mjd1001

I'm not blaming him for standing up for a teammate. I'm saying he is, and continues to be one of the worst 2 way players on this team, and someone that absolutely baffles me how he is on the powerplay at all. He has WELL EARNED his 'whipping boy' status.

He is an anchor to the entire team. His shooting is actually decent the last month, but he is the biggest anchor among all anchors on the PP, that is for sure.

You had a more balanced lineup top to bottom I think. Brian Campbell then was a 3rd pair D-man. Your top 9 forwards (all top 3 lines) basically were 20-30 goal scorers. The guy with the least goals among forwards in the top 3 lines were Hecht and Connolly (both just missing 20 goals) but they both missed a lot of games, so they were 'on pace' for 20+ When you have 3 lines you can roll out there, all of which are as productive as any single line on the current team, that gets you there.

Rob Ray is really pushing the "Sabes" thing instead of "Sabres" more than I remember. I know he did it in the past, but out of every commercial break he is saying it. Not a big deal, but I'm not a huge fan of the "Sabes" nickname. That was either just lazy play or slow skating by Power and Samuelsson as a combo there. They lose the puck, the Caps player outskates them, and they take a penalty on a play that should have never gotten to that point.

Ice time most of the way through the first is VERY even, Lindy is just rolling 4 lines, no one is getting extra or long shifts among forwards so far.

The Blue ones they had a decade-or-so ago (maybe longer) were some of my favorites in the league. Not as much of a fan of their current ones. To add to that, Washington doesn't really get upset by trailing. They have the best record in the league with the opposition scores first. They are 10-4 in games where they go down 1-0.

Its better than not scoring first. But on the year, the Sabres have a losing record when scoring first. 7 wins 10 losses.

If Greenway is not 100% give him another game or two off.

As far as the PP goes....It is a VERY small sample size but I posted this earlier in the thread. -When Cozens got hurt during the Philly game last year he missed 2 games. In both of those games the Sabres scored on the Powerplay. -In the 4 games BEFORE he got hurt Cozens was on the powerplay. The sabres scored ZERO PP goals in any of those 4 games. -In the 4 games AFTER he came back from the injury, Cozens was on the Powerplay. The sabres scored ZERO PP goals in any of those for 4 games. Cozens leads the team in PP minutes this year and the PP is awful. The above data is such a small sample size that it alone doesn't prove he is the reason for the Sabres poor PP. But that, along with simply watching him on the PP and seeing he isn't good at it, PLUS his total of 2 PP goals combined this season and last season with all his PP time...and yeah, he needs to be removed from the PP. He actively hurts it.

Not having a proper 2C isn't a good reason to keep a bad one there. Do you want a better 2C Yep. But Keeping Cozens there isn't the answer he hurts the team. Moving McLeod to 2C, having Krebs and/or Kulich at 3C and Cozens on wing is not ideal, but it is better than having Cozens at 2C.

My point exactly when I say the "fire Adams" chants are misplaced. Adams may be a terrible GM. He may be a good GM, but the point is its hard to really tell with the above taken into consideration with Pegula in is ear all the time. If you want to fire Adams, then the entire hockey department has to go with him AND Pegula need to take a step back to. Anything other than that and nothing changes.

Are they? We only know if RUMORS that SOME are. Even so, we have no idea what they are offering if true. A Rumor that someone is asking about a player on your roster In no way shape or form should mean that he is a good fit here, or even a good player long-term for anyone. Even these more successful franchises, they all make bad trades, bad judgments on players, and make bad draft picks. And even if it was true, if you go by that logic you are hardly ever, or never, trading anyone because all the other teams may know something you don't know. And this Adams stuff, it is getting comical the lame names and jokes thrown at him. It seems obvious to me, and I would think at least logical to most, that Adams is running under a Pegula imposed budget, has Pegula in is ear about almost every aspect of the organization more than most fans thing (reference Buffalo news article from the other day), has Pegula talking to him everyday, and is working in Pegula's front office staffed by people Pegula approved, where Adams does not have complete authority but decisions on draft picks, hirings, trades, etc are run through the entire front office, and Pegula is part of that. You want a new GM that will not work under those conditions, you may not get it.

