Sam Reinhart is a center

[LGR4GM]

Olofsson - Reinhart - Okposo 

This line works and Reinhart looks good at center. Now the question becomes does he stay there after Eichel and Cozens return. 

That line held the Panarin line in check. 

Edited April 4, 2021 by LGR4GM

[Derrico]

The second question becomes why wasn’t he given an extensive opportunity at C until now, 435 games into his professional career?  After playing predominantly C in junior and on the top line for Canada at wjc.

Edited April 4, 2021 by Derrico

[LGR4GM]

1 minute ago, Derrico said:

The second question becomes why wasn’t he given an extensive opportunity at C until now, 435 games into his professional career?  After playing predominantly C in junior and on the top line for Canada at wjc.

Because this team is stupid. 

[GASabresIUFAN]

13 minutes ago, Derrico said:

The second question becomes why wasn’t he given an extensive opportunity at C until now, 435 games into his professional career?  After playing predominantly C in junior and on the top line for Canada at wjc.

He was given various limited shots at center and it didn’t work out.  I’d have to check to find out how many and then after ROR was acquired it wasn’t necessary as he was succeeding as Jack’s wingman.  

When ROR left he seemed entrenched as Jack’s RW.  Now desperate times deserve desperate measures and a much more mature Reinhart is succeeding there.  Maybe we have our spine for next year of Jack, Sam, Mitts and Lazar and that’s a good thing.  Cozens is very raw and he’ll get to develop like Sam did before moving over.  

This isn’t the first time we have gone this route.  Hecht was a LW when acquired and successfully switched to center as a Sabre.

[LGR4GM]

3 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

He was given various limited shots at center and it didn’t work out.  I’d have to check to find out how many and then after ROR was acquired it wasn’t necessary as he was succeeding as Jack’s wingman.  

When ROR left he seemed entrenched as Jack’s RW.  Now desperate times deserve desperate measures and a much more mature Reinhart is succeeding there.  Maybe we have our spine for next year of Jack, Sam, Mitts and Lazar and that’s a good thing.  Cozens is very raw and he’ll get to develop like Sam did before moving over.  

This isn’t the first time we have gone this route.  Hecht was a LW when acquired and successfully switched to center as a Sabre.

He was ROR's wingman for a large chunk of ROR's time here.

[inkman]

7 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

He was given various limited shots at center and it didn’t work out.  I’d have to check to find out how many and then after ROR was acquired it wasn’t necessary as he was succeeding as Jack’s wingman.  

When ROR left he seemed entrenched as Jack’s RW.  Now desperate times deserve desperate measures and a much more mature Reinhart is succeeding there.  Maybe we have our spine for next year of Jack, Sam, Mitts and Lazar and that’s a good thing.  Cozens is very raw and he’ll get to develop like Sam did before moving over.  

This isn’t the first time we have gone this route.  Hecht was a LW when acquired and successfully switched to center as a Sabre.

I will always view Jochen Hecht as a wing that played center 

[BuffalOhio]

Just now, inkman said:

I will always view Jochen Hecht as a wing that played center 

With those noisy stupid T-Blades on his skates ...

[inkman]

8 hours ago, Zamboni said:

You really think he’s that good of a coach?

wouldn’t he have already gotten his shot before he came to the Sabres if he was that good of a coach? A coach good enough to get them into the playoffs. I guess is what I mean. I guess I’m just not sold on the fact that if he was the coach all season long they would be in the playoffs. Instead of looking like an embarrassment every night and losing games. They would look a lot better as a team, but still lose the majority of their games. Maybe lose by a goal instead of 2 or 3 goals 😂

I’m just not entirely convinced of that yet. I think the team is responding to a different coach and different system and playing an underdog role knowing that there’s no expectations at this point because they’ve sucked so much. Less pressure overall.  I wouldn’t mind keeping Granato around… But strictly an assistant role. I hope KA swings for the fences and brings in a much much better coach than Granato. Just my O.

 

8 hours ago, darksabre said:

No one thinks Granato is that good. They think he's so much less bad. 

Right. It’s not about how good Granato is, it’s about how absolutely historically awful Ralph was.  I’d love to hear some details about what terrible “principles” Krueger had them minding but I doubt we’ll ever get that insight.  It basically looks like Don has taken off the shackles and let them play with pace moving up the ice.  They didn’t have the type of players to be some shutdown black hole of a team.  They literally have all puck moving dman and swift skating forwards minus Okposo.  

[LGR4GM]

1 minute ago, inkman said:

 

Right. It’s not about how good Granato is, it’s about how absolutely historically awful Ralph was.  I’d love to hear some details about what terrible “principles” Krueger had them minding but I doubt we’ll ever get that insight.  It basically looks like Don has taken off the shackles and let them play with pace moving up the ice.  They didn’t have the type of players to be some shutdown black hole of a team.  They literally have all puck moving dman and swift skating forwards minus Okposo.  

? wrong thread

[Weave]

Yup, Sam is Pat Sharp 2.0.  A very good winger capable of playing center reasonably well when the top center goes down.  The question always was, is he more valuable to the team as one of our top wingers or as the 3rd best center on the team.  Right now he’s more valuable at center.   I thought we already worked through this.

[LGR4GM]

Sam has 2g, 2a in his last 5 games. 

