Ice Hockey DBoard

The Official New England Ice Hockey DBoard 

Visit The DBoard Online Store - https://www.cafepress.com/icehockeydboard


email: icehockeydboard@yahoo.com

High School & Prep Hockey
Start a New Topic 
Author
Comment
View Entire Thread
Re: Jr Sabres 2004 Showcase

Fixed your sentence for you. “I could agree with this. They think they are a great team.” You’re welcome.

Re: Jr Sabres 2004 Showcase

That's funny!

Buffalo Jr. Sabres have really improved their roster over the last couple of years. They were a top 10 team a couple years ago based mainly on strength of schedule, but were regularly beaten by lower ranked teams who didn't play as strong of a schedule with all the Ontario teams in close proximity to Buffalo. Last season they upgraded their talent quite a bit by consolidating the top Buffalo players and adding a really strong and big Ontario forward. This season they continued to add quality players, including the big D from Boston Jr. Bandits. Sabres have 3-4 very legit forwards. Their improvement, and Honeybaked somewhat breaking up has really opened the door. They are clearly a top 5 team. The only NE team in the same class is MRF, and as I noted following the Boston Breakout, while MFR is still very good, it does not appear to be the same dominant team it once was. Still early.

I actually think MFR has one of the best playing styles around, better than Sabres, but I think other good teams have closed the gap or passed MFR heading into Bantam Major. Sabres are going to be in the conversation this year, but still have to show they can consistently beat the top teams. They weren't quite able to do that last year, but are improved this year with lots of talented players.

The rest of local NE teams are a step down, but have improved over last year. The biggest issue is that the local competition is not very good in either E9 or EHF at U14. The local competition won't be good again until U16.

Looking nationally, LC improved their roster and just beat an improved Mission team that has the top Chicago talent 4-2. LC looks to be one of the stronger Detroit teams. Shattuck had 2 wins and a tie against the Gamblers, who are a top Wisconsin team. Shattuck lost one of its top D to a broken ankle, and its second goalie is not as strong as their top goalie, who used to play for the MN Fire/Blades. Compuware, who picked up about 6 Honeybaked players, has started strong. Honeybaked plays the Sabres next week, so we'll get a pretty good read of what they'll be this year. They still have some top end players -- including 2 college commits already -- but wont' have the depth of the last couple of years.

Rats play Sabres in a couple of weeks. What's the over/under for those games? 6 goal differential?

Re: Jr Sabres 2004 Showcase

USHL showcase (next week) should give an early reading of the national landscape. 10 of the perceived top 15 teams in the country (arguably) will be there, including last year's top-6.

Re: Jr Sabres 2004 Showcase

A lot of Jr Sabre talk from a Boston guy...just sayin

Re: Jr Sabres 2004 Showcase

Anon
A lot of Jr Sabre talk from a Boston guy...just sayin
I bet it's not a Boston guy. Boston Jr Bandits?

Re: Jr Sabres 2004 Showcase

That's because he is from Buffalo originally and his kid plays for Seacoast. You don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to figure this guy out.

Re: Jr Sabres 2004 Showcase

The funny thing is when the jr sabres play the rats in a few weeks and gut them like a fish we will be talking about them a whole lot more:)

Re: Jr Sabres 2004 Showcase

anom
The funny thing is when the jr sabres play the rats in a few weeks and gut them like a fish we will be talking about them a whole lot more:)
Sabres have better goalies than the Rats but not by a huge margin. River Rats have skaters whereas the Sabres want to hit you (repeatedly). If the NVRR hit back and we will have ourselves a game.

Re: Jr Sabres 2004 Showcase

ANON
anom
The funny thing is when the jr sabres play the rats in a few weeks and gut them like a fish we will be talking about them a whole lot more:)
Sabres have better goalies than the Rats but not by a huge margin. River Rats have skaters whereas the Sabres want to hit you (repeatedly). If the NVRR hit back and we will have ourselves a game.
Ahhhhh....wait until the hitting starts. I see what you did there...

Re: Jr Sabres 2004 Showcase

If..........................

Re: Jr Sabres 2004 Showcase

That’s a good one. The Rats have skaters and the Sabres don’t? That’s pretty funny to imagine.

Re: Jr Sabres 2004 Showcase

Anom
That’s a good one. The Rats have skaters and the Sabres don’t? That’s pretty funny to imagine.
Those same Sabres skaters who got outplayed, out coached (yeah I said it) and out defended by the Ct Junior Huskies (Twice) last year? Show me the skaters.

Re: Jr Sabres 2004 Showcase

Enjoy your win guys. Everyone runs into a hot goalie now and then. From what I heard it was totally lopsided so dont get too excited, you stole a few games last year because of a nice goalie, not a nice team.

