Buffalo Sabres and the NHL: 2025 - 2026

[Doc]

8 hours ago, PromoTheRobot said:

 

The hole is not at large as you think it is. But I'm not surprised that everyone has their panties in a was. It's all you see and hear in the media. 

 

Going by 2024 numbers, Buffalo scored 269 goals which puts them 9th in league scoring. JJ scored 27 of those goals.

 

If Buffalo gets 13 goals from all the new players added, that includes Norris, in 2025, they with have 257 goals, which would rank at #12 last year. That isn't a big drop.

 

But now what is all the defensive improvements lower your goals against by 20 goals? Your +/- actually improves.

 

It's the goaltending.  They need a Miller at least.  Preferably a Hasek.

[Fleezoid]

3 hours ago, Pete said:

Right now we have Hughes and Benson in our top 6.  I like both, but not sure either belongs in top 6.  Counting on a full season from Norris is asking a lot.  Tage, Tuch, Kulich, belong in top 6, they could use upgrades at linemates

 

Agree about Benson. I like the kid; talented and aggressive. But man is he a ragdoll out there sometimes. I think his size is limiting his production. 

10 hours ago, PromoTheRobot said:

 

The hole is not at large as you think it is. But I'm not surprised that everyone has their panties in a wad. It's all you see and hear in the media. 

 

 

 

This is fair. But it's hard to get excited about a team with a couple of stars, a few really good players and then a bunch of journeymen that rarely play inspired hockey. And I think the biggest issue is the goalie situation. Who's that guy gonna be? And will any of them play with any sort of consistency? 

 

The fans are looking for a spark. Something...anything. A viable blockbuster trade perhaps. Hasn't happened. Maybe a Miller or Hasek type goaltender, as one person mentioned earlier. Those are hard gems to find. 

 

Maybe something will happen when the season starts to get fans to sit up and take notice. But for now, it just looks like business as usual. Which hasn't worked out so well lately. 

[Jauronimo]

1 hour ago, Fleezoid said:

 

Agree about Benson. I like the kid; talented and aggressive. But man is he a ragdoll out there sometimes. I think his size is limiting his production. 

 

This is fair. But it's hard to get excited about a team with a couple of stars, a few really good players and then a bunch of journeymen that rarely play inspired hockey. And I think the biggest issue is the goalie situation. Who's that guy gonna be? And will any of them play with any sort of consistency? 

 

The fans are looking for a spark. Something...anything. A viable blockbuster trade perhaps. Hasn't happened. Maybe a Miller or Hasek type goaltender, as one person mentioned earlier. Those are hard gems to find. 

 

Maybe something will happen when the season starts to get fans to sit up and take notice. But for now, it just looks like business as usual. Which hasn't worked out so well lately. 

It is. Big time.  I respect his fight and tenacity but he spends a lot of time on his ass.  We hope he can become Brad Marchand who is also 5'9" and weighs 180 according to the internet.  Benson is 5'9" and weighs 170 supposedly.  I think Marchand is closer to 200 at this point and Benson is closer to 150 mid season.  The difference in their physicality is night and day.

 

To be fair, Benson is still a year younger going into his 3rd year as a pro than Marchand was in his rookie season.  Hopefully he spent the offseason in the gym and crushing HGH.  

[Pete]

I would like to see Rosen on the 4th line.

 

 Kozak-Danforth-Rosen - lots of grit and Rosen can score 

If Bryam stays, our D is rock solid 1-6.  Bottom 6 got better, and tougher.  Goalie play should be better 

Me, and most every Sabres fan wants a splash signing, and inject some excitement.  I understand we are waiting on Byram.  Wrap that up and sign a top 6 playmaker!

[Dr. Who]

8 minutes ago, Pete said:

I would like to see Rosen on the 4th line.

 

 Kozak-Danforth-Rosen - lots of grit and Rosen can score 

If Bryam stays, our D is rock solid 1-6.  Bottom 6 got better, and tougher.  Goalie play should be better 

Me, and most every Sabres fan wants a splash signing, and inject some excitement.  I understand we are waiting on Byram.  Wrap that up and sign a top 6 playmaker!

There is no top 6 playmaker left in FA. You might get a top 6 in a trade of Byram, but then you need to find a top 4 D.

Rosen is a tweener. He's too good for the AHL, not good enough for the NHL.

4th line is a checking line. That's not Rosen.

 

 

[PromoTheRobot]

11 hours ago, Fleezoid said:

 

Agree about Benson. I like the kid; talented and aggressive. But man is he a ragdoll out there sometimes. I think his size is limiting his production. 

 

This is fair. But it's hard to get excited about a team with a couple of stars, a few really good players and then a bunch of journeymen that rarely play inspired hockey. And I think the biggest issue is the goalie situation. Who's that guy gonna be? And will any of them play with any sort of consistency? 

 

The fans are looking for a spark. Something...anything. A viable blockbuster trade perhaps. Hasn't happened. Maybe a Miller or Hasek type goaltender, as one person mentioned earlier. Those are hard gems to find. 

 

Maybe something will happen when the season starts to get fans to sit up and take notice. But for now, it just looks like business as usual. Which hasn't worked out so well lately. 

 

The Sabres did what the Bills did: they identified a problem on their defense/goaltending and put all their focus on it. They couldn't land any sexy name scorers but they got a lot better (and meaner) on defense. I've been saying the Sabres needed a Rob Ray on the team, and I think they are finally thinking that way, probably from Lindy Ruff's insistence. 

[BillsFan4]

@PromoTheRobot I give you props for continuing to always remain positive about the Sabres, and I don’t mean that in a snarky way.

 

I try to be a person who looks for the positives but my hope tank for the Sabres is bone dry. lol 

[PromoTheRobot]

18 minutes ago, BillsFan4 said:

@PromoTheRobot I give you props for continuing to always remain positive about the Sabres, and I don’t mean that in a snarky way.

 

I try to be a person who looks for the positives but my hope tank for the Sabres is bone dry. lol 

 

It's like this. When you are in a hole, do you sit there and say woe is me, or do you start climbing out? Most people only have a cursory knowledge of the Sabres: PLAYOFF DROUGHT! And from that they assume everything about the team is horrible. It isn't. They have good players. They have drafted well. They were 9th in the league in scoring.

 

Their problem is much like the Bills last year; they are bad on defense and give up too many goals. So they are adding better D and players with grit this year. Now they did lose a scorer in JJ Peterka that they haven't fully replaced. The wild card is Josh Norris who they traded for last year. His rep is as a scorer but he's been injured a lot.

 

Do you remember the Bills drought? This is the same thing. The Bills were never the worst, they were just bad enough. And one magical year, they caught a break and broke the drought. I'm hoping the same happens this year. But being miserable all the time just gives me an ulcer and doesn't have any impact on what happens on the ice.

[That's No Moon]

2 hours ago, PromoTheRobot said:

 

It's like this. When you are in a hole, do you sit there and say woe is me, or do you start climbing out? Most people only have a cursory knowledge of the Sabres: PLAYOFF DROUGHT! And from that they assume everything about the team is horrible. It isn't. They have good players. They have drafted well. They were 9th in the league in scoring.

They've drafted very well and often signed or acquired decent players; there are former Sabres all over recent Cup winning teams.

 

In terms of having cursory knowledge, I used to watch every game. I don't think I've watched a full Sabres game in about 3 years and I've truned down free tickets to games the last 4 years. I turn them on, get disgusted quickly, and then turn it back off. If you want to ding people like me for that that fine, they just aren't worth watching or aggravating myself over.  It's beyond clear that they have absolutely no idea what they are doing and that Terry has made the decision not to spend on the team.  They are the Pirates of the NHL and I'm not here for that.  When they get serious about trying to compete then I will get serious about watching them again.

 

 

[PromoTheRobot]

22 minutes ago, That's No Moon said:

They've drafted very well and often signed or acquired decent players; there are former Sabres all over recent Cup winning teams.

 

In terms of having cursory knowledge, I used to watch every game. I don't think I've watched a full Sabres game in about 3 years and I've truned down free tickets to games the last 4 years. I turn them on, get disgusted quickly, and then turn it back off. If you want to ding people like me for that that fine, they just aren't worth watching or aggravating myself over.  It's beyond clear that they have absolutely no idea what they are doing and that Terry has made the decision not to spend on the team.  They are the Pirates of the NHL and I'm not here for that.  When they get serious about trying to compete then I will get serious about watching them again.

