GASabresIUFAN

A mediocre overpaid defenseman who isn't physical despite his size and is average defensively?

The Good: UPL, Krebs, McLeod The Bad: The 3rd period once Dallas pulled the goalie. The Ugly: The PP, the 2nd line primarily Cozens and Quinn. Serious Dylan, can’t you even hit an open net? Lots of positives in this game, but we serious need new ideas on both special teams. The 6 on 5 play was terrible.

0-22 and counting.

That eliminated most of the Sabres forwards.

Since none of those 3 have been good or even decent so far this season, it’s really telling how bad Dahlin’s been.

0-21 and counting. When will they actually try to fix this mess?

This was UPL best performance of the season. He looked much more comfortable in the crease. 0-4 on PP again. 0-21 for the season. Embarrassing. Showed better resilience after coughing up the lead again. Loved McLeod's effort on the empty net goal. Sabres need to build on this effort, but they need to stop falling asleep as they did for most of the 2nd period. Please note: my attention was divided as I watch Georgia upset No. 1 Texas in Austin 30-15. Also dominating win by the Hoosiers over Nebraska. Hoosiers now 7-0. Crazy!

Besides the last two years where he was a 57 pt guy.

I think Kulich could be a solid NHL center. It is probably too early to put him in as the 2nd line center, but he has the necessary skill set to succeed in the middle. I envision him more as a 3rd line center than 2nd. I see him as a Jochen Hecht type player. I also think Quinn and JJP could play center effectively in the NHL. Both are good with the puck on their sticks (yes, I know Quinn in struggling right now). Disagree on TNT. He is a center, just not a great one. Sadly, KA doesn’t understand that quality center depth is essential to a winning NHL team. If he understood that, Mitts would still be here and he’d have the necessary depth to move Cozens to the wing. I don’t disagree on Krebs, but desperate times..

Peterka. Tuch. We need to station Tage in front of the net. Play Dahlin and Byram on the points, and allow Tuch, JJP and the 2 D to play a quick passing 4 man game with Tage screening the goalies and collecting loose change.

That’s not true. Kulich, McLeod, Krebs and Laferty all play center. I wouldn’t bench Cozens. I’d move him to the wing and let someone else play center. I’d elevate McLeod as a first attempt. However given that the McLeod line is our most effective so far, I can see Lindy being reluctant to make the change. The next options are Krebs or Kulich. Not ideal but worth a shot if it takes some pressure off Cozens.

To bad Reimer isn’t a Sabre any longer.

and you'd trust GM Howdy Doody to make that trade? I wouldn't.

I've got nothing. This is a bad hockey team. The funny thing is after the slow start offensively they have picked things up at least as even strength. Still no PP goals, but a 6 on 5 goal. The Sabres have scored 14 goals in the last 3 games including 12 at even strength. This should be enough to win most games, except due to bad defense and goaltending they are 1-1-1. The team has given up 22 goals in 6 games this season. KA moves to shore up the defense have been an abysmal failure so far and I'm not talking about just this season. PP now 0 for 17 and counting.

We have guys who could take on that role. Greenway comes to mind. Benson would do it.

Scary isn’t it!

The Sabres have 13 goals for this season. 11 5 on 5, 1 short handed and 1 empty net. With 15 PP opportunities the Sabres are actually -1; 0 PP goals scored and 1 short handed goal allowed. They are also 0 for 1 on penalties shots. The PP is so bad, they are struggling to even enter the offensive zone. The team has only had 18 SOG in 15 Power Plays. Seth Appert was partly promoted to fix the PP. So far it’s worse. There is zero flow. The puck doesn’t move quickly and we rarely ever station someone in front of the net to create screens and pick up loose change. Where is Dave Andreychuk when you need him? We also don’t win draws on the PP to gain control of the puck. Cozens, who has taken 16/31 PP draws is 37.5% on those faceoffs. Tuch has taken the 2nd most (6) is 33%. For reasons unknown TNT has taken only 4 draws on the PP winning 3. So can this mess be fixed?