Just how do we all "Know that"? Just because some fans, some posters on this forum want it, doesn't mean is something that will happen let alone we all know it will happen. Maybe he's not what we all want, but one of the few ways we can look into how the coaches and organization value a player is their usage. Dahlin, Power, and Byrum are the top 3 guys, we know that. So after that, you have Jokiharju, Clifton, Bryson, Samelsson...and I guess Gilbert but he has played in only 1/3 of the games. Of all those guys, Jokiharju gets the most ice time. Hes at the end of his deal so you aren't getting much for him, and thus you certainly aren't showcasing him. But, at least in the coaches eyes, he's the best, the most useful of anyone in not in the top 3. I don't see how that equates to "we all know he is going to be traded". If you have an 'asset' that is likely to get you very little on the open market, but yet you USE it more than the other options you have in the bottom 4...I'm not trading that unless /until they are obviously 'sellers' near the deadline.

Feet to the fire meaning....? Sell the team? Firings/hirings? Make a public statement about the team? and by "Sabres feed" are you talking just everday fans on social media? or something else?

I agree with that if he stays at center. Now I have no data to back up what I am going to say....this is just my opinion..... -I think he is pretty good at getting to the front of the net...getting to the 'tough' areas of the ice while carrying the puck. I think he has above average ability to operate in traffic with the puck. Now, I don't think he is good like Perreault or even Housley were carrying the puck from one end of the ice to the other with stick handing through guys and making them miss. More what I am referring to is him having the puck on his stick for 2-3 seconds in the offensive zone and making one guy miss taking it away in front of the net. With that ability I see him GETTING good opportunities for himself, just he's not a good enough shooter to convert them. (Its also why I thin he's not good on the PP, that skill is not needed on the PP, your PP unit needs vision, awareness, pinpoint passing and shooting accuracy, none of which Cozens is great at). So, he is pretty good at having the puck on his stick in tight areas in front of the net for a second or two. What I do NOT see is him getting to those areas and finding an uncovered teammate for an easy tap in. Is that a skill he can develop? Is it coaching that can force him to look for the open guy instead of blasting the puck into the goalies pads himself? As to your point..my opinion is he can GET to those 'better areas', he does that already. But he's like a black hole....once the puck goes into him, it rarely comes back out to a teammate. Can he start to have a sense of where his teammates are and be aware to put them into a better position? If he can develop that he might turn into a pretty good center. Right now I don't see him doing it much (maybe once or twice every couple of games) and that is why I think he is worse as a Center than he would be as a winger.

I think this is the best case scenario for Cozens at this point...... -He goes in and out of shooting slumps that last a real long time. He's not a sniper, he's not going to build on that 31 goal season and give you a couple 40 goal seasons in the future (never say never but....just ABOUT never). But look at this year so far. I'm pretty sure he shot ZERO percent in October, but through November AND December he is shooting 13.9%. Last year he had entire MONTHS where his shooting percentage was 18.8%, 19.0, and 15.8. He also had entire months where he shot 3.3, 4.3, and 6.7. He is a streaky shooter. ALL shooters are streaky but not like him. We have to realize he is basically a 9-10% shooter (3rd line quality scorer) with the ability to get a LOT hotter than that and a LOT colder than that. Accepting that takes care of the offensive side of the equation. As fans we don't like this but we just have to accept one month he will get 6 goals, but then follow it up with 1 goal in 15 games. Oh, and up this page I asked if anyone could tell me why he is on the PP and no one responded directly. So, just get him off the Powerplay. He is hideous, terrible on it. He probably single handedly drops the Sabres ranking down on the PP a few points. He is probably the worst guy in the league that gets regular PP time. NO SPECIAL TEAMS FOR COZENS. -Now the other half of his game. If I (we) accept the above about his scoring, the HOPE is that somewhere along the way a coach (maybe Lindy) gets him to see the game differently. He has to change how he has played the game without the puck compared to how he has done it his entire life. Its almost like he was the best kid on the pond out back when he was 6-7 years old and got away with doing whatever he wanted without the puck, but where most guys evolve when they get to juniors..or pro....he has just refused to. He still plays pond hockey, chasing the puck with no regard for taking himself out of the play and no regard for where his linemates are and any respect or awareness of the other team beyond what is directly in his line of sight. He needs to see the game differently, He has to ADMIT he plays the way he does without the puck and he has to WANT to change that. It hasn't happened....yet. A coach can only change a player if a player admits he has faults in his game, AND he wans to put the effort into changing it. So best case scenario: He is a 16-22 goal scorer. He MIGHT have another 30 goal year, just like he MIGHT have a 10 goal year. But defensively, if he commits to changing his game, he might become 'decent'....not good...but decent enough that he can be valuable 3rd line winger. That is still in the realm of possibility.

