JohnC

Some quick thoughts on this game: UPL is obviously the first star. He put this team on his back and held up like an old stone fort. In the first 10 minutes, we were dominating in our offensive zone. Those early minutes where we were dominating thereafter ended. The game was then played like a visitor's defensive game. Especially in the third period, I thought Calgary out played us with a lot more scoring chances. UPl played strong and kept us in the game. This is definitely a Lindy coached team with few breakdowns, although there were some. Compared to previous years, we showed that this is a more mature unit whose play adjusts to the character of the game. The big difference is the coach has enough players to play the lower lines more minutes. My unsung hero in this game was Greenway. He shined when we were down a man in OT. He's a big man who plays big and smart. After watching this game it is difficult to single out many players (except for UPL) for their exceptional play because they all played soundly within the system. Surely, there were some breakdowns but in a fast paced game there will always be some breakdowns. If Tuch was a better finisher he would be an all-star. Byram played more than 32 minutes. He and Dahlin seemed to always be on the ice. I can't say that the Cozens line stood out but they appear to incrementally be getting better. Thier line did score a goal. Tage's blasts are awe inspiring. JJP's shoutout goal was sparkling. Calgary is a good and tough team. A win against them should be appreciated. Let's go for 4 straight Monday.

If you usually beat the teams that you should, then from a playoff standpoint you should be in good shape. Losing to the Islanders at home when their best player was back in Jersey was a gut wrenching WTF loss. You can't throw away those golden opportunities when presented because those "should have" points add up in the year end tally. For this team, the margin of error is small. Just maybe, one positive takeaway from that enraging loss was that it made the coach lose his patience and put some slacker heads on the chopping block that resulted in the rest of the lineup to play with more purpose and attention to details. There are a lot of things to focus on watching this game. For me, I will give special attention to the Benson/Cozens/Quinn line. If that line can play up to the expectation many of us had for it, that would be a major plus for this team as the season moves on. If not, the coach will be involved on another line reshuffling.

You bring up an interesting issue (intended or not) regarding scouting and roster building when comparing Zucker to Hall. Too often for the Sabres, the decision-makers seemed to be more interested in adding players without consideration to what the actual team need was. This offseason, there was a decided effort to better balance out this roster and have players who fit roles. The bottom half of our roster has been dramatically overhauled with the addition of nearly half a dozen players, who although none of them would be categorized as upper tier players, all are tough and responsible players. Collectively, they brough an element of maturity that did not previously exist and also had the benefit of supporting our younger players. I have been critical of KA for some specific deals (notably Mitts for Byram) but in general this was a good offseason for the front office. It didn't splurge but rather was judicious and discriminating in who they brought in. Maybe this can be attributed to the Lindy influence?

I wouldn't dangle Samuelsson for a first rounder. We don't need future draft picks; we need players who can play now. This team is starting to have depth that will come into play as the season grinds on. Samuelsson seemed to lose some of his game since having to contend with a series of injuries. I'm confident he will get it back. He's far from being an upper echelon player but that doesn't mean that he can't be a solid/good player for us this season.

Some quick thoughts on this game: The first star should go to UPL. His positioning was superb and he was always under control. This was a game where it was hard to single out any one particular player because everyone played well. Our forwards were all over the Rangers not giving them any space to work with. Our defense got the puck quickly and efficiently out of the zone. Benson has perked up the Cozens line. What was encouraging is that Quinn is getting more active. If this line can play well it balances out our offense. Clifton and Gilbert are playing well. The neatest play of the game was Zucker winning on battle on the boards and making a nifty puck to Greenway for the score. Shesterkin was horrible. The first goal he gave up to Dahlin was horrible. It should have been an easy stop. What's encouraging beyond the recent two winning games is how this team played. They were tough, gritty and tenacious. The players are buying in to how Lindy wants them to play. The players that KA added this offseason have altered the character of this team for the better. Greenway is becoming one of my favorite players. When you get good netminding it gives you a good chance to win. UPL is seizing the opportunity to be our primary goalie. Great win. Let's keep it going and get back into the fray sooner rather than later.

Zucker, Aube-Kubel, Lafferty, Malenstyn and McClead were all are good pickups. Collectively, they added speed, tenacity and experience to the roster. What the GM did this offseason is noticeably strengthen the lower half of the roster. And the bonus is that Zucker has the ability to play on a variety of lines and PP providing net presence to a team that historically was weak in that critical area. Zucker's net presence against Ottawa was a major factor in that game.

Ottawa is 5-1 at home and 1-5 on the road. So I'm not going to get carried away overinterpreting our good play against them last night. Their disparity in play between home and away games indicates that they have not established a consistent baseline of play. I thought that Ullmark struggled last night. He gave up a couple of very weak goals, crushing goals. I'm not complaining. It was a good win for us. If this style of play would have been replicated in our other games we would have at least two to three more wins. With Lindy at the helm I have more confidence that the players will conform to a higher and more consistent standard of play than with Granato.