 

 

Just curious, did you sweat off the Bills during their drought? That was 17 years.

 

I get not following the team and stuff but then you don't really know the how and why about things happening. It's not meant as a ding. Just pointing out when you say they don't know what they are doing you are assuming a lot and you don't know the details.

Edited July 4 by PromoTheRobot

[PromoTheRobot]

On 7/3/2025 at 7:55 AM, Doc said:

 

It's the goaltending.  They need a Miller at least.  Preferably a Hasek.

Play a little defense, stop turning pucks over, and the change in goalie will be miraculous.

[That's No Moon]

6 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

Just curious, did you sweat off the Bills during their drought? That was 17 years.

 

I get not following the team and stuff but then you don't really know the how and why about things happening. It's not meant as a ding. Just pointing out when you say they don't know what they are doing you are assuming a lot and you don't know the details.

I can look at the results and see they don't know what they are doing.  There isn't and hasn't been a comprehensive plan. They throw stuff at the wall.  The most recent "plan" with Granato was to play wide open hockey with skilled players. That's fine and it's fun.  They then didn't invest in a proper goaltender to bail out the young defense and the forwards who backcheck about as energetically as a rotting corpse.  Now they are changing course to become harder to play against. Great. The STILL don't have a goaltender or a plan to fix the god awful power play. All the coaches are coming back.  Why?  

 

Shortly after Botterill and his staff were fired and Adams was hired, I spoke face-to-face with a pretty connected NHL person who would know.  This person said out loud that nobody in the league respects Adams.  At that time, it was over the way he got his job. However, with the essentially closed society that hockey is, I am quite certain that those people haven't forgotten and it impacts every single thing Adams tries to do, from trades with other GMs to work with agents and players, from people who flat out refuse to work for Adams. Normally people like that are cagey about saying too much specific, this one came right out and said it without prompting.

 

And no I didn't write off the Bills during their drought.  The thing that was different about the Bills, even when they couldn't make the playoffs, it was apparent that they were at least trying.  What's more than that is supporting them through that time was as much about keeping the team in Buffalo as it was about anything else.  

 

My beef with the Sabres, frankly, is personal.  I brought my oldest son to the last Sabres playoff game.  He was 5.  He was starting to play hockey and I was looking forward to going through his childhood with hockey and the Sabres.  He's now 19, away at college during the season, and they never played a playoff game again.  Not only that they became a joke during that time. People who apparently know better than me hired Ron Rolston, Ted Nolan 2.0, Phil Housley, and Ralph freaking Krueger to be the coach.  They also hired Dan Bylsma and Don Granato who got CLOSE to the playoffs but couldn't close the deal but at least looked like they had half a plan while they were losing.  If management had gotten Granato a goaltender he would have made the playoffs but it was more important for them to not block the kids.  Idiocy.

 

Pegula is a putz and what's worse is that he thinks he knows how to run a hockey team which makes it 1000% worse.

 

 

[That's No Moon]

17 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

Play a little defense, stop turning pucks over, and the change in goalie will be miraculous.

What change in goalie? Lyon replaces Reimer; they are basically the same player. UPL is terrible and without MASSIVE improvement from him the team is in the same place in goal next season. They have a goalie they are basically stuck with for the next 4 years at 4.75MM AAV, a journeyman backup, and a 23 year old 6' prospect. People seem to be pinning a LOT of hope on Levi to be the rare short goaltender who is successful in modern hockey because other than him the pipeline doesn't have anything else coming any time soon.  

[PromoTheRobot]

27 minutes ago, That's No Moon said:

What change in goalie? Lyon replaces Reimer; they are basically the same player. UPL is terrible and without MASSIVE improvement from him the team is in the same place in goal next season. They have a goalie they are basically stuck with for the next 4 years at 4.75MM AAV, a journeyman backup, and a 23 year old 6' prospect. People seem to be pinning a LOT of hope on Levi to be the rare short goaltender who is successful in modern hockey because other than him the pipeline doesn't have anything else coming any time soon.  

 

UPL did start to play better but the defensive lapses caused him to revert to bad habits. Meanwhile Levi is doing great in the AHL. He might be ready to come up mid season. And Alex Lyon has a good resume. 

