How well have we addressed our team speed issue?

[dudacek]

It was a stated goal in the off-season. Have we improved?

Eichel: moves the puck fast, skates really fast

Skinner: moves the puck fast, skates really fast

Reinhart: moves the puck really fast, arguably the slowest skater ever to play professional hockey

Okposo: adequate, adequate when healthy

Mittelstadt: still adjusting to NHL speed; more quick than fast

Sheary: moves the puck OK; skates really fast

Thompson, moves the puck OK; skates OK

Berglund: adequate, adequate

Sobotka: average, average

Girgensons: not a great puck mover, good skater

Rodrigues: solid puckmover, solid skater

Elie: non-factor as a puck mover, fast skater

Wilson: dependable puck mover, good skater

Larsson: adequate puck mover, slow skater

Risto: OK puck mover, solid skater

Scandella: OK puck mover, good skater

Dahlin: good puck mover, excellent skater

McCabe: adequate puck mover, adequate skater

Beaulieu: poor puck mover, good skater

Nelson: decent puck mover, good skater

Bogosian: adequate puck mover, good skater

Hutton: excellent puck mover

[pi2000]

Team speed is definitely improved.   

ROR is not fast, and he played a ton of minutes... switching him with a faster player will be noticeable. 

[SDS]

A key to your levels would be helpful.

[jsb]

41 minutes ago, dudacek said:

It was a stated goal in the off-season. Have we improved?

 

Reinhart: moves the puck really fast, arguably the slowest skater ever to play professional hockey

 

You may have to revise this in bold, he looked much quicker in the preseason action I saw, McDavid he isn't but Cody Franson he isn't either.

[Taro T]

Kane gone - fast

O'Reilly gone - average/ slowish

Pouliot gone - slow

Josefson gone - decent wheels

Nolan gone - average

Baptiste gone - fast

Bailey essentially gone - fast

Antipin gone - good speed

Gorges gone - molasses

Falk gone - slow

 

Overall, speed is increased, but not as much as we expect IMHO.  Hopefully pace of play is significantly increased.

[dudacek]

Kyle Okposo likes what he sees:

With the addition of both Skinner and Sheary to the group, Okposo feels that one key element has been upgraded this offseason in the Sabres lineup - speed.

"I think it's vastly improved," Okposo said. "You add Patrik Berglund, who's an awesome guy, a great veteran presence to have in our locker room, just a smart player. Then you add Casey Mittelstadt. He's probably not known as the fastest guy, but he can move and he can think when he's going at a high rate of speed and his hands are always going. You add Tage Thompson in the mix too, and he's a big guy that can get up and down the ice. For our forwards, I think we're definitely in a better place than where we were last year. I'm looking forward to seeing what we can do."

https://wgr550.radio.com/articles/news/okposo-our-speed-front-has-vastly-improved

[Sabres Fan in NS]

I think that Dahlin and Eich will be the most magical tandem since LaLa and Alex.

[North Buffalo]

Speed has vastly improved.  D could use a guy or two with more and still have hockey sense.  Ghule has speed but seems to lack vision.  Wonder if he could play wing. Additions of Tage, Mitts, Skinner, Sheary and Dhalin are a big step forward.  Beaulieu if he could ever cut out the brain farts... seemed better in preseason set up Sabres with a good start.  Nelson is growing on me especially as a 5-6 guy.  Loss of Bogo not seeing as big a deal though Sabres could use another big guy who can skate on back end besides Risto.  It will be interesting.  Hoping one of the goslies can develop into a shutdown guy and Hutton seems like an big upgrade till then.

[Randall Flagg]

Skating speed seems improved. Hope to see it manifest in our game. 

[IKnowPhysics]

23 hours ago, jsb said:

You may have to revise this in bold, he looked much quicker in the preseason action I saw, McDavid he isn't but Cody Franson he isn't either.

Yeah, I don't know how people forget that NHL players like Hal Gill and Derian Hatcher existed.

[GASabresIUFAN]

Duda,  I’ll take a small issue with your characterizations of Samson and Tage.  

Samson is an average skater.  Not the slowest by any means.  Just seems slower when next to Jack.  He also plays faster then he skates.

Thompson surprised me in camp. He is much faster then the scouting reports have said.  I’d say he is above average skater, especially given his size.  

[dudacek]

I think Samson is an average skater. The ranking above was purely for the edification of @nfreeman who somehow has always confused Reinhart for Andreychuk.

Edited October 3, 2018 by dudacek

[Huckleberry]

1 hour ago, dudacek said:

I think Samson is an average skater. The ranking above was purely for the edification of @nfreeman who somehow has always confused Reinhart for Andreychuk.

Okposo  / Larsson are our slowest I think.

[PerreaultForever]

We are faster but not sure if we are fast enough.

The key for me is the transition game. We have been dreadful at the D getting the puck up to the forwards quickly. Dahlin in time will improve that. How good we are at that this year might determine how good we do. 

[Weave]

I’m not in the least bit worried about team speed.  What they needed was players who could play at a faster pace.  Skinner is definitely one.  We’ll see how the rest shake out.

[pi2000]

1 hour ago, Weave said:

I’m not in the least bit worried about team speed.  What they needed was players who could play at a faster pace.  Skinner is definitely one.  We’ll see how the rest shake out.

We'll stated.  There's a big difference between speed and playing fast.

[Kruppstahl]

On 10/3/2018 at 10:28 PM, pi2000 said:

We'll stated.  There's a big difference between speed and playing fast.

I'd like to see both.

Team speed did not seem improved during game play tonight against the Bruins.  We still look slow, in both senses referenced above.  

But speed without commitment, hustle, and compete, is meaningless.

 

 

[GASabresIUFAN]

Apparently not.