Will Sabres Make the Playoffs In 2022-23?

[DarthEbriate]

53 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

Comrie was 2nd in gsaa last year by toi. 

Lybushkin was the best defender Toronto had for defending. 

Owen Power is a level above Mitts and Dylan. 

Idk if it's shooting for the stars as much as calling it improvement. We also added, Tuch, Krebs, and will add the two rookies of Peterka and Quinn. Someone should post the starting roster last year to this year. There's a ton of improvement. 

Even leaving aside the incremental increases by young players, the improvement is across the board between the opening lineups of this season and last:

F-  Tuch > no Tuch. Quinn/Peterka > Bjork. Krebs/Mitts > Eakin. Hinostroza/Sheahen > Hayden

D-  Muel > Hagg. Lyub > Pysyk. Power > Bryson. (and post-ASG Dahlin > pre-Dahlin)

G- Comrie > Anderson. (Backup goalie is a push. I think Toker=Anderson at this point.)

 

10/14/21 - a 5-1 beatdown of MTL in front of a silent player introduction sequence at home, and a rowdy 6000 by the end of the game

Skinner - Mitts - Hinostroza (that's right, Mitts had a tremendous camp last year and earned 1C)
Asplund - Thompson - VO
Girgensons - Eakin - Okposo
Bjork - Cozens - Caggiula (Hayden INJ)

Dahlin - Jokiharju
Bryson - Miller
Hagg - Pysyk (surprisingly steady pair to start the season)

(scratched: Butcher. Injured: Samuelsson, after a great camp)

Anderson (Tokarski)

 

My guess for opening this season is based on 4/29/22 lineup vs. CHI, with Okposo inserted back in the lineup. Yes, I'm starting JJP in Rochester. (And I also would like to see Mitts at 3C, Girgs at 4LW where he belongs, and Quinn up to 2LW shortly after opening night.)

Skinner - Thompson - VO
Mitts - Cozens - Tuch
Asplund - Girgensons - Okposo
Quinn - Krebs - Hinostroza  (Sheahen).  (Bjork in Rochester with JJP)

Samuelsson - Dahlin
Power - Jokiharju
Bryson - Lyubushkin (Fitzgerald)

Comrie (Anderson)

[Buffalonill]

5 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

Comrie was 2nd in gsaa last year by toi. 

Lybushkin was the best defender Toronto had for defending. 

Owen Power is a level above Mitts and Dylan. 

Idk if it's shooting for the stars as much as calling it improvement. We also added, Tuch, Krebs, and will add the two rookies of Peterka and Quinn. Someone should post the starting roster last year to this year. There's a ton of improvement. 

Thats all great in all but untill i see real results my opinion will stay the same.

 

[Buffalonill]

5 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

Owen Power was one of our best defenders in his 8 games. Dude might win a Calder. 

Wanna talk didn't do anything, nyi are what that looks like. 

Ok I've seen this story many times with  buffalo (Sekera - weber  Justin Bailey ,Baptiste   Zadorov/Ristolainen   Grigorenko/Girgensons ,Foligno , mittelstadt, cozens .

Every year fans have high expectations and hype and it never happens .

 

 

Edited August 20, 2022 by Buffalonill

[Thorner]

8 hours ago, Buffalonill said:

Lots of teams improved we didn't. 

Sabres have become the oakland A's

 

 

Swimming in an ocean of overwhelming positivity on this board, congratulations on being the reason liger starts every post talking about how the fans are saying the team didn’t improve lol 

[Sabres Fan in NS]

On 8/19/2022 at 1:26 PM, bob_sauve28 said:

Will they make playoffs? 

This should be a public poll so we know who to shame and why !!

YES !!

BABY!! YES!!

[Thorner]

6 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

Owen Power was one of our best defenders in his 8 games. Dude might win a Calder. 

Wanna talk didn't do anything, nyi are what that looks like. 

