Predicting the Buffalo Sabres opening night roster....

        This one is gonna be....I guess you can say an interesting year for the Buffalo Sabres and us fans. With Sam Reinhart being traded to Florida, Risto traded to Philly and Jack Eichel most definitely never playing in Buffalo again, this roster is going to look very different and very underwhelming. I just don't know honestly, yeah they're professionals, yeah a lot of these guys are on 1 year contracts and probably going to play their asses off for a new deal somewhere else, I just can't see this team being too fun to watch. Well whatever, fuck it.....let's take a look and the dumpster fire that is the Buffalo Sabres.



LINE 1
LW- Jeff Skinner             C- Casey Mittelstadt    RW- Victor Olofsson

LINE 2
LW- Rasmus Asplund     C- Dylan Cozens            RW- Tage Thompson

LINE 3
LW- Anders Bjork           C- Zemgus Girgensons  RW- Vinnie Hinostroza

LINE 4
LW- Drake Caggiula        C- Arttu Ruotsalainen   RW- Kyle Okposo


DEFENSE PAIRING 1
Rasmus Dahlin      Henri Jokiharju

DEFENSE PAIRING 2
Rober Hagg            Colin Miller

DEFENSE PAIRING 3
Will Butcher          Mark Pysk

GOALIES
Dustin Tokarski
Craig Anderson


A BREAKDOWN:

Ok, so....Line 1? I know it looks underwhelming but don't forget that all three of those guys played really good hockey under new Head Coach Don Granato. Honestly, Mittelstadt probably played the best hockey he's ever played at the NHL level when ole Donny Meatballs turn the reigns behind the Sabres bench, Skinner looked to play hard every shift and even Olofsson scored even strength goals. Moving to Line 2, we got Asplund and Cozens who I think could be absolute studs. Cozens in my opinion is going to be the next captain of this team, I just think we need to see more out of Tage Thompson.....we've seen moments where he actually is a decent NHL hockey player then we've seen times where he would probably get cut from an ECHL team. Line 3 is where things start to get a little hairy. Girgs hasn't played hockey in over a year. Hinostroza is new and we really don't know too much about the dude and Bjork showed he can play but how good can he really be? No one really fuckin knows. Not the best line for sure but with how shit the Sabres have been it isn't the worst. Kyle Okposo is on the 4th line so it will suck and that's that. Defensively I don't think we're to terrible but I for sure don't think we're anywhere near good. We got better, there is no doubt about that. I think Robert Hagg is a good step better than Risto was, he is better defensively, not terrible offensively and he comes with a smaller cap hit so that's a win. Will Butcher was a really good trade in my opinion he's a good young defensive, which means he'll request a trade any day now. I think it's time Dahlin has to take the next step, this kid could be a fuckin superstar and we've only scratched the surface on how good he could be. Fuck maybe he'll be the captain, fuck'd if I know. The goaltending is more suspect than it's possibly ever been. It looks like out of left field Dustin Tokarski has one the #1 job and will be splitting time between the pips with vet Craig Anderson. Tokarski played really well down the stretch when Granto became the coach, who knows.....maybe he can shock the world and have a mildly decent season. Right now as a Sabres fan, I think the best we can wish for is competitive hockey. We can't watch this team go out every game and just get their dicks smashed in like they did under that shit fuck Ralph Krueger.  Granato has been full tempo and he has been working these guys into the fucking ground at practice, which is exactly what this team needs. All I want is a competitive and watchable product but unfortunately that's been a big ask by this organization the last 10 years.