OffThePost.org

Goalie of the Future secured: Former Patrick Roy Trophy winner (yes, that's a real award) Devon Levi signs an entry-level deal. That deal may end up paying gigantic dividends in years to come, though maybe not as impactful as the Tage Thompson deal has turned out to be.

Very difficult not to get excited about Devon Levi. Hopefully we'll see more young goaltenders in the league soon, the general belief that defensemen and goalies take longer to develop is IMO total hogwash.

I get that it's a pretty minor deal but IMO the Sabres bringing back Okposo for another year is a huge mistake. I get they like him and he's always put in a good effort, but he's not really that good anymore and the team's young core needs to take over already. If nothing else they should be taking the C off his jersey, I've always felt it's a problem when your C is a 4th liner.

I disagree. If your best leader isn't one of your best players, that's fine to me. Okposo has been a good leader since he arrived in the NHL.
I've coached and been on teams where the best players are shitty leaders, and contribute to talking shit about their own teammates. It destroys the team from within and they never advance or grow as a team. I've coached, been on teams (and worn the A ) where the best leaders are shitty players (including me) and lead everyone, including the best players, to championships. Do what you're best at. Your 1C isn't automatically your C. Sometimes they're dicks or just not leaders at all.

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying they should hand it to a bunch of snot-nosed punks, but it's clear the de facto captain there now is Alex Tuch. The rest of the guys there are not fresh-faced rookies either. Power is obviously still quite young, but the other members of that core, like Tuch, Skinner, Thompson, Dahlin, and Goalofsson are established NHLers. Hell I'd probably throw Cozens in that mix as well after the season he's had. They also went out and got Jordan Greenway to up their "grit" factor. Guys like Quinn, Power, Levi, Krebs, and Peterka aren't quite there yet but they will be very soon. This team doesn't need crutches anymore. They may not be ready to be contenders quite yet but it's time for the next step.

The reason I think they needed to move on is because any time I see a 4th line grinder get the C, it's almost always a bad idea. Dave Lowry got the C in Calgary and was so unbelievably bad that he got waived and demoted to the AHL that season. While serving as captain. Now, years later, when Jarome Iginla, who was on that Flames team, came to Colorado along with Francois Beauchemin and were brought aboard for "veteran leadership". It kinda worked for about half a season, then for the rest of that year and the next (the next being the worst season in franchise history) they were fucking terrible. And afterwards the younger players commented that they were reluctant to speak up in the locker room because they wanted to defer to the older guys, even though those older guys were clearly not carrying their weight out on the ice.

Guys like Kelly Buchberger (Edmonton), Derek MacKenzie (Florida), and the aforementioned Lowry were captains of teams that went absolutely nowhere. Okposo seems like a good guy and all, but the Sabres should have let him walk. I don't think it'll be a disaster, I'm just saying going the "veteran leadership" route, where you prize a player's off-ice contributions more than his on-ice value, is almost always a mistake.

So anyway, tl;dr: You don't have to put the captain's patch on the best player by default. But you should put it on an impact player, not some no-name scrub, no matter how good a guy he happens to be or how well-liked or how hard-working he is. That oftentimes doesn't end well. It's at least good when said scrub sees what's happening and opts to "give" the captaincy to another player, oftentimes much younger.

If you mention Andrew Ladd I’ll agree with you, even if the Isles only gave him an A, not the C.

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

Big extension for Dahlin: 8 years, 11M AAV.

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Also big extension for Owen Power: 7 years, $58.45 million ($8.35 million AAV)

Buffalo has three of their top four locked in long-term, along with their top two centers. If Levi becomes The Guy in net, there's your core.

Fucking hell, home and season opener, Rick Jeanneret night, against the Rangers...and you show up like THAT!?!? Fuck that noise.

Only one game but oof...Devon Levi looked really bad. REALLY bad. Rest of the team didn't look great either.

This means they'll come out flying vs the Isles tonight. Damn it!

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

Meh, they put in the effort but still lost.

Only two games but I expected a more spirited start for them.

Poke, have you given up on the Rangers as your 2nd team and adopted the Sabres?

