mjd1001

Just how much of a 'team player' is he? Does/will he realize if he isn't playing well. If the answers to those things are positive, a 'nagging injury' is something that can get him out of the lineup evey now and then.

Glad Okposo got the 'C', but its also a good thing he wasn't extended. He may still come around I'm not ruling it out, but in the small sample size it appears his play has declined this year. I agree 100% with the kids growing up. In no way am I advocating taking them out of the lineup, but Krebs and Quinn need a lot of work and have to get stronger or learn to win battles (they are awful at that now). Peterka is better than I thought. Cozens play and positioning is awful in the D-zone. Power is good overall but makes 1 or 2 really awful plays per game. Hopefully they will get better as the season goes on and that will make the team overall a lot better. This team needs to stay near or above .500 WHILE putting the puck in the net alot. If they can do that by the time the Bills season is over, I'm hopefull the weekend games at least will be close to a full house.

Hopefully, but I don't think a totaly full house. The "Lets boo Eichel game" to me was a one time thing. As each game goes by against Vegas, the booing and wanting to be there to boo might still be there a bit, but it will drop off as each game against them goes by.

I'm not sure why you think I want a bottom 6 forward. I never said that. I said that guys like Cozens and Krebs are making so many mistakes that they are causing more goals against NOW than a 'bottom 6' forward would be. I also thought I made it really, REALLY clear that I understand and agree with them playing the young guys, but that it is costing them right now. Again, not sure where you think I was advocating for them not playing the young guys. That was not the point of my entire post at all. Guess you hear or read what you want though.

2 PP goals allowed, that is going to happen, but that is obvioulsy an issue when you only score 1 total goal. 1 goal scored, at home, against an Arizona team with a losing record, against a goalie with a GAA close to 4 (both this year and in a limited career)....that is the big issue here. -1st AZ goal: 2 D-men who aren't in sync with each other, but this one is mostly on Power. Looking at it again this one is totally on Power. He 'flips' it to his D-partner but does so right toward the side/front of the net. Not only that but he did so kinda blindly. He may have caught him out of the corner of his eye, but even if you did, you simply do not do that with the puck. He is young, he is going to make these kind of mistakes, but we have to be willing to have him do this where it is going to cost the Sabres goals. -2nd AZ goal: Nothing really wrong here, a bad deflection. If I were to 'nit pick' (and I'll admit I'm really looking for something here), it is Cozens and his tendency to want to follow the puck too low. Several other goals this year were allowed when Cozens was on the ice because he leaves his 'spot' and wants to go down low where the D-men are. I have pointed out on a couple occasions he left the center of the ice to chase Defenders when a Sabres D-man already had that area covered and his 'vacated' spot was wide open for the eventual goal scorer. He 'kinda' did this here. If you watched the goal, the Sabres maintained the integrity of the 'box' positioning, but Cozens again is the part of that box that collapses down low. A deflection is not his fault, but he really REALLY needs to learn to not chase the puck when the Sabres already have coverage where he is going to. It has and will continue to cause goals against and chances against until he learns to stop that. There was only one player on that side of the ice and cozens went lower to defend against the pass when Dahlin was already there. I guess you can make the argument that Dahlin should have taken the guy in the goal mouth...but whatever, moving parts to this one. -3rd AZ goal: Goalie should have made the stop. BUT, Cozens out of position again in the D-zone like in the last couple even strenght goals against when he is on the ice (seeing a pattern here?) He is the Center, he goes down deep when the Sabres already have 2 d-men behind the net, takes himself out of the play 'lightly' finishing a check, and never makes it back up top to where the goal is scored from. Asplund and Olofsson go deep initially also, but when the 2-dmen are behind the net, they circle back and maintain their spots up high on the wings. Cozens, even after he is out of position, then stays in front of the net (instead of rushing back up top) and probably provides the screen that blocks the goalie allowing the shot to go in. I'll pause here again to say I like Cozens. I know people do not like when I say anything bad about him. He hits, he DOES win battles along the boards. But, he frequently, VERY OFTEN takes himself out of the play in the D-zone and it causes goals against. It happened 3-4 times on goals allowed early in the season and I hoped it would get better, but its not. It MIGHT be time for him to be put on wing because his positioning (or lack of it) in the D-zone as a center is causing a lot of problems. -4th AZ goal. Empty net, what are you going to do? Other than a clean faceoff win or hoping Tage can control a loose bouncing puck, nothing to do there. This team is not getting blown off the ice. Yes, they needed to score more goals. But they made a comittment to playing the young guys. Put Vinny in there every game, sign another 'bottom 6' veteran forward, and have a veteran take ice time away from Power while you ease him in, and this team is probably better. As many of us have, I have looked at replays of all the goals allowed by the Sabres, and Power, Peterka, Quinn, Cozens, and Krebs are probably more responsible for goals against than the rest of the team combined. I think that is what you get though when you commit to playing them and letting them learn on the ice. Of those players, I think Cozens is the best/most far along right now and that worries me a bit because he doesn't seem to be learning/getting better at his D-zone positioning, but I guess sometimes these things take time.

