Victor Olofsson - Time for his own Sabres thread

[...]

3 hours ago, dudacek said:

It’s an interesting theory, and I suspect he’d be right if we were able to run a control group experiment. Casey and Tage might be proof the Sabres are in general agreement.

But the fact remains that growth curves are all over the board. In the real world there are large numbers of players for whom the jump from junior to the NHL is too much at age 20. Most coaches are unwilling or unable to play them They need a place to play and hone their craft until they are ready for the NHL.

Whether its the AHL itself that is the root of that development, or just time, is semantics.

This is an interesting debate, indeed. I definitely do not believe the difference between the AHL and time is just semantics.  The first thing is that we'd have to qualify time.  Time in the NHL makes the most sense contextually.  So, the thesis would be: time in the AHL isn't as important (or isn't any more advantageous) as time in the NHL for developing hockey players for the NHL. Right?

Even a control group is going to overlook outliers, which perhaps with the subject are more important (relatively, of course), and more prevalent, than outliers in more common human control groups.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.  What makes a hockey player good enough to play in the NHL?  Skills, speed, conditioning.  What else quantifiable?  Can we put on paper targets every player must meet to be considered "good enough"?  Stats.  Certain metrics in their game.  Like?

How does the player achieve those metrics?  "Skills, speed, conditioning" aren't enough to answer that, IMHO.  Are there psychological factors?  I think so, but one person's desire is another person's obsession.  If we're going to test the thesis, we need to identify all parts of the player that put them over a certain threshold - the threshold being, again, "good enough" to play in the NHL.

I'm struck by Nylander's story.  We could say his experience with O'Reilly, schlepping it on buses, the lower expectations were what he needed to get to the level he's at.  Clearly if he started in the NHL with a less, uh, warm and cozy handler, being carted around in a much higher standard, with higher expectations, that is a different experience yielding a different result, no?  Would he have lasted past the first season if he started in the NHL?

Would Pominville have lasted more than a season in the NHL if that was his first and only destination option?  No way.

Anyway, I do believe time, unqualified, is a major factor, but the AHL experience might be just he sauce one player needs for a while.  That is, at least, until the league has expanded so much that even the players who would have otherwise (in the olde skool tradition) been subject to the AHL must play in the NHL to keep the latter functioning.

 

Edited April 6, 2019 by ...

[Curt]

With his awesome shot and what appears to be a decent level of well rounded game, I can’t see how Olofsson doesn’t have a floor of “offensive-minded middle-6 winger who scores 15+ per season”.  I feel very confident that Buffalo has a long term part of their top-9 in Olofsson, and that is a very good thing.  Three cheers for GOAlofsson.

[...]

On a second line, Samson could play clean up to Olofsson's shot.  Get them a center.

Eichel and Skinner need, as someone mentioned, a big bodied winger to clear space in front of the net.

Mitts, Erod, and Nylander for a spunky third line.

Sheary, KO, and Angry Larry round out the bottom.

 

Don't know about defensive pairs, but Risto will have to go to buy one of the above mentioned 2C or 1R.

So, hmm, let's say:

Dahlin and Bogo

Mountour and McCabe

Pilut and Borgen

 

Goalies. Well, we're stuck.

 

 

 

[GASabresIUFAN]

If Bogo is on our top D pair next season we are sunk again.  He is a 3rd pairing D and if he returns he should be Pilut’s partner.  

He is a $5 mill version of Jamie Benn and I’d rather have Benn.

Biron was talking last night about leaving Olifsson with Jack and Skinner.  He also talked about the chemistry already between Olofsson and Dahlin. 

 

Edited April 7, 2019 by GASabresIUFAN

[Doohicksie]

Maybe Marty knows something.

[WildCard]

23 hours ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

If Bogo is on our top D pair next season we are sunk again.  He is a 3rd pairing D and if he returns he should be Pilut’s partner.  

He is a $5 mill version of Jamie Benn and I’d rather have Benn.

Biron was talking last night about leaving Olifsson with Jack and Skinner.  He also talked about the chemistry already between Olofsson and Dahlin. 

 

Dahlin and Olofsson played together in Sweden so that's not surprising 

[MODO Hockey]

3 hours ago, WildCard said:

Dahlin and Olofsson played together in Sweden so that's not surprising 

Yep, that is correct. 

Jack and Victor have a good chemistry, cant wait to see how it unfolds

[dudacek]

Victor looked for him; you could see it.

It was noticeable because not enough of the others did.

[GASabresIUFAN]

1 hour ago, dudacek said:

Victor looked for him; you could see it.

It was noticeable because not enough of the others did.

So he is also smarter than most of our other players.

[MODO Hockey]

Guess this thread needed a bump, glad 

On 4/5/2019 at 9:38 AM, MODO Hockey said:

i strongly believe it need to be posted again to show what i strongly believe will
be one of the most powerful powerplay weapons we've had for years.

 

[carpandean]

I didn't catch the game ... well, bits and pieces ... but last game they said that he was one of just four NHL players to have their first six goals on the powerplay, and that nobody had ever had seven.  Did he, then, set the record today?

