The Sabres look really good

[KeyserSoze81]

Mittelstadt was one of the best prospects in hockey while having him on the 3rd line is a disaster now? From my limited viewing, he seemed bigger and better this season, no?

He is 21 soon, the player of his pedigree should be able to hang on to at least 3rd line duty at this point.

He has the skill and vision to succeed, but his future is a lot less clear now. His development took a nosedive last year after the O'Reilly trade/Berglund "retirement"; he was forced into a role that he was not ready for. He should have spent much of last year in the AHL, but now he is playing ~10 minutes a game with Jimmy Vesey.

 

[BowieSabresFan]

Man. I am generally a fan of Risto but last night.. Yikes. That pass he made on the PK to Armia was just not NHL caliber. I hope he can figure it out for you guys or get something useful for him.

If you watch it again, he was stick checked on that play. He obviously makes his share of bad plays at times, but that wasn't as bad as it appeared at first.

And I definitely didn't see Eichel dogging it at all last night. His effort has been top notch all year, on both ends of the ice. He had a bad game against Columbus, but that was more I think because Columbus just did a good job shutting him down.

 

[Tage2Tuch]

If you watch it again, he was stick checked on that play. He obviously makes his share of bad plays at times, but that wasn't as bad as it appeared at first.

And I definitely didn't see Eichel dogging it at all last night. His effort has been top notch all year, on both ends of the ice. He had a bad game against Columbus, but that was more I think because Columbus just did a good job shutting him down.

Don’t mind him, he literally hates Eichel. Most wouldn’t know this but I made note
To remember his username in the future for times like this and I wasn’t surprised. Don’t take my word for it though, that’s the beauty of archives. Also he admitted it was the first time he saw him play this year and against Montreal, a fast team who gets a lot of scoring chances (if not scoring an elite number of goals of course) it’s no surprise he would try and pinpoint that.

Of course he would find a way to try and bash him after starting the season with 7 in 4 after a 3-0-1 start and a 2g 2a night scoring highlight reel goals and playing very well overall.

 

[tsujimoto74]

Man. I am generally a fan of Risto but last night.. Yikes. That pass he made on the PK to Armia was just not NHL caliber. I hope he can figure it out for you guys or get something useful for him.

He was in a tough spot there, forecheckers on both sides with a ref in the way of clearing up the boards. He tried to take what was available and clear up the middle, and it probably would've been an odd-man break the other way if Suzuki doesn't get a piece of Risto's stick as he's making that play (MTL had 4 players around the hashmarks or lower). I don't think that was a low-IQ play by Risto so much as it was a good stick by Suzuki and a lucky bounce that it went straight to Armia.

 

[valet]

Mittelstadt was one of the best prospects in hockey while having him on the 3rd line is a disaster now? From my limited viewing, he seemed bigger and better this season, no?

He is 21 soon, the player of his pedigree should be able to hang on to at least 3rd line duty at this point.

vesey kills his line

mitts is a possession driven player. getting in fast through the neutral zone, digging pucks out, making quick passes into dangerous areas. whenever vesey gets the puck he throws a muffin towards the net or dumps it to a place where none of his linemates can retrieve the puck. it is maddening. he shouldn't even be on the team

 

[YoSoyLalo]

Olofsson looks like a legit sniper. He’s been a big add.

 

[Slimmy]

Olofsson looks like a legit sniper. He’s been a big add.

No surprise there.

 

[Filthy Dangles]

Want to revisit some hot takes on Jach Eichel (myself guilty included)
Breakthrough season for Eichel

 

[Snippit]

Want to revisit some hot takes on Jach Eichel (myself guilty included)
Breakthrough season for Eichel

Yes I remember that thread, it was after the team played a horrible game against Vegas. Pretty hilarious takes in hindsight, the hottest of ones from Buffalo fans (the Nylander = Eichel thing actually takes the cake).

 

[Push Dr Tracksuit]

That's why he let armia walk right by him for the short handed goal yesterday. All he cares about is goals, doesn't matter who scores them.

that joel armia, career game in that loss

 

[Prairie Habs]

that joel armia, career game in that loss

Clearly you missed the game last year where he snagged two empty netters.

I'm not sure how pointing out that the guy who scored on olafsson isn't good offensively helps him, but cool.

 

[Push Dr Tracksuit]

Clearly you missed the game last year where he snagged two empty netters.

I'm not sure how pointing out that the guy who scored on olafsson isn't good offensively helps him, but cool.

im sorry what did you loss?

 

[John Eichel da GOAT]

No surprise there.

Kindof a surprise... 7th rd pick finally getting his real chance at 24. Maybe the Sabres diehards following their prospects closely saw it coming, but the rest of the hockey world didnt.

 

[Doohickie]

I think golden gloves would’ve popped more with these unis than the white gloves.

I like the overly-white theme. It's like a whole squad of Gandolf the Whites.

