mjd1001

Kulich was bothered all the way in, but I'll say what I said last game. Unless you have 'elite' hands (not good, but elite), these guys on breakaways, penalty shots, even 2-on-1's, they are going in too far on the goalie. I think they should shoot earlier or make their final move earlier. They go in so far and there is often no room left. If the goalie isn't 10 feet out of the net, then he is giving you SOMETHING to shoot at, take the 10-12 foot shot.

They didn't get hurt there on the PK and got a stoppage with 2 seconds left in the PK, but I didn't like 3 of the 4 Sabres defenders all on the puck on the boards. If the puck even gets kicked out, Florida now has 3 on 1. It didn't kill them, but someone should have dropped back off the boards on the PK there. Yeah, I get that. Positionally they may have actually played better against LA the first 2 periods than they are now. But the goals they have scored, their good scoring chances, are a result of the Sabres making simple smart plays.

The first 3 games, the Sabres did not respond to pressure well. If the forcheck against them was pressing, they didn't respond well. On the PP if they were pressured, they didn't respond well. It looks like Florida is out of position a lot tonight, but i'm not sure that is what it is. I think Florida scouted the Sabres and figured out, the way to play the Sabres is to press them, even to the point of overpursuit. So far tonight, the Sabres are simply handing that better than they have the first couple games by making the 'smart' play, taking what they are given pass to pass.

Looks like Florida and Buffalo switched Jerseys before the game.

Levi is making me a bit nervous tonight.

Replay of Thompson goal. Again, not great play but simply everyone doing exactly what they should to and not trying to do to much... -Clifton in the D-zone is pressured from behind, instead of just pushing the puck up the boards he flips it back to Samuelsson who is not covered behind the net. -Samuelsson holds the puck, looks over the ice, lets the forcheck draw in farther and then flips it back to a now uncovered Clifton. -Clifton quickly makes an easy, safe pass up to an open Tuch, after drawing the guy on Tuch back to him. -Tuch skates with the puck for a second or two, turns and see Panthers left Tage wide open on the near wing and makes a simple pass to him. -Tage comes in as far as he can and lets off a good shot. Nothing special there. From Samuelsson to Clifton to Tuch, everyone made the easy, smart play and when FLORIDA was out of position, Tage made them pay. Simple, sound hockey.

Looking at the replay of the Greenway goal, Krebs got an assist...but he was really responsible for the goal. Skated hard on the forcheck, forced the defender to lose the puck, then got it out of the corner out front. Nothing SPECTACULAR, but everything he did there is what you want your forwards to do without the puck. There, I said my once-in-6-months nice thing to say about Krebs.

Well, it is hall of FAME, not hall of excellence. So in WNY...yeah

I'm overall happy with the Defense back 6 (OR 7 this game) and their play. They have made a few mistakes the first few games (a few glaring ones) but 95% of the time they are solid, VERY solid. Even when they seem to be out of position, often times they are in that position due to being hung out to dry by the forwards. I don't like Samuelssons penalty last game. I don't like Powers bad pass/giveaway that led to a goal. I think Dahlin isn't himself in the offensive zone. But in the defensive zone, this group looks pretty good too me..not just today but the whole year.

Didn't like the play by Byram in the corner.

He's going to come around. He's an easy target to pick on but he's the teams best offensive player.

WAY too early in the season to be making concrete judgments on people, but I really think Greenway is playing the best compared to my expectations.

Looking at the replay of the goal.... The Sabres D were caught up the ice a bit, but they got back. Would have loved them to have been back farther and turned to face the puck, but its not really on them, it was a fast breakout by Florida. Byram took himself out of the play but by doing that he slid to prevent the shot and force it back to the center of the ice. Samuelsson slid to block the shot, went low to not screen Levi. I like how they both played it. So why was the goal scored? Florida had more numbers. When the puck came back up the ice, Tuch and Tage kinda bumped into each other in the offensive zone and 'took each other out', slowing them down so they couldn't get back. I'd like one of them to get back. Other than that, its on my goalie. It was a good shot, but he was set, he saw it all the way and wasn't screened, and it was from at least 12-15 feet out. I want that save made. The ONLY excuse would be if the puck was slightly deflected/moved by Samuelsson on the way in when he went down to block it, but from the replay angles I saw, I don't think that happened. Again, Bryam and Samuelsson played that as well as they could for the position they were in. Its on the goalie and the 2 forwards.

It may not have been 'intentional tripping', but it still was tripping.

I think #42 just hopped on, but he was on WAY early for the guy getting off the ice.