My daily picking on Dylan Cozens.....I am going to pose a question about Cozens on the Powerplay. Why does he keep getting used on the Powerplay at all, like ever? -He leads the team in Powerplay ice time this year, and he has been a fixture on the 1st powerplay unit for a few years now, Only Tuch and Thompson have more PP time among forwards for the last 3 seasons, but even then he's right up there with him. -Yet he has a total of 3 powerplay goals over the last 2 seasons. He has taken part in over 250 powerplays in the past 2 seasons with only 3 goals scored. -If you look at his entire career, even including his 31 goal year, he has 11 total powerplay goals over those 4+ (partially through his 5th) season now. There are a bunch of guys who have over 20 just in the past 1 1/3 season. Reinhart had 27 PP goals last year alone, yet Cozens averaged 2.9 goals per 82 games on the PP. Reinhart had 27! 42 different guys last year had double digits or more. Yet Cozens averages 2.9 per 82....2.5 per 'season' Ok, so lets break down his production on the PP, not just this year and last, but lets include that 31 goal year to make the numbers look as much in his favor as possible. Over that time (from the start of his 31 goal season until now) on the PP, 7 forwards have over 250 minutes of PP time: -In terms of goals per 60, Cozens is last at 0.99. Tage, for example, has 3.52, he scores at more than 3.5 times the rate of Cozens, but everyone else is higher too. -Maybe he's a set up guy? Nope. Well he moves slightly up the list, he's now 5th out of 7th on the team in PP points, slightly edging Olofsson and Peterka but behind everyone else and WAY behind what most forwards around the league produce. -Or maybe He's giving up shot attempts to other players and if he did take shots he'd do better? No, not really. This year he leads the team in PP shots (shooting only 4.7% on the PP). Over the last 3 years only Tage and Skinner have taken more shots. Cozens takes shots away from guys who convert at a much higher rate. He somehow manages to shoot even worse on the PP than he does even strength. Of the shots he takes for his career, he is shooting 8.7% on the PP. By FAR the lowest among the guys who get time. Thompson, Tuch, Skinner, Mitts, Olofsson...all 14%-20%. Cozens dead least at 8.7%. All of the above is over the course of years. Its not a small sample size. I didn't 'cherry pick' just this year where he is struggling. This is who he is. Finally, maybe it is some intangible he brings to the PP. He doesn't shoot well, he doesn't get many assists, he doesn't score for some reason, but him just being on the ice opens things up for other players? The coaches put him out there because, well, the PP just 'clicks' better when he is on it whether he gets on the stat sheet? Nope, that one is a RESOUNDING no. Its a small sample size, but I looked at what happened last year when he missed those games because of the fight. How the PP did when he wasn't playing and not on the PP, vs what it was like before and after he got back and was put back on it. -The FOUR games BEFORE he got hurt and missed time, when he was on the PP, the Sabres were 0 for 9 on the PP over those 4 games. -Cozens then missed the next 2 games, the Sabres scored on the PP in both games without him (2 for 7, 28.6%) -Cozens returned to the PP then, and over the next 4 games with him on the PP, the team went 0 for 10. So, Why on the Powerplay at all?

I have had 2 orders that just went 'missing' from Amazon in the past month. The most recent, tracking showed it showed up last Wed at the fulfillment center. It was scheduled to be delivered Thursday. A week later? No delivery. When I check out the reason why, and I even called them, they said it was due to 'inclement weather' in the area. Funny, not only do I live in NORTHERN Niagara county were its been sunny most of the last week and there is no snow on the ground, but my wife, who has a different amazon account, had an order that was tracked through the same fullfillment center, that arrived the day after mine, and her order showed up this past monday. If you lost my item, I get it, if it got damaged in the facility, fine, it happens, Just don't lie to me about it.

Exactly. Looking back at the last 5-10 years, I think the #1 thing that if you changed would make this team better is spending more/closer to the cap. Not a specific draft pick or drafting overall. No even who the coach is. But if every year that you had cap space you slightly overpayed for just one extra GOOD veteran, and you overpayed a bit to bring in someone better than Erik Johnson. Just 2, maybe 3 extra GOOD vets to play with the young guys, to be good enough to win one or two extra games a year, and this entire situation would be a lot better. And yes, you weren't good and this is Buffalo, so you might have to overpay. But if you are/were $10m under the cap, give a guy who someone else offers 2 years at $10m, give that guy 3 years at $18-$20m to come here. Maybe you do that via making a trade at the deadline, weaponize your cap space to bring in a player and then get him to stay here with that 'overpay'. They could have. They didn't. Terry didn't want to spend any extra money until the wins and fans came back first.

