mjd1001

Ok, down 4-0 and not really interested in the game, what is different this year (so far) compared to last year and how do you 'fix' it. -Thompson is slightly less productive per game. -Tuch is way off. He missed some time in training camp and a few games in the regular season, he is struggling and giving you less production. -Cozens. less production than last year and much less impact than he had last year. -Dahlin. Hes still good, but he had stretches last year where he was playing like a top 5 D-man in the league. This year he is playinjg like a top 25 d-man. -You got goals last year from Olofsson, this year you are getting no production. -Okposo is slower and late to a lot of plays. Not a huge difference but that alone makes the 4th line go from decent last year to not so decent this year. Beyond that, we can nit-pick with who is good in the D-zone and other subtle items...that do matter overall, but I think the above will give you 80+% of why this team is underperforming expectations and their pace last year. How to fix the above? no idea. I know the calls for a coaching change are getting louder, but I'm not sure how much of the 'above' issues that would fix.

I think he did it while playing for the Caps, not Boston.

To be fair, I moved to Boston in the late 1990's through the early 2000s, and there were pretty bad for most of the time I lived there. My boss from the area was a big Bruins fan so I went to my fair share of games with him and it wasn't very pretty for the home team. From 1996 through 2007, they missed the playoffs (5 times) as many times as they made it (5 times), 3 of those 5 times they were dead last in the division, went through 7 head coaches, and even the 5 years they did make the playoffs, they had a total of 1 series win and lost in the opening round the other 4 times. Now that isn't "Sabres drought" bad, but that is a period of 10 years of 'pretty bad' hockey. They drafted, then traded, Joe Thornton. They tried to convince themselves that Jason Allison and Glen Murray were stars/leaders. Their backline was anchored by Hal Gil and Don Sweeney for the most part over that 10 year period...and their most successful goalie was Byron Dafoe

I said the other day how much I don't want Kane here but if Adams and the staff think he can still help, they know more than me so I'd be "OK" with it. The more I read this might be closer to happening, I dont' want Kane here. Even if Adams and staff think he can help, please, I just really don't want him here.

I saw some of the game last night but didn't watch it start to finish: -Krebs with only about 6 minutes of ice time...did he get hurt at all or is his play really that bad that the coaching staff has had enough of it? -Mitts and Greenway leading in terms of ice time. I know Casey is playing good, but 22+ minutes? possibly a function of Cozens only getting 14 as they ease him back in and the desire to not play Krebs much? -I liked how Dahlin had a few games with reduced minutes and, some games, he didn't even lead the team. But he was back up to over 25 minutes. I really wish they would keep that down. But, I guess when you are playing a close game you really want to win, if you need him on the ice, you need him on the ice. Skinner now leading the team in points...7 goals...on 'pace' for over 40 goals this year. It might be just me, but it seems like a very 'quiet' start for a guy who is producing so well (and I mean that in a good way)

Judging by the recent comments Granato made, and ice time usage when they are able to, I think the Sabres are going for the "roll 3 lines equally and 2 D-pair equally" strategy. Not like vegas as you said that rolls everyone out there almost equally, but also not to the other extreme like Edmonton with one top line and then everyone falling in behind. I really think of Granato had his wish he would not have a 'top line' but he would have 3 lines almost perfectly balanced. No 'top' line forwards get over 20 minutes per game....but even the third line gets 18+ minutes.

I'm there for the most part with you on Power. I think overall he is good, but he still plays sometime like he is a 20 year old D-man in a league where D-men play the best in their late 20's. Sometimes I try to do this....I don't think of him as "Owen Power, former first overall pick" but just watch him with no expectations assigned to him. What do I personally see? A very good (at times) young D-man who opens your eyes with some plays, but at other times plays without confidence. I swear some times he'll pick up a loose puck in his own zone, skate by a defender with ease, find an open area on the ice, scan the ice, and make a great neutral zone pass leading to a scoring chance. But then other times he'll be in that exact same situation and fumble with the puck again before making a very hasty pass or slapping it up the boards when he had time to do so much more. To me, that is a young guy who just needs a little more experience. I don't think he is a problem overall for this team at all. But at the moment he can still be so much better.

