JohnC

I don't think that the issue about Sam being able to play center is an issue any longer. He clearly has demonstrated that he can. The more difficult issue is whether it would be more advantageous for the team for him to play on the Jack line with Mitts and Cozens playing center on the second and third line. If he moves to the Jack line will our first line become a top tier first line in the league? I think so. I have heard Granato talk about Sam and his play and his exceptional vision and feel for the game. Its seems that he prefers Sam as a center. But if he centers his own line then does that mean that Mitts or Cozens will not maximize their abilities if moved to the wing position. On the issue of where to slot Sam and the other players currently playing center it is an open question for me. I'm just not sure. On the positive side I rather have an excess of talent and make some tough decisions than have a limited number of talent and make do with what you got.

It's evident you are a loving son and your mother is a loving mother. You are blessed to have such a wonderful relationship.

It's often difficult to discern sarcasm from a text. Especially for someone who is as thickheaded as I am. Basically, you and I are in accord regarding Sam. I still worry about him desiring a change of scenery because the constant losing can be dispiriting. He's very underappreciated. This player with a subtle and nuanced game is a glue guy. One other thought about this game" If Skinner for the most part he can regain his scoring touch it would be like adding an impact free agent to the roster next year. He is moving well and the effort is there. He just isn't converting. I not only don't consider him a lost cause as much as I see him as a piece to the puzzle.

In the end it leaves a sour taste in your mouth the next day. ☠️

We don't need to look at any other team other than the home team to realize the fading player solution is a gimmick that doesn't work. It's been tried so many times and has failed so many times.

I agree with most of your commentary except for your belief that Sam has checked out. Sam's personality and style of play can be described as even keeled. It shouldn't be mistaken for disinterested play. What I found encouraging as you went through the list of young players is that they all still have plenty of upside. They are keeping up against good teams but unsurprisingly have lapses that come back to cost them. The more they play the more consistent they will be. Experience is the best teacher and at times it can be painful. I thought UPL played well. He didn't scramble and was composed throughout. Having good goaltending is such a stabilizing factor. While I'm encouraged about the youngsters and the better quality of play since the coaching change I'm ready for the season to finish. The blueprint for this team of building from within has been established. It just a question of having the will and fortitude to see it through.

Simmons is an inconsequential player for Toronto. If he didn't play the team wouldn't miss him. Acquiring a high character player who is a fading and very diminished player would make no sense for Buffalo.

Think young and move forward. 🙂

Good examples. Nostalgia isn't a solution. It is a feeble reaching back in time in the improbable hope to move forward. It not only doesn't work but the bang for the buck is never a bargain.

Your comment sounds the same when the organization brought in Staal, and before that Simmons. Whatever leadership traits you are enamored with that Foligno possess are the same traits that Okposo has. I'm not against adding a player like Foligno but I'm not going to give him a contract that he will want.

At first I thought that the Joki and Dahlin pairing was an odd mix and that it wouldn't work well. Surprisingly, it liberated Dahlin who is playing with confidence and expanding his game and it has seemed to stabilize and uplift Joki who was struggling. Why not keep this pairing together?

Regardless of the record the caliber of play has gone up after the coaching change. And it should be factored in that the upgrade in play was done with limited practice time. Nearly every player is performing better after the staffing change. And this upgrade is being done while in the midst of a youth movement. As the season advanced under Krueger I no longer had any expectation for this boring team. I also with a great deal of relief tuned out. Now my expectations have been elevated and the games are more enjoyable to watch without even considering what the outcome is.

I understand the hesitancy about Granato being named as the HC. I attribute much of the skepticism because he isn't one of the familiar names associated with the yearly musical chair shuffling of coaches. One of the questions directed to any candidate for the position is how is he going to maximize the talents of the players on the roster he will be handed? As an interim coach every player that he coached in his abbreviated stint has improved after taking over, some dramatically. Dahlin is an example of that. The roster that any new coach will be taking over will have a lot of young players. How will they respond to him? In my opinion the young players he has entrusted with playing time has rewarded that trust by steadily getting better. The near term success of this franchise is predicated on our young players developing to their potential at the fastest rate possible. He has already demonstrated an uncanny ability to work with young players. Another good trait that is evident about him is that he is willing to make changes in order to adjust to something that is not working. That's a different approach that the more rigid system coach that we had. I also like the way he has put together lines and the defensive pairings. He understands what he has and understands how to smartly put the pieces together. Maybe in a few years when this roster is more mature he might not be the most suitable coach. But for this roster, even with some alterations, he has proven to me that he is the right person at the right time for the job.

The defenseman was Jacob Trouba who requested a trade because his fiance was going to medical school. https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/27476743/her-career-important-my-career-how-jacob-trouba-kelly-tyson-balance-their-ambitions

As you starkly demonstrated with your list perceptions can quickly change. Putting players into a position that accentuates their assets instead of pigeonholing players into an archaic system that suffocates their talents has a liberating effect. Coaching matters!

