DarthEbriate

It depends on your definition of playoffs. In the 2020 24-team field (which I qualify as a 16-team playoff, with an extra 8 for play-in round), the Sabres were within the top 24 teams in the league until they lost 6 of 7 to close out the year.

The fine is trivial, but any infraction worthy of a call should be an automatic suspension. They play 82 games. Make the minimum suspension 5 games (the equivalent of a 1-game suspension in the NFL). Then, double it up to 40 games. (Anything that requires a full-season suspension --- McSorley on Brashear, Bertuzzi on Moore is a one-off and can be handled as such.) Most importantly, keep it cumulative to a career, or reduce it 1 level at the end of every other season (i.e., from 10 games back down to 5). The players would not risk it. Marchand (multiple career calls) would be on eggshells the latter half of a season rather than trying to hurt someone for the playoffs, because he wouldn't dare miss the playoffs himself.

Too busy with work to watch... but I monitored just enough to know that the Sabres had a 2-goal lead heading into the third. The most entertaining thing in hockey this season is the Sabres starting the final period with a 2-goal lead. Hope Dad Okposobi is in the lineup tomorrow. We all know VO has one more 10-game, 10-goal bender in him this season and will be a reason the Sabres are in the playoff chase going into the final few games. Nice start to the road trip. Boushh is someone who loves us. Tonight, we are all gummy bears.

What a crappy effort that period. Contrast that with Toronto's forwards and how tenacious they were. It will take time to get to the level of Toronto and Carolina, but we'll get there. The scouting staff is now drafting Carolina-style/-metric players at the least. Stir in some missed shots instead of on goal + a shaky (albeit hung out to dry) UPL.

After this mess, just watch the Sabres lay waste to all of Florida and DC and play with our hearts.

Cozens missed a shot and since then... vicious forechecking and backchecking by Toronto turning into easy goals. Great defensive awareness.

Dear, oh, dear. Don't worry about Goalie Luukk. He'll be all right. He's quite big, you know...for a human being.

Yup. Everyone keeps thinking that Toronto is an offensive juggernaut with no defense, but that's hasn't been the case for years now. Sure, they've yet to get far into the playoffs with the current core (Tampa and Carey Price can do that sometimes), but they're not just an offensive dynamo anymore. (It's why I'm happy the Sabres are an elite scoring team with the kids... the defense will improve over the years.) NHL Goals Allowed rankings for Toronto: 2022-23: 6th (current); 2021-22: 18th (with very shaky goaltending); 2020-21: 7th. Sure, back in 2019-20 they were 27th in goals against, but that was a long time ago in a galaxy when the Sabres were icing lineups with the likes of Bogosian, Sobotka, and Dalton Smith.

This is the way. The issue with the Sabres' defensive picks, pipeline, or picks used in trades for D, isn't that they aren't good or that the Sabres haven't used the picks on defense, it's that there are no under-24 prospects in Rochester that you can call up as an injury replacement and say "this is a future top-8 in Buffalo". It's because Power skipped the AHL, Johnson is staying in college through his senior season, Fitzgerald was claimed, and a bunch of are playing in Europe or stayed in Europe and were never offered contracts. Note: Only one trade has added a defender to the Amerks' current lineup (Cecconi in), but it resulted in defender Laaksonen going out. Only one trade has added a defender to the Sabres current lineup (Nylander for Jokiharju). For the completists, this is every recent Sabres draft pick that has been used on a defender in some capacity. (And savior Borgen [2015] was claimed, too, to our chagrin.) 2022 4 Lindgren 5 Komarov 5T Colin Miller 2021 1 Power 2T Colin Miller 6 Novikov 2020 7 Lyckasen 2019 1T Montour (+ 2015 2nd [Guhle]) 1 Johnson 2018 1 Dahlin 2 Samuelsson 3T Scandella 4 Lindstrand-Kronholm 5 Kukkonen 6 Worge Kreu 2017 3T Beaulieu 3 Laaksonen 4 Bryson 2016 2T Kulikov 3 Fitzgerald 3T Kulikov 5 Nyberg 5 Budik 7 Osmanski Back on target: Beniers has earned the Calder buzz (thus far). He has earned his spot on Seattle's top line (though, like a baby Eichel to a ROR, it's Gourde who gets more minutes currently with all the PK, PP, and defensive responsibilities). Barring injury he'll surpass 25 goals and he is the major reason (with Burakovsky) for the Kraken's surge in the standings. Remember, they're 2 points out of first place in the Western Conference. If Power is hot this entire stretch run and the Sabres get into the playoffs, then we can add his name to the hopper.

