DarthEbriate

The Sabres play in less than 24 hours. What do you think will happen for this season? (Using the same format @GASabresIUFAN presented last year.) 1) Sabres point total? 2) Will the Sabres makes the playoffs? 3) Sabres leading goal scorer? 4) Sabres leader in total points? 5) Sabres MVP? 6) Sabres ROY? 7) Best off-season acquisition? 8.) Worst off-season acquisition? 9) Biggest surprise? (positive or negative) 10) Breakout player? 11) Will any Sabres players or coaches finish as finalists (win?) for any major awards such as the Norris or Selke? 12) Unsung hero? 13) Who will be the first Sabre traded away this season? 14) Will KA make any in-season acquisitions before the deadline? 15) Will the Sabres be buyers or sellers at the deadline? 16) Other bold prediction? {Such as KA gets fired mid-season ;)} 17) Any other thoughts?

Just as serious as the head coaching search and interview process when replacing Granato.

I'm too old to learn to recite another trilogy in just 14 hours. Too old! to begin the training.

If Leone gets the Amerks deep in the playoffs again (entirely possible given the roster), he could get looks for other NHL bench positions next season -- or another AHL head coaching job where the heir-apparent in Appert isn't presumably identified. But, if Ruff retires (I expect) and Appert becomes HC (ditto), then Leone could be the Sabres head coach in a season or two anyway.

For myself, I'm much less worried about Geertsen being in the lineup here and there for feigned toughness (Ruff only dressed him for 25 games [and 5 fights] four seasons ago) than I am that somehow Johnson hasn't displaced Bryson in the lineup. The ol' eye test, the draft pedigree (and solid defensive career at Minnesota and Rochester), the size/weight, and that Power needs a defense-first partner.... It doesn't add up. Complete speculation: maybe he's just one of those guys who is just not impressive in practice/meetings, but get him in a game and he gives you low-event hockey, which is perfect for a 7D.

We've seen with this organization that that can change to week-to-week very quickly.

The main passenger being the person flying the plane and assembling the coaching staff and roster who whines that his job is hard because of taxes and palm trees. If he were a leader, he would have said ending the drought is priority #1 and all efforts will lead toward it. Not saying that the owner gives him all the resources needed. He'd demand more from the owner, from the players, and from himself.

Adams 5-year extension inbound! He just has to be average to be better than them. I hope Ellis is awesome and carries this team kicking and screaming to 104 points.

It feels goofy. 7 contracts for 6 spots. If everyone is healthy and reports to AHL or goes untraded, you're carrying 3 goalies somewhere on Buffalo, Rochester, or Jacksonville's roster. But they aren't alone: 7 - ANH, EDM, NJ (two PTOs), VAN (includes Medvedev who will play in OHL). So, expect only ANH and EDM within a day or so. 6 - CAR, CLB, MIN, NYI, NYR, PIT (includes Fleury on PTO), SEA, TB, TOR. PIT will drop off the list when Fleury re-retires. 5 - seventeen other teams

But it still doesn't excuse finding someone else for a PTO. Or call Houser and say, "AHL contract waiting for you --- just 3 weeks in preseason Buffalo. Then, guaranteed money and you don't even need to report to Rochester or Jacksonville." Through it all there were no blockers, and now Levi isn't just blocked, he's been encased in AHL carbonite and dropped into the Pit of Carkoon on some planet furthest from the bright center of the galaxy, behind 50-60 other goalies.

I hope he plays well for the Amerks, or wherever he ends up this season... (except if his poor play were to help the Sabres in some fashion. Like he joins the Panthers and has a .650 sv% in 35 games played... that sort of thing.)

The amount of churn is ridiculous -- even at a group of positions where you would expect churn. But what is the most damning of it is how many of them were brought in and immediately inserted higher in the lineup than that, plus Bryson has been here the entire time holding one of those slots and cannot be improved upon. (And again, that's not to disparage Bryson who is a valid 8-9 tweener guy, depending on the rest of the roster construction.) And he started with a D-corps that had Montour and McCabe (and Ristolainen, though the trade return was excellent). And he got Matt Irwin!

So.... You're suggesting that they knew from the onset that the injury was worse with a longer time frame to recovery, and therefore signed Georgiev for the entire season rather than a PTO? And then they rushed their #1 goalie back for a meaningless preseason game (in a season that is 6 months long) rather than let him recover fully while Lyon/Levi or Lyon/Georgiev held down the fort? That's even worse than the other options.

