This team's problem is not a lack of talent

[Thorner]

6 minutes ago, Digger said:

I hear the talent argument and agree but I think it's more.  We need our younger players that have talent and potential to reach their peak talent levels as quickly as possible.  We have not seen the peak for Cozens or Dahlin yet, hopefully we haven't seen the peak for Mittelstadt or Tage yet.  Quinn, Krebs, JJP, Power, Dell, etc. will take time to reach their peak years.

And then there's upgrading the talent for checking and penalty kill.  Filling out the D core with complementary support and mentoring with the young talent.  +++

It's talent but it's overall team mix.

[Digger]

4 minutes ago, Thorny said:

Thanks for checking my work @Thorny.  I meant Levi in that list.  Yes we have most likely seen peak Dell (although the optimists on the board hope he reaches his peak in the next few games - because we have no other hope until healthier again).

[kas23]

1 hour ago, Digger said:

I hear the talent argument and agree but I think it's more.  We need our younger players that have talent and potential to reach their peak talent levels as quickly as possible.  We have not seen the peak for Cozens or Dahlin yet, hopefully we haven't seen the peak for Mittelstadt or Tage yet.  Quinn, Krebs, JJP, Power, Levi, etc. will take time to reach their peak years.

And then there's upgrading the talent for checking and penalty kill.  Filling out the D core with complementary support and mentoring with the young talent.  +++

It's talent but it's overall team mix.

Not only haven’t we seen the peak of Mitts or Tage, we haven’t even seen Mitts period. Guy has been MIA. Both our acting 1C (Tage) and the person who was supposed to be our 1C/2C (Mitts) have missed significant time due to injury. It’s not just Covid screwing our season, it’s never ending injuries. Then we have one of our top 6 wingers acting like he probably shouldn’t be playing due to injury. 

Edited January 15, 2022 by kas23

[Digger]

The latest podcast with JR fits well with this thread in my opinion.  JR has been great on these and is an entertaining listen.

[PromoTheRobot]

7 hours ago, dudacek said:

Absolutely. Not even close, IMO.

@PromoTheRobot unless, things have seriously changed in the past month or so, does not even think Dahlin is good, let alone best.

I didn't say Dahlin was the best Sabre. I said Tuch is right now. But Dahlin has improved greatly in three last month.

[Dreams Burn Down]

3 hours ago, kas23 said:

Not only haven’t we seen the peak of Mitts or Tage, we haven’t even seen Mitts period. Guy has been MIA. Both our acting 1C (Tage) and the person who was supposed to be our 1C/2C (Mitts) have missed significant time due to injury. It’s not just Covid screwing our season, it’s never ending injuries. Then we have one of our top 6 wingers acting like he probably shouldn’t be playing due to injury. 

I had such high hopes for Mitts, but it appears that, physically, he might not be up to the rigors of the NHL. Hopefully, his injuries thus far are just poor fortune and nothing more.  I like what he brings to the Sabres and hope that I'm wrong about him.

[PerreaultForever]

2 hours ago, Dreams Burn Down said:

I had such high hopes for Mitts, but it appears that, physically, he might not be up to the rigors of the NHL. Hopefully, his injuries thus far are just poor fortune and nothing more.  I like what he brings to the Sabres and hope that I'm wrong about him.

I hope so too, but I don't think you are. Some people here have put a LOT of faith in Mitts based on a tiny body of work in a late season few games. I doubt he ever amounts to anything substantial, but I was wrong about Tage so I hope I'm wrong here too. 

[Digger]

14 hours ago, Dreams Burn Down said:

I had such high hopes for Mitts, but it appears that, physically, he might not be up to the rigors of the NHL. Hopefully, his injuries thus far are just poor fortune and nothing more.  I like what he brings to the Sabres and hope that I'm wrong about him.

I thought the same thing about Tage before this season with the way he kept getting injured in past seasons.  He seems to be standing up pretty well this year.  Not sure about Mitts but I think that he'll be back strong next season.  Neither of them are anywhere as bad as Bogosian was with the Sabres (injury wise).  That was a player that we could never count on playing a full season.

[Taro T]

15 hours ago, Dreams Burn Down said:

I had such high hopes for Mitts, but it appears that, physically, he might not be up to the rigors of the NHL. Hopefully, his injuries thus far are just poor fortune and nothing more.  I like what he brings to the Sabres and hope that I'm wrong about him.

