#tim and jason beef go way before the tower

[andrewuttaro]

New Look Sabres: 2019 Training Camp Closes

Hockey is back! For real this time! The next time you read one of these New Look Sabres articles it’s going to be preceded by a Sabres regular season game! All the players we’re about to celebrate and or lament aside, if you like hockey it’s just nice to have meaningful games again! I intentionally post this before the final cuts come out and we have a clear look at the Opening Night roster. I think that reveal is something obscenely special. Not that there’s a scenario you’d hear it here first. Either way this article this morning is going to come in two parts: a somewhat tortured look back on 2019 Training Camp followed by Regular Season Predictions. I am going to try to be unconventional with my forecasts for the new Sabres season. I went back and looked at what I said last year and it’s a bit of a trip. I made 4 predictions and got 2… and a half right. I said the Sabres would be over .500 in October. That was controversial at the time, but I was right! I predicted Rasmus Dahlin would score his first goal before Columbus Day, but I was wrong about that. I predicted Jack Eichel would get the C. I’m very happy I was right about that but not too much of a crazy prediction with O’Reilly getting shipped out I suppose. I predicted the Rochester Americans would dominate the North Division which they did but they didn’t win it. Stick around or skip ahead and see what you think about my predictions this go around.

I can’t imagine we’ll look back on this Training Camp all that fondly. Yeah, we got a nice look at Henri Jokiharju and Victor Olofsson, but those guys weren’t exactly surprises. My High School Senior quote was a little Maya Angelou maxim that struck a chord for me at the time: “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget the way you made them feel.” Unfortunately I think the feelings of anxiety will stick with us in retrospect. Jason Botterill gave anyone who has watched this team for more than a couple years anxiety. Hardly anyone was shipped out. Alex Nylander and… that’s it. Hopefully as you read these words Jason Botterill is finalizing a trade or putting in final cuts with Ralph Krueger or both, but this Training Camp will forever be remembered for how we just didn’t know what the hell was going on! I could write an essay on the Rasmus Ristolainen situation. If he isn’t in the lineup Thursday night I can’t imagine he wouldn’t have been shipped out. All the drama of asking for a trade (which he definitely did) aside, that broken relationship should have been sorted out in July. I look forward to reading Jason Botterill’s memoirs or listening to him getting a little tipsy on Spitting Chicklets in a couple years because there must be a whole different level of this story that we don’t get to hear under normal circumstances. I just can’t imagine that whole situation is as dumb as it looks. They built the roster this offseason to exist without him! I literally can’t even with that. How about something, anything else.

This training camp belonged to Dylan Cozens. Our first pick in the 2019 Draft impressed mightily and he almost secured a spot on the roster. At the end of the day though you got to be thankful for another year for him to develop. At his age another year figuring it out will be helpful. John Gilmour and Will Borgen fought their hardest to get a spot but don’t make the final cuts. Gilmour especially had some hop in his stride throughout Training Camp and every Preseason game he appeared in. I will be very interested to see where he goes and what he does, whether that be Rochester or Buffalo. Almost exactly that thinking comes to mind with Curtis Lazar as well. He was a guy drafted with a role in mind on the Ottawa Senators. Like a lot of things in the last few years with that organization it went bad. Lazar tried to pull a Lazarus this Preseason and got damn close to pulling it off. How do I complete this bible joke… hmm… but I suppose he can’t raise from the dead because he’s not Jesus? Hmm, yeah I went up the stream without a paddle there. I do look forward to what happens with Curtis Lazar. Even if he needs to bounce around the AHL lineup I think he’s still got a left to give. We’ll see if he makes me look like a fool. Last season ended and I was one of those guys calling for Casey Mittelstadt and Tage Thompson to get jacked. Both guys are too important to be pushed off the puck. Mittelstadt kinda showed by the last preseason game while Thompson came to camp having added a couple dozen pounds of pure Canadian prairie beef! He made me proud and I think his second shot at the Sabres roster will be interesting if not encouraging. Evan Rodrigues was a guy I, like many, had pinned for a bigger role on the Sabres this season. Unfortunately he didn’t blow my socks off at any point during Camp. Hopefully he turns on once the games matter. Finally, what did we learn about the coaching staff this Training Camp? Well other than Ralph Krueger being a pretty good media diplomat not very much. A few interesting things were sprinkled here or there about this assistant coach or that assistant coach, but nothing jumps out except a couple of comments appeasing bad players. Unlike Phil Housley I still kinda believe Ralph Krueger won’t actually go through with overplaying bad players but I am liable to be wrong on that prediction!

