Pimlach

Well I have no interest in trading Helenius, or even Östlund since he could be the playmaker that we need. But for the right player(s) anything is possible. I have said enough about Mitts/Byram, hated the trade, and not because of Byram but mostly because Mitts was the best all around center on our roster. At least Byram is playing decent hockey right now. He looks ok, so does Joker, and Clifton fills his role adequately. We need much more from Dahlin and Samuelsson. Power is what he is. He is an overpaid kid and still developing. He will reach his peak at 27-29, and probably for another team. I am not giving up on the season though, but I see the warts very clearly now. I will stick with Lindy and give him a fair chance. As for Adams, this season is on him. He says time and again that he and his team do not own the 13 year drought, but he owns 5 years, which is more than enough.

He did not lose touch in NJ. His young NJ team set the franchise all time record for points just two years ago. Last season he had many injuries, and nothing in net. Hard to blame him alone for that, but NJ is run like a real NHL organization so when you don't produce you go. In Buffalo we may be finding out that our Core of "best players" have reached a plateau. Dahlin, Tage, Cozens, Power, and Samuelsson were all paid. Will they get better? Can Lindy help them get better? That is the question here today.

Spin it any way you want. We used 6 prime picks on centers in the past 4 years. Maybe Östlund and Helenius will hit? We have waited 14 years, what’s a few more.

This is a good theory on Thompson, but I’m not sure that it’s true any more. His inability to carry a puck and distribute is a first line liability. Every team knows how to defend him so the goals and assists have slowed way down. Someone else on his line has to create. And what happens on the power play? He doesn’t set anyone up. He works near the wall, sets up for one timers. Again, the league knows how to defend this. They need first line help, then we will have good players trickling down to help other lines. Either a wing that creates, or a playmaking center. I say get a center, try Tage at wing, then you can move Tuch to where he really fits. Or you move Tage to 2C. The Top 6 has to improve and 1C/2C are just not strong enough.

No. It’s Golisano rubbing it in.

The actual replacement for Skinner is Peterka, and the replacement for Peterka is Benson. The replacement for Benson on the 3rd line is probably Zucker. If you want to play games compare Skinner and Zucker I guess? Saying that Olofsson (7 goals last year) is better than Peterka and Benson is a loss of credibility for you. Is this the hill you want to die on?

I have to give you a “like” for digging this out. I’ll keep watching them, no doubt. I’ll keep complaining when they lose, no doubt

Yup. That same doddering guy that had to trade O’Rielly. He sure showed him.

Yes. Peterka is his replacement on the first line. Is Benson a better replacement for Peterka on the 2nd line is the real question.

How many big wingers should I name that were highly effective scorers? I can come up with about 20 if you would like. You are just spouting out Granato's theory when he got Thompson to emerge. Tage is a decent center, not an ideal 1C. Finding a playmaking winger is harder than finding a playmaking center but we at least agree that he needs someone that can create and feed him. Perhaps Reinhart would be one but wait, we didn't sign him. I think the power play is telling us something. Dahlin is the quarterback, but because we don't have a playmaking center we toss the puck around the perimeter and take forced one timers that are usually blocked.

Buddy I was at the Kings game and they did not play great, or even very good. Five days after a Euro trip was plenty of time to rest and be ready for their home opener and they came out flat against a tired Kings team that was on the road. They played "ok" for two periods but they could not score and they looked like a team that doesn't even know each other. They never gave the crowd any feeling that they were dominating either. Fans were booing at the slightest mistakes. The Sabres folded in the 3rd period at the first sign of adversity. Literally their best players gave that game away. Zucker broke a stick in the penalty box and got tossed, and Cozens broke two more after the empty netter. They showed no character. People were walking out of the arena very frustrated. The comments were brutal. Next home game was better but keep in mind they beat Florida's backup goalie while Florida played without Barkov and Tkachuk, their two best players. Even in the Pittsburgh game, they got lucky that Jarry was off. The TNT announcers told the viewers that Pittsburgh looked better in the first period, even being down 3-1, and they were right. Sure enough Pittsburgh won. Last night they lost to a poor team. They were never in it. That was the second night of a B2B, but that is an excuse. Its great to be a loyal fan but look at the big picture here.

