Trettioåtta

No, as far as I am aware, Pyatt is evidence of Ruff's problems, Briere is evidence of Regier's and Myers is just a general disappointment who has been signed to a long contract too early and should be traded before his stock decreases further. Leo is both a problem and evidence of Ruff's favouritism - so he is a bit more complex, but I don't have the qualifications to delve into this.

Not a huge amount. I know they often happen because of a throwing action (e.g. to baseball pitchers). The L in SLAP stands for Labrum, which is the tissue rim of the shoulder socket (it stabilises the joint, lets the upper arm (humerus) bone fit better and is the site for ligand attachment). They almost always require surgery to fix. How come, do you have this? An expansion draft - each team gets to protect x number of players, the two new gms then pick at the remains

Basically a partial dislocation - what could be bad for him is if it weakens his shoulder and allows it to pop out more easily in future. (I was in a good mood one day so joined my medic friends in a lecture on shoulder anatomy and shoulder injuries :P )

Well in the last few years it has been the soft teams who beat us easily (Islanders and Columbus i'm looking at you) and we have played well with the big boys (which is really quite infuriating). So maybe the soft schedule was actually the hard schedule :/

I dunno, the guy IS still young. I have not given up hope - I see some amazing potential in the guy. He can be bad in his zone, but it is not all the time, sometimes i am very impressed. He had 3 hits last night. None of them were Scott Steven's style, but they were solid. He has said many times he struggles to put any weight on and usually loses any gains within the first 2 months of the season. In a year or two that hyper active metabolism will drop down and he will gain more muscle and then his hits will hurt. Shea Weber has only been a real force in the last 3 years (23 onwards). Chara has only been playing pretty well since he was 25 and only amazingly since he was 27.

Price, Rask and Varlamov are all starters and Bernier could be a starter imo. The guys from 10 onwards are still unable to drink, so I don't think they can be counted (although 3/4 have quite exciting junior careers). I agree goalies can be unpredictable, but with Miller in his 30s I would like to have a decent goalie in our system who looks like they could replace him as the starter in 5 years max. If we drafted a goalie now they would only be 23 by the time Miller was 38. I'm also not too sure how many late round draft picks will go on to be studs anymore. With the internet and streaming etc. you no longer have to travel to a town to watch a player play. So Europe is suddenly less of an unknown - e.g. the Red Wings said that they think they were the only team who saw Datsyuk play before he was drafted (St Louis was also meant to but weather cancelled the plane) and one of the only teams who saw Lidstrom play. Goalies in the 2nd round: 05 - Plante, Frazee, Pavelec, Pelletier 06 - Neuvirth, Enroth 07 - Gistedt, Lafleur, Cann, Smith 08 - Markstrom, Allen, Delmas, Beskorowany 09 - Lehner, Koskinen 10 - Pickard, Simpson 11 - Helbery, Gibson, Gibson 12 - Dansk, Stolarz Ignoring everyone from 2010 onward due to age, there aren't that many names i recognise on that list, and no-one on that list (bar maybe Neuvirth) who I would want on my team over Enroth. And I don't think Enroth is a starter. So I think either you hope to get lucky, or you go for a first, for a pedigree talent

Leopold was so lazy on the play, he basically stopped trying, Fratten got passed him and then he started hooking the guy as he got his shot on Miller. Miller should have stopped it - he also shook his head as he went to the bench, I wonder if it was frustration at himself or the team that caused it. Leopold hasn't looked great a lot of the time, but always gets high minutes. Like I can understand why Myers still gets minutes because a) while he screws up, he often also creates offense and b) he is your franchise player on D. But Leopold is a UFA on a team that is laden with defence. Sit him or trade him. I hope we have a trade coming soon. Clear some of the log jam we have

05 - Price, Rask 06 - Bernier, Helenius, Varlamov, Irving 07 - N/A 08 - Pickard, Mccollum 09 - N/A 10 - Campbell, Vlsentin 11 - N/A 12 - Subban, Vasilevskiy So based on the pattern, this year will be N/A :P

If we make a cup run with Miller - then the plays others have mentioned (i wouldn't be surprised if Pommers and Vanek retire as Sabres). If we lose Miller, I don't think we make a run for 5-10 years minimum. We have no proper goalie prospects and goalies can easily take 5 years in the minors to develop. I think we should use a first or second at the next draft to get a future goalie for when Miller is too old

