RochesterExpat

Second and third period amateur scouting report: Kisakov, Kulich and Kozak are all noticeable but for different reasons. Rosen looks good. Cederqvist is something else. Kisakov plays some serious heads up hockey and he has some real speed. He is always scanning when he has the puck. The downside is I think sometimes he looks around too much and doesn’t make the same instinct plays we see from others. It kind of negates his speed in a way. Not sure how to describe it. Kulich kind of reminds me of Peterka but maybe not with the same intensity per se. He has a motor to him. Curious how he’s going to look toward the end of the season when he’s got more ice time in NA under his belt. Kozak is not afraid to hit, get hit or chase the puck. My only criticism is he has carried the puck a few times in transition when he shouldn’t have. I think that’s probably a carryover from Juniors when he could get away with that. Rosen continues to look much better than he did in the SHL or in the preseason. I’m going to admit I may have underestimated him a bit. Looking forward to see how he does across the season. Cederqvist is unreasonably fast for a player of his size. I don’t understand how he’s not on the scoresheet every night other than he seems to disappear at times—which is remarkable considering his size. Kind of an enigma.

Amerks get the go ahead with 3 seconds left. Legace tried to cover the puck and pulled it under him into the net. I don’t know who scored. He made up for the missed call lol

Syracuse ties it 3-3. Centering pass that gets redirected into the net. Can’t fault UPL for that. Second Syracuse goal he overcommitted to the shot on the two on one. I didn’t see the first one.

Weissbach again

It says more about how they feel about the waiver system and Pilut being waivers exempt.

Shots per 60 is up something like 15% in the last 20 years. 35 is the new 40.

Last season he finished second in GSAx per 60 among all goalies playing at least 7 games. So clearly he isn't improving. We should be concerned.

Normally I'm hesitant to see an AHL defenseman get recalled, but I'm kind of excited to see Pilut play.

Good example: his goal last night is because he willed it. He literally stood next to a defenseman and buried his own rebound that was sitting behind the goalie. The dman couldn't move him. He hasn't been playing as a complete player and that's the problem. He's also only in his second real season in the NHL and this might be the proverbial sophomore slump. We need to be patient with him. I think he might do well to go down to Rochester for a bit to restore his confidence. He dominated in the Amerks playoff run last year. I'm not worried about him. He is still very young.

I think you might be right with this one. It's why I said that that he's passing the eye test. It's just the only advanced stat that stands out to me as not really aligning well with what we're seeing.

Also a prime Darryl Sutter quote: Reporter: "What was the thought process on going to Dan Vladar after the first period?" Sutter: "Because you've got two goalies."

Funny enough, Comrie has a .946 on 5v5 SV%. He is bringing down Anderson's stats of .966. Anderson also has a higher GSAx per 60 at 5v5 than Comrie (.975 vs .967). Comrie's is higher for all situations. On the eye test, I don't see anything wrong with Comrie's play, but if we look at his advanced stats, he's giving up a lot of rebounds. He's 10th of 63 goalies for rebounds above expected and 5th for rebounds per save. Interestingly, Anderson gave up zero rebounds in his first game, so his stats are pretty solid there to say the least. Is Buffalo just aggressively clearing these rebounds? If so, that's very promising for UPL since one of his biggest issues is rebound control.

I feel vindicated!

Funny enough, I guarantee you he’ll be the first person to admonish any reporter who suggests Buffalo isn’t a good team.

Not to disagree because I don’t, but you make him sound like he’s a fun goalie to watch. He’s weirdly... not? He just plays positional hockey so well it’s unreal. He is the opposite of MAF in that regard. I also swear Comrie is bigger in the net than he is on paper. He must have disproportionately long legs or something. I don’t get it.

Comrie’s smile is so wholesome.

Buffalo didn’t turtle up this period. They survived the fluke goal late in the 2nd and early in the 3rd. This is a good win.

Unlike last game, Buffalo is the better team tonight. This isn’t a fluke.

I love Asplund. He saw an opportunity to take a defender out of a play and potentially draw a penalty so he took it. It’s silly but it’s actually a pretty smart play.

His timing is off. I thought it might have been Fitzgerald earlier. Now I don’t know.

Thompson and Tuch are just something else together.

Comrie will want that one back but it looked like he was screened pretty well.

I am willing to bet Dahlin goes for a big hit early in this period.

Ouch