Shall I assume Eichel is the POS center you refer to? Look at him now. He has 10 points in 5 games. He is just hitting his prime and he played excellent two-way hockey when they won a Cup. You say we drafted very few centers? How about 6 in the past 4 years in the upper 2 rounds? Rosen in 2021; Savoie, Kulich, and Östlund in 2022; Wahlberg in 2023; and Helenius in 2024. Many of them do not project to be centers, but you cannot say we aren't drafting them. And the notion that Thompson is best suited to be a center in this league is on shaky ground. He can play center, but is he carrying this team as a 1C? Look at our Power Play, does he look like a 1C? Some day we will trade Thompson and he will end up with a true playmaking center, lead the league in goals, win a Cup, and we will wonder why this management could not see it.

Obviously I think they will improve in the next few weeks and by the 20 game mark will be playing much better. But maybe they won’t.

I already said give McLeod the 2C minutes. Kulich is not a center in the NHL. Most of his AHL games are at wing, why put that on him? Krebs is barely an NHL center. If you move Cozens to wing, and make Krebs his center is that a real solution? To be brutally honest I don’t think Thompson is center either. I wanted him on a wing last year with Mitts.

Sure hockey fights in practice do happen, but rarely. But let’s not pretend it helped with anything. It didn’t change the way the team plays on game day. The team is not dialed in at all. Dahlin and Tuch and Ruff all said they are losing battles. That was Columbus that seriously beat them, and they were missing several players.

I look at that center spline of Thompson, Cozens, McLeod, Krebs and it just sucks. I would love to see a big hockey trade that packages several players/prospects/picks that gets us a 1C and more veteran help. But I don’t trust Adyms to make such a trade.

Well let’s see. We won’t beat anyone by giving up 5 or 6 goals per night. I would play UPL in Chicago and I stick with him for 3 straight games to get him going again. Play him more to help get his game going. We need a hot goalie. This is the part of the schedule that we don’t need a 1A/1B. Now we can complain about Levi not being in Rochester where he belongs.

Samuelsson would be a good start. Play Gilbert or Bryson. Kulich showed something yesterday but I expect to see Quinn back in Chicago. Cozens should sit out but we have no centers. We traded a star center, drafted a bunch of centers that are not really centers, traded a solid playmaking center, and now we have very little at center.

Andreychuck, Mogilny, Martin, Gare. Eichel and Reinhart

Do leaders hip check teammates and flip them over, then crosscheck them, and then throw punches? Did that help any player with their level of compete or to “win battles”? Our leader just said we didn’t win battles.

PA is gone. Just a faded memory of past glory. All that remains is @Stoner

Well this is a rumor but I’ll bite. Who gets promoted to GM? Karmanos or Forton? If it’s Karmanos we might be better off because he is probably more respected among other GMs. He is already more qualified than Adams right now. I would like this to happen. If Forton, then it’s a ponderously stupid move.

I don’t get the Tuch hate. He is an excellent 3rd line player. Trade him and he improves most any teams middle 6. The problem is we play him on the first line because we lack top tier talent at forward, we traded all of that away. Quote from Captain Dahlin after the 6-4 pummeling in Columbus: "They came out hungrier than us, it’s as simple as that. We have to win our battles, we have to play a little more desperate. I have to be better, and that’s my answer." Honest but uninspired.

Adyms liked Granato until he didn’t. He likes Appert too. Look out Seth.

Yes. I still think that. They don’t know each other out there. They play alone, not for the team. Tuch and Ruff call it “losing battles”. They brought in 6 new players and there is no cohesion. They have 5 guys with letters yet they lack leadership. They don’t have an identity yet. The only thing they can do is keep working at it.