Re: Jr Sabres 2004 Showcase

anom
Enjoy your win guys. Everyone runs into a hot goalie now and then. From what I heard it was totally lopsided so dont get too excited, you stole a few games last year because of a nice goalie, not a nice team.
It's not about the w's at this point. The scouts are looking at individuals who are skilled, have the right attitude and play a hard game.

There are plenty of talented kids on the Sabres/Kings/Rats and yes, BA and Wizards that are and will be getting D1 looks.

Only a couple have the ability to make it to the Show. The scouts already know which ones and are tracking them.

Re: Jr Sabres 2004 Showcase

Still early, lots of games to play, and some quality teams not even ranked yet, but I thought the first week of 04 rankings was pretty consistent with the discussion on this thread for the last several weeks, both in NE and nationally.

MFR is ranked outside the top 10 for the first time I can ever remember. They are facing some good competition this weekend in Pittsburgh, so will be interesting to see how they do.

Yesterday, SSK lost to LC, the no. 1 ranked team, 10-0. I think there are a number of talented players on SSK, but they really struggle to keep the puck out of the back of the net, especially against quality teams. I think it's a team defense issue. They simply can't compete on a national level with the way they give up goals.

Cyclones are the next highest ranked team and split games two weeks ago with Rats.

Last weekend, Rats played Florida Alliance three times, and lost all three games by a combined 18-4.

Boston Advantage next, but haven't played anyone.

Then Wizards, who lost (competitively) to the one good team they have played (Team Maryland).

Then Seacoast, who are ranked exactly one spot higher than fellow NH team Top Gun, whose top two D went to Seacoast.

Only wish all our boys the very best, but not a great start for the NE 04 teams.

I think the NE 04 teams are hurt by the fact that some of the most elite players aren't even playing U14 in NE. While there are some exceptions, not generally the case elsewhere. Top D in prep playing U18 split season, top D playing U14 Buffalo Jr. Sabres, top goalie playing U16 Islanders, top forward on Rats may have moved to U16. These are the kind of players that if they were on one team with other quality players would be difference-makers. A few other quality 04's are playing U16, etc. The opposite is true elsewhere, with often the very best 04's playing for the same team, or more depth than in NE across a few teams. Something to think about.

Re: Jr Sabres 2004 Showcase

Anony
Still early, lots of games to play, and some quality teams not even ranked yet, but I thought the first week of 04 rankings was pretty consistent with the discussion on this thread for the last several weeks, both in NE and nationally.

MFR is ranked outside the top 10 for the first time I can ever remember. They are facing some good competition this weekend in Pittsburgh, so will be interesting to see how they do.

Yesterday, SSK lost to LC, the no. 1 ranked team, 10-0. I think there are a number of talented players on SSK, but they really struggle to keep the puck out of the back of the net, especially against quality teams. I think it's a team defense issue. They simply can't compete on a national level with the way they give up goals.

Cyclones are the next highest ranked team and split games two weeks ago with Rats.

Last weekend, Rats played Florida Alliance three times, and lost all three games by a combined 18-4.

Boston Advantage next, but haven't played anyone.

Then Wizards, who lost (competitively) to the one good team they have played (Team Maryland).

Then Seacoast, who are ranked exactly one spot higher than fellow NH team Top Gun, whose top two D went to Seacoast.

Only wish all our boys the very best, but not a great start for the NE 04 teams.

I think the NE 04 teams are hurt by the fact that some of the most elite players aren't even playing U14 in NE. While there are some exceptions, not generally the case elsewhere. Top D in prep playing U18 split season, top D playing U14 Buffalo Jr. Sabres, top goalie playing U16 Islanders, top forward on Rats may have moved to U16. These are the kind of players that if they were on one team with other quality players would be difference-makers. A few other quality 04's are playing U16, etc. The opposite is true elsewhere, with often the very best 04's playing for the same team, or more depth than in NE across a few teams. Something to think about.
Not sure I'd totally agree with you.
Same things are happening elsewhere:
-Most Illinois kids are spread out among their 4 AAA teams, but several top players have moved away to play in FL, PA and MI.

-MI kids are certainly spread out, especially after the implosion of Honeybaked. There are MI 04s playing U16 and in Ontario, which thins things out.

-Kids from FL and other non-traditional hockey markets have been heading north to play in MI, MA, IL, MN, etc.

MA/NE may have more teams, so it's watered down for sure, but let's not pretend that we're the only place where 04s aren't consolidated.

Re: Jr Sabres 2004 Showcase

Another week of MHR and it looks like mass teams are drawing closer together...

Re: Jr Sabres 2004 Showcase

04 Bandits big D playing for Buffalo Jr. Sabres this season committed to Colorado College. Not surprising to me that the next NE commit is a D.

