dudacek

I think Quinn can play either low spot and I am with you 100% on this. JJP would be the guy at look at next on left high spot after Byram. He’s more dangerous from distance, but I think Byram might bring more of the distribution/playmaking.

The guy on the left half-wall needs to be able to pass to both sides, have a dangerous shot from distance, and have the ability to drive the net. I say that’s Byram. The guy in the bumper slot needs to be able to find cracks in traffic, be fearless and aggressive in tight, have quick hands and a fast accurate release, and some passing ability. Quinn? And I wonder if Benson has enough retrieval and entry skills to replace Tuch as the low man?

I’m going to go against the grain on the bold a bit. I’m not really disagreeing, just changing that to “develop another threat so it opens up Tage’s shot more often”. When teams started cheating to Tage, the response was to move him, or the puck, around in a way to get it to him in a different place. Which basically resulted in even more time wasted moving it around to set up his covered shot. The response should be to take advantage of the 4-on-3 the Tage cheat creates, and make them pay. That in turn will free up Tage again. I want him shooting. It’s a huge weapon. But locking in on him as your target is counter-productive to making that happen.

Agreed. Down low, and they also move the puck to and through the bumper to finish from the slot. Skinner can do neither of those things, and he is a huge risk when the rotation moves him up high. If the team does nothing else, please get him off the PP. I know he was second on the team with 8 PP goals. That’s not enough for a guy in that spot who comes up short in so many other areas.

If the object is to win next season, any dude we bring in has to be at least as good as Levi if we are pencilling in for 25-30 games. Winning, not Levi’s development takes precedence.

Team’s single biggest downfall last year in my opinion and we need a thread to talk about why and how to fix it. I’d like to start with something that doesn’t get talked about enough. And it really fits with the notion of accountability. Skinner, Tuch and Cozens had just 12, 11 and 10 points respectively on the power play. The latter 2 had just 2 PP goals each. Skinner and Cozens killed plays repeatedly by coughing up pucks or making poor passes. We bitched about getting to the net. Tuch and Skinner were the low guys Despite that, these 3 kept getting skated out there time and again despite their ineffectiveness, finishing 4th, 2nd and 5th on the team in PP ice time. Sure other guys got tastes, but they were brief, and usually one at a time. Maybe it wasn’t just the system at fault here? Im really looking forward to someone looking at how to set this unit up with some fresh eyes.

Canucks were a disorganized, low-morale team with a handful of high-end pieces who went from 83 points to 109. They did it by: adding a good puck-moving defenceman for their 2nd-line centre replacing their player-friendly coach with an old-school structure guy turning over the bottom half of their roster for harder-to-play-against types I mean their success has lot to do with their best guys having career years, but the Sabres have those kind of players too. Make it happen.

If he doesn’t get better he will be. 😁 So you’d be shopping one or more of Tuch, Power, Tage, Skinner or Cozensto the highest bidder as “part of the problem?”

Far, far closer isn’t how I would describe it. And one could suggest the difference was Kane himself. One good thing about this season is that I’ve grown to hate Detroit. Previously they’ve never even felt like a division rival.

I’m kinda like you, in that I don’t know for sure, but I always thought expected goals was similar to the high-danger concept and was largely based on where the chance was coming from. I appreciate the effort put into fancystats and respect their worth. My peeve would be the devaluation of actual goals for and against that accompanies some of their use. Because those are the stats that matter most.