Apart from this year's injuries, the real mess of their team is they're paying $6.5M each to Krug, Parayko, and Faulk and none of them are putting up production worthy of it. Their supposed strength has been a weakness and they've all got NTCs (so do Leddy and Scandella for that matter). And although Binnington can get hot here and there, this season he's garbage again.

Interesting, interesting. It makes sense with Kyrou's and Thomas' new contracts kicking in next season. Why start a hard rebuild when your new core is already signed up and being paid $8M each? Binnington's inconsistent, but he has been known to get hot here and there. They've a bunch of UFAs to retool the entire bottom of the roster on the cheap. Get in-prime Meier to replace older Tarasenko and see where the chips fall. Their division has Colorado and Dallas, and while Winnipeg is good this season, I can't say that they really scare anyone. The Wild are about to go up to $14M buyout penalties for the next 2 seasons. Nashville? Meh. And 2 rebuilding squads. A quick reset and they're back in the playoffs (albeit likely in the 5-8 slot) and hope that Binnington gets hot.

I'd tend toward this as the starting point. But I'd be much more concerned simply on reducing wear-and-tear. Starting Tuesday, the Sabres play 19 games in 35 days. That's rougher than the playoff schedule. It doesn't have to be Schenn, but anyone who can play 20 minutes/game and be a bit safer than Bryson/Clague is a valid addition. Someone who can take 2 minutes away from Dahlin when the Sabres are already up 3 goals to save him from forecheck hits to "send a message" for the NYI rematch... that's a valuable player. Their only true shot-blockers are Muel and Boushh... Schenn provides insurance for them if someone needs a game off after a nasty block. Anderson and Jost for sure.

Angry Pilut is the best pilot. But Pilut and Bryson are the same tweener except one has a $1.8M contract next year and the other gets to try out free agency with all the AHL squads this summer. (Personally, I like Bryson better because of the speed.)

Vancouver loves Schenn because he was a great partner for Quinn Hughes and allowed the kid to go be a forward playing defense. There are excenllent parts to his game, but he's much more the player he was in Philly or Tampa than he is with Hughes as his partner. (Remember, Tampa elected to keep Bogosian over Schenn.) He's a 3rd-pair rental making only $850k and he doesn't score points that don't go through Hughes, so he's not going to garner too much in draft capital. All that said, he'd be a near-perfect fit for the Sabres for a playoff push as he'd do the dirty work and be able to work with Power, Dahlin, or even Bryson as the right-side guy. And if you needed a lockdown game-end pair whenever Dahlin isn't on ice, a Muel-Schenn pair might look pretty stout. If Clague is hurt long-term, then you get a player like this right now and have him ready for the Florida trip. A 3rd should be enough, but Vancouver could hold out until deadline day and a desperate contender shells out something higher. Buffalo lacks the 3rd, so maybe a 4th + 6th gets it done for Buffalo. Alternately, if you needed, you could send the conditional middle of Buffalo's three 2nds (probably Buffalo's) now for Schenn + VAN 2023 3rd or some combination of other picks coming back. That extra 2nd gives Vancouver a ton of draft flexibility in their rebuild, while the Sabres drop to the top of the 3rd but only about 18-22 draft slots.

That stinks for NYI. Good thing they already acquired a top-line center via trade?

Blergh. If it's anything long-term, a rental trade would be appropriate. There is no defensive depth in Rochester.

