mjd1001

I'm a tad bit nervous the last couple days. Obviously, I am no expert, and everyone I hear (news networks, online sources) seem to be filled with more optimism than ever that cases are down.....and they probably know more than I do (well, they DO), But..... For fun I track the case count on the John Hopkins web site....For weeks now the cases have been down each and every week. But this week not only are they not going down, they seem to have a few days where they are up a bit. I don't compare day-to-day, as reporting issues impact those numbers (day of week, weekend, etc), but what I do is compared this week Monday to last week Monday. This week Sat to last week Sat...etc..... The last couple of days, we have stopped showing a drop in the number of cases comparing a day in the current week to last week, and using todays numbers (Cases for Tuesday the 23rd compared to Tuesday the 16th), the cases for the 23rd are actually higher than for the 16th. Now maybe its a blip in the daya for a few days....or maybe it will correct itself an resume the downward trend in a day or two...but at least for a few days...the rate of drop in cases has come to a stop.

Ok, for the old-timers on this board (my age or older).... I remember as a little kid, years before Jim Kelly, Joe Ferguson was QB of the Bills. As his career went on, the Bills gave allowed him to throw more and he actually became an above average passer in the NFL....but when things went bad....he didn't take it well, his head went down and he just got so down it impacted his game. Obviously, Eichel is a bigger part of this team and has more talent than Ferguson had for the Bills....but the similarities on how they handle the bad times are very similar.

So again, it was the Devils...lets see how this goes against some other (Better) teams, but...1.) Dahlin had Risto levels of ice time and may have had his best game this year. Keep giving it to him (although a LOT of it was on the PP). 2.)Ulmark isn't a great goalie overall, but if the team in front of him is good, he should be good enough to get you to the playoffs. 3.) I just want the Sabres to get more PPs and see the feed Olofsson for one timers. That is the most enjoyable part of watching this team.

Ok, this was the devils, so its not like the Sabres were facing down 30 goals scorers line after line, but still, the depleted D-core played pretty well. I'd like to see that game plan on the back end going forward.....have the guys back there keep it simple, don't do anyting special but make no mistakes....and let Dahlin just hog up the ice time and he is the ONE guy back there that you let loose.

Feel REALLY bad for Ulmark. Best game by a Sabres Goalie this year, he deserved the shutout.

Better than solid. Perfect game? No, but if he can repeat this performance on a regular basis...they have the makings of a franchise D-man. A couple minutes left and he already has over 23 minutes of ice time also.

Exactly. The current Sabres have a small handful of goals like that, it just seems like they don't even want to try to play that way now.

And that style of play...I'm not being critical in that I think hes a lesser player for it. Its just personally, when I heard about how fast he was...I had visions in my head of how McKinnon or McDavid play...or back in the day the neutral-zone to goal rushes in a blink of an eye that you would see from Peter Bondra or Pavel Bure, even Danny Briere. I was hoping we would get more of that from jack...personally I like to watch the 'all gas/no brakes' style of play much more than the 'art and precision' of the well executed offensive zone game. More often than other 'fast' players...Jack seems to use is speed to just get over the blue line...and then chooses to slow things down once in the zone.

In the end, I think a big thing that will determine this is something as fans we have little knowledge of....what do the players think, what is their attitude toward the team and how badly do they want to put the effort into pushing for a playoff spot that may not come? Do they like playing for this team? In this city? for this coach? The attitude of the player and their outlook....may determine almost as much as their on-ice performance just how hard this team should push to get the most points on a season even if/when they are out of the playoffs, vs how much you should think of moves with next year in mind.

One thing I said about Jack, and it applies for most of his career...he is one of the slowest fast guys I have seen. I understand it might be the way he chooses to play...but we hear about how fast he is...in the fastest skater competition he is usually just a fraction behind the leaders/winners....but he doesn't show it all that much. McDavid, McKinnon....other guys known for their speed...when I watch them play it seems like 2,3, maybe 4 times per game they take the puck and just decide they are going to use their top-end speed and blow by people, and they are often successful. That doesn't happen much with Eichel.