Absolutely not!

If he has to clear waivers I'm sure that's why he is kept up? I'm not really sure on that issue. The positives you have seen on Quinn are not what I have seen. He's a shell of a player from what he has previously displayed. He has little spark compared to what he has exhibited before. His game is very flat with no impact. That's what I see. It would be such a bonus if he can revitalize his game to his previous form.

I have a lot of regard for Benson and his potential. After watching him play it seems to me his value doesn't relate to his goal stats. Whether he is on the second line with Cozens or on another line he is going to be the digger more than the finisher on that line. As far as the Quinn malaise, I just don't know what the source of his deteriorating play is. Is it physical or mental? JJP and he were a duo that I thought were going to grow together. Both showed exciting promise. JJP is playing with confidence and with a smile while Quinn has faded to the point where he is invisible on the ice. You can't have that on the second line, one of your primary lines. I thought that Kulich should have been kept up and Quinn relegated to the lower league in the hope that he would find his game. The Quinn retraction is troubling. I'm baffled by his play.

Some quick thoughts on this game: UPL would get my first star. Tage and the first line looked really good. JJP has taken a step up and belongs on the first line. Collectively, the additions that KA brought in this offseason were positives. They give this team more tenacity and speed. Benson added a spark to the Cozens line. Cozens is putting himself in position to get chances. Simply not converting. Quinn is a major disappointment. He's invisible. He's like an athlete who has a major injury and isn't the same player the next year. There's no spark to his game. I was touting him to even be better than JJP and take the next step up. So far, I have been dead wrong. Our net presence on office was superb. Byram scored goals because of it. See what happens when you get your shots on net. As others have said, Bryson is a good utility defenseman. Greenway is a big player who plays big. He's a tough dude. Hist hits were clean and were knocking players off their feet. The players seemed to play with desperation throughout the game. There were few down periods and lapses. I'm not going to over-interpret this win. So far this season, Ottawa has been a horrible road team and a good home team. A win is a win. If the Sabres would have played with the same consistent effort in their other games, we would have at least two to three more wins.

We are in accord. A rare occurrence but obviously so. When he took over the hockey operation it was evident that there was going to be a building process. The time is over with. You get judged on your record just like everyone else in the business. No more excuses!

https://www.google.com/search?q=milquetoast&oq=milque&aqs=chrome.0.0i433i512j69i57j0i433i512j0i512l7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 I really believe that KA's rebuild would have been a lot more successful if he added some flexibility and creativity to his mostly "draft and develop" plan. Too much patience and not enough urgency. He simply didn't have the wherewithal to sometimes think outside of his self-imposed small box. He's simply not big enough for task.

There's no question that the owner significantly meddled when he took over the team. And its likely he did it for years. But I'm not as sure as you are that he is doing it as much as many people think. It's probable that Terry Pegula requires hockey decisions be approved by him before they go into effect. Basically, he wants to be informed ahead of time. There's nothing wrong or unusual about that. He's paying the salaries. I'm harsher in my assessment of KA than you appear to be. When the Sabres were stumbling it was KA who had the ear of the owner. He ended up as the head of the hockey operation. He had a plan that he publicly stated: Draft and develop. The intention was to jettison the old core for a new core that needed time to develop. My criticism of the congenial GM is not that he had a bad plan of basically starting over. It is that he was too rigid in not tweaking it enough to bring in the right players to support the new youngish core. I said this before so I apologize for the redundancy: He's a checkers player playing a chess game. In my opinion, he's overmatched as far as I'm concerned. With a little more flexibility and creativity, he could have mostly maintained his strategy to rebuild and been more successful. You are what your record is.

The Sabres are at a point where the age issue should not be considered a mitigating factor when judging its record. Yes, we are young relative to most teams. But there were opportunities to add a couple to a few medium veterans to this roster to better balance this roster. As an example, a second line veteran and alto so a veteran blueliner could have been added to better round out this laden young roster. It should be noted that our lower lines were reconstructed with experienced players this offseason. It also has to be factored in that a number of our young players got early NHL ice time and although are far from being seasoned veterans do have plenty of NHL experience. I would say Dahlin, Joki, Cozens, Samuelsson, Quinn (plagued with injuries), and JJP etc. fall in that category. Our GM has built this team the way he wanted to. Our record is our record. You could have a young roster and be successful. And you can have an older roster and be successful. We are what our record indicates. No more excuses. (Note: I'm not saying that you are saying otherwise.)

As you point out, Lindy is already in the building. It's very likely that his voice is presently influential. I'm confident that bringing in players to staff the lower lines this offseason was driven by the new coach. The GM could have added even more talent this offseason. He certainly had the wherewithal to do so. He didn't. He's a checker's player in a chess match. He's in over his head. His record is a testament to that.

