Sabres & NHL 2017-18 - Entry Draft on June 22

[plenzmd1]

4 minutes ago, 26CornerBlitz said:

 

 Buy why would he unless it is done? I doubt anything happens, but if it does will me news to his agent as well. I mean no way he has a NMC 

[snafu]

5 hours ago, plenzmd1 said:

So this Lehner to Flyer’s thing has some legs eh? Will look for a link. 4mer might not be able to finish work today if that Sabres can trade him

 

 

 

Addition by subtraction AND get anything back.  Please I hope this happens.

[26CornerBlitz]

 

Edited December 7, 2017 by 26CornerBlitz

[BillsFan4]

10 hours ago, K-9 said:

Unfortunately, GMTM spent a lot of time and assets on acquiring the big (and slower) players he prefers to play a "heavy" game, like the Kings, for instance who won a couple of cups with that style. Speed kills. Especially when you have it on four lines and you can wear down opponents with your skating. We have those types in the pipeline, so it won't be long before we can roll four. I'm more concerned about our back end. 

 

For sure. Murray was building a slow, physical, "hard to play against" team modeled similarly to the Kings. The problem with that is the NHL was already trending away from that type of team by the time he started building it, and are quickly moving towards quick/fast, high skill teams and these new rule changes (like the slashing rule) are going to benefit those speedy types of teams even more and hurt the slower, lumbering teams. 

 

The other her problem with the type of team Murray was building is that we play in the eastern conference. He was building a team to compete in the west. Now, you do have to beat a western conference team to win a Stanley Cup. But... you have to beat 3 eastern conference teams in the playoffs to get there, and a bunch more just to make it to the playoffs in the first place. Even the western conference teams are trending toward more speed and skill. Like you said, speed kills. And skill usually wins out. Give me a smaller, faster, highly skilled player over the big, tough, physical guy any day of the week. 

 

 

 

We do have more speed coming up the pipeline assuming those guys can become NHL (impact) players, and it should fit Housley's system much, much better. But we still have quite a ways to go.

 

Murray basically ignored the defense, while at the same time trading away a bunch of our defensive depth (like McNabb, Zadorov, Pysyk). Its honestly kind of mind boggling, especially since defenseman traditionally take longer to develop. He should have been building up the back end from day 1. But he didn't, so now we are in a bit of a pickle...

 

All we have coming is Guhle, maybe Borgen (assuming he doesn't go the college free agent route), if we're real lucky Fitzgerald... and that's about it. 

It'd be Amazing if we could somehow land Dahlin in the draft this year, but we all know what our lottery luck is like. We could probably use him more than any team in the NHL. But Hey, maybe this will be our year though.  We can't get screwed in the lottery every year, right? 

 

If not Botterill is likely going to have to flip one of our bigger name forwards for a defenseman. Reinhart, ROR, maybe Nylander...? 

[26CornerBlitz]

 

[Dr. Who]

38 minutes ago, 26CornerBlitz said:

 

For all our bad luck with lotteries and the like, we got really lucky Middlestadt couldn't do a pull-up and apparently some GMs thought that meant bad at hockey.

Edited December 7, 2017 by Dr. Who

[26CornerBlitz]

Just now, Dr. Who said:

For all our bad luck with lotteries and the like, we got really lucky Middlestadt couldn't do a pull-up and apparently some GMs thought that meant bad at hockey.

 

The kid has game and moxie.  Like him a lot. 

[BillsFan4]

40 minutes ago, Dr. Who said:

For all our bad luck with lotteries and the like, we got really lucky Middlestadt couldn't do a pull-up and apparently some GMs thought that meant bad at hockey.

 

If things go right I think he could end up being one of the top 2-3 players from that draft. Maybe even the best. 

