mjd1001

I have 2 hills I can die on with the Sabres. Cozens is awful is the first. The second one is, Pegula is the problem, and maybe one of the last 6 coaches or 4 GM's could succeed here if he wouldn't be so involved. Most criticism Adams gets, well, I think he is a 'yes man' to Pegula and is there to take the arrows for Pegula when things go bad. Pegula probably wanted Lindy back and Adams had to make up something because Pegula didn't want him to say "Terry wants Lindy so that is why he is back". My suspicion is that Cozens got that $7m per season deal because Terry wanted it done after seeing him have one decent year. Again, no proof, but I am pretty honest even Adams would have this team in a better situation if it wasn't for Pegula and how he is as an owner.

Kucherov for Tampa. 3 games played. 1 goal in the first game. Hat trick in the 2nd. Another 2 tonight. Scoring in every game, including a hat trick and a 2 goal game. Who will be the first Sabres player to get both a hat trick and another multi-goal game this season? It took Kucherov 3 games, how long will it be before a Sabre does it?

Yeah, unless he lets in 6 or more, let UPL run with things for a few games in row.

I'm not saying Adams is good by any stretch, but I honestly think that Pegula needs to totally step away from the team. Don't go to hockey meetings, don't sit with the GM in practice. During hockey season, sit in your home in Florida and watch the games on TV. Adams, Botts, anyone new, I think any and all of them could/would do a better job without having him in their ear. Just let Pegula clear out and let the hockey department run things without running things by him.

I think there is a chance that Terry is willing to spend money on players that HE likes, not players that are actually good or the 'hockey people' like. I also think Terry hires 'hockey people' that he likes and will let him have input, not the best 'hockey people'.

Coaching. Promote someone out of his element. Bring someone back in from your past. Hire a former cup winner. Bring in a 'hot' assistant from another team. Then a total outsider. Promote another assistant. Bring back another coach from your past. They all have failed but they all can't be bad coaches. I think Pegula is cursed. He angered the 'hockey gods' when he spoke about making Buffalo 'hockey heaven'.

I took a walk outside before the game and thought about this team. Cozens, whats wrong with Quinn, just how well they would play tonight. But it didn't even enter my mind they would lose. I just took it for granted, they need this game, its Columbus, winning was a given in my mind. Ooops.

Well, Malenstyn got walked on that one, but he isn't a D-man, so he was covering for someone else. Again, Levi is having a bad game.

high stick?

Yeah, on that replay I don't like Powers positioning at all. But, Levi hasn't done well on all 3 goals either.

Power could have been farther over, but a huge rebound by Levi. He really could have stopped all 3 goals.

Yep, 2 goals for McLeod this year...and he doesn't kill you defensively. Until further notice, he'd by my #2 center, I have seen enough.

24 minutes into the game, 5 shots on goal. On pace for 12 or 13 for the game!

Dahlin on the ice for over 9 minutes in the first. He is on pace for about 27.5 minutes for the game.

Levi...two goals allowed where shots were taken from more than 10 feet out...he was set on both, facing the shooter on both, beat cleanly on both. Maybe the 1st one was a slight screen, but we need better from him.

Dunleavy is reaching... a good sign on the PP is Kulich getting a shot through on the PP? They are in trouble.

Well, Powerplay coming up, maybe some excitement? So far I haven't felt much this first period at all. I'm bored a bit..no anger, no major frustration, no excitement. They are trying to put us to sleep with boredom this period.

You know, I don't really find those 2 things all that insulting.

Agreed, we haven't had a good board member-vs-board member fight on this forum yet tonight.

On that SH goal allowed, they over-rotated. A bit too aggressive in the Defensive zone, got out of position. No one person's fault in particular other than I want my goalie to make that save. Once Samuelsson went down to block the shot, I would have liked Tuch to stay on his side of the ice but nothing really bad there. Levi was facing the shooter and saw the shot. He may not have seen it leave the stick as Samulesson went down to get in the way and that may have caused him to not see the first 10% of the shot, but it wasn't a full screen. Its not an Easy save, but I want Levi to make that one. Partial screen at best and he was set up and facing the shooter.

