This is not your father's Buffalo Sabres team.
It's the NHL team that could care less what you think about them.
These Sabres are hungry and are carrying a massive chip on their collective shoulder.
They are not going to be satisfied until their goal of earning a 2021 playoff berth has been achived.
Its a Mötley Krüeger!
The 2021 Buffalo Sabres are the phoenix that is about to rise for the flames.
Everything about the Buffalo Sabres is different this season from the uniform colors that they wear to the opening night lineup to the depth of talent.
Hello, iconic Royal Blue and Gold!
Thankfully, new GM Kevyn Adams and head coach Ralph Krueger are starting the 2021 season with a fresh, unadulterated, proverbial sheet of ice.
Adams and Krueger methodically and systematically roto-tilled the weeds from their garden during the arduous and depressing ten-month layoff.
What the Sabres are today is vastly different from the sum of all its parts from March 9, 2020. That was the last time the Sabres played a meaningful hockey game on their home ice when they defeated the Washington Capitals. Since that ill-fated night, the Sabres have been desperately seeking the start to the regular season.
It’s been a long, long, long, time running. It's been 312 lonely days and nights of agony for Sabres fans since their team last played in a meaningful hockey game. Sabres fans are still pissed off that they were forced to sit and watch their peers eating ice cream during the sizzling summer return to play tourney and Stanley Cup playoffs along with the fans bases of the Devils, Ducks, Kings, Sharks, Senators and Red Wings.
The Sabres front office used their time wisely. Rather than piss and moan, they went to work with the goal of emerging from the darkness with a better collection of talent and assets. They did not stand pat. Adams, who was hired in mid-June after Jason Botterill was punted into Lake Erie, immediately sought our Ralph Kruger for his assistance in re-jigging the roster and planning for the eventual 2020 NHL Draft. The dynamic duo made hard, smart decisions regarding their talent base, prospect pipeline and front office rosters.
Need proof? Look at the opening night roster from October 3, 2019.
Vladimir Sobotka is gone. So too are Johan Larsson, Conor Sheary, Jimmy Vesey, Marcus Johansson, and Marco Scandella.
On New Year’s Eve, while the world was popping corks and thanking god that the calendar year 2020 was finally over, the Sabres began their training camp. Since then, the veteran core and the newly acquired players have meshed together to form a stronger, more offensively and defensively skilled hockey team.
Tonight, Krueger will have six forwards on the ice who will making their Buffalo Sabres franchise debuts.
Taylor Hall is a rock star in the prime years of his fantastic NHL career. When the hockey world assumed the Sabres were in sleep mode and not competing for UFAs to add value to their lineup, Adams and Krueger ripped a one-timer past 30 other NHL to score the Hall winning goal. Krueger rolling Jack Eichel with a former NHL MVP Taylor Hall will be a sight to behold on a nightly basis. Eric Staal won a Stanley Cup in 2006 while with the Carolina Hurricanes. Staal has been a godsend to the Sabres in terms of his leadership and his Hall of Fame quality body of work. Staal is the 2C that Sabres fans have been screaming from the rooftops forever since Ryan O’Reilly left town. Reliable veterans Cody Eakin and Toby Rieder bring grit, hockey IQ, versatility, speed and leadership to the Sabres. Then there’s Dylan Cozens (2019 first rounder), who starred for Team Canada’s silver medal winning squad at the recently completed IIHF World Juniors tourney in Edmonton. Cozens scored 8 goals and 8 assists in 7 games at the WJCs. He has NHL size, speed, toughness, grit and determination. And, grace, too. Don’t sleep on former first round pick Tage Thompson who has returned from offseason surgery and has been terrorizing his teammates during inter-squad scrimmages with his size (6’7” and 220 lbs.), skill, speed, and hang-glider-like reach. Thompson will be deployed with Eichel and Hall and will be a massive matchup problem for East Division goalies this season. Sheahan was signed to a PTO and earned himself a one-year contract with his grit and penalty killing prowess.
Here are the forward lines and D duos that Krueger will roll with in the season opener:
Trios:
Hall - Eichel - Thompson
Olofsson - Staal - Reinhart
Rieder - Eakin - Cozens
Skinner - Lazar - Sheahan
Duos:
McCabe - Ristolainen
Dahlin - Montour
Miller - Jokiharju
Veteran Carter Hutton will get the net for the Sabres in the front side of a home and home with the Capitals. Linus Ullmark will get the net on Friday night against Alex Ovechkin and the Caps.
I read a lot of people thumbing out luke-warm takes on Twitter about how they think the Sabres don’t stand a chance to earn a playoff spot in the Metro+Buffalo+Boston Division.
I’ll call my shot now:
The Buffalo Sabres will not win the East Division, however, they will finish fourth and will earn their first playoff berth since 2011. How will they achieve such a lofty goal?
It’s simple.
The 2021 Buffalo Sabres will attack opponents with four unique, five-man attack battalions.
Watching the NHL games on opening night confirmed what I have been saying for months about the 2021 return to play. I expect Jack Eichel and Taylor Hall to finish in the top ten in NHL scoring this season. They will lead the Sabres' resurgence at even strength and on the power play. Last season, the Sabres were 21st in goal scoring averaging 2.80 goals per game. They will have to be better this season. The additions of Taylor Hall, Eric Staal and Dylan Cozens will inject immediate primary and secondary goal scoring. Jeff Skinner and Victor Olofsson will be counted on to score 30 goals each this season. The Sabres will get more goal production from their defensemen this season, who scored a combined 27 goals last season.
That is, the older, veteran-laden clubs like Washington, Pittsburgh, NY Islanders, Boston, will struggle to find their skating legs immediately out of the gate.
Also, goaltending is going to be a case study in abnormality for the first 3-4 weeks of the season as defenses and goalies fine tune their D-zone systems. NHL goalies are creatures of habit. Their fundamentals will be askew for the first 3-4 weeks of the regular season as they attempt to fine tune their angles as they hope feel comfortable in their creases after the brutally long hiatus from hockey.
I expect the NHL goal totals to be between 7.5 to 8.5 goals per game this season which will feature teams playing 56 games in 114 days.
That will be a heavy lift for those older teams that have players that have declining speed and mobility issues. The legs feed the wolf and with a fast, aggressive start to the season, the Sabres plan to stack points and get balanced goal scoring from all four lines and all three defense pairs.
Eichel, Hall, Reinhart, Skinner, Olofsson, Staal, Cozens and the offense will be relentless.
Buffalo’s power play units (12th in 2019-20) will be dramatically improved and will win them games they have no business winning.
Their penalty kill (15th in 2019-20) will be one of the best in the NHL. Future Norris Trophy Candidate Rasmus Dahlin will lead a dynamic D corps in scoring, however, Rasmus Ristolainen, Brandon Montour, Colin Miller, Henri Jokiharju and Jake McCabe will jump and join the rush and will create fits for opponents.
Here is my prediction for the Metro+Buffalo+Boston Division:
1. NY Islanders
2. Washington Capitals
3. Philadelphia Flyers
4. Buffalo Sabres
5. Boston Bruins
6. NY Rangers
7. Pittsburgh Penguins
8. New Jersey Devils
Buffalo Sabres Blogger • 
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