mjd1001

I'm really surprised Florida is down 2 games at home. Obviously to many they were the class of the league this year along with Colorado...maybe at their 'peak' not being quite as good as the Avs, but more consistent than them. Tampa just didn't look as good as they have in the past. Same team, but some key guys being a year older now, and Vasilevskiy not looking anywhere close to what he was the last couple years. A very good but slightly older Tampa team with a goalie who all year was very-good-gut-not-great....vs a team that took them to the distance last year in the playoffs who is a bit younger and had a much better year......and even with that Tampa 'experience'....after a LONG 7 game series vs Toronto I expected Tampa in 5 or 6 in this series. Very surprised so far.

I have noticed every so often in this thread it has the feeling fading away, or at least for a few posts Eichel isn't a topic. But then someone brings up his name and it starts again. It doesn't matter how his name gets broad up, but when it is, people run with it. Every single post with his name in it adds to its continuity. Your post...bringing up how it is still an 'Eichel thread', is partially contributing to that continuing. (as does me typing this, and the threads previous to this, etc)

I think that is something that matters in SOME cases. A few years ago I remember a discussion where a few players from in and around Toronto (maybe Skinner was one?) would say they would like to play near their family, where the family could drive to games easily, but simply did not want the pressure/lifestyle of playing for the Maple leafs. For others, playing for the Leafs is a dream, it depends on who it is. From the late 1990's for almost a decade I lived in Boston and that was an issue that came up with the Red Sox at times. The fanbase for the Redsox (like the Leafs) was SO intense that there were some players that just wanted no part of it. Could not walk down the street, could not go grocery shopping without being talked to (and yelled at after a loss) and it wasn't just the players, it was often the players wife that would have to deal with that.

No he isn't not to this fan base or this forum. You traded him and got something back for him. How well you did in that trade, did you 'win' that trade is always going to be a discussion and is not old news. There are active threads on this forum right now discussing Tage vs O'Rielly and who won or lost that trade. You don't even need a definitive answer, just the conversation, that is what message boards are about. How well Jack does, or doesn't do, in comparison to what the Sabres got back for him, is going to be a part of the discussion for years on this forum, and no reason why it should not be. As long as he is still playing and what the Sabres got back for him are still playing its not old news.

I don't personally think winning the trade is you vs the other team you traded with. I think it is what you would be with the trade vs if you didn't do the trade. In that way, the Sabres sure might end up winning this (for vs against).

Some good matchups I guess, but not as exciting as I wanted it to be. I'm not a fan of the Bruins or Caps, but I think the playoffs are better when the Bruins or Ovechkin gets past the first round. I wanted the Leafts to lose, but Tampa doesn't interest me at all anymore. Same with the Blues, they are a very good team obviously, but something about them makes me not have any interest in watching their games. Oilers Flames should be the best series, hope it lives up to the hype.

No problem with that, but you must not read well (at least not my post). I was responding to the request to move on because he isn't here anymore. Doesn't matter if he isn't here. As you said, we all can talk about whoever we went without others telling us we shouldn't by moving on.

Well that is just the thing...While we are far from perfect here, many fans think things have started to look up and turned around right after he was gone. Coincidence? Maybe, maybe not. Therefore, for those fans, no other bogeyman is needed to pursue. One isn't needed right now as things seem to have turned the corner for many of us....the only Bogeyman that can exist is when we look back 6+ months or more...and Jack fits the bill really well for that role. This is a forum about the Sabres....there are no rules saying we can or should only talk about the current Sabres. We talk about good and bad here. We talk about current players and former players (Hasek, Perreault, Briere, Drury, and Yes, Eichel). There is a good portion of posters here who are going to want to talk about Eichel, no wishing that away will change it.

I'm wondering at this point if Vegas considers Eichel their 'franchise' player, so much so that he will be 'consulted' or at least 'kept in the loop' regarding any coaching changes? Or if they are going to basically do what they do and have him deal with it.

I'll agree with you, the camera angles make it hard to say for sure 100%. If it was forced to make a decision I'd say 'no goal', but without that good camera angle it is so close that I'd just go with the call made on the ice.

