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Buffalo Sabres and NHL: 2019/20: Sabres season officially over. Draft lottery June 26th


BillsFan4

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WGR's Paul Hamilton reports the players will be sent to Rochester during the all-star break. Pilut will probably be the player who will return to the big club when the league returns to play. He also indicates that Skinner should soon be ready after the Sabres resume their schedule. 

https://wgr550.radio.com/articles/news/the-sabres-send-three-to-rochester

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Well, here we are again.

 

Starting in the 2015/2016 season in Bylsma’s first year and continuing through Housley’s tenure, this team went into their bye week well within striking distance of a playoff spot and needing to come out of the break making noise, only to fold like the proverbial cheap tent; the task simply being too big for their fragile psyches. Which way will this team, under Krueger, decide to go this season?

 

9 of their next 10 at home, including five in a row upon returning to action. If there was EVER a time when the hockey gods provided an opportunity to make a move, this is it. 

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13 hours ago, bbb said:

 

I turned it on just in time to see the last 7 minutes or so.  I really wish I didn't. 

They actually played a pretty damn good game outside the first 7(ish) minutes and the last 7(ish) minutes. Nashville came out strong, but then Buffalo pushed back. It went back and forth. 1-0 Sabres. 1-1 preds. Then that killer PP goal with 6:30 remaining in the 3rd. Buffalo was struggling leading up to that Nashville PP and just never seemed to recover. 

 

1 hour ago, K-9 said:

Well, here we are again.

 

Starting in the 2015/2016 season in Bylsma’s first year and continuing through Housley’s tenure, this team went into their bye week well within striking distance of a playoff spot and needing to come out of the break making noise, only to fold like the proverbial cheap tent; the task simply being too big for their fragile psyches. Which way will this team, under Krueger, decide to go this season?

 

9 of their next 10 at home, including five in a row upon returning to action. If there was EVER a time when the hockey gods provided an opportunity to make a move, this is it. 

Yeah I’m looking forward to seeing what they can do after the all star break, especially if they get Skinner back right after the break and hopefully Olofsson back in early Feb (if not sooner!). They definitely have the opportunity to stay in the playoff race. I still don’t expect them to make it, but if they can even stay in the race till the end I’ll consider it a pretty nice step forward for this team. As you said they usually fold like a cheap tent (and we have many of the same players as last year so I don’t know how high I should have my hopes).

 

I’m going to a couple home games coming up after the break. I hope I don’t regret it...

lol 

 

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2 minutes ago, BillsFan4 said:

They actually played a pretty damn good game outside the first 7(ish) minutes and the last 7(ish) minutes. Nashville came out strong, but then Buffalo pushed back. It went back and forth. 1-0 Sabres. 1-1 preds. Then that killer PP goal with 6:30 remaining in the 3rd. Buffalo was struggling leading up to that Nashville PP and just never seemed to recover. 

 

Yeah I’m looking forward to seeing what they can do after the all star break, especially if they get Skinner back right after the break and hopefully Olofsson back in early Feb (if not sooner!). They definitely have the opportunity to stay in the playoff race. I still don’t expect them to make it, but if they can even stay in the race till the end I’ll consider it a pretty nice step forward for this team. As you said they usually fold like a cheap tent (and we have many of the same players as last year so I don’t know how high I should have my hopes).

 

I’m going to a couple home games coming up after the break. I hope I don’t regret it...

lol 

 


“High” and “hopes” in the same sentence regarding the Sabres chance. I admire your optimism. 
 

In my case, I’d have to be high to have hopes at all. Nope. My expectations are lowered to the point of needing an electron microscope just to detect them. I expect absolutely nothing from this group. Anything above nothing is gravy. 
 

I only watch to see Eichel, Dahlin, and our other young prospects to see how they’re developing. 

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12 minutes ago, BillsFan4 said:

They actually played a pretty damn good game outside the first 7(ish) minutes and the last 7(ish) minutes. Nashville came out strong, but then Buffalo pushed back. It went back and forth. 1-0 Sabres. 1-1 preds. Then that killer PP goal with 6:30 remaining in the 3rd. Buffalo was struggling leading up to that Nashville PP and just never seemed to recover. 

 

Then 7ish minutes left is exactly when I turned it on.  I saw about a minute before the penalty was called, and I kept trying to count Sabres because I thought Nashville must be on the power play and there was a glitch in the scoreboard type thing up top not saying it............Then, the PP, then the goal, and then not a friggin shot on net.  

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2 hours ago, K-9 said:

Well, here we are again.

 

Starting in the 2015/2016 season in Bylsma’s first year and continuing through Housley’s tenure, this team went into their bye week well within striking distance of a playoff spot and needing to come out of the break making noise, only to fold like the proverbial cheap tent; the task simply being too big for their fragile psyches. Which way will this team, under Krueger, decide to go this season?

 

9 of their next 10 at home, including five in a row upon returning to action. If there was EVER a time when the hockey gods provided an opportunity to make a move, this is it. 

 

The schedule is set up for them to have ~3-1/2 weeks of really strong results, 3 weeks of poor results, and then finish w/ ~3 strong weeks down the stretch.

 

But people have expected them to stay in the abyss a couple of times this year after poor play but they've bounced back.  (Not as high as they've needed but considering 1/2 of their scoring forwards have been out for a few weeks, their backup has been AHL backup bad, and they have a deficient C-spine better than probably should've been expected.)

