Quoting: qc14
I like Granato a lot and I like what Buffalo is doing but they finished 25 points behind the Caps and 32 behind the Bruins last year. Even if they both drop by 10 or so points, which is quite a lot especially for the caps who have made serious upgrades in goal, Buffalo needs to win at least 7 more games than last year to pass them in the standings and hope that OTT, NJD, CBJ, NYI don't all improve as well. Once again I like a lot of what they have done this offseason, but they are running back pretty much the same roster + power -- 50 more GF and 50 less GA just from internal development is a massive step to take.
I don't think you are wrong, but there is a chance you could be. It's not just power, these are some other guys that really only played the second half of last season (or less)- Krebs, tuch, Quinn, peterka, lybushkin, Samuelsson, and comrie. We barely had ahl goaltending when Anderson was hurt too. Plus olofsson played hurt and did absolutely nothing until his injury healed, then he finished the season with 20.
The reasons you could be right- our division is a buzz saw, comrie/anderson/upl is still probably in the bottom 1/4 of the league in goal, we are going to be relying on a lot of kids (talented sure, but still kids). Also, our coach is very well liked by the players and fans, he has the players playing loose and producing offense, defense is still a work in progress, and there's always questions if you get crushed until the are out of it, then guys start performing when the pressure is off.
Should be a fun season regardless, the Sabres haven't added as much as Ottawa, but they have added a lot. Maybe savoie gets his 10 games too
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