mjd1001

He just came off the bench seconds before. No thought was involved. He came off the bench, skated 2-3 seconds to the blue line and Gilbert game him the stretch pass when the Montreal D-men were looking up ice. The play was made by a pretty darn good stretch pass by Gilbert. It was a reaction type play. Cozens was on the ice for a total of about 10 seconds. There was no need to analyze the play no need to know where the opposition was, it was hit the ice, get the pass drive to the net. He's good at that. It is the other 90% of the game where he has to think a little bit where he has a problem.

I'm not sure what happened to Tuch on the PP. He has been cold for almost the entire year. He still has his shot and looks like the same player even strength, but for some reason he want from a decent-to-pretty good PP winger the last 2 years to just totally non-productive this year.

How does the opposing GOALIE make a stretch pass through your entire team leading to a great scoring chance when you have a full 5 guys on the ice?

He is a pretty fast skater. He puts the effort in.....how many times do we say players don't care or are lazy...but not him. Most of the time he tries hard. His shot is not accurate but his release LOOKS good. Its just like the first period tonight. I'm not looking at analytics, I don't know what is expected goal percentage is or anything like that. Simple eye test..lost a key faceoff in the offensive zone, had a pass right to him that he fumbled and lost in his skates. On the SH goal he had all day and blasted the puck right into the shinpads of the defender and the puck went to the boards where he misplayed it leading to the 2on1 for the SH goal. A penalty early in the game. He got spun around by the blue line and almost fell, scooped up a loose puck and proceeded to pass it 2 feet behind the stick of a wide open teammate. No statistics required. That was just his first period witnessed on TV.

I like Lindy. I liked Don. Its the players.

On the replay of the SH goal....Power could have played that one better. Its still on Cozens for losing the puck that led to the SH goal, but Power could have shaded over to the near boards more because he didn't have a guy coming in deep to the other side, yet he played int in the middle. PP goal he played right in front of the net when he should have shaded to the near boards. Exact same issue on the SH goal. I know its tough when you are in the moment and the game is moving fast, but he needs to have better awareness of what is going on with the other team and his own teammates. Duds of the first period....Power and Cozens for sure. And I normally defend Power but he had a bad 1st.

Well, it was in Montreal, maybe at the same rink during practice that Pegula showed up and said that, right? They are distracted, their minds are on getting back to the locker room so they can keep searching until the find the answer.

Sabres have allowed 20 goals in 10 periods to Montreal. 4, 6, 7 in previous games, and now 3 in one period. To be fair, Power with one issue of awful coverage SH, and Cozens with a series of bad plays but a giveaway leading to the SH goal. The rest of the team outside of those 2 hasn't been awful.

When I was a little kid, there was a time, sometimes in the middle to late 80s, where it seemed like they had a good run against Montreal. Again, I was a little kid so maybe they won 3 in a row but it seemed like a lot more to me. Since that day, I always had in my head the Sabres matched up really well vs Montreal (and they always seemed to lose to the Nordiques). Well, they are taking that childhood memory from me.

The last time they were in Montreal after the Pegula appearance where he said "No changes" might have been the most embarassing loss of the season for this team. They look like they want to top that on this trip to Montreal.

For those still defending Cozens, he took a penalty (Questionable I'll give you). Next shift after he got back on the ice he made 2 bad plays before making an awful pass across the ice. Now on the PP, loose puck he doesn't have the hands to settle down (or was he stripped? haven't seen the replay yet), leads to a 2-1 shorthanded and a goal. No analytics, I'm not using ANY analytics....how is he not one of the worst forwards that kills this team every game?

I normally defend the D-men more than most. Including Power. I think they try to play positionally and the game plan is to not take guys out in front of the net all the time but to make sure your stick is down to get to loose pucks. I think the D has played a lot better than most people do this year.... But yeah, that one was on Power 100% He was right in front of the net but no Montreal players were there, the goal scorer was to the side of the net. He's the lower near part of the box, he has to recognize that is his guy.

I'd be complaining about it a lot more if I could muster up any reason to care about winning this game tonight.

As I just mentioned above before I read your post...yeah. I think his value may be a lot lower than most of us think, and his play along with the contract that was given to him put Adams/Pegula/the team in a bad situation. -If they force a trade just to get rid of him, the return might be...rather small. A 2nd or 3rd round pick? A low-mid level prospect? If that was the case, a certain portion of the fan base would be ALL OVER the Sabres because they will accuse the team of 'giving him away' or 'getting fleeced'. -On the other hand, if they are afraid of the above, they can keep him here. And continue to have him make this team a worse team, contributing to more losses than victories.

I'm going to have the game on at the beginning, but I'll probably be doing something else while watching it (reading emails, getting a jump on tomorrows work, etc) There just isn't much new with this team that is exciting to watch....nothing to look forward to even game-by-game.