[That's No Moon]

48 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

 

UPL did start to play better but the defensive lapses caused him to revert to bad habits. Meanwhile Levi is doing great in the AHL. He might be ready to come up mid season. And Alex Lyon has a good resume. 

Levi panning out above the A will be a surprise. Short goalies are very rare these days.

[Jauronimo]

On 7/4/2025 at 10:30 AM, PromoTheRobot said:

 

It's like this. When you are in a hole, do you sit there and say woe is me, or do you start climbing out? Most people only have a cursory knowledge of the Sabres: PLAYOFF DROUGHT! And from that they assume everything about the team is horrible. It isn't. They have good players. They have drafted well. They were 9th in the league in scoring.

 

Their problem is much like the Bills last year; they are bad on defense and give up too many goals. So they are adding better D and players with grit this year. Now they did lose a scorer in JJ Peterka that they haven't fully replaced. The wild card is Josh Norris who they traded for last year. His rep is as a scorer but he's been injured a lot.

 

Do you remember the Bills drought? This is the same thing. The Bills were never the worst, they were just bad enough. And one magical year, they caught a break and broke the drought. I'm hoping the same happens this year. But being miserable all the time just gives me an ulcer and doesn't have any impact on what happens on the ice.

Taking a deeper dive into the results, the Sabres played 30 games where they scored 2 goals or less.  They won 1.  They played 52 games where they scored 3 or more and lost 17, winning the other 35. 

 

In contrast, the Stanley Cup winners played 33 games where they scored 2 goals or less and won 6. They only lost 8 of their 49 games when scoring 3 or more, winning the other 41.  

 

Are we winning a 2-1 game with the additions on defense? Or are we going to close out some 3 to 2 games?  

[Fleezoid]

On 7/3/2025 at 10:03 PM, PromoTheRobot said:

 

The Sabres did what the Bills did: they identified a problem on their defense/goaltending and put all their focus on it. They couldn't land any sexy name scorers but they got a lot better (and meaner) on defense. I've been saying the Sabres needed a Rob Ray on the team, and I think they are finally thinking that way, probably from Lindy Ruff's insistence. 

 

Yeah, it definitely looks like they're going after the bigger guys. I hope it is one of the factors that gets this team glued together. I don't mind one or two of the small, speedy guys, but you can't build a roster around that. They need some bigger guys that can compete one-on-one. The Bills seem to be doing the same thing, particularly at the receiver and TE spots. 

[PromoTheRobot]

27 minutes ago, Jauronimo said:

Taking a deeper dive into the results, the Sabres played 30 games where they scored 2 goals or less.  They won 1.  They played 52 games where they scored 3 or more and lost 17, winning the other 35. 

 

In contrast, the Stanley Cup winners played 33 games where they scored 2 goals or less and won 6. They only lost 8 of their 49 games when scoring 3 or more, winning the other 41.  

 

Are we winning a 2-1 game with the additions on defense? Or are we going to close out some 3 to 2 games?  

I'm hoping they learn to not only close out games but not let games get out of hand in the first place.

[Ridgewaycynic2013]

On 7/3/2025 at 7:55 AM, Doc said:

 

It's the goaltending.  They need a Miller at least.  Preferably a Hasek.

Miller High Life or Miller Genuine Draft? 🤔

And is the Hasek a pilsner?

[Jauronimo]

I'm not jumping on the hope train but playing better team defense and improving both a bottom ranked PP and PK unit is the quickest path to being in the playoff picture.  Its strange that a team with good scoring metrics was so inept on the power play.  That screams coaching issue to me and not talent.  Granted we just moved a player responsible for 28% of our PP goals (12 out of 43).  Kulich needs to be the guy taking one timers and filling the net on the PP from the right wing opposite Tage.

 

PK results are generally in line with our overall goals against per game.  Its obvious this team has been poor defensively for years.  If the moves on defense and another year in Lindy's system does not dramatically improve defensive play, this team is going to struggle big time.

 

Its another season that hinges on Tage, Dahlin, and Tuch staying healthy all year and continuing to produce around career high levels and a major jump in play from some combination of Kulich, Benson, Quinn.  Otherwise you can take a 10 game losing streak to the bank.  We will miss Peterka's speed.  Without adding another top 6 forward I think we are looking at a less entertaining but less maddening path to a similar finish on the standings as last year.