Sabres Announce Training Camp Dates

[dudacek]

Housley took the normal NHL coach’s path of giving veterans like Sobotka and Scandella an excess of rope based on reputation. 

It’s kinda what most locker rooms expect. 

Jason has given Ralph more options and I hope he uses them. It’s actually an area where his lack of familiarity with the league may lead him more to trust what he sees, rather than what he’s seen in the past, or been told.

I actually think Marco can still be a player (Vlad, not so much) but I hope they are both at ground zero, and will have to prove it.

 

23 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

According to the Sabres press release Tage is 15lbs heavier. 

Also I wouldn't read to much into the lines. Krueger said he wanted veterans spread around for the first week. 

 

I really hope Lazar becomes the feel-good story of the season.

[Thorner]

16 minutes ago, dudacek said:

Housley took the normal NHL coach’s path of giving veterans like Sobotka and Scandella an excess of rope based on reputation. 

It’s kinda what most locker rooms expect. 

Jason has given Ralph more options and I hope he uses them. It’s actually an area where his lack of familiarity with the league may lead him more to trust what he sees, rather than what he’s seen in the past, or been told.

I actually think Marco can still be a player (Vlad, not so much) but I hope they are both at ground zero, and will have to prove it.

 

I really hope Lazar becomes the feel-good story of the season.

I hope he specifically confirmed with him he'd be running his lineup different than Housley, because Botterill has said he lets the coach choose the lines, right? If the lineup in run similarly to last year we can only assume Botterill is on board with that. 

[dudacek]

Just now, Thorny said:

I hope he specifically confirmed with him he'd be running his lineup different than Housley, because Botterill has said he lets the coach choose the lines, right? If the lineup in run similarly to last year we can only assume Botterill is on board with that. 

I meant more player options.

[Thorner]

16 minutes ago, dudacek said:

I meant more player options.

Yup. Just saying that we criticized Housley endlessly for his lineup decisions, and Botterill fired him. So you'd have to think that's something that would have come up in the interview process this time around. If the lineup is run in a similar way to last season, that "normal" approach you mentioned, we'd have to assume it's what Botterill actually wants. 

We kinda are operating under the certainty that Botterill disagreed with much of what Housley did in terms of lineup structuring, which does seem a reasonable assumption at this time. Given his comments re Reinhart running his own line, what have you. 

Edited September 14, 2019 by Thorny

[Derrico]

51 minutes ago, Thorny said:

I hope he specifically confirmed with him he'd be running his lineup different than Housley, because Botterill has said he lets the coach choose the lines, right? If the lineup in run similarly to last year we can only assume Botterill is on board with that. 

No gm in the league is going to dictate or even have much to any say in lineups and D pairings.

[dudacek]

18 minutes ago, Derrico said:

No gm in the league is going to dictate or even have much to any say in lineups and D pairings.

Yes, but...

Every GM who builds a roster has a vision when doing so and works best with a coach who shares that vision.

Every GM asks his coach to justify his lineup decisions. 

Every coach understands that if he ignores his GM and fails, his job might be the consequence.

[Derrico]

17 minutes ago, dudacek said:

Yes, but...

Every GM who builds a roster has a vision when doing so and works best with a coach who shares that vision.

Every GM asks his coach to justify his lineup decisions. 

Every coach understands that if he ignores his GM and fails, his job might be the consequence.

Sure but he’s not saying jack better start the year playing with skinner or olofsson or whoever.

[Randall Flagg]

Not sure if this was posted somewhere, but Tage put in work: 
https://buffalonews.com/2019/09/14/buffalo-sabres-tage-thompson-pete-pulaski-conor-shear-nhl-news-2019/?utm_campaign=lysowski&utm_medium=social&utm_source=Twitter

 

He ate 3-5 thousand calories a day, increased his weight by 13 pounds, and lost 1% of body fat while doing it. 

Interested to see what that looks like on the ice.

 

[Thorner]

2 hours ago, Derrico said:

No gm in the league is going to dictate or even have much to any say in lineups and D pairings.

Fine. But if he hires a second consecutive coach that runs the lineup like Housley did, it’s on him at that point. 

[Doohicksie]

4 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

According to the Sabres press release Tage is 15lbs heavier. 

Good!

[Doohicksie]

4 hours ago, Brawndo said:

3500 to 5000 calories per day, depending on his workout. 

