I like that they made themselves tougher AND faster at the same time. Lindy should be able to get something worthwhile out of this lineup, so long as he gets reasonably good goaltending. Sabres are also betting that even after losing Skinner and Olofsson, they have more than enough firepower in-house to make up for it. A hopefully healthy Jack Quinn should help there. Now...about that defense. I still think it's way too shaky in the defensive zone. Power has proven he has some really bad fundamentals when it comes to basic coverage, and Byram has shown he can be damn near elite defensively wh ..read more

Sabres might come to regret moving diminutive first-rounder Matt Savoie to the Oilers for bruiser Ryan McLeod. The original mistake was drafting multiple small forwards in the first round, I suppose. Sabres rebuilt their bottom 6 this offseason with speed in mind: Quote: Skating speed percentile for the Sabres' bottom six acquisitions (mix of top speed and 20+ MPH bursts from NHL Edge): McLeod: 100th Aube-Kubel: 98th Lafferty: 97th Malenstyn: 96th Statistics: Posted by E.L. — Sat Jul 06, 2024 1:52 pm ..read more

E.L. wrote: Curious to see "whose fault it is" on two fronts: Was it Granato's fault in Buffalo? Was it Ruff's fault in New Jersey? GMs might be more at fault in both situations... Fitzgerald should be on a very, very hot seat next season. He was deporable this last summer, letting two top-four defenders walk (yes, I don't care what anyone else says, Ryan Graves has to be in your top four in order to function properly) and thinking they could get away with the same substandard goaltending tandem they finished with the season before? No. And then for him to publicly throw Lindy under the bus ..read more

Curious to see "whose fault it is" on two fronts: Was it Granato's fault in Buffalo? Was it Ruff's fault in New Jersey? GMs might be more at fault in both situations... Statistics: Posted by E.L. — Tue Apr 23, 2024 9:10 pm ..read more

E.L. wrote: Don Granato fired. Pretty disastrous season for the Sabres. They had playoff ambitions and they're stuck in neutral. And Lindy Ruff rehired! Honestly you can see the talent on this roster. They just had no structure whatsoever. For a short time, the lack of structure was a good thing given the fact that Krueger had choked all signs of life from the team, but once it came time to take the next step, Donny couldn’t do it. If these kids can’t get it together under Lindy then I don’t know what to think. I’ll say this and hope I’m wrong—I’m guessing Bowen Byram will at some point l ..read more

E.L. wrote: I heard some rumblings about a Skinner buyout. It's kind of a weird one, hugely beneficial the next two seasons with one crappy third year, followed by another three manageable years. Really depends on if they've reached their breaking point with him. Skinner is a fantastic scoring talent, the problem is that he is also horrible defensively to the point where the team concedes far more scoring chances than they generate when he's on the ice. Perfectly fine if you have enough two-way guys to cover for him, but if you don't that's an issue. It also makes his $9 million AAV a tad p ..read more

I heard some rumblings about a Skinner buyout. It's kind of a weird one, hugely beneficial the next two seasons with one crappy third year, followed by another three manageable years. Really depends on if they've reached their breaking point with him. Statistics: Posted by E.L. — Tue Apr 09, 2024 9:19 pm ..read more

E.L. wrote: https://twitter.com/SabresPlays/status/1776420298595684483?t=Myy6oDzAcemLTfKN2ljFHQ&s=19 I've literally never seen anything like that in my life. Also, after a relatively hot start, Bo Byram did not finish the year strong. Buffalo better be getting one hell of a coach in there this offseason. That team has talent coming out every which way, but their structure and discipline is nonexistent. Basically unless they get superstar goaltending they don't have a chance to win. Statistics: Posted by Pokecheque — Tue Apr 09, 2024 8:42 pm ..read more

https://twitter.com/SabresPlays/status/1776420298595684483?t=Myy6oDzAcemLTfKN2ljFHQ&s=19 Statistics: Posted by E.L. — Sat Apr 06, 2024 2:58 am ..read more

Well lookee here...might be too late but the Sabres are really trying to snag a playoff spot. And thanks to the Red Wings' recent plummet, they have an outside chance. Ukko-Pekka Luukonen has been playing out of his mind the last couple months, so that's a huge help, but I'm told by some Sabres fans that after starting the year with a more structured defensive system that all but killed their offense, Granato said fuck it and told the guys to run-and-gun it from here on out. And they did. The recent addition of Bowen Byram has simply jumpstarted that into overdrive. Will they make it? Who kn ..read more