dudacek

I’m going to strongly disagree with the bold. The Canadiens game, was, in a nutshell, what has been wrong with the Sabres. Buffalo was clearly the more talented team, and it decided it was more interested in passing the puck around like the Harlem Globetrotters and creating highlight reel plays than it was in winning the game. The Canadiens gave maximum effort to minimizing the dangers of the Sabres attack and to capitalizing on their rare chances. The low-skill team playing the right way won, the high-skill team playing the wrong way lost. To your bigger point, 4 of 6 wasn’t what the Sabres gave us. We got 2 “good” games, 2 “decent” games and 2 “bad” games You can’t fart around in the NHL. Puck luck determines far too many games. You want to be successful over 82, you need 3 or 4 good and 1 or 2 decent for every bad because you’re going to lose half the decent games.

Eye test over your 6 shows: Mostly good game they nearly pissed away late against an Ottawa team facing some serious adversity OK game against a good Devils team where they stayed in it largely because NJ’s goalie kinda sucked Best game of the season against a very good Colorado team A bad game against a mediocre Philly team that made a good UPL look like Kenny Dryden An awful game against a mediocre Philly team where they were booed off the ice A good game against a good but maybe not great Leaf team. Yes, they are scoring more, but the trend I see in terms of their quality of play is simple inconsistency. They can play the right way. Too often, they don’t.

Hope you are right. The team Ive been watching has the size, speed and talent to match up with pretty much anyone. Its also looking like an immature squad that would rather make fancy plays with pucks and toy with opponents than take straight, hard lines and eliminate bodies. The coach seems to get it; he keeps harping on being direct and purposeful. The GM seems to get it; his newest acquisitions (Greenway, Johnson and to a lesser extent Clifton) are showing the way. Their core, not so much. I have no doubt the switch is there. Somebody better flip it soon.

Hope 1, 2 and 4 stay intact and 3 coalesces into Savoie Cozens Krebs. Peyton has been one of the disappointments for me so far and Cozens has been very inconsistent, but that's combo that should be able to push the pace the way Donnie wants them to play, especially against 3rd pairings. I've been on board the "VO needs to move on" train, but I have to admit i am mildly surprised at how ineffective he's been. He's dropped to something like 16/17 on the forward depth chart. He's better than that.

Why can’t Krebs evolve into the type of bottom 6 player people say we are going to need? He’s fast, courageous and diligent. Why can’t he be paid like most bottom 6 25-point scorers? It feels like a lot of people initially pictured him as a 60-point 2C and have decided he’s less likely to become one than others in the system, therefore he’s going to have to move on.

Yep. I rank Mitts as our 5th forward and so far this year you could argue he has been our best. Mitts at 7 would put our top 5 forwards at a shade under $35 million. Tuch will get a raise but Skinner will disappear. We will be paying our top 2 D a lot. Penguins top 5 is 31. Avs are a shade over 40, Leafs are 46, Florida 34… All those teams will have new contracts coming up too. Is 35 million for our top 5 out of line? Will it be in 2 years? 5?

Yes. I would say being kept away from the mess that was the Sabres in 2014/15 was better for Reinhart. And I’d agree it it is the right thing for plenty of prospects and probably would be fine for Benson. I’m just disagreeing that it is always the best thing. Honestly, I’m kinda with Webster in that I think most of the good ones make it regardless. It’s more about how far they get and how fast that development affects. You say this like he hasn’t played 20-minutes a night in all situations already. He’s played in the WHL for 3 years. He was probably the league’s 2nd-best player. At the WHL level, his game doesn’t really have holes. He needs to get stronger and he needs to adjust to playing at a faster pace. The bold is true for some players. It’s not for all. I’m not sure if it’s best for Benson, but I tend to trust Adams and Granato when it comes to making that decision.

You understand this has nothing to do with people who want to see an element of the team upgraded and argue in favour for that right? It’s about the tendency to choose a whipping boy and pile on with the absolutes and the personal insults. It’s just another manifestation of what pisses you off when folks do it to Eichel. You’ve had no trouble pointing out how wrong they were. Is that “Zamboni territory”?

A bunch of high profile errors plus a new owner, it was only a matter of time.

Doug Smith, perhaps the most generic #2 overall pick ever? Acquired at age 22 along with Brian Engblom for McKenna, Baumgartner and the legendary Larry Playfair, scored 61 points points in his first 92 games as a Sabre and was out of the NHL 3 years later. Picked right after Dale Hawerchuk and before Bobby Carpenter and Ron Francis. Love to hear that guy’s story.

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.

His name is Old Man Pete. You’re just going to have to trust me on this one.

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.