mjd1001

Its apparent we agree he would be a lot better at wing. My criticism of him is as a Center. But that is all I can really talk about because this organization simply refuses to move him to wing. With that said, my view of him as Center: The 2 things I will repeat: -He does well in a system where he doesn't have to think it seems. In international tournaments, those guys have played and practiced together for days, not months or years like teammates in the NHL have. The coach puts in 'systems' that are very basic, as you don't know your line-mates that well. Internatioanl tournaments are closer to 'do the basics, go out there and play', where the NHL is more complicated systems, playing off of your line-mates, etc. Cozens plays well in the basic systems of international play. He flounders when he has to think. The NHL requires more thinking. Anytime he is put into a situation that seems to require any 'structure' of 'defensive coverage' where you are aware of your teammates and opponents, he fails. If/when the team makes the playoffs and the play gets 'tighter', its likely he would play even worse in that environment. -Is 31 goals repeatable for him? I guess its possible, but as more and more time goes on, he really looks like a 9% shooter, not a 15% shooter he had that one year. As a matter of fact, that 'one year' really wan't 'one year' of great shooting, it was about 1.5-2 months. For the entire rest of his career, hes a guy that gets you 200 shots a year (hes on pace for a bit less this year actually) and looks to normally be a 9% shooter. I agree he belongs on wing and he could be a GOOD player on wing. But if he stays at center, I'm not sure how any of the above changes or gets better. He's not 22 anymore with 100 games of NHL experience. Hes in his 5th NHL season and is approaching 350 games played. I will be a much, much happier Sabres fan when if he either gets moved off the roster, or moved to wing permanently. Either one will make me very happy (at least until the next 5+ game losing streak) The reason I keep wanting/pushing for him to be traded is that is someone in this organization...Adams? Pegula?...that just will not let him be moved away from Center.

I'm going to use the collapse against Colorado in Early December, part way into the 13 game losing streak, as the time when it should have been obvious that this team needed a move/trade to help the main roster. At that moment, you were a .500 team and still in the midst of the playoff race. Since then: 31 games and no trades 19 losses and no trades 83 days and no trades I'm not, and never have been a person who wants trades made for the sake of trades. It has to make sense...but c'mon already, there had to have been SOMETHING out there they could have done. Trouba, Blackwood, Cam Fowler, Kakko, Rantanen, Farabee, J.T. Miller, Marcus Pettersson, Granlund, Ceci, and many lesser players have all been moved/acquired since then...yet the team in most need of a move (Buffalo).....Well, I guess the solution was "in the room".

Another thing about Cozens that would be a good reason for him to move to wing. Quinn. As a Center, the 'eye test' tells some of us that once Cozens gets the puck in the slot, he is shooting it. He either doesn't have the vision, or the willingness to pass up a shot to find a better/open teammate. One positive number in his analytics this year and in previous years is he takes a lot of shots from prime scoring areas (high danger areas). That can be a good thing, meaning he is going to those areas, but it can also be a bad thing...he's a black hole..once the puck goes into those areas with him, it never comes back out. He takes shots from those areas...even if it means they are shots the goalie is ready for and lead to easy saves, or he shoots them into the shins of the guy right in front of him. If Cozens is in what is considered a 'high danger chance' zone, Cozens takes that shot, regardless of whether it is, in reality, a good shot to take. So why is that bad for Quinn? Quinn is a better shooter. Sniper? I'm not sure if I would go that far yet, but this year Quinn is shooting 4.3% more than Cozens this year. For their careers, Cozens has shot at 9% or under 4 of his 5 seasons. Quinn is at least 11% every year, and 2 years over 16%. For Quinn's sake, I want a center that is going to get him the puck more. I want a center that will shoot less and set him up more than Cozens does. Just move Cozens to wing already if he isn't going to be traded. It's not only what is probably best for him and suits his game better, but there is likely a knock-off impact that will help 2-3 other players on the team at the same time. Whoever gets Cozens as a winger might get the benefit of a hard skating, good forchecking winger that they didn't have, and whoever Cozens wingers used to be will get a center that might be able to distribute to them better. You can potentially improve 2-3 different players on the roster without making a single trade.

Zucker, Greenway, McLeod, Quinn, Peterka, Byrum, Jokiharju, and Reimer just some among guys who are on the last year of their deal. Of course the unrestricted guys are a bit more likely to be dealt. But, between the Trade deadline and the offseason, some pretty big decisions to be made.

I still haven't changed my mind.....I don't have an issue with the moves Adams has made overall recently....my issue is they haven't made ENOUGH moves.