Personally, I have started to post the analytics only in the last few months. For the previous 1.5 years I was basing my criticism of him based on play after play, game after game of watching him with my own eyes sink this team and make dumb play after dumb play..... The Analytics have only been used recently to show just how drastic they can be to back it up. Dylan Cozens has, analytically or with the eye test, been a very bad hockey player. When we have spent 1.5+ years posting screenshots and commenting on what we see with his play, many of us have nothing else to say about that part of his game so we have gone into the 'deeper stats'. I personally think the reason he hasn't been moved yet is primarily because he does not have much value around the league because of what other teams analytics dept and their scouts opinion of him. I hope the Sabres know he hasn't been all that good. But for a trade to happen, the other team likely has to value what you are giving them more than you do. In Dylan Cozens case...especially with his contract...he may be stuck here because the Sabres know he's a problem, but other teams think he is even a bigger problem than the Sabres think. I hope I'm wrong on this one.

Yep, this team has been worse this year simply with him on it. If Cozens didn't play a game this year, the team likely would have a better record. To keep him around or not....the question is.....is he a BETTER player than he has been all year? Some people do think so. Others like me just want him off the team, get futures back even and the team will be better without him for the remainder of the season than it was with him up to this point.

Unless Cozens turns into a different player he needs to be gone now. What comes back in return is a bonus. This team is better without him because of all the negatives he brings. I cannot be 100% sure, but I would assume most of the other teams in the league have watched his video quite a bit, see his mistakes, and they know his analytics are awful as is his topline production. I think his 'value' around the league is a lot less than many in fans in Buffalo want to believe. It would not surprise me if his 'value' is no more than 2nd round pick OR a mid-level prospect...(especially with his contract) Even if that is true, I still want him moved, and the sooner, the better.

When healthy, I think Dahlin can be a top 10 Defenseman in the league. When healthy, Tage is a top 10 scorer in the league (he currently is the best 5-on-5 scorer per 60 in the entire league.) You don't trade either of them. As far as anyone else besides Cozens, probably not unless its a super great deal. With this team not making the playoffs this year, they SHOULD fall into the category of 'sellers', and most of the national media/rumors put them into that category. But traditionally, 'sellers' are teams that are failing and looking to get assets to rebuild. That is NOT this team.

I agree 100% on Thompson. No way he should be moved, unless you are getting something beyond the realm of belief.

I'd take futures for Cozens, as it might just be addition by subtraction removing him. They aren't going anywhere this year and maybe those 'futures' can be flipped in the offseason for legit help to start next season. For anybody else, nope. Not unless you have a current roster play who is a free agent, begging you to get out, and has made it clear he is not going to be interested in this team next year.

The time period is about a year...but its not just 'this' year. His slump started almost exactly when he signed his contract extension last year. -His production dropped dramatically from the time he signed until the end of the regular season -he got even worse in the playoffs, with less than 1/2 point per game (previously in his career he was more than a point per game playoff guy) -Of course this year, that production drop has continued -As others have mentioned, he was a non-factor in the 4 nations tournament So its not just a bad stretch, this is going on for about a year now. 2 different regular seasons, a playoff run, an exhibition tournament. He never had a stretch of 'down' production in his career even close to this long. The only plausible explanation for many is he has an injury, but the team denies it, he denies it, and if he did, he had an entire offseason to rest it in the middle of this bad stretch and he still has not returned to form. So yeah, to say he will never be a point per game player? maybe he will, maybe he won't...but there is something that is 'off' for sure with is game....and no one has a good explanation for it yet. I don't know. I don't get it. I like him as a player and I thought he was on his way to being a top 10 player in the league...but his play lately is not even a fraction of that.

I haven't really watched much of the last 2 games maybe 5-10 minutes of each. I have gotten to the 2nd point of this season where the team has worn me down. I'm there with you with Cozens of course.....the team has 3 games yet between now and the trade deadline. Either They win 2 or all 3 and Cozens is one of the main reasons why in every game.....or he gets moved before Friday for me. He's had 5 years with this team and what....350 games of experience now and he hurts this team and contributes to losses probably more than any player in the NHL who gets significant ice time. Unless he turns his game around into a star in the next 3 games....which will give me some fleeting thing to hold on to.....or he needs to move. If neither of those things happen, I'm going to be so depressed about the direction of this team...and how bad the decisions makers are...I'll likely need to just walk away from it for a few games. (not as if that is any kind of a threat to the sabres...."Do what I want or else...", they don't care about what I think....its just going to be for my mental sanity regarding following sports.)

Top 4 in the draft would be nice, but I don't want them to get down to that level intentionally or even semi-intentionally.

I would be disappointed. I think he is a lot better than you make out in your post. Next to Dahlin and Tage, he would be 2rd on the list of getting me to think/say "WTH are you doing as a franchise anyway" if he was traded.