[GASabresIUFAN]

58 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

He was ROR's wingman for a large chunk of ROR's time here.

split hairs much?

[dudacek]

48 minutes ago, inkman said:

 

Right. It’s not about how good Granato is, it’s about how absolutely historically awful Ralph was.  I’d love to hear some details about what terrible “principles” Krueger had them minding but I doubt we’ll ever get that insight.  It basically looks like Don has taken off the shackles and let them play with pace moving up the ice.  They didn’t have the type of players to be some shutdown black hole of a team.  They literally have all puck moving dman and swift skating forwards minus Okposo.  

Are you talking about the guy that hit 25.4 mph as he blew past a Rangers' Dman last night?

Where the heck did that come from?

[Zamboni]

Some posts are being moved around to different threads here .... I did not post anything about Granato in the Sam Reinhart is a center thread. 
 

Anyways ... I like Reinhart as a center so far. Need to see more... hopefully I will. However, I like him as a winger too.

[erickompositör72]

1 hour ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

He was given various limited shots at center and it didn’t work out.  I’d have to check to find out how many and then after ROR was acquired it wasn’t necessary as he was succeeding as Jack’s wingman.  

When ROR left he seemed entrenched as Jack’s RW.  Now desperate times deserve desperate measures and a much more mature Reinhart is succeeding there.  Maybe we have our spine for next year of Jack, Sam, Mitts and Lazar and that’s a good thing.  Cozens is very raw and he’ll get to develop like Sam did before moving over.  

This isn’t the first time we have gone this route.  Hecht was a LW when acquired and successfully switched to center as a Sabre.

He seemed that way because the coaches weren't smart enough to realize he was probably the best 2C option.

[SwampD]

9 minutes ago, dudacek said:

Are you talking about the guy that hit 25.4 mph as he blew past a Rangers' Dman last night?

Where the heck did that come from?

The whole “Okposlow” trope has baffled (annoyed) me forever. I’ve said it over and over. He’s not slow. There were times during streak where he looked like the only NHL player on the Sabres.

Edited April 4, 2021 by SwampD

[LGR4GM]

5 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

split hairs much?

It's not splitting hair because when ROR was shipped out for garbage the logical solution was Reinhart to center. Your post implied that couldn't or didn't happen because Sam was already with Jack and that couldn't be broken up. 

[Weave]

4 minutes ago, erickompositör72 said:

He seemed that way because the coaches weren't smart enough to realize he was probably the best 2C option.

Or they were smart enough to realize that Sam was more valuable as our top RW than he was centering a couple of plugs on the 2nd line.

[Weave]

1 minute ago, LGR4GM said:

It's not splitting hair because when ROR was shipped out for garbage the logical solution was Reinhart to center. Your post implied that couldn't or didn't happen because Sam was already with Jack and that couldn't be broken up. 

I posted in the 1st game day thread with Sam in the lineup at center that I was surprised it took this long.   There were some obvious situations where Sam was our next best option.  Mitts absolute failure as RORs replacement was one of them.  Cozens going down was another.  
 

Fortunately we have a guy who can do this when needed.  It will be interesting to see how this plays out with him not on the right wall now.  There’s a helluva drop off.

[dudacek]

On topic, I believe Sam has had only two stints of any significance as a centre, his rookie year, and that abomination to start Housley's first season where he skated between Pouliot and Griffith.

I've never bought into the sentiment that he got a fair shake at centre and failed. He's played maybe 20 games in the middle over his career and pretty much all of them with replacement-level linemates before he turned 22.

I've never bought into the idea that he's too slow for the position either. Never mind that his speed "issues" are overrated, his positioning is so sound it is never really an issue. That was a very fast Ranger team last night and his speed was not an issue at all.

I hope this experiment continues for the duration of the season.

[SwampD]

7 minutes ago, dudacek said:

... Pouliot and Griffith...

Who?

[GASabresIUFAN]

16 minutes ago, Weave said:

Or they were smart enough to realize that Sam was more valuable as our top RW than he was centering a couple of plugs on the 2nd line.

It was a case of building one excellent line.  He has been moved off the line periodically to try to create secondary offense, but that hasn't worked as a RW.  

As I said to start the season, that whole season was a 56 game long evaluation camp because it was doubtful that we'd make the playoffs in a stacked division.  I also said play the kids.  Now that the RK experiment is done, we are finally there playing the kids and experimenting with promising early returns.  Sam as center is honestly the most reasonable solution.  Who are we going to find in free agency or trade that has anywhere near his skill and IQ without paying an arm and a leg?  I agree play him (and Mitts) the remainder of the season at center, even when (if) Jack returns.  

[erickompositör72]

21 minutes ago, Weave said:

Or they were smart enough to realize that Sam was more valuable as our top RW than he was centering a couple of plugs on the 2nd line.

Not sure. Our second line was our achilles heel all those years. I think there is a strong counterargument against your statement.

[inkman]

10 minutes ago, SwampD said:

Who?

Tank commanders 

[dudacek]

Also, to the ***** I used to read a lot on here about Sam being a passenger who rode Jack's coattails.

Better not be the same posters who are saying: "Look at who Skinner has to play with" "Look at who Hall has to play with"

Look at who Sam has to play with. I don't see him stuck at 3 goals.