Curt

Points are a probably the best metric for determining how good a player is at creating offense, but not necessarily how good a player they are overall. I can do without the condescending nature of your second sentence. Really turns me off of engaging in a conversation with you at all.

It’s a measure of how good a player (or team) is at creating (or preventing) scoring chances. It does not take into account the shooter’s ability to beat a goalie, or a goalie’s ability to stop the shot. It just measures how good a scoring opportunity is. And @Pimlach is absolutely correct. You can find a flaw in any metric. There is no number that will perfectly tell you how good a player is. You need to take into account all of the information available when making an evaluation.

Simple google search, looks like they are pretty much all plastic. I’m sure that they used to be wood years ago.

I just think that Reaves is so bad at hockey that it’s not worth it.

The boards are made out of a plastic material, not wood.

Maroon is better than Reaves. I’m not objecting to your premise on principle. I’m objecting to Reaves specifically. Reaves would make the Sabres a worse team for any minutes that he was on the ice.

I don’t really disagree that there needs to be more diversity of roles in the bottom 6, but it’s not Reaves. He is worse than any forward on the roster. He is a completely washed up 36 year old player, who barely had enough hockey skill to play in the league in his prime. He isn’t the the answer to any team’s problem.

Probably one of the more prolific posters. 🤔

I kind of disagree with this. He definitely took shots at the fan base after he returned and was booed. And I definitely have heard negative public statements about Eichel from people inside the NHL community.

Ryan Johnson’s trade value is at least a late 2nd in 2024. That’s the compensation a team gets if he walks.

Not bad. Would be hesitant to trade that 1st without top-10 protection.

I didn’t expect Thompson, Cozens, Quinn, Peterka, Dahlin, and Power would all play so well. It’s amazing and it basically requires that they be supplemented. Adams has until the start of next season to supply better goaltending, a better 3rd line, and better defensive depth. Doesn’t need to a home run in every area, but some work needs to be done.

I don’t think that’s enough. If Tage and Dahlin are playing like Rocket Richard and Norris candidates, Sabres should probably do more to solidify the bottom 6 instead of counting on rookies to fill the 3rd line.

It didn’t really cross my mind either. Marek is definitely a hockey history nerd and obsesses about records from 50+ years ago. I’m not surprised that he would fixate on something like this.

The major thing for Thompson that I always come back to is that there are tangible physical reasons for why he may have taken a while to break out. At ages 17-19 when most young hockey players are finished growing and really start to build strength/coordination, Thompson grew 6” in like 18 months. That’s a lot of added length to add strength onto. I think it delayed his development by a couple years. Basically, Tage is a unicorn and you just can’t compare regular horses to him.

Yup, not without risk. As I alluded to, it would definitely require buy in from Sabres scouting and people in the know to be confident that he has more left in the tank. One thing to keep in mind when looking at raw sv% though, league average sv% has decreased quite a bit in the past 7 years, from 0.914-0.915 range in 2014-2016, to 0.907 last season and 0.904 so far this season. So Bob’s 0.921 sv% from 2017-18 is essentially the same as his 0.913 from last season.

Pretty sure that it’s been mentioned before, but what about Bobrovsky? It’s probably an offseason deal, and he would need to waive his NMC, but it might not be a completely crazy idea. Sabres would need to be convinced that they could get average+ goaltending from him for a couple years. He has 3 more years at a $10M hit left after this season, though less in real $ ($10-6.5-6M). Florida also has Knight, and they are scheduled to pay them a combined $14.5M against the cap next season. That’s a lot for goaltending, and probably means that you can get Bobrovsky PLUS some other asset just to take him. Sabres can probably afford the contract without causing real trouble. Maybe they can get Florida to retain 25% or something. All in all it would kind of be a crazy move, but it could be a way to get a bridge goalie for 3 years without using up any pick/prospect assets, and maybe actually adding some asset in the process. Then they could use some pick/prospect assets to improve their 3C and/or #4 D situations.

No, it was only 55.6%. 5 G on 9 SOG

What do you mean by historically? Each of the past two seasons, the Sabres have won more games in the 2nd half of the season than in the 1st. When the Sabres win games early in the season people say “we’ll see how they do when things tighten up”. When they win games later in the season people say “it’s a lot easier to win after they are out of it and the pressure is off”. It’s pretty funny actually.

Good news is I just realized that it’s a TNT game, so I have it DVR’d

WTF IS THIS!?!?!?! I miss the first period of one game and this is what happens!?!?!?

I agree with this, but I think the same could be said for other areas as well, such as the bottom 6 and the defensive depth. So far, Adams has not built a successful team. I’ve seen steps in the right direction, and I hope to see more before the start of next season.

Who are we talking about here? Anderson- due to age can’t be considered anything other than a stop gap Comrie- I’m sure they had/have high hopes but based on their pursuit of Murray (and Gibson I guess) I’d say he wasn’t their first choice, so I’m not sure if they had a strong belief that he’s more than a stop gap. UPL- I think they hoped/hope that UPL could show something in the NHL this season, and take on a larger role (split starts w/Comrie) next season.

One thing to consider is that I believe the Sabres have one of the easier schedules the rest of the way, in terms of strength of opponents, number of back to backs, and number of opponents who will be on back to backs.