mjd1001

So, win some, lose some. Kinda ends up even-steven.

Yep, once you got him away from Cozens. Notice how you move Cozens to Center the top line because Tage can't take Faceoffs, and then without Cozens Quinn scores 3 goals in his first 2 games not playing with Dylan?

Mostly what you would expect from line #2 (your 4th-6th best guys). The failing of forward group is not only the production, but the overall play of Quinn and Cozens. Tage has been injured, Tuch is Tuch (2nd line guy that is playing first line) Peterka is up and down but overall producing for the year. Zucker is better than we all thought Benson is very young. They ALL could be somewhat better, but you aren't getting considerably worse play from those guys that expections. Quinn and Cozens are the shortcoming of this forward group.

At least at recently, thing don't look all that good for Players drafted in the 7, 8, or 9 overall position by the Sabres in recent memory: -Ristolainen #8: turned out to be a pretty bad defender. -Alex Nylander #8: Bust -Mitts #8: demoted for now, maybe less than what Colorodo expected, 2 goals in his last 36 games. -Cozens #7: Overrated based on goal totals for one season. A pretty bad 2 way player. -Quinn #8: I guess maybe coming around this year, but an awful year so far up until the last week. -Savoie #9: Jury's still out, but hasn't take any steps up in camp or in his limited NHL chances so far. If you could choose only one of the following to have on the Sabres right now and not the other: Mitts or Cozens?

OK, not that it is likely to happen. But lets suppose its possible: Why are they unhappy with him? what is it about his play that caused them to demote of the 2nd line, and that they are willing to trade him (meaning they must not think his play is immediatly 'fixable'). I haven't really followed him a lot recently, and haven't watched a lot of Colorado games. So to those that have, what is wrong with his play or just why do the want to move him?

That was my impression. When the Sabres are up by a goal, and the other team pulls the goalie. When the Sabres are 5v6 (other team pulls their goalie), they have allowed 6 goales (Toronto is the worst with allowing 9, Vancouver and C-bus at 7....Buffalo is tied for 4th worst with 6). On the other side of the spectrum, when the Sabres pull their goalie because they are behind, (6v5), the Sabres are 4th worse also by allowing 12 empty netters against. Here is the 'net' of it. When a goalie is pulled, either on, in a game the Sabres are involved in, they have allowed 18 goals scored against them. In the same situations, they have scored 12. So when either team pulls a goalie, Buffalo is a net -6 on the year. Not good, but not as dismal as I thought.

I'm thinking McLeod is fine long term as a #3 guy. The problem is the lack of a #2 guy. The immediate short term solution to the center issue to me is to have Krebs and McLeod be your middle 6 centers. Cozens should be moved out or moved to wing on the 3rd line. McLeod and Krebs will give you less 'goals' than Cozens, but will more than make up for that with much better play without the puck and Krebs has the POTENTIAL to help line makes score more. That is not the long term solution though. Medium term solution would be to aquire a veteran Center that is decent in the middle 6. Good luck with that though....75% of the rest of the league wants a middle-6 center. I was listening to 590 out of Toronto the last few days, and they are so desperate for a center talk is they would be willing to move their 1st AND one of their top prospects. Other teams would be willing to do the same, and even if you can match that or beat it, the guy you have has to want to come here instead of to a playoff contender. Long term I'm still fine with McLeod and/or Krebs in the #3 center spot, but you have to hope one of your prospects steps up to be a possible #2 guy, or you move heaven-and-earth in the offseason to trade for/sign one. You might need to identify the "Zucker" version of a Center on the offseason and basically overpay him to the tune of $2m per year than what anyone else is willing to (Would Pegula be willing to do that though?) I don't think you are 'fixing' the #2 center spot right now, too much competition for guys (unless you make a HUGE move for Pettersson). So I think the only 'fix' for now is to have Krebs and McLeod as your middle 2 guys with Cozens moving to wing or out the door.

