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Put your horrible Predictions here-2023-24 takes on what will NOT happen in the NHL!

Stutz was pretty awesome the first time I saw him play against us while I recall some of you guys saying meh.

Eye test FTW.
 
Preston said:
If the sabres are actually good, JB is gonna run a train on every person here.

This is partially why I have refused to opine on the buffalo sabres. JB has nothing to lose because it's a wild take that's most likely to be wrong. But if he's right? Fuck me. He would grow a whole head of hair even without the plugs.
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I do feel Sabres are underrated on here. They missed the playoffs last year by 1 single point with a 40 year-old starting a lot of their games.If Levi played more games last year they likely make it. To me it's a slam-dunk they are a playoff team. Dahlin and Power are sick to have on the back-end. That's a future cup-winning core of all in the NHL IMO.

Also, Flames have a horrible future, but they are a lock as a playoff team this year.
 
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JackBurton said:
I do feel Sabres are underrated on here. They missed the playoffs last year by 1 single point with a 40 year-old starting majority of their games.If Levi played more games last year they likely make it. To me it's a slam-dunk they are a playoff team. Dahlin and Power are sick to have on the back-end. That's a future cup-winning core of all in the NHL IMO.

Also, Flames have a horrible future, but they are a lock as a playoff team this year.
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I don't hate the sabres pick we much as some others. As for the flames, Tre built a team that has been consistently very very good on the nerdies. They seem to always underperform them but by your standards that's not much of a crazy hot take. I like them too.
 
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Preston said:
I don't hate the sabres pick we much as some others. As for the flames, True built a team that has been consistently very very good on the nerdies. They seem to always underperform them but by your standards that's not much of a crazy hot take. I like them too.
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Yeah, Flames lost so many 1 goal games and I cannot see Huberdeau not having a big bounceback year. I think Markstrom is better as well. And this is a huge year for Hanifin to be very good. He's in his prime and is UFA.
 
I think Benson is legit good and could change thing for the Sabres. They have a ton of high picks at forward but most of them are just ok and not line drivers.

IMO the Sens are better but they need their centers.

both have shit goaltending though.
 
JackBurton said:
I do feel Sabres are underrated on here. They missed the playoffs last year by 1 single point with a 40 year-old starting a lot of their games.If Levi played more games last year they likely make it. To me it's a slam-dunk they are a playoff team. Dahlin and Power are sick to have on the back-end. That's a future cup-winning core of all in the NHL IMO.

Also, Flames have a horrible future, but they are a lock as a playoff team this year.
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I think the "missed the playoffs by 1pt thing" is deceiving tho. Mostly because 12 of their "wins" were OT/SO wins. They were actually 3gms below .500 in regulation, and their .482 regulation pts% was good for 10th in the east and T-19/20th overall, just ahead of Ottawa at .476, and a good chunk behind florida's .524. This matched their goal differential (19th) and expected goal differential (19th) - both sub-50%.

So they still need to make a jump to become truly playoffs calibre. And yeah they have a bunch of young guys, but the truth is that last year we saw most of the big youthful offensive jumps that you hope to see - whether that's young-ish guys like Tage, Tuch, Mitts, or young guys like Dahlin and Cozens. Those big offensive jumps last year are what made them finally interesting, and I'm not sure you can count on much more offensive improvement there - in fact, regression from some of those guys wouldn't be surprising at all. There's one untapped kid that maybe you can really hope on a burst from - Powers, though his offensive upside isn't as clear as a guy like Dahlin. Then you're hoping on guys like Quinn, Benson, Peterka....but these aren't top tier talents.

I just don't expect much more offense from them this year, and i wouldn't be shocked to see their offense drop back a bit. To see real improvement the Sabres either need to suddenly start playing some defense for once, or hope that a kid like Levi really breaks through as a 22yr old goalie, and while both are possible, i'll believe that when i see it.
 