I don't 'want' them to be good, but they are an interesting case to think about. As a hockey fan, taking a look at any team and thinking what you would do to make them better based on their current situation is a fun exercise. I'm not hoping that they actual management of the team figures it out, but as a fan his is the stuff that is fun to think about.

I still think there is a strong chance he goes to AZ.... My info may be outdated, but I do remember last summer or the summer before hearing how he spent all of it in Arizona...absolutely loves being there, has a lot of friends there that he spends a lot of time with. Again, this was from last year or the year before but when I heard that (I THINK it was a discussion on 590 out of Toronto), I thought to myself he has to be signing there when his deal in Toronto is done. They have a couple years until his deal is up to get better, but between them losing a couple high draft picks and the Awful picks the Coyotes have made, who knows how long it will take them to get viable young talent on that team. Coyotes have been an awful drafting team. The last time they drafted a player who would have a season of at least 30 goals in the NHL with ANY team...to my knowledge was the 2nd player they ever drafted back in 1996...Danielle Briere. (Unless I'm missing someone but I don't think so)

I probably agree with you on not making a deal like that, but Marner is very productive. Almost 100 points this year in 72 games (would have had 100+ without missing those games). Only 25 years old. his last full season before this one had 90+ points. 9th in the entire league in points per game over the last 4 seasons. Again, I wouldn't trade Dahlin for Marner and a 1st myself, but the guy is not just good, he is bordering on elite point production.

Slightly off topic but concerning Skinner... -He has the 2nd most career goals of anyone is his draft class, and is only 7 goals behind the leader (Tyler Seguin) -Last year he was 3rd in the league in goals by anyone in his draft year (33), Behind on Brock Nelson (37) and Tarasenko (34) Not really anything important, I just thought interesting. Anyway, nice bounce-back year from Skinner.

I don't technically know what is right, but I say "Game 7s". It just sound so bad the other way around.

Many/most of us root against the Leafs, but I do find it interesting as a fan of Hockey to look at their situation and think about what could be done to make things better. So much so that when working outside today I was listening to Toronto Sports talk. -Many fans calling in want major changes. Some of it really extreme, like tearing things down and rebuilding from scratch, but that I assume is just emotion talking. -Lots of fans calling in asking for more 'toughness'. Tom wilson guys...guys that will play borderline dirty and make other players not want to come over the middle. -Biggest thing fans (and radio hosts) were advocating was to change coaches. Seems to be an early cry for them to hire Trotz. -LOTS of complaining about officials, how they are against Toronto. At one point even the hosts said "they didn't lose because of the officials" but then they went on for 10 minutes about how the calls were bad against the leafs and some of those calls may have changed the flow of the game against them and caused them to lose. At one point, they got onto a topic I mostly agree with. They said you need a good team to win, but if you look at most teams that win the cup or at least go deep in the playoffs, they usually have a D-man or 2 that are franchise D-men or very close to it, and they have franchise Goalies or at least a goalie that has the ability to get really really hot and carry them under pressure. Toronto doesn't have either of those and its not clear how they can get one. The more i think about it, the fans may be against it, but I think one of the 'big 4' might have to be traded. Tavares is probably not moveable because of his age and contract. Matthews is the one guy you don't want to move for anything. That leaves Marner and Nylander. IF Toronto could trade one of them and get a stud D-man who can control the game from the backend, it might be worth it. No one wants to trade a young D-man like that, But if Toronto floated Marner (preferable) or Nylander, a future #1 pick (although it would likely be a later round pick) and a top Minor league prospect, MAYBE they could get someone to give up a Young D-man. Toronto is in Win-Now mode. Tavares is showing some slight signs of slowing down due to age, Matthews only has 2 more years left on his deal before he is unrestricted. Maybe you forget about the future and say we have to win in the next 2 years...so you offer up to anyone Nylander, your next 2 first round picks, a 2nd rounder, any prospect they want, and maybe take back a long term injury contract and see what is the Best D-man you can get for that package. From the Sabres point of view..if Toronto offered you Marner and their next 1st rounder for Dahlin would you do it? It would free up cap room for Toronto to get a goalie also.

