mjd1001

Ok, let me break down my opinion: -Per my other post, I think he 'is', and 'will be' a 40-50 goal scorer. (and in my previous post I used shooting percentage as the reason why). So I'm not comparing shooting percentage to other centers or other positions. Simply saying I think his offensive production is in the 40-50 goal area at least, over a full 82 game season. -Defense. I think his size makes him average-to-above average. You don't need to see hits, you don't need to see how much time he has with the puck. I notice 3 things: 1.) He seemed very good at penalty killing, his size and reach allows him to stay in the same spot and cover a lot of ground without chasing. He rarely is out of position because he doesn't need to be. Not all 'advanced' stats or all metrics will show that. 2.) I used the analogy with him and Cozens, but because of his size that he demonstrates during PK, he is very good at playing "zone" defense. Opposing players may simply not make a pass, not attempt to sqeeze into a spot because they know there is less room with him out there. To me that is common sense with any guy who is as big/tall as he is that has at least decent mobility. Not only is it common sense, but you can SEE it when you watch him play without the puck. Again, Lindy the other day went out of his way to say how good Thompson has been playing 'without the puck'. Put the 2 together...a player who I think (for the above reasons) is a 40-50+ goals scorer...and is actually GOOD defensively (in ways that cannot always be measured, there are less metrics to measure a 'negative' that is a positive) and that is why I put him in the category of a top 15 center in the league. If someone can/will/does score 40-50 goals in a full season, and their defensive game is 'pretty good'. I consider that a top 15 center (as I said in a previous post, he is probably in the 8-20 range but that can be 'top 15' because there isn't much of a difference in IMO between the 8th best and the 20th best. That is my opinion. That is why I answered yes he is. I'm not sure how else I can explain that (I have explained all of the above in previous posts) other than you just wanting to disagree with me.

Its like many of us talked about the Atrium..they could do SO much more with it. How about something, some kind of 'fan experience' better than what they have out there..so the 'fan experience' starts outside and then continues into the building in the Atrium?

I agree, but there are so many things that could be done there. I know a lot of cities don't have much around their arena, but how about making the plaza a little bigger/better? the area under and behind the pedestrian bridge, why not do something there? It could be as simple as installing some type of screens/white walls and when people are going into the games, play all time Sabres highlights on them through a projector: the Mayday goal, the fog goal on Bernie Parent, or a dozen other ideas....maybe you play some lesser-known highlights from the team you are playing (if they are playing St. Louis, play some clips of highlights from St. louis games on a loop). Maybe put up some kind of awning/tent/cover over that area and put up some outdoor heaters there so even in the cold weather games, people can stop by and see or do something there. I'm not too good at ideas for this stuff, but turn Alumni plaza into something more than it is now.

I know less of those guys than I thought. Hey, at least its a hockey game.

Cozens? or Power?

I am hopeful that Power takes a big step forward this year. Yeah, I know D-men SOMETIME take 3-5 years to get to be the best version of themselves, but from the very little I have seen in the 2 preseason games, he looks a lot calmer with the puck (to me one of his bigger issues last year). Even with a moderate step forward, he still won't be worth his contract this year, but it would go a long way to the team being better AND him being on the path to being worth his contract in the near(er) future. Cozens I am very hard on because I don't think he's been a very good hockey player for this team. He's a train wreck positionally in the defensive end, so unless he is scoring you 30+ he's not worth his deal either. I'll take him giving the team 20-25 goals AND being at least average in is own end...if he does that, again this team will be much better for it.

Because you're looking at last year's stats only. I, among a few other posters on this board, think last year was the anomaly year due to an injury he sustained early in the year. He's been a center for three seasons. Two of those three seasons. He didn't have an injury... I am willing to use those seasons as the baseline. The reason I believe this is look at last year, as the season went on and he he got farther away from the injury, He got better and better. I believe his shooting percentage was 15% 2 years ago. 15.9% the year after that. It went down dramatically when he got hurt, but by the last two months of last year he was over 16%. In terms of offensive production... I can't help but to think putting those things together. He's a 15 to 16% shooter... And he's going to get you 300 shots or more over 82 games which is close to what he's done since turning into a center. And as far as being a complete player, I always subscribe to the fact that his size makes him a good defender. Not because he hits people, but he takes up so much ice that sometimes we don't see it, but passes aren't made and plays aren't made by the other team simply because he takes away those lanes. We do hardly see him out of position on goals scored against the savers, and Lindy Ruff just made a comment this morning or last night saying how he's one of the best positioned players on the ice without the puck. Put all those things together... And that's the reason why myself, and a few others on this board, think he might be the best player on this team. If not, certainly in the top three.

I like all those line combos and D-pairings, at least to start. I think the '5th line' listed should be the odd line out. Each of those guy can be subbed in/moved into other spots, but this seems like the best starting point. Its only preseason, but Power and Byram look like they are playing very well with each other so far.

The Swayman thing is interesting. I follow the Bruins more than any team other than the Sabres and Leafs (used to live near Boston for a few years, have friends there, my company is still located there, etc.) and no one knows for sure what is going on. Some say the Bruins gave him an offer and pulled it after Swayman and his agent demanded a lot more. Others say the offer the Bruins gave him was 'comically low' for him (about $6m per year).Some say this is just posturing and Swayman will sign a day or two before the regular season starts for the best offer he has.

