NAF

Sucks that they lost but they hung in there with the defending cup champs the whole game. My only real notes are: - Mittelstadt needs to be fired into the sun - UPL not good - Penalties are killing them

At the beginning of the season I was all for giving Mittelstadt a shot in what was his make or break year. Now he is (and maybe it isn't just him, maybe it's the combo of him and Olofsson) actively costing the team games. Thankfully they didn't lose tonight, but they came about as close as possible. Is there any way he could be packaged for Chychrun? I get we'd be selling low, but at this point I don't really care. Maybe Mittelstadt, Östlund/Rosen, and our first top 15 protected this year? WTF was up with the penalty calls tonight (and vs. Tampa for that reason)? I get they had to call the obvious ones -- the high sticking on Dahlin, etc., but I refuse to believe that the Sabres committed 7 penalties tonight and the Wings committed 2. ***** the refs. I really like Jost so far.

In the salary cap era it's important to have guys that are earning less than market value. Rarely do teams with multiple bank-breaking players compete consistently (see: Toronto Maple Leafs). Conversely, teams like the Avs that had MacKinnon for like 6.5 Mil (I don't know the actual number) and Pittsburgh where Sid took less than market value were able to afford difference making depth pieces. So far Adams is looking good with the Thompson and Samuelsson contracts.

I see a lot of people in this thread writing the Sabres off for the year. Do what you want, but I'll keep watching. I get it. Losing to Eichel like that sucked. If you take a step back however, did you really expect the Sabres to win that game? Vegas is one of the best teams in the league and is on a 9 game win streak. Frankly I thought the Sabres didn't look too bad considering. They certainly didn't play the uninspired brand of hockey they've shown over the past 10 years. This year isn't about winning the cup, it's about the development of the youngest roster in the league. If you'd told me before the season that they'd be 7-7 through the first 14 I'd have probably been happy. People expecting playoffs are bound to be disappointed, but those who temper expectations will most likely enjoy the ups and downs of the season. Quinn should be playing though.

That was a tough game to watch. I will say I thought the effort was there, and that the Sabres probably deserved to win from an advanced stats perspective (don't know the actual numbers, just guessing). Regardless, past a certain point they looked pretty dull. I don't think they battled hard enough in the slot to screen/tip and make long point shots a viable means to score. They had better come out a bit hungrier against Vegas. I'll also add that Power is looking really good these days. Very sound positional play. He also looks like he knows when to jump up into the offense. I wish he was a bit more physical, but perhaps he'll add that later down the road. The Mittelstadt experiment has been pretty crappy so far. He'll make one nice play and then three terrible ones. If he doesn't improve by the end of this year I'm comfortable moving on from him. Krebs has also been kinda meh, but the jury is still very much out on him.

Skinner was pretty bad last night. I watched him skate the puck into the offensive zone and then lose it immediately about 5 times. He needs to pick it up and tonight would be a good time to do so.

Dahlin is an animal

Sabres are competing hard but Carolina is a very complete team. Would be nice to get a comeback here but I’m not expecting it.

Power looks better and better every game so I'll go with him. He still makes mistakes, but it seems like his positional play is very sound. Could also see this going to Quinn, but not necessarily fair to compare him and JJP since Quinn is getting PP time.

Yeah but what team is giving that up 8 games into that season? Also what are we willing to trade here? I’m not going higher than Bjork and like a third round pick here if I’m Adams.

Great win. Excellent effort. Domi can go jump off a bridge with that dive

I don’t doubt that Mittelstadt works hard, but I have a hard time ignoring the many issues with his game.

Sabres were the better team that period.

Didn’t get a chance to watch — how was Quinn? I saw he had a goal disallowed, but other than that?

Ehhhh idk. Quinn has no more to learn/gain from playing in the AHL. He'll also be taking minutes from the other prospects in Rochester if he's sent down. I'll agree that I don't think it's good for Quinn to sit out for too many consecutive games, but we aren't at that point yet. He can also probably learn a lot from stepping back and watching for a few games.

Not a good sign for Jokiharju...

^most important thing. In the Eichel/Housley/Krueger era the team falls apart after that ref kick goal.

That was probably the most complete game I’ve seen from this team in 3-4 years. Recency bias obviously, but still an excellent effort. Mittelstadt stood out on both ends — a lot of very nice offensive plays but a few questionable decisions and turnovers. If he can clean those up and become more consistent (big if) on offense he’ll have won me over. Power continues to make errors, but I expect he’ll get better as the season goes on. Other than that a very solid performance by pretty much everyone else.

I doubt it. I'd chalk it up to a few things: Tuch is a better player than Olofsson Skinner has been kinda bad through these two games, lots of giveaways Other teams are probably watching more film on him due to his success last season It's the second game of the season and he's still rusty

Anyone else a bit upset re: Peterka over Hinnostroza and Bryson over Pilut? IMO both Peterka and Bryson looked terrible in preseason (though to be fair I wasn't really watching training camp practices or keeping up with info on twitter). I'll trust Donny Meatballs for now though, even though I think Hinnostroza and Pilut make the team better, at least in the short term.

I think Peterka could be going down to Roch. I haven't seen much from him during these preseason games. Hinnostroza is making a case for keeping his roster spot. I think Quinn looks pretty good and will probably make the team. Admittedly he's been getting PP time whereas Peterka hasn't, but IMO Quinn's 5v5 play has also been more impressive. I will also add that I haven't really been keeping up on twitter re: actual stuff going on at camp (who looks good in drills and stuff). Perhaps Peterka has been more impressive there. On a separate note I thought Weissbach looked pretty decent? Seemed like an early cut to me.

Clague stinks

On a cup contending team Tuch is a second line player. I really like him, and am happy he's on the team, but his ceiling is a 70 point guy. Expecting more than that is unreasonable.

I think Portillo would have no value to them as he wouldn't sign -- they already have Oettinger. Johnson would likely sign and is an intriguing trade piece. IMO trading away Robertson would be a massive blunder by Dallas. This owner sounds like an airhead. Regardless here is a trade proposal I've come up with that I could live with: 1. Khudobin + Robertson = Johnson + Olofsson + Krebs + Quinn/Peterka alternatively if Dallas wants to keep Khudobin 2. Robertson = Savoie + Krebs + Johnson + 1st round pick lotto protected IMO our best prospects available for trade are Savoie, Cozens, Quinn, and Peterka (I'm not including Power, he's not getting traded). Frankly I'm not interested in giving away two or more of them. One of them, 2 B level prospects and a roster player is a fair trade. I see a lot of people in this thread saying Robertson is worth Power or the equivalent makeup of those aforementioned 4 guys, but I think the brakes need to be pumped. If Eichel, a better player (with a significant injury, I admit) only gets you Krebs, Tuch, and a mid 1st, Robertson isn't getting you much more than that.

Overall I wasn't a fan of how Granato set the lineup last night. I understand you need to give NHL fringe guys like Clague and Priske minutes during preseason to get a better look at them, but why is the entire taxi squad out there at the same time? I think the coaching staff would gain more by putting a few more NHL regulars in with them such that the puck isn't stuck in the Sabres d-zone for extended periods of time. I'll admit this is a very small thing to nitpick but yeah. I don't think you can really get a feel for Quinn/Peterka/Comrie from this game.