Toronto is in a tough position. Once 'cooler' heads prevail, it would seem you would want to run the same core back out there next year, and their cap situation, while not DIRE, dictates you may not have many options because they won't have much flexibility. No major contracts come off the books next year....but if you want to keep Campbell in goal he will require a big pay increase. There really isn't any room to improve the team by spending more money, but the point is you are good enough (and the core is young enough) where you don't need to. The old Billy Beane philosophy of team building....make a team good enough to get to the playoffs and when you do just hope for the best. The tough part is....you aren't getting any BETTER, and is basically 'the same' good enough? You might be as good as or slightly better than Tampa next year again, but they will be a tough out in the playoffs. And, with 'the same' team I see Toronto has having a tough time getting by what Carolina will be next year, and it would be an upset for them to get by Florida. Then if you do all that, if you make it to the cup finals are you better than a team like Colorado in a 7 game season? I don't know. Again, logic says it will be very hard to make major changes so go with what you have, but I just look at the Leafs and see too many areas that may not be weaknesses, but at least 'non strengths', that they seem to be built a bit flawed to defeat multiple other top teams in 7 game series. I'd love to have another year by Campbell in net like he had this year (or someone else to do the same) and I think in a playoff series they need one or 2 D-men who are young, great skaters who can control the game...and I would gladly trade one of their forwards to get that guy on the back end. I just don't see a team that has an 'under 30, all star level D-man' trading them to the leafs for someone like Nylander, and the Leafs have no cap room to sign or offer sheet one to get them over the top.

I don't know what they do. Honestly, I think the best chance they have is to come back with the same core. They aren't getting a lot better by trading the main pieces away. Try to find that Veteran forward or D-man who will bring some production and character and experience, but you need to stay with that core. Coaching changes? maybe.

I don't think using a couple advances stats anywhere comes close to proving he is the better player, even now. Even advanced stats are impacted by teammates, the position the team is in (development vs fighting for a playoff spot as the mail goal) and what the coach is asking you to do. The position Dahlin was in for most of the year (and previous years) vs Hughes...even with advanced stats is apples to oranges. NO WHERE close to proving it.

I too think Dahlin is going to be an overall better D-man. Next year will be key to determine this. If he takes another step forward next year (even a small one) and has a better team around him (even only slightly better), then his game should start to look a lot better compared to his like-aged D-men around the league. I never thought of Dahlin as a guy who would be the league leader in goals or points from the back end. More of a guy who was going to be very good to bordering on great in every single aspect of his game (if he reaches his potential). Someone with few weaknesses that can control the game from the back end. Lets hope he keeps on developing and gets to that point. Modern Analytics are a great tool, but remember the interesting thing we heard from Adams recently. Sometimes analytics will show a player has a weakness or he isn't as good as you want him to be, but Granato in meetings will jump in and explain why that may be the case....it could be that the player was asked to do something different, or put in a position that he may not be going forward in the future but it is part of development at this point in their development. At this point, if I had to pick Dahlin vs Hughes on my team I'd pick Dahlin. It'll be interesting to see how he develops going forward.

People who buy full size trucks and just aren't good at driving them in parking lots. I'll say that I have owned a couple of trucks myself, so I don't hate pickups myself and have no problem with people who buy them. However I do work and travel alot and am in parking lots dozens of times per week and... -Most of the time when I have someone park next to me and leaves me so little room I can't open my door it is a full size truck. If the spot is too tight for how big your vehicle is, FIND ANOTHER SPOT, don't block someone else in. -I will often 'pull through' my parking spot so I can pull out...and I leave a couple of feet between the back of my car and the line separating the spaces. Doesn't matter. If a full size truck driver wants to park behind me they are going to use every single inch I leave (even if it means going over that line) because they are so long that when I come out to get into the back, I can't even stand there because the truck is so close I can't even open the hatch and load stuff. -On occasion, I have pulled into the spot and the full size truck pulled in the spot in front of me. Again, if I leave 2 feet between the front of my car and the line, they'll pull over that line into my spot. One time a full size truck actually was touching me, and a couple other times I suspect I was 'tapped' by one (my front plate has more than a couple dings and dents in it.) There are bad drivers everywhere. I, like many others make mistakes when driving. But if you really need to buy your full size truck that never goes offroad and never has a single thing thrown in the bed or trailed with it, how about either learning to drive it or NOT squeezing in that space that is 3 spots closer to the front of the store when it means hitting or blocking other people parked there simply because your truck is too big?

