Where do the Sabres finish?

[jBuds]

We're just going to have to agree to disagree on the bolded. Getting rid of McBain may be an addition through subtraction, but I simply do not agree on Ehrhoff departing with no viable replacement in his role as an improvement for this unit.

I can't really argue with the last part of this... I'm more wishfully thinking now, best case and form of Ristolainen versus worst case Ehrhoff of last year. Plus gorges. Plus Benoit. Hopefully.

 

[Chad Thundercock]

Roosalaynin needs more time in Rochester. Kids need to earn their spot and he hasn't yet. He's no Gorges, that's for sure

 

[Bps21*]

I think they'll finish 30th. The range is somewhere between 30-30. They did the hard work...no turning back now.

 

[Savitar]

Are the Sabres Punting 2014/2015

They have done very little to improve the roster except add some older guys in Mez, Gorges, Moulson, Gionta etc to add to the leadership group! The arrival of Sam Reinhart! And potentially Zadorov and Risto full time. Tim has said he doesn't want a 5 year rebuild but it's looking likely we need another 1-2 years of rebuilding before we are ready to compete.

It looks like the Sabres are ready for another tank. What do you think? Do you believe Tim Murray is punting 2014/2015? Letting his young players grow and only thinking about future seasons? We will be in for a long ride

 

[TheMistyStranger]

Read any thread on this board in the past 18 months

 

[Tapu Coco]

This has been discussed ad nauseum

The point of our offseason additions is to provide leadership for the youth coming up, but not to make us good enough to propel us into a playoff spot and relegate us to our former stage of mediocrity

So yes, don't expect us to be much better than last season statistically. I think our on ice product will be a little better since we won't be scraping for AHL caliber players (which I'm excited about), but we also won't have Ryan Miller to steal games for us, which I think is reason enough to expect another tank despite any improvements made up front. I don't have utmost confidence in Enroth and Neuvirth, but thankfully we don't need to at this point.

If we improve our GA/GF ratio substantially and win more games than last year, we would still be in last place...someone here has crunched the numbers

 

[Savitar]

True points, we should score more goals but expect a similar finish

 

[SabreBlood]

We're just going to have to agree to disagree on the bolded. Getting rid of McBain may be an addition through subtraction, but I simply do not agree on Ehrhoff departing with no viable replacement in his role as an improvement for this unit.

Gorges, inside of his own blue line, can absolutely be better than Ehrhoff was defensively last season.

Offensively, they're not even close. But in a shutdown sense? Gorges will be an upgrade over Ehrhoff of 2013-14 inside of the Sabres zone.

 

[DapperCam]

We're just going to have to agree to disagree on the bolded. Getting rid of McBain may be an addition through subtraction, but I simply do not agree on Ehrhoff departing with no viable replacement in his role as an improvement for this unit.

I definitely disagree. I don't think you even need to replace his role. His minutes will get spread more evenly among the rest of the dmen. I don't think it's necessarily even good to have a workhorse kind of guy that plays half of the game. Obviously some guys are so great that it necessitates it (Doughty, Chara, etc.) but I don't think Ehrhoff is on that level. You are relying on a guy like Ehrhoff too much when he's playing that role. I think the unit as a whole will play better, because the average dman is better, and they will more evenly spread minutes among everybody. No need to shelter a liability like McBain (well, maybe Weber).

 

[Paxon]

I definitely disagree. I don't think you even need to replace his role. His minutes will get spread more evenly among the rest of the dmen. I don't think it's necessarily even good to have a workhorse kind of guy that plays half of the game. Obviously some guys are so great that it necessitates it (Doughty, Chara, etc.) but I don't think Ehrhoff is on that level. You are relying on a guy like Ehrhoff too much when he's playing that role. I think the unit as a whole will play better, because the average dman is better, and they will more evenly spread minutes among everybody. No need to shelter a liability like McBain (well, maybe Weber).

Just fyi McBain averaged 20:10 a game and played the third-most total minutes on the team behind Ehrhoff and Ennis. So while he sucked he wasn't being sheltered minutes-wise, not in a way that rose Ehrhoff's minutes. I agree that the depth is better and minutes can be spread around if no one rises up to claim those workhorse minutes. It's also important to keep in mind when looking at minutes played how many of them come on the PP as opposed to even strength.