I agree with a lot of what you are saying. But that is what nationalism it....dividing groups into 'us' vs 'them' based on the borders you live within that someone else made up. Its also what sports is. Sports often brings people together WITHIN a community (although it can drive them apart if they read or post too much to this forum), but in order to do that it does it by creating the 'us vs them' thing, creating that division again. My wife Grew up in NY city and has a lot of friends still there. I lived for years near Boston and my company has their headquarters there and I visit for meetings 2 times per year. I can tell you with 100% certainty that there are people from NY that hate people from Boston and people from Boston that hate people from NY and that hatred is there simply because of sports. I am attaching a somewhat famous NY post front page that they ran about a Yankees-Red sox game. But the article wasn't about sports, it was a why NY is better than Boston and why New yorkers are better than Bostonians, and it was about bashing the people and city of Boston Guess what, it sells $$$. That is an example of why I don't like sports. I know others disagree, but I would love to go to a Sabres-Leafs game and to meet some Leaf fans and talk to them about their team, to talk to them about the Sabres. But instead we have fans that when their team scores, they point at and mock the other team, and behavior that escalates from there. I know some people like that, it is their 'escape' from crappy jobs or other problem and sports allows them to vent. Its just not my thing.

I'm not talking about the fans doing something. I'm talking bout the tone of the discussion. A lot of people will post things and say "We should trade for this player" or "We need to get tougher". I'm using "We" in the same way. I try to stay truthful, but everything I post is not 100% literal that way.

And while I was a little kid, I watched hockey a lot back then. Even with that, I seem to think that Mario Lemieux in the middle-to-late 80's was just as much, if not more 'dangerous' than Gretzky was in the early 1980's. I was always a fan of Gretzky over Lemieux, but when I am honest with myself, I think Lemieux and Hasek are the 2 most dominant NHL players I have ever seen.

Maybe a guy like Tkachuk brings a 'level of compete' to the team that Buffalo doesn't have. If you think effort and toughness IS an issue, than a centerpiece player like him can have an impact. On the other hand, some of the 'insiders' on Canadian radio seem to think Tkachuk is a very important player to Ottawa, but they think that Stutzle drives the team. As he goes, so do the Sens. At least I have heard that converstation a few times.

I agree that McDavid is the best player of the current generation. I also think that the gap between him and the rest of the players isn't as big as it was with dominant players in the past. Over a period of 3-5 years, the gap between McDavid and guys like McKinnon, Matthews (playoffs are an issue I know), even where Eichel is now in 2025.....is not as great as it was in the past between the players of the generation. Gretzky vs all others in the early 80's....Lemieux vs all else in the late 80's. Its 2 guys but Crosby and Ovechkin vs all others in the 2000's. McDavid rightfully has acheived his title, but the gap between the 'elites' of this generation and the players just below them I think has narrowed.

There is a middle ground, which I admit many fans don't take. Instead of saying "if that losing streak didn't happen" or saying "It did happen and it will happen again" how about....."how do we make the team better/good enough so it doesn't happen again in the future"?

I'm more worried about his injury history than him being a floater. I dont' watch evey Canucks game, but as they are on HNIC quite a bit on Saturday, plus vs the Sabres, a lot of us get to see him 10+ times per year. He doesn't seem to be a 'floater' to me. He often skates hard. He for sure hustles back in his own end. The issue with me is not what does he CHOOSE to do, but rather what CAN he do. When I see what others see as 'floating', to me its often he just can't do what he was able to 2 years ago. Either way though, that isn't a good sign.

That is where we disagee I guess. I don't do it anymore, but during the game day threads I would watch the replays of the goals and see if I could see where the breakdown was. At least through the first month of this season, I found a lot more on UPL this year than last. Ultimately I do not disagree with you. I don't think he is THE problem. If he continued to play the way he is this year, but the other issues were improved, this team would likely be in the playoffs. He is playing 'good enough'. I would put the defensive play/support of the forwards in their own end as being multiple times more of an issue than UPL. I was just saying if he played at a VERY high level like he did the 2nd half of last year (and some of us expected that to continue for some reason), the team would be in a better situation. Thats all.

Since they played Buffalo right after Thanksgiving, he has 4 goals in 30 games. I'm interested in him, but it seems like since the moment he signed that extentions, his production dropped, and as we get farther and farther away from that moment, his production drop is accelerating.

I'd be good with signing McLeod for up to 5 years. Of course, it all depends on the cost.

Before the other league went other, didn't the Buffalo Beauts have one of the best attendance in the entire league for the other women's league?

Hat trick. He has scored a lot of empty neck goals in his career but from inside his own blue line he almost put a dead center into the net...maybe 150 feet away If the Sabres players had half the accuracy that Ovi has even shooting at an empty net, they'd probably have a few more empty net goals and a couple more wins because of it. 41 games.. half of a season.. 29 goals. At his age. He's scoring at a nearly 60 goal Pace.

To be fair, in most civics and history classes I grew up taking, 'constitutional republic', 'representative republic', 'representative democracy', and 'democratic republic' have all been used to descrive the government of the United states. I think the last two, having 'democracy' and 'democratice' as words in their title, lead one to use 'democracy'. Its accepted not only socialy, but aslo in academia. So while it isn't wrong to say it is a constitiational republic, Democracy is widely accepted, with some derivitive basis in accuracy based on the above. Also, to be fair on the other side of it....the democracy wasn't really lost in the last election. The country is getting what it, as a form of democracy', chose.

