Post-Game Talk: The Beheading of the Goathead

[Game suspension]

Krebs, Tuch and Okposo need to sit. Okposo needs to pull this room together because right now, this team has no idea who they are.

LOL This is exactly why signing Okposo was a mistake. Kinda hard for a team to listen to the Captain when he is in the press box. And he deserves to be in the press box.

 

[Doug Prishpreed]

Yes he's been bad defensively but he has upside so he's more of a kitten that hasn't been potty trained than dog poo.
Of the named players I only think Krebs has any real upside.

It hurts watching okposo play right now. It's like he's been put in jell-o or something.


Yeah but their 4th liners know how to play d.
When we collapse around the net over and over it's a sign that forwards aren't doing their job. On top of that we have the boneheaded plays around the offensive blueline and suicidal turnovers.

Why does Adams have a kitten on the team? Get him tf out if he’s not potty trained.

 

[Kevbeau]

This will either be the game that lights a fire under their ass or be the start of an ugly losing streak. If they've grown at all from last year, they'll respond tomorrow night.

First things first, call up Johnson if Samuelsson is out.

Total agreement. The response tonight could define this season

 

[Dirty Dog]

Win the next win and move forward. Flyers have given this team fits, even when we win

 

[Doug Prishpreed]

LOL This is exactly why signing Okposo was a mistake. Kinda hard for a team to listen to the Captain when he is in the press box.

Granato and Adams like him and think he’s a good player. They have no desire to put him in the press box, which is the whole problem with them. They don’t prioritize winning nearly enough.

 

[HaNotsri]

Why does Adams have a kitten on the team? Get him tf out if he’s not potty trained.

He's shown tiger tendencies at times?

 

[DapperCam]

Shame on Adams for not acquiring a defenseman n the offseason.

Didn't Adams acquire 2 defenseman in the offseason, and sign a top college UFA defenseman at the end of the year? He also extended our top 2 defenseman to long term deals.

I get not enjoying the results, but that seems not factual.

 

[MOGlLNY]

Didn't Adams acquire 2 defenseman in the offseason, and sign a top college UFA defenseman at the end of the year? He also extended our top 2 defenseman to long term deals.

I get not enjoying the results, but that seems not factual.

Our defense also isn’t the issue

 

[Doug Prishpreed]

Didn't Adams acquire 2 defenseman in the offseason, and sign a top college UFA defenseman at the end of the year? He also extended our top 2 defenseman to long term deals.

I get not enjoying the results, but that seems not factual.

He brought in cheap scraps, nothing substantial. He did the bare minimum to make it look like he’s doing something.

 

[BFLO]

You are going to have a hard time finding these people because they don't exist. This is like the biggest false narrative on these boards. Almost everyone would have been ecstatic if we had signed a true top 4 D or veteran goalie. Just because some of us weren't screaming about the sky falling when it didn't happen, doesn't mean we didn't think signing a top 4 D or a vet goaltender would have been good. When nothing happened I took the approach of waiting to see how the team performed before panicking, a lot of other people took the same approach. That's not the same as saying we were on the right path and didn't need to improve the roster.

I am pretty sure there was a poll at the end of last season asking what you'd like to see in the off season and it overwhelmingly supported finding a top 4 D and vet goaltender.

You're right that no one existed back in June who thought we didn't need a top 4d or a goalie and no one wanted to run it back with Okposo, Jost, Comrie, Olofsson and UPL. But by late July there were a lot of people defending it, and most of them are still defending it to this day.

 

[Chainshot]

Did Jeff Skinner play yesterday?

 

[DapperCam]

He brought in cheap scraps, nothing substantial. He did the bare minimum to make it look like he’s doing something.

Who should he have signed? We signed 2 of the top 11 UFA defenseman by dollar amount. This entire list looks like a bunch of scraps to me. Maybe Graves or Gudas would have been more of what we needed, but there is no knowing if they wanted to sign here and they both got overpaid with term.

Maybe we should have traded for Jakob Chychrun, but the price was steep and he's going to get a big dollar extension. Not sure if we can have a team with 3 high dollar defenseman.

 

[BuffaloGooner]

Our defense also isn’t the issue

In like half the games every forward morphs into having stone hands and can’t catch a breakout pass. It’s insane

 

[Chainshot]

In like half the games every forward morphs into having stone hands and can’t catch a breakout pass. It’s insane

So many of them are just constantly on the wrong side of the puck if they are even showing a pulse.

 

[Doug Prishpreed]

Who should he have signed? We signed 2 of the top 11 UFA defenseman by dollar amount. This entire list looks like a bunch of scraps to me. Maybe Graves or Gudas would have been more of what we needed, but there is no knowing if they wanted to sign here and they both got overpaid with term.

Maybe we should have traded for Jakob Chychrun, but the price was steep and he's going to get a big dollar extension. Not sure if we can have a team with 3 high dollar defenseman.

View attachment 762798

Not buying this argument, and I don't want UFAs. We have more assets than anyone in the entire league, there's no reason we couldn't make many changes to balance out the roster.

 

[MOGlLNY]

Not buying this argument, and I don't want UFAs. We have more assets than anyone in the entire league, there's no reason we couldn't make many changes to balance out the roster.

I’m not a big FA guy either. But just an example of how our limited spending on forwards was done, we re-signed Jost for 300K less per year (who we just called up Rousek to take his spot in the lineup) than Garnet Hathaway.