[K-9]

13 hours ago, BillsFan4 said:

 

For sure. Murray was building a slow, physical, "hard to play against" team modeled similarly to the Kings. The problem with that is the NHL was already trending away from that type of team by the time he started building it, and are quickly moving towards quick/fast, high skill teams and these new rule changes (like the slashing rule) are going to benefit those speedy types of teams even more and hurt the slower, lumbering teams. 

 

The other her problem with the type of team Murray was building is that we play in the eastern conference. He was building a team to compete in the west. Now, you do have to beat a western conference team to win a Stanley Cup. But... you have to beat 3 eastern conference teams in the playoffs to get there, and a bunch more just to make it to the playoffs in the first place. Even the western conference teams are trending toward more speed and skill. Like you said, speed kills. And skill usually wins out. Give me a smaller, faster, highly skilled player over the big, tough, physical guy any day of the week. 

 

 

 

We do have more speed coming up the pipeline assuming those guys can become NHL (impact) players, and it should fit Housley's system much, much better. But we still have quite a ways to go.

 

Murray basically ignored the defense, while at the same time trading away a bunch of our defensive depth (like McNabb, Zadorov, Pysyk). Its honestly kind of mind boggling, especially since defenseman traditionally take longer to develop. He should have been building up the back end from day 1. But he didn't, so now we are in a bit of a pickle...

 

All we have coming is Guhle, maybe Borgen (assuming he doesn't go the college free agent route), if we're real lucky Fitzgerald... and that's about it. 

It'd be Amazing if we could somehow land Dahlin in the draft this year, but we all know what our lottery luck is like. We could probably use him more than any team in the NHL. But Hey, maybe this will be our year though.  We can't get screwed in the lottery every year, right? 

 

If not Botterill is likely going to have to flip one of our bigger name forwards for a defenseman. Reinhart, ROR, maybe Nylander...? 

Good points, all. 

 

I'd have no problem trading Reinhart. He is not a top 6 NHL center and I think his attitude sucks as evidenced by his lapses in effort. 

 

And now that I've dissed him in this forum, I look for Samson to have a four point night vs. the Blackhawks on Friday. 

 

[26CornerBlitz]

 

 

[ExiledInIllinois]

11 minutes ago, 26CornerBlitz said:

 

Holy moly... Water down the League some more... How about a Canadian team?

 

Quebec

 

Or somewhere in The Maritimes?  Halifax would be cool...

[26CornerBlitz]

 

 

[BillsFan4]

Damn. The next expansion draft is probably going to be a lot more painful than this last one. Especially if it's not for another 2 years. 

 

Even if it's next year, We we will have to protect Reinhart, Eichel and more guys down on the farm (like Bailey, Baptiste, Fasching etc. maybe Nylander). 

 

The longer out it is, the more prospects we have to protect. Any player with 3+ years of pro experience (and Rochester counts) will have to be protected. 

 

I just hope we are out of the basement by then. It obviously adds another team stealing prospects from the top of the draft. But also, Las Vegas coming in this past year kind of screwed us in another way. Without them, we'd have been sitting 5th best odds instead of 6th... and guess which team won the 1st overall pick? Yup. New Jersey, sitting at 5th.... if that's not Buffalo sports luck, I don't know what is. lol 

[26CornerBlitz]

 

Lehner?

[BillsFan4]

Briers still can't believe the Sabres let him and Drury go, ultimately chose Vanek over them and four 1st round picks - 

 

http://buffalonews.com/2017/12/06/tim-graham-show-daniel-briere-still-cant-believe-sabres-didnt-lock-up-him-chris-drury-and-4-first-round-picks/?utm_campaign=puma&utm_medium=social&utm_source=Twitter#link_time=1512666914

 

 

Quote

Briere told us that if the Sabres simply had dropped their purported policy of not negotiating contracts in-season (they secretly hammered out a deal with Drury but didn't consummate it) and then declined to match the Edmonton Oilers' offer sheet to Thomas Vanek, Drury and Briere would have been back for less money than they spent on Vanek.

 

Instead, the Sabres fiddled around that offseason, tried to broker deals too close to the opening of free agency and watched their heart and soul leave.

