mjd1001

I don't have a problem with Lindy as the coach of this team. Its more about the roster than it is the head coach, and in terms of the coaching staff, I think its more of a problem with the assistants as it is him. He's down the list of problems for me. I'd rather see sweeping changes in the rest of the front office first if I had to prioritize. With that said, I think maybe you can do a bit better in terms of young players today don't seem to 'connect' or 'want to play for' guys like Ruff, Torts (for that long), Babcock, etc. Maybe a move that way would help long term?

Pegula has to want to do this..but....the way I hope things are run is JK makes his own moves, he does what he wants. None of this "I want Erhoff" or "I want Ville Leino" of the far past. JK should tell Pegula what he is going to do, but explain it to him like he's talking to a 5th grader. Hopefully it won't be a situation where JK has to ask for permission, rather he just have to give reasons/explain why he is doing stuff. If Pegula decides he wants to chime in with "lets do this" or "lets sign this guy no matter what" and JK disagrees, all he has to do is explain to Pegula why he, and hopefully the entire hockey department, disagree with Terry. Again, for things to work that way though, it is ultimately up to the guy signing the checks.

I know the Bills are bigger, but this is a complaint I have with WGR. There are only so many times I can hear Joe from Cheektowaga agree with one of the hosts on a Bills topic before I am BEGGING to hear some other sports news.

Normally I'm one of the more positive people on this forum. However.. The Sabres May have 50% of available points, but they've lost more than they've won. They have 14 wins and 18 losses. They've won 14 games, lost 18. Next, in terms of point percentage, Detroit is holding down the last and 8th spot with a .591. what do the Sabres need to do to get to that level? It's an eight-game winning streak. 8. Yes, from this point the team would have to win 8 games in a row to get to .600, which would put them ahead of Detroit's current .591. A seven-game win streak wouldn't do it It feels good to say they are back to .500, but this is still a team that loses more than it wins. Yes, they won a few games in a row. But is being in a position in mid-December where you have to win 10 games in a row... Just to be in the very last playoff position in your conference.... Is that something that should prevent you from making major major changes to your front office? I don't think so. A three-game winning streak is nothing compared to that.

Looking at the analytics, Seattle is really, REALLY struggling with offesne. Not just actual scoring, but generating chances. Even strength, Seattle is generating one scoring chance every 2.6 minutes (The Sabres generate one every 2.2 minutes) Seattle generates one high danger chance every 7.5 minutes (Sabres every 5.1 minutes) Seattle generates one 'expected goal' every 25.7 minutes (Sabres one every 20.8 minutes) So its not just they aren't scoring goals, they aren't generating chances, or good chances.

That is the worst, saddest thought I have ever read of all you have posted on here.

The NFL is a bigger sport than the NHL, but 100% hands down (without a doubt) over Hasek?

Is Hughes as good as Dahlin (or better or worse?) How would everyone feel if Buffalo had a new GM and traded Dahlin for that return?

I'll put the top 3 in order... Greenway Quinn UPL Those 3, to me, are the ones that not only don't help you win that much, their everyday play/mistakes cause you to lose.

That Penalty kill that was so great this year? I think they are at about 68% on this road trip on the PK.

I was done with him when they signed him to that crazy extension last year. Quinn I gave the benefit of the doubt to again early this year... Both need to be gone. The young guys from Rochester might not be able to put up 20 goals for you, but they won't hurt the team as much as those 2 do.

If used over the long medium to long term, I think you can get a good idea of a players offensive ability/production by combining (averaging) expected goals with average goals. Their defensive abilty by combining (averaging) expected goals allow with actual on ice goals against.......and their overall play by combing all of those things. I think that works well for the top 3 lines. 4th lines? not so much as situationionally they are often used much differently than the top 3 lines.

I am bringing this up again because the topic seems to be getting worse by the week. Ads. Not that there are too many of them. Sure, that is an issue but I'm talking about the content of advertisements. I do not understand the reason for ads that don't tell you about the product, but try to associate their product with an 'image'. I'd be OK with ads, but tell me about your product. Tell me features about your product (a car ad with a bunch of good looking young people smiling as they drive your car but not telling me any features of your car does nothing for me.) Its like the ads that try to get so 'artsy' that you have zero idea what they are for, and then they flash up the name of their product with 2 seconds left in the ad. Guess what genius? I spent the entire first 28 seconds of the ad trying to figure out what it was for....so by the time you revealed your product to me I wasn't really paying attention to the first 28 seconds becuase my mind was on 'what the heck is this for'? Maybe you were showing me your product, maybe you were giving me some features. Maybe you were TRYING to create that image. But if I don't know what it is, you just wasted most of your ad time because I'm likely to forget your entire ad without knowing what it is for. I worked a bit in marketing years ago. I'm not an expert....but I think companies over-complicate things most of the time.

I know I'm repeating myself from a couple of days ago, but.... Why is the team continuing to carry three goalies? Lindy ruff himself says it's challenging for him and for the goalies. Former goaltenders like Marty Baron have said it's a bad situation for the three goaltenders on the team. I can't think of who it was, but in the past couple of years I remember hearing goaltenders who were part of the three goaltender tandem saying it was hard to play that way. Common Sense tells you that when you never know if you're playing, backing up, or going to be sitting in the press conference a week in advance, it's got to be really hard. So why aren't they doing something about this? My favored solution has always been find someone who will take UPL, even if it's for a very small return... But why are they letting this go on when the coach is practically begging for it to stop?

As far as stats go, there are wins, but that is more of a team stat. GAA, save percentage, and others, but Goals saved above average is the most encompassing. (Expected goals which includes the shots weighted by the location/quality of the scoring chance, +/- the actual goals allowed). Basically its not 100% perfect, but it takes into account the defense in front of the goalie making mistakes as those mistakes lead to shots that are of higher quality. So far this year, goals saved above average: Lyon +2.14 Ellis +0.19 UPL -2.33 The numbers show the performane this year favors Lyon first, Ellis 2nd, and UPL third. Now, Ellis had ONE game that was a lot worse than all of his others. Take out each goalies single worst game, and it raises Ellis the most. In terms of how reliable of a stat is it? Well, the one thing is it is a 'total' stat (meaning the more games you play, the greater the opportunity you have for a higher number), but in the past 2.5 seasons, the best in the league in this number are: Hellebuyck, Vasilevsky, Stolarz, Logan Thompson, Shesterkin, Sorokin, Gustavsson, Oettinger, and Kuemper. The worst Goalie over that time period? Georgiev. My 2nd favorite number is what is the goalies High Danger save percentage (basically, how good are you at making tough saves, like when your team in front of you had their heads in the clouds and leaves you out to dry). -The best in the league the past 3 years (minimum 50 games played over the last few years combined): Spencer Knight, Hellebuyck, and Sororkin. How do the Sabres rank this year? Lyon .800 Ellis .780, UPL .746