Looked back at the goals allowed last night. -First goal allowed on the PK: Girgs and Okposo never get set up and are chasing the puck. I think we have more than enough examples that when this team PK's....when they hold their positions, maintain the defensive box, they are very effective. When they start chasing the puck and cause their own confusion and over or under rotation, the opposing team finds the vacated areas and takes advantage. I have no idea who was supposed to be where, but on that goal, both Girgeonsons AND Okposo are chasing the puck not in any kind of position, and the D-men then get out of sorts also. The only explanation could be it was right off of the faceoff and they made a calculated decision by not playing positionally they had a chance of getting the puck out of the zone. -2nd goal allowed: PK/PP goal again. This one if you have to place blame you put on Thompson, but it wasn't a huge error, but again the case of 'fading/favoring' toward the puck carrier when you already had teammates there. The puck enters the zone and Johnson takes the puck carrier forcing a pass, good move. The next puck carrier cuts to the middle, Johnson is already recovering taking the puck carriers left, and Clifton is taking the passing lane (kind of). You HOPE Clifton could block that pass, but I don't put it on him, he was where he should have been. Seeing Clifton is in front of the net there was no reason why Tage should have approached the puck carrier leaving the back door open for the eventual goal scorer to come in. Not a huge error, but yet another case of if the Sabres play their zones..hold their ground and fight the urge on the PK to help out near the puck when you have guys there already, they would be even better. On the PK, this team had to fight the urge to go to where the puck is when they already have coverage there. You are on the PK, you are going to be outnumbered. There have been a lot of PK goals allowed this year because they left a position open and the other team found it. They seem to want to enter puck battles with their teammates instead. They seem to want to play the PK the same way they do in their own end when they are at even strength. You are going to be outnumbered on the PK, they have to learn to live with that and just play their position more. D-men are pretty good at that, forward on the PK, not so much.

Leaf fans are all over Twitter trying to get him to Toronto. Of course EVERYONE wants to come to Toronto, with their history of recent playoff successes, the media and fanbase that is not smothering at all, and the low taxes and clost of living. Anyway, I dont' think it would happen, but if it did...Toronto gives up Matthews to a USA market he wants to go to. Toronto gets McDavid. Edmonton retools with the USA market that gets Matthews giving EDM a first rounder or two..probaly their best 2 prospects, and 2 or 3 of their top 5 current NHL guys who are under 25 years old.

Edmonton might be the biggest story in the NHL now, or for the last few years: -They have the leagues consensus best player, and another who is considered a top 5 player by many. -Those 2 guys were the #1 and #2 scorers in the league last year...over the last 3 years...and the past 5 years. Both are not right in the prime of their careers and should be as good as ever. -They have no major injuries, no key players who are out of the lineup long term. -Its not for lack of spending, they are right up against the cap, using just about every dollar they have to fill out the roster. -This team has had over 100 points 2 seasons in a row. They lost last year in the 2nd round to the eventual cup winners, and 2 seasons ago made it to the conference finals before losing to the eventual cup winner. -Pre-season better odds had the public placing bets on them with their over/under points at 104-107 points. Many preview publications and web sites had them at about 110 points and favorites to make the cup out of the west. -This team still has pretty much the same roster. The minutes on Defense are pretty much the same as last year with the same 4 guys getting the most minutes, for the most part the same up front. They started with the same goaltending duo. Looking at their stats (and watching 1.5 of their games), goaltending is the easiest thing to blame. But, is the goaltending just been THAT bad? or is the team in front of them playing that poorly making things so hard on the goaltenders? Either way, they are not only the 2nd or 3rd worst team in allowing goals, they are also the 4th from the bottom in goals scored. I think they are going to turn this around. I see little reason why they can't, but how that team and fansbase must feel after losing to San Jose last night, it might be the biggest 'low' compared to the where they expected to be just a month ago.

I don't want Kane. I don't like Kane. I think he is a one dimensional player. I think he is in Decline. Any icetime he gets here I would rather see given to the young guys. I'm fearful any money given to him could be better spent on resigning some of the young guys in the next couple years. There is no world that I want him at all anywhere near this team....BUT....overall I do like what Kevyn Adams has done and I have no problem admitting he has much more info on Kane and his injury status and how he would fit in on this team. If Buffalo signs him I will not be happy, but I will think/hope it will work out in some way other than a P.R. move.

I agree with you. With Cozens my biggest complaint is he doesn't know when to pull back on being aggressive. He is always chasing the puck, and when you are a center and you vacate your zone in coverage, you are leaving a big gaping hole in the center of the ice for the other team in prime scoring position. Plus as you said, he is good on the wall and likes to go there. To me he would be a good winger, and right now his defensive zone coverage is pretty bad at center, It could be a win-win moving him to wing.

