Pre-Game Talk: Sabres @ Panthers March 7th

[ucanthanzalthetruth]

@


So this game is a big deal for obvious reasons but I made this PGT because I wanted to ask about all this excitement over Bobby Luo, since I'm over the high from the trade. Now I think we made a great trade (not a Markstrom fan at all), but the thing is our goaltending with Timmy this year has been really good. Now granted though Luongo is aging, he's got more left in the tank than Thomas, but I don't see how this team is somehow much closer to playoff bound in 2015 with Luongo rather than a healthy Thomas. Is the enthusiasm around here because this is a likely signal that the chequebooks have been opened?


TL;DR- Our goaltending has already been good, what massive difference does Luongo make over Thomas next year? (not bashing him I swear, just curious)

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[gudzilla]

If Luongo plays 60-70 games, we're playoff bound i think - unless there's some true fluke season with a lot of teams going superstrong á la tampa/avs/etc

depends on the UFA/last few trades/draft, but if thomas was healthy whole season, we'd be in the playoffs right now.

 

[ucanthanzalthetruth]

Just to clarify, I'm referring only to next season, not 3 or 4 years away. In Sabres news, Moulson likely gone, Enroth in net.

 

[ucanthanzalthetruth]

depends on the UFA/last few trades/draft, but if thomas was healthy whole season, we'd be in the playoffs right now.

See I disagree with that, Markstrom set us back early on, but the team has completely imploded the last couple months. Although I suppose you can argue if Thomas was healthy, Markstrom wouldn't have played and the team may not have imploded

 

[CanadianPantherFan]

Louie is on another level/tier to Thomas. Now and in 3-4 years time. Watch him play here and get back to me.

 

[gudzilla]

See I disagree with that, Markstrom set us back early on, but the team has completely imploded the last couple months. Although I suppose you can argue if Thomas was healthy, Markstrom wouldn't have played and the team may not have imploded

i think the instability early in the season is what really caused the team to suck this year, its really hard to watch the standings and think "yeah, we just need to win 20 games in a row to have a chance, lets do that boys" when your team is subpar talentwise at every position except goaltending, where it's either golden or garbage depending on the injury situation

if thomas played 60 games, it'd have created a stability of the team which would have been golden, especially as clemmer or whoever could have stepped in and played behind a confident group

 

[ucanthanzalthetruth]

Louie is on another level/tier to Thomas. Now and in 3-4 years time. Watch him play here and get back to me.

I have watched him play for like 15 years already lol but I'm just not sure he alone is enough of an upgrade, although florida pwnthers argument that this team may have contended if Thomas was healthy all year may be true. Again I was talking about next year, as a Panthers fan I'm sick of looking 3-4 years down the line I want to win now.

 

[ucanthanzalthetruth]

Also Buffalo considers Alexander Sulzer and John Scott to be NHL defensemen, so I suppose things could be worse here.

 

[Benched]

Ecstatic for this game. Wish I could go but work beckons me.

As for not needing goalies, Lu is on a different level from TT, even though TT still has good game and was a victim of circumstances here with no scoring and patchy defense. The trades we have made so far with more likely and a top three pick make this team a contender as early as next year and a serious contender by 2016.

With the trades and Yormark out (hopefully the much needed changes to BBT are made next year: price changes for concessions, club red, etc) I am really excited in the way this franchise is headed.

Man when was the last time I said that?

 

[iam76]

i cant forget our matchup 2 games back.. Worst game ever... 742387 posts... worst shootout calls.. guy throws puck into net... wtf happend

 

[Erick*]

Some guy on my FB page responded to something I said by commenting that he's a Panthers fan again just because Luongo is back. Say what you will about PR moves, but there are definitely people like this. The move makes the team relevant for a change.

 

[EnforceTheLaus]

Per GR Lou confirmed as starter.

 

[Benched]

Some guy on my FB page responded to something I said by commenting that he's a Panthers fan again just because Luongo is back. Say what you will about PR moves, but there are definitely people like this. The move makes the team relevant for a change.