Donnie remains classy to the end. https://theathletic.com/5430238/2024/04/19/don-granato-sabres-coach-fired/ “Nothing surprises you,” Granato told The Athletic by phone Friday. “The situation and the expectations rose to a level that something had to give. The media, the fan base, the pressure that is on that locker room, the team, the organization, something’s got to give. This is what happens. Obviously, there’s frustration, but I don’t have anything to complain about. I really don’t. I could have done things slightly different. You can change some things and can’t change others.” He added, “I have to ground my memory in that I was given this opportunity by Kevyn and the Pegulas. It’s an opportunity I had been waiting for for a long time. And honestly, I have no regrets and no blame for anyone else. There are always dynamics at work in situations and you cannot fight them all at once, let alone think you can win them all.” He talked about the difficulty in transitioning from the guy who built this group up and then turning the switch to a different message. It was not anything we haven't been speculating about on here since he took over. "“I can punish you all day long, which everybody says hold accountable. But the real question is, ‘Are you accountable?’ Do you need to be punished or are you an accountable person? … So if I made the next coach’s job easier, I’m happy for that. Because I love these guys as people and players and I want to see them be successful.” “Unfortunately I created a bit of my own mess because you had to get these guys to believe in their ability,” Granato said. Granato grappled with all of the questions you would expect. How hard do you push a guy before you’re demoralizing him? How do you keep players from tuning you out? How many guys can you make an example of before you run out of players to bump up the lineup? “When you have more experience and more skill, you’re going to have more accountability in your organization,” Granato said. “When people know someone else can replace them, you have automatic accountability. That’s why skill development is so important.” And finally: “This is a tough, tough business and this is an extremely tough time in Sabres history because you’re at a threshold of doing something and getting past a barrier that’s been there for years,” Granato said. “I’m grateful,” Granato said. “I leave this and know I’m better. To be in this pressure, to elevate in this pressure and develop all of these relationships. There’s no question I’m better by working through all of this and that excites me.” The next Sabres coach will inherit a 13-season playoff drought, the longest in league history. But these Sabres are also coming off 91 and 84-point seasons. Those are the two best seasons this franchise has had since Lindy Ruff got fired. That those seasons disappointed Sabres fans shows Granato how far they moved the expectations from when he took over. “It cost me my job, but I’m proud of that,” Granato said.

I've always thought Sam was good enough that he might have an outlier 90-point season in him at some point under the right circumstance. Not 50 goals though. That's a $10M season. I think Sam should stay in Florida, but that team will have about $22M available to sign at least 10 players, including Sam and Montour. I wonder how much of a discount he'll be willing to take.

Quite the opposite. Sorry, I did not mean to offend. It's any argument that Levi is better than UPL right now that I find silly. And this is coming from the man who may be this forum's biggest Levi booster.

Adams explicitly said at his presser he was going to deliver that message to the players.

Sorry I wasn’t more clear. I saw it when he played against kids at the world junior tourney, where he was a man amongst boys. I have not watched him in the SHL.

The thread concept is silly and you were absolutely correct that we put the cart before the horse last summer. What do you think of Levi’s ability right now?

On the last good Sabres team, Lydman, Tallinder, Campbell, McKee and Kalinin all shot left. Teppo was the only rightie.

What does this mean? How are players held accountable in the summer? Byram was acquired because the Sabres needed a top 4 defenceman, place high value on his particular skill set, and don’t care as much as Sabrespace does about L/R balance. I don’t question the fit - 3 very talented D is an asset, not a liability, and it’s not like these guys are the three Brian Campbell clones some seem to perceive them as. There have been plenty of examples over the years. The better question is whether Byram (and to a lesser extent Power) can be the kind of player their draft status indicates they should be.

Personally not worried about Benson, but a year two slump is not unheard of, particularly with a new coach. There are a coaches who judge players on their birth certificate.

After that flashy start, Byram wasn’t very good. Not sure his play was much different than it was earlier in the year in Denver though. More than most, I thought his interview was safe and calculated. The closest you got to real was when he talked about how disappointed he was in his own year. He’s right there with his buddies Cozens and Krebs at a crossroads of his career. Lot of skill there. More than most, he needs a big summer and the right coach.

Brutal. There are places that actually lay off doctors? Vancouver Island is actively recruiting.

Wahlberg has a presence I haven’t seen in a Sabre forward since Darcy picked up Dainius Zubrus at the deadline. I mean I saw it playing against kids, but to carry it over against men? Hard to believe he’s 2 months younger than Benson.

So the Wings were smart to lock $30M into Debrincat, Copp, Compher, Chariot, Holl and Husso to not make the playoffs? And Kane “knew something” because he picked the 41-win Wings over the 39-win Sabres? 🤔

Nice choice. You can’t imagine how satisfying it was for a 13-year-old Sabre fan in B.C. to watch his team knock out the Canucks. I got to watch the Sabres a handful of times a year if at all. But everybody in school was watching this. You also wouldn’t believe how easy it was for a young Sabre fan to be arrogantly dismissive of the Canucks back then.

Wait, this story? https://www.hockeyfeed.com/nhl-news/reports-that-terry-pegula-has-sold-the-buffalo-sabres This is literally the headline: Reports that Terry Pegula has sold the Buffalo Sabres Is the curse finally lifted?! This is dead on?