mjd1001

Sabres would win 4 games to none. I'd guess 3 of the games are blowouts. One might be closer due to good goaltending by the Roch guy or "puck luck".

Adams: We had a trade worked out with another team, but I wasn't in the office. Another GM tried to call me to complete a trade but I was: 1.) getting my rental car -or- 2.) in that window during takoeff or landing where I couldn't use my phone -or- 3.) checking into my hotel room and I didn't want to see rude to the hotel employee and answer my phone in front of them.

Are we talking about Quinn? I'm starting to get a bit more 'down' on him. I think his effort and 'motor' level is toward the bottom of the guys on forward if he doens't have the puck....and I also think his basic defensive coverage is probably the worst on the team (among forwards) next to Cozens. On offense he has a good shot ,but I would also put him toward the bottom of the list of guys who can generate their own chances or even put the effort in to do that. I don't want to call him 'lazy', but I rarely see him skate hard or push himself. That along with making routine mistakes in coverage and positioning....its not a good combo. I have some patience with him though, he still only has about 150 games. But he needs to realize he's not Ovechkin....he can't just float around the tops of the circle or the slot waiting for the puck to hit his stick so he can shoot it and fill the net. He needs to work more and he needs to learn defensive awareness also. We all want tougness, We all want consistent scoring. We all want full effort. I get it. But this team, when they lose usually loses because they don't play well positionally and can't think 2 seconds ahead of where the puck is. Almost every loss they have, when I watch the replays of the goals allowed, its hardly ever about lack of effort, or not caring, or not being tough enough. They do not THINK the game, they are not ABLE to think the game, or they have little awareness of anyone else on the ice. Quinn, Cozens, and even Greenway are the worst offenders. Yes, Greenway. He's tough, he hits, but I'm not sure that makes up for some bad decisions he makes. Peterka has ups and downs. Often times it is the play of the above that hurts the team. I'm not crying if any of them are moved. Tuch, McLeod, Zucker, Krebs, even Kulich. They actually play pretty well positionally and they seem to 'anticipate' the puck a LOT better than those guys above them. JJP and Thompson have ups and downs, but teven they are better than the guys above. This team needs more McLeods and Tuchs and Zuckers and less Quinns and Cozens and Greenways.

I'd also be curious because I would think the general populaton of a country like Iceland would not know enough about the NHL and the Sabres to be laughing at someone who is simply wearing a hat. In our own country, I do not think people openly laugh,or even smirk, at someone wearing a Sabres hat/jersey, Jets jersey, etc.

Coaching, I still don't know if its the coaching or the players not listening. Either way its a problem. I did something I haven't done in a while and went back and looked at all the goals allowed last night. I don't see a huge lack of effort out there. I don't see players that don't care. What I do see is players who are out of position quite a bit, players that don't know what their linemates are doing, players who have little sense of where the opposition is, and some below-average goaltending. -1st goal: Strange formation to line up in. Byram lines up on the right wing slot, both wingers line up to the left of Cozens at center. Once the puck was dropped its was like they were all scrambling to get back to their 'traditional' positions. Cozens eventually looks like he wants to go to the right wing for coverage but he and the defender set a 'pick' making it hard for Byram to get back into the play to what looked like his spot. Basically when you look at the replay, they were lined up for the faceoff differently than where they went after the faceoffs, and the 'keystone cops' of them getting into different positions gave San Jose enough time to score. Total disorganization and a case of making things more complicated than it needs to be. -2nd goal: I put this on Greenway or Quinn or both, not sure if its a mistake or coaching. Greenway goes to cover the area right in front of UPL, but guess what, 2 D-men were already there. Instead of 'hanging back' to keep coverage on the trailer, he (as the forward) left that wide open He MIGHT have been watching #10, but then who is watching the slot behind him. It was a Cozen-like play, where the forward goes to where the D-men have full coverage already and leave opposing players wide open in the slot. Quinn was kinda floating behind the play and came in late. Its hard to say just sloppy coverage, or no real play by the forward to help out in the D-zone, they kinda just 'pick up who is in front of them' with no plan behind it. -3rd goal: UPL. They were chasing a bit, but nothing that doesn't happen often at some point to any team. There was a bit of a screen, but that is on UPL. Your goalie simply can't let in shots like that from that angle. -4th goal: This one is tough. Maybe not a big mistake but Greenway goes to the boards and has a shot at getting the puck, if not getting the puck at least getting his stick to it before the San Jose Guy. He ignores the puck and looks to throw the body and make a check. The San Jose player gladly took the hit and pushed the puck into the corner, where it is continued to be controlled by San Jose. If Greenway tried to play the puck (he literally IGNORED the puck to 'follow though' on a hit), the whole play may not happened. Might be a case of knowing when to throw the hit, or when to play the puck. In this case he threw the hit and gave up a chance to play the puck....3-5 seconds later the puck was in the net. -Quinn. 3 on one, why did it happen? Clifton had control of the puck, had an opening and went in deep to the goal line. Simple stuff here, the winger on his side has to go back and cover his spot. That was Quinn. Didn't happen. 3 on one the other way and puck in the net. Quinn isn't noticable all that much game to game, probably because he plays wing, but his positional coverage continues to be awful. A lot of people say +/- is a faulty stat, but you know what? Without looking at +/- is clear the Quinn and Cozens are two of the worst players in the league with their positioning and defensive zone coverage without the puck...and in this case their +/- backs it up.