After that goal by Crouse, just another reminder (besides just using Tage as an example) that patience is required with guys. Whether Mitteldstadt, Cozens, Krebs...they might turn into very good NHL players but it may take another year or two even from now. Crouse was a supposed top 10 pick but dropped to 11th overall. Didn't play an NHL game his first year after the draft. In the next 5 seasons, he totaled 36 goals in 5 years, 10 goals per 82 game pace. I remember he was a healthy scratch some games and widely considered a total bust. But then last year, his 6th season in the league, something clicked. He started putting the puck in the net, getting more ice time, moved to the 2nd PP unit and by the end of the year the first PP unit. Ended up with 20 goals in 65 games (over a 25 goal pace) with Arizona. This year, he is doing even better, scoring at a goal-every-other game pace. Some of these prospects need time. I read a lot of "if you don't see something in the first 2-3 years, SOMETHING, they its time to move on" We have Tage as an example here, and Crouse is another example that sometimes players can fulfill their 'draft status' but it can take a LONG time.

Love it. I'm approaching 50 years old and I started following the Sabres as a little kid, so I grew up with the blue-and-gold, but I love this jersey, love the red and black. I'm not a 'jersey guy' (only owned a couple in my entire life), but this one just may get on the list to my wife for a present coming up next month.

This is why I'm enjoying the Sabres season more than the Bills season. Expectations. The Bills have gotten to the point where expectations are so high anything about a double-digit win is reason for angst and concern by many. A loss to any lesser teams feels like a disaster. That doesn't make for a fun season to watch. Not that way with the Sabres.

I have yet to see him with with a bad giveway or being out of position in a way that cost the Sabres a goal. All year so far he is just a solid, old time-stay at home D-man.

Krebs biggest weakness is that he hasn't learned yet how to work around his weaknesses. Every player isn't big, strong, and a great skater with an unreal shot and great vision. There are very strong parts of his game, but he isn't winning battles on the boards and he is falling behind the play often. That can be overcome. Like you said in Junior, he didn't have to deal with players THAT much bigger or THAT much faster than him as he sees in the NHL. He has to adjust in the offensive zone to be ready to get back one step sooner, and he has to learn how to finess guys on the board to come away with loose pucks when he can't beat them physically. He has the ability to be a great passer, just has to put his entire game together.

They are on the ice for a lot of goals against, but honestly I think they are more vicitims of bad forward play in front of them. It might be their overall physical talent (first step, identifying the play, etc) make it less likely for them to recover than others, but most of the recent goals I have watched against the Sabres, it is the forwards that are way out of position. This last goal, what is Cozens doing? We now have numerous examples of him just being way too over-agressive in the d-zone than he needs to be. I know a lot of people like his full speed ahead/high effort play, but he frequently goes in way too deep in the D-zone, leaving an eventual goal scorer open in the slot or the center of the blue-line in the area he vacated. As good as he is, he has to learn to not vacate his position so often in all-out pursuit of the puck when other players are already there. He has done that a lot this year. He makes good possesion plays in the offensive zone, is good at getting loose pucks in the neutral zone, but he is frequently out of position in the D-zone.

