This is a FanPost written by T. McGee.
DBTB’ers –
After perhaps the most fun season I’ve had watching the Blue and Gold came to an (bittersweet) end, we are now on the cusp of a new season filled with a little trepidation and a lot of promise. We could continue to see the incredible evolution of many players, some new folks added to the increasingly potent mix, and consider more talent on the horizon in Rochester and across the hockey world.
One way to measure the vibes around DBTB going into the year is the always fun ’20 Questions’ that I compile before the season gets underway. I’ve provided this year’s Questions for your viewing pleasure. They try to address some of the many topics that have dominated the off-season discussion this past summer and into the autumn: goalies, defensemen, rookies, physicality, team defense, and others.
So, take a crack at it and see if YOU can dethrone our progenitor of prognostication, our potentate of predictions, the reigning champion, one Hopefulcynic!
Submit your answers in the Comments below; if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to post a Comment and I’ll get to it as quickly as possible! We’ll leave the Questions open for a week and then close it down. Thanks for your interest, and look forward to seeing if Hopefulcynic can hold onto the Title!
Question #1: Which of these Defensemen will have the most Minutes Played this season? Connor Clifton, Erik Johnson, Ryan Johnson, Henri Jokiharju, Jacob Bryson, Kale Clague, or Riley Stillman? We all are pretty well versed in the line-up for our beloved Sabres, and an overwhelming majority would put Dahlin, Samuelsson and Power as 1-2-3 for minutes from our defense corps assuming everyone is healthy. So who will be the Sabres’ #4? Place your bets here!
Question #2: Yes/No/Even: JJ Peterka will score 48 points this year. Last season, Peterka finished 11th on the Sabres in shots, and his shooting percentage was a meager 9.6%, 12th on the team. This year, he’ll likely be playing on Dylan Cozens’ wing and should get some time at least on Power Play #2. Putting up 48 points would be a 50% increase over his rookie season; that is below what Cozens put up from Year One to Year Two. Will he score more, less, or exactly 48 points?
Question #3: Name the Sabres who will finish 1-2-3 in Hits. Last season, the Sabres as a team finished last in hits. The Top 3 in hits last season were all defensemen: Samuelsson, Dahlin, and Lyubushkin. Who finishes in the Top 3 this time around?
Question #4: Which goalie starts the most games? A hot topic over the summer revolved around who was going to be the #1 goaltender for the Sabres. So I ask you, DBTB’ers, who do you think is going to be starting in the pipes the most often? UPL, Levi, or Comrie?
Question #5: Where do they finish in Eastern Conference? As many of you know, last year the Sabres finished 9th in the East, with 91 points. This year, given the optimism always prevalent in the off-season, a lot of folks are predicting a return to the playoffs. If so, the Sabres would finish somewhere in the Top 8. Where do you think they’ll finish when all is said and done?
Question #6: Yes/No: Does Victor Olofsson finish the season in BFLO? We’ve talked quite a bit about Olofsson’s future in the Blue and Gold. He’s got one year left on his contract, and a lot of young kids breathing down his neck. He could get moved at the Trade Deadline, or at any point during the season, to improve the team. But the Sabres could elect to keep him around until the end of the year and let him walk into Free Agency…which would mean he finished the year in BFLO.
Question #7: Who will score the most Even Strength Goals for the Sabres? Last season, Alex Tuch and Jeff Skinner tied for the most EVS goals with 27. This year, will they repeat? Or will someone else take the crown?
Question #8: How many points will Jordan Greenway score? We saw Greenway come over in the mid-season trade with Minnesota last season, either recovering from an injury or trying to play through one, and he did not exactly impress in his short time in BFLO. That said, Greenway has been notably better in the pre-season, posting nearly a point-per-game. Last season, he put up 4P in 17 games. How many will he get this time around?
Question #9: How many rookies make their NHL debut for the Sabres this season? You might remember the handful of young players who made their NHL debuts last season for the Sabres: Devon Levi and Lukas Rousek. This year, there are a bunch of kids in that mix: Zach Benson almost certainly, but Matt Savoie, Jiri Kulich, Isak Rosen, Ryan Johnson, Alex Kisakov to name a few. Remember, we’re talking about their first NHL game. So keep that in mind.
