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If you look at Power through the lens of him being a good puck mover and not through "he's 6'6" and should be crushing dudes" then he's pretty solid for a 21yr old defender in the NHL. His positioning is solid, he uses his reach well, he sees the ice well and can make really good passes. His gap control is good if you accept that more agile speedy forwards will have an advantage once they get inside his reach. Is he a #1... no. Is he a #2... probably not at this moment. Is he a strong #3, very much so. He can also grow into a #2 and I hope that happens. I went back and looked, I had a defender ahead of Power in that draft, in fact I ranked Owen 6th in that draft. Looking back, I don't have a reason to move him up. Maybe I should drop Eklund down but I wouldn't drop Beniers, Clarke, McTavish, or Guenther below Power at this point. The issue here is not Owen Power, it is that you can draft Owen Power's (40ish pt, big puck mover) later in the first and sometimes into the 2nd. For example in 2022 we could have taken Mintyukov instead of Savoie (I would have) or even Liam Bischel instead of Östlund. My point is that the Sabres do not seem to possess the ability to look at drafts in terms of what are the next 2 drafts like? For example the 2024 draft was defense heavy, but the 2025 is forward heavy, now Helenius slid so that is a fine pick but they shouldn't turn around and force themselves into drafting a defender in 2025 and frankly I feel like they fell into the trap for 2021 by not looking at it and saying, well 2022 will have more defender as first round grades so we should consider that in rankings. They acted as though this was only way to get this type of defender and truthfully, it isn't. Turthfully if you are drafting in the top 5, unless there is something really really special, you should take the forward and if it is a center, you take the center. It is just more valuable with how defenders develop and how you can get them later in the first. This is not a post to crap on Owen Power. He's probably going to be a top 3-5 defender from his class and I think some of his issues are overblown here. Again, if you accept that he is a puck moving guy with a long reach that isn't overly physical and is a #2 defender, you are good to go. That said, and why Buffalo picked him, there is still the potential of him growing into a legit 1b defender who adds a bit of physicality while playing a bit faster and having 10goals and 45assists. His passing is sometimes really really good. Depends on if Ruff can move him in that direction.

Unsure if they will make changes but we should see something similar. This is the lineup the Islanders had in their last game: Forwards Tsyplakov-Horvat-Holmstrom Barzal-Nelson-Palmieri Lee-Pageau-Fasching Martin-MacLean-Cizikas Defense Reilly-Dobson Pelech-Pulock Cholowski-Mayfield Goalies Varlamov Sorokin

The 3-5-2 Islanders roll into town to take on the Black n Red 4-5-1 Sabres. The Islanders have been shutout, I believe 3 times already this season so hopefully Buffalo get's solid goaltending tonight because, quite frankly, we should beat this team. They have a limited offense, their defense is meh, and really I don't think their goalies are super special. Look for Buffalo to have the lineup from practice yesterday that included this line: Greenway - McLeod - Cozens

Because in the NHL, you can retroactively place players on IR. So they were clearly seeing how he progressed and then with only have 2 games in basically 11 days, they put him on IR to open the roster spot and also give him essentially two weeks to recover. Zach Benson is not going to Rochester. It just isn't going to happen. Krebs doesn't even create space for himself. Quinn is going to have to rely on Quinn to create his space and get back to form.

Buffalo currently sits in 30th for Goals Saved Above Expected, GSAx. To be honest, UPL, outside of maybe 2 games has been very leaky. I thought in the Florida game and in the Penguins game, he really let us down. Levi hasn't been much better although we haven't seen him much so hard to tell there. The Bruins finally collapsed as their goaltending couldn't keep them afloat (at least for now). We already missed the playoffs 2 years ago because of goalie issues. I personally don't think the defense has been terrible but it seems that every 2v1 or shot from the slot goes in these days.

Well, he's doing a ***** job of adding to this point. You'd think a guy that traded/cut 2 top 6 forwards would have fixed this in the summer. The Byram trade will never make sense to me.