Yeah, looks like it. Automatic response seems to blame Samuelsson...but he was in position.

Did the Panthers have 6 men on the ice right before the goal was scored due to a bad line change?

To me that goal was less on Samuelsson and more on Benson/Tuch/Tage (if he was on the ice, haven't seen yet) for either not hustling back quick enough...or being to tired to hustle back because they took a long shift. If I want to nit-pick without seeing the replay, the 2 D-men were back, Benson could have turned and taken the trailer, but that happened so quick its hard to tell. If there wasn't a huge Screen, I want my goalie to make that save.

Dahlin just looks really off. I can't say for sure what it is..but he's not making anyone really miss when he has the puck. Not making may of his really good short/quick passes. Just seems to be 1/2 second later reacting or getting to loose pucks like he usually is.

Looks like Lafferty. 7 D and 11 F really only make sense if someone is hurting.

Well, it is kinda early to be comparing things from year to year with only 3 games played, but since it was brough up, here goes: This year, 3 games 1 goal: 0 assists, 11 shots Last year through 3 games: 0 goals, 0 assists, 12 shots 2022-23 through 3 games: 1 goal, 0 assists, 6 shots 2021-22 through 3 games: 2 goals, 0 assists, 12 shots. So, again, 3 games is early but he is pretty much tracking his recent career pace. Take that for what its worth. I really try not to make too much of a judgement on a single player, other than if your top scoreres, as a group, would score, you wouldn't be 0-3. Tage is part of that group.

What are you talking about? He led the team in goals last year. He had 29 despite missing 11 games. (would have had well over 30 without those games missed). Not as good as the prior year, but couldn't hit the broadside of a barn? Holy anti-Tage vendetta you have there. And yes, he had an arm injury. It happened. And guess what? as the season went on and he got farther away from it, he got a lot better. You said picked up right where he left last year? Do you even know what you are talking about? Lets see where he 'left off last year'. The last 2 months of the season as he got farther away from that injury, he had 11 goals in 21 games (more than a goal every other game) and he shot almost 17%. And you think injuries for players like him don't matter? Think again. The year before Austin Matthews had a very similar injury...Matthews shooting percentage when down by 5 whole points the year he had the similar injury to Tage, and the following year, it was back up to his previous years average. Some people can use injuries as an 'excuse', but where there are facts behind it, its not an 'excuse' its more of a reason'. You want to look for excuses? Come back here in 10-15 games if he isn't producing, many of us will listen then. But to criticize his play by saying he's picking up where he left off last year? He finished last year playing very well and scoring quite a bit for the LAST 2 MONTHS.

Thompson. Garbage not at all, he is getting chances from the prime spots on the ice, he's just not burying them. He already has gotten in position in the prime spots on the ice and gotten off good shots many times, and he hasn't played poorly defensively. His game has not been garbage at all, hes just not scoring. Cozens. Same as Thompson except Thompson has scored one time on less shots, Cozens has taken even more shots and not scored. Again, he has gotten into good spots on the ice to coaching/positioning is not an issue. its simply a matter of scoring on your chances.

We can go back and forth on this for a very long time... And yes there are a lot of problems with the tea...but Most of the first three games comes down to one thing for me. Not converting on their chances. And yes, they've had some good chances. We can argue all day whether or not Tage is as good as his career year or not. Whether Cozens is a scorer or not. Weather Mitts should have been traded or not. Those are all valid medium to long-term discussion topics But the record the first three games and their performance to first three games comes down to this: They are not converting good chances into goals. They are not converting their chances into goals at the same rate they did last year They are not converting their chances into goals at the same rate they did 2 years ago. They are not converting their chances into goals at the same rate as their career averages say they should be For the most part, they have played pretty well in their own end with a couple of glaring mistakes, but overall good enough to win. Their goaltending has been overall good enough to win. If they simply would convert on their chances at the rate these players do normally, throughout their careers, they'd have one win, possibly 2. The team may not be a cup winner because Ruff may not be good enough of a coach. The team may not be a playoff team because Adams hasn't made enough moves or the correct moves. But the coach who is here, the guys who are here, the reason they are 0-3 is simply because of their shooting in these particular three games being worse than it normally is.

Panthers won the cup last year: -started 0-2, including getting shut out and allowing 8 goals over those 2 games -lost 4 out of 5 in mid December, getting shut out twice and being outscored 15-2 in those losses. -4 game losing streak in January -4 game losing streak in march -were shut out 7 times last season So yeah, it happens to just about everyone, hockey is a long season with good and bad streaks. With the fanbase and history here, the worst time you can get that is to start the season, but here we are.