Agreed. Jack Quinn has played about 150 games. Cozens is up to about 350. Quinn hasn't had as much time to develop and prove himself. More importantly, I can/will have more patience with a winger who isn't getting paid a lot than a center who is.

Devils' Jack Hughes injury: Season-ending scenario is a possibility, doctor says https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/ice_hockey/devils-jack-hughes-injury-season-ending-scenario-is-a-possibility-doctor-says/ar-AA1A9Z4e?ocid=BingNewsVerp Over the last 4 seasons hes a 40 goal, 100 point guy per 82 games and still only 23 years old. Kid just can't seem to get to 82 games though, no luck with injuries.

Up to s25s now? It doesn't seem that long ago that I got my Galaxy S3. The day I got it, my cousin came over and my cousin and my wife were laughing and making fun of me for getting such a ridiculous huge phone (it had I think a 4.8 inch screen)

I agree with the bolded that you said 100%. It sounds good for many to say don't trade them now for futures, wait until the offseason and then trade those guys for actual pieces. Well, sometimes the 'futures' that you get for them now can be just as valuable in the offseason as the actual players are. If another team has an injury or has a hole to fill now when they are currently in a playoff push, the futures you take might have MORE value if you hold them to the offseason than the actuall player will, because a team making a trade with you might be more desperate for help right now.

I'd ilke to see him moved now even if its for 'futures'. -Take the best offer of futures and use those in the offseason. Instead of trading Cozens in the offseason, you trade what you got for him at the deadline to improve the team. If you find someone that thinks they can use him for a playoff push/playoff run, you might get somethign more valuable now than what HE would be worth as a player in the offseason. -I really want to see this team play without him. I'm convinced he hurts the team. I want to see this team play with no Dylan Cozens, no PP time, No dumb mistakes, no passes into his linemates skates, no costly turnovers. Play Krebs more minutes, rotate some guys for a few games at a time from Roch...I don't care..I just want to see this team without him.

I just hate how Pegula operates the team SOOO much. Right now its the exact opposite of what he promised the fans when he bought the team. Its disgraceful.

What Pegula has learned in his time as an owner of the Sabres.....Why fail a little bit spending more money when you can fail spectacularly on the cheap.

is this going to be a game changer for a team like Boston? Probably not. But other teams around the league are looking at creative ways to make moves, even if it makes them better in the future incrementally. The Sabres for years and years have had cap room, and have had the ability to take on salary, retain salary, take on bad contracts for their own (eventual) advantage, yet they hardly ever do that, at least not recently. Its like Pegula will not part with an extra dollar to allow the team to do something creative like this.