Said this a multitude of times in the trade threads. Trade not only great because of the on ice performance but also for the business and morale sides of the team. We clearly want to win and this new ownership cares about fans. With Yormark gone, I expect the next thing for them to do is fix BBT.From game presentation to Club Red to concessions. Next year is going go be exciting. And there's no reason it shouldn't be. We have a state of the art facility with a brand new giant scoreboard in a central location. There's no excuse for things to be the way they are now at BBT.

 

[ucanthanzalthetruth]

 

[Beezeral]

curious who centers the 4th line tomorrow.

Gomez?

 

[EnforceTheLaus]

Hayes or Gomez or Winchester

 

[SufferingCatFan]

Still have the Roberto helmet the Cats gave to STH eight years ago!! Was going to give my tix away. Now, I am going to the game!!

 

[Android 16]

So something to the tune of..

Bergenheim - Bjugstad - Boyes
Fleischmann - Trocheck - Upshall
Huberdeau - Pirri - Hayes
Winchester - ? - Barch

Campbell - Gilbert
Jovo - Gudbranson
Kulikov - Olsen

Luongo
Ellis

Very shaky up front, but we gotta get a look at Trochy before season's end. That Olsen - Kuli pairing is probably going to be disasterous. If Olsen can just make simple, hard plays he should look like he did when he first came over. And Kuli needs to keep up the good play, but stop pivoting and playing the puck on his backhand all the time. Denis Potvin always used to talk about two things defenseman should always do: quick, low and hard wristers from the point and never play the puck on your backhand if you don't need to. "If someone could just get that memo to Kuli, that would be great, mmkay!".

 

[EnforceTheLaus]

I'm thinking:
Bs
Flash-Pirri-Upshall
Huby-Trocheck-Winchester
Hayes-Gomez-Barch

Campbell-Gilbert
Kuli-Guds
Petro-Jovo

 

[Howboutthempanthers]

Also Buffalo considers Alexander Sulzer and John Scott to be NHL defensemen, so I suppose things could be worse here.

At least you could scratch them.

 

[ProjectPanthers]

I have watched him play for like 15 years already lol but I'm just not sure he alone is enough of an upgrade, although florida pwnthers argument that this team may have contended if Thomas was healthy all year may be true. Again I was talking about next year, as a Panthers fan I'm sick of looking 3-4 years down the line I want to win now.

There is NO damn way Luongo is enough alone to turn this team around.

We need to add scoring, and at least 1 significant defenseman. This Luongo addition does give free agents a little bit more to look at if they are considering signing with us (ala what Campbell did for us in 2011).

This is just step 1 of Tallon's build under the new ownership. Everywhere I hear is that this deal materialized within the last week. So my thinking is that Tallon knew he needed to upgrade the goaltending long-term. He had seen enough of Markstrom and was ready to commit to a proven goaltender. I feel like he was content with riding Thomas until one of Halak or anyone else signed with us in the off-season.

But when Luongo's agent contacted DT, I think he couldn't pass up the chance to acquire a top-tier goaltender and a familiar face/fan favorite. As I said before, the PR alone from this deal makes it a great one. More tickets will be sold with Luongo in net.

As I said, we are far from done. I don't expect Tallon to spend insane money during free agency, but he will spend. I think most money will come from trades. DT knows in 2-3 years Barkov, Bjugstad and others will be looking for big pay increases, and he won't handicap himself for a quick fix.

This group of UFA's and trades will be MUCH different than the 2011 group. These are no longer "fillers" or "stop-gaps" until the kids arrive. The kids are here, now complimentary, quality, proven players will be added. Spending the money on Luongo shows me that ownership is being honest and really is putting their money where their mouth is.

Exciting things headed our way over the next 3-4 months!

 

[CanadianPantherFan]

I have watched him play for like 15 years already lol but I'm just not sure he alone is enough of an upgrade, although florida pwnthers argument that this team may have contended if Thomas was healthy all year may be true. Again I was talking about next year, as a Panthers fan I'm sick of looking 3-4 years down the line I want to win now.

