PerreaultForever

Yes, but it'll be Levi not Reimer to start the season unless Levi sucks bad in Lindy's mind. I don't like those D pairings though. It's those 6 guys but Byram Power worries me and I don't see Joker getting Dahlin minutes. A lot depends on where Muel's at as I've said before. He looked rusty tonight. We have more guys who play like men this year though and I think that will be infectious.

Don't be so sure of that. Wait until that kid is a full grown man and I'm pretty sure you'll see a fair number of cheap shots. He might not lick anybody, but he's gonna crosscheck and slash and do a little this or that in tight quarters mark my words. How dirty idk, but he won't win a Lady Byng.

3rd line, Dahlin not Bryson, Gilbert has an outside shot to beat out Bryson for 7th D. Krebs will be 13th forward. Kulich and Rousek first call ups. You take tonight's line up but swap the entire 3rd line as above and insert Dahlin and that's it. Defensive pairings still to be determined, otherwise I think it's set.

Well you're not going to learn much from a game like that with such different line up approaches but a couple takeaways: Style of play under Lindy is clearly different. Much more net front presence, basic direct hockey. Tips and deflections. It's about time. Feistier and more unified team dynamic with team push back. Solid attitude. Bottom unit is a solid grind line. negatives, Some horrible defensive play and giveaways in their own end. The D needs work. UPL didn't look good but hard to judge, he may have been falling asleep with the lack of sustained work by this AHL Pens team. Horrible start and sloppy first. Was the change into the second the Lindy factor? idk, but they woke up.

I'm not going to disagree with that but hypothetically if these players suck under Lindy what do you do???

That's pretty much how I feel. I think this is Adam's time to put up or shut up or more specifically I think if this season fails he gets canned. What happens then idk. Start all over again again, I have no idea. If Lindy can't get it done who can? This team should have been better so many times before but it has always fallen apart for one or more reasons. If these players cannot elevate and gel and become something now then they most likely never will.

Extreme example of an NHL preseason game. Home team plays near an NHL roster, road team plays rookies and hacks. Well, let's see if Sabres show signs of a new identity. Game should be one sided.

Most definitely. How Cozens is this year will be a big part of how well this team can do. If he is the same as last year we are in trouble.

Sure, but we just started and we haven't played a game yet. See, I don't know where Lindy is going to set the bar. This team has had it set so low over these years it often doesn't exist. "Development", "learning", "growing pains" and so forth but not unacceptable or inadequate. When/if mistakes are made this year how fast until Lindy has you down the line up, benched or in the press box? That goes for any of them. To reiterate, I think Benson has one of the brightest potential futures on this team but what happens in October is still unknown.

Probably, but it does depend on whether or not Benson has a "sophomore slump" and how he adjusts to Ruff. While I have no doubt Benson will be star Buffalo forward, and he very well might end up eventually being the best Buffalo forward, these things are often not linear and we could go a little up and down before he fully arrives. When you say he's one of the best defensive forwards we have, while that might be true, it's a low bar and that bar might be raised substantially now.

Zucker vs. Benson will tell us more about Ruff than it does about Benson or Zucker.

Crazy how young Benson is. I thought they were closer in age but there ya go. Not "too good for AHL" though imo. Skills wise yes, but you can still learn to play better D there and how to handle the physicality. It's a tough league. Not saying Benson needs that, not sure where he is until we see him this year, but he does still have things to learn. Pretty sure Benson will be on the Sabres, but his role is undetermined at this point. Definitely won't be going to junior.

is he still not old enough? I assumed he was like Poitras in Boston. Last year he'd have to go back to junior but this year they can send him to Providence. I assumed Benson was the same.

Offensively maybe. Defensively or in terms of a complete center game definitely no.

Benson's the more complete hockey player and in time I can see him being an effective PP member as well, probably in the bumper spot. Kulich can become a sniper but is more likely a 3rd liner, maybe 2nd. Depends how strong he grows and how he develops his defensive game. He's marginal NHL at the moment and is likely better off with another year in Rochester. Benson might still need a year in Rochester too, hard to say yet. It wouldn't surprise me though.

That's good, the guy I'm really interested in though is Samuelsson. His being healthy and able to slot into a top 4 spot is likely the key factor in terms of how good (or bad) this D will be.

Ideally you want a motivator who is also a good coach. You can get away with a motivator if his staff are really good at all the X's and O's. I'm pretty sure Pegula thought he had the talent he needed and they just needed motivating. Dumb hire. I think most of the hockey experts said it was an "out of the box thinking" sort of hire and liked the guy and wanted him to succeed, but clearly we saw he was clueless. We know Lindy can coach. He's done it many times before. We also know he has seen it all and all types of players and personalities. Lastly, we also know he can win in the current league as he did with New Jersey the year before, so he's not an outdated dinosaur. The only thing we need to see now is if these players can be coached and motivated. One would think yes, but we need to see it.

I did not. Even better then.

I'm pretty sure this is Lindy's last stop. He either succeeds here or he doesn't but there won't be another coaching job after this one. I'm hoping he will be here for a fairly long time (which will mean he succeeded)

Ya, and he was stable for a few years but overall I think his mental illness led to his other problems more than the other way around.

He has serious mental health issues. I feel sorry for the guy.

ffs, I'm talking about listening to the coach and playing with discipline.

He got the storybook ending so good for him.

Part of why they got rid of Skinner. Discipline.