PerreaultForever

Absolute BS. You watch any other team and nobody waits to see what happened they go after the closest guy to the play. Sometimes they even get the wrong guy but they react instinctively and immediately. and if your star player is the guy you go after them the rest of the night and you hit their star player and so on. If you watch other teams at all you see this all the time. It's normal hockey. Consider this by way of contrast happening on the same day. https://www.hockeyfights.com/fights/n270988

Replacing Tage I can see, replacing Kozak I don't get. He's not a 4th line player if you want any sort of identity. The call ups should mirror the type of player you are replacing and his role on the team but whatever.

no.

Yes it probably would. They would move Tage back to center maybe and maybe somebody else rises up and we have another new rookie play well but we won't be any better and maybe worse. I personally think the whole methodology is madness. Rookies should always be forcing their way up the line up and pushing veterans out. The GM decisions should be on when you can trade or waive the pushed out veterans not on which rookie can fill the gaping hole. Kozak is arguably doing that, and that's how it should be for all of them. This is likely unpopular but as much as I like Benson I think he should start next season in Rochester.

Yes, and he might have a drop off like Quinn or even worse. Team should simply not be relying on rookies to carry it. That's what rebuild teams have to do, not teams that want to contend. Look at Michkov in Philly. He was on a roll and suddenly they had a PP and they were rising into contention despite their goaltending and then he hit a wall and now they are barely above us and falling. I'm pretty sure he will still become a superstar, but rookies be rookies and drop off times should be expected.

Really bugging me to read all these players saying they didn't see the hit as if that explains it. Pile of garbage.

I'd have to count the players but I feel that Czechia is actually better than Finland. Czechia plus Slovakia definitely.

Kulich can also easily hit a rookie wall or drop off next year before getting it all together. NHL has a long history of hotshot rookies following up and down pathways before they truly emerge. (and we don't even have to talk Cozens)

Sure but it's well documented that Ovi is a huge Putin fan and friend and has even campaigned for him. When he breaks Gretzky's record he will be paraded around Russia as a national hero. So I still say it's all bs.

Good for him but that's a pretty poor D pool for them. I really wonder about this thing. They have it billed like it's the Olympics but I have this feeling it might just be a bs all star type thing with limited hitting and mediocre efforts. We all know that if this was really the 4 best hockey nations it would be Russia and not Finland but we can't have that can we. They can all play in the NHL and we can follow Ovi's goal quest but oh no, no team Russia allowed cause Putin. So ridiculous.

Exactly. The other side of this sort of thing that some people don't get is these sort of things are how you break whatever culture building you have. If the players on the ice don't see other players having their back or standing up for them do you really think they will go full out all the time in the future? If a game gets physical they will back off or play scared. It will hurt their game all around. What is it Ruff and everyone kept saying about Rob Ray night? How he selflessly had the backs of his teammates. How he didn't need to be told and did what had to be done. Where is that now? I guess we are just lucky this didn't happen on Rob Ray night. That would have been even more embarrassing.

Right, cause we have playoff aspirations lmfao. The other 4 guys on the ice didn't even push and shove they just stood there like a bunch of children wondering where their daddy was. You want to build a real hockey culture you don't give a crap about the score you turn it into a war and show the league you aren't going to allow that sort of thing. They hit Tage, the whole bench should have started going after Hughes every shift thereafter.

Nick Foligno.

It's not an accident NJ has McDermitt or Columbus has Olivier. You can argue about how much of a "goon" vs. talented player you want but we got nobody. We don't value that and trust me, this will just get worse if it's not addressed. We have been bad enough so far that generally teams don't feel the need to go after our star players and we don't get hit all that much most of the time, but if we do get good enough to compete it'll happen more as it'll be the blueprint for how to beat the Sabres. We don't seem to learn from the past and so we are doomed to repeat it.

Most teams do both. It's the same old same old when nobody addressed this right away. Who would? You can argue whichever philosophical stance you want on this but as long as this sort of thing goes without repercussions this team will never win. Yes, they won a skating game against a skating team and they will maybe win a ton of games and be a few points out but don't be fooled, they will still be out and the roster weak spots will remain.

That would be a mistake.

Ya exactly. and we haven't had a real 1C since Eichel left. People have already forgotten that Thompson was made into a center because there was no one else. Cozens has been pushed and rushed since day 1. The team does not address top line needs, they just wait for prospects to develop and that's why we blow it and remain on the outside. It pisses me off because I look at Ottawa and think that should be the Sabres in 3rd and pushing for 2nd not them.

I thought this same thing when we drafted him and saw him as a potential wing and a true sniper. Shifting Thompson to the wing and leaving him at center is changing my mind though. One of the things most of us said at the beginning of the year was KA needed to spend the money and get us one more top 6 scoring winger (and a D partner for Power and maybe a veteran back up goalie) and with his play Thompson is now that top 6 winger. It does seem to be working and if he starts to struggle at center or hits a rookie wall we move Thompson back but so far it looks good. Kulich is without a doubt this season's bright spot.

Absolutely, and it takes too long and in that time somebody else might want out. I'm still not convinced Cozens isn't playing crap on purpose to try to get traded out. ahhh, it was way funnier as "kodak" given Rochester's history.

Reality would seem to indicate that: "get" isn't going to happen. "get rid of" might happen waiting for prospects to develop is probably all that will happen. Kulich is providing new options for roster construction that are promising and might allow for more focus on getting tougher but I don't know if they will actually do that. Kozak can stay. He's better than Lafferty, but his emergence might give KA the illusion that all he has to do is wait for more of these guys. To quote you above though "Kodak" should be in Rochester 🙂

That might be the plan. League not enjoying parity as much as they thought they would. Big markets in the playoffs is big money. I suspect this will make the FA asks get really ridiculous as their agents will start asking for a big piece of all that extra money.

Pretty much the only thing that could get me to care about this game is if one of the Sabres were to get into a scrap and they tossed off their jersey (fine be damned) just because.

Absolutely and too many similar players too. The mantra as we accumulated all those picks was if we have too many good players we can just trade them for needs but so far they've done very little of that (just Savoie) and they should have done it for this year. But, they blew this season (again) and now we will hope they do these things for next year. Futile hope maybe, but it's all we got.

imo I'm holding on to Helenius, Wahlberg and Levi. Anybody else is an option if the right deal for useful NHL veterans comes along.

History of injury problems so it's a risk. I think selling high is the better plan. Unless, I suppose, they feel they really won't get any free agents to sign here with next year's selections. Then I guess you take what you can get.