OffThePost.org

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 knows, but it's nice to a see a team this talented finally get back on track. And I'll always, always root for Bo, that kid is a'ight.

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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.

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.

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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 problematic.

IMO Skinner's shortcomings are magnified by a guy like Olofsson, who may very well be even worse defensively (but the guy is an amazing, elite-level shooter), so at least ONE of those guys has got to go. Did not help the Sabres that their two best defensive players by a fair margin, Jack Quinn and Mattias Samuelsson, missed most of this season with injuries.

Don Granato fired. Pretty disastrous season for the Sabres. They had playoff ambitions and they're stuck in neutral.

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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 land HARD in Lindy’s doghouse. He’s got it within him to be a very good defenseman, but he’s got to figure out exactly what kind of defenseman he wants to be.

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...

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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 because Lindy didn't like Alexander Holtz (and I think we'll find out in due time he's not that good) was just asinine.

Injuries also did the Devils in early, and goaltending could not bail them out. They lost Hamilton and Jack Hughes more or less limped through this season. And as always, Nico Hischier missed time.

And yes, we'll also see with Adams. Didn't like his offseason either, they moved on from Okposo a few months too late and Granato simply could not get them to the next stage. If Lindy can't, then there's something seriously wrong with that roster.