Taro T

No, but what IS VERY debatable is that it was that lack of a pipeline that kept the team unsustainable in the wake of the C's walking. That pipeline-less team went from losing their 3 top C's and missing the playoffs to division champ within 3 seasons. It was the wild gyrations that killed the team's chances this past decade. Not the pipeline, though that didn't help. MHO. YMMV. Edit: and the original comment was in reference to the comment that it was the pipeline that killed the team post- Black Sunday. The record doesn't seem to bear that out.

But, there seems to be a confluence of different issues all getting lumped into a lack of pipeline. Black Sunday was 7 years prior to the 2nd full-on tank season '14-'15). The team won its division in the 3rd season post-Black Sunday. The prospect pool, or lack thereof, wasn't the only issue and, in fact, wasn't enough of an issue to keep the team from being competitive even relatively quickly after Black Sunday. And that's WITH Regier having to live w/ Video Scouting. Thanks, Larry. And, will agree that the biggest thing the Pegulas could've done day 1 was invest a #### ton of money into having the best scouting department anywhere. But a bigger issue than the prospect pool was the whiplash caused by switching directions every 2 years after new ownership took over. FA''ll fix it. No, tanking. No, accelerated rebuild in the LA model. No, re-retooling to the Pittsburgh model. No, FA can work this this time. No, develop our own. Well, we're now entering year 3 of the newest direction. (Or, year 2 if Adams 1st year doesn't get included.) Hoping they stay the course, as this SHOULD be feasible if they fix the blankety blank goaltending.

Is it? On a certain level removing context it is, but what team has had a pipeline strong enough to allow their 3 top C's to walk at once? Was there ANY GM that had built up such a deep organization to be able to come through that sort of a debacle unscathed in a newly salary capped world? They finished 10th in the Conference the 2 years after watching their THREE top C's walk in FA, but then won the division the next year only to fail in the playoffs after Boychuk intentionally took out Vanek's knee and then the next season were in 1st in the division the day Lucic showed the world the team had no heart. By the end of that season, the Pegula era had begun and their most recent trip to the playoffs was completing. And to follow on to the Q's from the 1st paragraph, does it say anything at all about the pipeline to see the team back at the top of its division a mere 3 years later? Realizing that's a far cry from challenging for the best record in the league which is where they were prior to losing their top 3 C's, but still that's fairly impressive in its own right IMHO. Video scouting definitely hurt. But the pipeline didn't force the decision to tank and that decision didn't lead to swapping the picks & prospects obtained at the price of the tank for players that were obtained on overpay nor the subsequent selling of those players for pennies on the $ which got us to where we were when Adams took over.

FTFY. 😉

Agree to a degree. The thing we haven't seen yet is we haven't seen teams recognize what the (a) effective strategy to shut Thompson down is. Yes, teams realized he was a threat, but this is a copy cat world, and IMHO while he was shut down on occasion, the "book" on how to do so hasn't yet been written. It likely will be this season & how Tage adjusts to THAT adjustment is what we need to see next. He seems to have a pretty good "hockey IQ" (never thought that'd be the case watching him tear up his shoulder, but hey, things change) so he should be able to do so. And reality is, hockey is such a fast chaotic game that even if the book comes out on Tage that he still will be able to find his spaces, just he'll have to work harder to get them (or his linemates need to take advantage and force teams to not be able to focus on him; they did a good job of it last season & should be able to continue to do so). And, let's face it, while teams by the end weren't taking the Sabres lightly, they weren't putting the same resources into studying their tendencies that they were doing to take on the Bolts or the Canes. This year, they'll likely put in a bit more effort in preparation. Will that matter? Who knows, but it'll be interesting to see if it does.

One of those times they weren't in the Semifinals was the year they had one of the best RS's ever but got swept by the BJ's.

(Realize you're joking, but...) Had Reinhart not gotten his goal in Game 4, they never get the opportunity to get smoked this round. Course, had the attempted empty netter just before that glanced off the inside of the net frame rather than the outside, he never gets THAT opportunity.

To the bolded, no, and actually expect Boudreau is saying the exact opposite of that. Track all of them, but actually rate them to see how you're really doing. Lomberg having the puck passed to him is a high danger chance whether he fumbles it or gets it directly onto his tape and then gets a quality shot off. Same w/ those pucks getting passed to Barkov. But also, did Huberdeau have to float a perfect saucer over 2 D's sticks to get that scoring chance, or was there a clear passing lane to that scoring chance? If the offense makes a sweet enough play, they may still end up w/ a scoring chance even though the D played it nearly perfectly. It's still a scoring chance but 1 is on the O, the other on the D. Most of what ends up in analytics doesn't look at things that closely because sample sizes get small. And, without actually analyzing the details of the analytics, you don't know if that breakdown going to the lesser player was merely lucky for their opponent than unlucky for the Swamp Cats. And by breaking down the analytics, you may find that if certain scrubs do manage to get that high danger chance, they're as good, or better than the star at finishing it, but they never get to that point. Unrelated to this, it's a severe shortcoming of faceoff evaluation in not looking at true "clean" faceoff wins versus regular old wins. A clean win can be game altering and does actually matter. The vast majority of faceoff wins don't matter because there's still significant pressure on the player that receives it. And don't misunderstand. Analytics can be a very useful tool, absolutely believe that & don't mean for this to come across otherwise. Maybe this guy is reading too much into it all, but again, don't see where saying all high danger chances are not created equal isn't correct.

So Primeau ends up w/ the Ryan Miller SO. Swap goalies, swap outcomes. Gotta win Wednesday, boys.

R2 Rou2 breaking the seal. 3-1. Unfortunately, probably too little, too late.

Subban & either Houser or somebody not currently in the organization. Tokarski will get an NHL backup gig from somebody. He's not a good NHLer but he's an NHLer and a good guy. There's either a low end team w/ no goaltending that needs a guy that will help build the room or a team tight to the cap that has a great goalie & needs a very cheap backup that's a great team guy.

If he doesn't might not get a chance for a start.

Monster rebound w/ no Amerk anywhere close to it. 3-0 bad guys.

R2 Rou2 gets the breakaway and Primeau makes the tough kick save look as easy as the save on Murray was. Didn't need to wait that long. 😉

Wow. Seems Quinn gets speared in the family jewels heading off the ice, so he cross checks the price back & takes the only penalty.

Good for Krebs to get right back up. Have never understood the logic of not calling that just because the whistle had blown. If anything, it should make it a double minor. My 2 cents.

Didn't realize he was that totally spent. He's still got game at the lower level.

Dell nearly became the 2nd AHL goalie to score an actual playoff goal in as many nights. Course, the other guy scored for his team, not ON his team. Dell really lucked out there or else it would've been game over.

As bad as the Habs were this year, anybody know how Paquette ended up on their farm team?

2 games in a row Krebs couldn't bury a glorious chance to get the Amerks off the schneid.

If they don't, we might have a problem, Houston. 😉

Peterka draws a PP. Let's go boys! Well, in fairness, before the Sabres & Amerks got wracked w/ injuries the Amerks were in the slot Laval ended up.

The worst lead in hockey. The Amerks have 'em just where they want 'em. 😉

2 zip. Belpedio.

Great question.