Unless you promote a new GM from within. But the problem with promoting from within.... you are getting a 'first time GM' and a guy who was likely a large part of the very decision making that got the team to where it is now.

I don't think its much bad drafting at all in recent years. The question is, what where your options? what is your opportunity cost for taking who you did? To me its who did you pick vs who was available, but reasonably available. Meaning, don't say they drafted a bust at 14, but a superstar was picked at 23, because if you, AND 9 other teams passed on that guy its more that guy was a surprise rather than a bad pick. Its like look at every draft, and who are the 2-3 guys AFTER the guy you took and have they done a lot better? Of if you took a D-men and the next 3 picks were forwards, who was the next D-man after you picked and how did he do? So if you go back 10 drafts: 2015: Eichel. That was the logical pick. 2016: Sabres took Nylander. Next forwards picked that were available: Tyson Jost, Then Logan Brown, then Michael McLeod. 2017: Sabres took Mitts. Next forwards: Michael Rasmussen, Owen Tippet, Gabriel Vilardi. 2018: Dahlin. Logical consensus pick. 2019: Buffalo took Cozens. Next forwards: Zegras, PodKozin, Boldy. 2020: Quinn. Next forwards: Rossi, Perfetti, Lundell 2021: Power was consensus pick. If you went forward, you had Berniers as the next guy. 2022: Savoie. Next forwards were Mintyukov and Connor Geekie. So yeah, to me its 2 things: 1. First round draft picks develop into star players a lot less than we think/want to believe. And 2....Its almost more about Development of the guy you took where you took him as the actual pick (Hello Terry Pegula gutting staff!) Again, if you look down the board enough, you will say "The Sabres could have taken THIS guy instead" Instead of Cousins, would they have been better off taking Cole Caufiled? Maybe, but no one was taking Caufield at #7. Montreal would not have taken him at #7. The draft board among teams in the NHL I think is pretty similar. The only 'bad draft pick' in the first round is if you have to choose between 2-3 guys who are in the same area of the board, and you make a massive mistake. Look at the picks above, they really didn't have year after year of "they should have taken the NEXT guy" Again, its not really bad drafting, its chance, bad development, AND maybe the roster mix you put those guys into. As with everything else, it comes down to Pegula. Pegula gutted the scouting department. It seems the Sabres development guys, if they are good, don't stick around for long and are replaced with entry level former players learning on the job. Pegula has the team spending under the cap so you aren't bringing in enough GOOD veterans for the young guys to play with. The criticism of Adams being awful always baffles me. I mean, maybe he IS awful. But tell me what GM is going to do better when he is operating 1.) with Pegula in his ear all the time. 2.) knowing he has the job because the other guy didn't follow Pegula's orders so he was fired. 3.) it is likely, VERY likely the Sabres have to operate under a budget/cap that is lower than the rest of the teams (imposed by Pegula). 4.) even when he is given autonomy from Pegula making a decision, the front office/hockey department has been set up to operate as a 'unit'. All the guys under (and in the case of Pegula over) Adams have input. I'm personally pretty sure if Adams wanted to make a move but if Pegula was present and saw Karmanos and Forton and others disagreed, then Adams would not be allowed to make that move. 95% of this team's issues are Pegula. Not drafting. Not drafting in and of itself.

It could just be the Rangers are not pressing, into the NHL version of a prevent defense.

This is the Rangers team just in the last 2 weeks allowed 7 goals to Seattle, 5 to New Jersey, and the Sabres put up 6 on them last month?

Greenway with 1 goal in his last 13 games played. Benson with 1 in his last 12 Peterka with 1 in his last 13 McLeod with 0 in his last 11 Tuch with 1 in his last 8. Cozens with 1 in his last 6. Not as bad as the rest, but you expect more with what he is getting paid and the ice time/PP time he gets.

I don't know. He's just really really bad now. Power is the forum whipping boy tonight, and the last few games, but he HAS had games where he has played well and helped the team win. Maybe not enough, but he has. Tage, people get upset with him but the guy is on pace for 45-50 goals. Cozens? How many games has he been a difference maker this year? If its more than 1 or 2 I would be shocked. He's just....bad..and he has been for a very long time.