Power hasn’t even been close to good enough. He is paid to be a top 2 D and is soft, adds little offense, continues to make bad mistakes on defense. A FA playing like he is gets 3 mill or less. Samuelsson is supposed to be a shutdown D. He isn’t. He doesn’t add offense and if he doesn’t play shutdown D he is useless. Dahlin’s problem is Joki. Dahlin needs to play the right side. He is more comfortable there and getting the most out of Dahlin should be Ruff’s no 1. priority on D.

Dahlin - $11,000,000 - 0g - 1a Power - $8,350,000 - 1g - 0a Thompson - $7,142,857 - 3g - 0a Cozens - $7,100,000 - 0g - 0a -5 Zucker - $5,000,000 - 0g - 3a Tuch - $4,750,000 - 2g -4a UPL - $4,750,000 - 0-2-1, 3.69 gaa & .874 save % Samuelsson - $4,285,714 - 1g - 0a -2 Besides Tuch and to a lesser extent Zucker, which of our highest paid players are actually playing to their contract level? Sure Tage has 3g, but the 0 assists? He is supposed to be a 1pt a game plus player, not a 48 pt player. The rest have been not garbage this season. UPL is back to where he was two years ago and has been outplayed by Levi by a wide margin (as predicted). The 3 big D have basically not helped at either end of the ice, although Power has been ok defensively. Until most if not all of these guys start playing to their alleged potential, this team is stuck in neutral.

That’s why you take the pressure off him and let him go play as a winger on the 3rd line and start having fun again.

Because he is playing the wrong position. Move him to wing and the 3rd line and tell him to just be aggressive. Go to the net young man. With his current lack of confidence and inaccurate shot, he needs less responsibility not more until his game hopefully rebounds.

Does he? I think he is sucking the life out of Dahlin’s game and his prior year metrics with Dahlin except last year aren’t good.

Do you know what this team needs? They need a versatile coachable playmaking center who can play on any line. Wouldn’t it be nice if our incompetent GM didn’t trade away such a player. Cozens is dragging down his line. It’s time to make a change. It’s time to admit that Cozens’ best position is on the wing. Between McLeod, Krebs, Lafferty and Kulich we have 4 other guys to try as the 2nd line center. Hell try Benson or Quinn. I’d try McLeod between Benson and Quinn first I’d then try Kulich between Cozens and Greenway Lastly Zucker Lafferty with Krebs/Malenstyn. Also it’s time to run with Levi in net. UPL isn’t looking all that sharp. Not a surprise as KA gave him a big extension after one good year. It’s also time to shuffle the D pairings. The current ones suck. Time to try Dahlin w Power and experiment with the rest. As I wrote in the off-season, I was worried that this group would continue to give up HDCA and that has been the case over the first 5 games. No one should be surprised. This team has been desperate for a steady stay at home top 4 D for years and KA has responded to that need with Bryam, Clifton, Lyubuskin, Eric Johnson, re-signing Jokiharju. I had a brief moment of optimism about this club when looking at the best case scenarios. Sadly, it’s becoming clear that this is a hopelessly constructed roster that lacks good in zone defense and adequate center play. No team can win consistently with those 2 flaws. On the bright side, they didn’t fold after coughing up the lead in the 3rd and JJP is becoming a dominate offensive player. They also worked hard to score by going to the net. This is a very positive development.

Fair question. It’s easier for Power and Cozens and harder for Dahlin and TnT. Cozens and Power should be removed from the 2nd PP. Cozens demoted to the 3rd line until he starts playing the right way. For Dahlin and TNT it the best punishment would be reduced PT in favor of guys playing the right way. Accountability isn’t easy but Lindy should know what he needs to do, but so far it isn’t really working.

So I shouldn’t expect the guys being paid to be our best players to actually be our best players? So far this season Tuch, Greenway, Clifton and Levi have been our best players. We need to hold the “leadership” group accountable for bad performance after bad performance. Even with a solid win tonight, 3/4 of the guys I mentioned were invisible again and the PP in which all 4 are key players is still 0 for the season.