matter2003

I'm guessing no because it would require an almost mind boggling collapse of epic proportions and an equally inept coaching job for a team to fall that far... The Sabres have managed to accompliah this in under 4 months...this team is a joke...the coaching staff is a joke and JBotts better start cleaning house at the end of the year. Tired of watching this complete defensive zone ineptitude year after year...they Give the puck away so often in their own end you'd think they are being coached to do it...its a complete joke show. This crap has got to end. Its not good enough and giving more time to a coach who clearly has no answers and has created far more problems than he has fixed is not good enough either. Watching this team play is just utterly maddening...it makes your blood boil to see the stupid ways they lose games game after game. The same dumb mistakes. Over and over again the entire year. How many games into a season is fair not to expect the same mental breakdown?? How many games Can you keep doing the same stupid play and givign the other team 5-7 prime scoring chances they should never have gotten? Is this team the dumbest team in the NHL? I mean I don't know...I think if the coach points out the same mistake over and over again every game that I'm making,maybe after a few games Of actually learn from it? How many games is fair? 5 games? 10 games? 20 games? 50 games? Nope...not this team...its been 70+ games and the same idiotic Bantam level mistakes are being made...just give the puck away with reckless abandon in our own end like its their goal to set up the other team with point blank scoring chances. I just can't take this anymore...then you have to listen to the coach talk about how you can't fault their effort after every game...well who cares?? The thing that matters is results. When you make it hard on yourself game and game by making absolute boneheaded rookie mistakes 5 times a game, you are giving yourself almost NO chance to win. How about figuring about a way to stop doing this?? It just shouldn't be that hard..what other team does this?? None that I see...its been going on 5 years here now...when can we expect this team to get its collective head out of their ***** and play smart hockey??

This team just sucks...my God can the season just end after tonight's game?

Umm...what the hell just happened there...this is like the stuff that usually happens TO us, not for us... two goals in like a minute and a half??

Nylander is really looking like he might be a quality player for us...leads the team in Corsi and is getting points and goals...

They have too many players who were SUPPOSED to be good on big contracts but aren't...

Honest to God how many times can the Sabres play an unbelievably terrible 2nd period?? This is just a clinic on how NOT to play Hockey...just absolutely embarrassing...like they are a bunch of Pee-Wee or Bantam players out there...Housley hasn't been able to fix this all year long? I mean at some point, the coach needs to be able to figure out how to fix the issue or the GM needs to find someone who can.

UB is whooping ass just like last year in the first round....guess Arizona teams should avoid us in the first round...

Alice? Alice? Who the F is Alice?? Oh wait....nevermind...

Makes sense since Hedman is already established as one of the best defensemen in the NHL and Dahlin is perhaps regarded as a future best defenseman in the NHL, with both being from Sweden.

Well, here is the problem with this argument. Even when controlling for Offensive zone versus Defensive Zone starts, Risto is not good in comparison to other NHL defensemen, ranking 47th(-2.9% Relative Corsi For %) of 88 Dmen in the NHL who have Defensive Zone Start % of 52% or higher and have played more than 25 games this season. So you might argue it's because the Sabres are a bad team. Except about 15-20 players ahead of him are on bad teams as well. You then might argue it's because he is young, only 24 years old. Except the #1 Dman in relative Corsi For % for Defensemen who have high D Zone Start % and have played more than 25 games is only 21(Filip Hronek). He also plays for Detroit, a team much worse than us. Again, about 15-20 Dmen ahead of him are 24 or younger. Some of these players play for bad teams as well such as New Jersey, Detroit, NYR, and Los Angeles. You then might argue it's because he plays so many minutes. Except 25 Dmen ahead of him play 20+ minutes a night as well. When you factor in all positions(not including goalies obviously) who have played more than 25 games with 52% or higher defensive zone starts, Risto comes in 152nd out of 248. Evan Rodriguez, who has over 60% defensive zone starts, 6% higher than Risto's 54% is a +1.9% Relative Corsi For%. Zemgus and Larsson, who both are in the mid 60% for Defensive Zone Start % are -0.7 and -1.0 respectively which is fairly good considering they are 10-12% higher than Risto in defensive zone start percentage and are still much higher than him. Basically there are no real excuses left to give for why Risto sucks so bad in terms of possession metrics. He just sucks at this, period. No matter how you slice it or how you want to try and find "yeah buts", there are really none to be found.

Not exactly true, Montour is a positive relative Corsi For player in every year except his rookie year. What's more impressive is that he has done it even the last 2 years with Anaheim where he had more defensive zone starts than offensive zone starts. Risto is mostly a terrible possession driver while Montour is a positive possession driver.

