i genuinely want to know what the thought process behind some sabres fans here is with regards to adding a guy like jeannot. The sabres had trouble scoring goals last year. Our rivals north of the QEW sacrificed their league leading offense for toughness, and cant score against a bruins team that is a shell of its former self. So obviously we have to follow that same pattern?

Let's actually score goals and get into the playoffs before we worry about how tough these guys are/aren't and whether that actually matters.

You asked for Boone. You already know the answer.

Ummm, he’s on the fourth line

jenner, crouse, and jeannot with kulich being sent away is pretty clear on what you're trying to do with this lineup. I understand the temptation to do so, but theyre not nearly good enough yet to start making these kinds of investments .

Jeannot isn’t here in this instance to replace any of the top 6 offense. Although even if he only replicates the same numbers he had this year, he would be more useful than Robinson and Jost combined. He’s here to add 200 hits to an offense that doesn’t hit anyone. He’s an upgrade to the fourth line that sorely needs one, and he cost barely more than we were paying Girgensons this year.

a) that's a bar (jost/robinson) that most of rochester could clear. And b), why does this matter? year after year we see that hit totals have absolutely no correlation to success in the post season. People look at teams like Florida and come to that conclusion.

Florida isn't a heavy team, it's a competitive and whiny team. That's what they are good at. They goad their opponents into believing that toughness is their issue by throwing borderline hits, cheap punches after whistles, and still images of 3rd pair d-men screaming at rookie goalies. Not to mention Maurice acting like a toddler on the bench. But that's exactly what we should want from the Sabres.

We don't need sherrif Jeannot throwing 200 hits and taking ill advised penalties. We need to double down on the offense and beat teams like florida at their own game without getting away from ours.

Florida isn't a heavy team. Clearly you don't watch them at all they led the league in PIMs and are a very heavy team
Tkachuk, Bennett, Reinhardt,Montour Ekblad, OEL, Mikkola, Lomborg, Rodriguez, Okposo, Cousins, Lorenzo, Stenlund , Gadjovich.

Homie trying to slip evan rodrigues and kyle okposo in there like I wouldn't know these guys arent a "tough archetype" lol. Also leading the nhl in PIMs isn't indicative of being a heavy team. The Sabres were ahead of the Rangers and Caps in total penalty minutes. Would anyone believe they are a tougher/heavier team?

Panthers are 13th in terms of average weight of each player. Im not saying they aren't tough/durable. They clearly are. You have to be to survive having a target on your back because of how you play.

They play a very heavy physical game if you say they don't you either
A) don't watch them
B) are clueless
C) are purposely lying.

or our definitions of physical are different? They throw a lot of borderline hits and whine a lot. They are also very talented all throughout the lineup. That's the key to success. That's what I'm arguing the Sabres should do. Instead of adding physicality at the cost of talent, they should internalize the idea that its not about playing fair. That's what the panthers do well. It's not just a couple of tough guys setting the tone. Everyone from line 1 to 4 and on D has bought into that message.

I’m not sure I would agree with that. When you look at the players, they did call up from Rochester (Rousek, Kulich, Rosen, technically Jost) They were all equally ineffective. You could argue that Rosen and Kulich simply weren’t ready yet, but Rousek got 15 games and managed only two points. He was completely unnoticeable for large stretches of time, unless it was him getting knocked off the puck. He just didn’t provide any energy like he had done in his few games the previous year. If you’re playing fourth line minutes, providing some energy is as simple as being the guy who throws a big hit, maybe causing a turnover. I don’t think most people expect much offense out of your fourth line, but more than almost none would still be an improvement from what we’re currently looking at.

I never said they played heavy in Lieu of being talented ,but they're a very physical team.

kulich and rosen also got basically no ice time and bad teammate quality. But if we're talking about next year, they are probably better options in the bottom six than a guy like jeannot. This team doesn't have the top end talent to get away with toughening up the bottom six at the cost of taking TOI away from kulich/rosen. If they win its going to be because they've loaded up so much first round talent coaches cant get the matchups they want.

Neither did I lol. I said the team above (the ACGM) would be playing physical in lieu of talent. The panthers were a small anecdote on a discussion about the Sabres.

No I'd argue you actually did."Panthers are 13th in terms of average weight of each player." Clearly gives the impression they're not a heavy play team . There's a difference in being tough and Heavy you can be tough and mentally (which is what your comments infer), and not play a heavy game which Florida does and extremely well.

At the same time you’re not going to waste their time on fourth line minutes where they might play five or six minutes a game. If they aren’t at least getting 10 minutes a game, they may as well be in Rochester getting 20. I don’t know if you can get away with having four lines of all fast, small players and nobody who can stand up for them against the Philadelphias of the world for example. If teams feel like they can take liberties against you, they will. We’ve been seeing that for the last decade and a half too.

And the sentence right after I said "m not saying they aren't tough/durable. They clearly are." Which implies i agree with bolded. You either chose to ignore that cause you have a personal problem with me (unlikely you know me personally) or you're displaying cognitive bias, assuming I've got it out for the panthers. Rest assured I both a) think the panthers are a great hockey team and in a good position to win and b) couldn't possibly care less about that org lol

No not at all being tough and durable has nothing to do with playing heavy. You can be durable and play a very finesse game you can be tough and not play a tough heavy game which again was the infected message.

This is 2006 thinking though. Isnt part of the issue with this past years bottom six on the sabres that they saw too much ice time? Players in that role routinely saw between 11-13 minutes a night. Do we think Kulich can't do damage with that toi + some pp minutes?

Re bolded "who can stand up for them", when has this actually ever worked? Did NJ adding Macdermid stop rempe from doing what he does? No. Did Ryan Reaves' presence stop Dahlin from doing what he did to Brodie? No. Bad players/goons are going to do the goon thing because thats who they are (not calling dahlin this just making the point)

I don't even disagree with you premise, but i reject your conclusion. The solution to the smaller players getting targeted is not adding big boys. That's not a deterrent. it's like asking someone to follow your kid around so they stop getting bullied. Has that ever worked in the history of...ever? The solution is for the core players to stick up for themselves. This is an underrated part of what made Vegas so great. Stone was a target all playoff long, but he endured. He hit back when he needed to, but he survived the hits and never let it get to him.

Pietrangelo was targeted all playoffs as well, he survived it and threw cheap shots back to send a message. Nobody stepped in to save Stone and Pietrangelo, they fought their own battles and endured the hardship of the playoffs. That's what we should want from the core here. Because it's the only way it will work.

I no longer have any idea what youre talking about lol. So ill just simplify. I dont think Florida is a goon team that runs ppl over. They are tough and durable, they are also borderline hit artists and their coach whines alot. That's a very effective combination. I'd like the Sabres to be the same.

I don’t entirely disagree with what you’re thinking. I think we both agree the team needs to be tougher as a whole. But I still think we need to upgrade those bottom two lines and adding a player or two with a known physical edge would be a welcome addition. I’m not necessarily talking a goon, but A player in the same vein of what Steve Ott brought to the team when he was here would be nice. Ott was a player who led by example, it’s one of the reasons they gave him the captaincy.

Of course, even goons like Rempe are impact players. Between his propensity to do nothing but hit the other team, and do so teetering on the edge of illegal, dangerous hits, at least elicits responses from the other team. He becomes a distraction in the same way that Sean Avery used to do. I think that’s a big reason why Rangers fans love the big S.O.B. so much.