Around the NHL: 2024-2025 Season

[PerreaultForever]

5 hours ago, Archie Lee said:

I’m not sure of the differences in scouting staffs, but under Yzerman, Tampa drafted much better than Detroit has. Also, Yzerman inherited Hedman and Stamkos in Tampa. Dylan Larkin is a good player, but not in the same category as a building block as Stamkos or Hedman. 

they got palm trees too down there. No palm trees in Detroit either. 

[dudacek]

7 hours ago, Thorner said:

 

***** Toronto media bias.

Completely ignoring the Sabres are rolling along better than all the pretenders at 6-4

[Archie Lee]

Columbus currently in WC2, on pace for 86 points. 

A 3-4 point improvement on last year’s 84 point season, might have put us in the playoffs. $6-7 million in unused cap. 10 picks in the coming draft. One of the deeper prospect pools in hockey. Adams makes not one move from the start of the season, with the intent of improving the team now. And all signs are he will get another shot at it. 
 

[Thorner]

Rangers headed to OT after blowing lead 

Habs lose 

Sabres can pull within 7 points after being 15 back, 5 days ago 

[Thorner]

Rangers lose 

[Thorner]

The WC2 line in the east has been at 75 points since last Saturday. It has not moved in a week.

The pace over 82 has now fallen to 85

 

they are literally handing out playoff spots 

the sabres 84 points last year is now one off the projected total 

Edited yesterday at 01:24 AM by Thorner

[PerreaultForever]

On 3/28/2025 at 5:05 PM, dudacek said:

***** Toronto media bias.

Completely ignoring the Sabres are rolling along better than all the pretenders at 6-4

cause they are way way behind and have been out of it for ages. It's not bias, it's rationality. 

[dudacek]

7 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

cause they are way way behind and have been out of it for ages. It's not bias, it's rationality. 

/sarcasm

[DarthEbriate]

The 8th place race is so obnoxiously bad.

UPL missed one game because of a collision injury somewhere near midseason (December, maybe?). But otherwise, if you just let Levi roll in Rochester all season, don't waive Reimer, and replace Levi's games with Reimer's numbers...  you've got at least 3, and maybe as many as 5 more wins right now. The Sabres could be 1 point out of a playoff spot (and have been buyers at the deadline).

[PerreaultForever]

3 hours ago, DarthEbriate said:

The 8th place race is so obnoxiously bad.

UPL missed one game because of a collision injury somewhere near midseason (December, maybe?). But otherwise, if you just let Levi roll in Rochester all season, don't waive Reimer, and replace Levi's games with Reimer's numbers...  you've got at least 3, and maybe as many as 5 more wins right now. The Sabres could be 1 point out of a playoff spot (and have been buyers at the deadline).

But, if we were closer and actually in the hunt opposition teams would take us more seriously and we'd have a tougher time of it. We've been winning a bunch of wide open games where teams have been loose and/or uninterested and when given open ice this team usually does well. The exception was the Philly game where they also played loose and open and beat us at our own game. 

I laugh when I read things like "Quinn is heating up" on twitter and sure he is, cause he's not being checked as closely and he has open ice. Give him open ice and yes he has skill. We knew that. The problem is his inability to play through tight checking and physical defense. This happens to this team every single year and every single year it seems to give management this illusion/delusion that we are close, just a little luck is all we need. It's madness. 

[DarthEbriate]

37 minutes ago, PerreaultForever said:

But, if we were closer and actually in the hunt opposition teams would take us more seriously and we'd have a tougher time of it.

Agreed, but all of those Levi-for-Reimer games of which I'm talking were before December 15th (except one where he got the call-up, and could've gotten the callup to sit on the bench instead of start during one of those streaks where UPL wasn't hot and yet Reimer didn't get a start for 3 weeks). That's before all the playoff teams need to start worrying about taking 7th-10th place teams seriously.

[PerreaultForever]

8 hours ago, DarthEbriate said:

Agreed, but all of those Levi-for-Reimer games of which I'm talking were before December 15th (except one where he got the call-up, and could've gotten the callup to sit on the bench instead of start during one of those streaks where UPL wasn't hot and yet Reimer didn't get a start for 3 weeks). That's before all the playoff teams need to start worrying about taking 7th-10th place teams seriously.

I'm seeing a lot of "if" all over the internet in Sabres conversations. If Dahlin hadn't missed games, if Quinn had started hotter, if goaltending had been better, if they hadn't gone to Europe, if if if it's if every year. 

The bottom line for me is Ruff didn't make a difference. The team isn't any better than it was last year. 

[Archie Lee]

8 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

I'm seeing a lot of "if" all over the internet in Sabres conversations. If Dahlin hadn't missed games, if Quinn had started hotter, if goaltending had been better, if they hadn't gone to Europe, if if if it's if every year. 

The bottom line for me is Ruff didn't make a difference. The team isn't any better than it was last year. 

Anybody paying attention to the last 13-14 years of Ruff’s career, knew there was no reason to think he would make a difference. 

[thewookie1]

9 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

I'm seeing a lot of "if" all over the internet in Sabres conversations. If Dahlin hadn't missed games, if Quinn had started hotter, if goaltending had been better, if they hadn't gone to Europe, if if if it's if every year. 

The bottom line for me is Ruff didn't make a difference. The team isn't any better than it was last year. 

The one what-if I'll give credence to is the Dahlin one. If Dahlin doesn't reaggravate his back spasms we likely win that first game against Colorado and don't go on a 13 game losing streak. Even just flipping 4 games and making it 4-6-3 instead of 0-10-3 would put us 1 back of the 2WC. Frankly though the whole conference is rather sad seeing as the WC2 in the West has 10 more points than the WC2 in the East. Its also an indictment on the roster for having 1 player be such a lynchpin to wins versus losses

[SwampD]

4 hours ago, thewookie1 said:

The one what-if I'll give credence to is the Dahlin one. If Dahlin doesn't reaggravate his back spasms we likely win that first game against Colorado and don't go on a 13 game losing streak. Even just flipping 4 games and making it 4-6-3 instead of 0-10-3 would put us 1 back of the 2WC. Frankly though the whole conference is rather sad seeing as the WC2 in the West has 10 more points than the WC2 in the East. Its also an indictment on the roster for having 1 player be such a lynchpin to wins versus losses

The point is, you can't have a team so fragile that one guy not playing has that great of an impact.

[thewookie1]

8 minutes ago, SwampD said:

The point is, you can't have a team so fragile that one guy not playing has that great of an impact.

Oh I agree; I was merely saying that if there's one what-if that holds water its regarding Dahlin.

[Brawndo]

 

[Thorner]

Eichel probably the Selke front runner right now, 4th in points, +35 (league lead). Gary Lawless just called him and Barkov the 2 best 2-way centres in the nhl 

Gotta think lady byng is all but guaranteed with only 6 penalty minutes 

he is getting mentioned in the hart convo deservedly so. Top 3 nhl C 

Edited 28 minutes ago by Thorner