The 2 injuries he's suffered this year both seem to be a result of the Gallagher slash.  Haven't really noticed him being injury prone in the past.  Has he missed any other significant time due to injury in the past?

[Dreams Burn Down]

11 minutes ago, Taro T said:

The 2 injuries he's suffered this year both seem to be a result of the Gallagher slash.  Haven't really noticed him being injury prone in the past.  Has he missed any other significant time due to injury in the past?

The injury against the Ducks was a re-injury from the slash on opening night?  I wasn't aware of that.  In that case, my concerns were much ado about nothing.  I miss his tenacity in the line-up.

[Taro T]

11 minutes ago, Dreams Burn Down said:

The injury against the Ducks was a re-injury from the slash on opening night?  I wasn't aware of that.  In that case, my concerns were much ado about nothing.  I miss his tenacity in the line-up.

Wasn't specifically stated but Granato alluded to that being the case.

[Weave]

1 hour ago, Dreams Burn Down said:

The injury against the Ducks was a re-injury from the slash on opening night?  I wasn't aware of that.  In that case, my concerns were much ado about nothing.  I miss his tenacity in the line-up.

Now there is a word I never thought I’d see describing Mitts.

[matter2003]

On 1/13/2022 at 11:35 PM, The Ghost of Yuri said:

It's consistency.  Covid has wiped out any consistency among the skaters so the chemistry has been all over the place.  And once again, they have no continuity in goal.  They need decent (if not great) goaltending where they can get to know their goalie's tendencies and not have to think about too much and worry about it.  And they need to be able to ice their best players consistently.

That said, I think the rest of this season will be kind of a train wreck.  But since little was expected of this team I think if Covid was going to be a disruptive force, this is the season for that.

Probably next season will be up-and-down too with a lot of new players, a lot of young players.  Hopefully by a month or two into the season they'll be playing winning hockey.  And hopefully by next season Covid won't be so disruptive.

And goalie injuries...have never seen a team have goalies get injured with such regularity as the Sabres for the past 3 years and they aren't day to day injuries for the most part, they are weeks or months.  It's starting to get ridiculous.

[Thorner]

11 minutes ago, matter2003 said:

And goalie injuries...have never seen a team have goalies get injured with such regularity as the Sabres for the past 3 years and they aren't day to day injuries for the most part, they are weeks or months.  It's starting to get ridiculous.

@Taro Tis probably onto something with it being tied to talent, and workload history

it's either that or a random statistical anomaly and that would be my last guess, given the sample size we have been approaching here 

Edited January 17, 2022 by Thorny

[GASabresIUFAN]

As to the original posts' question; there is a lack of talent on this roster.  It's pretty obvious when watching the OT today against Det.  I'm not sure we touched the puck.  

[Curt]

On 1/14/2022 at 8:20 PM, Digger said:

The latest podcast with JR fits well with this thread in my opinion.  JR has been great on these and is an entertaining listen.

I don’t like JR as much as you, but this After the Whistle podcast has surpassed my expectations.  They have been quite good.

Peters and Rivet are much better in this format.

[thewookie1]

The team lacks 2 things, skill and consistency.

A skilled team without consistency is a middling team that impresses one day and perplexes the next.

A consistent team without skill is also a middling team but actually has a slightly better chance at the playoffs because they tend to win the games they should.

The Sabres are neither presently, they neither have the skill to win games at will nor do they have the consistency to plug away at the standings game after game.

 

At this time we have a smattering of skill with the only somewhat consistent top end skill coming from Dahlin. Olofsson had top level shooting skills but since his injury has arguably been one of the worst players overall. (He's likely trying to avoid a surgery that will be a season-ender)

Arguably our team is akin to the spotty skill team but with too little skill to win most times. Case in point being the Nashville game where we played a great 60 minute effort, got timely goals and beat one of the best teams in the West. Then turned around and got beat up by Detroit; then where a more skilled team wins today's game, we fell short in the 51st minute.   

[SwampD]

This team's problem is lack of talent.

Period.

It's not coaching or consistancy (whatever that means), it's not effort or conditioning. It's the lack of talent.

It's why we lose late in games. It's why we lose in OT.

[Thorner]

6 minutes ago, SwampD said:

This team's problem is lack of talent.

Period.

It's not coaching or consistancy (whatever that means), it's not effort or conditioning. It's the lack of talent.

It's why we lose late in games. It's why we lose in OT.

Believe it has something to do with fibre intake..

[SwampD]

Just now, Thorny said:

Believe it has something to do with fibre intake..

and wings.