JackBurton said:
I do feel Sabres are underrated on here. They missed the playoffs last year by 1 single point with a 40 year-old starting a lot of their games.If Levi played more games last year they likely make it. To me it's a slam-dunk they are a playoff team. Dahlin and Power are sick to have on the back-end. That's a future cup-winning core of all in the NHL IMO.
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Wall to wall wild takes man. Anderson was their best goalie by a lot last year however old he was and he's gone now. Asking a 6'0 21 yr old with 0 AHL reps to step in and be anything more than okay is a big ask and he has no net. Plan B in Buffalo combined for an .890 last year.

Power is a nice piece, but aside from being #1 in a meh draft I'm not sure what his claim to fame is. He's not a Dahlin level prospect at all. He's going to be good and I'm not calling him a bust or anything but he's kind of Tyler Myerish imo. Huge and skates well so everyone projects stardom because huge and skates well.

So yeah, if you mis read Powers because huge and skates well, I can see where the omg cup projection comes from. The idea of having two Norris calibre #1 defenders together is enticing. But Power isn't that.
 
MindzEye said:
Wall to wall wild takes man. Anderson was their best goalie by a lot last year however old he was and he's gone now. Asking a 6'0 21 yr old with 0 AHL reps to step in and be anything more than okay is a big ask and he has no net. Plan B in Buffalo combined for an .890 last year.

Power is a nice piece, but aside from being #1 in a meh draft I'm not sure what his claim to fame is. He's not a Dahlin level prospect at all. He's going to be good and I'm not calling him a bust or anything but he's kind of Tyler Myerish imo. Huge and skates well so everyone projects stardom because huge and skates well.

So yeah, if you mis read Powers because huge and skates well, I can see where the omg cup projection comes from. The idea of having two Norris calibre #1 defenders together is enticing. But Power isn't that.
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It is. But he can still do better than anyone last year. Is it really worse than an acclaimed team like Ottawa? And Anderson was their best goalie, but is he a loss? Not saying much being their best goalie.
Don't a lot of people view their young core as cup worthy though (In the future, not now).? I don't really see this as some wild take at all.
Although gotta say, Tyler Myers...We'll agree to disagree on that one. Myers had one really nice rookie offensive year with really bad defensive numbers and then his offensive numbers dropped.
 
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JackBurton said:
But he can still do better than anyone last year.
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There's no proof of this and a fair bit of evidence against it. 21 yr old goalies tend to not fare well at the NHL level, even when they're high end prospects that weren't taken in the 7th round.

Just for example, the best 21 yr old goalies in the NHL last year were Spencer Knight (widely considered a stud goalie prospect and a rare goalie 1st round pick) with a .905

That's the list.

The youngest goalie who played even a 1B role and was any good (.910+) was a gang of 24 yr olds. Oettinger, Skinner, Swayman, and Gustavsson.

JackBurton said:
Is it really worse than a acclaimed team like Ottawa?
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Yeah, a lot worse. Neither Forsberg or Korpisaalo are particularly good NHL goalies, but they both performed like functioning NHL goalie last year.

JackBurton said:
Don't a lot of people view their young core as cup worthy though (In the future, not now).? I don't really see this as some wild take at all.
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Until the Tage Thompson break out, no.
JackBurton said:
Although gotta say, Tyler Myers...We'll agree to disagree on that one. Myers had one really nice rookie offensive year with really bad defensive numbers and then his offensive numbers dropped.
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Tyler Myers had a 19 yr old season better than Powers' 20 yr old season, and Powers' defensive numbers were also pretty bad last season. Power had the worst xGA among Sabres regulars (Lyubushkin, Jokiharju, etc) despite some of the easiest usage.

and offensively he was okay, just okay as a 20 yr old.

The thing with Myers offensive drop off, is that it was when Buffalo took away his PP time

Myers ES points:

19 - 31
20 - 23

Powers ES Points:

20 - 26
 
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