It’s the age old question. One that has baffled sports fans and General Managers alike for decades (though it seems like centuries). The question is: What wins championships? With the Pegula regime ushering in a renewed sense of hope and a Stanley Cup mandate, that question is now all the more pressing for Sabres fans. Do we need to improve our offense or defense to truly contend for a championship? Brian Bund and myself duke it out over the very issue…
Brian: First off, I’m going to start this by saying that I think it’s safe to say that both of us really believe that the team needs to do both of these things in order to go from first round exit in the playoffs to legitimate Stanley Cup Final contenders. There are two ways to look at this question, the short term vs. the long term. In my opinion and with Pegula and Black’s three year plan assertion we are arguing the short term. This team is filled with defensemen suited for 3-6 on a lineup. Myers is set to make that leap to all world defender, but he’s still just learning how to utilize his size and really play the position. Shoane Morrisonn was brought in to hopefully be that stay at home defender in my opinion to play with Myers. He’s still under contract and may be that player, but are we really going to sit around to find out?
Matt: Well, goals are probably more difficult to come by and as a result more expensive to obtain. But I think there’s a reason for that, and that is because: offensive wins championships. Remember, the Sabres got beat in the first round by a team that was missing its best defenseman and was only rumored to play a goaltender.
Brian: The Sabres were 9th in goals per game (2.93) and tied for 16th in goals against (2.78). You could argue youth on the blue line, but there is almost as much youth and potential up front with the expectation of Ennis and Gerbe being able to step up their game moving forward. With a healthy Derek Roy for the year this should improve.
Matt: Well, what you’ve shown here is that the Sabres have some offense. The problem is, not enough offense. The Stanley Cup winner for every year since the lockout has been Top 8 in Points and Top 8 in Goals For. Every winner in that time except Boston has also had a 90-point scorer and they only eeked out the Canucks, who had Sedin.
Brian: I’m not disagreeing, however the point is that is Vanek could be that 90-point scorer. The Sabres have too many ‘offensive’ defensemen in Sekera, Leopold, Gragnani, and even Butler is supposed to be that. Not to mention the amount of players along the blue line that are RFAs and at least one or two will not be back in all likelihood. If Butler comes back, it could be likely that he pairs with Myers again, but when this team lost Tallinder and Lydman they lost that defense-first mentality on the back end and it was exposed against the Flyers.
Matt: Well, this is the first time I’ve ever heard this argument based on having too much offense on the back end, but sure. In a perfect world, we could have both.
Brian: With a healthy Derek Roy returning, this team could have Roy play on the first line and re-sign Connolly (I know, I know) and then sign a mid-tier center to play on the third line like Tomas Kopecky who is still a little younger or add a veteran presence like Michal Handzus. Then you would have Gaustad on your true checking fourth line. That in itself is an upgrade over this season already.
Matt: Any argument that requires a “I know, I know” is probably on shaky ground. Do we really want to go through the whole middling forward thing again? Steve Bernier, Dominic Moore, Raffi Torres, Brad Boyes. You could build an army out of this team’s middling acquisitions. I think that if we go center or go defense, wherever we go, we need to go big. The fact of that matter is that if you have Roy as your second line center, that means you have someone who is verifiably better than him on the first line. And suddenly you have an actual Top 6.
Brian: I’m again going back to the short term. If this team is going to make a push in the next two seasons they need a top four defense-first guy. The Philadelphia series proved that these young players were overmatched by an talented group up front. Will Myers, Butler, Weber and company improve? Sure they will, but if the team is going to bank on that I think they could be trouble. In my mind this is an easy question given the current RFA situation. I let offensive minded Andrej Sekera and his $1m+ salary walk and I allocate that money to go and get Eric Brewer (more veteran) or Kevin Bieska or Chris Ehrhoff (prime of their careers) and make a series run at this
thing.
Matt: Well, I’m not so sure that banking on middling forwards will keep the team out of trouble either. It’s a delicate balance. I think you have a lot more potential at the defensive position. You’ve got two guys in Weber and Butler who can blossom into good stay-at-home defenseman, and two good potential two-way defenseman in Sekera and Gragnani. The young contributors you have up front are Ennis and Gerbe, neither of which the organization apparently feels is ready or capable of playing NHL Center. The team has more depth, and thus, more hope of developing a rock solid player at defense.
Brian: Even if this team doesn’t do either of these things this offseason, and that seems unlikely, we can both probably admit they are in pretty good shape heading into next season. The prospect line is deep and they can make moves heading into the trade deadline if they choose. But to answer this question, let me ask another, after watching the Flyers series are you more confident in the defense stopping a top team from scoring or being able to score a goal against
a top team?
Matt: The Sabres didn’t play against an NHL caliber goaltender this past playoffs, and yet were held to 2 goals two times and 1 goal another time. If we’re talking about cultivating long term success, I think you build around your defense and your highly paid goaltender, but if you want to contend immediately, I think you go the route of finding offense. How many teams lately have built immediate success around defense? The Blackhawks, Flyers, Canucks are all offensively minded teams. The Red Wings and Penguins both have two superstars. The only team that you could make the argument for is the Bruins. I think it will be interesting to see what direction they go, though I think to fulfill Pegula’s plans short term, and indeed to fundamentally change the direction of the franchise, you go offense first.
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