Colorado College has nice facilities, is in a beautiful setting, plays in a very strong conference (last three national champions), but historically is not the strongest team. The schools in the NCHC are really far away from each other, so lots of overnight travel as compared to Hockey East, for example.

Re: Jr Sabres 2004 Showcase

Cox posted his list of top 2004s. Couple of major omissions..,

Re: Jr Sabres 2004 Showcase

Would love to read it, but not paying a fee to read about 04’s. Stupid!!

Re: Jr Sabres 2004 Showcase

ANON
anom
The funny thing is when the jr sabres play the rats in a few weeks and gut them like a fish we will be talking about them a whole lot more:)
Sabres have better goalies than the Rats but not by a huge margin. River Rats have skaters whereas the Sabres want to hit you (repeatedly). If the NVRR hit back and we will have ourselves a game.
Looking to Buffalo today, is MHR correct? it seems as if the skaters that the Rats have that are were said to be so much better than the Sabres had a little trouble skating today in there 7-0 loss to Buffalo. I though they had skaters? I thought they were going to show Buffalo how to play physical?

Re: Jr Sabres 2004 Showcase

Anom
ANON
anom
The funny thing is when the jr sabres play the rats in a few weeks and gut them like a fish we will be talking about them a whole lot more:)
Sabres have better goalies than the Rats but not by a huge margin. River Rats have skaters whereas the Sabres want to hit you (repeatedly). If the NVRR hit back and we will have ourselves a game.
Looking to Buffalo today, is MHR correct? it seems as if the skaters that the Rats have that are were said to be so much better than the Sabres had a little trouble skating today in there 7-0 loss to Buffalo. I though they had skaters? I thought they were going to show Buffalo how to play physical?
Thanks for the update from Buffalo. Congrats on the early commit.

Re: Jr Sabres 2004 Showcase

In retrospect, those two trips to Florida and Buffalo were ill-conceived. I guess they thought their team was better than it is. I for one would be pretty disappointed traveling for two weekends to go 0-6 and be outscored 34-7. They could have gotten better games back home, plenty of teams around here playing at their level.

Re: Jr Sabres 2004 Showcase

Thank you Seacoast team manager who hails from Buffalo. He's trying to belittle Rats for Seacoast's benefit.

Re: Jr Sabres 2004 Showcase

anony
Thank you Seacoast team manager who hails from Buffalo. He's trying to belittle Rats for Seacoast's benefit.
No horse is this race, but I think he is just stating facts.

If you are spending good money to attend out-of-state hockey tournaments and go win-less while giving up over 30 goals, then you are doing it wrong.

To put things in perspective, the Rats beat the Militia by a minute score of 2-0 early in the season. The Militia are made up of a bunch of EHF Tier 1 kids who decided to give "elite" hockey a go for 1/2 a season until their public school JV schedule starts. So there.

Re: Jr Sabres 2004 Showcase

Rats will end all talk after this weekend!

Re: Jr Sabres 2004 Showcase

End all talk due to a supreme performance? Or due to a head-scratching loss that takes them out of larger conversation?

Re: Jr Sabres 2004 Showcase

Anon
End all talk due to a supreme performance? Or due to a head-scratching loss that takes them out of larger conversation?
It'll have to be the latter, because there's nobody at the Prep Cup that would be a game changing win.

Re: Jr Sabres 2004 Showcase

Not the first time I will be wrong about 14 y/o kids. Congrats to 04 Buffalo Jr. Sabres. They are a really good team. Clearly I didn't see these games but I do think NVRR can play better

Re: Jr Sabres 2004 Showcase

Anony
That\\\'s funny!

Buffalo Jr. Sabres have really improved their roster over the last couple of years. They were a top 10 team a couple years ago based mainly on strength of schedule, but were regularly beaten by lower ranked teams who didn\\\'t play as strong of a schedule with all the Ontario teams in close proximity to Buffalo. Last season they upgraded their talent quite a bit by consolidating the top Buffalo players and adding a really strong and big Ontario forward. This season they continued to add quality players, including the big D from Boston Jr. Bandits. Sabres have 3-4 very legit forwards. Their improvement, and Honeybaked somewhat breaking up has really opened the door. They are clearly a top 5 team. The only NE team in the same class is MRF, and as I noted following the Boston Breakout, while MFR is still very good, it does not appear to be the same dominant team it once was. Still early.

I actually think MFR has one of the best playing styles around, better than Sabres, but I think other good teams have closed the gap or passed MFR heading into Bantam Major. Sabres are going to be in the conversation this year, but still have to show they can consistently beat the top teams. They weren\\\'t quite able to do that last year, but are improved this year with lots of talented players.