And this is what it all comes back to. It's why you gravitate so hard to Tuch even though he doesn't play a very heavy game. Quinn needs to skate and think less. He had no confidence and doesn't look like he's got the cardio needed right now. He doesn't need someone else to open ice for him, if he does, he's a bottom 6 forward which isn't how he's played up until now.

This is such a revisionist history and frankly you do it a lot. The very second a player who doesn't play hockey the way you want has even a bad shift, we know because you roll in with "told you!" Who's next on the list? Benson? Östlund? Thompson? Dahlin? Quinn created his own space and was inside driven the last 2 years. To the bolded. Lol 😆 🤣 😂 😹 😆

Quinn has 2 problems he didn't have up until now, 1. he's not moving his feet and doing everything at a glide. 2. he's totally scared of contact and plays a perimeter game He had neither problem the last 2 years. He was very good at leverage and initiating contact. He was good at finding space. Most importantly he moved his feet. Guy has no confidence right now and is playing scared.

That's exactly what's happening. He's doesn't like Quinn because he's not 6'4" and hits everything and so has invented a fictitious version and claims it's how he's always played.

Yup, but he's short and this place wants 23 Brady and Matthew Tkachuk's They win, gets all quiet. They lose 1 game "omg! They are small and weak! Fire everyone! Trade everyone! 🔥 🔥 🔥 all down!!!!"

Sure, if you ignore everything Quinn did before this season, then sure. 🙄

Or he was good last year and we expected him to be good this year... or that. You know not what you said but the real reason.

You're comparing 5v5 to all situations. At 5v5 he's -15.2 but in all situations he's -2.8

So predictable that the best player on the team is the #1 scapegoat.

How much better are the Sabres right now without Byram and Levi but with Mitts and Reinhart? Genuinely asking because in my heart, I hate to say it, but I think we are much stronger team with Mitts and Reinhart (who we could afford even on their new deals (Zucker isn't signed in this scenario). If Adams had bridged Power and Samuelsson, bought out skinner, and never signed Zucker but instead gave Reinhart a LTD and Mitts his colorado contract... man this team looks so much better in terms of how it spends money.

And players move more freely in the NFL.

no, no there is not. Like factually there is way more in football, just due to sheer numbers.

No it isn't. I can cut players in football from my team and depending on the structure of their contract get massive cap savings or at worst maybe have 1 year with a bad cap. You can't do that in the NHL, see Jeffrey Skinner for an example. He's on Buffalo's cap for another 6 years, Diggs is on Buffalo's cap for 1.

Analytics say that Power had a terrible game. Along with Quinn and Byram. I guess I was just focused on other players so missed Power sucking but he clearly did. I think I might actually try and watch this game again, even just the highlights. For all the complaints about Dahlin... still was the best defender on the team.

I loved Jack Quinn when he came back last year. He was all over the ice, seemed to pick up where he left off and was just moving and grooving. This year he looks awful. He doesn't skate at all and instead glides around like he is at the olympics, warming up for non competitive ice lounging. He doesn't make plays in space or in tight. Last night I watched him get a puck and just fire it away down the ice... there was no opposing player within 10ft of him. He doesn't shoot, he doesn't go to the dirty areas, he doesn't check, he doesn't really do much of anything other than his best Victor Olofsson impression. They need to bench him and play either Kulich or when healthy Benson. If they aren't willing to play those 2, they need to trade for a top 6 player because right now, Quinn isn't even worth the roster slot.

Yea but this take is rational and this board isn't. We're one loss away from the "trade our best" player banner being waived.

They all responded. I'm convinced fans want a boxing match after every play.

Lol get your "despite the analytics" trash out of here. Analytics has known since college what power is and I was loudly and constantly shouted down when I tried to critique power in his draft year. BTW, Power was fine last night. He's pretty even as far as his play goes. edit: he was below even Idk if he's waive exempt but he'd never clear if he isn't.

Anyone see what Trevon Diggs did? I reported tweeted during the game "what are you doing on that play?" after Diggs sucked on a play and then this happened: