So Who's Gone A Week From Tomorrow?

[HILLsabre]

21 minutes ago, mjd1001 said:

Thompson is a top line player, hes one of the best goal scorers in the league.  Tuch is also a good 1/2 line guy.  He's good enough as a first liner, and he would be a great 2nd liner on a lot of teams.

Not sure why you say Tuch is a 2nd liner at best...he's one of the better forcheckers in the league, is close to getting his 2nd 30 goal season in 3 years....leads the team in plus/minus, is a clutch scorer (no one has more game winning goals on the team since he has been here), and it is rare, REALLY rare that he makes a mistake definsively by being out of position.  Since leaving Vegas and arriving here with more ice time, he has developed into a really solid all around winger.

Buffalo's 'first line' (Thompson, Tuch, and Zucker) have a combined 70 goals, are a +20 and are shooting 17.2% collectively (you can sub in Peterka for Zucker and the numbers don't change much).  I'm not going to list every team, but that puts them in the top 1/3 in the league's top lines in most of those categories around the league.

Of course you can always use more great first liners, but the issue with this team is lines #2 and #3, mostly Cozens and Quinn who actually have hurt the team and made it worse when they were out there this year.

This team would be a playoff team, and probably a legit contender if you take away Cozens and Quinn and replace them with good 2nd line players (a bit of better goaltending and an extra good vet D-man would help)

I think Tuch and Zucker make decent 2nd liners, but If Tage is centering top line we need some absolute finish guys on the wings. But My point was we have a lot of young potential line 1/2 guys DOWN the road, but they can't play that 3/4 line skill set now or maybe ever!  Kulich, Rousek, Quinn, Kozak, Rosen....Benson and Paterka are far from their potential as well. I agree we know what we have with Cozens. It's time to make some moves! No we can't solve it all tomorrow at the deadline, but get the ball rolling, have a future plan, what are we waiting for?

[MISabresFan]

22 hours ago, Stoner said:

But who are "they"? They is Terry. KA has done pretty much what he was asked to do. Look at that fan poll. The rank and file seems to think with some tinkering on the margins that playoffs are nigh. Attendance has not been great, but the bottom has hardly dropped out.

Unless you work for the organization, you are only guessing.  Lets look at the facts, 13 plus years.