Quote:
Originally Posted by Rasmuth
ah...my beloved Sabres...perhaps a dynasty?
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I appreciate you following along and I could see your Sabres winning another Cup or two over the next couple of years.
The big line of Pierre Turgeon between Ray Sheppard and Dave Andreychuk rivals any in the league. Sheppard is coming off two straight 50 goal seasons and is just 24 years old. Andreychuk is 27 and had a career best 105 points last year while the 21 year old Turgeon had 67 points despite being limited to 53 games last season.
Alexander Mogilny is coming off a rookie season that saw him score 36 goals on the second line but there is a bit of a depth issue up front beyond those four. Randy Cunneyworth, Adam Creighton and Christian Ruutuu are what's left behind Turgeon at centre and the remaining wingers are Benoit Hogue, Wayne Presley and Dave Reid. So far Buffalo has been getting enough secondary scoring from this group but not sure if that will continue.
Defense is Buffalo's strong point led by Phil Housley, who had 94 points last season as a 26 year old, and veteran Reijo Ruotsalainen, who had 66 points. Uwe Krupp and Calle Johansson make a strong second pair and Bill Hajt, despite being 38, has been a very steady stay-at-home Dman.
Andy Moog has been solid in net but if he gets hurt Buffalo is in big trouble as the backups are rookies Darcy Wakaluk and Wade Flaherty.
I think the Sabres have to be the class of the Adams Division and should, barring a surprising upset, have little trouble reaching the conference finals for the next couple of seasons. With Lemieux Pittsburgh is always a challenge but the Penguins have struggled in the post-season to find any offense at all outside of Mario and Kevin Stevens. Rookie Jaromir Jagr and an improving Mark Recchi might change that soon though.
The biggest challenge for anyone coming out of the East is the Calgary Flames. The Flames are loaded with Brett Hull, Theo Fleury, Gary Roberts, Joe Nieuwendyk up front with depth forwards like Joel Otto, Hakan Loob, Paul Ranheim, Perry Berezan and Gino Cavallini also contributing and 19 year old rookie Robert Reichel waiting in the wings. On D you have Al MacInnis, who had 61 points in just 36 games last season, along with Gary Suter. Jamie Macoun, Brian Glynn, Steve Konroyd and Grant Ledyard round out the Calgary blue line. Goalie is the only weak spot for Calgary as Greg Millen and Greg Stefan are barely adequate and both are over 30.