So I guess you had it ready to go, the average quality of your posts must be...lol wow.

Way to step up and bring something productive to the conversations. How long were you waiting to try to find a spot to use that? lol

I know this might be better put under "complaint Thursday" but it does relate directly to college football. I'm watching more college football games today than any other Saturday this year, and what is up with the broadcast. it seems on some of the games, 1 out of every 5 or 6 plays between plays they cut to shots of fans yelling and screeming or waving their fingers in the air. I can see coming in and out of a commercial, but why do so many broadcasts do that mid drive. There were even a couple times where they did the shot of the fans and only came back to the play less than a second before the snap. Its kinda like in auto racing, ABC was known for this. A few times there would be a big race (Indy 500 a few years ago comes to mind) where there is a fight for the lead in the last 5 laps...and they INSISTED on going split screen with the action on the track on one side (which was hard to see on less than half the screen) and on the other side a constant feed of one of the drivers wife or girlfriend and her facial reactions. Do they people who do these broadcasts actually think people want to see that?

The other side of that is, who comes out for him? Krebs only had 13 minutes last night (and averages under 12). Maybe Quinn, as he had 16 (but usually averages about 12.5), Peterka had 14 (and typical averages about 13). You would think the young guys who are in their early 20's are the ones who could go back to back, especially when they have been getting limited ice time.

I went through the goals allowed last night like usual to see if there is any place for specific improvement: -1st Car goal. Quinn giveaway. Nothing else really mattered here, that was the main reason the chance was allowed. -2nd Car goal. PP goal great shot by Aho. Again not much to do there, Carolina was moving the puck well and the Sabres were chasing a bit, but no one really had a breakdown. Goals like that are going to happen. -3rd Car goal. Peterka whiffed on a clearing attempt, puck back into Buffalo zone. Fitzgerald took his time getting it out of the corner (maybe help was late coming back due to a line change at a bad time because of the Peterka whiff?) Quinn came back late and kinda did the old 'ole!' move on the guy 10 feet from the net (bad effort). Krebs comes in too low (right to the goal mouth) and doesn't do anything, leaving Olofsson to stay more toward the center of the ice to cover the slot (vacated by Krebs) and the goal scorer was pretty much uncovered on the other side of the ice. Pilut played this one well just was tied up in front of the net. No GLARING mistakes here, but little mistakes made or people who were not aware of where teammates were so they got out of position. Quinn, Krebs, Peterka all had a hand on this one. -4th Car goal. I can't tell who is on the right wing but it looks like Quinn. Whoever that was, the major issue was with him. Faceoff was pretty much a draw but the CAR guy on that side skated right by Quinn (I think) to pick the puck up BEHIND the sabres center, skated a circle around the Sabres D and fed the puck into the front of the net before the goal. Sabres D was again Fitz and Pilut. They didn't look to do anything wrong, but their lack of reaction time/speed may have hurt here. But the player (Again, I THINK Quinn but can't tell) not only let his guy behind the Sabres center, after letting that happen he takes off toward the blue line, causualy skates himselt out of the play while the action is happening in front of the net that led to the goal. Whoever that was, it was on them 90%. Krebs had been playing better lately after many of us (me included) criticized him the first few games, but Krebs, Peterka, and Quinn (Espeically Quinn) made a lot of mistakes that led to Carolina chances/goals. Pilut and Fitz were on the ice for a few of the goals against, but honestly they were simply victims of the foward play in front of them and MAYBE a slight lack of physical talent. This team might have an even better record of Sheahan and Hinestroza were on the ice every game instead of Krebs and Quinn..but I totally understand you NEED those 2 guys on the ice for development and it woudn't be better for the team long term.