I hate to make the comparison cause I’m honestly with you on Power, but the 8 games argument isn’t a good one. See: Mitrelstadt and his point a game finish to whatever year that was 

[bob_sauve28]

1 hour ago, Sabres Fan in NS said:

This should be a public poll so we know who to shame and why !!

YES !!

BABY!! YES!!

Done

[Buffalonill]

3 hours ago, Thorny said:

I hate to make the comparison cause I’m honestly with you on Power, but the 8 games argument isn’t a good one. See: Mitrelstadt and his point a game finish to whatever year that was 

And you can also add Ennis to list i made up top.

 

Better to have low expectations this year instead of being always disappointed 

[LGR4GM]

4 hours ago, Thorny said:

Swimming in an ocean of overwhelming positivity on this board, congratulations on being the reason liger starts every post talking about how the fans are saying the team didn’t improve lol 

[bob_sauve28]

The soft bigotry of low expectations 

[Huckleberry]

12 hours ago, DarthEbriate said:

 

 

My guess for opening this season is based on 4/29/22 lineup vs. CHI, with Okposo inserted back in the lineup. Yes, I'm starting JJP in Rochester. (And I also would like to see Mitts at 3C, Girgs at 4LW where he belongs, and Quinn up to 2LW shortly after opening night.)

Skinner - Thompson - VO
Mitts - Cozens - Tuch
Asplund - Girgensons - Okposo
Quinn - Krebs - Hinostroza  (Sheahen).  (Bjork in Rochester with JJP)

Samuelsson - Dahlin
Power - Jokiharju
Bryson - Lyubushkin (Fitzgerald)

Comrie (Anderson)

If you are not putting Tuch there, better have Asplund on that line.    Defensive stats are horrible with those 3 together.

[Stoner]

On 8/19/2022 at 12:31 PM, Taro T said:

Yep.

To the post, not the OP's Q.

Great news for the franchise.

[PromoTheRobot]

I say yes because of the Secret. If you want something you have to wish it into reality. 

[JohnC]

18 hours ago, Buffalonill said:

Ok I've seen this story many times with  buffalo (Sekera - weber  Justin Bailey ,Baptiste   Zadorov/Ristolainen   Grigorenko/Girgensons ,Foligno , mittelstadt, cozens .

Every year fans have high expectations and hype and it never happens .

 

 

Owen Power was the first pick in the draft. The way he played in the World Tournament and in his introductory stint last year demonstrated that he was demonstrably better than the players you listed in your post. If you want to take a wait and see approach with most rookie players, that would be a reasonable approach to take. But there is a small pool of rookies who are clearly a cut above their rookie piers. And it is safe to say (for me) that he falls in that category. 

[DarthEbriate]

15 hours ago, Huckleberry said:

If you are not putting Tuch there, better have Asplund on that line.    Defensive stats are horrible with those 3 together.

I'm thinking Thompson looks much better defensively in what will only be his 2nd pro season as a center. VO is decent positionally defensively, and although Skinner sometimes gets lost in his own zone, he's still a good forechecker. Their best defense is their offense -- we could easily see three 35+ goal scorers on that line.

[Huckleberry]

51 minutes ago, DarthEbriate said:

I'm thinking Thompson looks much better defensively in what will only be his 2nd pro season as a center. VO is decent positionally defensively, and although Skinner sometimes gets lost in his own zone, he's still a good forechecker. Their best defense is their offense -- we could easily see three 35+ goal scorers on that line.

You would think so but stats showed those 3 together gave up more than they scored.  I'm not an advanced stats goeroe but something came out along that line couple weeks ago.  Though I do think VO got better defensive its not good enough yet.

[Sabres Fan in NS]

20 hours ago, bob_sauve28 said:

The soft bigotry of low expectations 

[Marvin]

7 hours ago, PromoTheRobot said:

I say yes because of the Secret. If you want something you have to wish it into reality. 

