mjd1001

I don't get trading Tage at all. For how many goals he scores, you are getting a bargain at what you are paying him. Even this year, he is 12th in the league in goals per game played. Over the past 3 years he is 12. Over the plas 4 years he is 12th. And although he gets picked on for his defensive play, I personally don't think he is bad (he makes less costly mistakes than Cozens, for example) and hes actually a good penalty killer.

I'll throw something out there.... If the team doesn't value the 1st overall pick that much, that doesn't mean it still doesn't have value. What you can get NOW for a first round pick might be a fraction of what you can get in the offseason if you WIN the first overall pick (or 2nd or 3rd) and elect to trade it in the offseason.

As usual, it all depends on the return. Keep: Dahlin, Thompson, Tuch, Kulich, Benson (I wasn't a huge fan of Benson, but I'm starting to see what others have seen for a long time). Samuelsson and Clifton I'm close to putting on this list. Samuelsson has been playing a lot better, and if that is who he is, he is a screaming bargain at his deal. Clifton isn't great, but he's good enough for the 3rd pair and one of the only guys who plays physical. Trade/Move: Cozens, Quinn. Not to GIVE them away, but if you get a 'good' veteran back, pull the trigger. I think Cozens play away from the puck has gone from 'negative' to 'neutral', and he is now scoring like a 20 goal guy. But as long as he is here it appears he is a fixture on the 2nd line and on the PP, and that is a negative. The rest of the guys I don't really care too much either way (again, of course depending on the return. I think Power will be good eventually, but its going to take a couple years. Byram Ilke a lot, but what will it take to re-sign him vs what can you get for him? Zucker, looks good now, but if someone offers a LOT at trade deadline (first and prospect OR an already-in-the-NHL younger guy), I think about it.

Another thought regarding the first line and Peterka... Zucker has played well all year, but when you put him with Tage and Tuch, he turns into a scoring machine. Peterka has been up and down, but take him off the line with Tage and Tuch and he kinda disappears. Have we somewhat over-rated Peterka? His production might be a bit less a result of him being a 30-40 goal talent/scorer, and a little more the opportunities he would get with Tage and Tuch?

I agree with most of what you say. I just want to throw out there that this team looks a lot better if your #1 goalie didn't have a save percentage that starts with .8xx...and he wasn't one of the worst in the league this year in high danger save percentage. Yeah, the team has problems, but they shot quality he is facing isn't that much worse (if any worse) than what he faced last year. He is just making a LOT less saves and letting in a LOT more soft goals than he did last year. Maybe the Sabres coaching staff, top to bottom, isn't the best in the league. But a coaching staff can look REALLY good or REALLY bad simply based on goalie play. And right now the Sabres are not getting good goalie play.

So the Sabres had a 3-0 lead....and lost. They took a 4-2 lead 1 1/2 minutes into the 3rd period, knocking out the other teams starting goalie...and lost (only 3 shots the rest of the 3rd on that backup) They took a 5-3 lead with less than 4 minutes in the game...and lost. They had a guy score a hat trick to give them that late 2 goal lead....and lost. They held that 2 goal lead with just 2 1/2 minutes left in regulation...and allowed 3 goals in just over 3 minutes...and lost. Funny thing is, This is NOT EVEN the worst collapse they had against THIS team within 1 month.

It seems like whenever any team changes goalies against the Sabres, they immediately play 3 times better than Buffalo. Its like the strategy against this team should be to start one goalie, and then just make a change at the first stop. You are almost guaranteed to win against Buffalo.

Clifton is the only guy I trust to be physical back. Too bad he's not 3 inches taller and about 20 lbs heavier though.

Why does it seem like when the Sabres are down, they cannot instigate another team to taking bad penalties or just playing dumb. But when the Sabres are up, they are so easily rattled by other teams doing that to them?

UPL needs to get them through the next minute or two.

watching the replay, what was a weak hooking call.

Its very close, but the first angle looks offside.