Here is my 'impression' of Matthews and the Leafs. I could be wrong, but this is from a lot of direct and subtle observations on my part, reading a about the leafs, and hours and hours and hours of listening to Toronto sports talk: -many players in 'todays age' don't veiw themselves as players of a sport who happen to get paid, but rather view themselves as a 'business' that, all aspects of it must be taken care of like a busines and it exist to make money and enhance their lifestyle out of the sport. That isn't everyone, but there are more people like that now than in the past. Well, with the Leafs, Matthews is that way for sure. The top 5 things in his hockey career are: 1.) Austin Matthews. 2.) Austin Matthews. 3.) Austin Matthews. 4.) Austin Matthews 5.) The team he plays for and his current teammates, whether that is the Leafs today or whatever team pays him more in the future. Just my impression. I get that from Matthews. I got that from Eichel. I DON'T get that as much from McDavid, Ovi, Crosby (even though he was a crybaby early in his career) or other current guys like Pastrnak, Draisatl, or McKinnon (even though he can be a jerk in other ways.) I'm almost hesitant to say this, but I'll do it anyway. Eichel and Matthews are Americans who grew up from the time they were teenagers to be told they were 'generational'. I wonder if our 'american culter' (love it or hate it) took over things for them and for the last 10-15 years of their life, from the time they were kids, they were told to value the 'business' of their game more than the game itself. Again, it can and probably does happen with most stars, but with these 2 it seems more apparent than with others form my casual observation.

Does that make our opiinion invalid? Because it is being discussed here on this board does it mean it isn't happening? The answer to both is no. The fact it is being discussed by sabres fans has zero impact on whether it may or may not be an issue for him and the Leafs.

First, I have seen a few Toronto games and he is engaging a lot less than in the past. Not sure if it is his own decision, or he was asked/told to stay away. But in the past 2 years, he got hit, he woudn't drop the gloves but would yap back or slash back, do a little shoving. This year there have been numerous times where his teammates came to his defense and he skated away. not even staying behind a referee and yelling back but literally moving 10+ feet away from ANYONE on the ice in some occasions. At the very least that is not a good look. Of course you don't want him hurt and you want him to not be involved in any of this. But if he always skates away and his teamates/linemates get in shoving matches to defend him, I don't see anything changing. If he decided to give some major/big time slashes back on more than on occasion, and after he did that for him to engage a little more...then maybe, just MAYBE the abuse he takes during the game would go down a little bit. In an ideal world for the Leafs and Matthews, he would take some of that abuse, not just skate away but yell back at the other team something like "thanks for the Power Play, now I'm going to go out and score" and then do so. But even to do that, he can't skate 20 feet away from everyone and just ignore the scrum. Honestly, in this clip he did engage a bit, but I have seen other games this year where he did just skate away. Maybe the way you look at this is how it impacts his teammates. Is he the star? Sure. But former playes will say that Chemistry is a thing, and we have an example here in Buffalo that it may be better for the team if you don't have cliques in the locker room and for the most part people get along. Beleive that matters or not, in Toronto you really do seem to have a 'big 4' that everything revolves around, and just about everyone else is almost an afterthought. I'm in Niagara County so I listen to 590 out of Toronto a lot, and a few times over the past year or two it is brought up as a possibility that the locker room up there isn't exactly 'all inclusive'. It was brought up the other day something like "the only time the superstars on this team put in 100% effort is when it comes to negotiating and maximizing their contracts'. If chemisty does matter, i'm not sure how it feels for the 12-15 players on the 'bottom' of the roster to have to feel like they are only there to defend/make room for Austin and Mitch.

I think the game against Eichel and his new team was a huge draw last year, his first game back. Now that is out of the way, I think it will still be a draw, but only slightly more so than his first game back here.