This is just my opinion and it is not an argument that you are wrong. I see Reinhart rejoining Jack to form our first line. The issue then becomes who will be the other winger? I think it will be Skinner but can't say for sure. I strongly believe that putting Skinner on the first line with those two players will put him in a position to succeed and to a large extent return him to form. That would be such a major bonus. And with Jack back on the PP this unit will regain its potency that it seems to have lost without him. Mitts and Cozens will probably be the centers for the second and third lines. With Jack as the #1 C we have a strong middle group. I expect Cozens to make a leap forward next year.

Usually yes but not necessarily always depending on the situation. All you can do is look at your roster and assess it. Then address your needs as best as you can. Sometimes the fix is a temporary fix and sometimes it is a more substantive long-term fix. The challenge and balancing act is what do you have to give up to remedy a deficiency. For a team like the Sabres that is rebuilding and have a lot of young players I would rather go through the trials and tribulations of playing youngsters who have the potential to get better than bring in players with little upside. In the short term a steady veteran brought in will be more effective than an inconsistent young player. But in the long run you are better off playing the younger player. A case in point is the defensive unit that played last night. That group probably was the youngest unit in the league. In their play you can intermittently see very good play and then glaring mistakes that end up with the puck in the net. My point is there are considerations associated with where you are in your rebuilding process that determine how you address your needs. Sorry for the long winded response but other than bringing in help to buttress the goalie position I would rather mostly stay within our system for players and ride with them.

Krueger did have a plan but it was an outdated plan for today's NHL. In a sense he was an ideologue who was too stubborn to deviate from his hockey world view. Not being able to adapt and adjust to a situation is not a sign of strength----it is a display of weakness.

If the front office stands pat with the roster with the exception of addressing the critical goaltending need I will consider it a successful offseason. It would be a mistake to rush UPL. He needs extensive playing time in Rochester to continue with his development. And if Skinner can regain his scoring form to a degree I would consider it comparable to adding a quality free agent. There are a lot of "ifs" in my comments but most of the pieces are already here. Granato is doing his best to put Skinner in a position to succeed and get production out of him. In comparison, Krueger did his best to bury the player and make him vanish. Krueger created a mess while Granato is doing his best to clean it up.

Absolutely not! If Dahlin is playing well whatever the circumstances for this season then he is playing well and exhibiting what he is capable of in the future. Are you not going to credit Mitts, Thompson or Cozens for exponentially stepping up their games (especially under Granato) because it was done under a lost cause season? When you exhibit talent you are showing that you have talent. That certainly is a reason for optimism for these young players (and others---most notably the young defensemen) rather than being uncertain about their prospects.

Did one of the loyalists run you over and speed away when you fell off the wagon? Being targeted I'm sure you are well aware that hit and run drivers have no compassion. ☠️

My sense is that the direction has been established, and it revolves around developing one's own players instead of bringing in high cost players (As you noted.) Our blue line has a lot of young players who should grow and get better together. It's notable that the Mitts/Thompson/Asplund line played together in Rochester and now seem to play as a cohesive and productive line. Getting three recent AHL players to demonstrate that they can capably play in the NHL in one year is a success story. Then next test is how much better can they get? I'm not going to make a declarative proclamation about how good this group will become because that would be foolish. If as a Sabre fan you are not cautious about over-evaluating the roster then this organization's inglorious recent history has taught you nothing. As @Thornyand many others have repeatedly stated getting a quality tandem at goal will more than anything accelerate the upswing of this low swinging franchise. And the return to form for Jack should be a positive factor. Put me in the cautiously optimistic column. For those in the highly skeptical column my response is I understand where you are coming from.

If you add Jack with the continued progression of our young players this is a mid-tier team. Or another way to look at it is that it has moved from the bottom tier to the the mid-level. That is not an insignificant move forward. Most of us agree that getting solid to good goaltending on a consistent basis is the key to being a solid team. Is Ullmark a #1 goalie (assuming he is re-signed)? I consider him capable of being a mid-level #1. Is he durable enough to count on for the long-haul? I'm not sure. Respectfully, I see things differently than you do. I understand why you have come to your position but my assessment is simply different. C'est la vie.

If that's the length of term you are willing to sign him for then he will be playing somewhere else. There are no guarantees about the level of play for most players but what is encouraging about Ullmark is that he has steadily gotten better. The goalie position is tough to evaluate. One year a goalie looks like a Vezina caliber of goalie, and the next year the player can play like a beer league bum.

I have a different perspective on this team than you do. It's very unlikely that bottom feeding teams make great leaps forward to move into the ranks of the top tier. That's not how it is done. The fairer way to assess a rebuilding team is to determine if the team is moving from the early stage of a rebuild that starts you off at the bottom of the rankings to the next stage of a rebuild that moves you up the ranks closer to the middle. I don't want to be cavalier and overstate our progress but I do believe that right now with better handling we should be in the middle of the pack with the Flyers and Rangers. What is encouraging is that (it appears to me) that the Sabres have a larger core of emerging young players than most teams, including a number of the top tier teams that you mentioned. It's a process with little steps moving forward one step at a time.