Excellent summarization. The basic point you are making is that this franchise has failed due to its accumulation of bad or at least unwise hockey decisions by the staff. We have had the draft capital, cap room and enough player options in the market to upgrade the roster. The GM didn't or more likely was incapable of using his resources to make this team more competitive. The GM's a small picture guy in a big picture position. That's an incongruity that leads to perennial mediocrity. It's exasperating.

It appears that he didn't do too well. His balls were too slick.

OK, let's not assign blame for KA for the Reinhart situation. He's been the GM for, I believe, at least 4 yrs. He's the top person running the hockey operation. What's his record? Where is this team at now and what are its prospects in the near future? Eichel, Reinhart, ROR et al wanted out for the basic reason that they wanted to win and be with a serious team in the league. What happens when Dahlin and other gets to that WTF point and want out because they feel stuck on an irrelevant non-playoff team? The Sabres are mired in generational mediocrity not because of any inherent disadvantages that other franchises don't also have to contend with. It's the accumulation of bad decisions that has weighed this franchise down. This is not a lost season yet. But unless some sense of urgency is displayed by the players and organization is exhibited, the same cycle of failure will be repeated again. It gets tiresome.

Matt Millen was a disaster. KA is basically mediocre. In the end what does it matter. Mediocrity begets mediocrity. Your record is your record.

I'm not putting the onus on KA for all the transactions that happened before him. That would be unfair. But what I can say is that the GM has been in his position long enough (at least four years) where this team should be better positioned for success. The GM had a plan to rebuild from scratch. That's the source of my angst with him. Although it was the right thing to do, he didn't have the creativity and flexibility to tweak it to accelerate the transition. As I said in prior posts, I don't understand his antipathy toward Mitts. The player's agent stated that the GM made no offers to him before being dealt for Byram. Are the Sabres made better in that exchange? I would say no. The Reinhart deal is even more perplexing, if not peculiar. The player was willing to sign an extension. The GM declined. So he ended up being a UFA and dealt for an imbalanced return. Reinhart was one of the best players on a Cup winning team. And in my estimation, he is an upper echelon player in the league. Are we better off not signing him when the opportunity existed? Definitely not. These are self-inflicted wounds that not only didn't make us better but set this franchise back, again, and again, and again. There is no question that our clueless owner has interfered with hockey decisions. I'm not sure that is the case now, at least to the extent that he did when he first bought the team. My hope is that he learned his lesson with the Bills allowing the football people to make the decisions. Compare the two organizations. The Bills are one of the best run football operations in the NFL, as indicated by their record over a sustained period of time. I'm not publicly lamenting to discourage others. We are where we are not because of any inherent obstacles but rather because of an accumulation of unwise decisions. Buffalo is an unattractive franchise for many players not because it is Buffalo per se. It is because of the deserved reputation of its historical ineptitude. I'm counting on Lindy to alter the lax attitude of the players and force them pay more attention to details. Especially, in this particular sport the difference between success and failure is miniscule. And if some of the players are not receptive to his coaching wisdom, they will be held accountable. Enough is enough!

I'm sure you are aware that you could have used a more provocative picture of a sausage that would have drawn the ire of the people who monitor this site. 😀

No one is disputing the fact that the owner's presence hovers over this flaccid franchise. However, our GM was definitely instrumental for dealing Mitts for Byram, and if I'm not mistaken was the GM who didn't sign Reinhart to an extension when he had the opportunity to do so.

I live in the MD/DC area. What Washington has done since winning the Cup is steadily and smartly transitioned their roster from the aging Cup roster to its current younger and more competitive roster. Not every personnel decision has worked out over the past few years, which it never does for any organization. But in general, they have made more right decisions than wrong decisions. Our GM, who was hired out of the business side of the Pegula business, essentially let Mitts and Reinhart go when he had the ability to re-sign them. Ask yourself, looking back are we a better or worse team for those two decisions? While other franchises move forward, we continue to tread water. Mediocrity begets mediocrity. It starts at the top. I'm not in a state of despair and consider this a lost season, at least not right now. But what's most exasperating is that this franchise has imprisoned itself in the house of irrelevance by its own handcuffing.

I no longer accept excuses for this bedraggled franchise. There is no excuse for not qualifying for the playoffs (in an expanded system) in a generation. I'm not a despairing fan. I recognize that there is a good chance that we will make the playoffs this year. But I'm not going allow excuses to rationalize this generational failure. Our record is our record. Bad hockey decisions made on top of bad decisions resulting where we are now, and where we have been for a generation. That is not acceptable to me. There are plenty of reasons why the many players in this league have no trade clauses to Buffalo in their contracts. It has little to do with the city as it has to do with how our franchise is viewed by outsiders. Reinhart is one of the best players on a Stanley Cup team He's also an upper echelon player in the league. We had him in our system and had the ability to retain him. The GM decided not to do so. It was not a good decision. No GM makes decisions where all turn out right. However, our GMs have a history of making enough bad decisions that have kept this franchise mired in the muck of mediocrity. No more excuses!