The Sabres were rattled further when the Oilers signed Vanek to a seven-year, $50 million offer sheet. The reigning President's Trophy winners already had lost Briere and Drury and needed to match for PR reasons, if nothing else.

 

"One of the things that just did not make sense is the promise to re-sign Thomas Vanek if someone came out with an offer sheet," Briere said, "because for a cheaper price than it cost them to keep Thomas Vanek, they could've signed Chris and I and gotten four first-round picks from the Edmonton Oilers.

 

This still sings when you think about what could have been.... 

 

2 of those 4 1st round picks from Edmonton were 1st overall picks. #22 (Jordan Eberle), #10 (Magnus paajarvi, but who knows maybe Buffalo uses it to draft Erik Karlsson), #1 (Ryan Nugent Hopkins, Landeskog went right after), #1 (Taylor Hall, Seguin went #2). 

 

I guess you could argue that Vanek makes them better and they don't get the 1st overall picks, but I doubt it. They offer sheeted Dustin Penner instead of Vanek and he didn't keep the Oilers from bottoming out. Even if Vanek improves them slightly mor  than Penner, those 1st rounders are still damn high. 

 

That could have been the move that won Buffalo a Cup. Just imagine Drury, Briere and those four 1st round talents... I try not to get into what if's because they cons drive you crazy. But it was hard not to think about it listening to this Briere interview. 

[26CornerBlitz]

Sigh. 

 

[26CornerBlitz]

 

Game Preview: 12/8/17 at CHI
 

Game Notes

NHL Stats

Press Clips

LAST GAME
Tuesday, December 5
Buffalo 4 at Colorado 2
Goals: Pouliot, McCabe, Kane, Eichel
Goalie: Lehner (35 saves/37 shots)
PP: 0/3; PK: 4/6; Shots: Colorado 37 – Buffalo 35

CURRENT INJURIES – (Man Games Lost: 131)
Player (injury, first game missed) – total games missed
Taylor Fedun (lower body, Nov. 17; injured reserve) – 11 games
Jacob Josefson (ankle, Nov. 28; injured reserve) – 4 games
Nathan Beaulieu (illness, Dec. 5) – 1 game

TRANSACTIONS IN PAST 7 DAYS
12/2: Recalled F Hudson Fasching from Rochester (AHL)
12/4: Acquired F Scott Wilson from Detroit in exchange for a fifth-round pick in the 2019 NHL Draft; Recalled F Evan Rodrigues from Rochester (AHL); Assigned F Kyle Criscuolo to Rochester; Placed F Matt Moulson on waivers
12/5: Assigned F Matt Moulson to Ontario (AHL)

UPCOMING GAMES
Sunday, Dec. 10: Buffalo at St. Louis, 7 p.m.
Tuesday, Dec. 12: Ottawa at Buffalo, 7 p.m.
Thursday, Dec. 14: Buffalo at Philadelphia, 7 p.m.
Friday, Dec. 15: Carolina at Buffalo, 7 p.m.
Tuesday, Dec. 19: Boston at Buffalo, 7:30 p.m.

TONIGHT’S GAME
SABRES at BLACKHAWKS

• This is the first of two meetings between the Sabres and Blackhawks this season.
• Last meeting: Chicago defeated Buffalo 5-1 in Buffalo on Feb. 19
• Next meeting: Saturday, March 17, 2018 in Buffalo
• The Sabres are 0-8-2 in their last 10 games vs. the Blackhawks; 2-7-1 on the road.
• This is the 120th game all-time between Buffalo and Chicago; Buffalo has a 53-51-15 series record.
• The Sabres are 19-33-7 on the road against the Blackhawks all-time.

 

Edited December 8, 2017 by 26CornerBlitz

[26CornerBlitz]

 

[26CornerBlitz]

 

[thebug]

5 minutes ago, 26CornerBlitz said:

 

No Okposo for morning skate.