They didn't need to wait for Ullmark to develop further; they had him fully developed. In a league where scoring has been going up and save percentages going down, Ullmark was .915, .917, .917 and now Vezina-level .936. Compared to his peers in 2019-2022 he was already an above-average goalie and was a #1 capable starter every season. He was also downright dominant in shootouts. His issue was with 2 injuries and COVID-shortened seasons that had prevented a 40+ start workload. The Sabres let a #1 walk to UFA. If you believe in him, you sign him in-season and if you don't believe then you trade him at the deadline to a contender with goalie issues (maybe for a late 1st if they're a real contender). The Sabres did neither and paid for it. They were forced to patch with a 40 year-old Anderson who played surprisingly well, two AHLers in Tokarski and Dell, and a prospect in UPL. Of them, only UPL surpassed .900 in save percentage. If the Sabres had Ullmark and a .917 this season, they'd already be the 7 or 8 seed with games in hand.

The hidden sneaky part is playing the Isles twice as the second game a back-to-back with travel (albeit only cross-state). Meanwhile, the Isles have 2 days off before the matchup on the 7th. (They're also on the 2nd of a back-to-back on the 25th.) The schedule for those potential 4-point swing games favor the Isles. It'll feel all the better when the Sabres win.

I was babysitting and didn't catch the game live. Based on stats, I skipped to Power's goal and only watched the 3rd on streaming this morning... Excellent 3rd period! Beating the bottom feeders is what good teams do and the Sabres managed it. Next up, a stretch through the top of the division. It should be fun and filled with entertainment and apprehension.

I think this team can make the playoffs, but there are three things I need to see that will tell me they will make the playoffs: 1) Only one bad period every few games. They can't get outshot 20-4 through the first 30 minutes of a game. It's permissible to get outshot 12-4 in a period, just start the next period well. We can't be yelling "Wake up!" on Sabrespace every other game. This is the way. 2) Beat the competition. Win the majority of remaining games vs. NYI, WSH, and DET. (And FLA, see 3). This is a distinct possibility. 3) Do something, anything, against the teams from Florida. 4 games left vs. TB and FLA. Get points versus these teams. This is the uncertainty.

This is a good pickup for Toronto. It definitely makes the 2 remaining games against the Leafs more challenging for the Sabres in their quest for a playoff spot.

What did Nadeau do to the old captain, eat him?

Thank you --- I will need to go back and watch more consolidated highlights. I think there are two parts to this. One is team-related and the other is individual confidence/aggression. For Tage, I see him holding position partially to not get beat. That's good as he's growing his center game. It also means he's not challenging opponents. I admit, this next sentence is completely unfair. Watch Bergeron -- he doesn't stay in the slot, he's everywhere at once. And he can get away with it because a) yeah, he's awesome, and b) his linemates slide for him subconsciously, they're a defensive hive-mind team. Thompson has Skinner who is way less tenacious in his own zone than on the forecheck, though he's quite improved since his Eichel-line days. They're just not defensive players. Granted, it all has to work together, I don't want Thompson to abandon the slot, but to learn to apply pressure when it's the right time, when his linemates can cover for him, etc. With his reach he can eliminate time and space so quickly, but right now he's too consistently passive. He should be casually deflecting a shot off his stick and into the netting once a game. I still have tons of faith he'll get better and better at this in the next few years. For Cozens, I believe teams do use his aggression against him. He also still needs to learn to protect the slot and not go Risto-wandering; however, his intention is to go and get the puck and many times he does. For him, I see a big part of the recent improvement as you mention as his linemates getting used to that and also acclimating to the NHL game. He hasn't had Tuch/Skinner, he's had JJP/Quinn so when he goes to add pressure and attempt the turnover, he's got kids who aren't quite NHL speed yet looking to provide the cover. It's magnified by everyone on that line looking for the breakaway first and foremost. They're all works in progress.

You just can't be afraid of Levi (even though he's going to be a hockey god! heck, he's got 2 simultaneous Sabrespace threads about him) because he's an unproven kid, just like Portillo. And with goalies, there are always nicks and scrapes along the way. No one plays their goalies like Ruff used to anymore. As for Leinonen, Portillo will be on his 2nd contract before he even sniffs the NHL. Nothing to fear there, either. Join an up-and-coming team with an obvious goaltending need... be a hero!

I wanted to take Kulich at 16 instead of Östlund, in the event we weren't going to go for super high-risk/reward for Miroshnichenko or Yurov.