FYI over his last 41 games (picked 41 because the math is easy, it includes all of this year and last year after he returned/got better from his injury) -21 goals, 8 of them on the PP, 4 empty net. -Over 82 games that comes to a pace of 42 goals, 16 on the PP, 8 empty net. (that leaves 26 even strength, 18 even strength not empty net). That pretty much makes him 2nd or 3rd on the team in even strength goals (depending on how you calculate it and over what term). He also leads the team in game winning goals. He may not hit, he may have games where he isn't noticable (even stretches of games), but so far this year and since his wrist got better last year, he has proven himself to be a very valuable member of this team. Leads in game winning goals. BETTER then most people think scoring even strength. AND, when this team has a stretch of bad play on the PP, everyone says they need to fix that, but the 'fix' usuall involved getting Olofsson the puck and having him put it in the net for PP goals. Olofsson if healthy, and that is a big 'IF', should be a guy you rely on for close to 30 goals, with a chance in any given year to approach 40. He also is a 'quick fix' for a broken or struggling PP. What is that worth? They have Quinn and Peterka and others in the system, but Olofsson already IS what he is, you are just hoping Quinn and Peterka can become that. The Solution likely is within 1-2 years, you are going to have to move one of them. If Quinn/Peterka do NOT turn into their potential, maybe they are moved, if they both become 30 goal scorers (or are on their way to becoming that), you have to decide between the 3, probably based on contract value/length. At the moment, I am not looking forward to moving Olofsson nor am I thinking of a team in 2-3 years from now that is better becuase he isn't here and someone else is.

For me Vegas falls into the category of things I have been more wrong about than anything else. i have said to many friends/coworkers and even on this forum, the thing about this NHL season I was MOST sure about is that Vegas and Boston would both struggle to make the playoffs this year. As of now of course they are the #1 and #2 teams in the league. Oops. I have watched a couple of Vegas games and while odds say that I was just very wrong, i still think they may be overacheiving a bit and could fall 'back to earth' so to speak. Why? They may have found 2 young goalie "diamonds in the rough", but their team save percentage is just under .940. EVEN if they get very good years goaltending from their guys, that is not likely to continue. League average/slightly above league average goaltending would have them allowing 8-9 more goals this year than they have already. That still makes them a good team, but probably a 14-15 point team, not a 20 point team. Still, I am 'looking' for something here, trying to find a reason that they will not be as good as they are,not sure if it will unfold that way. The other thing to look at for those of us who don't like Vegas or are 'hoping' they are not as good as we think is their schedule so far. They have played 3 teams so far we thought were elite coming into this year... Colorado, Calgary, and Toronto. They lost to 2 of the 3 (Toronto being the worst of that group is the one they beat.) Their wins? L.A., Chicago, Seattle, Winnipeg (twice), Anaheim, San Jose, Wash, and Ottawa. They don't hit their really really tough stretch of games until the first 3 weeks of January.

I'd be OK with this. If he really thinks he is ready to go, I'm also OK with playing him but the first game no PK time. just give him 3rd pairing minutes for a game or two. The last couple games the Sabres have had some D-men that have gotten 10 and 12-13 minutes. Lyubushkin, when he is healthy and plays the whole game, usually gets 16-20 minutes. Bring him back and commit to giving him 12 or 13 minutes for the first game, see how it goes.

91 points. That is where I am now.

You make a good point, but size is only valuable how you use it: -Tage is big but not physical at all in the 'traditional' sense. But his reach is used for production. -Ryan Reeves is often considered one fo the tougher and better fighters in the league now. He is a total of 6'2 and 225. Not even close to 'big' comared to dozens and dozens of other players in the league. Give me 2 players with the EXACT same skills, but one is 2 inches and 25 lbs heavier and I'll take the bigger one. But size for the sake of size isn't really all that useful. Boston has more than a couple players that are average (or below average) in size but I feel are much more likely to come out of the corner with a puck than guys who are much bigger. Look at big hits. No one would say Mike Peca was even close to 'big' yet he was one of the most feared hitters in the league. Lyubushkin plays physical and he certainly lays out some big league hits, yet he is listed at only 200 lbs.