Dammit that’s a lot of food

Just got back from the Asian Autumn Festival and I think I probably downed something in that neighborhood. You ever have fresh sugar cane juice? It's delicious. It also tastes like 

[...]

2 hours ago, dudacek said:

1. Every GM who builds a roster has a vision when doing so and works best with a coach who shares that vision.

2. Every GM asks his coach to justify his lineup decisions. 

3. Every coach understands that if he ignores his GM and fails, his job might be the consequence.

1. That means if the coach and GM aren't chit-chatting constantly like Ruff and Reiger did, then the GM needs to man up and find a coach who will chit-chat with him.  Housley's use of the line-up was on Botterill, and Botterill didn't do anything about it all season.

2. See number 1.  If Botterill was asking Phil to justify the line-ups, then either Botterill was okay with them, or too wishy-washy to do anything about it until the end of the season.

3.  See number 2.  Phil failed all season, but wasn't fired until the season is over.

Point is, I agree that the coach and GM need to be working as a team.  I am a little concerned, again, that this was an issue, clearly, last season and thanks to your points above, the issue was Botterill's and not Phils.  We still have Botterill.

[Brawndo]

Botterill was on WGR and was asked about lineup decisions. He mentioned that he and Jason Nightengale, Director of Analytics for the Sabres, would meet with Housley and his Coaching Staff to discuss the lineup. The former would make their recommendations, but the ultimate lineup decisions were left to Housley. 

Botterill also mentioned a few weeks later on WGR that Reinhart is capable of leading his own line, all the while Phil kept Skinner-Eichel and Reinhart together. 

Finally towards the end of the season, the lines were shuffled, although it was too late. 

IIRC Both Botterill and Housley each reported directly to Pegula, and TPegs mentioned in Housley’s Initial Press Conference, I remember watching him play at the Aud. So it’s possible HCPH had the ability to make decisions without fear of repercussions. 

That appeared to change as the season came to a close and Phil was released 

Edited September 15, 2019 by Brawndo

[Weave]

8 hours ago, Randall Flagg said:

Not sure if this was posted somewhere, but Tage put in work: 
https://buffalonews.com/2019/09/14/buffalo-sabres-tage-thompson-pete-pulaski-conor-shear-nhl-news-2019/?utm_campaign=lysowski&utm_medium=social&utm_source=Twitter

 

He ate 3-5 thousand calories a day, increased his weight by 13 pounds, and lost 1% of body fat while doing it. 

Interested to see what that looks like on the ice.

 

I remember the same sort of reporting on Tyler Myers his second year. 

https://buffalonews.com/2010/04/15/its-grow-time-what-can-phenom-defenseman-tyler-myers-do-for-an-encore-were-about-to-find-out/

[Thorner]

 

[nfreeman]

Does anyone know if they practiced today?  And if so, what the line combos were?

[Thorner]

2 minutes ago, nfreeman said:

Does anyone know if they practiced today?  And if so, what the line combos were?

https://www.nhl.com/sabres/news/sabres-practice-report-jake-mccabe-will-borgen/c-309145366

Lines in article. Vesey - Eichel - Sheary is a thing. 

[dudacek]

1 hour ago, Thorny said:

 

Is that lineup even legal?

thatks ***** horrible, as in the Amerks should beat them.

[Thorner]

Vesey - Eichel - Sheary                                         *Smith - Mittelstadt - Reinhart

*Skinner - Rodrigues - Lazar                                 Pekar - Sobotka - Okposo

Elie - Cozens - Thompson                                   Johansson - Asplund - Olofsson

Girgensons - Larsson - Oglevie                          Wilson - Ruotsalainen - Dea 

You can kind of see what they might be doing, or at least I have a guess as to how this could break down.

The two starred lines each look to have a player unlikely to make the roster, Smith and Lazar. Skinner and Reinhart could be the wingers on line two, for whichever of the 2 centres on those lines earns the job, Rodrigues or Mittelstadt. Whichever doesn't, probably goes to 3C. 

I think those 3rd line wingers can be found skating with Asplund on Line 3 in the second group above. 

4th line is probably the 4th line listed above in the first group, probably with Okposo taking over for Oglevie. 

That leaves guys like Elie, Oglevie, Pekar, Asplund, WIlson, Dea, and Ruotsalainen as likely on the outside looking in. Cozens probably gets a few games, and one of Thompson or Sobotka makes the 14th forward, or 13th once Cozens is sent back down. Thompson potentially beats out KO outright for a spot. 