The rest of local NE teams are a step down, but have improved over last year. The biggest issue is that the local competition is not very good in either E9 or EHF at U14. The local competition won\\\'t be good again until U16.

Looking nationally, LC improved their roster and just beat an improved Mission team that has the top Chicago talent 4-2. LC looks to be one of the stronger Detroit teams. Shattuck had 2 wins and a tie against the Gamblers, who are a top Wisconsin team. Shattuck lost one of its top D to a broken ankle, and its second goalie is not as strong as their top goalie, who used to play for the MN Fire/Blades. Compuware, who picked up about 6 Honeybaked players, has started strong. Honeybaked plays the Sabres next week, so we\\\'ll get a pretty good read of what they\\\'ll be this year. They still have some top end players -- including 2 college commits already -- but wont\\\' have the depth of the last couple of years.

Rats play Sabres in a couple of weeks. What\\\'s the over/under for those games? 6 goal differential?
Sabres beat Rats 7-0? Guess it was the over for my over/under of a 6 goal differential. Not a bad line.

Re: Jr Sabres 2004 Showcase

Looks like sea coast is not even in the conversation once out of our area. Jr Sabres crushing it again. Look no further

Re: Jr Sabres 2004 Showcase

Rats take control for Nationals with a dominate win vs. Kings.

Re: Jr Sabres 2004 Showcase

Anon
Rats take control for Nationals with a dominate win vs. Kings.

First game vs Kings they lost 6-2

Re: Jr Sabres 2004 Showcase

Anon
Anon
Rats take control for Nationals with a dominate win vs. Kings.

First game vs Kings they lost 6-2
Lost to Cyclones in the final 2-0.

Re: Jr Sabres 2004 Showcase

Kings dominated

Re: Jr Sabres 2004 Showcase

Anon
Kings dominated
“Kings WERE dominated”

Re: Jr Sabres 2004 Showcase

Rats at least put themselves a bit in the conversation with a 4 goal win over SSK, which was preceded by a 4 goal loss to SSK, and succeeded by a 2 goal loss to Cyclones, so not many certainties. I think SSK is more talented, but they give up a lot of goals. Rats is a new team so has more room for improvement over the course of the season. Still a long time before the Mass team for U14 Nationals will be decided in March 2019, and Wizards or BA might put themselves in the picture. Mass feels a bit like JV compared to the 04 teams nationally.

12 out of the top 14 2004 teams nationally were in action this past weekend at the Motown and Notre Dame tournaments. Lots of close games, and really not that much separation among the top teams.

MFR did well at ND, going 4-1. MRF seems to be doing better than the beginning of the season, but is not quite where it has been traditionally. Pittsburgh Penns Elite is going to be a tough out at Nationals. They have an academy similar to Seacoast and are improving based on how they are doing against top teams.

Seacoast was at Motown and struggled against both good and average competition. I'm still cautiously optimistic about Seacoast as a new team with the extra training they are getting and likely resulting improvement over the course of the season. Travel is a factor that is not often considered in how teams do at away tournaments.

Somebody keeps pumping the Buffalo Jr. Sabres on the DBoard. They are clearly a talented team, and have 2 DI commits (D - Colorado College; F - Penn State). They also played at Motown, but are still not ready to beat the top teams, losing 4-2 to Compuware, who beat LC 2-1 in OT in the Motown semis and lost 5-7 to Honeybaked in the finals. Those 3 Detroit teams will beat and lose to each other a bunch this year, as they already have. Interestingly, although Honeybaked won this tournament, they might be the third best team in MI behind Compuware and LC.

One team that has quietly worked its way into the Nationals conversation is the Syracuse Nationals (ironically). I look for them to move up in the rankings to become a legit at large contender. They are clearly the second best team in NY and might even potentially challenge the Buffalo Jr. Sabres. Syracuse tied and lost to MFR, and just lost in OT and won in OT against Southern Tier Admirals, the no. 2 ranked Canadian team. It's all about the match ups, but just for comparison's sake, Southern Tier Admirals beat Buffalo Jr. Sabres in a shootout, so they are all in the neighborhood of each other. This also points out just how close the top teams are, and how good the US 04 teams are, with the 15th ranked US team basically playing 2 games even with the no. 2 Canadian team.

Re: Jr Sabres 2004 Showcase

Just for clarity, the sabres gave up empty net goals in very close games that could have gone either way against both LC and Compuware, losing both of those games by essentially 1 goal. I don't think you can rightfully say they are not ready to beat the top teams, that is really just an ill informed opinion which you are entitled to, but holds no credibility. The sabres hit three posts against LC and that made a difference in the outcome. LC was outplayed but got the win that day with some puck luck, that's hockey. Sabres have proven themselves for years and they will see those teams again.