I hope so also, but if you don't get the breakout year form them this year, I'm still OK with it. Mitts was scoring at a 30 goal pace for the last couple months of 2020-2021, then he got injured in the first game. Maybe that was just a hot streak, maybe it was who he can be. But the fact he did that for 1/4 of a season AND a few current players say he is someone they expect a break-out from next year...I'm willing to still be patient with him. As for as Cozens (and Krebs and others) I'm willing to have a lot of patience with them as long as there isn't a major regression. There are many players picked 4th to 20th overall in the draft that sometimes just take years to hit their stride: -Kevin Fiala was drafted 11th overall. Didn't become an NHL regular till the 3rd year past his draft year. It wasn't until his 7th or 8th season past his draft year he became a 30 goal guy (32 goals per 82 games SINCE he turned 23 years old) -Elias Lindholm was drafted 5th overall. Didn't even score 20 goals until he was 24 years old (his 6th season). He put up 42 last year and has been averaging 33-34 goals per 82 over the last 4 years. Before that in his first 5 seasons is career HIGH was 17 in a full season. -Bo Horvat 9th overall. His first 4 full seasons in the league he was basically a 14-20 goal guy. The last 4 seasons he's been closer to 30 (per 82 games) -Lawson Crouse (11th overall) was considered a flat-out Bust. 36 goals in his first 5 years (281 games, a 10 goal pace). Last year, his 6th year at age 24, he breaks 20 goals in less than a full season, plays top-2 line minutes, and becomes a top power play guy also). -I don't have to mention for anyone reading this about Tage Thompson. Yes, there are other guys that are good right away (first year or two), but there are also other examples like above of guys that just take time. Sometimes you think you have a bust on your hands...or maybe a top pick seems to be a bottom 6 guy at best and then all of a sudden he becomes a 30 plus goal scorer. With the team the Sabres have now...guys like Krebs, Mitts, Cozens...and others I'm willing to give them time, maybe a couple more years...to see what you have.

Agreed, it seems the trend may be changing away from developing your top prospects in the AHL. Look at the top 20 scorers in the AHL this season. You have Quinn and Peterka..and then only 2 other guys born in the 2000's (Berggren, a 2nd rounder form Detroit a few years ago and Jacob Pelletier, Calgarys first (26th overall) in 2019). Just about everyone else is in their mid 20's or later. I looked at the top 10 scoring D-men in the AHL this year..only one was born in the 2000s...someone the Kings drafted a few years ago in the 4th round.

I agree. Why can't we have both? I love watching the game action on my tv....give me something else in addition to that....that is being done in many other cities for the arena experience. If all you care about is the product on the ice/winning for the cost of your ticket that's fine. It would be nice to have more for those of us who care about that though.

I'm for the traditional draft, no lottery, you pick where you finish. Want to throw something into it to prevent tanking a little? After you pick first, you can't do it again for the next year or two. You finish last 3 years in a row, you pick 1st, 2nd, and then 3rd...or something like that. Or how about making entry level contracts 2 years instead of 3? It won't impact the vast majority of the players, but if you get a 'generational' player like McDavid, in that case you are going to have to pony up the big contract a year earlier. I Honestly don't see tanking as the big issue many others do, the draft lottery annoys me more. Who are the players that have been worth 'tanking' for in the last 25 years? McDavid? Great player but even with other high draft picks hasn't won a Cup in Edmonton. Crosby? Took quite a few years to win the cup, and he did it with several other top 5 picks (lottery may or may not have fixed that). Ovi? One cup. Lindros? none. These days to tank and guarantee you get that first pick you have to be SO bad that you are going to need more time to dig yourself out of such a big hole. Again, my solution is no lottery, just can't pick 1st more than 1 time every 3 years.