I'm not sure...my guess is no.

Corsi = Shots + Blocks + Misses CF = Corsi For(the amount of Shots + Blocks + Misses his team had when he was on the ice on the opposing team) CA = Corsi Against(the amount of Shots+Blocks+Misses his team had against when he was on the ice) CF% = CF/(CF+CA) * 100. Above 50% is good..it means your team was controlling the puck more than half the time when this player was on the ice CF% Rel = Relative Corsi...how good his CF% was versus the other players on his team...the more positive this number, the more he was better than other players on the team...the more negative this number, the more he was worse. For comparison, here is Risto's:

Actually, yes. Yes they do:

Based on what? All metrics indicate he is a 2nd-pairing defenseman. Credit for what? Allowing the other teams to badly outshoot us when they are on the ice? Risto is much worse than Bogo in this category.

Nylander has the best Corsi on the team helping to drive possession and chances...small sample size but the Sabres are DYING for a guy to help in this department...

The hype with Risto and the stats and advanced metrics just seriously disagree with each other. Risto is a terrible possession driver, and always has been. The team gets badly outshot with him on the ice versus him off the ice. His Corsi this year is 47.5% which is 3% above his career average of 44.5%, and his relative Corsi is -2.9% meaning the team is better at chances for versus chances against when he is NOT on the ice. He is a -39 this year and -141 for his career. He also seems to have these mental lapses a few times a game where he is just standing around while his player gets great opportunities right by the net...then he of course goes and shoves the guy in the face or gets physical...how about you do that PRIOR to him getting a great shot or scoring?? You know, actually prevent the chance in the first place?? What makes it even worse is that Risto's Expected +/- is -8.5, meaning he is far far underperforming what a "league average" player would be doing given his usage and opponent chances. The narrative is that he is going to be/is a 1st line pairing defenseman that eats minutes. Well he is a first line pairing defenseman that eats minutes but the results are terrible when he is out there. In comparison, Dahlin as a rookie is only -7 and has a Corsi of 52.5%, and a relative Cosi of 5.1% which means the Sabres generate more chances when he is on the ice than they give up, and the relative Corsi means they generate 5.2% better at this when he is on the ice versus when he is of the ice. Surprisingly Alexander Nylander is leading all Sabres in relative Corsi at 7.9%...I know its a small sample size but that is a very promising start...the guy helps the Sabres generate far more chances when he is on the ice than when he is not. Montour is 2nd at 6.6% and then Dahlin is 3rd at 5.1%. What I find amusing is the defensemen the Sabres like(d) sitting are the ones who help with the chances for/chances against(relative Corsi)...Tennyson, Beaulieu, Nelson, Pilut... The only D worse than Risto in this category are Guhle(-4.9%), Scandella(-5.3%) and Hunwick(-5.4%). Only Scandella is a regular player on the D of these 3. Even worse is that Housley loves playing Sobotka and he is the worst Relative Corsi(besides Remi Elie who is a bit player at best and is off the team now) on the team, meaning the Sabres get outchanced worse when he is on the ice than any other player(-6.6%), meaning when Housley puts him on the ice he is basically TERRIBLE at doing what he is supposed to be doing...namely limiting scoring chances by the other team. Housley's coaching decisions and usage of players is sometimes mind numbing.... Either way JBots should look into dumping Risto who soe team is going to love his upside potential of being a regular 40 point guy who can play big minutes and I'm sure they will believe they can "fix" his defensive problems...well, let them try it and get us a top 6 forward for him...he is still relatively young and will have value considering he is a good contract.

How about they simply win in regulation?

We have won 31 games, 13 of them have come in OT or SO, comprising 42% of our wins. Has any team won a lower percentage of their games in regulation than the Sabres? It's kind of sad...

Wow..the franchise record streak is over!

I just want to see how much time the Sabres add to their already franchise record goal drought....

Howard Simon tweeted the Sabres now passed the 3 game shutout stretch of 180 minutes set last year, which prior to tonight was the only time the Sabres had been shutout in 3 straight games, thereby also making it the franchise record for longest goal drought. Well tonight we cruised right past it and now stand at 197 minutes... This team continues to find stunning new ways to be abysmal...that's pretty much the only thing they have succeeded in routinely over the past 8 years.

This team just ***** sucks. No goal scoring. Let in soft goals too often. Everything changes except the results... How long can this team be this bad??

My God...did Hutton just channel Robin Lehner for that shootout?? That was awful

The goaltending largely was why we were leading the NHL through the end of November and largely is the reason why we have been dreadfull the past 3 months.