Doohicksie

This forum is an excellent sounding board for evaluating ideas that float through my brain.

Yes, I know, taking Cozens away from JJ and Quinn might be a bad move, but on the other hand, Cozens is emerging as a leader and I think he might pull Mitts and VO along behind him and not allow them to be lazy.

At this point in the season it may not even be possible. That was my point. It's not like Vezina-quality goalies are sitting on shelves waiting to be acquired.

Let's get Krebs' head screwed on straight, then put him on the line with JJ and Quinn (they played well together at AHL level), put the speedy/impatient Cozens between Mitts and VO and show them what skating is, and let Jost do his thing on Okie/Gus line.

This is my read. Or at least: I think Okie and Gus play a straightforward, north-south game. Krebsy is too much east-west. By playing with those two guys, they want him to learn to advance the puck without getting too fancy (my take). On the other line I think they want Jost's persistence and defensive responsibility to rub off on Mitts & VO. Jost is by no means a great player, but he's not afraid to act and does a good job of cleaning up his own mistakes. VO may always be a floater but Casey in particular could take a lesson from Jost.

What are you smoking? That line is actually pretty good at defending. Sure, order some from Amazon, it will arrive in 3-5 days. It's that easy, right?

Nope. I've anointed them and several others have too. Don't worry about us falling off the bandwagon, we've done it before.

Yes they did, but it's not major. My recollection was that a lot of people, some tongue-in-cheek, some serious, hailed Casey as a savior of sorts. I was on that train a while, as I am apt to jump on these hype trains. That said... I never thought he'd be a $10 million per year player. Now someone pass me @PerreaultForever's crack pipe.

Indeed. I think the thing that sets them apart from other lines, especially with younger players, is they are, all three of them, defensively very good. I think it was Quinn that said in yesterday's postgame that they generate offense from sound defense. They actively participate in the defense, but also remember how out-of-joint all of the forward lines looked when we had our defensive injuries. You need sound defensive pairings and solid forward support to defend properly and quickly transition to offense. The Cozens line is a poster child for that. In general I do like that the Sabres often have a guy that will pull out of the defensive zone and streak down toward the opposing blue line when the Sabres get firm control in the defensive zone, and that the defenders know to look for the long bomb aerial outlet pass. I think that's generated a lot of offensive chances for the team. What sets the Cozens line apart is they are all so speedy that those long passes can quickly turn into 2- and 3-man rushes.

Joki is a solid 4D. As long as he doesn't have to fight over his weight class, he does fine. But we all saw when the injuries hit that when asked to elevate his game, he didn't have it in him. Still, I think if he's not asked to play above 4D level he'll be fine going forward. Ideally the Sabres will bring in defensemen that will push him down to a 3rd pairing which would make him even more valuable to the team.

We'll have to wait and see. They have some things to work on, but they're already putting up points *and* suppressing chances against. I'd like them be able to spend more extended times in the offensive zone instead of simply producing rush chances then falling back on defense. But overall they are really burning it up out there and chances are they will only improve.

Sure there will be slumps but the overall trajectory of this line is still, and will continue to be, very positive. There is a chemistry and a synergy between these three players that seems to be bootstrapping this line steadily upward.

Tage line: Three virtuosos who can complement each other's solos. Cozens line: A monolithic unit, perfectly in sync at all times. Our top two lines each produced 3 goals last night. But they are very different to play against. The Tage line is just hard to get the puck away from once they get it. Even once they lose the puck their recovery is pretty strong. Cozens line is more about speed and passing. I can see with just a modest boost out of the bottom 6 and decent goaltending that the Sabres could be a handful for any team. I know coming into the season there was some debate over whether Dylan or Mittsy would have a breakout season. We have that answer: Cozens is the pivot on what could soon rival The Perfection Line.

That preview tho 👀

And it's already slowing down for him after only a quarter of a season at the NHL level 👀

Both goals last night and the shootout goal against Detroit were all elite level moves: The shootout was an extreme maneuver that you see few players even attempt, and now that he's done it he can use that to leverage other approaches. The powerplay goal last night featured maneuvering in traffic and a quick release. On the Sabres besides him I think only Tage Thompson and Jeff Skinner are even capable of doing that. The rush goal was a perfectly placed shot taken while skating full speed to get up into the play. We could go through the rest of his goals and probably at least half of them display a skill or tactic you just don't see many other players attempt and just makes you jump out of your seat. And it doesn't come out of nowhere; the various videos of Jack attempting the same maneuver going back to prospect camp shows that he spends time on this kind of stuff.

The Bills had an excellent day and didn't even play 😄

And this is your area of expertise, no?

It's not just that Quinn scores. It's how he scores. He makes plays that definitely earn the goal gif He pulls moves that you just don't see a rookie doing in the NHL. The power play goal tonight was a great example, baiting the Dman, then toe-dragging the puck back in before snapping off a lazer. He's just flummoxing.

Yeah. I'm a little lost, as well. Should I know who that person is? Dion Dawkins (Bills offensive tackle). He goes to a lot of the games.

You look at our top scorers and something jumps right out...

It moves every time the Cozens line hits the ice.