dudacek

Johnson has been both stable and assertive. You get the sense that he might be lacking a bit in what he can do, but he knows what to do and does it with authority. I was a bit skeptical when we signed him, but I like what I've seen so far. They were my pre-season answer to the "yeah but who are they going to knock out?" question.

i kinda feels like people don't remember, or didn't know, what attendance has been like the past few years.

The hope meter overflows for some of you. Bryson is the spare defenceman. He goes in.

Saw this earlier this week. Hope it doesn't happen. The NHL draft is so much better than the NFL draft —more personal for the participants, a great place to people watch

I remember the days of having to watch Connor Sheary on the ice in extra time. Suck it tampa.

They did miss the net quite a few times. The ones I noticed were mostly on the PP from 40 feet out, with Levi in position. They weren’t dangerous on the rush, they didn’t get many back door looks or clean lanes from the slot. Even throughout the 3rd when Tampa was battling hard and keeping the puck in our zone, the puck stayed mostly to the outside. Kucherov was the only Lightning player who seemed to have any success breaking us down. The Lightning are not as deep or as dangerous as they were, but they remain one of the best in the league in puck battles. I thought the game was played their way a lot, along the wall, and we beat them at it. I thought our battle game was excellent and there were stretches we dominated in that area. This is hockey, where dominance is winning 5 out of 9 situations, pucks bounce and chaos rules. This thread has a real Bills fan vibe.

The amount of finger-pointing at “bad defence” in this thread is baffling to me. They allowed 23 shots and 2 goals in 62 minutes of hockey, including 5 Tampa power plays, against a team that has the 8th-best offence in the league last year.

I don’t actually think the goal was his fault, moreso kinda bad luck. The puck just kinda jumped off his stick and right to Hagel. Just like it was kinda bad luck when it hopped over his stick at the blueline against the Rangers and when he got hauled down on the Brock Nelson goal.

Random observations: Had to be one of the better defensive efforts the team has put in over the Granato era, no? And the fact that it came against Tampa has to be good for their psyche (even though I think time will prove this Tampa team to be less than it's been). Still not completely satisfied with the offence, but its nice to see we don't always need it to be 6-5 to win. Hope the single point we gave up doesn't bite us in the ass come April. To be honest, i didn't really feel that one coming. It never felt like we were in Alamo mode. Thought maybe a bigger goalie would have had that, but Levi continues to give us a chance to win. he has to be giving the team confidence. Doesn'tseem to get talked about much, but we seem to have become a real good team 3-on-3. it's a speed and puck possession game and that's what we're good at. Really made tampa look silly in extra time tonight. Erik Johnson continues to be exactly what last year's team was lacking: a reliable presence and a difference maker on the PK I hope he can hold up if Mule is out for a while because that will hurt and is starting to feel inevitable. Speaking of PK, the Greenway Thompson Mule Johnson unit has to be one of the longest ever iced in the NHL. And it worked. Clifton was better, although he still seems to have been involved in approximately half of our goals against. Jokiharju seemed pretty good out there to me 🤷‍♂️. Cozens wasn't exactly good, but he wasn't bad like he has been the previous games. Very happy he got the winner. Hopefully it puts him in a groove. Not sure who needed it more, him or the team. Too early to to say anything definitively on Greenway, but not to early to say 'see, that's what I was talking about." Both he and Krebs have been two-way puck hounds and the type of middle-six players last year's team was missing. i liked how Donnie had Krebs out specifically with other lines for defensive faceoffs in the 3rd. Both the Girgs line and the Tage line looked more like themselves, so probably no coincidence the team looked better too. but Mittelstadt continues to be the tean's best player early.

Connecting to the community and to the history of the franchise has been a repeated talking point from the organization for about 2 1/2 years now. I'd go as far to say as it has been a central platform in Adams' plan. It's manifested itself most notably in events and people such as RJ and Miller jersey nights and the RJ memorial, but it also seems to be an ongoing thing tied to smaller events and off-ice sessions including alumni like Biron and Danny Gare. "Wanting to be here" isn't just about attracting free agents, it's about guys like Peterka and Krebs identifying themselves as Sabres, first and foremost: recognizing what the crest has meant to people, and wanting to be part of it. It's clear from listening to the players that they know what the relationship between team and city can be and they want to recreate it. The Sabres have also, post lockout, invested a significant amount of resources in expanding their coaching and development staff in order to give the youngsters an extraordinary amount of 1-on-1 time with the youth both on and off the team, teaching them how to be pros; This includes veteran NHLers like Peca, Weber, Paestch, Mair, Girardi, Kennedy, Ellis... Guys like Ryan Johnson and Matt Savoie have talked about what a great and constant presence these guys have been for them. They've also very much targeted guys like Anderson, Okposo, Girgensons, and Johnson for their locker room specifically for the same reason. Now is this the same thing as Terry O'Reilly stopping by practice for an hour? Not exactly, but I think it's pretty clear Adams is both conscious of the need to teach these kids how to be pros and is proactive about addressing it. Same thing for sharing with them the culture of the community. I kinda think you need your Marchands and Bergerons in the room before an Eichel is ever going to give a ***** about Rick Middleton and Danny Gare, anyway. Hopefully Dahlin and Cozens are becoming that. When you say " idk, I get a sense this is what is missing and our culture here suffers and so the team keeps losing" I think you are 2 years behind the times, unless you think a 10-year culture vacuum is something that can be repaired overnight. These things definitely have been issues. Steps have been taken to see them addressed. The team has improved since the process started. We'll see how much in April.