Disagree. He played better last year. He has a allowed a LOT more garbage goals this year than last. To me that is 100% true. The numbers show that. Earlier in the year, some of us, including myself commented directly on it. When they were still in a playoff spot before the losing streak, I said in the GDT's over and over, those are goals I NEED upl to stop from going in. Much more than last year. You may want to put none of the blame on UPL, that is up to you, but he HAS allowed more soft goals than last year and that, FOR SURE, has impacted the number of wins this team has. I do not know how someone can watch his play, watch the replays of his goals, and not think he has let in more soft goals than last year. Its not all his fault. To me it is more the fault of the how the forward group helps out in their own zone, it is mostly on them, with the Defense pairings and UPL having some responsiblity to. But if he played the way he did last year, even behind the group in front of them, they would be better/higher in the standings.

I'd give Cozens a wing spot on a line with Krebs. Are you making the most of him putting him with Krebs? Probably not. But right now, that will allow Cozens to play wing, to show how he fits there, to forcheck, hit guys, make things happen. Put another guy who can score on that line with them (maybe Zucker) and see how it goes.

Stick Cozens with Krebs as his center, 3rd line minutes, 16-17 minutes per game. Its close to what he is getting already. And, although their ice time this season has been limited, Cozens and Krebs had pretty good numbers together a couple games ago when they were linemates (I think Cozens actually did play mostly wing with Krebs at center that game.)

No mocking from me. I didn't read much mocking from anyone else either?????

Actually, our view is not that different then. I have said previously I think he can be an average, maybe well above average as a winger. He WANTS to chase the puck into the corners and hit guys. He wants to take shots when the puck is on his stick. He wants to play the puck on the boards and in the corner in the defensive zone,doing all that by reacting, not thinking. Those are qualities that I WANT in my winger, but for him they are negatives at center. I think Cozens can be/would be an excellent forchecker (maybe 2nd best on the team only behind Tuch), but he needs to be a winger to do that. As a center, he can't just chase guys into the corner and hound the puck, he needs to be aware of the entire ice. As a winger he doesn't have to worry about that and can just do what he wants to do, and is probably pretty good at. If the Sabres had a press conference and said "We aren't trading Dylan Cozens but he is being permanently moved to wing" I would be 100% happy at that moment. My problem is he is bad, really bad at Center right now. And for the last 2+ seasons the flaws in his game have been apparent at Center. His mistakes without the puck are a result of him playing Center. The good parts and bad parts, game after game, for all to see, are not so bad at wing and terrible at Center. Yet the team...the coach? The GM? The owner? totally refuse to put him at wing. As a matter of fact, when Tage got hurt and couldn't take faceoffs for a few games, Cozens was PROMOTED to center between him and Tuch (and Tage and Tuch proceeeded to have their worst game of the year with him at center, I think they were both a -4 for the game with Cozens). So yeah, it would be great to have him at wing. But someone in the organization (I'm guessing a much higher up) won't allow it. So if they will not play him at wing, then move him.

-Greenway AND Zucker being in the lineup. -Tage and Dahlin both looking healthy and their play/production being at all-pro/all-star levels. -Cozens ice time the last 6 games being below his season average, and McLeod starting to get more ice time. Now, it looks like if you get those things this team plays a lot better. The questions of course: --If good veteran play is so important, why didn't they bring in another one when they have the money? --If Dahlin getting hurt can derail the entire team so badly, why not use that money to bring in another Vet d-man? --Why does it take every coaching staff so long to realize Cozen's limitations...and even they why is he the first one get 'gets minutes back' when someone is hurt? That is about the same time Tage was playing though his arm/wrist/shoulder (whatever it was) injury too, I think?

Yes, they do fall into a defensive shell, it appears they rest too far back. I'd say that is most of it. But at the same time, they haven't had as good of goaltending this year as last. UPL has been better the past month it seems, and so is their record. When they were blowing a lot of late game leads, part of it was a a lot of soft-ish goals getting let in. UPL's numbers are "OK", but when you break them down, its not just his save percentage is lower because he is seeing more high quality shots this year. But most metrics I can find, he is seeing 'about' the same number of shots per game as last year, and even 'about' the same number of high danger chances. The difference is this year his 'high danger' save percentage is almost 50 points lower than it was last year. Actually, when I look at the numbers, he faced slightly MORE high danger chances last year than he is this year. Even all high danger chances aren't the same....I get that, but in terms of shots faced from the slot, the team is doing SLIGHTLY better this year limiting those than last year. Again, not his fault totally, the team in front of him needs to get better, but if he would be allowing less soft goals this year, playing more like he did last year, this team would have a number of additional wins.