[SwampD]

4 minutes ago, carpandean said:

I didn't catch the game ... well, bits and pieces ... but last game they said that he was one of just four NHL players to have their first six goals on the powerplay, and that nobody had ever had seven.  Did he, then, set the record today?

Yep.

[carpandean]

15 minutes ago, SwampD said:

Yep.

Nice. ?

[SDS]

Eh. This was fine when he was a prospect. Now that he may give us regular things to talk about, those regular things can be their own topics. There’s no reason to jam it all into one place. 

[PerreaultForever]

We've been lacking a sniper who one times deadly shots for ages so he is a perfect fit.

The PP is functioning completely differently than last year. It's basically running with 1 point man (Dahlin). Jack moves back at times, but often he's off the circle. Traditional way is 2 - 2 - 1. (2 point men, 2 wingers on the sides of the box and one guy screening in front). We have it more 1 - 2 - 2  with Dahlin passing off right or left and a sniper on either side while Skinner and Sam move around the front and edges near the goal. It's much harder to defend now as they have to watch both sides of the ice. 

The risk is if Dahlin screws up there is a bigger breakaway chance but if he has control it is very dangerous. Oloffson's addition has made all of this possible. Hope he can endure the long season grind. 

[pi2000]

Kotalikesque?

[GASabresIUFAN]

Some 5 on 5 goals would be nice.

7 minutes ago, pi2000 said:

Kotalikesque?

Andreychuk-esque

[nfreeman]

5 goals in 6 games, and a PP one-timer for which there is no defense.

Sometimes you get lucky with a 7th-rounder, innit?

[Weave]

15 minutes ago, pi2000 said:

Kotalikesque?

Was thinking Ray Shepard today.

[WildCard]

6 minutes ago, nfreeman said:

5 goals in 6 games, and a PP one-timer for which there is no defense.

Sometimes you get lucky with a 7th-rounder, innit?

It helps when you develop them right 

[Doohicksie]

4 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

We've been lacking a sniper who one times deadly shots for ages so he is a perfect fit.

The PP is functioning completely differently than last year. It's basically running with 1 point man (Dahlin). Jack moves back at times, but often he's off the circle. Traditional way is 2 - 2 - 1. (2 point men, 2 wingers on the sides of the box and one guy screening in front). We have it more 1 - 2 - 2  with Dahlin passing off right or left and a sniper on either side while Skinner and Sam move around the front and edges near the goal. It's much harder to defend now as they have to watch both sides of the ice. 

The risk is if Dahlin screws up there is a bigger breakaway chance but if he has control it is very dangerous. Oloffson's addition has made all of this possible. Hope he can endure the long season grind. 

Eh, they were playing an umbrella formation on the PP last year.  The difference is the movement, the perpetual movement, that opens up passing lanes.

[pi2000]

1 hour ago, Doohickie said:

Eh, they were playing an umbrella formation on the PP last year.  The difference is the movement, the perpetual movement, that opens up passing lanes.

Dahlin as QB is so deceptive... doesn't telegraph his passes.

[Taro T]

6 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

We've been lacking a sniper who one times deadly shots for ages so he is a perfect fit.

The PP is functioning completely differently than last year. It's basically running with 1 point man (Dahlin). Jack moves back at times, but often he's off the circle. Traditional way is 2 - 2 - 1. (2 point men, 2 wingers on the sides of the box and one guy screening in front). We have it more 1 - 2 - 2  with Dahlin passing off right or left and a sniper on either side while Skinner and Sam move around the front and edges near the goal. It's much harder to defend now as they have to watch both sides of the ice. 

The risk is if Dahlin screws up there is a bigger breakaway chance but if he has control it is very dangerous. Oloffson's addition has made all of this possible. Hope he can endure the long season grind. 

The Sabres top unit hasn't had 2 D-men on it in several years.  That isn't what's different from last season.  The difference is  (well 4 primary differences are) they have 5 guys that's can bury the puck with a sniper on either side and also 2 guys that can quickly move the puck accurately and both have been moving the puck to the sniper on right side (and as soon as that guy gets taken away, then either Eichel starts launching 1 timers or Skinner gets the puck, or Reinhart gets it for a shorter tic-tac-toe than the current Dahlin -> Eichel -> Olofsson); and there is always at least 1 guy moving to reset shootings lanes and to force the D to move.

This PP won't stay above 40%, but staying at 25% is very doable if they stay healthy.  And they haven't even had Montour available yet to reduce Ristolainen's ice time even more.

3 hours ago, pi2000 said:

Kotalikesque?

That would be this season's version of Mittelstadt. 

Edited October 15, 2019 by Taro T

[Claude_Verret]

That shot on it's own is worthy of being mentioned in the same breath as Ovie and Stamkos..... or at least Marty thought so on the post game yesterday.

[shrader]

I love his reaction after every goal.  "Yeah, yeah, whatever... drop the puck".