I fell out of love with the Bills a few years ago, right about the time they got Josh Allen. No one single reason, I have gone over the reasons before but for now, yes I watch the NFL, and yes the Bills are my favorite team....but no longer are they #1 over the sabres and pretty much all other sports combined. If I watch a game, great, if I miss a game, oh well, and that switch just turned that way for me 2-3 years ago. With that said, it makes a season like this so much easier to take. Again, I want them to win, but when they lose, I'm 'somewhat' upset after the game for a few minutes...then I forget about it till the next week. Maybe they will miss the playoffs....or maybe they will get hot and turn it around and be a SB favorite by the time the playoffs start. Not thinking about it and listening to people talk about it and post about it everyday though makes.....well...being a 'casual' fan so much more fun.

How is Columbus lower than the Sabres. Bigger city, I have been to the Arena and I'm not sure how old it is but it is a really nice arena. The district around the arena is great. They probably have had better attendence than the Sabres in recent years. And the last data I saw their ticket prices are low, but still a little higher thant he Sabres.

Not quite at the 20 game mark where a lot of people start to make judgements about teams more definitively, but a month in so some things are noticable: -Is San Jose the worst team in the modern NHL era? Possibly the worst team in major NA professional sports in the last 50 years? They are 'on pace' for 20 points for the year, and that is AFTER getting their first win last night. -Boston, NYR, and Vegas are near the top of the league. Are they the most talented teams in the league? maybe not, but one thing they all do have is a large number of their important players (ice time leader, especially on the back end) at the age where they are in the prime of their careers (a lot of experience, but yet not 'over the hill' old) When you are 'ready to win', maybe a lot of us under-rate the value of brining in quality (not stars but not journeymen) forward in their late 20's or D-men in their late 20's to early 30's. -Ottawa started out hot but now has lost 4 of their last 5. Is the front office turmoil impacting the team on the ice? They should be better than what they are showing recently. -Washington is the opposite of Ottawa, started out looking 'done' but now has won 4 of their last 5. With 3 of those games including 1 goal wins over Columbus and Minnesota, and a 2 goal win over San Jose, I'm not sure I'm believing in the yet. And Ovi with 2 goals in 10 games isn't going to cut it in terms of record chasing. -Edmonton...Stanley cup or Bust this year right? Some betting sites had them as a top-4 favorite to win the cup before the year started. Well, 2w and 9L with the worst goal differential next to San Jose...something gotta change there right? McDavid missed 2 games, but that doesn't excuse the way that team is playing. -Austin Matthews with 13 goals in 12 games so far, 70 possible or likely this year? He has 40 goals last year playing with a couple of nagging injuries. Last time he was healthy 2 seasons ago he had 60 goals in 73 games. That year he scored 0.822 goals per game. If he plays the rest of this year scoring at the same goals per game he did in 21-22, he would end up with 71. -Teuvo Teravainen. 8 goals and just 1 assist. If you are good enough to be on the ice for 8 goals for, don't you have more than 1 assist just by accident even? -The Kings look for real. Just 7 wins so far puts the tied for 6th-10th in the league, but they just seem solid top to bottom. Kinda playing like a Western Conference version of the 'Bruins lite'. Not exactly the same style of play as boston, but just solid all around/few weaknesses, roll guys out there with no real susperstars anymore but the job gets done. Do we have a slight uptick in fighting this year? I can't find the exact numbers, but last year there were only 4 players with over 5 major penalties (of any kind) the whole year, and 14 guys averaged more than 1 penalty minute per game. This year there are 4 guys with 3 fights through one month, and in terms of total PM's 41 guys are averaging over 1 penalty minute per game. 2 match penalties this year through one month...last year there were a total of 3 for the entire year. So maybe fighting, maybe just a lot more 'chippy' play.

Defensively, the Sabres played pretty well last night when looking back at some replays of the game, not really costly mistakes: -First Car Goal: PP goal, Greenway and Johnson got tied up behind the net. MAYBE you would like Greenway to not go back so deep, but those things happen right after the puck is sent into the zone. Basically, Greenway doesn't go so deep, him and Johnson don't collide and he ends up getting closer to the shooter and the goal isn't likely scored. More bad luck than bad positioning. -Second Car Goal: No major mistakes here either. Just very good puck movement by Carolina Everyone on the Sabres D that vacates a zone does so to help cover a neighboring zone/player. -OT game winner: Would have liked Power to been back covering his guy a bit quicker but those guys looked like they had nothing left.

I agree with you for the most part. In the Sabres losses, overall it has been equal parts goaltending, Defense, and not scoring at a rate this team should. I mean, it would be great if they could be better, but the goalie in net on any given night isn't always single-handedly sinking this team....at least as much as it seemed last year.

Another topic we all have pretty diverse opinions on. Something changed with me about 3-4 years ago...over the course of a few months, I just kinda became "OK" with no fighting. Sure, if there is a fight in a game I'm going to watch it, but if there were zero fights in the NHL, I don't think I'd miss it at all. If only NHL player safety had enough guts (and the union allowed them) to make harsh penalties for the stuff that should not go on in the game, there wouldn't really be reason for it.

