mjd1001

I'd need to see a lot more before I give any thought to this being a 'changed team'. Give me a 3-4 winning streak and I might START to pay attention, but not even more than that. I also don't think the locker room disliked Cozens or trading him uplifted the locker room in that kind of way. Maybe, MAYBE guys in the locker room recognized Cozens made a lot of mistakes? Maybe they recognized he simply was out of position a lot and 'not listening' or buying into the coaching? Even then, that is a bit of a stretch and I'd need a lot more to put much credibility to that. I think the comments are just something you say after a win. The rest of the month they have 8 games. Some against teams near the top of the conferences, some against teams fighting for a playoff spot, some against teams out of the playoffs. 2 at home, 6 away. 3 Western conference team. So basically as much of a variety in their schedule as they can get. Win 6 of 8, and I can BEGIN the thoughts of the possibility the team has turned some kind of corner. But nothing really matters until next year anyway.

I think the Sabres not succeeding is why it hasn't happened already. I think if the Sabres were a 95+ point team each of the last couple year, he would be in the norris conversation yearly.

Looking at some of the advanced stats from the game regarding the forward lines even strength: -McLeod-Benson-Zucker was a very good line. 7 shots for, only 4 allowed. 1-0 on goals -Kulich-Krebs-Quinn was good, but only for just over 5 minutes. 5 shots for, 0 allowed. 2 scoring chances for, 0 allowed. -Thompson-Greenway-Tuch not so good this game. 11.5 minutes ice time together. 2 shots for, 7 allowed. Officaial scoring chances were 1 for, 7 allowed.

McLeod is good. I know, there have been players that have had one good year and then never been that good again. But the guy is young. He's one of the fastest skaters on the team. He's smart, he doesn't make a lot of mistakes. Hes on pace for almost 20 goals and 50 points. He kills penalties. Hes a plus player on a negative team. I hope he gets extended for a few years. He looks to be a well above average #3 center.

Hate is a tough word. Is it guys who I don't like personally? Or guys who were awful players? Or guys who's presence here set the franchise back because of the ice time/opportunity they got here? I'll go with the last. I can't think of any players that I didn't like as a 'person', and it would be too easy to pick the guys who played only a handful of games because they weren't good enough. So who do I think hurt the team the most with a sprinkle of not liking how they handled things? 1. Berglund - Just handled the whole situation terribly 2. Sabotka - The anti-blocking someone case. He was one player that SHOULD have been replaced with a youngster 3. Cozens - Hope he does well, tried hard, nice guy. But he hurt the team on the ice, didn't know his role, was overpaid and overused. 4. Risto - Kinda like Cozens above. No reason to hate him as a person, but he hurt the team so much on the ice but kept getting put out there. 5. Bogosian - Never really seemed like he wanted to be here despite being from the area, and his talent was vastly overrated. 6. Steve Ott - Tough guy, was in the leadership group. But for some reason I cannot explain he rubbed me the wrong way. 7. Tyson Strachon - Odd and obscure choice, but I seem to remember he played here one season and was quite probably the worst d-man I ever saw in the NHL. 8. Taylor Hall - Given a big contract and did nothing, then left pretty quick. 9. Kozlov - Understatement to say him coming to Buffalo was a disaster 10. Eric Comrie - Just was awful. He had a few early games were he was good, it sucked me in, I defended him on this board but he kept getting worse, and worse. Maybe not the list for this, but maybe an honorable mention for me would be Eichel. No hatred, but something else. He was one of the, if not the best player on this team during the drought. To my knowledge he never said much bad about the team, his teammates or the city when he was here. So certainly not 'hated' at all by me....its just from day #1...I never quite 'connected' with him as much as I would have thought I would with a 'franchise' guy or a 'semi-generational' guy that we were told he was. I think a drought-era most liked list would be more interesting.

As far as the Sabres playing well vs the top teams, it can seem like that after a win..but... Vs Winnipeg, Washingon, Dallas. Edmonton, Florida, Toronto, Tampa, Carolina, Vegas, New Jersey, and Colorado (most would consider them the top teams?) The Sabres are 6-12 (.333 winning). Vs the rest of the league, 20-27 (.426 winning). So yeah...wins vs top teams are nice, but they aren't better vs them as a whole.

There was an article on NHL.com (I think) about how McKinnon is the favorite for MVP this year. I'm having a hard time thinking he should be over Draisatl. They are both over 100 points already (McKinnon 102, Draisaitl 100), but Draisaitl has 49 goals including 10 game winners this year. He's 'on pace' for 61 goals, almost a +40...and while most think McDavid is the better player, Draisaitl is outproducing him by a decent amount this season.

If I'm not mistaken, Brendan Shanahan is the president of the Leafs hockey operations, and he lived (or still lives) in the NY city metro area. If he doesn't still live here full time, he did for a period of years during his tenure as president.

If you have paramount or access to it, check out "Strange new worlds". One of the best Trek shows ever. The characters are all pretty much likeable, and they went back to the episodic format of the original series and TNG with it. Its easy to get into, even if you aren't up to date with everything 'trek', fun, most episodes are more 'thought provoking' rather than 'stressful' or 'action for the sake of action'.

https://capwages.com/teams/buffalo_sabres I THINK the cap for next season is at $95.5m. The Sabres have about $70.5m committed (included Skinner's buyout money, he counts $4.4m next year and that number goes up to $6.4m the following year) That doesn't count McLeod, Quinn, Peterka, Bernard-Docker and Byram as restricted free agents...as well as Bryson and Reimer as UFA's. So, you have about $25million. Allocate maybe $2m for that backup goalie and 7th/8th D-man that leaves you with $23m $23m for 3 RFA forwards and 2 RFA D-men. I guess it depends on how much they are going to give each of them. If you want to go big-game hunting in free agency for another forward or D-man, you are going to have to make a trade off of your active roster or let go one of your RFA's it looks like.