Another thing about Quinn. He does not, can not, or refuses to go to the front of the net anymore. Look at high danger chances in front of the net (Shots taken from between the dots and from the dots to the goal line). He has ONE this year. Last year he had 12 (in less games played). The year before that he had 42. This year, ONE in 31 games played. Why? He's still playing with Cozens as his center most of the time? Style of play under Lindy? I don't think so. To compare to other Sabres wingers on how much they are going to the front of the net and getting shots off from there this year: Benson has 23 high danger shots(46.9% of his shots). Peterka has 18 (24.7%). Tuch has 22 (26.8%), Zucker has 30 (44.8%). Quinn? Quinn has 1 (1.8%) That is a major, MAJOR difference. There is probably not a more 'perimeter' top 6/top9 forward in the league now than Quinn. Even Olofsson has 15% of his shots from those areas in front of the net for Vegas this year, and 18% last year for the Sabres.

I'll start out by saying overall, even for his career, Jack Quinn does not shoot enough. Coming into this year, he had 188 shots in 104 games (148 shot per 82 game pace) This year, he has 56 shots in 31 games (148 per 82 pace) Tage shoots at close to 300 shots per 82. Tuch is around 220. Peterka had 226 last year. Cozens is usually between 200-210 per season. League elite guys (not that Quinn is one) like Pastrnak and McKinnon approach (or exceed) 400 shots per year. Yet Quinn is under 150. If he is a goal scorer, and that is his role on the team, he needs to get in position to take more shots, or just simply take them when he has the puck. He is a goal scorer, he shoots at 12% for his career. Not elite, but pretty good (He was 12.8% coming into this year before his horrible start). Except for his start this year, he hasn't before gone into huge, multi-month shooting slumps like Cozens. Why is he not taking more shots? Is it confidence? Is it that he cannot (or will not) go into shooting positions? Maybe the issue is Cozens, try Quinn for a prolonged period with a different Center. Cozens DOES get a pretty good number of his shots from 'high danger' areas. But when you watch him play, that may be the issue. Cozens like to carry the puck right in front of the net and shoot. Cozens RARELY takes the puck into those high danger areas, drawing the opposing team toward him, and then seeing his wingers open and feeding them the puck for better looks. Cozens is the high danger areas is like a Black hole...once the puck goes in there with him, it never comes out. Of course, Other than Thompson (who I do NOT want taking less shots to feed Quinn if Quinn were moved there), The Sabres really don't have that play making, pass-first center to put him on a line with to try out.

Agree. Its not just not going after guys who are better like Zucker, it is they did bring in kinda-veteran guys, but they were 'cheaper' and often not that good: Tyson Jost 102, Vinny Hinostroza 88, Riley Sheahan 55, Anders Bjork 74, John Hayden 55, Robert Haag 48, Colin Miller 137, Cody Eakin 115, Tobias Reider 44, Curtis Lazar 71, Matt Irwin 24, Drake Caggulia 29, Marcus Johansson 60, Jimmy Vesey 64, Michael Frolik 19. Those are just some of the 'veterans' the team brought in since the Pandemic years, and how many games they played. Not exactly a who's-who of quality veterans that they paid up for. More like token vets, many at the end of their career, that were brought in because they were inexpensive.

I agree with that. That is why I'm not all in on advance stats. But in this case they support what we see. It was before the losing streak, there were a lot of close-ish games the Sabres lost where when watching the goals, I would look at the replay and not really find a blatant error by the team in front of him. It was just that some shots, they may have been good shots by the opposing teams, but they should have been saves. I know in the GDT's of many of those games, made posts after the goals were scored where I'm sure I said in the posts something like "I need my goalie to make that save".

Lets see if Montreal sustains this. I just think though, that many of us on this forum, and a LOT of the national NHL media looked at the least for the past 3-4 years and said something like "Buffalo, Ottawa, Detroit. They are coming. Which of those 3 will be first to make the playoffs? Oh, Montreal, their rebuild is 2, maybe 3 years behind the others". So far none of Buffalo, Ottawa, and Detroit have made it. Ottawa has a good shot this year, but Montreal is not far behind them in the standings.

