LGR4GM

I... I read your post, I know that already. I was moving the conversation forward.

I'll add that if you put Mitts on a wing in the top 6, it gives us a chance to put Krebs as a center on the 3rd line. Rousek - Krebs - Greenway Zemgus - Jost - Okposo Olofsson is the extra depending on how he looks in camp (I feel like Olofsson might be good for the first 2 months and then fade as the season rolls on)

But, and I am just spitballing, would it not make more sense to leave Cozens and Thompson at center and instead put Mitts on a wing Skinner - Tage - Tuch JJP - Cozens - Mitts That gives you 1 line where there is only 1 right shot (Cozens) but it also gives you a player in Mitts who can dig out pucks low and fling passes to JJP and Cozens. If you wanted you could also flip Mitts and Tuch at times to give different looks. Cozens being only 22 means that he is still getting better so really I see him able to play with any of the wingers I have listed. and really quick Perrault the thumbs down is for disliking the lineup, please don't take it as more than that.

Why on earth would we move Thompson to wing?

Since you specifically mentioned Seattle... Borgen 6'3 - Rasmus Dahlin 6'3" Dumolin 6'4 - Mattias Samuelsson 6'4" Larrsen 6'3 - E Johnson 6'4" Megna 6'6 - Owen Power 6'6' Oleksiak at 6'7 - guess you got me there? Next would be 6'2" Lyubushkin So we literally match every single one of their guys except Oleksiak. I find it baffling you'll use Oleksiak as the "how many have him!" Argument when Power is better and 1" shorter and at forward the same love of height doesn't get applied to Tage Thompson who no one else has. Oleksiak best nhl season was last year at 25pts. Owen Power has 35 as a rookie.

How many 6'3" centers in the NHL had 60pts or more? Because Cozens isn't small

PA claims the team collapsed because Adams didn't do anything at the deadline (which isn't true) and if they did collapse how come they went 9-3-1 to end the season? Didn't look like a collapse to me. Not sure what point you're making. The Sabres went 1-8 btw March 6th and the 21st and then went 9-3-1, if it was a collapse because Adams didn't help them, why did it not only end but turn into one of the best stretches of the year? Because they didn't collapse and saying they did is... bull shhhhit. Ps. 4 of the losses during the "collapse" were 1 goal games.

Just so I'm clear. You're calling Don Granato the guy who's coached and won at every level of hockey over a 20 year career a "kiddie coach"? Yea, I'm done with this. I think Adams and Don need to prove some things this season for sure but it won't matter. You're another one of these "only on my terms" types who will only begrudgingly acknowledge something if it happens when and how you want. Have a good evening and I guess enjoy the season.

The team that went *checks notes* 9-3-1 to end the season collapsed? Also if veteran players don't want to be here how'd we sign 2 veteran players? Why did Okposo return? Your own facts don't suit your story.

I wonder about Debrincat in Detroit's offense. Should be interesting to watch. I'll add that his career sh% is about 5% higher than what he did last year while his assist total stayed the same so I think we see and rebound in his shooting.

I was thinking on this the other day. I think the Atlantic may take a step back while the metro edges past.

Preach!

Dunkirk is an interesting note to the final opening phase of WWII. The French still had a large standing army after Dunkirk but there was no leadership or will to continue the war. The main lesson from the German penetration through the Ardennes in 1940 was that you needed defense in depth to blunt a blitzkrieg which is something 4 years later the Americans had when the Germans tried again. The French actually did a great job once they were compressed of holding different parts of the advances into Dunkirk but at that point it was too little and too late. Simply put the lack of modern mechanized units (tanks with small guns aren't great), proper combat command and comms (the French were SLOW), and the inability of the French to react strongly anywhere is why they lost. Tactics and communication were the big issues. Blaming the British for the very British pragmaticism they showed at the end is silly but understandable, the Nazis looted France and sucked. Still there was almost nothing the British could do once the French had no counter thrust to the thin German breakthrough. There was a belief by some, not most, in Germany that the Americans would react like the French in 1940, in that once the front was penetrated, they would retreat on all sides or at least stop attacking and fall back from Antwerp leaving the British 21st Army group to be destroyed. Unfortunately the Americans instead blocked every road, bridge, and tract wide enough for a tank from Clervaux to LaRoche all while setting up depth in defense as fast as was possible. The Elsenborn ridge which was a key part of getting to Antwerp just dug in, pre-sighted every available artillery piece within a 100 miles and shot to ***** anyone who tried to go through them. The 99th infantry division did major work and gets little credit for the truly remarkable job they did in stopping the German advance. This is a long way of saying while I understand the French being upset, they were partially if not fully to blame, and the British ended up being correct in their withholding of air support (fighters) and moving the bulk of their manpower back across the channel.

What's really fun is that with Dahlin and Power as your 1 and 2... a lot easier to figure out who is the 3-6.

My only guess is that it is on the to do list but other things are more pressing. Last year they signed Savoie on the 15th of July.

I am wondering that myself. Could he get 100... I don't know what his average is because we haven't found it yet.

Question. Around here it seems that some but not all think the Sabres are not a big enough team. Now that Debrincat has been traded to Detroit do you view Detroit as bigger or smaller than the Sabres on either forward or defense or both?

Tage Thompson is a top 10 NHL center. Prove me wrong (seriously would love a devil's advocate because summer and idk maybe I need a reality check?) Honestly I just wanted a thread to talk about how wrong I was about Tage Thompson. Never have I witnessed a JAG turn into such a force so quickly than with Tage F-ING Thompson, dude is a wagon.

