GASabresIUFAN

As we seen forward positions in the NHL are fluid.

I generally agree here, but I'd say to Power's credit there has been some steps forward this season. He is a little more willing to take the body and has definitely shown an increased willingness to block shots. I also like how Lindy is using his size and reach to clog passing lanes on the PK. He is still terrible 5 on 5 defensively where he is more easily caught out of position than on the PK. As to why we shouldn't keep both, Samuelsson is playing his way to being Dahlin long-term partner. However that leaves Power and Byram to anchor the 2nd and 3rd pairings. I don't see the Sabres wanting to pay 8+ a season for a 3rd pairing D long-term.

Wait, didn't Beck get his 1st of the season last night? Given what we have seen from our forwards and callups what does our best lineup actually look like? The spine should be Tage, Norris, McLeod and Kozak The top wingers are Benson, Doan, Zucker and Tuch Who are the other 4? The choices are plentiful. Greenway, Malenstyn, Krebs, and Quinn are the guys who opened the season in the lineup. However Östlund has come on after a slow start (3g 2a in his last 7 games +2) and Rosen has been solid since he was recalled (3g 3a in 8 games -1). Krebs (5a in 19 games) and Quinn (3g 5a in 19 games) haven't out played the two kids. Don't forget limited utility Dunne and Geertsen are still hanging around. Knowing the Sabres they'll take the easy way out and demote Östlund and Rosen, but I'm not sure that's what is best for the team. Benson Tage Zucker Doan Norris Tuch Quinn McLeod Rosen Greenway Kozak Krebs (Malenstyn) I'd waive both Dunne and Geertsen.

So you want the Lobster and the Cracked Crab? I think the answer to your question comes down to usage and opportunity and this is where Byram's contract comes in. I don't think Bowen wants to play 3rd fiddle to Power and Dahlin long-term. After next season Byram's contract is up, but he is still an RFA. I suspect his agent will try to force a trade out of town.

They are only a year apart age wise. Both were top prospects. Adams gave Power the big (and undeserved) contract, but only bridged Byram. Within a year or two one of the them is getting replaced by the younger and cheaper Mrtka. Byram has 3g 6a for 9 pts in 19 games with a -4. He has 7 pts at EV including all 3 goals with 2 PP assists. 25 BLKs and 14 Hits. Power has 2g 5a for 7 pts in 18 games with a -8. He has 5 pts at EV including both goals, zero PP points, but 2 SH assists. The SH assists are a positive surprise. 16 BLKs and 9 Hits. As I wrote above I don’t think the Sabres will keep both long-term. Both are good assets that can be moved to help other areas of need like top 6 forwards or goaltending. Contract wise Byram is the one likely to be moved, but IMHO his play is outstripping Power. Both are pretty even offensively, but Byram seems to bring more defensively and is obviously the more engaged player physically. Power still seems to easy for opponents to skate around. An interesting development for both players is a substantial increase in PK time. Power is being utilized more on the PK, but both are being used each game especially recently. So who are you keeping? Who do you think is the better?

How many times do I have to say I have hope for Ellis? How many times do I have to say play Ellis and see what you got? He played very well tonight, but prior to tonight his save % was .895. That is below NHL average. Why is this so hard to understand?

You keep telling us Lyon is good while ignoring the terrible play of our others goalies. The Sabres overall goaltending even with Lyon is below average. Lyon is maybe going to play 45-50 games and Ellis and UPL haven't shown they are good enough. Even if Lyon keeps up his 3+ GA play, that still isn't good enough for a team scoring 2.8. We need stellar goaltending to make the playoffs. Lyon is giving us average goaltending at best. His 3-5-3 record shows that we are still struggling to win even with him playing "well." I've also shown you that the defense is actually improved year over year statistically and the goaltenders, despite less SCA and HDCA and the No 1 PK, are still near the bottom of the league in GA off any SC or HDCA. They simply aren't good enough to elevate this lousy team into contention. It's going to take more than improved defense to help our goalies including Lyon.

Really, then why are their 32 goalies from 32 different teams that have started 10 or more games for their teams this season? Lyon with 24th on that list is GAA.