Who has taken it to us the last 2 games and was good enough to be in the Bruins lineup regularly who set the record for most points in a season.

 

[Dubi Doo]

Not buying this argument, and I don't want UFAs. We have more assets than anyone in the entire league, there's no reason we couldn't make many changes to balance out the roster.

I was fine with the additions to the defense. My issue is not revamping the bottom 6. A bottom-6 two way center has been a need for a while now. It kills me that we only have one center who is a solid two way player. Krebs, Cozens, Tage, Jost are anything but, and it's incredibly hard putting together a balanced line-up with only one C with solid two-way play.

I think you especially see the warts of this 'unbalanced' LU against teams like Philly that force you to play a hardworking and simple game.

The Jost contract still makes me shake my head. I was a bit dumbfounded at his cap hit. That told me they wanted him in the bottom-6. Signing Okoposo quickly also told me Adams was fine with running it back for the most part, but Im intrigued to know the forward he was in on.

One thing is for sure, please dont add Kane to this group. He's the complete opposite of what this team needs.

Let's how they respond tonight. They've had a tendency of digging deep sporadically throughout the year, especially the end of last year. Let's see if they can find some consistency there.

 

[DapperCam]

Not buying this argument, and I don't want UFAs. We have more assets than anyone in the entire league, there's no reason we couldn't make many changes to balance out the roster.

Maybe a trade was possible. None of the players that have actually moved in the past season were very attractive to me other than Chychrun. Edmunson, Petry, Karlsson, Lyubushkin, Severson, Provorov are some names that moved. Out of that list I think Severson would have made sense and that's it.

The trade market has been constipated because cap space is at a premium, and teams haven't been sure what the future will hold in terms of cap increases. Although to be fair the Sabres could have weaponized their cap space to pry a defenseman free from someone. I guess I just don't see all these opportunities to sign or trade for defenseman better than what we already have. I think the issues we're having are more with the forwards anyway.

 

[BFLO]

The thing is, those five guys aren't the problem. You can make an argument for goaltending I guess, but the best goaltender in the league doesn't put us on the right track... it, at best, covers up the real issue, at worst changes nothing. Thompson, Cozens, Skinner, Tuch, Dahlin, Sammy, Power. Guys they never would've signed UFA's or traded to replace, and no one would've expected them to.

At this point, the teams success and future depends on those guys playing at or developing to a level deserving of playoff hockey. Not Okposo or Jost. That's what the Sabres brass are banking on, that's what they paid for, and that's not an unreasonable path to follow for such a young team with promising players... as much as it pains us to watch the process.

These are the players, this is the team. Our core is locked in for the next 7-8 years. Either those guys right the ship, or we blow everything up... again.

Refusing to improve the roster around the core is a problem. Expecting the core to drag the dead weight of those 5 players to success is a problem.

We could have had a season like last years Devils with the right offseason moves. Instead we look more like the 2016-17 Sabres so far.

 

[Kevbeau]

So many of them are just constantly on the wrong side of the puck if they are even showing a pulse.

This and BuffaloGooner’s comment on passing. Seems to be simple things to clean up but they repeatedly take bad angles to the puck or coast in, allowing the opposing team to set up puck protection. The passing has regressed to 3yrs ago sans Mittlestadt

 

[Mattilaus]

Did Jeff Skinner play yesterday?

Nobody REALLY played yesterday.

 

[oldgoalie]

at one point late into the game, they had 2 SOG against a goalie with a .75something save percentage.

and they got 1 goal.

no one f***ing showed up. the Leafs are going to wipe the ice with this team tonight.

 

[Sabreality]

at one point late into the game, they had 2 SOG against a goalie with a .75something save percentage.

and they got 1 goal.

no one f***ing showed up. the Leafs are going to wipe the ice with this team tonight.

well the good news is it's not like Toronto locks anybody down like the teams we struggle with, it'll be Woll who'll stand on his head like he's been doing all season.

 

[BFLO]

Maybe a trade was possible. None of the players that have actually moved in the past season were very attractive to me other than Chychrun. Edmunson, Petry, Karlsson, Lyubushkin, Severson, Provorov are some names that moved. Out of that list I think Severson would have made sense and that's it.

The trade market has been constipated because cap space is at a premium, and teams haven't been sure what the future will hold in terms of cap increases. Although to be fair the Sabres could have weaponized their cap space to pry a defenseman free from someone. I guess I just don't see all these opportunities to sign or trade for defenseman better than what we already have. I think the issues we're having are more with the forwards anyway.

Gavrikov, Soucy and Hronek all moved last year too.

 

[joshjull]

Refusing to improve the roster around the core is a problem. Expecting the core to drag the dead weight of those 5 players to success is a problem.

We could have had a season like last years Devils with the right offseason moves. Instead we look more like the 2016-17 Sabres so far.

Its literally the job of your core to be the driving force of the team.

This team struggled out of the gate due to the play of its top guys. We didn't break up the top line after 4gms into the season because our depth was struggling. We broke them up because they were playing like ass.

To help get those guys going we had to break up an actual depth line that was very effective (Greenway/Mitts/Benson). We scattered them among the top guys.

We should have been able to rely on Skinner/Tage/Tuch to be a driving force. They've been one of the best lines in the NHL over the previous 1 1/3 seasons. Instead, they were a problem. In no universe is some random depth forward going to overcome that.