 

[Star Ocean]

Kindof a surprise... 7th rd pick finally getting his real chance at 24. Maybe the Sabres diehards following their prospects closely saw it coming, but the rest of the hockey world didnt.

The sabres diehards saw it coming 2 years ago.

 

[The Winter Soldier]

They look better, Dahlin alone is better makes a huge difference. Eichel has been Eichel, superb. The goal he scored last night, wish he would shoot more. But he is also a distributor of the puck, and you can't blame him for passing too.

 

[Doohickie]

Mittelstadt was one of the best prospects in hockey while having him on the 3rd line is a disaster now? From my limited viewing, he seemed bigger and better this season, no?

He is 21 soon, the player of his pedigree should be able to hang on to at least 3rd line duty at this point.

Among the Sabres faithful he's been a disappointment, in that they asked him to make the jump right to the NHL but really wasn't ready for it. So far this year he looked good feeding Sheary for one game, but his linemates seem to let him down too much. He had a nice setup to Vesey in the slot who managed to not even get a shot attempt off.

He really should have been in Rochester last year, and if not last year, this year. But playing him in the NHL isn't the worst offense against him; it's making him play with Vesey who frankly hasn't looked too good so far. It's hard to drag that boat anchor along.

 

[Doohickie]

Kindof a surprise... 7th rd pick finally getting his real chance at 24. Maybe the Sabres diehards following their prospects closely saw it coming, but the rest of the hockey world didnt.

Sometimes the Euro players are like that: You draft them late before they catch too much attention, they are developed in Europe, drink a cup of coffee in the AHL and are NHL ready. Think of Pavel Datsyuk, drafted 171st overall.

 

[Doohickie]

Kindof a surprise... 7th rd pick finally getting his real chance at 24. Maybe the Sabres diehards following their prospects closely saw it coming, but the rest of the hockey world didnt.

Yes, the Sabres faithful were well aware of Victor Olafsson. I guess because he was a later draft pick they didn't rush him up, but he made steady progress every year.

 

[John Eichel da GOAT]

Sometimes the Euro players are like that: You draft them late before they catch too much attention, they are developed in Europe, drink a cup of coffee in the AHL and are NHL ready. Think of Pavel Datsyuk, drafted 171st overall.

There is actually nothing comparable outside of the round to Datsyuk (6th for PD, 7th for VO). Datsyuk spent 3 years after being drafted doing ok in the Russian leagues before playing for Detroit and still took 2-3 years to really become the Datsyuk we know now.

Olofsson was drafted 6 years ago. Six! And really didnt do much until finally coming to the Amerks last season. There has to be a handful of players in NHL history that have a similar path and then have instant success in the NHL. There are sooooo many AHL superstars who are meh in the NHL. This is a holy crap surprise.

 

[buud]

Hey boys and girls.

I caught a few of their games, and I'm impressed.

Wow, is Dahlin the real deal, or what? He's very strong for his size, and executes like a robot, lol. The complete package. The entire D is solid, but TBH, I would trade Risto, if you could. Sorry...

Eichel is playing great everywhere, Skinner is a rocket, and can that OOuolaughson fire that puck. Sheesh.

Looking good so far. They have swagger, good for them. Buf gets kicked in the nuts all the time, they deserve some good stuff, too.

 

[GOALOFSSON]

There is actually nothing comparable outside of the round to Datsyuk (6th for PD, 7th for VO). Datsyuk spent 3 years after being drafted doing ok in the Russian leagues before playing for Detroit and still took 2-3 years to really become the Datsyuk we know now.

Olofsson was drafted 6 years ago. Six! And really didnt do much until finally coming to the Amerks last season. There has to be a handful of players in NHL history that have a similar path and then have instant success in the NHL. There are sooooo many AHL superstars who are meh in the NHL. This is a holy crap surprise.

The instant success is due to his shot, which we knew about since, at the very least, when he led the SHL in goals. Two years ago.

You can say he won't maintain his current pace, but this isn't an out of no where surprise for most Sabres fans.

You just knew that shot would score goals at the NHL level.

 

[Insomniac99]

They are way better then they were. Dahlin and Eichel are elite players. But they scored almost half of their goals on the PP. 8 goals on 15 opportunities for 53%. They won't sustain that number. Watching them last night vs Montreal, they weren't that good 5vs5. I don't think it's their year yet, specially considering the division they play in. They are trending in the right direction tho.

Sabres are still missing three of their top defensemen. That definitely plays a role.
Bogosian (hip surgery), Montour(hand, possibly broken), and Pilut(shoulder surgery).

 

[5 Minute Major]

Wasn’t VO drafted by Punch Imlach?

 

[MayDay]

Olofsson was drafted 6 years ago. Six! And really didnt do much until finally coming to the Amerks last season.

He was goal scoring leader in the SHL before coming over to North America. That’s not nothing. It’s a good league.