Question #10: Guess the number of sell-outs in BFLO this year. Last season, the Sabres saw nine sell-outs, which is their best number in a while. Are we willing to go into double digits this time around? Maybe even hit 20? You be the judge.
Question #11: How many games will Erik Johnson play this year? In his illustrious 16 year career, Johnson has only played 80 or more games twice. Despite that, the last 2 seasons he’s played 77 and 63 games. Can he play a full season in BFLO?
Question #12: Where will the Sabres finish in Penalty Kill Percentage? One area the Sabres need to get better at is killing penalties. Now, they try not to commit any, but that’s inevitable in a League where officiating can be so wildly different from game to game. Putting up a miserable 73.01% Penalty Kill – 28th in the NHL – is not helpful. Adding established PKers like Greenway, Clifton and Erik Johnson should help…but how much?
Question #13: True/False: Casey Mittelstadt scores a career high in points. After a few underwhelming years, Mitts broke through last season with 59P in 82 games. This was a massive jump forward, I believe a 136% increase over any of his previous years. Was that a flash in the pan? Or is this the new normal for Casey? He would have to score 60 or more to set his career high.
Question #14: Who makes the biggest jump? Kind of a follow-up from Question #13, last season Mitts made the biggest jump in terms of relative point production percentage, although Cozens was not far behind. Who will make that jump this season? I’ll set the minimum number of games played to be eligible for this question at 10 games; so, for all you trying to game the system, you can’t choose Lukas Rousek and his 2P last year and if he gets 10P this season, he’d have a 500% point increase. I know you, DBTB!
Question #15: Yes/No/Same: Will the Sabres allow 275 goals against this season? Defense is a big question mark for the Sabres coming into this season. They showed last year that they could put the puck in the net in a big way, but struggled at times to keep it out of their own goal. Having given up 297 goals against last year – the NHL average was 258 – the concern is their team defense holds this club back from making some noise in the post-season. Can they reduce the number of goals?
Question #16: How many moves will Kevyn Adam make before or at the Trade Deadline? There is a segment of Sabres’ fandom who love the mere idea of trades. Doesn’t always matter who, or what, or when are being traded…for them trades have become the measuring stick of engagement by the management team. Fortunately, DBTB is not plagued with these sorts of fans. But with the Sabres ostensibly in the hunt for a playoff spot – and perhaps more – is this the year Adams makes a big move at or near the Deadline? And if so…how many moves?
Question #17: What will the Sabres’ team Save Percentage Be? We’ve went back and forth over the last 18 months about the Sabres goaltending and whether they have the solution in-house or need to go outside the organization. Is Levi the answer? Can UPL become a legit NHL #1? What do they really have in Eric Comrie? Last year, BFLO finished in 23rd place with a rather disappointing .890% Save Percentage; as a frame of reference, the NHL average was .899%. Can it improve? And if so, by how much? Or will it backslide even further?
Question #18: Which Sabre will lead the team in Short-Handed Points? Last season, Dylan Cozens led the team with 3 SHP, followed closely by the departed Ilya Lyubushkin with 2. This year, with some new faces likely to be added to the Penalty Kill, we may find ourselves with a new leading scorer when a man down. Or, perhaps, Cozens will retain his crown. Who will it be?
Question #19: Who will lead the team in Face-Off Wins this season? Like the previous question, Dylan Cozens led the way for the Sabres with 567 face-off wins – more than 200 ahead of the next man up, Tage Thompson. Will that continue this season? Or will players like Casey Mittelstadt or Peyton Krebs climb that ladder?
Question #20: True/False: The Rochester Americans will finish in the Final Four of the Calder Cup playoffs? After a run the likes of which we haven’t seen in decades, the Amerks finished up on the short-end of a 4 games – 2 games loss in the Easter Conference Finals to the eventual Champion Hershey Bears. Can they replicate, or even exceed, that finish this time around? Or will they fall back to the pack?
Extra Credit Tiebreaker: What date will we see Jack Quinn back on the ice in an NHL game? We know Jack Quinn unfortunately experienced a significant Achilles tendon injury, although I haven’t seen anywhere that clarifies whether it was a rupture, a tear, or a complete severing of the tendon (like Erik Karlsson suffered a few years back). It’s been speculated that he could return as soon as the very end of 2023. But that may be overly optimistic. When do you think we could see him back in the Blue and Gold?