Porous Five Hole

Impossible to answer, but what is the drop off between Benson right now and a Jiri Kulich call up? Kulich is sporting 6G 3A, +4 in seven games played in the AHL this year. I realize your point is about the development of Benson, but in terms of what makes the most sense for the Sabres in 2023…I think it’s Benson back to juniors to gain some weight and Kulich (or Rosen if more defensively responsible than Jiri) into the lineup.

Hard to argue against this, but Linus had been injury prone to that point AND I believe he wanted to get outta town. This was the factory of sadness for his entire tenure. Even if GMKA chose to overpay, there’s no guarantee he would have stayed once the Bruins came calling.

VO scratched for Jost and Josty scores and was solid all day. VO may never see the ice again.

Man, Casey has been a different guy the last 60 games. I think I need to reevaluate my stance on trading him.

The save where it hit the goat head and it was still hard for UPL to control it?

Goat heads on and UPL in goal means they’ll prolly score six. 🤞

I also posted this in the wagon thread: the Amerks are 5-1-1 to start the season & all without their number one goalie.

To get five wins out of seven games and points in six out of seven, it means they got blown out one night. Their goaltending hasn’t been great, but they’re outscoring their problems. A healthy toker will help. Offense is generally ahead of defense in the first month. The Amerks are tied for the best record in the AHL, so hard to be mad at anything.

I haven’t seen that so far with his ROC starts, but anyone could get hot. I mean, UPL has some believers and his stats don’t support it.

Much love to you and yours.

The Amerks are now 5-1-1

I hope he is doing alright. I appreciated his posts.

I’m not tryna start an argument, but this wasn’t an issue down the stretch last season. Injuries are fluky.

Someone else mentioned it, but the Bruins are paper tigers. Their season started with wins over the Hawks X 2, Preds, Sharks, Kings, and Ducks. Hardly a murderers row or Vezina contenders.

A dub is a dub. Don’t give it more thought than that, because the team isn’t. We’re into Cincinnati.

You’re asking the right question out loud. Hard to say from my view, but I don’t think there’s an appreciable difference between Kulich & Benson this season. Plus Rousek may be ready as well. If the Sabres didn’t have options, I might think otherwise. But the sliding of Benson one year makes the most sense to me given the stable of prospects available.

I have to remind myself that some of these guys are still at an age where they could be in college if they weren’t an athlete. Shane is 22 and was 21 at the time of the bets. Like a lot of us, I was a dumb dumb at that age and had to learn from my mistakes. There’s no doubt he knew better, but I did some dumb stuff in college when I knew better too.

While this is true, that doesn’t mean it’s best for the individual player’s development. Players get better when they play with better players than they are. Benson isn’t going to find that in Wenatchee The interesting question is, is it worth a year off of his ELC? Ultimately I agree with you that it is not.

This explains everything as to why he wasn’t signed in the offseason.

For all the hot takes in this thread, the Amerks have started 3-1-1 without their starting goalie

Maybe, but the nfl has lots of draft day trades and they’re not all in the same room.

Spencer Knight sighting

Yzerman has been the GM of Detroit for 4.5 years and has zero playoff appearances. How long does he get? However long that is, should then be the litmus test for GMKA then, right?

Now we're in the driving board