I think I can.  I think I can.  I think I can.  I think I can.  I think I can...

[Buffalonill]

8 hours ago, JohnC said:

Owen Power was the first pick in the draft. The way he played in the World Tournament and in his introductory stint last year demonstrated that he was demonstrably better than the players you listed in your post. If you want to take a wait and see approach with most rookie players, that would be a reasonable approach to take. But there is a small pool of rookies who are clearly a cut above their rookie piers. And it is safe to say (for me) that he falls in that category. 

Seeing how defenseman develop slowly im not going to get into the "hype" after 8 games .

When he plays a full season  maybe I'll change my mind depending how he does. 

[JohnC]

1 hour ago, Buffalonill said:

Seeing how defenseman develop slowly im not going to get into the "hype" after 8 games .

When he plays a full season  maybe I'll change my mind depending how he does. 

When he played in the World tournament with and against top tier pros he started with limited playing time. Based on his play he moved up the defensive pairings on his team in short order and earned top pairing minutes. In the end of the season games that I saw him although he made some mistakes he played without fear. With most rookies you have to be cautious about making predictions based on their early play. But even with the limited exposure he had with the Sabres last season it's an easy call to project him into being a top pairing caliber of player. 

[Buffalonill]

3 hours ago, JohnC said:

When he played in the World tournament with and against top tier pros he started with limited playing time. Based on his play he moved up the defensive pairings on his team in short order and earned top pairing minutes. In the end of the season games that I saw him although he made some mistakes he played without fear. With most rookies you have to be cautious about making predictions based on their early play. But even with the limited exposure he had with the Sabres last season it's an easy call to project him into being a top pairing caliber of player. 

I'm just saying its better to lower expectations so you having nothing to be disappointed in .

(For example jack eichel and Dahlin)

Both great players but both never lived up to hype that was  Surrounding them.

 

 

[Zamboni]

48 minutes ago, Buffalonill said:

I'm just saying its better to lower expectations so you having nothing to be disappointed in .

(For example jack eichel and Dahlin)

Both great players but both never lived up to hype that was  Surrounding them.

 

 

It’s the fault of no one but yourself, if you believe the media driven hype of a player. Year after year. Player after player. There are a lot of fans who eat that stuff up and believe it as gospel and therefore have bloated expectations. Then get mad and upset when those elevated expectations aren’t met. When there is only oneself to blame for believing it in the first place. All from the hockey media at large.

[Pimlach]

No one has mentioned Granato.  His coaching is most critical.  

 

No doubt that key players are more mature, and the talent is much better than the start of last year. 

Can DG elevate them another step and do they collectively has the mental toughness to be better?   

Better goaltending, no more massive losing streaks, win the games that they are leading in the 3rd period, have fun and play with energy and passion.   Do these things over last year and you can add 20 points to the record.  

[JohnC]

10 hours ago, Buffalonill said:

I'm just saying its better to lower expectations so you having nothing to be disappointed in .

(For example jack eichel and Dahlin)

Both great players but both never lived up to hype that was  Surrounding them.

 

 

I never subscribed to the theory that one or two players in a team sport are going to be the salvation for a lagging franchise. The difference when Eichel joined the team in comparison to Power joining the team is that the Michigan player is being added to a more robust roster. Using that same line of line of reasoning, as talented as Dahlin is, he as an individual couldn't influence the outcome much against superior teams. The Sabres are approaching the point where talent is more evenly spread throughout the lineup. Good players playing on good teams are more effective than good players playing on less talented teams. 

[SHAAAUGHT!!!]

Sabres are definitely better than last year, but I look at it like this:

Is Buffalo better than Tampa and Florida?  Nope.  

Better than Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa?  Probably not. 

Better than Boston or Detroit.  Yes.  

Sabres might play together as a team better than Montreal, Toronto, or Ottawa does, but there are still a lot of question marks with every team in this division outside the state of Florida…