So where do we stand right now as far as making the playoffs? It looks like to finish 4th, you are going to have to get close to 60% of your total available points. That will make it in some divisions, but in others maybe not. But it is what you want to aim for in order to get that 4th spot. That would mean ending the season with 67-68 points. The Sabres have 12 points in 15 games so far. To get to 68 points, they need to get 56 points in their remaining 41 games. Or 1.37 points per game....Or 68.3% of available points from here to the end of the season. Only 6 teams as of right now are playing at a better pace than that. I'm not saying it is impossible...but the Sabres have to play and earn points like a top 6 team for the rest of the season..with a very condensed schedule, and probably missing their 2 top defensemen for the forseeable future.

I agree, that was my vote as well. Didn't like it from the start, and it has been around through so many bad years and really nothing good with this team, it should be changed soon. Maybe you don't make the change until this team starts winning though...

From a strictly basic statistical model, the odds of any one team, who has a 50% chance each year to make the playoffs....missing it for 10 straight years is about 1 in 1024 odds....yet it looks like the Sabres are going to do that.

If the sabres miss the playoffs this year (likely), it will be 10 full seasons and 10 missed playoffs for Pegula as owner) The franchise has only missed the playoffs 11 other times in the teams history Before Pegula, dating back to 1970.

What is really sad is....a few years ago the Sabres were looking like the team that could possibly do this. With all those draft picks, the cap space. I mean, they weren't on the verge of doing it, but they were in position...they had things lined up for the potential. Not only did they not, but it has gone horribly, horribly wrong. No big run here, they can't even sniff the last spot in the playoffs.

I realize it won't happen anytime soon, but you can take that one step further...a SMALLER rink than the current NHL one would make the game even more exciting.

If you are moving Jack, I'll even take slightly less if you can get the other team to take Skinner also. Long term, his contract is going to be a problem for this team for YEARS. He is under contract for 7 more years (including this year) at $9mil per year, and what kind of player will be at 33, 34, and 35 years of age when he has been playing the way he is lately at 27 and 28?

I've changed my mind on one very big thing that has been said for years and years about making the game more exciting/getting more scoring. Rink size. Conventional wisdom has been for bigger ice rinks. I think it is just the opposite. Smaller ice surfaces would lead to more scoring and more exciting hockey. Why? -With more ice surface, there is more space and more time for the defending team to react. Gifted offensive players will make plays no matter what.....what is needed is to reduce the time and space for the D-unit to react to that. -End to end rushes take longer to occur, cross rink passes have farther to go...with more time and distance there is more time for the D to react and set up and more chances for the team on the rush to make an error. -I even think of when the olympics are overseas on the 'larger' ice surface. Everyone said it would lead to more open hockey. It didn't. Scoring was down. Teams with the most talented shut-down D-units did the best. Why? They had more time to react and the larger ice surface benefited the better defensive teams/players more than it did the teams with gifted offensive players.

Close Encounters...I won't say 'perfect' but it is under-rated for sure. One of my favorites.

I'm not giving up hope on this season yet. I think the team can still turn it around, but it needs to happen in the next 7-10 days. With that said...This team is boring to watch..Even last year when they won games, I don't find them enjoyable. Even if they mange to get into the playoffs....i just don't know how likeable this group is.

I'm not saying fighting is a problem..I'm saying I don't like it anymore. It can break up the flow of a good game.

I think 25% would be good once you start letting people in. every other row empty...and then rows you do set people in being half full.

I thought of Andreychuk when thinking of Thompson the other day. Thompson has size...great reach...and we keep hearing how good his hands are....so why does he not work buy putting in in front of the net every single powerplay? His skillset should lend itself to sucking in most rebounds and banging them into (or at least at) the net.

I feel like this is the 3rd or 4th time I'm responding to this thread with different things to say each time... They might be closer than a lot of us think.... -right now I think a healthy Okposo doesn't turn the team round, but I think he helps more than most want to admit. -Skinner. That contract looks AWFUL now, maybe the worse in the league, but if you can get 25 goals out of him? -Mitts and/or Cozens giving you 10-15 goals and 25-30 points. -Dahlin. He might be the key. Take steps forward every week, and get on track to being a Norris candidate sometime in the next couple years. Is that a lot to ask? Maybe. But If you get those things (which aren't all out of the question), then this becomes a very good team.

Dahlin may need time. Chara, Hedmund, Erik Karlsson all took 3-5 years to develop into Norris Trophy candidates. Jack is very good, actually great. He is NOT generational though, too many people expected him to be McDavid (or Lemieux or Lindros) version 1a. The middle of the Roster has been mismanaged. Is that impossible to fix? No. Will it be very hard to fix (or have patience to fix)? Yes.