Why are you confused? They don't need to sign Benson so he isn't signed. This summer or next summer doesn't really matter. For reference the Sabres signed all 3 of their 1st round guys last year on July 15th. Sabres have 44 contracts out of 50, idk if they internally want to keep something open but no reason not to sign him other than maybe it just hasn't been a priority at they work on other stuff. https://www.nhl.com/sabres/news/buffalo-sabres-sign-first-round-picks-matt-savoie-jiri-kulich-noah-Östlund/c-335006690

Steve Y loves his 2nd line players with 50pts. LOVES THEM. DeBrincat I think will be more than that but look at who they draft and sign.

Im old enough to remember the bleating of those worried Power would go back to college for 4 years.

SO this is a great clip to discuss when looking at highlights. Now, disclaimer. This is a highlight of 1 play back in December and I am breaking it down, not the player overall. When I see a clip like this I actually am not overly impressed (it is still nice). Why? Well, the play starts with a fake towards the middle. This is good because it draws the defender away from the intended attacking point. In high level offensive players like Tage Thompson, you see this type of thing a lot. It doesn't have to always work either but it is the habit of trying to bring defenders into areas and then attack the space you create. Benson is really good at doing this but Benson lacks the explosive stride to fully take advantage of the space he is creating, he makes up for it with sublime passing. Once that space is created the defending player doesn't have the backwards and lateral mobility to match Miedema, Miedema only has to power past the defenders outreached stick. This stick check is a desperation play because the defender is already beat, the defender turned his hips to make up for his inability to skate backwards and close that gap so it becomes a race. He take 2 good swings at the puck and connect a little on the 2nd one but Miedema is already moving past and he maintains possession. What happens next is where Tage (yes an NHL all star center) really would have shown his skill to get that puck off the wall and move in across the hands of that 1st defender. Once you break in like that, the 1st defender has to reach around you or hook you to get any leverage. Now we see 2nd defender also with hips turned coming parallel to help out but there is space before he will get there and if you attack that space inside, it forces our 3rd defender to react. Since our guy can't get the puck off the wall, defender 2 makes no adjustment and takes himself out of the play like a dip. Why? Idk. However the puck is still attached to the wall so options are limited. The 3rd defender has his stick waiting for that movement towards the net or the pass and it never comes (this is fine). In order to make a play the stick is swung around towards the boards and 3rd defender takes a few backwards strides in an effort to close the gap and end the play against the wall. However the timing is off and Miedema is able to just jump the hit enough to squeak through. At the NHL level does this happen, yes but less often as the timing issues and speed make it harder. At this stage 3 things of importance have happened. The 1st defender is behind Miedema, the 2nd defender is useless, the 3rd defender is now flat footed and blocking the 1st defender. This brings us to the 4th and final defender to beat. He slides into what he thinks is the shot lane and when he sees the shot motion he drops for a deflection or block. Here is where Miedema does the best thing in this play, he hits the breaks and he cuts in all while loading the shot and changing the release point. The breaks separate him more from that defender, the cut finally brings him across the hands of the chasing defenders and you will actually see the 1st defender unable to stop him because of that cut inside, and he has the puck loaded as he moves laterally allowing him to release once he clears the 4th defender. That is very good and the best part of the clip. Conclusion. Miedema gets to that spot for the shot because he has good skating and enough strength to outrace and muscle past the first defender, ignore the 2nd defender completely due to his speed compared to the closing speed (don't coast kids), and then finally with the 3rd defender Miedema is able to take the contact but basically hop through it and quickly get his feet going again. It is a nice sequence but not an overly impressive one because of the following. In the NHL that 1st defender might still miss depending on the speed, that is true, Miedema gets him to move inside than exploits space. The 2nd defender depending on the system though is either closing that gap faster or is already moving to support our 3rd defender. That defender is going to get more of Miedema and is going to slow him more though, the timing and ability to just slide on past like that is much harder in the NHL. I think that is where this play ends at the next level. Let's say it does make it through though, again you have defender 2 who in this sequence just is useless but in the NHL they would skate back at an angle as opposed to the straight horizontal along the blueline this guy takes. That would be known and it allows that 3rd defender to be moving towards the wall sooner. If the 3rd gets beat the forward is there to take this away. Can this play happen in the NHL, yes. Do I think Miedema does enough to make it happen in the NHL, no. Again this is my opinion watching and breaking down and I still love the end of the play where he breaks the defenders hands with the cut inside (the 1st defender on the backcheck) and uses his lateral movement to load the shot, get the space, and release after the clears defender 4. That I think is very translatable. Short version, kid has good skating, needs to work on the manipulation and think about when to cut inside or manipulate defenders inside a bit more. Still very nice finish to this play. He's growing on me as a pick for sure.

I personally think Comrie will beat out UPL and the Sabres will finally move on from UPL. I think Comrie started last year well (he did) and then between the Def injuries and his own injuries the season got away from him. Devon Levi is highly motivated on his own, I think he already has pro level habits so I don't actually worry much about his ability to stay focused and deal with the in season adjustments.

Was the stroke ischemic or hemorrhagic?

I'm going to say Cozens produces more points this season than Debrincat. Also the conditions on the pick: Detroit can send either Boston or Detroit's 2024 to Ottawa in the deal. Boston pick is top 10 protected so if that happened, Detroit can and Boston 2025 1st instead.