IKnowPhysics

https://www.nhl.com/sabres/news/buffalo-sabres-nhl-fanatics-debut-on-ice-player-uniforms-for-2024-25-season

I've got no problem with Girgs. He's a hardworking soldier. He leads the team in hits/60. His line did a good job preventing goals against, and Z's HDGF/60 is more than some because his strength is good in front of the net. But his stats are meh. I'm not sure we need him and Greenway, as their stats are basically identical. But if we ditch Z, who's left on LW after Skinner and Greenway...? I'm torn between wanting: A young skilled kid from Rochester to take his place and get playing time. Ditch Girgs, put Greenway in his spot, and get a different veteran leader for the team (preferably playoff-seasoned). Keep him as a veteran leader, but ditch Greenway. Free agent player with scoring grit. I also checked, Z never played for Ruff. Z was still in Rochester Ruff's last year. I think the takeaway is that Z hasn't cracked 20 points in the last eight seasons and this makes him expendable. Maybe especially so if we need more leadership or more scoring or more grit-that-scores.

I get it, I do. But if I have to eat orange marmalade to flavor up my dry toast, I prefer that to the ***** sandwich that is a handful of Pierre McGuires blubbering about the big-body-big-stick of the best player of his birth-year-month. Hell, I would take Jack Edwards over that *****, and I hate Jack Edwards.

Living in Rick's shadow is an impossible task. Calling play-by-play radio style, instead of television style with endless irrelevant yammering; see also Emerick, et al, is also a rarity now. Most Buffalo fans would haaaate TV style, especially after Rick. We're lucky that the Sabres broadcast team didn't change over. Dan's better than many. He's also a bit like dry toast, which makes the banter with a silly Rayzor warmly welcomed to me.

Even the robots get it.

Wholeheartedly agree. Over the last two seasons, including his rookie season, Quinn has the highest individual 5v5 G/60 and P/60 of the Sabre forwards behind Skinner/Thompson/Tuch. His 19P in 27GP this season was a 57 point pace as a sophomore 22 year old. He also has the highest individual points percentage of Sabre forwards (an insane 84.21% IPP, 7th among league forwards for >300minutes), which means he's contributing on basically everything that's scored when he's on. He's a future star player.

Using only the percentages (like CF%) washes away some meaning, as they're a combination of the for and against stats (like CF/60 and CA/60). Johnson's % numbers are reasonably good because his against stats are fantastic (best CA/60, HDCA/60, etc), but his for numbers are only ok. As a rookie Dman whose specialty is defending, I'm not mad that they kept him off the PP, and therefore I don't think the staff "wasted" a good player. He'll grow and get more situational time. If you want, bitch about about how much Erik Johnson played, but it's no longer an issue either.

Meruelo is a delusional narcissist that won't admit defeat despite his ineptitude and toxicity. He'll pretend he still owns a franchise with zero hockey being played. He still thinks he's the lone savior despite everyone and everything in Arizona refusing to work with him. The NHL is simpler: it's always money. They can get Meruelo an expansion team or a moved team for him. Or they can plug in a expansion team into Arizona with a different owner and then either buy the IP rights back from Meruelo or just plug in a non-Coyotes franchise without the rights. They don't give a *****. Money over everything.

100%. If anyone is interested in understanding how hockey in the desert really fell apart, read these, especially the first one. ***** ownership from minute one. If you had any shred of thinking that the municipalities or the arenas or the fans or the sponsors were to blame for the final death knell, get corrected. Meruelo's squad ran a toxic and inept organization that ruined employee, partnering company, sponsorship, hockey management, player, media, and government relationships. https://theathletic.com/2390146/2021/02/16/arizona-coyotes-investigation-toxic/ https://theathletic.com/5439189/2024/04/24/arizona-coyotes-alex-meruelo-utah-nhl/ 12ft.io

Pegula:

Hard to disagree with anything Ruff said today.

Who the ***** is Alice?

I'll further add that in 5v5, the Sabres score more with Skinner on the ice than any other player (outside of JQ's 17 games) and Skinner's GA/60 is middle-off-the-team, better than Jordan Greenway's. There's not going to be a buyout, Sabres can't afford the cap hit and it doesn't make any sense with a productive player. Soonest exit would be to a playoff team in trade, maybe with salary retention, but good luck doing a one-for-one shipping Skinner out in order to land what the Sabres need... a scoring forward? Sabres aren't desiring to take a package in return unless they're desperate to get him out. I assume the usual asset management techniques apply and if the Sabres don't want Skinner, they move him the summer before his last contract year, which would be 2026, presuming he waives his NMC. He may decline to move, and then it's the same situation as a rental at the trade deadline in 2027.

I'll also add that Skinner scored 40, 33, and 35 in non-Krueger years and is scoring at a 30 goal pace this year.

This flawed logic implies that Jordan Greenway deserves top line money for playing on the top line. He doesn't. Jeff Skinner leads the team in goals. This also assumes that 3rd line is "defensive." It's not. Player usage charts show that ___-Thompson-Tuch play against the hardest opponents and that Krebs plays against significantly weaker opponents. Maybe Granato wants Skinner-Krebs-Benson to light up the other team's scrubs.

Donald Audette

STRK W3

Initial estimate at time of surgery on 1/29 was out eight weeks, which would be 3/25. NHL.com reported a recovery time on 2/4 at 6-8 weeks, which could be as early as 3/17. We've got two games before 3/17 and six games before 3/25. Ten games follow 3/25. Seeing as it's estimated we need at least 24 points on 16 games, even if we get as little as four points in the next six games, we could theoretically bring Quinn back to win out the remaining ten games. I think you see Quinn again this season unless there's a medical setback that pushes his return way past 3/25.

Sabres playoff chances: Bowen Byram showing up at the deadline:

It should be noted that Byram's D partner during his dominant 2022 cup-winning playoffs was Erik Johnson.

Just by getting EJ out and creating a forward roster position, thus will be a net positive for us. Not saying we won the trade, but we improved.

I hope others that think you have good ideas are inspired enough to follow your lead.