Ctaeth

Amerks had a good year. I know thats not what people want to hear because they have their issues with the Sabres. But that was a successful season I do have one thing to say regarding the playoffs though. The Noah Östlund disappearing act in the playoffs hurt them bad. After that first stretch where he was figuring out the north American game, he was roughly a point per game player. They needed this guy to show up and he didn't. I know he had less opportunities bc of kulich, but you have to do more than 2 assists in 8ish games

Watch helenius stare down the laval players after the shorty 😂

Need a couple of big periods from levi

He would be a great fit on the Sabres. We have a lot of shooters and someone that can create some space would help support those guys. And he is great defensively. It just feels like a pipe dream. Hope they still try to get him though

I'll add that the argument he is making about the Amerks (i.e. team balance etc.) isn't something that would show up in game highlights anyway

Are you actually watching Amerks games or just saying these things based on what happens with the sabres? Serious question Edit: just to be clear, I'm not saying this to be rude. I think the amerks did a better job of building an all around roster than they have in years past, as @DarthEbriate outlined in the post above. But also, your earlier comment about them not being able to build rosters at either level was kind of wild to me. The amerks have done pretty well the last few years

Was at the game last night. Amerks controlled play and deserved to win. Even though they were down at one point (3-2), it didn't feel out of reach. They got production from their big guns and that will have to continue if they are going to win the series. Agree on rosen looking great. During each intermission, the jumbotron cut to the team in the tunnel. Every time they did, rosen was the one going around the room and giving fist bumps. Disregard his points and he still played a great game. Lots of chances Östlund looked to be primarily playing wing. Not sure how comfortable he is there. Probably got moved over when kulich came down. Was a chippy game. Stuff going on after every whistle. This team can play that sort of game though. They rose to the occasion

Seems like a silly thing to say in a thread discussing Amerks playoff hockey

Well that's not how you finish a period

Too much faith is put in UPL based on one portion of a good season. Aside from one portion of one year (a contract year at that).. he's been pretty bad. Letting UPL continue as a number one is a hope based strategy. You hope that he plays better than he historically has...

Mystery solved: the amerks were behind the switch to this 2-3 format. https://x.com/GeneBattaglia/status/1920660048226685004?t=XJLKYus6Y_H-7AJNNSuAKA&s=19

With the last 3 games being in laval, they really need to jump on them during those first two home games. Long break might make that hard to do

If we keep reimer, maybe they can form a club?

Going to be tough to find a former GM to play the "Kevyn Adams support role". Anyone accepting that position... I immediately question their thought process

What happens if the sabres make the playoffs this coming year? We will likely be talking about a kevyn adams extension 😆

So Jack Quinn got the strength and conditioning guy fired?

Good luck Jake Vernon and Pete Guelli

kind of disappointed about this. He has had two good seasons in liiga and I thought we might see him on the amerks next year. Hopefully it doesn't come back to bite them. Or maybe hopefully it does for the players sake?

feels pretty bad to have the sabres picking only ninth after how poorly this past season went. they were in last place in the conference for what felt like an eternity.

If Laval wins vs Cleveland, Amerks are going to have a tough matchup. One of the few teams that Amerks have struggled against. They were 2-6 vs Laval during the regular season (wins vs losses only, idk what their record is with OT/shootouts etc... but that doesn't really matter in the playoffs anyway)

I didn't realize they scratched Brannstrom. Wild to be scratching an NHL caliber player in the AHL... but I suppose I can't argue with the results

really enjoyed the game on Sunday. it wasn't a full house. there was a crowd there, but maybe 2/3 capacity? those that did go definitely got treated to a pretty good game (if you're rooting for the amerks). summary of what i saw: the amerks came out buzzing at the start. initially, they were all over the crunch. the first goal (helenius) was partially a result of luck. the puck was knocked up into the air and landed right in front of helenius, who happened to be in front of the net. two things lead to this goal imo: they were initially controlling play and helenius went to the goal. good things happen when you go to the goal! after the goal was scored, the team seemed to settle down and the crunch started controlling the flow of play more. with that being said, the crunch didn't really threaten levi much despite the number of shots they took. the amount of high danger chances was pretty minimal. the crunch were controlling the flow of the game until the komarov fight. even though komarov got caved in, the fight did two things imo. he stopped the crunch's momentum and gave the amerks motivation (i forget who, but i saw an interview on twitter/x that said that they had to do it for komarov). was great timing for the fight (if the timing was intentional, good on him). honestly, i'm not sure if they win this without the fight. komarov definitely held his own, but i think he got too aggressive and left the other guy an opening. all it takes is one bad one getting through. hopefully this doesn't discourage him from fighting in the future. it got really chippy really quickly after that. the refs quickly called another penalty to try to retake control of the game, putting the amerks on the powerplay and kulich cashed it in. they needed that goal really badly and it set them up to win nicely. clague had a really nice day. great shot for the third goal and i think he assisted on one of the earlier goals too. on the empty net goal, it looked like it was going to be icing. i think the ref was about to blow it dead and then saw rosen flying down there. he can really fly. he beat the crunch player to puck cleanly and scored from a funny angle. as far as empty netters go, seemed like a pretty good one. after the eng and the amerks up 4-0, you could just feel the crunch were going to try to pull something. things got physical. my favorite was actually helenius in this situation. even after the game ended, he was surrounded by crunch players and was still barking at them with his helmet off. he's got some spunk for sure All in all, it was nice to see some playoff hockey. It really is just a different beast relative to the regular season. I never was able to experience a live Sabres playoff game when I was younger, so here's hoping that this happens in Buffalo soon

Been really chippy. They needed that kulich goal

nice win, keep it rolling. i'm headed to the game on sunday