 

Doubt they climb into the playoffs but also doubt they have another Bylsma/Housley race to the bottom either.

 

Just watching them to see what Eichel will do next, how Dahlin will continue to grow, see if Reinhart can finish above 70 (pretty sure he can), and how Montour and Jokiharju continue to learn the system and in Henri's case, grow as well.

 

But if they had a 2C and a backup goalie, they'd be playoff bound.  IMHO.

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37 minutes ago, Taro T said:

The schedule is set up for them to have ~3-1/2 weeks of really strong results, 3 weeks of poor results, and then finish w/ ~3 strong weeks down the stretch.

 

They've been streaky all season.  If they win the first two after the break, then they'd have 14/20 points for January.

 

37 minutes ago, Taro T said:

But if they had a 2C and a backup goalie, they'd be playoff bound.  IMHO.

 

If they had a 2C and a starting goalie...I don't think either of their G's are starter material at all.

 

 

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1 hour ago, snafu said:

 

They've been streaky all season.  If they win the first two after the break, then they'd have 14/20 points for January.

 

 

If they had a 2C and a starting goalie...I don't think either of their G's are starter material at all.

 

 

Ullmark has progressed as a goalie. However, I agree with you that he is more of a backup than a starting primary goalie. The goalie position is one of the most unique positions in sports. You can have a goalie who indicates that he is a #1 goalie on a team only to fall into the abyss the next year. And that same mercurial player can go to another team and carry his team to the playoffs and beyond. 

 

Look what's happened to Hutton. He was our starting goalie who was expected to be our mainstay stopper for the duration of his contract. No one would consider him to be a good to elite player but he was expected to be a solid player. It wouldn't be surprising to me that if he was dealt that he would regain the respectable play that he had before. 

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4 hours ago, snafu said:

 

They've been streaky all season.  If they win the first two after the break, then they'd have 14/20 points for January.

 

 

If they had a 2C and a starting goalie...I don't think either of their G's are starter material at all.

 

 

 

Good point on the goalie.  A true starter that could relegate Ullmark to backup duty could have them in the playoffs all by himself.  

 

Just don't know that with their cap troubles (and bringing in a top tier goalie coach) that a true starter was viable get in the off-season and there aren't any of those on the market at present.  A good backup (possibly even Johansson if they were to get lucky) could be obtainable now.

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On 1/18/2020 at 6:40 PM, Taro T said:

 

Actually, though teams traditionally have chosen to keep 14F and 7D on their roster, a lot of teams have been switching to 13/8 because it makes it a lot more sense to run 8 D in practice (having a pair running through drills and another ready to run at each end and only having to roll 1 spare F through the lines) than to only have 7 and either mix & match pairs w/ 2 Fs to roll through the 4 lines or slide a F back onto a pairing.  It is unusual though to have the 7 & 8 NHL caliber D men in/ close to their prime rather than guys that are either tweeners or long in the tooth on the back side of their career.  (Yeah, Bogo kind of fits that latter description but he is still on his 1st non-ELC/bridge contract.)

 

How many actually carry the full 23 though?  It's always seemed to me like most teams will go with 22, not have a 3rd guy rot away in the pressbox, all while banking a little extra cap space.  I would look at rosters right now, but the break makes that pointless.

 

12 hours ago, Taro T said:

 

Good point on the goalie.  A true starter that could relegate Ullmark to backup duty could have them in the playoffs all by himself.  

 

Just don't know that with their cap troubles (and bringing in a top tier goalie coach) that a true starter was viable get in the off-season and there aren't any of those on the market at present.  A good backup (possibly even Johansson if they were to get lucky) could be obtainable now.

 

I'd say Ullmark is the kind of guy who could work well in a platoon.  Based on his career, Hutton should be too, which is what they were hoping for and it really wasn't all that unreasonable.  But why has this guy fallen off a cliff?  Maybe it's just age, but there really isn't all that much wear on those tires.

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3 hours ago, plenzmd1 said:

damn, this team even sucks off the ice

 

 


If I had to bet on it, I’d say this is another AdPro screw up as I believe that’s the company to whom the Sabres outsource their customization work. 

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The attached link is an 8 min segment with Chad DeDominicis on WGR with Jeremy White. The core of the discussion is that under Krueger Risto has played better making his value go up. The issue as always comes down to is what can you get for Risto in a deal? Jeremy White has for a long time argued to deal him not only for the return but for the sake of changing the mix on the roster. I don't go along with his reasoning. The issue for me comes down to what can you get for him? If you can get a second-line forward such as Winnipeg's Ehler for him then I would be open to such a deal. If not, then keep your asset and don't settle for a lesser asset. 

 

https://wgr550.radio.com/media/audio-channel/01-22-chad-dedominicis-from-die-by-the-blade-with-jeremy-white

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On 1/21/2020 at 2:19 PM, plenzmd1 said:

damn, this team even sucks off the ice

 

 

 

Apparently the "Robitalle" picture is not from this season.  I did some digging over on sabrespace and the board ads in that picture do not match anything from this season.  So someone's being a bit disingenuous trying to pin both of those pictures as one act.  The Andreychuk typo is bad, but let's face it, it's not the first or the last time that we'll see a screwed up name plate in any of the pro sports.  It's bad, but it's not "this organization is inept" bad.  The internet is littered with countless examples from over the years.

 

My guess is the next one we'll see is "they poured me a blue instead of a blue light, this organization sucks!"

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