Found this just up on Twitter. Great news they found a way to clone Tuch and now we can have 2 of him out there at the same time. And....2 minutes later they just corrected it.

Toronto has the exact same record now as they did after 11 games last year. The difference is last year they started slow because Matthews wasn't scoring. This year the problems seem a bit more 'structural' as their backend just is really bad. Morgan Rielly is good (but not great). Klingberg is a disaster with almost anything he does from the redline back. Brodie is a decent guy who is good enough to play about 18 minutes but he is up to 21 minutes because they have no other options. Giordano was old 2 years ago and continues to play like it....and they aren't getting anything positive out of Jake McCabe They really miss Holl and Sandin. They took the money they could have paid them and gave Bertuzzi $5.5m (3 points in 11 games) and Max Domi $3m (0 goals, 4 assists in 11 games.) They can still turn it around and get hot, but I think this is a worse team than last years team, despite Matthews, Marner, and Nylander all entering the prime of their careers.

12 games in now...team is back to .500. Plus 1 on a goal differential. Losing record at home, winning record on the road. Some things have changed since last year, a lot hasn't. Thompson is back on track. Skinner has been what you expect/need from him all season so far. Mittlestadt is the good version from the end of last season and is taking it another step forward. Greenway only has 2 goals (on pace for only about 12 or so) but he seems a much better player than he was when here last year. Peterka seems to have taken that step forward also. Thats the good that many of us see. The bad? Dahlin. Mostly good games, putting up points, a bad game here and there. He's playing like a top 20 D-man in the league but many of us thought he would take another step this year and play like a top 5 D-man. Haven't quite seen that yet. Power, some good games, some bad games. Samuelsson just can't seem to stay healthy. Up front Cozens isn't playing awful, but he hasn't taken another step forward. Many games he hasn't been noticable on the ice. Okposo really really looks done. Your 4th line will not win you a cup by itself, but it can be the difference in some one goal games and he really is making what could be a decent 4th line into a bad one. His forechecking isn't good anymore and he is a step behind most loose pucks on the boards. Krebs has taken a step back again. So far I don't think this team needs drastic changes to get into solid playoff contention. Cozens, Dahlin, and Tuch need to take a 'half step' to find last years pace, Samuelsson needs to get back and healthy, and they have to find a way to get Okposo some time off the ice and someone younger/quicker into that spot. Krebs, we can have some patience with him, but if he doesn't show something in the next month he will be next after Okposo.

A couple thoughts and ideas that some here may know the answer to that I do not, mostly for next year. -Von Miller supposedly COULD have been activated earlier in the year but he wasn't. We are not more than half way though the season and he still doesn't look like he is making an impact. Maybe that will come, or maybe the age/mileage PLUS recovering from a big time injury make him not worth the $17m anymore. Can the Bills move on from him next year without a major cap hit penalty? -Dawson Knox, same as above, can he be moved on from? Hes not a bad player I don't think but not worth what he is getting paid, especially with Kincaid emerging. If he was making half what he was he would be a good TE2, but his money can probably be better spent elsewhere. -Tre White. Looking for more savings...if he misses next year, can he be put on some kind of cap-relief IR to save the cap space money? This team has holes to fill and place to upgrade. If the above players aren't worth what they are getting paid, can anything be done about them/their cap in the offseason to free up more money to spend elsewhere?

I agree with that. I personally don't care and don't need a designated fighter, but take a look at some of the Leafs forums now...it seems a large number of fans think the solution to the leaf's problems is a lot more toughness, and to many/most of them that means more fighting, more cheap shots, making the other team fear guys like Reaves.

I'm good with waiting a bit on him. Let him really dominate the AHL for more than a couple weeks this year. If a first or 2nd liner for the Sabres goes down then sure, plug him in.

Not doing as well as he did, and he is getting older. Too much money. 23 goals in his last 91 games. He had that one 100+ point season with Calgary when he turned 28 years old, but for the rest of his career he averages in the mid 20's for goals per 82 and as mentioned by others, hes over 30 and that is when guys typically start losing production. I have ZERO interest in taking on that guy when you have to pay him almost $10m per season for 6 more years when he already looks like his production is falling. He's not worth close to $10m now already, every year that contract will get worse. My personal opinion of him always has been he is more exciting to watch than an actual good 'all around' player. Any money you spend on him I think you can give to Mitts and/or Quinn/Peterka in the future to secure them long term, and they are going to be better hockey players for this team over the next 5-6 years. Trade for him at nearly $10m, and those guys become a lot harder to sign.