A sellout is good -- with luck, they'll arrive early and give the players audible cheers (over the TV feed, maybe the new sound system will help with that) during the introductions. And even better is if the home team, from the opening shift, is engaged and playing hard to give the fans additional reasons to cheer, much like in 2021-22 -- a 5-1 opening night win vs. Montreal. It was post-COVID and the building was empty for the opening ceremonies. But Okposo and returned-from-busted-leg Girgensons set the tone on the first shift and the building got loud (on TV) because the team showed they cared. No flat starts.

The eye test says both: Bryson and Georgiev can go. Johnson won the #7 and personally, I'd keep Kozak as he can give you better, more versatile forward minutes as center or wing -- he's a Danforth type. I know Ruff loves Geertsen, but ... you have to dress him every game to actually be able to use him as a deterrent, and that's hardly likely because a 5-minute forward is almost useless in today's regular season games. (Florida/Tampa's silly exhibition over the weekend was exactly that -- an exhibition. They'll be civil in all the games that matter where their top lines are dressed.) Plus, Geertsen is hardly a deterrent -- Noesen won't be intimidated by him. They'll do a faceoff-based fight this season and that'll be the end of it.

I'm surprised Kozak hasn't been waived to Rochester yet. He's not a guy that should get claimed because every team has 1-2 Kozaks. But if a team is dealing with injuries, I could see it being 50/50 of losing him. He's not going to score but he does the little things right and is positionally sound. We saw how much calmer the bottom 6 looked when he was in the lineup last year vs., say, Lafferty.

To a dark place this line of thought will carry us.

Yes, though if you waive Ellis I'm suspecting STL takes him right back to Springfield where they intended him to go. Which makes it even worse that they knew he was day-to-day and was going to be ready to play in the preseason.

It's not in hindsight. The timeline is: 9/11 - Sabres sign Georgiev. Luukkonen is reported to have an undisclosed injury and unknown recovery timeline. They signed the goalie before they had the information. 9/13 - Within 48 hours, it is reported that Luukkonen has a "tweak" and is considered day-to-day. That's no reason to have already signed another backup goalie. You already have Lyon -- whose career numbers are better than Luukkonen's anyway. And you still have Levi who can clear waivers and should be ready to take in some NHL games this season with any injuries to UPL/Lyon because that's his job as #3 in the franchise. And you can see if he's made the progress you want to see. You still have a week to go before your first preseason game. Shortly after that, it's known that Luukkonen won't miss the beginning of the season and is already ramping up to play in the preseason. So -- you wait until 9/13-14 when you have an actual diagnosis on Luukkonen, and then offer Georgiev (or Reimer - who didn't sign with his PTO with Toronto until 9/26, or another random guy, ... Houser!... ) a PTO to help you with the camp workload. If he shines, great, then offer him the 1-year deal knowing he's destined for Rochester. And no, it doesn't matter that Luukkonen either re-aggravated the same injury or got a new injury during the preseason game. They still didn't need to do anything beyond a PTO (of Georgiev/Reimer) because they had Lyon, Levi, and the waivers claim windows of this week. Or trade for a real #1.

One can only hope. But someone still needs to be Pegula's yes-man next year. Adams POHO, Ruff Senior Consultant, Jarmo or Forton as GM. Appert as HC. It's all the same. Naturally, you then extend the assistant coaches for continuity. And because they're the cheapest coaching staff in the league. All this after a very thorough search and interview process at each position.

Or a team with a distinct chance at the playoffs, or at least one that didn't jettison him at the end of preseason, and then let him walk after he was their best goalie.

It goes back to... why on earth did Georgiev get anything more than a PTO?

Entirely possible. But he'd still have been far and away their best goalie since Miller (and briefly, strictly by the numbers, Lehner -- if he'd been able to keep himself healthy off the ice). 40 healthy games of Ullmark, with ....Anderson?... as a backup and hot Levi to finish, gets them in 2022-23.

The Adams approach to goaltending... ...for a franchise that had Hasek and Miller for 20 seasons. And Ullmark ready to go for five more.

It's the "Reverse Reimer" from last year. Ellis' numbers are lightyears ahead of Luukkonen's... in the AHL. They'll waive him back to St. Louis in a month unless he's just a lights-out goalie. I guess they don't want to risk having Levi play in the NHL this season and accumulate games accrued toward losing waivers exemption. But, hopefully this (temporarily) solves the issue that Adams cannot ever solve. Luukkonen to IR, play Lyon, waive Georgiev to the AHL where if he doesn't report, no worries and no loss. Roll two goalies and keep Levi marinating for later.