I'm not sure I had a problem with Grigs sitting in the third. He was on the ice for all 3 goals, and was (in part) responsible for two of them. Yes he scored one and yes he looked good/dangerous at points, but at the end of the day he was a bit of a liability. Late in the third I would rather play safe and get a point, than go for broke. I think we all want Grigs to be good, but sometimes we are a bit short sighted and want Lindy to treat him like a star (he should be on the top line and he should be on the PP and he should play the last few minutes of the game etc.). The kid has played like an hours NHL hockey, it is wrong to make him play in every situation, not only because other vets are vets and had had more solid games, but also because it is important he learns that scoring goals is not enough - we want him to be a solid two-way player. And once he becomes a solid two-way player - then he will damn dangerous

I thought Myers looked good that period. Dunno why Roby was so down on him

Very unlucky on that first goal. Solid period through. No idea how the officiating works anymore - do they want to get rid of boarding head shots? If so the Gerbe and Kaleta hits should both have resulted in 5mins and a suspension. That sends a message quickly. Good on Weber for fighting (even if it was a lame fight). No idea why we lose Weber for 17 minutes though

Foligno and Hecht. He has also played between Hecht and Ott though

The only way it isnt a goal is if Hecht blocks it or the hockey gods are with you

Time for Weber to show improvement - i really want him to do well. Whoever said sit Sekera has clearly not been watching much Sabres this year

I agree with this. However, I have never heard him in practice/post game etc. to the players, so i don't know what he is like. Although, if he was a rude and depressing as you say, would people want to resign here? (and most players do want to resign here). And before people start saying something along the lines of Stockholm syndrome, I would point out that it doesn't even remotely apply

He isn't a puppy, i'm sure he is capable of making decisions himself.

I would suspect both are on the verge of coming back. Plus there are the 2 extra D - there are just too many bodies up here. Trading would be good

Maybe it is different here, but I have had it done to me (e.g. when going to a gig) and it just makes me annoyed because it delays me and is nuisance - i never feel violated or made to feel like a criminal. But maybe others do?

So if only there was a way we could loan Grigs to the opposition for a game his scoring touch might appear. If DR can't make it happen, i say fire him

Haha - perfectly said. And I agree. Although I think he should/will stay up. He is exciting to watch and has been getting better every game. Also has Leino died? I forgot he should be on this team/Grigs line - he must have a bad injury from training camp to miss 5 games

I would agree that part of it is Ruff's fault for when he puts them in etc. But i wonder if it shows out reliance on Miller - i.e. we don't appreciate the little 'big saves' he makes, and when the back up is in our defence plays the same way and these medium scoring chances which are normally stifled then cost us. Enroth's play against carolina and then Miller's showed the difference to me

That was points. And no i don't - and yeah i agree that these are probably not statistically relevant, but interesting - here is goals for and goals against:

Very quickly produced this - seems there is a small correlation

True. But most teams finish +/- 3% of 50%, so over 82 games and thousands off faceoffs that difference becomes negligible. On the other hand, what that stat won't tell us is key faceoff draws - this is more of a suspicion than anything else, but most of the time teams are probably not going to do everything to win the faceoff, so one could win a faceoff against a better faceoff opponent. However, when the faceoff matters (20 seconds left in the game, 1-0 up in the defensive zone kinda thing) both players will try hard, so the better one is more likely to win it - if that makes sense. Like i said, more of a musing than a point. Anyway, the Sabres are not like most teams - our average over the last 4 games is 36.6%, that is a lot of faceoffs to be losing - and it is not coming from one player, all of our centres (Ott is included in that) have had games where they are in the 20s% or lower area. I agree that post-faceoff play can negate the outcome, but chasing the puck all the time is tiring and also a little bit demotivating - you make a strong shift in the offensive zone, get a shot off and the goalie covers up, you lose the faceoff and the puck is cleared, overtime it is wearing to know you probably aren't going to win the draw. Not to mention, we have had probably 5 faceoffs that have been cleanly won and the puck has gone straight past the defence and down the ice. So I think our whole face off play is sloppy. And I think faceoffs are really important on the PP, because sustained pressure is vital. It is no wonder they keep looking for the perfect shot for a goal because they know any other shot will end up with the puck being cleared :P