It is so hard to really get a grasp on how good/bad a team is just 3 weeks into the season. A lot of times week 1 can be a wildcard/tossup. In the NFL, I don't really even start to do my own personal 'power rankings) until everyone plays at least 4 games. With that said, it looks like Miami and Arizona are middle-of-the-road teams (someplace between the 12-20th best teams, and Jax right now is in the bottom 10. It'll be really nice if/when Buffalo plays a consensus top 10 team and handles them.

He'd be in the conversation for me. Based on last nights preseason game, no, he didn't impress me much. But based on the player I think he is, and how I think he is going to perform this coming season, yes. When I look at the best players at any position, the issue is its not linear. The Best 1-3 guys at any position usually are easy to see how much better they are then guys 4-7. Guys 4-7 are a little bit better than the next group. But by the time you get to guys 10-20...the 10th best guy is really, really close to the 10 guys after them. meaning, put Tage in a group of Centers, I would have a hard time being convinced he isn't as good as the 10th best guy in the league...or as 'bad' as the 25th best.

You keep on only putting that chart out. Again, shot, chances, even goals allowed allow for some element of 'chance'. Look at how he actually plays, the video, the pictures don't lie he is a major problem. Even if you want to go by the chart you keep on putting out there, what is that time frame? Is that last year? his career? And D-men and Forwards play a different role on penalty killing, so compare him to other forwards. According to your chart, he is '2nd worst' among forwards, but again, actually watching him play, you can see he is a LOT worse than Greenway. Finally, when you look at another chart, actual goals allowed per 60, either over last year or his career, he is always near the bottom of forwards. You don't need a chart of stats to see just how bad he is, it is so obvious at times its hard to believe he plays that way. Short handed goals per 60 allowed supports this. The only thing that doesn't put him at the bottom of the barrel for Penalty killing is the one single chart you keep throwing out there, but even then, it doesn't show he is 'good', its just one chart that shows there is someone worse than him in that metric (but when you watch the games, that person actually plays his position much better.)

I don't consider the entire last season a small sample size. Plus as I said, a lot of the goals allowed last year were a DIRECT result of Cozens chasing. Its not like you look at a goal allowed and say "2 guys could have done something different". Its been more like "Wow, what the heck is Cozens doing". Again, it wasn't one or two times last year. I posted PK threads (some with pictures) probably 5-10 times or more last season with Cozens doing things that obvious. And the numbers you posted are different than mine. First, the eye test shows (with video to back it up) what I am saying. 2nd, actually goals allowed per 60, Cozens is not the 2nd best among forwards. Depending on how far back you go, he's the 2nd worst or the worst (if you want to talk about Sample size, his numbers for PP goals against allowed per 60 is almost 10. More than Tuch, and 30-50% more than Greenway and Tage.

sloppy point play so far on the pp Power and Byram look like the 2 best Sabres on the ice so far.

Didn't miss much so far...possibly the worst 20 minutes of hockey to watch that had 2 goals scored in it. Sloppy, nothing creative, no great saves, not much hitting when you take out the Columbus-on-Benson hits.

1st period, the Forwards look dis-interested. Not much hitting, no playmaking. Byram and Power both look more comfortable handling the puck than they did last year though. Its only on a couple of shots, but Levi giving up some rebounds.

And Benson hammered again. Teams are targeting him intentionally, or he needs to avoid contact better. He has been hammered by C-bus players 3 times so far just in the 1st period, going down to the ice on 2 of them. He's like 5'9 and 155-160 right? Its great he wants to play the physical game, but he is taking a beating. Get hit too often and knocked to the ice by the 6'1-6'2, , 210+ lb guys and its going to eventually be a problem.

Benson hit pretty hard 2 times in about 30 seconds and went down to the ice. Its great he doesn't shy away from contact, but with his size he needs to learn how to avoid some of those hits when they are directed at him.

For 2 goals being scored and the first period isn't even over, this is a pretty boring and uneventful game so far, on both sides.

I'm trying to see if the Power play is a lot different than last year, but I'm only 1/2 watching because I have other things going on with my computer besides the game, I can't really tell yet.

Maybe its just going to come at right at puck drop for the play-by-play? If its a techinical issue....c'mon, its 2024, not 2014. The team should be able to get a live stream done the correct way. And there it goes, I have sound now finally.

I think Benson might be good there. He plays the game without many mistakes. He seems to be very coachable. He'll play physical when needed, but he's not a huge guy to bang on the boards all the time. I think he'd learn where he needs to be and would be there. I'm not saying he would be great there, but as you said I'd like to see him with a chance at center.

I've got the game feed from Sabres.com, they just showed the intro video but I had no sound. I have sound on other sites, I checked and the sound on the page wasn't muted and was turned up. Anyone else with the same issue so far?

I'm not sure what kind of impression he wants to make. As per my other analogy, that is like a CB in football being told the a certain play is a zone Defense, and he decides to just ignore that, the rest of the team continues to play zone and he just chases the ball around the field leaving his zone wide open? I mean, that is exactly what he did. Unless he really wants Lindy to think negatively of him I cannot imagine what kind of impression he is trying to make (if you haven't yet, watch the replay of the goal and focus on Cozens, it really is that bad) My whole point is it isn't an over-reaction when he did this pretty much all last year. Maybe he got a bit better at the end of last season, but the clips of him way out of position I posted, that happened many times with him last year. Preseason game one could be an over-reaction. But when a player has a problem with a certain aspect of their game that is a major problem, and the very first chance they have they show it again in a big way, its worth taking note of.

I thought Thompson did pretty good on the PK. When he was paired with Greenway out there, I thought they were excellent as the 2 forwards. But, as you said, he's your #1 scorer, don't put him out there where he can/will be taking shots into himself.