Doohicksie

Exactly. Kevyn was not about to get drawn into that. Nor should he have. The mistake he made was holding and unsigned Ullmark at the trade deadline. He shoulda moved him for an asset of some sort.

What I'm starting to realize is that, far from having too few quality prospects in the system (as happened during the Eichel era), there is now an abundance, and that while a lot of these guys have NHL futures, not all of them will play for the Sabres. This prospect pool will allow Kevyn to make trades to fill specific needs on the Sabres, without cleaning out the cupboard. If the Sabres are hanging around the playoffs this season and want to make a push to get over the top, they can trade a young prospect for an established NHLer in the position of need, and there will still be plenty of talent in the pipeline.

He reminds me a lot of Muel.

Nope, I don't think that's what he learned. I think no matter what he was not going to step up to retain Ullmark; he didn't see Ullmark's value that high for that long. What he learned is that an incomplete deal is no deal and he should have been planning for the eventuality of losing Ullmark. That, absent a deal, he should have traded Ullmark at the deadline for the best return he could get and immediately plan on moving on. I think Ullmark decided that unless the Sabres paid him a premium, he was was going to move on. He'd seen enough of the Eichel Sabres, a dysfunctional franchise, and wanted to play for a winner. And there was no way Kevyn was getting into a bidding war over Ullmark.

One thing I remember when living in Detroit when their run started, it seemed like whenever they had an injury on the NHL team, there was a prospect in the AHL that was just about busting at the seams to make the big club. Eventually they all got up (or a few got traded to fill areas of need). I hope this what we're beginning to see with Rochester.

The Rosen-Kulich-Rousek line was one of the best lines. There seems a natural chemistry there.

So a coupla games into the Prospects Challenge, how do you feel about the Sabres' prospect pool?

Lukas Rousek postgame interview after the Jersey game: https://www.nhl.com/sabres/video/lukas-rousek-postgame-91722/t-277437090/c-12786608 Asked how he thought Jiri Kulich did in his first game: "Good. Not bad!" Spoken with a big smile like a proud papa. You can tell there's a bond already forming between those two. I'm also amazed at how good Rousek's English is. You see players from other countries with interpreters for years. Rousek came here last year speaking no English and is pretty much conversational now. You hear some bad syntax here and there but his meaning is very clear and he appears very comfortable speaking in English. Hell, he's a better interview than Jack already.

Maybe this is why Kevyn is saying there's no downside if Portillo walks; he's already got Plan B. I genuinely think Kevyn learned something when Ullmark signed with Boston, that a deal is never done until it's done. He got caught short by that but has resolved to lever let that happen again.

Oh I think Adams knew precisely what he was doing when he took over. He was forced to keep Krueger onboard but knew he was going to jettison Jack and dump other members of the core, and knew what kinds of players he wanted in return. I think he even knew who he wanted as head coach. It was delayed a year because I think he couldn't persuade the ownership to commit to such major turnover at first, so he honestly tried to make things work with Krueger, Jack, Sam, et al. But as soon as Krueger was out of the way, as soon as the commitment to trade Jack was made, the wheels were in motion to bring us the team we're seeing today. If they hit a homerun with Comrie we might see amazing things as soon as this season.

They pointed out that Savoie has a knack for finding the dead spaces where he's not close to opposing players. A lot of great goal scorers do that. They're in the play but know just when to back into empty space to get a shot off.

I've seen reports that the sale of partial season ticket packages has been very encouraging. You saw a lot of late drafted and undrafted players trying to get noticed.

I think this is important as well: the different "generations" of Sabres are supporting each other. Cozens has been around a lot, Okie some. Now for this tourney the "graduates" of the program, so to speak. There is team building and camaraderie at every level, and it seems sincere. I felt that Reinhart didn't need to be part of the purge but maybe Adams felt that once Jack was gone, Sam wouldn't feel like he could be part of that camaraderie. The makeover was at least as much about personality and character as it was about talent, and Kevyn must have felt that Sam just was too much part of the Jack clique. The disassembly of the Rotten Core v1 was done haphazardly and without regard for the return. Rotten Core v2 was dispatched with surgical precision and the return has been building blocks of the New Core.

This is been a good... ....wait for it.... ....team building exercise for the Baby Sabres. 😄

KULICH! EN

He plays the way we wanted He Who Was The Cancer That Was Traded Away to play.

A young fan from Cheektowaga! 😄

Savoie!!!!!!!!!

Rosen, the garbage man!

Breakaway by Kisakov, Seeing-eye point shot by Sova. Kisakov has some afterburners boy, I'll tell you what.

Shots are about even, but the ice appears heavily tilted toward the NJ goal. Lots of time spent down there. Sabres playing a high speed, high pressure game; Devils have no time to think on O or D.

I'm happy with Seth. His coaching meshes with Granato's very well.

Baby Sabres playing with tons of confidence. The Granato-Appert vibe x 123%

Sova with a seeing eye goal!