Alright, enough teasing: let’s make some decisions we’re going to regret in a short while! Let’s make some predictions! The whole .500 prediction from last year, even though I was right, was a little weird. All that means is winning more games than you lose. I suppose .500 is a sorter way of writing that out but for any team that is even kinda good .500 is not exactly what you’re thinking about. For us it was special because this team has sucked for so long. Whether or not the team on the ice is stat-for-stat ready for it we have to raise our expectations to nothing short of playoffs! This season the Sabres will never crack the top 2 of the Atlantic Division but they will be defending a wildcard spot from about early November onward. There are only two wildcards in the East, I know but the outside of Montreal, Florida and Carolina I think we’re overestimating what we’re going to be dealing with to get that spot. Second prediction: Not so brave but nonetheless necessary: both of Jack Eichel and Rasmus Dahlin get over 90 points. Extension on that: Dahlin gets nominated for the Norris Trophy but loses to some washed-up old shit. How about some more wishful predictions: the Rochester Americans won’t disappoint us in the first round of the Calder Cup playoffs again. That forecast I dropped like I DGAF because its hard to care about the Amerks for me after hardcore first round playoff disappointment the last two years. Anyway, one last oracle reading: the Sabres are going to be very good against their division this year only having a losing record against Boston. I just get the feeling Ralph Krueger is going to be one of those guys who makes them treat every divisional game like a massive rivalry. So there you go: predictions! You have 82 regular season games ahead to reference back to this and grill me! I am ready, baby! Give me your worst!

You’ll notice Sabres twitter’s greatest optimist did not actually say whether or not he believes Buffalo will qualify for the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Well, observant reader, you’re right. I didn’t because that result has moved out of the realm of fun prediction fodder and into the realm of angry last-minute rant. Look I know the predictions largely have the Sabres missing the playoffs for the ninth straight year. I don’t disagree with anyone’s methodology on that. Pending another roster move which may or may not come there is a lot of a 76-point team still here locked and loaded to disappoint us. All that doesn’t matter to me. This club has used up every last year they’re allowed not to be in the playoffs in this rebuild. Never mind rebuild 1.0, in the 2.0 version since Tim Murray was fired we have arrived in year three where it needs to be playoffs or bust. I don’t care about the implications for the jobs of Botterill and Krueger, we have all season to discuss that. Playoffs are not something you can go without as an organization at this point, never mind the hockey team. It’s past the time. Now is the time. Don’t tell me about why there isn’t a bonified 2C or enough good right wingers or how player x, y and z are anchors on both the salary cap and on the ice. Those are excuses next to the towering necessity of making the fucking playoffs! I said earlier, and I’ll repeat it here as I will on twitter dozens of times this season I’m sure: Whether or not the team on the ice is stat-for-stat ready for it we have to raise our expectations to nothing short of playoffs! After all, the NHL is shite league and we all know it. The St. Louis Blues won the Stanley Cup last season after the regular season they had. Anything is possible in this ridiculous, man-swing-stick game.

Ah, that rant felt good to get off my chest. Drop a like, share and comment. Grill me for those predictions or my summation of what Training Camp was like. Hell, tell me why expecting the playoffs this season is foolish. You’re wrong, but I welcome telling you all the reasons it needs to happen again. I can’t wait for Thursday night and I especially cannot wait for Saturday night where I’m going to the home opener! Oh yeah, Captains Night! Treat of my wife, I get to go alone! You may think that sounds sad but good hockey is something a guy like me hollers and grunts and groans watching, and my wife doesn’t like all those stray sounds. Either way Hockey is back, and I have a blog to talk about it on! Thanks for reading and I promise I’ll try to make this a fun experience for every Sabres fan who reads this. This is your blog. This blog doesn’t belong to the analytics or the man-alytics or even the bloggers. This blog belongs to the fans and I hope to be your voice even more this season. Don’t ever be afraid to reach out and tell me if I’m not getting it right at any point. We can be a team just like the one we enjoy watching against our better interest sometimes. So let’s go do that hockey! Let’s Go Sabres!

Thanks for reading.

P.S. Reminder: Go read Southtowns Tickets’ Sabres Season Preview this week, I wrote it! Also, the Third Annual Pod-a-thon is Saturday the 12th and I hope to see you there!