The above bolded is exactly what Risto did too. He just went to those areas at the wrong times. Like the forearm Cozens threw last night. He's willing to do that, but by doing so he took himself out of the play. And as far as international tournaments, as stated above (or in another thread), in those tournaments the opposing teams (and his team) is slapped together, the guys don't really practice close to as much in the NHL, and there is significantly less scouting and system installs. Its not "pond hockey" but it is closer to it the the NHL, and you don't get punished as much for playing a 'looser' style of hockey. Cozens thrives off of that 'loose' style. His one good year so far was the ONLY year where his coach openly said "go after it, score goals, we'll worry about defense later". Again, Cozens could score 2 goals tonight and that puts him back on pace for 25+ for the year. Offense comes in bunches with a lot of players, I get that. My biggest problem with him is just how bad he is away from the puck. I'm not an NHL coach, but in watching thousands of hockey games over my life, I have not seen a professional forward make as many mistakes, as many bad decisions without the puck as him. I'm being serious there. I can't. And that concerns me because he is doing it a lot this year. He did it as a rookie, he did it last year, he has done it his entire career and I see very little sign of even a slight positive evolution in his game. I want him to be better. I want him to start scoring obviously. I don't have a 'vendetta' against him because I want him to fail so my posts about him can be proven correct. If he ends up scoring 25-30 goals this year I'll be more than happy to have someone look up my negative posts about him and call me out. But I don't see it. I see a guy who is closing on 300 NHL games, going to be 24 years old soon and in his 5th year, with a LOT of prime ice time, and I don't know how much of a chance he has to get better than what he is now. The thing is, EVERY part of his game is the same as it was before the fight. He is getting the same number of shots (actually more). He is getting shots from the same part of the ice overall. Close to the same number of quality scoring chances. Its just he's not scoring anymore. His shooting percentage, on basically the same quality of shots, is less than half now after the fight than it was in the full season before. If it was lingering impacts from the fight, I can't square the circle of how it appears to have impacted no other part of his game other than his ability to put the puck in the net, his accuracy.

Again with Cozens... And I realize we now have three active threads talking about him. The offensive side of the game can be fixed pretty quickly. For all we know something as simple as a puck going off of him on the power play and deflecting into the net, a secondary assist, and an empty net goal. And now he has a three-point night and two goals on the season. That basically would put him back onto a 27 goal pace. As you said, his maturity is an issue. Yeah he's young but he was named an assistant alternate captain and he's now in his fifth year in the league. He's not a rookie or a second year guy. Also, if you want to be a top two center in this league, he has to step up his game considerably when he doesn't have the puck. But baby steps right? Let's get him on the scoreboard first and then go from there.

Long-Term, I'm open to that. But not now. As much as people have said Kulich has played well in his early ice time, I haven't really seen much yet myself. If you are going to sit Cozens or move him down the line up into Wing, the only options you really have are to move McLeod up and or play Krebs. Neither of those guys are long-term centers on the top two lines.... But they could probably stabilize the position and not hurt you as much right now. Skate hard, don't make any dumb plays, and put a goal in every once in awhile. If either of them can do that, they are already an improvement over what Cozens has been doing. That alone doesn't make this team a cup contender, but it immediately makes them better.

Greenway for sure. He has pretty good hands, I'm not sure his hands are good enough to get you a bunch of power Play goals but I'm all for it. Benson? It might be more of an issue of physics compared to willpower. Maybe he'd be willing to do it, but when you're only 5 ft. 10 in tall and barely 170 lb... No matter how hard you try, you're just not going to be able to hold your position in front of the net or even provide a screen when you have defenseman who are 4 to 5 in taller than you and 50 lb. Heavier than you whose only job is to cross-check you and get you out of there.

I am not a fan of Cozens as much as you, but with your ideas of what needs to be done with him, I agree almost 100%. I also agree with Sameulsson...I think, with the example of one glaring mistake, he has played well. If I get a very young D-man, tied up long term who plays like he does, that contract looks better as time goes on.