That would be good to hear and see. It seems like so long ago since this team had a PP that had any confidence in it. Plus, a goal is a goal, doesn't matter if its shorthanded, powerplay, even strength, they all count equally.

Power. He got an assist last night, but that is his first point in 8 games. I expect him to have his ups and downs defensively, but he has vanished from any impact on the offensive end. He also hasn't scored a goal in 20 games, and has 1 goal in his last 32 games.

No he is not. He disrupts a lot of stuff in the neutral zone. Just watch him. He is not great, maybe average at best in his own zone. He isn't out of position much. But again, for the 10th time, he is very very good in the neutral zone. Like in Football, a great CB/Safety in 'zone' defense to some may look like he spends most of his time 'just standing there'. Tage in the neutral zone looks like he is 'floating' but he is taking up space and is very effective at clogging passing lanes.

I'm in my late 40's. Kinda in that demographic hole between the Boomers and Y/Z.

I have a little bit of an odd one, but something bothering me. The new commercials/ad compaign for Skechers sneakers starring Howie Mandel. There are a few commercials, they are all over TV, streaming and on social media, where he 'tells a story' about him and skechers: -He wants to buy a pair of Skechers but doesn't want to pay full price. -He goes into a store and tells them he is a spokesman/ambassador for Skechers and asks for a discount, even though that isn't true. -He ends up getting called by the head of the company and gets offered a job to be a brand ambassador -Now he is a paid spokesman/ambassador and gets his discount also. So let me get this straight...the company wants to hire a 'celebrity' that is probably worth millions of dollars... that lies to get a discount, gets rewarded for lying with the discount and a job, and brags and laughs about it? All the while they are advertising to 'regular' consumers about their brand where most of their shoes cost $50-$125? Seems a bit arrogant and out of touch.

That entire first line played well. Not perfect, they did allow a few good chances against, but overall that Benson-Norris-Tage line outplayed Detroit. It was the PK, goalie, and most of the rest of the team that was bad.

I think it may be what you define as a 'stay at home' D-man. He went 'up the ice' into the offensive zone a bit more than average if I remember, but he wasn't as quick to leave the zone as some of the guys they want now.

I agree with your overall premise. However as per the bolded above....the discussion about individual players is NOT wasteful and futile. If you accept, as most do, that the management/GM/owner of this team is at fault, then it is logical to say that if someone else comes in to clean up the mess, they are going to have to evaulate the individual players. Whoever is at fault, a larger part of 'fixing' the mess is based on getting rid of the players who are not good enough, and evaluation/talk about them is part of it.

For those who are interested in analytics...last one line was pretty good, the rest not so much: -Benson-Norris-Thompson: +16%Corsi for vs against, +8.3% Fenwick, +21% shots for vs agains, +1 es as a line, +6% expected goals. -Zucker-McLeod-Tuch and Kreb-Malenstyn-Lafferty were well into the negative territory in most categories Lines changed throughout the game so there were a few combos that were hard to track as they only had a couple shifts between them. Greenway-Krebs-Quinn actually had positive metrics across the board, but they were only together for 2m49s. Also, almost 1/3 of the game was played with someone in the box, so a very low percentage of play 5 on 5 compred to an average game. Statistically, the middle 2 lines, goaltending (.759 save percentage), and PK killed them last night (Detroit 3 for 5 on the PP). A lot of people say Dahlin has to be frustrated, how well he plays most of the time and the rest of the team is awful. Thompson has to be in the same category. He scores, and whatever line you put him on controls play, yet the team falls apart when a line other than his is out there.

It would explain a lot. But if its true, he can't be playing every game. He needs to be rotating in until he gets a full offseason.

I don't know if it would have helped on that goal, but maybe in general UPL has to come out of the net more? He is beaten a LOT buy guys just finding a shoulder to go over, a a spot on the inside or outside. Come out a bit more and you take that away. Again, maybe he didn't have time to do that there, but on the last goal for sure, come out more and you take away those spots shooters are picking on him.

You could always bring someone up from Rochester for a game or two if you wanted.

If Quinn goes to the net, I think the goals will come. For some reason he is taking shots from the center of the circles to the boards more, where when he scored the last 2 years more shots were from between the dots. And in terms of defense....his positioning isn't good but it is better than Cozens. Too many times he is just gliding out there, he's a step late too a loose puck or a step late to disrupting a shot. It may be a low bar me wanting to see him go to the net more and to skate harder, but I think those 2 things cure much of what has been bad about the results when he is on the ice this year. Cozens I was done with. Effort was not the problem with Cozens it was other things. With Quinn, I think he's pretty close to being what you want him to be with just a couple small changes.

I just want 2 things out of him. Go to the net in the offensive zone more and skate harder when getting back into the D-zone. Even if he's not scoring a goal every other game, if I see him do that I'll be happy with his game for the time being.

Yeah...I don't it that way. Had Quinn skated harder he could have prevented the puck from even entering the zone. I want my wings to do what he did in my own zone...but I think good defense starts by your wingers preventing the puck from transitioning into your zone to begin with. Not only that, but he was in position where at one point he was 1 1/2 strides behind Debrincat. He could have and should have distrupted that play before it even crossed the Buffalo blue line. If you iso on Tuch, Tuch goes into the corners deep on the forcheck. Many times he will trail the opposing team carrying the puck up the boards, skates hards and disrupts the play before the puck enters the Buffalo zone. I see it once or twice a week from Tuch. If Tuch is doing it, so should Quinn.