My anti-Cozens comment of the day incoming. But before I say that, I will say even though I missed more than half the game last night, Cozens did score and I did NOT see any obvious mental mistakes by him. So unless I missed something, Cozens had an above-average game. Back to my Cozens-bashing. That xGF list, especially for forwards, doens't seem to include a players shooting percentage as a factor. So if someone is lower on the list, they may have more of a positive impact on the team if they have a higher shooting percentage (Thompson, Zucker, and Tuch are all in the 14%+ range). Cozens on the other hand, has the lowest shooting percentage of any forward on the team who has taken more than 25 shots for the entire year. So his low spot on this list is actually worse than it appears because he doesn't convert on as many of his chances, even his 'high danger' chances. As far as McLeod goes, Ilike him. He went really cold for a while, going over 20 games without scoring a goal. But he is what he is, a guy that can score 16-22 goals for you. To me thats pretty good for him, and when a guy scores in that range, it isn't terribly uncommon to have very long stretches without a goal.

I would imagine it might be the #1 used one (at least a version of it) across all forums for all teams in all leagues. I can't think of anything that might/could be used more.

I was thinking of this very thing this morning. I went to the NHL web site to see how many goals they allowed when the other team brought on the extra skater. I was sure they would be leading the league. They actually aren't. It still seems like they are really bad at defending it, but there are a few teams worse.

Getting emails from companies or political organizations that I never signed up for Yeah, I know sometimes you'll answer a survey online, make a purchase from someplace new, and deep in their fine print there might be something about selling your info, or sharing it with their partners. But I'm usually very careful about that. And in the past couple months, I have not signed up for any new social media sites or apps...not downloaded any new games or apps to my phone,....not given my email or phone number at all to anyone to 'get a coupon code for my first purchase'. Nothing like that. Yet over the past 30 days, my email is getting flooded...mostly from companies I never heard of, but as I said above from politial groups. I unsubscribe, day after day, email after email, yet they keep coming. Today was the worst morning of all of them. Worst offenders are companies trying to sell me medical equipment or drugs (for ailments I have never had), or telling me about benefits I can receive as a Senior Citizen (I'm not one), or for some reason sites and blogs about Tesla...Sign a petition to defend Elon musk from his evil enemies! Come to our site to read why Tesla is going to be the biggest company in the world in 6 months! Enough. Stop. And another minor complaing...when I do unsubscribe, the web page usually confirms that. The reason I am unsubscribing is I want my email inbox to be CLEAN of stuff I don't want. Yet every one in a while, I'll unsubscribe from a email, and then IMMEDIATELY get another email from them telling me that I unsubscribed. You already confirmed it on your page...the very thing I am doing is tryhing to NOT get another single email from you and yet you send me an email to tell me I won't get any more emails.

Bryum has been averaging a few seconds short of 25 minutes per game over the last 4 games (yes, OT games in there but still alot). Dahlin in close games frequently gets 25 minutes or more. I just thought it was of note that usually one of those 2 leads in ice time. With Dahlin I guess, like Thompson, we don't know if he is still playing injured or not.

No its not enough. Columbus in the last spot in terms of point percentage at .545. IF the Sabres win the next 10 in a row, they check in at .546. So win 10 in a row and you are 'right there'. Funny how for the last few weeks, even now after winning 6 of the last 10, the numbers always point toward a 9-12 game winning streak being required to get them into that last playoff spot.

I'm not going to say he is doing great, because doing great would mean he is taking these players and turning them into something a lot better than the have been. But with the team being 'not good' again, I can't say he's doing bad either, as no one seems to be able to take this organization and coach them up to even a playoff team. You've promoted coaches from within, brought in former coaches of the team, brought in former cup winners, brought in guys who are 'almost' total outsiders, up-and-coming assistants from other teams. Many of them with apparently different styles. NONE of that has even gotten you to the playoffs. To me that means there is something else VERY rotten in the organization, and firing the coach and replacing him, without making major other changes, will likely do nothing. Sure, you COULD move on from Lindy AND Make those other changes, but if it is the other changes that are important, I'd rather keep Lindy and just make the other required changes at the same time.

I only watched a little bit of the game, I missed the ending. Looking at time on ice..... Thompson with 15 minutes exactly, about 3.5 minutes below his average (I know he is playing hurt) Cozens with only 13:38. Almost 4 minutes less than his average for the season. Malenstyn, Zucker, Tuch, and McLeod all with more ice time than either Thompson or Cozens. On Defense, Power led with just over 23 minutes....more than both Dahlin and Byrum who both were in the 21 minute range. For sure some changes in how he gave out ice time. I can see with a lead for most of the game and Thompson playing hurt again to cut down on his ice time, but the Cozens, Dahlin and Byrum are interesting.