OK? I thought this was a conversation, not a debate.

And the benching has come after 2 games. From a roster that literally has two spare skaters to move around. The top free agent acquisition struggled in training camp and started the season on the 3rd pair. The first line sucked and its ice time was cut. The 3rd line played well and its ice time increased. Two games. The perception of what Donnie is doing or not doing to make “winning a priority” and the reality don’t necessarily line up. But people will see what they want to see.

Now this is fair comment. I think most coach’s messaging has always been dictated primarily toward what they want the players to hear. And there has been a concerted shift away from pushing their buttons in public to massaging their feelings. Fans generally don’t dive too deeply into what the coach is saying to the players, they want a coach who reflects what they’re feeling back at them. They want to say “He gets it!” Krueger’s presence jumped the shark when it became obvious he couldn’t coach and his words were hollow. Donnie strikes me as both more knowledgeable and more genuine, but if you ask me if I still feel that way when our record is 8-17-3, I suspect I won’t.

Forgive me, but this doesn’t feel sincere. Unless you actually read that as Granato saying it was the 2 losses that have the team moving in the right direction, as opposed to the trend of the team’s play over their 2 games?

Years ago somebody pointed out that a marginal teenage NHLer needed to be sent down before his 10th game or a team would have to sign him to his 2nd contract a year earlier. The hockey community said “hey, you’re right” and it became a huge talking point for all teenage players, to the point that the talkers forgot the key word here was “marginal”. Shorter version: You shouldn’t.

Weird, because to me it's a fair representation of what I saw in the 2 games I watched. My personal take is Don knows his team's personalities very well and believes an evenhanded "deep breath, you got this" is the proper response for a group that has put a ton of pressure on itself and maybe wants things to go right a little too desperately right now. But I'm projecting as much as anyone else on here. Let's see how they respond.

I'm curious how many people respond best in their own lives when a boss loses his ***** on them. Honest question. Personally, I don't. I go through the wall for the guy who has my back. The guys who need repeated ass-kickings to achieve good results are generally the guys i don't want on my team.

As much as I want Krebs to be a centre I like this. Krebs and Cozens have rarely played together as Sabres but Team Canada has had them joined at the hip since they were 15. There is a history of chemistry there. I need Peyton to be tenacious March 2023 Peyton, not revert to turnover-happy hope play February 2022 Peyton.

It’s 2, from what I read Don said. Cozens hasn’t been himself. Cozens and JJ miss Quinn JJ has been pretty good. We need to get them going without messing the other lines Unless Savoie is ready, I read that as Jost slides in for VO, period.

They wanted it too bad and were squeezing the sticks in game 1 and got thoroughly outplayed as a result. They played good enough to win in game 2 and didn’t. That’s the NHL. It happens. Your job is to limit how often. The fan base is allowed to overreact to a 2-game losing streak. The team is not.

Without mentioning either player directly, Granato seemed to be hinting at Jost in for Olofsson on WGR. Skinner Tuch Thompson Dahlin Cozens = 1 point combined in 2 games. That’s not going to continue. Hope we see Levi again.

It’s hockey. It will not - cannot - be anything other than Benny. Stop shouting at the tide 😜

If VO is as bad as everyone says, there is no risk to waiving him: why would Adams care if someone picked up a player who is not good enough to help him? Never mind the fact, at his contract, there are only 4 or 5 teams who could afford pick him up if they wanted him. Not advocating waiving him at this point, just pointing out you can’t have it both ways.

Pretty typical Islanders game. Are they ever not tight? Hard to believe we only got about 50 seconds of PP time, tough to beat that team when they’re allowed to play their game. Not going to put much stock in a game against the Isles PP, but the PK is certainly looking more aggressive and was disrupting plays. Agree with Johnson and Clifton thoughts upthread: the former is delivering exactly what we signed him for, the latter…not so much. Raising my eyebrows at the Levi concern; kid looked poised to me and gave us a chance to win. Dylan Cozens looks 19 again. Really enjoyed the Mitts line, all three of them playing real well. Not going to meet our goals with the first line playing like that. All 3 of them look kinda slow and collectively their chemistry ain’t there.

Finally starting to see our legs