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Shoresy, "It's called a sweater"

Naaaah I don't really have a "2nd team" anymore. I'm a total hockey whore, I just kinda like seeing good hockey wherever I can watch it. I pretty much turned on the Rangers after they acquired players like DeAngelo and Trouba.

There are certainly teams I DO NOT like (Vegas, Dallas, Minnesota, Carolina) but even then there are players on those teams I really do like.

I just think the Sabres have a very young, talented core and finally fixed their messy uniform situation to bring back an all-time classic, so they seem poised to finally put their demons behind them. They could be one of the more exciting teams to watch, but so far that hasn't been the case. It's mildly concerning that Tage Thompson has not exactly hit the ice running yet.

Tage Thompson to miss significant time (he actually got hurt TWICE in this game), and the Sabres are currently last in the toughest division in hockey by far.

A shame, I was hoping this was the year they finally crawled out of the muck. But alas, it won't be. I think a coaching change is in order. These guys don't play anything remotely resembling defense.

Tage returns, doesn’t matter, the Swords lose again.

Interesting that this team has two extremely talented defensemen at the top of their lineup who are not good at the defense. Owen Power in particular is REALLY bad at covering guys in front of the net.

It ain’t all his fault by any means but…how much longer does Granato have?

Buffalo goes into Denver on Erik Johnson night and comes away with a 5-1 loss. I didn't see the 2nd but the Sabres dominated the shot count after being completely caved in during the first.

Rasmus Dahlin, man, I don't know. Immensely talented, big, but way too prone to bad turnovers right now. Someone needs to come in and get these guys to tighten up their game.

Jeff Skinner on IR after getting clobbered by Nathan MacKinnon.

Oh man, that's an awful way to get wrecked by a clean hit, right back into the boards like that

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Thanks Chuck, E.L. and Harmy!

Didn't realize until the Sabres came to town that both Connor Clifton and Erik Johnson are RHDs, which means Johnson has had to play the left side for most of his stint in Buffalo. I've watched EJ for the better part of 13 seasons and could count on one hand the number of shifts (not games, SHIFTS) he played on his off-side.

Seems pretty dumb to me to ask a 36-year-old veteran to make such a drastic change in what is likely his final year in the NHL, but what do I know?

Is it really that big of a deal? I've always liked playing the off-side. One-timers from the point are so much easier. Clearing the puck is a tiny bit more difficult because you're handling it closer to the slot and a bit higher in the zone, likely closer to forechecking forwards, but you're also able to clear rebounds in front away on your forehand more safely to the boards.

I was always coached that righties play on the right and lefties play on the left. When I got to beer league I had a team of mostly righties who all wanted to be on the right side and I was new so I got put on the left. I loved it immediately for the aforementioned reasons. But I get asking a 36 year old NHLer to change sides may not be the best idea.

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

For wingers, I don't think it's that big a deal, especially in the NHL where forwards are usually all over the fucking place. Obviously playing on your off-wing is an advantage for some skill players because it yields much better shooting angles.

But yes, on D I think it's absolutely huge. Puck retrieval is key for any defenseman, and when you're having to switch to your backhand in the corners it makes getting the puck out of the zone that much harder, not to mention outlet passes and just plain trying to hold the zone when you're team's on offense.

SOME d-men can play their off-side, for instance, T.J. Brodie has been a left-handed/right-side defender for years. But asking a guy who frankly struggles to get the puck out on a good day at this point in his career to switch sides, no, that's just stupid. Very poor decision by Adams to sign two right-shot third pairing guys. Sign one or the other, not both, unless you're actually going to platoon the two in 6/7 role, which they have not done. Frankly I thought EJ was flat-out cooked last year and should've retired, but I understand he wanted to give it at least one more go. Unfortunately he's playing in a very bad situation, no help from the forwards defensively and the goaltending has been subpar, in addition to trying to make him a left-side D.

Speaking of the Sabres...YIKES. That blowout loss to *checks notes* the Columbus Blue Jackets at home may have been the breaking point. Fans finally had enough and called for Don Granato's head. I feel for the guy, he is by all accounts a decent person and he's having to deal with his brother battling cancer now but there should have been a change a long time ago. Adams may have ripped the tag off, but Granato was always going to be an interim guy.