I'm talking next season too. But Tallon needs to bring in Moulson/Eberle/Stastny named guys like I said LAST summer. If he does watch out!

 

[ucanthanzalthetruth]

As I said, we are far from done. I don't expect Tallon to spend insane money during free agency, but he will spend. I think most money will come from trades. DT knows in 2-3 years Barkov, Bjugstad and others will be looking for big pay increases, and he won't handicap himself for a quick fix.

This group of UFA's and trades will be MUCH different than the 2011 group. These are no longer "fillers" or "stop-gaps" until the kids arrive. The kids are here, now complimentary, quality, proven players will be added. Spending the money on Luongo shows me that ownership is being honest and really is putting their money where their mouth is.

Exciting things headed our way over the next 3-4 months!

I'm talking next season too. But Tallon needs to bring in Moulson/Eberle/Stastny named guys like I said LAST summer. If he does watch out!

I sure hope we have a great off season, I just never trust management to spend (yeah I know we have supposedly free spending owners, key word is supposedly). You can make an argument that adding Lou is a start, but a counter argument is that the cap is increasing by 10 million plus next season, and thus the cap floor is as well, and resigning Thomas wouldn't get this team close to the new cap floor, but Lu's contract will. All I know is July 1st should be an interesting day.

 

[FrolikFan67]

luongo doesn't change the team that much currently, thats not why we're so happy all of a sudden. goaltending wasn't an issue, its just we didn't have a long term solution and now we have one, or a long-er term, at least. he's also still playing at a very high level. if we could add guys like niskanen and greene on D we'd be looking way better:

Campbell-Niskanen
Kulikov-Greene
Olsen-Gudbranson
-------
jovo(id compliance buy him out personally)

if we can draft one of the top-3 forwards in reinhart, bennett, or dal colle, that'll be huge. then go after a callahan or gaborik type rw.

Bergenheim-Barkov-Gaborik
Huberdeau-Bjugstad-Boyes
Dal Colle-Pirri-Trocheck
Kopecky-Shore-Upshall
winchester

we're not too far away if we can draft one of the top kids and get aggressive in free agency, which i think we'll do both.

and as far as the friday game goes, id like to see trocheck playing rw since thats where i see him in the future for us, but with shore being gone we'd be thin on centers in which case gomez would have to center line 3 and someone like winchester on 4th. so he'll probably be centering line 3 at the very least.

 

[MintyFresh88]

luongo doesn't change the team that much currently, thats not why we're so happy all of a sudden. goaltending wasn't an issue, its just we didn't have a long term solution and now we have one, or a long-er term, at least. he's also still playing at a very high level. if we could add guys like niskanen and greene on D we'd be looking way better:

Campbell-Niskanen
Kulikov-Greene
Olsen-Gudbranson
-------
jovo(id compliance buy him out personally)

if we can draft one of the top-3 forwards in reinhart, bennett, or dal colle, that'll be huge. then go after a callahan or gaborik type rw.

Bergenheim-Barkov-Gaborik
Huberdeau-Bjugstad-Boyes
Dal Colle-Pirri-Trocheck
Kopecky-Shore-Upshall
winchester

we're not too far away if we can draft one of the top kids and get aggressive in free agency, which i think we'll do both.

and as far as the friday game goes, id like to see trocheck playing rw since thats where i see him in the future for us, but with shore being gone we'd be thin on centers in which case gomez would have to center line 3 and someone like winchester on 4th. so he'll probably be centering line 3 at the very least.

I agree about Niskanen and Greene. Would be huge for us.

Up front

I'd like to see:

Huberdeau - Stastny - Moulson/Gaborik/Callahan (Maybe I'm dreaming, but we need this type of influx of proven scoring/skill in our top 6)
Bergy - Barkov - Boyes
Huby - Bjugstad - Upshall/Flash (I'd try to trade one of these two guys)
Kopecky - Shore/Trocheck - Winchester
Barch

I'm not sure that whoever we draft will be on the team next season, unless it's Ekblad.