Quoting: BuFfaLOFaN
Bold Take. Buffalo finished within a couple games of the wild card. Beats Boston, Detroit and MTL in there division.
Everyone has them a bottom 3 eastern conference team. Which is a decline from where they where last year, 6th worst. Detroit and Ottowa are better on paper so that leaves us at 4th best. The thing about the sabres last year is that they really had 2 different seasons, the 55 games to start the season where the whole team was in shambles with injuries to a lot of starters and our top 4 goalies. And then the 30 Games to end the season when they actually had the team they wanted to play.
The first 55 games we where a bottom 4 team in the whole NHL. With 40 points in there first 55 games on pace to finish with 60 points.
The next 28 games we finished with 35 points, was a top 15 team in the NHL on pace to finish with 103 points.
Here is the NHL roster from last year.
Skinner - Thompson - Tuch
Krebs - Cozens - Hinnestroza
Asplund - Mittelstadt - Olofsson
Girgensons - Eakin - Okposo
Samuelsson - Dahlin
Pysyk - Jokiharju
Bryson - Fitzgerald
Anderson - Tokarski
Here is the Projected NHL Roster for this year.
Skinner - Thompson - Quinn
Krebs - Cozens - Tuch
Peterka - Mittelstadt - Olofsson
Asplund - Girgensons - Okposo
Samuelsson - Dahlin
Power - Lybushkin
Bryson - Jokiharju
Comrie - Anderson
If the Sabres can get AVERAGE goaltending we would be increasing from .894 to .910 which would be a massive help. Comrie probably helps with that, UPL if he could break in full time to the NHL would be a big help, and Anderson just sucks.
The Sabres on Defense are gaining Power and Lybushkin which is a great add, that second pairing alone will dramatically increase how good our defense is, sheltering Bryson and Jokijarju a bit and letting Dahlin get more freedom in the Ozone.
The Forward core is replacing Eakin, and Hinnestroza with Quinn and Peterka which should help with scoring and spreading out our depth throughout all 4 lines.
So you add Comrie, Power, Lybushkin, Quinn, and Peterka to replace Tokarski, Pysyk, Fitzgerald, Eakin, and Hinnestroza to a team that already was on pace for 103 points does this team finish with 90-105 points and challenge for a wild card spot? Maybe pass Boston this year.
The Sabres Potentially have 10 top 6 forwards in the lineup. 3 first pair defenders, and a horrible Dpair lol
I think you’re really overrating a hot stretch for the Sabres. Your goalies are Comrie, Anderson, and Subban, so your ask for league average goaltending is likely not even in the right ballpark (I reckon that’s a bottom 5 goalie roster at best). And like, I’m pretty sure the Sens finished hot too. I think Florida didn’t. Calling the Sabres a 103 point pace team because of a hot streak at the end of the year when they were already long out of the playoff conversation is pretty flawed, it seems like there is a lot of room for regression there. And like, you should know better than anyone that the season is 82 games long lol, the Savres always throw down a random 10 game winning streak in November and then plummet back to earth. Bottom tier goaltending and a very inexperienced defense group will mean you’re letting in a lot of goals, and you’re also banking on a lot of rookies to transition perfectly to the NHL and make an immediate impact up front, which rarely happens. They’ll be there in a couple years, but there are just too many things that need to go perfectly, and the most important (goaltending) would be the most surprising if it was even close to league average.
BuFfaLOFaN et EsoYeezus69 a aimé ceci.
CapFriendly
CapFriendly