dudacek

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.

Near as I can see, since Adams has become a GM, 4 GMs in addition to Adams, have traded a prospect they personally picked in the 1st-round: Tom Fitzgerald traded Alex Holtz and Shakir Muhkamadulin Bill Armstrong traded Conor Geekie Kevin Chevaldayoff traded Rutger McGroarty (because he had to) Kyle Dubas traded Brayden Yager (for McGroarty) EDIT, missed one Vegas' McCrimmon traded David Edstrom the last pick in the 2023 1st round

And the legend of the Bs grows some more.

Tuch is the only letter-holder not on a long-term deal. Power is the only one on a long-term deal not to get a letter.

Adams has had 8 1st rounders and 9 2nds over 5 drafts. He’s traded 2 of those picks (2nd rounders for Malenstyn and Greenway) and one of the prospects he’s taken with them (Savoie). 1st-rounders Benson, Power and Quinn and 2nd-rounder Peterka are with the team. 1st-rounders Helenius, Östlund, Kulich, Rosen and 2nd-rounders Kleber, Wahlberg, Strbak, Leinonen, Poltapov and Kisakov are still in the system. He also traded Botterill high pick Mittelstadt, keeping UPL, Dahlin, Samuelsson, Cozens and Johnson

All right, I’m out. 15 years on this site and I finally got something right. Time to step aside and build a house in Minnesota.

Doesn't mean anything other than the Sabres are largely irrelevant and the prognosticators are lazy.

I've listened to and read a lot of league-wide preseason talk. As far as the greater NHL media and fanbase goes, the Sabres are among the league's biggest afterthoughts. They're neither a bubble team, nor a disaster waiting to happen, and they certainly aren't a playoff team. They are just a consensus not-really-worth-thinking-about non-story that the talking heads quickly skip over. For the most part, I'm not even hearing any serious dives into their strengths and weaknesses, more of a "not really worth our time." I'd sum up the consensus as this: "Buffalo? Eh, they weren't good last year and didn't do anything exciting this summer to improve. I mean cutting Jeff Skinner, how is that going to help? And recycling Lindy Ruff (insert eye roll here)? I'm sick of waiting for them to break through. They never have and I've given up thinking that they ever will."

No Johnson, and he wasn't part of practice line combos I saw elsewhere. Wonder if he's nursing something. 13 forwards listed. I suspect Neuchev will be coming in. Kisakov's out.

The discrepancy comes because Pominville was an older draft pick.

Mersch was not re-signed. Prow and Murray (and Jobst?) were wearing As yesterday.

You keep saying this. I’m not going to look it up again, but he was something like 2nd or 3rd in scoring among all U21 AHL players. His production was not pedestrian. If you’re comparing to that 06 team, Jason Pominville had 34 points in 73 AHL games at the same stage of his career (Rosen had 50 in 67) and has a similar profile as a player in terms of strengths and weaknesses.

Exactly, in approach at least. In skill Östlund is right up there too, but he is constantly around the puck.

Context there was Hamilton asked "Lindy don't you think Dahlin tends to put too much on his shoulders, how can you make sure that doesn't happen?" More interesting to me was Lindy specifically mentioning Thompson, Tuch, Cozens and Samuelsson as guys who are setting the tone. Your As are in that group, and Lindy's weird track record makes me wonder if all 4 might get letters. As far as I'm concerned, Dahlin as captain has been written in stone for a year.

I'm sure he was disappointed his buddy Kulich was headed to Prague and he wasn't

That game was exactly why I’m highly skeptical of Rosen. There was a no-look one-touch pass he made with his back hand under pressure from behind the net, and another blink-and-you-miss-the release rocket he pinged off the post through traffic that showcased high-end NHL skill. And he was painfully diligent defensively, consistently circling back high and trying to stay in the right side of the puck. But the vast majority of the game he was just circling and waiting; he’s never demanding the puck or going out if his way to get it. The kid has real NHL skill and he doesn’t seem to get bullied out there, his game is just so quiet.

I would imagine Leone wanted to evaluate how adept his troops were at bringing a game home. New coach, that was very much the bulk of his team out there.

This list is billed as a conversation starter and everyone is going to find something to disagree with. It's also probably the best representation of an informed consensus as you’re going to get. It has 5 tiers: MVP (best player on almost any team in the league) 12 players Franchise (best player on a contending team) 20 players, Dahlin dropped out of this category because his points dropped and the Sabres were bad All-star (strong 1st-liner, above average #1D, borderline top 5 goalie) 30 players, including Dahlin and Thompson. They break tiers into sub-levels, Dahlin is in the highest of the 3 along with Bedard, Hedman and Vasilievskiiy. Thompson the lowest, along with Stutzle and J.T. Miller. Star (average 1st-liner, below average #1 D, top 10 goalie) 36 players Support (below average 1st-line, good #2 D, above average starter) 52 players, including Power, Tuch and Cozens. Power is in the highest sub-level with Stamkos, Sergachev, Hampus Lindholm and John Carlson. Tuch is in the 2nd sub-level with Schiefele, Caufield, and Malkin. Cozens in the 3rd and lowest tier along with Patty Kane, Ovechkin, Byfield and Lafreniere

Tuch. There’s no 5 player per team thing. It’s the NHL’s top 150 players at large. There’s a wide variation per team. Ducks have 1 player in the list, San Jose none, Edmonton and Florida 7 each

He has only played wing as an Amerk and Forton has said that's where he will likely end up.