For me, he has the same impact as Don Cherry had: Fun for a little while, then after a while becoming 'tolerable' , now just annoying.

Thanks. At times I think the Advanced stats go too deep and we try to make too much of them, but the link you gave was interesting. I looked at this year, along with the last 2 years combined, and then over their entire careers. I also used the comparison with Cozens and Dahlin (instead of Thompson), and did that over different points in their career. It also looks like the PP with Dahlin is actually more effective without Cozens than with him in terms of goal production per minute.

I guess it could be similar to when Granato was an assistant under Ralph Kruger... But when he took over he seemed to be a totally different coach than Krueger was. I just go back to my initial feeling though, even if somebody is different than Adams, how much are they going to be allowed to do if they have to follow the 'Pegula plan' If everything has to get run by Terry... Terry acts like a fan and he has his favorite players that he doesn't want to move and he still wants input on decisions.... Just how much can anyone do unless the owner steps back?

We don't know just how many teams are interested in him, and if they are, what is his value to them? You may have a lot of teams interested in him for a 2nd round pick or a mid level prospect. What I believe is teams are not falling over themselves to give up a legit NHL play or a top draft pick for someone who's production isn't all that good/reliable and makes costly mistake after costly mental mistake on the ice. Fans may see the scoresheet and want a guy like that...but when front office people watch the game film, I think they are going to say "no thanks" or "we'll take a flyer on him and see if we can coach him up", but for a pretty low return.

I don't think you are going to get a good return for him. Twitter post I saw today by someone who is pretty reliable with Leafs info said the Leafs have no interest in all in Cozens. I think that opinion may be true with many other teams around the league when you look at his underlying metrics and the scouts see with their own eyes the multiple hockey-dumb plays he makes, almost on a nightly basis. I'd be happy with him just moving on. He can be 'part' of a package. Or get a middle-six guy, I don't care give me anything of value. What I think will happen is what you are eluding to.....the Sabres might move him for REAL fair value (which won't be all that much, and certainly a LOT less than what some people expect)....and that might be a good move for the Sabres, it might be the BEST deal out there from any team....yet there will be complaint after complaint that the sabres got 'fleeced' when that really isn't the case based on what Cozens true value actually is around the league..

And be replaced with someone just like him, and Pegula will likely only hire someone who will do his bidding and not disagree with him.

And if that happens, the team will be run pretty much the same. Especially since Karmanos and Forton are already in on the decision making/player evaluation right now, and the roster composition has some of their fingerprints on it.

As much as I personally think Cozens brings down this team more than any other player, I think there is a path to keeping him here (its just no coach, GM or the owner seems interested in implementing it): -He becomes a winger, on the 3rd line or MAYBE the 2nd. I don't care if he has more 'raw talent' than whoever his center is, he is a winger....And if its not working right away...stick with it. Give him time to get used to his new center and more importantly, give his center time to get used to Cozens. -He does not step foot on the ice on the PP. If you have 2 or 3 injuries, then MAYBE he goes out on the 2nd unit, but no PP time for him anymore. -You DO put him out there on the PK, but with specific instructions to not chase the puck in his own zone. Hes on my first PK unit, but you have to get through his head that his position, not leaving an open spot on the ice by chasing the puck, is of paramount importance. You draw a diagram on the ice into 4 quadrants....and if he DOES chase the puck he never, ever leaves his quadrant and goes into another one that one of his teammates is already occupying.

The more I think about it, the more I want Pettersson here if it can be done. Yeah the drop in production, whatever it is going on with Miller, and the contract are all issues to think about. But if those things weren't there, there is no chance he would be on the market. I always perceived him as a player I liked. I know its only one game, but I watched in vs the Leafs on Saturday and he played really hard, he hustled, he got in the way of shots, he made some really good defensive plays. He does not look at all like a perimeter player and he does hustle on plays. That alleviates most of my concerns.

I never thought he was a bust. I DID think his ceiling was 35 goals. He would be good on the PP, but not someone I would want out there short handed due to...what I percieved as lack of being a good skater. So yeah, not a bust, but I WAY underestimated the ceiling on his production.