LGR4GM

No team can. They need to learn to be a bit better when defending a lead but again, score effects tell us that basically all teams almost all the time tend to see a shot shift when they are playing with a lead. Also there isn't many teams that consistently play all 3 periods. If you watch other hockey you will notice that even the "best" teams have periods they get out shot. Yes Buffalo can't have a 21-5 period very often but they won with 4 AHL defenders.

Typically before the WJC we see rankings and hockey news just released some of them. I also know that Elite Prospects had their pre-wjc draft meeting last week and should be releasing rankings by Friday.

Again it is a score effect thing. Most teams that are leading tend to get outshot as a game progresses, that's why 3 goal leads disappear in hockey. I'd argue they did handle the onslaught because they won, although I have only seen parts of the 3rd this morning as I am still catching up on the game. All I am saying is this type of thing where a team goes up by 2 or 3 goals and then gets caved in on shots is not a Sabres issue but a league wide phenomena.

UPL has had 2 good games and they talked on WGR (IK!) about how do you send him down when Comrie is ready with how well he has done. That brings me to the question at hand... when Comrie is healthy what would be your goalie plan? Do you send UPL down? Waive Anderson? Waive Comrie? Carry 3 goalies and make room by cutting an extra forward? Personally I think I would send UPL back to Rochester. Comrie only got 11 games and for about half of them the defense a dumpster. Anderson can get his 1 game a week or "get injured" and allow UPL to be a quick callup. Either way I think for now the best course of action is that so we can not overthink UPL having 2 good games and also see what we have in Comrie.

Seeing talk of this a lot but it isn't just a Sabres problem. The entire league basically sees this. Good teams win games they shouldn't. Again it's pretty common around the league to see the losing team push hard in the 3rd and the winning team to sit back. Score effects

Score effects is the term. Typically a team that is down shoots more as the game goes and the opposing team or winning team tends to sit back more.

I think this team makes the playoffs.

Now here we agree. Adams is going to have to use more draft assets on defense and also look at the forward prospects/assets and decide who is getting traded to bolster the defense. There simply isn't enough talent in the pipeline to proceed solely through draft and develop. Granato is a better coach than Torts. Tage Thompson is my argument. I rest my case.

The Flyers aren't hard to play against when teams are beating their doors off by 2-4 goals. You say they should be dead last without Torts... they are the3rd worst in the league with the 4th worst goal differential and the 3rd worst goals for. Great, Torts and his mighty skill have managed to take the Flyers from worst to 3rd worst! Huzzah!

We're further away from the bottom than Philly is under Torts. We also are outscoring philly by 47 which would not be happening with Torts as our coach. The Sabres are 10 pts away from the bottom of the conference and 5 from a playoff spot. The vaunted Flyers under Torts are 5pts from the bottom of the conference and 10 from the playoffs. So again, how is philly better in any way? How is the great John Tortarella coaching the Flyers to be better? They score less goals and have 1 fewer goal against than Buffalo. I am supposed to sign up for having the same goals against while having 47 fewer goals scored just so torts can teach guys how to what? Torts wouldn't be a good coach in Buffalo and he is certainly not as good as Granato at this stage. The only reason you keep trying to say we can't compare them is because there is nothing to show that Philly plays hockey in a way better than Buffalo. Philly under Torts has scored 39% fewer goals this year while giving up the same amount of goals as Buffalo. Good thing they play a hard nosed style, I guess. What evidence, or really anything, can you provide that would lend ANY support to the argument that if Torts was Buffalo's coach they would be better than they are under Granato? To the bolded. No it is literally about scoring more goals than your opponents in the NHL.

Interesting last 10 games they have Connor McDavid: 11g, 12a, 23pts, +3 Tage Thompson: 12g, 11a, 23pts, +8

Im not convinced Edmonton ever had the critical mass of young talent to make it work. Yes McDavid and Draisaitl are awesome but that was kinda it for a long time. Skinner - Thompson- Tuch last game really gave some cover to the JJP - Cozens - Quinn to not produce. I think Edmonton finally started to get the parts to have some depth scoring and that is helping, but their defense has never had the skill that we have in Power and Dahlin.

Just win.

except for Jost

I'm not sure torts understands why scoring is up. The transition game and the way offense is run in the NHL today is a major reason for things being up. There are entire analytical models dedicated to pre-shot movement and how that causes goal scoring. I also think there has been a shift in shooting between shot selection and also where you shoot. Point shots without a lane dont get blasted into defending shins as much, they get shot wide or off goal looking for tips, big slappers are more rare unless you are wide open (tage himself had to learn you can't crank a slapper in the slot), there is more emphasis on quick and hard with more and more shooters being masters at changing release angles mid release. I don't agree with Torts suggestion that because the league is younger the scoring is up due to more mistakes. I think there are more mistakes because speed and manipulation are now primary skills.

Eichel, injured?

Reminder...

Only 3 teams in the entire league have a worse goal differential. They have lost 12 games this season by more than 1 goal. They have 7 ot/so losses and if Buffalo had that, you'd be telling us how Granato can't close out games. The flyers have 77 goals which puts them 30th in the league in goals scored. They sit 27th in the league overall. I'd say Carter Hart is the most likely reason they aren't worse. I'm not saying torts is a bad coach but he's not elevating anything. Granato helped turn Tage Thompson into the 2nd highest scoring player in the league and Dahlin into the 2nd highest scoring defenseman. Torts might have them playing "hard nose" hockey but that's not winning them much. We do agree on one thing, Philly isn't very talented but Torts isn't doing much for the talent there is. Your argument is based on a parallel universe where Torts is in Buffalo and we're better than the highest scoring team in the NHL under Granato. That's a strawman but maybe not in the literal sense.

His cf% is bad. His xgf% is not that bad. He's producing and getting 67% of his zone starts in the def zone. I'd say yes a solid 4th line guy who could probably hold the 3rd line center spot if needed. My guess is the 4th line is giving up lower quality shots but a bunch of them and they don't necessarily generate a lot of shots but the ones they do are good quality.

Now with Titanic music!

The fact Jost hasn't been bad is a little surprising. We're getting usage out of a waiver pickup.

now with Benny Hill

Well Frazier is almost guaranteed to get a hc job. So hope they are thinking about his replacement. As for Dorsey, Frank Reich.

I'm really surprised Adams signing Tage Thompson early isn't getting more traction here. There's no chance in hell you could sign Thompson for under 10 mill a year right now. The guy is 3rd in the entire league in points and 2nd in goals. He's signed for another 7 years at 7.1 million... I mean that move right there is Adams doing something.