I hope so. But at the end of last season, I thought the exact same thing. Then this year, UPL started out pretty badly. Before 'bashing' his play below, let me say I think he is one of the 3 most important players on this team. I think he can be a top 10 goalie in the league medium term. At the start of LAST year I think I was one of the very few on here who wanted Levi in the minors and UPL as the starter. I like him. I want him on this team and for him to continue to get the majority fo the starts. But He has been pretty bad for most of the season though. One could say that among many reasons, his sub-par play on many nights is one of the top 3 reasons the team is as far back in the standings as they are. Last year he had a .910 save percentage with a 2.57 GAA. That was with a shaky start. Once he became the full time goalie, he played better than his full year numbers. Many of us assumed now that he was the 'starter', he would continue the pace of last year right into this year. Some of the advanced numbers back up the 'eye test' (at least for me). Hes not facing a lot more overall shots this year per game than last year (27.2 vs 27.6 per game) or even if you want to break it down, 'high danger' chances (7.3 per game vs 7.2 per game). If anything the slight difference says he faced more high danger shots against last year. What is different is how he is playing overall. My personal "eye test" told me that in the couple weeks before the losing streak and even through the losing streak, there were a lot of goals he let in that my impression was, afte watching the replay..."The team in front of him really did NOT hang him out to dry, I just need my goalie to make that save". And the numbers last year compared to this year: Overall save percentage 12 points lower this year. High danger save percentage 52 points lower this year than last year. This year 10% less of his starts feature him having a save percentage above .900. As mentioned above, I don't think he is getting hung out to dry by his forwards and D-men as much as last year. If he would just be matching his overall numbers from last year, he would have allowed 8-10 less goals than last year. With him facing slightly less 'high danger' shots this year, maybe that number should be 10-12 less. Sprinkle those 10-12 less goals around all the games this year, and this team likely has a few more wins. So I understand the point you and others are making. He seems to be turning his game around. I think he is capable of that and I expect that. Its just frustrating. Even with all the issues this year (Tage and Dahlin injuries, Cozens taking a WHILE to come around, Quinn and Peterka pulling disappearing acts for large portions of the season), with all that, UPL having played as well this year as last year probably has them fighting for that last playoff spot right now.

This whole game, that seems like a really lively crowd. That fanbase, at least the ones in the building, do a good job.

I seem to memories of Linday saying "the guys have to shoot and not look for the perfect pass" I think we have heard him say that on the Hasek era teams. The Brierre/Drury teams. The post-brierre/Drury teams. And a few times with this current team.

This is a strange game. Dallas seems to be outplaying the Sabres positionally, but they don't seem like they are 'better'. I know that doesn't make sense. I guess I just can't get a feel for this game.

Faceoffs are 72% Dallas, 28% Buffalo. I know others have said as a stat they don't mean much long term as far as wins and losses, but in this game, the Sabres have lost some faceoffs in their own end that Dallas has controlled for a while after.

The past 2 weeks Cozens and Quinn have been playing a lot better. They are both invisible tonight (in terms of good plays). Would be nice to get something from one of them here.

Guys contribute at times. Zucker has had some good moments. Peterka was great for stretches earlier in the year. Lindy loves giving ice time to Bryam. Tuch has a few big goals too. But this team seems to be absolutely reliant on Thompson, Dahlin, and UPL. They could interchange most of the rest of the roster, but if those 3 are healthy and 'on', this is a good team. If any of them are hurt or 'off' they are in trouble.

Dahline still must not feel 100%. The last few days he was trailing the other top D-men in time on ice. First period, he is 4th in ice time again. Just seems different than past years. Even when he was banged up in the past, Granato would put him out there for 22-26 minutes per game.