Are you saying the 17th best goalie in the NHL, a league with 32 teams, is above average? The interesting math. What about the other 35+ games Lyon won’t play? Ellis is 40th in save % in goalies with 3 or more starts and UPL is 52nd. Remember Lyon has never played more than 44 games in an NHL season. I get that you’re happy with Lyon YTD. All Sabres fans are happy that he has been better than the parade of terrible since Ullmark left town, but at 3+ goals a game this still isn’t playoff caliber goaltending. He is giving us exactly what he gave Det two years ago. That team nearly made the playoffs, but only because they scored 278 goals (3.4 goals for per game). The Sabres are averaging 2.8. Scoring 2.8 and allowing 3+ is not a recipe for success.

We clearly aren’t watching the same team. The Sabres, as a team, have a .888 save % despite having the best PK in the NHL. League average is .891. They have the 4th worst record in the NHL (worst in the East), 4th worst differential at -13. They are 6 games below actual 500 with only 18 games played. While the defense still isn’t great, the goaltending has been the problem. The Sabres are in middle of the NHL in high danger chances against at 164, but lead the NHL in HDGA at 25. The same for general scoring chances. They are middle of pack in SCA, but 4th worst in scoring chances goals against at 38. As I said before, Lyon has been decent and his numbers are nearly identical to his numbers two years ago when he played 44 games for Detroit. However, Ellis and UPL haven’t been good. I understand blaming the D. They deserve it for their terrible play for the last 5 years (thx Adams), but Timmins has helped as has an improved Samuelsson. They still aren’t good. Power is awful defensively and Kesselring, when healthy, hasn’t been good. Dahlin’s situation also hasn’t helped. Despite this, the defense is actually slightly better and stats bear this out. Not good, just better. We all want the team to be good and would be happy with better, but to get good we need real goaltenders and we don’t have any. As I said before, I still have some hope for Ellis and Levi, who both had vastly superior to UPL AHL numbers. The only way to find this out is to play them. IMHO this season is already toast from a playoff perspective. As much as I appreciate Lyon’s effort so far, we need to evaluate Ellis and Levi in the NHL to see if there is something there. Time to trade/waive/dump/catapult UPL and see what Ellis can do over a bigger sample size. I’d then trade Lyon at the deadline and bring up Levi. If they both stink, oh well! The next GM will have to find a real goalie for the 26/27 season, and he’d also get a better draft pick in 2026.

I know exactly what our goaltending is or isn’t. If you have read my posts over the years I have been extremely critical of our defense as well as our goaltending and talked about how our bad defense hurts our goaltending. Remember I have been calling for years for capable defensive D for this team. Instead we got guys like Stillman, Clifton and others. That said we have years of track record on Lyon and UPL. Neither is a top flight goaltender. UPL has had one good pro season between the NHL and AHL and in limited play this season, he looks exactly as he has most of his career; bad. Lyon has played well decently this season, but it’s not playoff caliber goaltending. I’m not exactly sure why you are fighting me on this, it’s pretty clear neither Lyon or UPL pass the eye test and the stats corroborate this.

I never said he was. I said the only chance (the key word here is "chance") we get elite goaltending is one of Levi or Ellis step up and give us elite goaltending. So far that hasn't happened and may never happen. What we know is that UPL and Lyon are what they are and are never going to give us elite goaltending.

I’d like to see Jesse Pegula and her husband take over the Sabres. That might be all the change at the top we need

They were done by Canadian Thanksgiving

I wrote this 2 months ago and nearly all of it has come to pass. The 9th item - offense regression - has sadly become the poster for this season. Kulich and Benson are out for who knows for how long. Norris didn’t even last one game. Zucker is also injured. Quinn isn’t progressing and McLeod has regressed (also as predicted, but not as bad as I feared. Only Doan has impressed. Also Tuch and Tage haven’t stepped up as leaders when necessary. The goaltending is still bad and the defense, especially now with Dahlin out indefinitely, is as bad as ever. Kesselring hasn’t been good, although Timmins has been ok. The PP still sucks. Add all this together and this team is already competing for the top overall draft pick. Terry fire Adams and start again