dudacek

And Frederic-Poitras-Brazeau, Robertson-Jarnkrok-McMann, and Girgensons-Paul-Atkinson do?

Today’s Amerks roster is going to be adding 2 part-time NHL defencemen in Johnson and Clague and 2 first-line AHL forwards in Kulich and Rousek, and quite possibly an NHL goalie to start the season. They went 3-1 mostly against teams sprinkled with NHL players, and appeared to outplay the opposition every game, save Sandstrom’s spotty 3rd period. Helenius and Östlund look like they might be able to be our 3rd rookie impact duo in 4 years, and there seems to be crazy depth. I might have to spring for the AHL package.

12 seconds. The move Östlund made to draw the penalty where they won it was a thing of beauty. That's 3 games in a row with highlight reel plays. The kid has got some skill.

None. Everything he posts goes through the filter of Sabres bad until proven otherwise, Bruins good until proven otherwise. It's the default Terry Pegula created and it's not going to change at least until the Sabres are a winning team. The only question I have is how much of a winning team it will take.

But don't the Bruins and their players do everything that right way?

To address your confusion, I expect the Sabres mid-roster forwards to be better than those of the 4 traditional playoff teams The Sabres top 3 forwards make $18M combined. Zach Benson, Jack Quinn and JJ Peterka are on entry level contracts. To answer your point Mathews and Nylander make more combined than the sabres entire top 6.

I get this in terms of the “Matthews can carry the Leafs to the playoffs in matter who is in the bottom 6” sense. But have you seen the bottom 6 for Toronto, Boston or Tampa? These are not deep teams in the sense of their 2nd and 3rd layers. If Kucherov, Pastrnak or Matthews goes down for any length of time it will hurt their teams more than the Sabres losing Thompson.

There’s a small but vocal group that’s been eager to ship him out almost since he arrived. I don’t get it. Every team can use a 230-pound defensively sound winger. Maybe it’s more about what he’s not (mean) than what he is?

I have trouble seeing the Sabres as a bubble team. This is not last year's Detroit or Washington, where if everything goes right the team can make the playoffs with a point total in the low 90s. I think there are too many players at that point in their career where they will be making a statement about who they really are, and there is a critical mass situation brewing in the room, in terms of the psychology of the team. If enough of these guys find their potential, it's going to lift the games of everyone around them and we are going to see an explosion into a 100-point squad that strides confidently into the playoffs. I call it the "Hope spring eternal" @bob_sauve28 model. And if enough of these guys struggle, they are going to weigh down the others and we will see an implosion that results in trades and firings and "i don't want to be here's" and ultimately a top 10 pick. This is the 'Same old Sabres" @PerreaultForever model. I think it's boom or bust this year.

People around here talk a lot about Adams' reticence to go get proven assets. What doesn't get talked about much is how many of Adams moves have involved acquisitions that fit the Dahlin age group (Krebs, Byram, McLeod, Levi) and involve players with the possibility of untapped upside (Tuch, Malenstyn Clifton, Comrie, Greenway) The man told us his plan 3 years ago and has definitely stuck with it.

You know Byram and Lohrei are the same age, right?

Isn't much difference? One player at 23 played 17 of the most sheltered minutes a night on one of the league’s most disciplined teams and still ended up among the team’s worst at -2. The other, at 21, played 23 hard minutes a night on a “do whatever you want” team and was +8. It’s not really hard to judge at all.

Power and Byram have each played about 160 NHL games, were the first defenceman picked in their respective drafts and have a lot of possible upside. That upside is not just in their ability to put up points. Power has elite length and his range; Byram has elite mobility and a high degree of edge to his game. Those are skills that help players play defence too. Neither were particularly effective defensively last season; plenty of players you can say that about at their level of experience. Each was drafted as a 2-way defenceman. Each has the ability to become very effective defensively in the same way Dahlin did. It may not happen overnight, but I would be surprised if they don’t get there.

Statistically, there is literally not a single thing, counting stats, eye test or analytically, but you're not accounting for the Buffalo tariff and the Boston tax

Following this through another step, I think the Bruins have the best defence corps in the division and one of the best in the league. The thought that the Sabres are some growth from a pair of 160-game defencemen picked in the top 5 of the NHL draft away from being comparable in your mind is something to think about.

I strongly doubt it. But I also think he will be better 5-on-5.

It's certainly what put the Lightning ahead of us. If I remember correctly, they were top 5 in both special teams and a minus team at even strength.

Ok that's weird, because when grabbed those numbers, I was surprised, because I remembered them as better as well. Not sure what I did wrong, Edit: Figured it out. The numbers I posted were from the playoffs, not the regular season. Will adjust my earlier post.

I'm really interested in seeing how the Sabres newfound speed manifests itself on the ice NHL edge stats (top speed/bursts over 20 mph) as a league percentile Peterka 59/92 Thompson 82/74 Tuch 85/77 vs Knies >50/69 Matthews 60/76 Marner >50/>50 Benson >50/>50 Cozens 85/78 Quinn >50/>50 vs McMann 95/84 Nylander 54/84 Domi 64/74 Zucker >50/>50 McLeod 97/99 Greenway >50/>50 vs Paccioretty >50/>50 Tavares 56/73 Holmberg 63/69 Malenstyn 97/97 Lafferty 93/96 Aube-Kubel 94/93 vs Lorentz 60/>50 Kampf 70/67 Reaves 52/>50 Dahlin >50/>50 Jokiharju >50/>50 vs Reilly 70/69 Tanev >50/>50 Byram 86/>50 Power >50/>50 vs McCabe >50/>50 Ekman-Larsson 83/>50 Samuelsson 59/>50 Clifton >50/>50 vs Benoit 66/>50 Liljegren >50/>50 Last year's Leafs had average team speed, the Sabres below average. One thing to consider is how fast the players are and how fast a team plays are not necessarily the same thing.

He doesn’t give off the captain’s vibe. But the fact that he has consistently been one of the youngest players on his team over that period probably has a lot to do with that.

Tage has started slow in each of the past 3 years. Be nice if that changes. He’s looked very..self-possessed? ..in the preseason. Controlled, business-like and capable. I’ve made no secret of the fact I think this guy is a pro - a shut-up-and-get-it-done son of an old school minor-league player turned coach, with a proven history of over-coming adversity. The tools are obvious. I think he’s going to bounce back quite nicely.

People always talk like it's weird that captains get traded, or like its something particular to the Sabres. I'd think it's probably more unusual when a captain retires with his team.

The main objective should be getting the Sabres ready to sweep New jersey.

The thing with Boston (and Tampa and Toronto) is that they are good teams but they have an aura about being some sort of insurmountable obstacle, which simply isn’t true. It’s the inverse of the Sabres. It isn’t necessarily true, but believing it helps make it true. The truth of sports and life is everybody dies some day. This, so much.

After dumping on Rosen a last night, he was much better tonight; asserting his talent and making more plays, although he passed off on a few opportunities he should have wired. As the winner showed, the shot is top-tier. Östlund was quieter after an outstanding game against the Pens, but still good. Well, quieter until the OT at least 😁 That was one of the prettier goals we’ll see this year. It should not go unremarked that each came up big at clutch time. I found it very impressive that a team with no NHLers and about 10 players with 2 or less years pro so thoroughly outplayed the rosters they did over the past 2 games. It’s basically been our 25-50 versus the opponents’ 15-40 - guys with basically no NHL shots this year against the guys fighting for the Sens and Pens 8-10 last spots. They skated fast, they limited chances and they worked.