It's possible they play one of Eichel, Skinner, and Reinhart all on separate lines, but I doubt they'd attempt to stretch things that thin. My guess is:

---

Vesey - Eichel - Sheary

Skinner - Rodrigues/Mittelstadt - Reinhart

Johansson - Rodrigues/Mittelstadt - Olofsson

Girgensons - Larsson - Okposo

- - - 

Eichel isn't going to have a breakout season and score 90-100 points in this lineup. If this is the set-up, it would appear the strategy is to sacrifice that, aspire towards a new-look, 70-80 point, defensively responsible Eichel who can carry his line to more/less a stalemate each night against the top lines of other teams, allowing our middle 2 lines to provide the difference in offense, along with a puck moving D core. 

If they want Eichel to buy into something like that, I'm reading continuously they hired the right coach for the job. 

Edited September 15, 2019 by Thorny

[Taro T]

1 minute ago, dudacek said:

Is that lineup even legal?

thatks ***** horrible, as in the Amerks should beat them.

Giving the people in College Station what they pay for.  (Or something to that effect.)

[dudacek]

2 hours ago, Thorny said:

Vesey - Eichel - Sheary                                         *Smith - Mittelstadt - Reinhart

*Skinner - Rodrigues - Lazar                                 Pekar - Sobotka - Okposo

Elie - Cozens - Thompson                                   Johansson - Asplund - Olofsson

Girgensons - Larsson - Oglevie                          Wilson - Ruotsalainen - Dea 

You can kind of see what they might be doing, or at least I have a guess as to how this could break down.

The two starred lines each look to have a player unlikely to make the roster, Smith and Lazar. Skinner and Reinhart could be the wingers on line two, for whichever of the 2 centres on those lines earns the job, Rodrigues or Mittelstadt. Whichever doesn't, probably goes to 3C. 

I think those 3rd line wingers can be found skating with Asplund on Line 3 in the second group above. 

4th line is probably the 4th line listed above in the first group, probably with Okposo taking over for Oglevie. 

That leaves guys like Elie, Oglevie, Pekar, Asplund, WIlson, Dea, and Ruotsalainen as likely on the outside looking in. Cozens probably gets a few games, and one of Thompson or Sobotka makes the 14th forward, or 13th once Cozens is sent back down. Thompson potentially beats out KO outright for a spot. 

It's possible they play one of Eichel, Skinner, and Reinhart all on separate lines, but I doubt they'd attempt to stretch things that thin. My guess is:

---

Vesey - Eichel - Sheary

Skinner - Rodrigues/Mittelstadt - Reinhart

Johansson - Rodrigues/Mittelstadt - Olofsson

Girgensons - Larsson - Okposo

- - - 

Eichel isn't going to have a breakout season and score 90-100 points in this lineup. If this is the set-up, it would appear the strategy is to sacrifice that, aspire towards a new-look, 70-80 point, defensively responsible Eichel who can carry his line to more/less a stalemate each night against the top lines of other teams, allowing our middle 2 lines to provide the difference in offense, along with a puck moving D core. 

If they want Eichel to buy into something like that, I'm reading continuously they hired the right coach for the job. 

Eichel does not need to be with Skinner and Reinhart all year to put up 90 points. He was a point-a-game guy at 20 and 21 with Kane being his primary winger.

Those lineups are very carefully thought out to maximize a mix of motivation and opportunity.

Veterans Girgensons, Larsson, Sobotka and Okposo know they aren’t exactly buried, but they aren’t particularly high on the depth chart either. Olofsson, Asplund, Lazar and Smith have to be very happy with their early placement. Vesey and Sheary have to be ecstatic. Mittelstadt and Rodrigues know exactly the carrot placed in front of them.

I think team A gets the first game, team B the second, as is, then cuts to about 18 forwards

[Brawndo]

The Roster for tomorrow 

Interesting that Risto has been with this group, but will not travel with them 

[Derrico]

Hmmmmmm

[Randall Flagg]

I'm absolutely going to read into that as far as humanly possible 

Is that game televised? 

[Derrico]

5 minutes ago, Randall Flagg said:

I'm absolutely going to read into that as far as humanly possible 

Is that game televised? 

All of them are suppose to be streamed.