Sure can. San Jose just beat Toronto, and 5 of their last 6 losses were only by one goal, meaning they can hang pretty well with teams (Including a 1-1 game vs Winnipeg, the best team in the league in regulation last week). So yeah, they are bad, but it wouldn't surprise me one bit of San Jose beat Buffalo.

Totally agree. The defensmen, even the 3rd pair guys like Bryson and Clifton and Gilbert, I think are better than they are given credit for. They aren't perfect of course. The lack of help by the forwards or the mistakes the forwards me (Cozens, Peterka, Quinn being the 3 that stand out most to me), makes the D-men look worse than they are.

I can't even find any credible rumors. I mean, most rumors don't happen, but some make sense. The more days that go by, the more 'reporting' is saying don't expect much from the Sabres and many of the lists of players 'on the block' that are Sabres...well, the Sabres are getting lower and lower. I think it was NHL.com that had a list earlier today, it listed the top players likely to be moved...something like 10 or 15 of them. No Sabres on it....Dylan Cozens and Brym were mentioned at the bottom of the article with about 10-15 additional players beyond the top guys as 'keep an eye on" or something like that. No one really cares about this franchise, even the national experts and guys who make up the rumors are moving on.

And that is exactly why the team is in the spot it is in.

Or he could trade Cozens for the best offer, even it is futures. This team is not making the playoffs, Cozens has been so bad this year that sometimes the team is better with him not playing. Either way, Cozens on the team or off the team, there won't be a postive end result if he is here. So why futures? If you get a good offere for him, you take the prospect/draft pick...and then whether its Adams, or someone else, that prospect/draft pick can be used to make that move in the offseason. The question is this....is Cozens worth more now? Or in the offseason. If he is worth more, you take what you can get and then use that 'chip' to make more moves in the offseason. Not worth letting him continue to hurt the team on the ice just to wait til the offseason.

If they do make a change, I think staying in house is a big mistake. Sure its a different voice. Yes, Granato was in 'in house' hire than ended up being better than who he replaced. But I think/fear it will just be more of the same. Not much will really change.

The couple times I saw him play, he doesn't look good. No thanks, not even for free if they waived him.

Oh, I do agree with you. He wasn't great. I just think overall, he has been 'decent' as a backup. Not great, but he hasn't cost you games any more than most other backups could have/might. For me, this team would be in a playoff spot if only 3 things changed, and goaltending is one of them. They have overall (Reimer and UPL and Levi) gotten slightly below average goaltending. I truly, 100% think this team would be in a playoff spot, or fighting for one really closely with 1. Average to slightly above average goaltending (if UPL had last year's peformance this year). 2. and 3.) Cozens and Quinn were not on this team at all this year, or they played just like 'average' middle 6 guys. So can you have a better guy than Reimer in the spot? yep but he is way down the list of issues of what can be done to make the team better.

I'm not saying you play conservative. I'm saying you don't put 2 guys on the ice that are both guys that will go deep into the corner. Well, the advanced stats don't look all that good either. His high danger save percentage is WAY lower than it was last year.

He has played pretty well in every stint he had in Rochester, even the short ones before this season, hasn't he? The issue is, every time he plays in Buffalo, he's just not at NHL level. Yeah, he's still young, but he has yet to show that he is a capable NHL goalie. Maybe he just needs more experience at the pro level. Hopefully that is it...and not he's a guy who is that AAAA guy who can dominate at the minor level but just can't be 'the guy' at the top level

Yeah, but Power did misplay both goals he was out there for in front of the net...the save would not have to be made if he had a little more situational awareness. And the SH goal would have never been a 2-on-1 if Cozens didn't fumble and lose the puck on the boards causing the 2 on one.

Well, they started out OT with Tuch AND Cozens on the ice? I'd question that. You have 2 guys who are guys who want to go deep into the corner and chase the puck. When you have 3-on-3, that is exactly NOT want you want to do. When you don't have the puck with that much open ice, you want to play zone defense, not aggressive man to man. So how do you put BOTH of those guys out there at the same time?