker. (Like Power did) But my point was simply that he didn’t do anything on his ELC, so his 2nd contract was 1-year minimum wage. Burning a year proved irrelevant. Consider these 2 scenarios with Benson: 18 9 games, 3 points (slide) 19 80 games 32 points 20 72 games 37 points 21 77 games 62 points (ELC expires, negotiates 2nd deal) versus 18 59 games, 13 points (no slide) 19 80 games 32 points 20 72 games 37 points (ELC expires, negotiates 2nd deal) The Sabres are in a much better negotiating position in the 2nd scenario The whole “burning a year” thing came about in an environment where teams didn’t pay players on their 2nd contracts, or sometimes even their 3rd. Players were trying to get to their UFA years as quickly as possible because that’s where the leverage changed and where they could start making real money. Teams would overpay veterans and underpay kids to compensate under the cap. That situation doesn’t really exist anymore, at least for the young stars and the Sabres are a prime example.

If the goaltending doesn't work over 82 games, it's on Adams. We've been on the same page for this for a long time. Right now, the goals against is 15th in a 32-team league and my eye test says our goalies have neither cost us a game, nor stolen any either. It's been "OK", or "fine". It will be interesting to see where that goes as the year progresses.

Here’s a bonus to “wasting” a year: sometimes you get to sign a player to his 2nd contract before he breaks out which can save you good money. Casey Mittelstadt is a good example. People put way too much emphasis on this. It’s a secondary consideration, not a big deal.